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If Sonic were RE-rebooted

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by Mercury, Jun 28, 2009.

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  1. Mercury

    Mercury

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    I've liked Sonic for as long as I can remember. As a gullible child, I was exposed to every form he took - games, comics, cartoons, merchandise. I had no reason to find any of them suspect, and took them all at face value. The confusing omission of Knuckles from the cartoons, and the Freedom Fighters from the games, was a mere curiousity which I overlooked. This heady cocktail of conflicting continuities has left its scar on me - though I went through a purist phase a few years back, today I realise that the damage dealt by Scratch, Grounder, and Snively will never leave me. Glaring as their stupidity may be, I am blind to it, like a parent to the faults of a favourite child. Thus I am currently toiling away on my own continuity, a perhaps quixotic quest to unite the elements I still find pleasing from each universe, along with some of my own invention. This is my personal hydra.

    But I realise, also, that there are plenty who would gladly see Sonic stripped of these burdensome elements that have accumulated like so many cobwebs with the passing of time. A pure Sonic is something I myself could never provide, due to my fortuitous upbringing, but certainly, if a minor miracle were to happen, Sega could.

    This back-to-the-roots Sonic could take the form of a game, but I imagine it could also succeed as a movie, like the fashionable "reboots" that clog our theatres. I will describe it briefly.

    It would contain nothing but the purest elements from the original 4 Japanese Mega Drive games. In the interest of parsimony, all 4 games would be combined into one story.

    Sonic 1 centres around South Island, an island that floats on the sea, and Sonic 2 around Westside Island. Sonic 3, of course, introduces Angel Island, the floating continent. The name, and the image of a land among the clouds, is more powerful. I suggest Angel Island should win out, and be the location.

    Sonic and Tails would have already met, to avoid drawing things out. A Hero and his Sidekick. They would have the Tornado, of course, and arrive on Angel Island. The Knuckles storyline, and the Death Egg, would follow. There would only be one set of Chaos Emeralds, and perhaps a Master Emerald, but it isn't necessary. Dr Robotnik would steal them to power his Death Egg, and the Island would be in danger. The climax would be restoring the Emeralds before the Island crashed.

    It would be a simple Atlantis story, much like the original Sonic story. A mysterious island, with a mysterious power. This power is sought by the villain to conquer the world, but the heroes thwart the plan, and save the day. Throw in Knuckles as the connection to the ancient race of the island.

    All of classic Sonic could be reduced to this simple tale, and it would be replete with Indiana Jones style imagery. Ancient Ruins, Deep Jungles, etc. Sonic as a one-shot, self-contained thing, that need go no further than the one tale.

    This would be perfect as a Studio Ghibli, Disney collaboration. Think Porco Rosso, or Castle in the Sky. Though I am sadly now too far gone to be wholy satisfied by such a minimal approach to Sonic, I can't say I wouldn't buy a ticket.

    Sorry for the wall of text. So, if Sonic were a single tale, like Aladdin or Cinderella, what would you like to see in it?
     
  2. BlazeHedgehog

    BlazeHedgehog

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    Disney? No.

    Despite John Lasseter's best efforts to get Disney "back on track" and doing great things, certain Magic Kingdom orifices are still spewing fecal matter at an alarming rate.

    Sonic 2006 was supposed to be sort of a reboot for Sonic originally, even if it didn't end up that way. Sonic Unleashed also feels like sort of a reboot, as it very consciously does many things very, very differently than most other 3D Sonic games to come before it.

    But we don't need a Sonic the Hedgehog movie. Despite people at Sonic Team being obsessed with giving Sonic a "deep" storyline, Sonic does not exactly have a rich history or a fascinating narrative, or, really, anything about it that's unique at all in terms of plot.

    Most everything that is immediately memorable about Sonic the Hedgehog comes from a visual design standpoint; the abstract stylized environments, Sonic's rate of speed, the bright colors, character designs and elements of their animation, etc.

    And I wouldn't say the comic books really count, either, as they are pretty much treated as a separate entity.
     
  3. British Gaijin

    British Gaijin

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    Didn't Laputa/Angel Island steal from the other?

    I'd dig a proper Sonic movie. Anime or CGI, only. No CGI+Reality shit like Looney Toons. But the movie would have to pretty much encompass the characters emotions and personalities from Sonic Adventure - Sonic needs his attitude, Tails needs his silly clingy-ness, and Knuckles needs his damn attitude. But most importantly, Eggman would need to be a credible villain.
     
  4. Vrantheo

    Vrantheo

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    The cutscenes of SRZG come in my head. BTW I don't approve much of even more Sonic X.
     
  5. Blanche Hodapp

    Blanche Hodapp

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    Remember what happened the last time Disney got their hands on Sonic?
     
  6. 0r4ng3

    0r4ng3

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    No, what happened?

    I knew the comics or cartoons were spinoffs. They managed to contradict one another and the games. It didn't look the same either, there were no styled environments full of colours and bizarre things, Sonic looked off-model, the horde of new characters that was never on the games, Tails being brown, Eggman looking nothing like his game counterpart. I took it (and I take them) as they are, appendices of the franchise that managed to pad it and expand it, but not as important as the games.

    I'm not a standard purist. I enjoyed AOSTH, Sonic X and Sonic the Comic but I know how and when to differentiate things, something some parts of the fanbase don't seem very capable of doing.

    I don't see a retelling of the classics in the format you wrote as being a reboot. And meeting Tails could take no more than 5 minutes from this series.
     
  7. Blanche Hodapp

    Blanche Hodapp

    *urp* Eternal Queen
  8. Disney's raping their own franchises, you want them to go sloppy-seconds on Sonic after Sega?
     
  9. DimensionWarped

    DimensionWarped

    Erinaceous! Oldbie
    I just saw Porco last night actually. Holy shit it was more than I expected... and I was expecting a lot.
     
  10. 0r4ng3

    0r4ng3

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    I didn't know that had a hand from Disney.
    Nope.
     
  11. Insert Coin(s)

    Insert Coin(s)

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  12. Neowl

    Neowl

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    The notion of a reboot, as Mercury put it, would go down a treat, if handles by a well respected Anime company, none of the Sonic X shit. The animation should be a little cleaner than the OVA, have a little introduction of Sonic and Tails, as a kind of flash back to establish a back-story would be a great start. the soundtrack should have nods to the games too, especially if it would serve as a version of Sonic 3, Hidden Palace's music is breathtaking and would translate well as an orchestral piece IMO.

    In reality though, this kind of thing would NEVER happen, we can pray to our various entities, but no.
     
  13. Sparks

    Sparks

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    I always viewed Sonic having cartoons like Felix the Cat or something.


    and Disney is doing some amazing work recently (Pixar with UP, Animation studios with Princess and the Frog, etc.)

    It's jut the lower budget shows, cartoons, etc. and reality shows that suck
     
  14. Overlord

    Overlord

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    Why does everyone see the solution to EVERYTHING being a fucking reboot?

    What the Sonic franchise needs is not a reboot, but a decently controlling game. Unleashed went part of the way.
     
  15. Ross-Irving

    Ross-Irving

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    A movie? Hahaha, no way. The last thing Sonic needs after bad game reviews is bad reviews from film critics. And for Disney, of all companies, to handle it? Disney's sensibilities do not fit with the tone of the Sonic series, or what it once was, anyhow. I have to be honest, the suggestions from a few are terrible already. If anything, quite a few people know who Sonic is or have heard of it, but I don't think they need a back story on how it all began. They're usually boring and with Sonic's attitude, would become irritating. The story shouldn't deal with any pretentious junk either, like environmental awareness or anything philosophical. It needs to be something that involves action, almost immediately, as when people first played Sonic games.

    The other thing is characterization. In cartoons and animated movies, teenagers are made to be complete stereotypes/archetypes who are usually rebellious or angsty. Most of the Sonic characters are teenagers, so the biggest hurdle of the movie (if it ever got made, which it won't) would be to get the audience to relate to silly four foot high animals by indirectly characterizing them with traits from teenagers that are good, or traits that are most prevalent in that age group. Teenagers can be spontaneous, wildly inventive, argumentative (in a good way that promotes thinking), they want alternatives.

    Sonic shouldn't be seen as the stereotypical teenager with "attitude". He should be seen as a guy who can be provocative, a showman, someone who really wants to test his own limits by doing things that can be seen as stupid or dangerous. He's quick to speak without thinking everything through, so he might be apologetic to correct those mistakes. That doesn't mean he would say "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," a lot. He also has some pride, a feeling of self-entitlement. He would usually trust himself over his friends because he may favor learning by experience. This probably sounds like a typical description of a teenage boy though, so I'm not saying much.

    I will not talk your ears off with fantasies of what the rest should be like, unless you're interested. One last thing I would like to add is that no one should worry about where the movie would fit in with the continuity, or making sense of several Sonic games and their plots into one movie. Who says an isolated story from one person's creative interpretation would be less enjoyable? I think this obsession with sticking to the games or the way Japan did it is silly. The point is to have the movie make sense, not the whole series, if it is to be a success.

    Edit- Just because I don't want Disney to do it doesn't meant I want an anime studio to develop it, either. Anime is not kind to cartooniness or characters like Sonic and company, because they often turn out stiff, and that also means no specific facial expressions or gestures for each character. The characters would come across even more dead than if Disney ever got their hands on it.
     
  16. DimensionWarped

    DimensionWarped

    Erinaceous! Oldbie
    And some of us disagree.

    People want a reboot because there is a desire for some kind of consistency and in the current line we have, what little consistency there does happen to be is riddled with massive plot holes, enormous stylistic gaps, and poorly defined personalities. A reboot could allow them to start building a consistent setting and expand it into something meaningful.
     
  17. Sparks

    Sparks

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    IMO I don't see why people are dissing Disney so badly with animated movie ideas. Aren't they even to today known for making some of the highest quality animated films around?


    I still say put the Sonic CD design Sonic in a series of 7 minute long cartoons Tex Avery style or something. :v:
     
  18. DimensionWarped

    DimensionWarped

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    Can you name a Disney movie that has come out in the past 5 years that isn't by Pixar or just licensed from Ghibli or something along those lines that seemed up to the quality of stuff coming out of them in the 90s and back?

    I think thats the point thats being brought to attention here.
     
  19. Ross-Irving

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    Depends on what you mean by "quality", Sparks? Do you mean quality as in "Wow, it took eighty drawings for his head to turn to the left, it was so fluid"? It bugs the heck out of me when people say that quality is tied to how much money is shoved into a film. Wall-E cost $180,000,000, but I didn't really think the film had "quality". It seemed kind of pretentious to me. But I'm getting off topic. The point is that fluidity of animation or spectacle or millions upon millions of dollars does not equal quality.
     
  20. Overlord

    Overlord

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    Except the real problem with Sonic in recent years has had nothing to do with storylines, it's been entirely down to gameplay. Take the romance plot out of Sonic 06 and the story issues are non-existant. The music is great, the textures nice. What's the problem? Oh, yeah - it controls like ass.

    I've said it before, I will say it again - reboot, not needed. Good game - needed.
     
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