Has it already been a year since the Sonic movie first terrified audiences with it's grotesque depiction of everyone's favourite anthropomorphic hedgehog? (That's right, Silver, Shadow, Manic and Sonia; I don't even respect you.) It is very rare when there is a single topic on which all the world can agree. Some folk still stand up for Fallout 76 despite everything that Bethesda has subjected them too, some say that Game of Thrones season 8 was good despite having working eyes and (presumably) brains, but there was one topic that bought the whole world together in solidarity; Movie Sonic looked bad.
Okay, maybe not 'bad' per se... That would imply there was something lacking in the fundamental animation which translated into a poor viewing experience, rather he just looked unsettling. Ever since that first teaser image popped up on Twitter, people were pointing out his abnormally bulky calves and forearms, as though someone consciously decided that the talking blue hedgehog should depict realistic muscle growth. (Maybe it was a body positivity thing?) Safe to say, the whole image just made people uncomfortable and worried for what the actual movie could end up subjecting us to.
And, as it turns out, those fears were very much warranted; because once that first trailer dropped everything hit the fan. It's hard to accurately quantify all the things that the studio got wrong with this trailer, but needless to say that chief among those issues was their protagonist's design. Despite there being a literal decades worth of Sonic games that exist in the 3D world, with several consistent 3d renders of Sonic, the studio decided to go their own twisted direction and ended up creating a horrifying abomination to man. (The limbs were just the beginning.) His arms were blue, he didn't wear his signature gloves, they shrunk down his eyes, gave him human teeth and shrunk his spikes, all in some misguided attempt to rationalize his proportions. Instead they just crafted the stuff of nightmares.
The worst part was that the second anyone looked past the terrible character design they saw how the rest of the movie was just as bad, if not worse. Firstly, the team thought that the perfect song to accompany a trailer for Sega's mascot was Coolio's 'Gangsta's Paradise'. (I think they meant it to sound 'ironic', likely not noticing the fine line between that and 'moronic'.) Secondly, instead of telling a 'Sonic' story, they went for a tired 'cartoon character goes to the real world and discovers friendship' plot that was never good and has been covered by Smurfs, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Hop. (Which also starred James Marsden. Poor guy.) Thirdly, the trailer wasn't funny. Oh don't get me wrong, I don't mean that the team misunderstood their target demographic to such a degree that they tried to make a serious Sonic movie, (Although with the soundtrack offered in the trailer I wouldn't be surprised if they did) more that every joke in the trailer sucked. Sonic's jibes weren't funny, Jim Carrey's Robotnik was anti-funny and the joke about child kidnapping at the end of the trailer was... a miss.
By all intents and purposes that should have been the end of the story. 'Studio tries another video game movie cash grab and gets everything wrong'. The end, let's all move on with our lives. But something about this movie stood out to people. Folk didn't just shake their heads and go on with their days, no, they were actively disgusted with this trailer and wanted to let it be known. The trailer was disliked to oblivion, the design was ridiculed all over social media, and some select Sonic alumni tastefully turned their nose to the project. Jeff Fowler, the movies director, even took to twitter to acknowledge the criticism and reveal that they would completely redesign the character before launch. Later he clarified that the movie would be consequently delayed and that their animators wouldn't get overworked. So there it is, nerd backlash actually managed to delay an upcoming movie. (Such power!)
Of course, it's not like anything substantial would come from this delay, afterall, no one cares about making a good sonic movie (or do they? No. The answer is no they don't.) However now, after months of waiting, we can see that someone cares enough to put together a decent looking Sonic to at least try and get butts in seats for this impending disaster. The trailer has finally dropped and Sonic looks: good. Just good. Not brilliant, remarkable or unique, and no where near the level of "Huh, I didn't think you could pull this off but you did" levels that Detective Pikachu pulled off; but still decent enough that people who have grown up with Sonic all these years can look at it and go "Yeah, I recognize him."
The key comes from the way that the trailer borrows from a lot of the design traits that the 3D games use in order to bring their character to life. The unrealistic proportions, huge expressive eyes, lack of human teeth, all of this brings to life a being that shouldn't be in our world but in a way that is pleasing to the eye. This is because the team went out of their way to consult with an individual who has a lot of history envisioning Sonic, Tyson Hesse, who had worked in the past to do variant covers for several issues of the Archie Sonic comics and who animated the colourful intro to the latest Sonic game; Sonic Mania. (We don't talk about 'Forces') He even story boarded and animated a couple of Mini series' for Sega. (Huh, bring aboard the ideals of working Sonic designs as well as someone with experience and you get a decent final product. Who'd have thought?)
Of course, this doesn't save the rest of the trailer which still looks like hot garbage. Okay, things aren't quite as bad as the first go around, one line even made me chuckle, although the line itself was far from original. Jim Carrey's Robotnik doesn't look quite as hammy as before and some of Sonic's scenes look like they've been reshot. (or maybe the trailer just rearranged them.) For me, the weird thing now is certain elements of Sonic's characterization. It's hard to put my finger on from the trailer alone but he seems kinda whimpering in a few certain scenes like when he begs an assailant not to hurt James Marsden. Why would Sonic do that? He's used to acting not begging for leniency. It just struck me as odd, is all.
At the end of the day will this get me to go and watch the Sonic film? No. But then one could move heaven and earth and still not manage to get me in the theatre come February. This kind of movie would never be my cup of tea and that's alright. But for those who would come for nostalgia or simply to watch something colourful, they might be enticed now that the front character isn't a hell demon. I find it encouraging that such improvements were driven because of fan feedback and that they turned out this well, enough so that I want this movie to be rewarded by people going to see it. Perhaps that alone would make this odd choice of movie an example to the movie and video game industry in the future. (Yikes, we live in a weird world.)
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