Sonic the Hedgehog Live-Action/CGI Movie Targeting 2020 Release Date

[Leo656]

It's not even like Jon Snow was a majorly established actor yet and that they tacked on that terrible love story subplot just to justify his inclusion. It was just there because a lot of casual viewers didn't "get" the first one so they needed to make it more accessible.

Silent Hill: The Movie was an incredible attempt to faithfully translate the video game elements of the games into a film, and for the most part they succeeded.
It absolutely did not hurt that the director was literally playing the games on-set, right next to the cameras, and then telling the camera operators etc. to simply "Make it Like This".

Silent Hill: Revelations was a weak attempt at making a generic horror movie that happened to have some elements of Silent Hill tacked on superficially. A subtle but important distinction between the two films. The first one wasn't quite perfect but it definitely wasn't "generic"; the sequel, however, really only had a veneer of Silent Hill-ness to it, which I find unforgivable, despite all the lip service they tried to pay with character names from the series and whatnot.

I'll admit, I didn't love the first Silent Hill movie the first time I saw it, but then I replayed some of the games before watching it again, and it all just clicked. Like "Damn, I'm not sure it can actually get more faithful than this." That got me all hyped for a sequel, which for years I assumed was dead, but then it was finally announced and I was pretty excited. But the fact that it was made by mostly different people and was going to hand-wave the ending of the first one was cause for alarm all by itself.

Revelations just doesn't work. It's not a good horror movie on its own (too much comedy and love story junk) and it fails as both a Silent Hill adaptation as well as a sequel to the previous film. There's just enough lip service paid to make you think they really tried, but if you really watch the movie you can see that it's all just smoke and mirrors.

I'm bummed there's no part 3, but not so much because I liked the second one. I just get annoyed when stories don't get finished.

[Wildcat]

I’m so happy for Sonic. I always thought it would do fine like most live action adaptations but exceeding the norm is just great.

Like I’ve said I’m not that into box office numbers because it’s different for each movie but so cool it’s getting a lot of support. Especially since it’s his first one.

Sure some are still pretty critical of it but it happens to everything.

I’ll admit I was wrong about the design. Ya I thought it was kind of cool including the concept art but going as game-accurate as possible really strengthens the connection. I stared at him even when he was not talking.

[Leo656]

I read an article today that mentions that most if not all of the toys and merchandise are based on the scrapped design, because they were too far along in production when they made the switch to do anything about it. You have to figure that's going to cost them a lot of money on the back end. A movie like this obviously has to make good money at the box office, but they're also not-so-secretly toy commercials and that's where a lot of the money really comes in (like how apparently WB did make a decent profit on Justice League if you factor in the merchandise, which sold alright). They knew from the start that even if the Sonic movie was popular it wasn't going to win any awards, but they definitely wanted to sell a lot of toys with it.

Given that the design was universally panned before they scrapped it, you have to figure nobody's gonna want to buy the merch with the "ugly" Sonic design on it, and I doubt they're going to release an "apology wave" with the updated design because that would cost a fortune.

If the VFX guys were telling the truth and the design in the final movie was what they originally suggested before the producers scrapped it in favor of that hideous "realistic" one, then the people who made that decision really ought to be kicking themselves now because the problem with the toys wouldn't even be a thing if only they'd left well enough alone to start with.

I guess we'll see; I personally never buy tie-in toys that don't match what's on-screen and I imagine lots of other people are the same. The early MLP: FiM toys, for example, faced a huge backlash despite the show's popularity because the characters didn't faithfully resemble their cartoon counterparts. They fixed it later but they absolutely lost a fortune in the meantime.

[Wildcat]

Theres toys that do match the redesign.

2 different plushies (one that says phrases and one that looks mostly like a typical Sonic, even keeps the uni-eye) There’s also a newly revealed Diamond Select statue too that looks great.

There’s always merchandise that gets made after a movie like collector stuff and other waves so I’m sure there’ll be more.

Only first design stuff are some theater promos, 1 playset, baby Sonic plush and the build a bear plush. Those 2 are actually pretty cute though since they’re based on the baby and bear style.

[Egon1982]

Originally Posted by Leo656

It's not even like Jon Snow was a majorly established actor yet and that they tacked on that terrible love story subplot just to justify his inclusion. It was just there because a lot of casual viewers didn't "get" the first one so they needed to make it more accessible.

Silent Hill: The Movie was an incredible attempt to faithfully translate the video game elements of the games into a film, and for the most part they succeeded.
It absolutely did not hurt that the director was literally playing the games on-set, right next to the cameras, and then telling the camera operators etc. to simply "Make it Like This".

Silent Hill: Revelations was a weak attempt at making a generic horror movie that happened to have some elements of Silent Hill tacked on superficially. A subtle but important distinction between the two films. The first one wasn't quite perfect but it definitely wasn't "generic"; the sequel, however, really only had a veneer of Silent Hill-ness to it, which I find unforgivable, despite all the lip service they tried to pay with character names from the series and whatnot.

I'll admit, I didn't love the first Silent Hill movie the first time I saw it, but then I replayed some of the games before watching it again, and it all just clicked. Like "Damn, I'm not sure it can actually get more faithful than this." That got me all hyped for a sequel, which for years I assumed was dead, but then it was finally announced and I was pretty excited. But the fact that it was made by mostly different people and was going to hand-wave the ending of the first one was cause for alarm all by itself.

Revelations just doesn't work. It's not a good horror movie on its own (too much comedy and love story junk) and it fails as both a Silent Hill adaptation as well as a sequel to the previous film. There's just enough lip service paid to make you think they really tried, but if you really watch the movie you can see that it's all just smoke and mirrors.

I'm bummed there's no part 3, but not so much because I liked the second one. I just get annoyed when stories don't get finished.

What did you think of Street Fighter 2 the animated movie?

[Leo656]

Huge fan of Chun-Li's tits. A++.

The rest of the movie was also very good.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Huge fan of Chun-Li's tits. A++.

The rest of the movie was also very good.

BAM! Agreed. Also love the Vega / Chun-Li fight and the sound track is amazing. This flick got me back into KMFDM.

[Leo656]

KMFDM is Life.

I sincerely hope they play Juke Joint Jezebel at my funeral.

[Wildcat]

I remember that song. I had the MK soundtrack. It was really good.

So I heard the Sonic movie book read on YouTube. There’s some differences but there’s also some interesting bits added. I know books and comics take some creative liberty. It’s just fun to speculate. Not sure I need to put this in spoilers.

The most obvious is his powers come from chaos emeralds or could just be 1. They refer to it many times as chaos power. It does not specify if it’s both speed and electricity though.

Not sure how I feel if his speed comes from emeralds. I always thought it was inspired by real hedgehogs being able to run. Not that they’d beat a cheetah or something. I know it’s an exaggerated trait.

What’s really interesting is Longclaw used to be a warrior and his world used to be ruled by 2 characters named Claw and Fang...Knack the Weasel? Surprised nobody has mentioned this.

Now this should have been touched on in the movie. His rings are limited. He can’t keep warp places. Which makes sense. Unlimited rings would have been too easy and made them less special. Even in the cartoons they were treated conservatively.

Doug Walker/NC complained they didn’t use them enough by going all over the world.

[drgon78]

The original origin of Sonic's speed was in a short comic that he and a scientist were friends. He was part of an experiment that went wrong giving him powers(and making him blue) and turning his scientist friend into Robotnik/Eggman.

[Shark_Blade]

Originally Posted by drgon78

The original origin of Sonic's speed was in a short comic that he and a scientist were friends. He was part of an experiment that went wrong giving him powers(and making him blue) and turning his scientist friend into Robotnik/Eggman.

You mean this?

http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the...Physical_scans

[drgon78]

Yep, that's the one.

[Wildcat]

I’ve seen that before but even in that he already has natural speed. He went 685mph on the treadmill before anything happened to him.

And now that I look at this again they clearly used this for the movie. He created a shockwave by going so fast and has similar shoes he ruins in the process.

So it’d probably just be the electricity if they decide to match the book or it might have been planned anyway. Do they send out movie drafts for books like this to go by?

[CyberCubed]

So I finally saw this, it was enjoyable for what it was. Sonic was nicely designed and had a good personality and plot went where you expected it to. Jim Carrey did great in his role, and I liked a lot of the action scenes.

Still, a lot, if not most, of the jokes fell flat. I did not like the pop culture references that will be dated pretty soon like Vin Diesel, Rihanna, Men in Black and Will Smith (referencing a movie from 1995 in 2020, really?), and so forth. A lot of the bar fight stuff was real cringey. Some banter was meh, as I did not care for the lead male too much. Granted he wasn't as bad as I thought he would be, but nothing special. Also did not care for the "angry black woman sister" whose only purpose was to be "The angry black woman" stereotype. Almost the exact racist stereotype you'd expect from some other stuff.

I enjoyed the robot chases, the finale (although why couldn't Sonic run up the side of the building to the roof to get his rings, why did he need a key?), and I liked the baseball field scene the most with Sonic by himself. Find it weird Sonic grew up from the time he was a kid on our Earth instead of with Tails in Green Hill Zone, but whatever.

The end credits were great showing Robotnik shave his head and go crazy, and of course Tails. I thought the mushroom planet references were to Mario for some time. Hopefully most of the sequel can take place in Green Hill Zone and less of the real world. I'd give it a 7.5/10, fun movie.

[Wildcat]

Some have come up with a good explanation for why he doesn’t run up the building by himself...he lies so he can spend more time with Tom and Maddie and say goodbye on the roof.

The book is slightly different with the ring bag landing inside a fenced off area that requires a key. Still the fan theory fits well.

I thought the humor was quite good for a family friendly movie. Men in Black is not that dated. Part 3 was 2012. Sonic has been here for 10 years in the movie.

Also the director said the reason Sonic’s stuff is old and out date is they didn’t want to portray that he stole anything. He only collected things that seemingly nobody cared about even though he could have taken whatever he wanted. It’s a good work around and fits the character.

The sister might have been stereotypical but her reaction to Sonic and the whole situation was still an accurate one. Tom was on the run according to the news.

[Shark_Blade]

Sonic the Hedgehog Star James Marsden Confirms He's Signed on for Multiple Sequels

https://comicbook.com/gaming/2020/03...tiple-sequels/

Sonic the Hedgehog’s James Marsden is sticking around for multiple sequels. He told Variety about it on a podcast where he confirmed that he had signed on for more installments with the Blue Blur. Sonic the Hedgehog has been nothing short of a hit after that disastrous unveiling. That led to one very pronounced redesign and it has been smooth sailing ever since. Now, the movie has been thrilling audiences and the sequel looks to be on the way. That teaser at the end of the film left the creative team a lot of room to pursue new stories. Some elements that hardcore Sonic fans might have been missing in the first film look like they’re going to be making their way to the second installment. Marsden will be right behind in whatever adventure the series plans next.

“I believe, I don’t know if I’m supposed to say, Marsden began. “As many as they want to make. Yeah, that’s my somewhat vague answer. It is such a good group of people and it was so much fun to see Jim [Carrey] enjoying himself again. I think this was his second-biggest opening weekend of all of his movies. I was kind of amazed at that statistic. He just had a big smile on his face and he was hugging everyone. It just felt like it was such a cool thing.”

“I grew up, and I was in high school emulating him and watching him on In Living Color doing his thing,” he continued. “For him to take a little break from the business and come back with the Showtime show and then this. To chew the scenery with his amazing ways and just have fun doing it again was a real joy for me because he’s always been an inspiration. It was just fun to see. He’s just putting his arm around everyone and going, ‘Man, what a great ride. I can’t think of any better people to be experiencing this kind of success with.’”

"Based on the global blockbuster videogame franchise from Sega, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG tells the story of the world’s speediest hedgehog as he embraces his new home on Earth. In this live-action adventure comedy, Sonic and his new best friend Tom (James Marsden) team up to defend the planet from the evil genius Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) and his plans for world domination. The family-friendly film also stars Tika Sumpter and Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic."

Sonic the Hedgehog is now in theaters. The film stars Ben Schwartz as the voice of the eponymous hedgehog, James Marsden as Tom Wachowski, a police officer that befriends Sonic, and Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, the franchise's classic villain, and scientist.

[CyberCubed]

The sequels definitely need to spend more time in Green Hill Zone and Sonic's world than the real world. So besides Jim Carrey as Robotnik I don't care about the other humans returning. My biggest fear is the sequel will stay mostly in the real world again, and it will be stale.

Also find it amusing they waited till the end for Robotnik to well...look like Robotnik. The whole movie I just saw him as Jim Carrey being Jim Carrey, I didn't even think of him as Robotnik till the end credits.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Shark_Blade

You mean this?

http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the...Physical_scans

I've always been amazed that no Sonic media in recent memory has tried to pursue the idea that Sonic and Eggman might have started off as close buddies and basically made each other who they are today.

For whatever reason, neither the Japanese nor American licenses ever had much interest in making that original comic canon.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Also find it amusing they waited till the end for Robotnik to well...look like Robotnik. The whole movie I just saw him as Jim Carrey being Jim Carrey, I didn't even think of him as Robotnik till the end credits.

So many of these movies do this nowadays and it's generally pretty dumb. "You guys aren't paying to see the characters you know, you're paying to see them BEFORE they become that character! That's what you want, right?"

Sometimes you get a Joker and it's alright, but usually you get a Sinestro in a Green Lantern movie that never gets a sequel and so it's all just a big c*ck-tease.

[Wildcat]

But how would a first movie work when he hasn’t met Robotnik yet? This would also apply if it was fully animated. We’re talking about the story and setup.

Like how were they supposed to start off with him trying to take over Sonic’s world with more game locations? He’d require a big backstory about how he’s a super advanced astronaut/scientist that left earth and discovered South Island.

Then if they went with the idea that Sonic and his species are actually from earth that itself would also require a big explanation. It also would have required other anthropomorphic characters to already be co-existing with humans.

Those are more complicated for a first movie even though hardcore fans could buy into it. Sonic coming here and becoming rivals with Robotnik works perfectly. It’s simple and still sets up how the games go.

I know some see it as typical kids movie with a cute nonhuman character but aside from the setting I think it’s very much a Sonic movie. He’s 99% the focus. Tom and Maddie are just important enough to stick around. Robotnik is portrayed right. We see Sonic’s world even though it’s brief.

I like how even Tails was given a little yellow computer/tracking device just like in recent games. It’s such a nice detail for appearing less than 30 seconds.

The rings function like the games. The emeralds exist somewhere, presumably in special zones. They’ve confirmed an early idea included using an emerald and Super Sonic so we know they wanted to adapt more. It’s just a lot for 1 movie when everyone’s meeting the first time.