Sonic the Hedgehog Cinematic Universe (now with open spoilers)

With that in mind, it makes me wonder if that eventually will give SEGA interest to make a 2D / animated movie, something similar to Sonic OVA, even if it's for streaming services only.

 

Honestly turning it into a big franchise is probably just what people got from the imagery with the set photos a while back. A streamer I watch looked at it and he was like "They're gonna turn this into a franchise like Transformers, aren't they?"

Anyways: Overall Promotion for the movie seems to be ramping up. Sonic and Tails were "present" in Nickelodeon's coverage of the NFL wildcard game. I'm waiting for the renders to start popping up.
https://twitter.com/SonicMovie/status/1482827500493295616 https://twitter.com/TailsChannel/status/1482850600035528706 https://twitter.com/onthedownlotho/status/1482860322558038024

 

Yeah to me that would probably be the worst-case scenario. It's easy to imagine a future where the Sonic movies become so successfully popular at the box office that they just keep spewing out more of these films.

Then fast forward ten years from now, the quality has dropped off, the audience has lost interest and we're all thinking "oh god, they're still making these films...?"

That's why I'm fine with the Sonic movies being a sweet but short-lived thing. It doesn't need to go on forever.

 

I can't see them making more than 2 or 3 movies. But I could imagine that Paramount may look into making a low-budget Sonic series for their streaming service. It seams like all of these companies making new streaming services are just throwing stuff against the walls to see what sticks.
(much like Sega)

 

I think a decent scenario would be if Sonic received one more live action film, which included/ended with Sonic returning to his own world, and then the movie series could continue as primarily full CGI, with subsequent releases every year or two. At that point, they could switch from a live action Jim Carey as Robotnik to a CGI render of him (or even further evolved into the iconic Robotnik design). This single cast change would probably save >$30,000,000 per film alone, and this money could be invested into the CGI (or not).

Robotnik would probably be an easier character to render in full 3D than most, while avoiding the uncanny valley. His mustache can obscure his face. His goggles can obscure his face. He's bald, so no hair to render, and his body is can be more or less human-like should he continue morphing...

I've never understood why unpopular relics like Tin Tin, and Speedracer received huge budgets, huge CGI productions, and yet a culturally relevant multi-media IP, with a 3 decade legacy, like Sonic, received less. Sonic really would be best in a format like Speedracer, with bright, flashy, surreal action. As opposed to Sonic traipsing around a small town in British Columbia, Canada, or Vancouver (Seattle). I mean, why does Sonic get the Garfield treatment, whereas dead franchises and entirely unproven IPs get full CGI, big budgets? I'm genuinely curious to know how this is determined?

 

I would honestly prefer they kept things short and sweet.

I think we can all agree that the longer a series goes on for, the higher chance of the quality dropping off significantly. Sonic's brand image is already shaky to begin with, I'd rather one of the few parts of it that's positive be remembered fondly.

 

I don't know anything about the Speedracer movie's production, but Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson were both fans of Tintin, and Spielberg had wanted to make a Tintin film since the early '80s when he was first introduced to it. When something is a personal passion project of two Hollywood superstar directors, as well as being a previously successful property in comics and animation, it doesn't take much wondering to figure why it was such a big budget production. The Sonic movie has never, to my knowledge, had anything behind it other than being a recognizable franchise the studio could make money off of with a movie license.

That said, despite the budget and story constraints, I'd say Sonic got out ahead for not being a semi-uncanny valley mo-cap nightmare.

 

Yep, the fact that the Wachowski sisters, Spielberg and Peter Jackson are all very well known and revered film makers probably played an important role in determining how big the budget would be for those films.

Jeff Fowler on the other hand is not very well known and Sonic Movie was his debut feature film I think.

 

I think they won't go past the third film, four if they get carried away, which is also a reason why I would throw everything in on that third movie. Being too optimistic, they could go as far as making five movies, but I think that 5th would flop or be mediocre no matter what they did. I don't know how much they could adapt from the games without trying the monster-of-the-week trend, anyways, and it's better if they don't cross that bridge (well, they can, but just once at most).

Something that I'd like to see is the other worlds of the map in the movie; I mean, the interesting ones, we've already seen the mushroom kingdom. That would probably force them to switch to a CGI format, however, so that's probably better suited for some animated show happening after the movie trilogy instead of another sequel. But Sonic Prime is already there to fill that role, so who knows how they will handle it.

 

Yeah, at most do a trilogy and call it good. If they really want to juice the franchise more, do a cartoon on Netflix or something set in the same universe.

Dreamworks has done that with quite a few of their film series, and it lets the theatrical movies still keep some level of prestige. Between the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, you still got eight seasons of Dragons stories (with lower-budget animation and soundalike voices), but that didn't stop the third movie from being a big deal upon release, or from those movies still being beloved today.

 

A Malaysian poster with a new render of Knuckles has surfaced.

Spoiler

 

Aw, man, they get to see it on my birthday...

...also, that is one cool pose.

 

Another Knuckles render, this time giving us a good look at his full body:

Spoiler

+ - HE'S WEARING TIMBS  

 

Why this is so much memable lol? But I really liked it tho.

 

New trailer, but it's in Twitter's wonky not-quite-portrait-mode orientation. Nothing major, it's pretty much just shots from the first trailer, though a few are slightly extended.

 

An unfinished version of the poster has been uncovered, showing they removed a certain someone at the last minute.

Spoiler

 

His pose is a bit awkward. Looks more like he's riding the bus and impatiently looking ahead for his stop.

 

Huh, I wonder if maybe Knuckles doesn't glide in this continuity?

 

It'd make sense. I feel like Knuckles' defining characteristic in most other media besides the games is his power, and while it's not nearly as versatile as Tails' flight, it might make Tails' power feel less special.

Really, the fact that he can glide at all is kind of silly, though I realize I'm saying this in the context of a video game where a blue hedgehog can run fast and a two-tailed fox can rotate his tails like a propeller to fly. But I think the "canon" explanation for Knuckles gliding is his dreads pick up air currents or something? Goofy.

 

Maybe he finds out that he can glide at the end of the movie?

So... In this continuity Knuckles isn't the last echidna, right? Or maybe he is - what if the tribe that hunted Sonic at the beginning vanished (times flies differently on earth and in Sonic World or sth...) and Knuckles somehow blames Sonic for that?

So many possibilities for echidnas lore in this movie...