After the first disastrous trailer for Sonic The Hedgehog from Paramount Pictures in April, we were crestfallen. How could they have done this to our favorite little electric speedfreak furball?
Our reaction wasn’t an outlier, either. Pretty much nobody liked the redesigned character for the film, and the first trailer was almost universally panned. So what’s a studio to do? They had two choices: cancel the show and cut their losses, or fix it and push the release date back.
They fixed it.
The rolling train wreck of a first trailer gives way to the new one. Pause the SCIFI.radio stream using the controller at the upper right before viewing.
Gone are the weird teeth that looked like he had a mouthful of Chicklets, the glassy, beady eyes, the spidery fingers. Somehow whoever had done the hair and quills on Sonic had managed to make it look like the big tufts of hair on his head were meat – meaning that, creepily enough, his hair had hair on it. That’s fixed too.
The original trailer made the film feel extremely small and cheap, as though somebody had designed the lead character without ever having actually seen him in other media or ever played one of his games. The action was pedantic, the scene selections were weak, and just about everything else that could go wrong with a trailer was wrong with the first one.
And we love that Sonic is a fan of The Flash, and reads a stack of his comic books taller than he is in – well – a flash.
Sonic the Hedgehog is an amazing project. The first SEGA game starring the little blue hyperactive whatever-he-actually-is made his first appearance in 1991 in his own self-titled game for the SEGA Genesis, and it was a smash hit. Nobody had seen anything like it, or him. Kids and adults alike adored the little blue furball. Over the years there have been multiple games and TV shows, but to now there has never been a live action film, so it’s amazing that this film got green lit, and is going to make it all the way through production, especially given the disastrous first outing.
Jim Carrey plays the nefarious Doctor Robotnik. James Marsden plays the human Tom Wachowski, who befriends Sonic and acts basically as his wingman for the film.
Sonic The Hedgehog, the movie, was originally planned for release on November 22. Instead, the film has been pushed back to February 14, 2020.
Okay, now we’re amped. Good save, guys.
-30-
SCIFI.radio is listener supported sci-fi geek culture radio, and operates almost exclusively via the generous contributions of our fans via our Patreon campaign. If you like, you can also use our tip jar and send us a little something to help support the many fine creatives that make this station possible.
