Just an anecdote, I went down to the local shopping centre tonight. As I was going in, I heard a kid talking to his mum about the film (they'd just seen it). When I was queueing for McDs, there were another couple of kids talking to their mum again. They were all SO HYPED. The last time I remember overhearing just random people talking about Sonic was when X was still being broadcast, and they were nowhere near as excited as this.
It sucks for sure. In the same respect what little word has come out from sources like me or elsewhere has been immediately shot down because we're not "trustworthy sources" because we're invested in the project and that's fair. Even when ex-employees have come out and said the two events aren't related, people will choose to believe ex-employees that say they were. At some point there's no convincing people what they don't want to believe.
This movie just quashes all those fears/groans that "Sonic is dead". The fact people are this hyped about this movie and it's doing as well as it is at the box office shows this franchise is just as alive as it's always been.
Just how well this movie is doing gives me joy. I agree with others here who say the pacing is too fast, though. There's actually some very nice shots with striking imagery, but said shots are only on screen for two seconds or less. I think that if every shot under three seconds were made three seconds longer, the pacing would be improved a lot. Extending the backstory in Sonic's world a bit in addition would make it even better.
I saw the movie today and thought it was pretty good! The one thing that felt really off to me was the progression of Tom and Sonic's friendship. We don't really get to see HOW they become best buddies, they just do, and that hurt some of the more emotional moments of the movie for me. Also, some of the excuses to keep Tom involved when Sonic could very well have handled everything by himself were pretty lame, but without those I guess there'd be no movie, so there wasn't much that could have been done about that. One thing I found interesting about the kids coming out of the theater after seeing the movie was that some of them were super hyped trying to run as fast as Sonic, my daughter included. They really seem to have liked it.
Saw the movie on Sunday with my son. I went in with somewhat low expectations, but I was very impressed at how enjoyable it was! All the references were fun to spot, the plot was surprisingly heartwarming, and the ending credits and post-credits scenes made me smile. My son had a lot of fun as well. He really enjoyed the action and the jokes, and he was engaged almost the entire time, which is not easy for a 5 year old. My favorite comment from him was what he asked when Robotnik first appeared: "Is he going to become Eggman?" Haha, my son did that, too.
Here's something that I was wondering about one of the characters in the movie and a possible relationship to the game lore: Spoiler Is Longclaw based on an unused SegaSonic concept at all? I know there's Sophocles from the Western side of things, and Old Man Owl from the OVA. But I have this vague memory of Oshima or someone from Sonic Team talking about an owl character that was just scrapped. Though, I'm not sure if I'm imagining this or confusing it with something else. That is not even touching that Longclaw might not be based on any previous characters/concepts since it's a big trope to have owl characters as mentors, but I thought I should ask.
Spoiler Why does Sonic tell Tom "basically, it looks like I'm gonna have to save your planet" in the original trailer (the one with the sleep paralysis monster) if Earth is never at risk in the movie?
Spoiler It could just have been for dramatic effect or something. Teenage Sonic never appears in Green Hill Zone for example, and Baby Sonic doesn't ever wear the normal shoes
Blue-ray is out now (scroll down a bit). Do y'all think there's some bonus content we haven't seen yet? I'm an idiot, it says pre-order. Disregard.
The old design toppers are real, lol. Only two of them made it (at least here in Hungary), this one and the running one. The arms-crossed figure didn't make it. Does this mean that these are the only two official old design Sonic merchandise out there? Here are some better photos of both this and the other figure: https://twitter.com/TrunerReisar/status/1231621329021001729
If any of y'all follow Schafrillas Productions on YouTube (and I recommend it, his videos are great), he just posted a review of the movie. He liked it, didn't love it. Here it is:
I went to see the movie on the 14th and was pleasantly surprised about how good it was. I was very happy to see kids and adults there, the theater was actually pretty crowded. The only sad thing is that my venue didn't have any movie items like cups or popcorn buckets. I was honestly surprised my husband liked it too. He's not a fan, but he can appreciate my need for my Sonic fix. All in all a good film and would definitely watch again and again ...
Spoiler in an interview with the writers or whatever, it was mentioned that there was a lot of shit they wanted to do, but Paramount kept shooting them down because it'd be too expensive...maybe there's something regarding that left there? it would also explain the fast pace of the movie too.
Not what's being discussed about this here, but I wanted to mention that + - I'm glad this plot point was axed. Keeping the story focused on Sonic's plight specifically (and not even focusing on the damage Robotnik was doing in the final act of the film!) kept the stakes refreshingly low compared to the bar that's been set by The Disney Hyper-Conglomerate Movie Machine action films in the last half of the decade.
I am already hyped for a Sequel. Sonic was very cute with new redesign. It really deserved success. Spoiler When the tails came out at the end of the movie, an awww reaction came from everyone. It was a really nice moment.
