"Ghost Tale" a short film by MARZA Animation Planet

IDW certainly seem to think so - I've seen pictures showing that they gave them a cameo appearance in a recent issue, though from what I understand they had to seek permission from MARZA to be able to include them.

Technically it's "Wolfman", but the colouring and the way it's designed is clearly a nod to the Werehog, as it's only when it's actually in focus you can tell that it isn't. It seems to be part of a gallery of spooky-themed monster posters, also including "Doracula" [sic] and Frankenstein's Monster. Interestingly, just below the posters is what seems to be a framed picture of Uh, Su and Lah when they were alive, though it's a little small and unfocused to be able to make out too much detail.

Cute little short - I've loved all the illustrations the MARZA staff have done of these characters over the years, so it's great to see them brought to life in animation once more after all this time. The little baby ghosts are pretty cute! Some recent illustrations also showed a cat ghost that sadly doesn't appear in this short - I'd love to see it feature in an animation someday, so hopefully they'll do more shorts with these characters again in future. = )

 

That poster was also in the original Night of the Werehog short early on as foreshadowing. It seems unchanged entirely, aside from not being in a really fancy frame, and it even still says "VE ANIMATION STUDIO" at the bottom, but there was a second one and also a Mummy one that don't seem to have made it in.

I think if you compare frames directly some might say that the Werehog short looks better but in motion I think it's definitely an improvement.

 

What a lovely little short, and a beautiful one at that. I always wonder what happened with Marza given that their Sonic animations just plummeted in quality follow Unleashed and Colours, now I'm convinced SEGA just isn't giving them enough time and/or money. Truly a shame.

 

Sega owns Marza anyway so I don't think it really matters.

 

SEGA owns Marza and yet Sonic's CGI animations have only continued to degrade? The hell????

Like look at the intros to Unleashed and Colours, even 06 (ignoring the humans) and Generations to a lesser extent - those animations were on par with Pixar, the titans of the industry. Everything since has become stiffer and more plastic-looking. Frontiers and Superstars are a bit better about it, but the way techniques like squash and stretch and smearing are used still pales in comparison to what was being produced for these games over a decade ago. That Unleashed intro is the last time I was genuinely excited by CGI in a Sonic game.

 

Finally something Sonic-related worthy of my YouTube history.

 

Marza strikes again with another amazing animation. Always glad to see them doing stuff outside of game cutscenes, but it does make me miss a time where their CG was used for more than marketing in sonic.

 

I just realized - I know, she's a ghost but - I find interesting Marza technically made the best Sonic "human" (ish) design in the series lol. Well, at least her design ia most interest than most humans in Adventure, 2006, Secret Rings, Unleashed and Black Knight.

Besides Eggman, Maria and maybe Merlina have a memorable human design too, tho'.

 

So I don't want to pin this completely on what I'm about to say, and neither do I want to undermine the work of anyone but...

Despite popular belief, Marza hasn't actually been completely in charge of CG for Sonic games in a while. They've mostly been produced by Shirogumi with Marza handling supervision. It's a bit hard to tell who actually did what, but the clearest example of this is when you compare Frontiers' teaser and the rest of the trailers.

Due to metadata, we know this teaser was done by Marza themselves:


In contrast, we know all other CG in trailers were done, at the very least, in joint with Shirogumi due to their description of work on their website:


With a keen eye, you can tell the animation feels different between both.
Of course, the decrease in scope for subsequent games could also still be a contributing factor.

 

They might still be allowed to show up in Sonic media (Archie had plans for them before the book was dropped), but my guess is Marza wants to make a feature film with these characters. Or otherwise franchise them in some capacity separate from Sonic.

 

So a Yoshi's Island to the Super Mario Bros. series type of deal?

 

Nah, much more separate than that. I think there's a reason Sonic/Werehog never actually cameos in this. I don't think it was a case of "they weren't allowed to" but rather they chose not to do it.

 

I know it's a stupid nitpick but I hate when in animation male characters are allowed to look cartoony and have weird proportions and characteristics but female characters is just a sexy/cute girl with some minor attribute like cat ears or whatnot. This simply looks jarring

 

It's because of feature films like Harlock and Lupin III were given more attention. But that was a while ago too. Not sure if the work on the Sonic movies is that demanding.

 

Oh yeah, Lupin III movie was made by them. I haven't watched it yet, but it looks very good.

 

Maybe more like what Banjo-Kazooie is to Donkey Kong.