Sonic the Hedgehog Cinematic Universe Thread (& Knuckles)

Jobber is a term used in professional wrestling to refer to a wrestler who is paid to wrestle but who's role is to lose matches to those of higher position or popularity. Since it's their job to lose, essentially, Jobber has also been used outside of wrestling to denote characters who are cannon fodder for someone else (such as Eggman who you defeat 10-20 times a game).

In this instance they used job as a verb to refer to Knuckles being immediately humiliated as if he were a joke character.

 

Well it's not so much a choice as just kind of how it has to be on a "real" creature. Eyelids can't simply slide down over an eyeball like a shutter door when everything around it is covered in realistic skin and fur. What you get is an eerie glass-eyed Chuck E. Cheese animatronic. Eyelids dictate 90% of the eye design on these characters. Not just how they look in a still, but how they animate and transition from open to shut and every subtle inflection between. It's what everyone that thinks the mono-eye problem can be solved with a paintover doesn't understand.

 

Here's a deleted scene that honestly should've been kept in the movie lol

 

I was not able to see the movie in theaters so I used Paramount +. I thought it was great and I really liked a lot of the humor. Even some most probably consider dumb. I didn’t read through all the reactions on here but I’m glad it’s mostly positive in general.

Some specific thoughts I had...

Spoiler

Those soldiers that came through with Knuckles in the very beginning were interesting. I’ve read they’re from the prequel comic but haven’t read it.

I think Longclaw could still be alive since her secret message was just in case right? It’s a “prerecorded” message. Doesn’t confirm she’s actually gone.

I’ll admit got a little emotional for Knuckles when they finally become friends. I felt so sorry for him.

Shadow is cool so I’m glad he’s coming but I’d like to see Metal Sonic too. Not sure how he’d fit in part 3 if it’s going to be SA2 inspired.

If Jim Carrey is taking a break (I doubt he’s retiring) I think Agent Stone could be a good stand-in for a movie or two. How he disguised himself as a GUN soldier at the end and he’s loyal to Robotnik.

My only real complaint is so no Crush 40 or video game music. Would have been awesome to hear. Not sure if some of the background stuff are remixes or whatever but they’re not really recognizable.

I agree about not using the mono-eye. I’ve seen photoshops and it’s weird. I will say I wish the little fur patch between his eyes was white though. The old concept art had it white and thought that was a great nod to it.

 

Apparently there's a explanation why there's no music from the games.

 

Honestly this sounds like corporate “say something without saying anything” speak. I wouldn’t be surprised if Paramount was against including the game music as it would result in more licensing and discussions with Sega. In Pat Casey’s reccent interview on the GHZ podcast he mentioned that Paramount created Longclaw so they could own a character. Maybe Paramount wanted to own as much of the movie’s soundtrack as possible.

edit: I think I did a bad job making my point here, I was just trying to say that there are multiple factors regarding the soundtrack decisions that we aren’t privy to (and fowler isn’t necessarily in control of) and that fowler may not have the time or ability to go into in a commentary track.

 

He's right tbh. Video game soundtracks are much different than movie soundtracks. Would've been nice for them to include some motifs for sure, but I'm not hurting because they didn't use Ice Cap music during the snowboarding segment for example.

 

I think people wouldn't have an issue with them not using music from the games if the movie tracks were actually memorable.

Saying that, people are going to riot if they don't include city escape or live & Learn for Sonic 3.

 

No, but having a riff from "Sonic Heroes" when the three of them are in the city planning their attack on Robotnik would have been awesome.

 

I believe he’s specifically talking about the drowning music in that scene.

 

I mean they already sneaked GHZ theme in the movie, and teaser for Sonic 2 included a remix of Emerald Hill zone theme

and those have more licensing issues

and plus, they already made a randition of the drowning music

i will just take their explanation at face value, and i can get it, videogames music works differently than movies music

 

He is talking explicitly about the drowning music here. It's... really frustrating when people don't listen to the words people actually say and then people run with the misquote and that becomes the whole conversation. But in this instance I agree with him completely. You're supposed to be invested in the drama of the scene, not pointing at the screen and going "ooooh, they did the thing".

 

Keep in mind also we're using an unscripted commentary track for our source, here. Jeff is probably in the middle of three different thoughts trying to say stuff relevant to what's happening on screen and provide general insights and other things he wanted to acknowledge. This is far from a formal Q&A where he gives a concrete answer to a concrete question posed by someone else.

 

It'd be nice to have more moments where there's songs from the games, but I do think it kind of works better for it to be moreso original. I think something like the OST in that drowning scene having the tune/motif from the drowning theme thrown in is fun, and there could probably be a bit more of that, but I don't think it's the worst thing in the world.

I think it's just out of a desire for an "ideal" Sonic movie, which even if Sonic 2 got pretty close, it had it's snags. I've seen the critique of "a generic movie OST" thrown around a lot, so I think it's just people really wanting the movie to feel like a video game put on the screen. Which definitely isn't a bad thing, don't get me wrong, cuz I'm guilty of it too in some regard.

 

I knew he was specifically talking about the drowning theme which I agree with not using right there because it would make it come off less serious when it’s meant to be a dramatic scene.

Overall though they should have used game music. The series has a bunch of iconic and popular music that would fit perfectly in both movies. Whatever the explanation it’s not because they don’t fit or that video game music works different. We’re not talking 16 bit versions.

Even a lyric-less Open you’re Heart theme could have played since Tom, Maddie and Sonic are hugging each other when the emeralds take effect. Plus any boss theme when Robotnik constructs the robot.

 

I think Tom has said before he took a lot of inspiration from the games with the score, or used a lot of genesis-adjacent synth, but I wish I actually heard any of that that come through. (Maybe it does and I'm just too stupid to get it? I don't know.) It just sounds like the same orchestral soundtrack I've heard in many, many other films for the most part; the only things that really stand out to me is the "Welcome to Green Hill" track from the first movie and whatever plays over the shots of Seattle in 2 - which I actually cannot recall, I just remember I felt from it a bit - and those are probably only just because they appeal to me specifically. Maybe it's impossible with how scoring movies goes these days, but I'd appreciate it if an "action" song wasn't automatically "have the orchestra do something" or "here's our licensed song we imagined the scene with".

I understand this reasoning, I do, but I also think it could get away with making what WAS there more noticeable.
At the end of the day what happens when you're adapting stuff is people are here to see "they did the thing: the movie", so I don't think playing 8 familiar notes for a couple seconds will take people out of it for too long, if at all, especially when the reason it's so iconic is for the exact one you're trying to convey.

 

I do agree, but I feel like the Sonic movies aren't really adaptations so much as they are "stories with Sonic in them, that take cues from the games". They do drastically different things, and hell, even Sonic is different between the games and the movie. They are adapting things such as general plot cues and such (like Super Sonic, the Master Emerald, etc.) but they're written in different ways, so they're kind of just taking the idea and doing something different, which makes it hard to compare the two. They might just be trying to separate it into it's own, separate Sonic universe, "they" being either Paramount or Sega. (Or both, really.)

They're close to the games, but they do a lot of things differently. Plus, I assume Boxer is referring to people who want the movie's OST to be entirely remixes/covers/etc., not just taking motifs, which isn't a super uncommon desire.

 

I actually disagree with this assessment. The percentage of people in the theatre that are catching references like drowning themes and box art poses is very small. Some fans may be weighing their satisfaction in volume of references, but the majority of audiences don't buy a ticket for an easter egg hunt. There could be more musical nods in the movie for fanservice sure, but would having a few more notes of a recognizable melody actually make a scene better just by virtue of recognizing it from somewhere else? Personally, hearing something like this would ruin the whole moment for me. As a fan I'd be too busy laughing at The Thing.

 

I think there are 2 things at play here:

1. Criticism of modern movies (say like most MCU movies) not having "memorable" scores like Star Wars, Exorcist, Back to the Future, Rocky, or LotR to name a few.

Saw Danny Elfman talked about this during a talk he did in L.A. a couple of years back where he mentioned it's various factors like money, not enough time, the director’s vision, samples, producers/directors perhaps not giving music any importance, the genre of movie, licensing, the way that's shot, modern movies having a more hectic schedule etc etc.

2. There's a certain expectation people have of Sonic music that's just not there.

And I don't think you necessarily need to use music from the game. For example, you don't hear people complain about the music in the OVA because it definitely sounds like something out of the games, without having to sound like video game tracks.

Saying that, I thought the first movie's soundtrack was cool. And it fit the road trip with small stakes story.

The problem I see is that with the music in Sonic 2 is that it's trying to keep the spirit from the first movie, but it's not elevating or matching the more Sonic elements the movie got. Not saying the music is bad, but it feels like it's just there.

I do agree that the way it's shot doesn't lend itself to just pasting a track from Sonic 3/Adventure, or following the direction the OVA took because that was a different medium and time.

But idk, I saw enough comments from outlets, general audience and fans that mentioned the music before that commentary was posted where I hope they can find a solution for Sonic 3 that can keep everyone happy.