Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) movie

To say Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces both sold roughly 1 million copies, and are therefore both worth exploring further is a sad indicator of the internalization of Sonic's downward spiral. Sonic Forces was The blockbuster title, and as per always was panned as mediocre if not disappointing. Whereas Sonic Mania was a critical darling, which paid off far greater than Forces in terms of investment. Modern Sonic is just as desperate for a significant makeover as ever, critics are generally sick of it (as am I), and sales are on a general trend of continuous decline.

Secondly, Sonic can be both for children and adults, and I didn't mean to imply Sonic should focus on adults solely, if that's how I was understood (which seems intentionally stupid).

Finally, if the movie is a success, that is good for the franchise in terms of near term profits, but not good for the franchise long term if Sega's previous modus operandi is anything to go by. They will ride the bump in popularity for all its worth without evolving the franchise beyond anything greater than mediocrity. Sorry for having faith in the little blue guy, but Sonic is capable of much greater than 1.7 million in sales and average-to-poor reviews. In terms of mature players, it doesn't have to be a niche within a subculture, it can be greater.

 

Paramount budgets $7M for Sonic the Hedgehog movie shoot in ‘hero town’ Ladysmith

Interesting that they chose a small town over a big city (which I initially thought that was going to be the location).

Edit: Forgot to say that the plot summary is what Sonic news sites are saying it is but I'm not sure if the original article had it at one point. At least I'm not seeing an edited time stamp on the Ladysmith website.

 

How much do you think it costs to buy the distribution rights from Paramount to make sure this movie disappears.

I can throw in a dollar.

Seriously, I'm not sure if at this point everything that comes out about the movie sound inherently bad or if I'm just dead set on hating this. I'm willing to concede to that if it's the case, but I really just want this movie to go away.

 

So it's not gonna be Sonic the Smurfs. It's gonna be E.T. the Hedgehog.

 

Remember how Dragonball Evolution was such complete garbage that Akira Toriyama made Battle of Gods to completely mask it? My one ray of hope is that this pulls Sega's heads out of their asses, and allows Ian Flynn to write another Sonic movie.

 

I could watch any other bad video game movie while high and write something better than that.

 

I'm thinking "Sonic and Me" myself would be the more accurate outcome.



(Fun fact: Paul Rudd, originally tapped to star as the cop for the Sonic movie, loves showing this scene to troll the hosts/audiences during his guest appearances.)

Considering that was a film purely made for product placement, maybe we'll have Sonic dance and have a chili dog contest in a Sonic Restaurant, and we'll finally get the Sonic X Sonic crossover we've always wanted.

 

I bet that they'll make the toaster appear in the teaser trailer or at least somewhere in the movie, hoping that people will go "OH I REMEMBER THIS, HOW SELF-REFERENTIAL AND FUNNY HAHA".

 

I'm not mad; I just want someone to justify the scope to me. A 4.63 square mile town for a feature length Sonic movie? Is he even fast?

And he's "desperate" for a friend? Is he even cool?

 

I'm honestly thinking there's no coming back from this if it fails.

 

Sonic survived Shadow, Genesis, 2006, Chronicles, the Werehog, Rise of Lyric, etc. He'll survive this.

 

Having a terrible movie made from it is probably the most excusable disaster a video game series can have. Plenty of great series have had this happen. Heck Mario's getting it a second time, courtesy of Minions.


EDIT: I mean it still sucks when it happens, it's just not going to be anything that people can fault Sonic specifically for.

 

With Dragon Ball, Toriyama is pretty much the sole guy behind the original work. It's his, it's him. The problem with Evolution was that they didn't take any of his suggestions to heart, and the resulting work didn't feel authentic in his eyes. That specifically vindicated him to draw a line in the sand and take some ownership.

With Sonic, anyone who could possibly be an analogue for Toriyama no longer has any remote say in what gets done with the IP. Naka, Yasuhara, and Ohshima all left Sega a long time ago. Sonic's long since been handed off to other creators. At best, I could see Iizuka putting his foot down, and complaining that "it's not authentically Sonic-y like the Adventure games were", which he directed. But, then, that'd honestly feel like some hardcore "pot calling the kettle black" shit to me. The point where a foot needed to be put down has come and passed. Several times. I don't think we're ever going to see a retirement of "oh no, who let him out of his cage again" Sonic. The best we can hope for is stuff like Mania, minor beacons of light that periodically exist simultaneously alongside the good ol' "routinely escaped mental patient" that is the dominant and eternal face of the franchise.

Also a big THIS. Sonic has proven himself to be the proverbial cockroach of the video games industry. He can't be killed. That he bounced back from 06 alone shows that; those other farces are icing on the cake. And, tying into the above paragraph, the fact that after 06, they still thought the Werehog was a good idea shows that no matter how low they go, they'll never really, fully learn, nobody's going to put their foot down.

But who knows. Maybe after we see the first full, core, main series, 3D Sonic Team developed Sonic game, conceived after Mania's full tour as a media and commercial darling, I may eat my hat. Maybe. It could actually be this time. It's an absolute case of "developer who cried this time", but this situation is different, right? Part of me genuinely believes that it could be different this next time, but the rest of me thinks it's just the Stockholm Syndrome talking.

In either case, regardless of if Mania's success causes someone to put their foot down on (or within) Sonic Team, a movie being trash is certainly not going to have any impact, I don't think. They'll probably just make more garbage ones if it miraculously does well (which it won't). Or, more likely, they'll just assume that people don't want Sonic movies, and say no more Sonic movies (for a while).

 

I can totally see that point of view but Mario survived Super Mario Bros the movie that did zero to tarnish the brand with Mario arguably rising like a phoenix since then with a slate of incredible, industry conquering games. Point being, almost every major video game franchise has a ridiculous, car crash of a movie made with the lone exceptions being what, Mortal Kombat that was half-way decent? Maybe the latest Tomb Raider movie that's kind of okay? And even in the face of most video game adaptations being critical disasters and even bombing in some cases, video games and their icons are immune to the failures of what is a separate entity and industry in Hollywood. What I mean is, even if this film is an unmitigated disaster, one follow up game that say, holds the critical strength of Sonic Mania will see the brand restored again and no-one will care about the movie, as what eventually happened with Mario. Video games survive bad movies. If they didn't there wouldn't be a notable video game franchise left.

That said, recent revelations on the plot of this Sonic movie have me thinking this is just going to be honest to God terrible and doesn't fill me with hope. I hope Sonic Team's next game is absolutely not a movie tie-in game because that'd be like pouring gasoline on to a raging fire. That could cause way more damage than just the film being 40 to 50 on Metacritic or whatever - if there's a bad game to go with it. I'd love for us to be pleasantly surprised here and this film does have an expensive budget with a decent studio behind it - but the creative decisions, Christ they're beyond awful.

Onwards to the inevitable trailer I guess?

 

Other way round. Nintendo's games only exist to tarnish the masterpiece that was the Super Mario Bros movie. I'll wind-up a Bob-omb on anyone who disagrees.

 

Yup, he's drowning instead. :v:

This definitely needs some kind of final boss at the end, loved that in the Lego movie.

 

lol, okay well I will give you that my childlike mind genuinely believed that the Super Mario Bros movie was a godlike masterpiece at the time (hover boots! the future!) when I saw it (I think I was like 7?). I remember thinking that it was incredible and one of the best video game films ever. Obviously I'm an adult now and that childhood glowing review is a little different in retrospect given it's widely considered in most contemporary circles to be completely terrible to the point that Bob Hoskins hates it and wishes it didn't exist. I'll always treasure it for the positive memories however. Loved it as a child.

The point I was making was more of a general argument that the mass of disastrous video game adaptations over the last two decades did pretty much nothing to the health and horizon of their respective franchises, even if they were overwhelmingly panned or bombed spectacularly, meaning that Sonic will probably encounter the same fate - as in, a bad movie, even if it bombs, won't have a bearing on the future of the franchise, which is a comforting thought given how this current project seems so creatively bankrupt and destined for failure.

Honestly might see it on the big screen for kicks around the time December 2019 rolls around. I'm both looking forward to and dreading the trailer for this.

 

I wuz half joking. I actually agree with you! The movie doing bad will only be a healthy wake-up call for SEGA to not try that sort of this again

Although regarding SMB, Bob Hoskins' hate for the movie came from it's crazy troubled and streched-out production - complete with injuries - rather than any actual opinion on the final product. It could have been an 11/10 film but to him it was a horrible job he didn't get paid enough for. There's a really cool documentary about it on the BD release (definitely recommend a watch!) :v:

 

If they somehow manage to integrate this "Sonic in the real world" backstory, that would be the only thing redeeming about this setup.