From the way it's sounding so far, It's just going to be an incredibly expensive trainwreck of a film no matter how you look at it. Does anyone have bets it'll be remembered as being as bad as Sonic 06 (I can't timagine it could be any worse)?
Real talk how is Sega this incompetent at managing their brand? I thought we were through the worst of it after Generations had its head on mostly straight and they actually threw the old guard a genuine bone with Mania. Even with missteps here and there I just don't understand how no one put their foot down and stopped this car crash waiting to happen. You have Sonic the fucking Hedgehog. A small town live action buddy cop movie sounds like the complete antithesis of his best qualities.
Oh. It's this train of thought again. Reminder that bad products may come and go, but the stains they leave on the franchise's legacy don't go away (or at least, don't go away that easily). And those stains eventually add up if you refuse to [meaningfully] clean up your brand. It's gonna be fun watching the upcoming retail updated re-release of the first widely-praised Sonic game in decades [likely] not even match, let alone surpass, the sales of some of the games the series "survived" years ago.
Eh even if this bombs it's a stupid video game movie coming out in a month surrounded by a lot better movies. Even if it sucks no one's going to see it. Worst comes to worst, itll come out, people will have a quick "lol Sonic sucks" laugh, and it'll fade from memory. That is unless there's a movie tie in game, which in that case god help us.
Like people are saying, this movie may not harm SEGA toooo much if it fails, but there are examples where the opposite has happened: Although it's a on much different scope - the effects of Final Fantasy: Spirits Within's reception and revenue really knocked Squaresoft for six. Sakaguchi left the company, they merged with Enix... Had that movie not come out and bombed, the company would be in a very different place now. Luckily this isn't on quite the same level in terms of budget and scope, but it does go to show that sometimes a bad game movie can rock the boat more than you'd expect.
This movie pitch is so stupid, so horrendous and so obviously conceived by fat old exces sitting around a table I just don't know where to start
In fairness, the budget for Spirits Within was a hell of a lot higher percentage-wise than I imagine this film is.
Oh definitely. Square put so much of their time and money into Spirits Within, they really sailed on that ship. For Sonic Team's sake, I really hope they're just staying out of the muck and treating it like any other western Sonic licenced product - in other words, occasionally saying "No, probably don't make that character do that" and calling it a day.
Hey, I liked FF Spirits Within, even bought it on DVD. I don't know if I would do the same should that film have come these days, though. it wasn't exactly a movie for everyone, so, even if it was so technologically advanced for its time, it wasn't that appealing, and it hadn't exactly a great script either. Now, back on topic, I'll just call this film "Sonic Evolution" and move forward. Many franchises have an "Evolution" movie these days, so why not Sonic?
Spirits Within is a cautionary tale worth mentioning given it almost sank both Final Fantasy and Squaresoft as a company - but as I recall it was unique and one-off in the sense that Squaresoft funded the entire thing themselves via their subsidiary Square Pictures so essentially risked the entire company on the film and lost big time. To our knowledge Paramount seem to be paying the budget here without much of Sega's involvement so Sega aren't risking anything outside of Sonic's momentary reputation once this releases and even then Sonic will likely recover once the hype machine for the next (hopefully awesome) game gets in to motion. That and Spirits Within was made with enormously expensive near-futuristic technology whilst this is a standard Hollywood affair right down to the story and script. I have fond memories of Spirits Within. Thought it was excellent (though not very Final Fantasy) but Sega ultimately aren't in the position Squaresoft was in here so we needn't worry.
At least Spirits Within was pushing boundaries using all cgi humans for the first time in a big budget movie. That was an achievement even though the movie flopped. I saw it twice and still have a soft spot for it regardless of it's problems because it felt like a genuine creation that had love put into it, where as this currently from what we've heard does not. Sonic Mania Adventures has it.
Like 360 said, if this movie flops it doesn't hurt Sega directly. Spirits Within hurt Square because Square produced it themselves, made a new studio under the assumption that it was a new direction for the company, put all their eggs in a wet paper basket, etc. etc. This isn't the same thing at all.
But it could have completely gone the the other way, and made them a massive studio akin to Pixar... Sega needs to take some risks imo, all great creative endeavours are usually the ones that push things. But that being said I don't know if Sega are even capable of taking big creative risks that will pay off due to their past history with Sonic.
Speaking of Sonic Mania Adventures, it would have been a great thing if the current film were punted for a Sonic Mania Adventures movie to lead into a Sonic Mania 2 in a year or two. But I'm no market-scientist..... :specialed:
Yeah, due to the reception of the shorts, you can guarantee a full length would do better than this. When this comes out, be ready for fans on the trailer to be screaming 'why couldn't it be like Mania Adventures!!'
They should play an exclusive Mania Adventures short before the movie, so that people can say it was worth the money even if they eventually feel the urge to walk out of the theater.
It's true, taking risks can often be worthwhile but I don't think Sonic is currently in a "bankrole a movie studio" state of risk-taking. I don't think many game brands are, tbh. I'm honestly interested in the direction the Mario movie will take to set precedent for something like this. Like, how faithful will it be to the source without rolling some celebrity voices and pop music into the mix and such. The sad truth is that often the stuff we really want to see when it comes to movies or TV shows isn't what sells. Family entertainment is such a quagmire of rules and a checklist of expectations. If Mario bucks the trend and sets a precedent for a faithful adaptation it could mean broader horizons for Sonic. But we're still a ways out from both of those movies right now.
I know I am a bit late on this... But I have to be honest, not a lot of kids know Sonic(probably thanks to Mario) and a Movie could really help(in case it goes well...). All kids ride the hype train to wherever it goes(Minecraft, Fortnite etc.) and if the Sonic Movie ends up being good, kids could have interest and that interest might end up with more sales of Sonic Mania Plus. Meaning a Sonic Mania 2(hopefully). If the Movie fails... well... Kids won't really like Sonic and will always have a bad taste of him. -Nexeno
I think the big problem with the movie industry right now is that it's going through a lot of changes and a lot of studios are trying to mimic Disney/Marvel without understanding what's actually making them successful. And at the moment Paramount is the biggest offender. Let's see what Kyle Davies from Paramount said when talking about the failure of Ghost in the Shell: Now, Ghost in the Shell had its own issues that we are not going to talk about. But he is right and wrong at the same time with that statement. It is true that if they did a movie like the Sonic OVA or straight up adapted Sonic Adventure it would probably not get a big box office result. Fans would definitely be happy, but it would most likely not hold the attention of the general audience. But make something like the Sonic OVA or Adventure, simplify it some and do add elements that make people enjoy CGI movies from Disney/Illumanition and now the movie has a better chance at succeeding. That's where our good friend Kyle and other people in the movie industry seem to stumble. They think that just by doing a movie on a franchise they already have the fans on their pockets. Buuuut, if fans don't click with it then the general audience picks up on that and both groups end up not supporting the product. The fans don't go see it because it's not faithful. And the general audience doesn't want to waste time on something fans don't even want and might not have anything good for them. We've seen this happened with past heroes and video games movies in the past. But that's where Marvel is succeeding. If you ever have a chance, go read a Guardians of the Galaxy comic that was released before the movie. The first thing you're going to notice is how different the movie is. The second thing you're going to notice is how faithful the movie is too. This is the same for every other Disney/Marvel character and arc that the movies have adapted. They do such a good job of taking what's on the pages and adapting it in a different way for the big screen. But they still stay true to the spirit of the comics and they end up creating the definitive version of the character and storyline. They end up pleasing fans but they also throw a bone to the general audience by adding movie cliches and making stuff more accessible. (Though they, along with other Disney movies, fail too sometimes.) I could definitely see the Mario movie doing a bit better since Nintendo seems to be taking the J.K. Rowling route (where she had a big say on what went on in the movies) so I can see it do Lorax/Peanuts numbers with average reviews. Who knows though, this could not turn out to be a good Sonic movie but it can still be a good movie. (At the end of the day nothing of this really matters because Detective Pikachu is obviously going to be the superior video game movie.)
