Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) movie

Oh yes, definitely watch the trailer first. And probably smoke a big joint too... There is fun to be had if you approach the movie with the right pretext.

 

Now that I think about it...
What if those Hollywood guys do these great movies on purpose to kill their franchises and brainwash people into believing their original stories are the only best thing on Earth?

It'd be a terrible thing, if it were true. But oh how much one could laugh at their futile attempts xD

 

Yeah thinking about it a bit more - this is actually very true. As a child I loved the Super Mario Bros movie, but a few months back I watched it again for the first time in about 20 years and it does not hold up to those fond childhood memories. It is very terrible and I think the "so bad it's good" cult classic status and angle is a little overstated or clouded by nostalgia. It's not a good film and veers very closely in to just "bad" territory. So perhaps it's not the best comparison. That said the Sonic movie might be just "good" if the Twitter buzz was anything to go by. Twitter tends to vastly exaggerate everything particularly with games and films but the very few people who have claimed to have seen an early cut of the Sonic movie did say and claimed to have also heard the movie is just outright good - meaning a complete Super Marios Bros trainwreck seems to not be happening.

I can't tell if this self-aware comedic approach is genius or just inept Paramount executives - but either way we'll see soon enough with what will be a glorious trailer.

 

Or just watch the Nostalgia Critic video of the SMB movie.

So now can we get back on track with this Sonic film that will "ba-bomb" at the box office when it's released?

 

Wow that makes two of us.

 

Sonic 4 was something hotly anticipated by lot of people in the fandom for ~15 years before it came out and was a massive disappointment. "A live action Sonic the Hedgehog film", in comparison, I doubt was anticipated by hardly anybody, for hardly as long, and just about every terrible thing we've seem and heard from it should have been expected from the base concept.

 

I honestly don't think it's going to bomb. I did think that before to a certain extent because the story details and premise was just so contrived and sourced from eighties nostalgia - but given what we know now I think it'll do reasonably well. At least make back its budget. Family films like this don't usually bomb hence Paramount's confidence and inclination to make this in the first place. They're not going to sink 90 million in to a film destined to assuredly incur steep financial losses. A guy who saw the footage at Cinema Con says the film has a "Michael Bay" look to it so a good comparison might be Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That film had god-awful character designs also but it was also a well-calculated decent enough action romp that fared extremely well (at least for the first film - as Yeow said a while back the sequel did much worse). But the point I'm making is that Sonic has similar brand recognition to the Turtles and also similar high-end production values by the sounds of it - meaning Sonic will probably do as well as that film if not better because this is a casual friendly family focused ET style throwback targeted at kids (or at least that seems to be Paramount's intention). The self-aware comedic aspect could actually work really well and it does seem to only be the hardcore Sonic fans like us that don't like everything about this (character design notwithstanding as obviously that's universally loathed) whilst the general cinema audience that this is targeted at will probably willingly go and see this.

I mean I could be completely wrong here - all films are a gamble - but whilst this Sonic film might not break records I think it competently making back its budget based on similar films like it succeeding, Sonic's nostalgic pull, kids being up for seeing it and dragging their parents along - there's more chance it'll do okay than there is it being an automatic box office bomb. Jim Carrey will also help a lot.

All of this is highly dependent on whether the film is actually any good - reviews are a huge factor - but so far the early buzz is that the film is good even if it's not the film we wanted. I think it'll do okay.

 

Ah, interestingly enough, the bomb that immediately came to mind was the Ratchet & Clank movie, another ill-advised video game film no one wanted and evidently no one saw - as it had one of the worst opening numbers for a wide release ever. Come to think of it, most of the movies that I can recall setting records for worst releases (Oogieloves, Delgo) are family films...

Sonic has way more brand recognition though, for better or worse, and is also supported by a big company like Paramount, so the odds of it doing that badly are slim. Would be interesting if didn't make everything back though - or if it actually does way better overseas than it does here in the States.

 

Very good points - but I think I should have been more specific. I meant family films of this specific type, as in live action and CGI hybrids like Alvin and the Smurfs and so on. Family films of that specific type tend to do well hence Paramount going with this angle for Sonic to begin with (and even doubling down on it somewhat with the ET inspiration for maximum retro nostalgia) - they genuinely believe it'll prosper at the box office. I mean 90 million is one hell of a budget and they're a huge studio that wouldn't take such a risk if it wasn't calculated.

Still don't see Sonic lighting the charts on fire but do believe it'll make back its budget and do okay. Maybe better than okay but we'll see.

 

Paramount's Wonder Park was a flop, like majorly.

But I do wonder how much recognition Sonic has compare to R&C. R&C has had much more recent well-regarded games, but it's console exclusive and so limited in exposure. Sonic hasn't been exclusive in over 20 years (and even then there were PC ports), but it... divides opinion. He's also been around for nearly twice as long, so even if it started as exclusive it has had plenty of time to disseminate into the cultural consciousness.

Also, R&C never felt like it had Gabbo-esque hype like early Sonic did -- not a primetime cartoon on broadcast TV, not a Macy's Thanksgiving day parade balloon, no theme park prominence(?), etc. Sonic is so much more heavily marketed.

 

Good post with great points - but Wonder Park was not a known property and was entirely CGI animation, as was Ratchet and Clank - and animation always struggles if it's not Pixar or Dreamworks. Even Sony's Spider Verse didn't do that well despite being stunningly amazing and one of the best films released that year. Also Ratchet and Clank (as you say) is quite the low-end property that was never really all that popular and never (again as you say) reached the heights Sonic did. Sonic at one point took over the world where as Ratchet never really came remotely close to that.

As I've said every film is a profound risk. Films can bomb or succeed and there's no crystal ball. But the point I was making was that films of this exact specific type and audience focus (live action and CGI, family orientated, eighties/nineties nostalgia, previously huge media properties) - the vast majority of them if not all have done well at the box office. Sonic is still somewhat popular. Films like this have a good track record. Then there's Jim Carrey who quite poetically has the same nostalgic pull Sonic has. And the (albeit very limited and unconfirmed) buzz is that the film is actually good.

And reviews and critical reception is a massive factor with movies. I mean we don't know - and won't know until the results come in. But I think this'll do okay. Hell if it's good it could even do well.

 

I've seen this point of debate about Sonic's relevancy / recognition in today's age cropping up quite a bit in the forums I'm visit (the most recent one I've seen actually compared Sonic's relevancy to that of Crash in light of his resurgence, it's a topic over at ERA). Your comment about Sonic's franchising material is the common answer given to support Sonic as still being relevant.

That of which is true. Sonic has been more entrenched in popular culture due to his franchising, there's no denying that. Sonic was always positioned to be a rival to Mario, not just in games but as a mascot in general. In terms of brand exposure Crash and Ratchet don't have anything on him.

However I've almost never seen anyone counter about whether that widespread brand recognition is actually a good thing for the series as of this point in time. (Or in other words--the general public who recognize Sonic, are they the same audience still buying his games, let alone other products? What does the general public even recognize Sonic for nowadays?)

As a multimedia series, Sonic can said to still be big, but nobody ever actually talks about how big it is compared to how big Sonic was during the 2000s or when the series was in its prime in the 1990s. People almost never want to admit the mistakes have been made, or talk about how recent games have sold or how the Boom initiative as a whole did. There's enough evidence to support that for Sonic, there is actually such a thing as bad publicity but this is overwhelmingly ignored. Everyone still seems to be in that 2000s mindset where Sonic games could actually sell millions no matter how bad the games are, despite that obviously not being true for most of the 2010s.

The Sonic/Crash comparison thread in particular had some incredible gems; with people dogging out Crash without actually comparing how Sonic held up in comparison.

"Come back and talk when Activision releases a Crash game that isn't a remake"...you mean "not-remake" like Mania, Forces, and TSR? (Seriously not being mean here, but it's so obvious that a significant bulk of all three of these games are built of reused material from past entries, even in light of the changes they made have received to make them fresh.)

"Crash as a game series was never as big as Sonic, even at his peak"....you mean the era of the 3D videogame leap? Nintendo had Mario 64, Sony had Crash's trilogy of games as a rebuttal, and they held their own. Where was Sega and Sonic during that point? (And how much did the eventual 3D game, Sonic Adventure, review or sell compared to any of the Crash games?)

"Crash is only recognized / liked for his first three games"...how is that not the same for Sonic's Genesis games as a whole? You might have some people that aren't even casual Sonic fans talk about the Adventure series, but beyond that...?

"Well, Sonic has an upcoming movie, so he's clearly got a legup on Crash in relevancy when it comes to that." lol, talking about Sonic getting a videogame movie as if that's actually a good thing, especially with everything we know about it up until now.

It's almost as if the "Crash was never good" people (which was pretty vocal at that forum prior to N-Sane's release) was overruling would had otherwise been the "Sonic was never good" narrative that would had taken hold of the discussion. People talk as if Sonic has always trounced Crash without question. Yet Crash N-Sane has over ten million units sold worldwide, it has alone has outsold nearly every individual Sonic game since the original 1991 game (not counting the M&S crossover titles). Heck, that can even be said for the original trilogy of Crash games.

 

Excellent post as always Beltway (I miss your old name Yeow!). I was surprised too at that thread, everyone auto-favouring Sonic over Crash - but it was nice to see Sonic still has some degree of power and status. Honestly expected everyone to say Crash because (as you noted) the N.Sane trilogy sold that 10 million which vastly eclipses almost everything Sonic has ever done since his heydey in the nineties.

I think it's just a case of most people on Era being in their thirties (and also American) which means they grew up while Sonic was absolutely massive. And thus to some extent, still view him that way.

 

If we're gonna drag Crash into this, Nsane Trilogy is still charting in the UK.

http://ukie.org.uk/news/2019/04/tom-clancys-division-2-retakes-no1-spot-week-14

 

I could also see it as people lashing out against "Sonic was never good." When people get shit on long enough, sooner or later they'll get fed up and fight back.

 

I'm not sure I'm being strawmanned here or what.

Crash is a whole 'nother kettle of fish to R&C, really; for one, like Sonic, he ceased to be console exclusive for several years, which is not a small point. Moreover, he's been adjunct to the stupefyingly successful Skylanders IP, both games and animated series. He's therefore relevant to both millennials who grew up with the PS1 originals and whatever the designations people born after 1996 are called.

I would not suggest Crash does not have marquee appeal.

Also, Hotel Transylvania has three movies with one more in the pipeline. I don't buy for a second people in general know or care what banner any all-CGI movie falls under, so long as it's Pixar-like. Spider-verse was indeed a triumph of cinematic art, but it's not conventional, and it's not compromising in what it demands from the audience.

 

Don't worry, my expectations are rock bottom which will make this all the more enjoyable

On Topic: The breast feed joke is kinda cool. I wonder how Jim Carrey's voice will sound like as early Eggman? Will it be like Ace Ventura, or maybe a mix of his popular work?

Will Roger Craig Smith voice Sonic in this? Many questions for the trailer.

 

Ben Schwartz is Sonic's VA for the movie.
http://youtu.be/T7oMq699RR8

 

lol sorry if my post came off like that, that wasn't my intent. Your point was just a broader topic I've seen cropping up a fair bit here and elsewhere and I just wanted to talk. The Sonic/Crash bit especially was just me looking for a soundboard to get something off my chest, that discussion was honestly driving me a bit nuts.

Just excuse it as me going off on a tangent.

 

It was noted in a response to the trailer, that Jim Carrey's voice was "normal", no accent or anything. Jim Carrey also said that playing the role of a mad genius is a lot of fun, in a manner which implied, from experience. We also know that Robotnik is to evolve over the movie, descending into madness. I'm therefore expecting something very similar to the Riddler, from Batman Forever.

If you watch a reel of highlights from that role, on youtube, it seems very reminiscent of Robotnik.