The first design of Sonic for the new Sonic the Hedgehog film was met with intense harsh criticism online, and now, the release date for the movie has been delayed until February 14, 2020.
The movie was initially to be released in November 2019 however after the first trailer for the film (which you can watch above) premiered in April there was a lot of backlash from fans about the design of Sonic’s appearance.
Fans were unhappy with how different Sonic looked from his animated appearance in the video games.
This dissatisfaction wasn’t aimed at one area of the character’s physicality either; it was an all over general dislike of Sonic’s body, eyes, teeth, fur. You name it.
Top – the original Sonic design (Paramount Pictures), bottom – Sonic as designed in the Sega video games (Sega).
Sonic‘s director Jeff Fowler has addressed the redesign of Sonic’s appearance on his Twitter page at the beginning of May, writing “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…”
Fowler has tweeted again to give fans an update on the new expected release date.
Actor Ben Schwartz (of Parks and Recreation) portrays the voice of Sonic, Jim Carrey stars as Dr Robotnik and another notable cast member is James Marsden who plays a state trooper that discovers Sonic has super speed.
Although a new trailer will surely be released once the redesign and editing of the film is completed, come February 2020 (and probably speedier than we’ll realise) fans shall find out if this redesign was worth the effort in regards to if the film proves itself to be entertaining.
As with any movie, you can have a great looking cast but that doesn’t guarantee the audience will like where the story goes.
Watch this fan made trailer below with a the cartoon version of Sonic.
