Sonic the Hedgehog Cinematic Universe Thread (& Knuckles)

For the third film's logo, the background elements emulating the SA2 logo weren't on the version initially released - all it had was the "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" text, making it look very similar to this one. So there's always the possibility that this one could be embellished further for the final version.

 

Here it is, for reference.

 

illumination's Kirby movie:

(from reddit)

ngl I'm at the point where I'm getting tired of movies based on popular IP's :/

 

Sorry if I'm missing a joke here but I don't really see the point of dunking on Illumination. Their movies aren't really good but visually they've always been great, including Mario. If anything I wish Paramount would just contract them to do Sonic too.

 

I was being serious, Illumination Kirby would probably be a huge cash cow.

Pink colored 4?

If you'd actually read what I wrote, I never asked you to change anything, just to explain why you did this. But now it's clear you're just a troll.

 

I'm mostly just messing, I think the Mario movie looks fine for the most part but there's something about the Toads in that film that just looks off and uncanny in a way I can't quite put my finger on.

 

Sonic 3 isn't a children's film because it isn't specifically aimed towards kids. It's a family movie. Kids are the targeted audience, sure, but the studio knows that plenty of adults will watch it too. That's why we get lines like "I can't believe there's a woman in the military" from Gerald. The movie is aiming for a more general audience. The only movie I'd say is a "children's movie" is Sonic 1.

Those are my two cents, anyway.

 

I think the discussion of "kids film"/"family film" is redundant, every kids film is a family film, especially nowadays where they're sprinkled with adult jokes or subplots to please parents bringing their kids in. The human characters in 1 and 2 are for pleasing people who don't necessarily care or can relate much with the cartoon animal cast. Jim Carrey's presence is clearly trying to appease nostalgic 30+ year-olds. All the references and care for the original source material are also trying to please Sonic fans of all ages.

What caught my attention on the discussion is the direct comparison to Sonic Adventure 2 and how by comparison, this movie is "for small kids". I think there needs to be an understanding here that kids media in Japan is much less censored and can delve into a lot of subjects and emotional temperatures that in the West, and especially in the US to my understanding, are seen as "too much" or inappropriate for kids. Sonic Adventure 2 was made for kids also. But in the US, something being "for kids" is almost exclusionary, like kids need to be talked down or be handled like porcelain, something to "grow out of". And I know that anyone reading this post is going to think of shonen anime and manga and how often they can be and are violent and gorey, but as I'm writing this post, I'm thinking about Kamen Rider specifically, and how it is popular not just with kids, but with a lot of adults, including a big female adult audience - it's not really a secret how they have "yaoibait" with every single KR protagonist to appease that public. KR will often handle very serious themes with a lot of dramatic panache. This is all to say that, things are just different and that stuff just doesn't quite fly with a general audience in the West - Sonic was often criticized in the 2000s as being "too anime" and having a "tone problem". But especially now watching a lot of Kamen Rider series, this is just a result of a big cultural difference with what stories and shapes of stories can be told "for kids".

Watching Kamen Rider actually made me finally understand Shadow as a character. He's Protoman. He's the hero who comes from a place of darkness and sadness instead of the nearly-too-naive bright optimism of Sonic/Megaman, but still a hero nonetheless. That's the entire premise of Kamen Rider, even when the shows became sillier and goofier and more "fun" in their tone over time. Hell, in Sonic X Shadow Generations,

Spoiler

Shadow straight up kills Black Doom with a Rider Kick. I'm very sure this was deliberate!

The 3rd movie is actually pretty good at maneuvering through these differences, I felt. They clearly wanted to carry that sadness to Shadow's character, and I felt that Maria's story still packed the punch that it wanted to, with the caveat of being extremely condensed and with every superfluous element removed, but it worked, it was a big surprise. Still, the first movie is a comedy and this movie wants to still carry the comedy angle and not just completely turn into an action superhero movie, and I felt it was very very good at being both. If anything, I felt that the movie was a little envelope-pushing by not downplaying the dramatic elements. You see it in mainstream reviews of the movie too - critics surprised with the sad elements of Shadow's character, with the themes of grief and loss, in what they thought was "just" "supposed" to be a silly comedy family movie.

 

I've been thinking about why this movie specifically made me so nostalgic outside of it being Sonic and I think it's exactly this understanding of the media of the origin country of this series.

Sonic is still Japanese and I grew up with anime, which indeed often has strange tone switches and handles some difficult topics in even kids' stuff.

I always think about Digimon and Pokemon in this context actually because they are very much "kids' series" (something like 6-12 as opposed to later 12-17) in Japanese context, as well: not even teen series, though some seasons lean into the "Shounen" audience more as time goes on, they still handle pretty dark topics (or even have more "adult elements" like dirty humour in them) a lot of western kids' (age 6-12) shows just do not.

And it's not like western cartoons don't ever handle dark topics, it just has its own different character to it, and we actually do see that here, too, with a couple of details like the softened actual gun designs or Maria's fate.

It's such an interesting east/west fusion.

 

I totally

I agree, I was just confused at the hideous "Illumination Kirby" joke design when by all accounts Illumination's licensed movies look great. I'd prefer Sonic get that treatment over what we're getting with these movies.

 

I think Paramount themselfies could be a good target to make a animated Sonic in the future... I mrsn, just look at Transformers: One and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

Even Sonic 2 had a small animated scene section that look fucking great:


But yeah, I don't want Illumnation involved with Sonic at all.

(Edit: The recent "Dog Man" animated movie from Paramount also looks great, from what I've seen.)

 

Don’t remember if I mentioned it here. I know I did on other boards.

Kirby could appear in the Mario movies the way DK does. Just have Dreamland exist somewhere outside of the Mushroom Kingdom. It could be accessed by a warp pipe or even Magical Flute...that’d be a cool nod to SMB 3. He could still have his own movie but eventually crossover with Mario.

 

I saw Sonic 3 last Friday. I thought it was okay. Would have enjoyed it more if the pacing allowed me to take a breath from time to time.

 

Eh, DK has been apart of Mario before Mario even had his name. Kirby will most likely be its own thing unless they try to get crazy with it and make an Avengers scale Nintendo movie

 

I forgot that Mutant Mayhem was a Paramount movie! I loved that one, seeing Sonic get treatment like that would be great.

 

The special formula illumination has is Despicable Me franchise, licenses and just pumping out good looking films at lower budgets compared to its competitors. I wouldn't say they hold some secret sauce. Transformers Uno was in-house, but Mutant was done by external studios, but both are excellent looking movies amd they're both also pretty low budget films. Paramount can do it, they just don't want to I guess.

Unpopular Opinion - Sony Pictures Animation is the best in the industry when it comes to visuals, that includes Disney and Pixar. Even way before Spider-Man, they were way more experimental and their character animation was unlike any of their competitors. Shame about the script a majority of the time.

 

A Mutant Mayhem adjacent Sonic movie would be fucking baller.

the movie didn’t do gangbusters at the box office, but Paramount are really riding with it apparently? They’re making a sequel, there’s a tie-in video game and I think there’s a TV show too?

 

Ya Mario and DK started together but I think Kirby fits perfectly in their universe. Kirby’s world is very similar to Mario’s. They’re both cute and cartoony.

 

The show was legit good.

I can't imagine that's not what they're planning or at least considering. They already have plans for multiple Nintendo movies. Avengers is the biggest crossover movie franchise ever and making an Avengers-esq Smash bros movie would be immensely popular.

 

Sonic 3's worldwide total is sitting at $446m. In terms of video game adaptions, it has now knocked off Warcraft from the #3 spot. It should beat out Detective Pikachu in #2 in a few days. It obviously has no shot against Mario. If we want to get picky, this would make Sonic 3 the #1 Live Acrion Video Game Adaption, where it beats Mario.