Six months after the original trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog film was met by overwhelming backlash for its uncanny-valley design of the ‘Blue Blur’, Paramount Pictures delivers on its reimagining of its reimagining of the iconic character.
Back in May Director Jeff Fowler said he had heard the outcry from fans and that he would promise to deliver on what they wanted, a fresh redesign of the leading character.
When first unveiled to the world Sonic sported a more human-like demeanor. With the character appearing to have Homosapien like facial features, uncharacteristically long fur, and ungodly basketballer-sized feet. The style was a departure from the classic look most fans were familiar with leading to an onslaught of memes and cries to boycott the film.
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… #sonicmovie #gottafixfast ?✌️
— Jeff Fowler (@fowltown) May 2, 2019
It all changed today as Paramount and a SEGA showed off the new Chilli-dog connoisseur to the delight and rejoice of the public. Sonic returns to his cartoony stylization, kicking his humanized nightmare-fuel look to the curb. Sonic now has smaller proportions with all human elements discarded. His face is that of the iconic heroes with his eyes being the biggest proportion and hair having a more smooth look than that of his original appearance.
The trailer itself has a completely different feel to its original incarnation with entertaining moments like Sonic trashing a hotel room, or using his speed to play a game of Baseball by himself. Sonic makes a return to the cute yet cool mammal we’ve come to know.
Although seen as a massive win for Sonic fans others are concerned that this may shape the way the film industry produces films. If fans push to create changes it may be giving the consumer too much power and therefore not embracing any type of reimaginings of familiar and loved stories and characters.
This sentiment was addressed by Jim Carrey, who plays the films antagonistic Dr. Robotnik saying during Showtime’s Friday TCA session “Sometimes you find that the collective consciousness decides it wants something and then when it gets it, it goes, ‘OK, I don’t want it, We’ll have to see what that entails.”
The Sonic the Hedgehog film is due to release on February 13th, 2020.
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