The New ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ Trailer Doesn’t Get The Reaction Paramount Hoped For
Paramount’s hybrid live-action/cg animation movie Sonic the Hedgehog, based on Sega’s 90s video game, has a new trailer where we finally get to see their humanoid version of the famed rodent in full, and the internet is not happy. On the official trailer post on Youtube, dislikes already outweigh likes (94K to 77K).
Scheduled to open on November 8, the $90 million film is directed by Oscar-nominated director Jeff Fowler (Gopher Broke), 40, who is making his feature directorial debut. It stars Jim Carrey as villain Doctor Ivo Robotnik and actor/comedian Ben Schwartz as the voice of the title character. People generally seem pleased to see Carrey take on the antagonistic role, but the new iteration of the blue hedgehog isn’t sitting well with most fans.
A key complaint seems to be that the Sonic in the film is a far cry from the one people remember from the video game, the various 2d animated shows from the 1990s, or even the more recent cg animated series. In particular, fans can’t stand the fact that this cg Sonic has a full set of human teeth, which adds to its new, more anthropomorphic look that was hinted when his long and toned legs were revealed on the poster several months ago.
Here are some Twitter takes on the new trailer, including many who compare the new Sonic unfavorably to the animated versions of Sonic from their youth:
Good morning to absolutely everyone and everything other than live action Sonic the Hedgehog’s creepy human teeth xx pic.twitter.com/yJX6WPW7Li
— Alanah Pearce (@Charalanahzard) April 30, 2019
Left is original screenshot. Right is my rework to make #Sonic more stylized. pic.twitter.com/IhXeAZYlQI
— Edward Pun (@EdwardPun1) April 30, 2019
The sonic i want vs the sonic mom says we have at home pic.twitter.com/iT9tBKh5Zu
— NEON NO (@Neon_woof) April 30, 2019
At least we'll always have this Sonic movie. pic.twitter.com/0uVjQjXZbY
— JoeyWaggoner (Commissions OPEN!) (@JW_Cartoonist) April 30, 2019
Nothing will beat Sonic Underground🤘🎸 pic.twitter.com/uDyGUK8rBM
— Amy☄ (@Real_Amy_Jones) April 30, 2019
Whoever designed Sonic for this movie apparently decided to rip him directly from the live action Cat in the Hat movie pic.twitter.com/pOaSEG4Lb0
— Luke! (@theflareawakens) April 30, 2019
ran a quick google image search for screencaps from the 1999 sonic ova and: some very good drawings in this one pic.twitter.com/SWDhcPTNDW
— 🌈✨Natalie✨Riess✨🌈 (@Snarlbear) April 30, 2019
Please watch the Sonic the Hedgehog OVA, a wonderful animated movie from 1996 that perfectly understands the classic sonic cast, with an interesting plot thats not ripped straight outta smurfs
— – Dread – (@Dreadish) April 30, 2019
This looks soooooooo bad 😒
The Sonic in Wreck It Ralph was so much better. The Video Game Live Adaptation Movie Curse lives on.#SonicMovie pic.twitter.com/1NiAuHyJDq— MichaelChauTV (@MichaelChauTV) April 30, 2019
gonna lose some followers for this pic.twitter.com/zybO3xgcb9
— jamison ⚓️ (@jhermann) April 30, 2019
Others on Twitter are citing the film’s lack of internal logic, in which Sonic is too slow to dodge a tranquilizer dart but can outrun hundreds of missiles:
so sonic can dodge lasers and missles but can’t dodge a tranquilizer dart? pic.twitter.com/QRhsdcdYL1
— ᴶ!ᴹ (@JMOxQ__) April 30, 2019
somehow in that trailer sonic could avoid 100+ missiles but couldnt outrun a tranquilizer dart 👴🏻
— lily 🌼 (@liliuhms) April 30, 2019
So Sonic can avoid bullets but not a dart gun? pic.twitter.com/A4KCtfzzxr
— Need2KnowBasis (@Lamont_YaDummy) April 30, 2019
And yet others are questioning the use of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” as the trailer music:
when the team behind the Sonic trailer decided to use Gangsta’s Paradise pic.twitter.com/31m2Ch9iw0
— kambole (@kambolecampbell) April 30, 2019
I don't know if I want to start with the awful compositing or the % of this trailer that's devoted to a single unfunny joke or the inexplicable decision to set the entire trailer to a looping sample from Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio.https://t.co/lcwJckX4Ic
— Dan Olson (@FoldableHuman) April 30, 2019
Okay, so Sonic Trailer, Gangsta Paradise was a fun choice,
But what if you considered the Sonic SATAM Theme? pic.twitter.com/MICwZqBqaD— P.M. Seymour 🎙️☕ (@PatMSeymourVA) April 30, 2019
The animation and vfx for Sonic the Hedgehog are created by Blur Studio, Digital Domain, Industrial Light & Magic, and MPC.
The reaction to the Sonic trailer stands in stark contrast to the upcoming Detective Pikachu (opening May 10), which has elicited enthusiastic and positive reactions. Pikachu and the other Pokémons seen so far in the trailers closely resemble their familiar 2d counterparts from the anime and the versions people know from video games. With Detective Pikachu, Nintendo and Warner Bros. seem to have avoided the hyperrealism/humanoid cg trap that afflicts so many of these hybrid projects.