Sonic the Hedgehog (2019)

[lhb412]

I totally think that properties based on anime, manga, and video games (which are also often made in Japan) will become as ubiquitous as adaptations of American superhero comics are now. I'm 31, and ever since my childhood all of those things have occupied basically the same niche that things like superheroes did for generations before mine. While the Alita movie wasn't a huge hit, it felt distinctly like a reorientation into the right direction, and this new Pokemon movie looks like the arrival of this new age.

What does this have to do with Sonic the Hedgehog? It's just that this movie looks to be so thoroughly of the old school, wrongheaded ideas about how to franchise this stuff from the 90s. It it looks comparable to the Mario Brothers movie.

[Psycho Soldier]

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

It looks better than the new Doom movie. If I had to be honest.

And no, I'm not referring to the Karl Urban/Dwayne Johnson movie. There is a new one coming out.

[O.Supreme]

Sad to say though... while Hollywood has figured out how to do a Superhero movie correctly, they still haven't figured out how to adapt video games. I've seen several articles that indicate for the most part that because video games are interactive, people really don't want to just watch one, and if they do.... Most of the more popular games have videos of all cinema scenes edited together.

[mr.negativity]

'Sonic the Hedgehog' Director Vows to Change Character Design Following Fan Criticism

[lhb412]

^ This is great! Now the team of overworked animators will have to put in serious crunch time to change this terrible film before it's released!

[klen7]

^ something similar happened with the family friendly creature feature "Monster Trucks" a year or so ago after test audiences said the monster was too creepy. Pushed the movie over budget, missed its initial release date. It's a decent family movie (certainly better than the similarly themed movie AXL released shortly after)

[jellydonut25]

So he's just gonna look "good" (not that he looked that bad in the first place) in a bad movie?

Hooray?

[O.Supreme]

I've never been a Sonic fan myself (somehow my son seems to be getting into the newer games though...), but...This is interesting. The only other trailer I've seen as much universal negativity for was Ghostbusters 2016. Of course changing thatto appease fans would have meant pretty much recasting everyone, and starting over. Still something like this might go a long way.

We saw it in Bumblebee. Sure the story was better than the Bay directed films, but just making the Transformers look closer to the original designs(sans the titular character) went a long way.

[XvGojira]

Well the design looks a lot better and I think it's a better trailer, even if it is a bit "here's the entire film".

[Dai]

Massive improvement. This now looks like it could be an okay kids' movie, as opposed to the nightmare-fuel trainwreck that the original trailer promised. Perhaps more significant than the design change is the added personality in the animation, especially the facial expressions. It's more reminiscent of the endearing early 90s Sonic now, which can only be a plus.

[mr.negativity]

‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ Could Jump As High As $47M In Opening Weekend – Box Office

[Henry88]

Sonic the Hedgehog Box Office Prediction Tracking UPWARD
https://boundingintocomics.com/2020/01/ ... ng-upward/

[Henry88]

[Henry88]

‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ Should Speed to Weekend Box Office Win – But Will It Launch a Franchise?
https://www.thewrap.com/sonic-the-hedge ... franchise/

[Henry88]

Sonic The Hedgehog’ Could Clear $50M – Box Office Forecasts
https://deadline.com/2020/02/onward-inv ... 202859288/

[Dr Kain]

I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but the movie was superb.

[Jinzo Ningen]

But... but... but... what about his TEETH?????????

[mr.negativity]

How 'Sonic the Hedgehog' Marketing Went From False Start to Reboot


Box Office: 'Sonic the Hedgehog' Digging Up Huge $60M-Plus Opening


'Sonic' and the Costs of Fan Anger

[mr.negativity]

[Henry88]

‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ Powers Past $100 Million at Global Box Office
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/soni ... 203505417/

[XvGojira]

Saw it yesterday and it was good. In a lot of ways it was like Detective Pikachu. They're both video game movies. They both had a plot that you could basically see exactly what was going to happen from the trailers. They both hit notes of nostalgia through out the movie without it taking you out of the movie. I enjoyed Detective Pikachu as well, but I'd have to give Sonic the edge as it entertained me more. I had finished the mystery in Detective Pikachu as soon as I saw Bill Nighy and was just waiting for the rest of the cast to catch up (insert idle animation of Sonic tapping his foot) while I was just along for the ride in Sonic.

It wasn't anything revolutionary, you could easily piece together the whole movie from the trailers and I still don't like the "bring the fantastical hero to our non-fantastical world to help curb production costs" trope/template, but it was entertaining despite all that. For having redone the whole character in a few months, Sonic looked really good. I was expecting to see some effects that were some combination of wonky, unfinished, or looking 10 years out of date. I'd love it if there's a feature on the disc about the new and old effects (like did they have to fix the echidnas in the intro? Were there any scenes that would have been in the movie if it wasn't fixed?) but I wouldn't be surprised if they want to let everyone forget that happened. I'm no lore master when it comes to Sonic, but I feel that they adapted and updated him and Dr Robotnik well, never feeling like they skewed out of character or like shined up relic from a bygone era.

I really do hope this gets a sequel so that they can expand on the mid-credit tease. The main problem with the whole "bring the fantastical hero to our non-fantastical world to help curb production costs" thing is, even if they expand the cast with more Sonic characters now they're stuck with some fairly bland human character(s). They could pull a "If I stay here you'll always be in danger/If I stay others will suffer without my help" and toss Sonic back into the world from the intro. I'd be down with that. If they go that route, I still want live action Jim Carrey to show up. The majority of MCU movies end up being CGI with the occasional live action face/head, so I don't think it's too much of a stretch to have Jim Carrey's torso coming out of a CGI Robotnik robot suit/ship (which he basically was in act 3 of Sonic)in a fully CGI world.