It’s safe to say that the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog didn’t receive the response Paramount was hoping for. Rather than audiences welling up with nostalgia at seeing a true video game icon on the big screen for (nearly) the first time, the collective response was one of horror. Or, more specifically, what in the name of all that’s holy is that blue monstrosity?
Sonic the Hedgehog, familiar to everyone as a broadly drawn cartoon with a decent dose of attitude, looked hideous. Maybe it was the tiny eyes, maybe it was the human teeth, maybe it was giving him a more recognizably human body – whatever the case, nobody liked it.
Faced with this reaction, Paramount decided they simply couldn’t release the film as it was and made the decision to disown the design, head back to the drawing board and make something people could stomach. Redoing all this CGI work also caused the movie to be delayed from its original November 8th, 2019 release until February 14th, 2020, and now we may have our first look at the redone Sonic, seen below.
The images come from Twitter user @BestInTheGalaxy, who claims he received them from an insider at Paramount, so take this with a grain of salt. However, to my eye, it looks plausible. It’s much closer to Sonic’s classic video game look, featuring his classic ‘connected eyes’ design and just seems more cartoony overall. Also, in what might be a clue that this is real, his arms aren’t tan-colored, which fits with the post-Sonic Rush design.
If it’s true, then that’s at least one problem with Sonic the Hedgehog solved. However (and don’t accuse me of being overly negative here), the design wasn’t the only thing that raised an eyebrow in that last trailer. But I guess we’re going to have to wait until February to find out if Jim Carrey can do justice to the role of Dr. Ivo Robotnik (I will never call him Eggman!).
