The first trailer for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie definitely got people talking…just probably not the way the studio intended. Reaction to Sonic’s design—his muscular legs, his regularly-proportioned head, his teeth—was swift, loud, and overwhelmingly negative. The filmmakers heard the cries of the masses, and they responded with action, as director Jeff Fowler tweeted a few days after the trailer’s release that they would be working to tweak the design of the character:
https://twitter.com/fowltown/status/1124056098925944832
When the look of your movie’s main character has to be changed, though, that’s not a small task, and Fowler tweeted today that as a result the release date for the movie is being pushed back to next year:


“Taking a little more time to make Sonic just right,” Fowler tweeted, along with a hashtag that refers to concerns about visual effects artists having enough time to make the character changes before the film’s release. An accompanying image indicates the new release date will be February 14th, 2020, three months later than the originally-scheduled release date of November 2019.
The delay is undoubtedly a good thing for the VFX artists working on the movie, who have been tasked not only with completing their already-scheduled work but also with going back and redoing work they thought they’d already completed. The extra time will hopefully allow them to do it all without completely losing their minds.
Mostly this whole situation feels to me like it sets a bad precedent. We already have people creating petitions online to redo movies and shows they don’t like; this feels like an extension of that, except in this case the filmmakers are actually spending money and making changes based on those complaints. Some might see that as a good thing; I personally do not. But then, I have no great attachment to Sonic myself (When I was in fourth grade I decided to save up to buy a Sega Genesis, but after saving around $30 I realized how many comics I could buy with that money; I never did get a Sega.), so the initial trailer didn’t offend me as strongly as it did others. I saw the trailer again recently, this time on a big screen before seeing Detective Pikachu, and I actually didn’t hate the look of Sonic. It’s jarring, this blue creature running around in a real world with live-action humans, and I think it’s going to be jarring regardless of what the final design of the character is.
Sonic the Hedgehog is now set to open on February 14th, 2020.

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19 COMMENTS

  1. I miss the days when studios didn’t give a damn what fans thought, and just made movies as they wanted to make them.
    Not that a character redesign is going to make Sonic a better movie.

  2. I think you’re wrong in this case. If they didn’t re-do it, the film probably would have bombed spectacularly. Sonic really hit the Uncanny Valley in this, and he was disturbing to look at. Now with the delay, there is a chance the movie might make money. It’s not guaranteed, but Sonic was so frightening it was guaranteed to NOT make money before. You’re off base dude. The customers spoke- if the seller has a chance to listen and adjust – you’re saying they shouldn’t just to be stubborn? Come on man.

  4. George is a left-wing elitist. He supports “minority rights” because he always despises what the majority wants.

  5. In addition to minority rights, he believes that
    anything that is unpopular or unusual is worth defending.
    He thinks that unpopular=downtrodden, oppressed, overlooked, disenfranchised.
    If a lot of people don’t like something, it’s because they’re immoral.

  6. The customers are frequently wrong. That’s why we’ve had five Transformers movies directed by Michael Bay, all of which made money. They were all idiotic junk. And anyone over the age of 13 who defends them is an idiotic moron.
    What made that Sonic trailer “frightening” was probably the bizarre use of “Gangsta’s Paraside” (1995), a song about people being slaughtered in the inner city.
    Of course, the people posting here probably weren’t alive in 1995 and have never heard the song. It does seem that nobody but teenage boys are now posting at the Beat, judging from the low level of maturity and intelligence I see.

  7. “If a lot of people don’t like something, it’s because they’re immoral.”
    Stanning for multi-billion-dollar entertainment companies (like Marvel and Disney) is the new patriotism.

  10. ” It does seem that nobody but teenage boys are now posting at the Beat, judging from the low level of maturity”
    Being an adult doesn’t mean refraining from making fun of stuff.
    There’s more to life than shoving your ideology down people’s throat.
    “They were all idiotic junk. And anyone over the age of 13 anyone who defends them is an idiotic moron ”
    Expecting a Transformers movie to appeal to you, a middle-aged adult, is pretty idiotic.
    Did it cross your feeble mind that MAYBE you weren’t the target audience?
    Things that you don’t like have a right to exist, Mr. Anti-fascist.

  11. Let’s be real. After TMNT and Transformers, Paramount fully expects nostalgia alone to sell whatever they put on screen..

  12. Nostalgia’s certainly not selling it for me here, as an older fan. I’ve had it with the franchise and nothing will make me jump back in. It’s absolutely fine with me if they completely ignore what I would want out of a Sonic movie. I’m 30. I grew out of Sonic’s audience due to a long time ago (it just took me a fair bit longer to realize and accept that fact). They SHOULDN’T cater to my wants in the slightest. Older fans need to start recognizing that what they want may not necessarily help things; not just with Sonic, but with pop culture in general.

  13. Aladdin. Marvel superheroes. Justice League. Any concept that has been pre-established for decades is banking on “nostalgia” to sell it. Hollywood rarely takes a chance on new ideas anymore and relies or familiarity to sell a product. They think will make a old brand new by inserting the latest trends into it.
    a character gay, black, or feminist.
    ” Older fans need to start recognizing that what they want may not necessarily help things; not just with Sonic, but with pop culture in general.”
    If Communist anti-heroEs are popular at the moment, should Captain America be re-invented as a Leninst anti-hero? A concept can only be changed so much before it becomes unrecognizable . Then, everyone will wonder, why did they not make a new character?
    Popular culture is mostly IP owned by corporations who recycle old ideas. Each time they recycle these old ideas and concepts, they erase more and more of the source material.
    Eventually, statements like Popeye was always a wheelchair bound man with a meth habit will seem less and less strange.
    Eventually, no one will remember that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was originally conceived of by
    The Beatles and their record company and will associate the latest flavor-of-the-month, like Flora Cash,
    What would help pop culture is to sort itself out. If it is going to be nostalgic it needs to be faithful to what it is being nostalgic about. If it decides to let go of the past, it needs to make a clean break with the past.
    This idea that older people have it wrong and the young’ins have it right is a false dichotomy.
    The old are fixated with the past.
    The young have literally nothing new to contribute except be the fashionable face of numerous reboots and re-mixes.

  14. “The young have literally nothing new to contribute except be the fashionable face of numerous reboots and re-mixes.”
    The executive suites in Hollywood are occupied by Boomers and Gen X’ers. Maybe they’re not letting Millennial contributions get into their movies and TV shows.
    Go see “Booksmart” and other indie films if you want to see what the young can contribute. Whether you think these indies are good or not, at least they’re not playing it safe by recycling old IP.

  15. Mr. “we need mentally ill etc” is a right-wing bigoted incel who is pissed because “Black Panther” and “Captain Marvel” were hits. I guess he can console himself by harassing black women on Twitter, every fascist nerd’s favorite hobby.

  16. “Go see “Booksmart” and other indie films if you want to see what the young can contribute. ”
    Oy vey.
    Booksmart?
    Are you serious?
    Movies like Booksmart are made all the time in Hollywood. Rather than having new ideas of their own, the characters in Booksmart are products of long term cultural trends, promoted by the entertainment industry and an educational system where boomers and Gen Xers nudge them into being good little liberals. References to feminism and lesbianism are riff, stuff that Millennials did not come up with.
    Nothing fresh or original about it.
    Booksmart is not indie. It was not produced outside the Hollywood system. It is just a smaller budget movie.

  18. Cracks me up when someone who knows nothing about movies (like “we need mentally ill”) pontificates and acts like an expert. Spinning conspiracy theories isn’t the same as being a movie expert.

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