Sonic the Hedgehog Cinematic Universe Thread (& Knuckles)

I've been thinking about it, and skipping SA1 to go to SA2 is probably the smartest move they could do. Perfect Chaos really was one of the most epic final bosses in all of Sonic, everything since has been kind of chasing that sort of big bad again. Sonic 06 basically cloned him and made him fire based, and other big monsters like the time eater have felt like monsters that wanted that high without any of the work. In the context of sonic movies, keeping Chaos in their back pocket is a good thing because they have something they can escalate to. If these movies are going to become more and more DBZ-like, then saving the more awesome examples of power for stuff like Chaos is a good thing. We've seen Sonic fight giant robots, and we've seen him fight characters on equal footing. Work your way up to fighting literal gods of destruction. PLUS, with the themes they've been establishing in the movies about friendship and family, Chaos' ending actually works better in that universe than it did at the end of SA1.

 

They also have new lore with the Ancients to incorporate a bit more organically with interplanetary societies.

 

I took my little sister to see it today and they are giving out new prints.

 

if there are any Lancashire Farm Bio Yogurt heads here you're going to like this cross-promotion

 

It's kinda crazy to me seeing how Sonic is simply not popular over in Japan. I remember seeing the Japanese commercials included on Sonic Jam and the poster from Dreams Come True's tours that was in there and thinking "man, he must be huge over there". But like... he's not. Or maybe he was but now he simply isn't.

 

The whole Project Sonic, back on the Saturn's era, was SEGA's attempt at getting the franchise popular in Japan.
On that sense, I could see Sonic losing to Mario in Japan, back in the day.
So its current status doesn't surprise me, only saddens me to see that things didn't get better over time...

 

​

 

Didn’t even hit China yet, could be a huge boom for the international box office numbers

 

I wouldn't count China as being a big deal breaker. They're not as big as they use to be for foreign product.

 

Heard that China is tracking to have like 3M$ so not much in grand scheme of things

 

The movie keeps gasing up.

 

Yep, I'm thinking we're pretty much locked in for Sonic 5, Sonic 6, and a Wade & Shadow show bros. Strap in.

And more toys!

 

Really good news on Mexico's performance. There's always been a decent amount of a Sega/Sonic fanbase there since the 90s that grew more during the Sonic X days.

Hopefully they can start paying more attention down that way when it comes to stuff.

 

I'm not really surprised that the films aren't so popular in Japan, they seem very geared to western audiences.

Really the way to boost Sonic's popularity in Japan would be if they made a cool new Sonic anime series

 

My wife got me this cutesey Classic Sonic Christmas sweater as a gift I've been wearing and oh my god, it's not really this movie's fault but as someone who does not like the films at all it's driving me nuts how often I have to say "haha yeah I haven't seen it " and nod politely when people are like "oh man you'll LOVE it, you HAVE to see it".

Not a real problem at all but I'm so tired of the conversation, I swear to God it's been like six times in the past week. Taking all the effort my ADHD brain can muster not to be that weird nerd about it.

I haven't seen the third one so I can't speak to that but as far as the first two go these movies are as "American kids movie" as it gets, yeah.

 

For some reason I feel like if we were to get a "new Sonic Anime" it would actually have very little creative influence from anyone who lives in Japan (even if it was produced specifically to air there) and probably be mostly produced under the same conditions that all the promotional animations we've got were (which is to say yet another project written by Flynn and all the usual suspects and the actual Sonic Team staff is still stuck writing short stories to go alongside pictures that we never get) and still not make the dent in the market they want no matter how well produced it is.

All that to say, a "New Sonic Anime" would probably be an all around Disappointment to everyone who wants one.

 

I've seen this sentiment around a bit lately, and it does make me scratch my head a bit. The two previous Sonic anime efforts didn't make a blip in Japan, I don't understand why it would be any different now?

 

Yeah, honestly speaking? They've tried time and time again to make Sonic relevant to the Japanese audiences, but it flounders every time. I think it's just one of those things that's never going to appeal to that audience. Nothing appeals to everyone, after all, and you need to select the most relevant target audience to cater to. For Sonic, that's obviously primarily been the USA and the EU. I say stop wasting time/money trying and just try to grow the current audience. And hey, the movies are doing just that, so...

 

So, entirely inane fact about this: the Green Hil art seen in those shards is just Doaly's 30th anniversary Green Hill Zone racing poster print they did for Moor Art Gallery. You can even see the blue streak (speeds by) that leads to Sonic in the original art. The new Shadow art also looks like Doaly's style, just a shame that Team Sonic just reuses the existing renders. I may also be slightly salty in the pettiest way imaginable that the Green Hill art is being reused after I payed over £50 for one of those prints out of 150 made (I just framed it yesterday after it having been sat in a poster tube for the last three years - she's a beaut), but that's neither here nor there.

 

Disappointment to some, maybe, but I don't know where your perspective is that this is the thing you think would determine its domestic success. Are you saying the origin of the writing team, irrespective of the persons themselves, is what would determine its financial performance? Because that sure hasn't been my impression of...any part of the series, really.