The first live-action movie starring Sega's beloved Blue Blur got its first trailer at the end of April, giving us our first look at the redesigned character, and fans were very vocal about how awful he looked. It wasn't just fans who disliked the design, though, since
Sonic's original designer also shared his disappointment online.
The whole controversy made
Sonic the Hedgehog movie Director, Jeff Fowler, consider
changing the character's design to one that is much more in tune with the classic look that fans of the series know and love; causing the movie to be pushed back from November of this year to February of 2020.
Fans were ecstatic to find out that Fowler and the people over at Paramount Pictures were willing to make Sonic's design look more like the design from the video games, but it seems that not everyone involved in the movie is on board with this change; at least not for the reasons this change came to be.
Recently, Jim Carrey — who plays Sonic's archnemesis Dr. Robotnik in the movie — has revealed that he doesn't really know how to feel about this redesign, but even more so about the reason behind it being the audience having a say in this.
"
I don’t know quite how I feel about the audience being in on the creation of it while it’s happening. So, we’ll have to see what that entails, because sometimes you find that the collective consciousness decides it wants something, and then when it get it, it goes, 'Okay. I just wanted it. I didn’t care about it. I just jumped on the bandwagon’ or whatever.'"
Carrey does make a very valid point, since the director and the artists working in the movie already had a vision; a vision that they quickly dropped once they faced the backlash. While the change only seems to be an aesthetic one, Carrey's concerns are, again, quite valid.
Hopefully is just the design that's been changed, especially since changing more things would mean reshoots; delaying the movie even further.
Sonic the Hedgehog is a live-action adventure comedy based on the global blockbuster videogame franchise from Sega that centers on the infamously brash bright blue hedgehog. The film follows the (mis)adventures of Sonic as he navigates the complexities of life on Earth with his newfound – human – best friend Tom Wachowski (James Marsden). Sonic and Tom join forces to try and stop the villainous Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) from capturing Sonic and using his immense powers for world domination. The film also stars Tika Sumpter and Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic.
Sonic the Hedgehog speeds into theaters on the 14th of February.