Y’know it’s often a good thing when the trailer for your movie becomes a viral sensation. Other times, you get the reaction Paramount got for Sonic the Hedgehog, which basically amounted to “What is this blue blob of shit”? The video game mascot didn’t look great in his first live-action movie, and the Internet responded in the only way it could…
Sonic looks like the kid that turns into a monkey in Jumanji #SonicMovie pic.twitter.com/HODVYsKqRc— HylianTweeter (@HylianTweeter) April 30, 2019
you nailed it sonic movie I don’t see any difference pic.twitter.com/j1xapOI1T0— TAHK0 ☕️ (@TAHK0) April 30, 2019
Nobody liked it (I still don’t get the teeth!), and Paramount noticed. What’s more, they’re actually listening to the fans and doing something about it. Director Jeff Fowler has confirmed on Twitter that a redesign of Sonic is in the works based on response to the trailer…
“Thank you for the support. And the criticism. The message is loud and clear… you aren’t happy with the design & you want changes. It’s going to happen. Everyone at Paramount & Sega are fully committed to making this character the BEST he can be.”
This was never going to be easy. I’m under the belief that Sonic just wasn’t designed to look “real”, and they should have gone with a fully-animated movie, instead. But this is the direction Paramount has gone and now they have even more work ahead of them. The movie is expected to open on November 8th and they haven’t said anything about a delay, but a redesign means completely changing the movie’s visual effects and changing the promo materials. It could take a while and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see that release date pushed back a few weeks.
