Sonic Impressions

Basically I have no hope for it.

I gave up on Sonic a while back, sure I'll occasionally favorite some fan art here and there, but there's little reason for me to get back into the fandom (and no, I won't play Sonic Mania.), but anyway, a Sonic the Hedgehog movie has been announced. I recall it being announced as far back as 2016 or so, and I thought it was scrapped, but that's obviously not the case anymore. It's official, and it'll hit the screens in late-2019. So far we haven't got much beyond the casting choices and the new design... Yeah, you know where this is heading. This is going to be a live-action movie, so what does that mean for Sonic's overall design? A Roger Rabbit-esque movie where cartoon CGI is mixed with live action? Or will this be some Detective Pikachu level shit?

To answer your question, Nintendo doesn't do what SEGod Damnit does.



That is a legitimate poster posed on Paramount Pictures' Twitter. Not much has been revealed on the complete design, but this alone makes me heave. Little about the real Sonic is present in this picture, and given the approach Paramount's going with this, that statement might become more and more true as more information surfaces. I mean just look at the design, an overly-long body and those legs, those damn legs. The reason why I'm harping on what seems to be a singular design change is that one, it's not about eye color and two, it's not about the fact that blue fur is on his arms. It's a change that's actually awkward and hurts the overall look of the character. We have a cartoony character who's remodeled to look more realistic. It just doesn't work, goddamn those legs.

Another poster exists, and trust me, it makes things worse.



I have no regret harping on the legs. The more you look at them, the more weird they seem. It looks like they also changed Sonic's shoes, a design that's not only simple to recreate, but one of Sonic's more identifiable design aspects. He ditched those for some generic off-brand red sneakers. People may harp on the excessive bandages Boom Sonic had, but at least he didn't have laces on his shoes (think of it like this, it's now very easy to trip while running at the speed of sound.). Also, minor nitpick, but it looks like he's not even wearing socks. Again, the socks are a noticeable design aspect. There's no way Sonic could be comfortable running without socks on.

Also, gotta love the "Sonic Wuz Here" comment. Yeah, Sonic used to be here, but now he has become... whatever the hell the movie will do to him. To top it all off, it'll be yet another movie set in California, because California and New York are the only states that exist in major movies these days.