Sonic the Hedgehog Cinematic Universe Thread (& Knuckles)

That makes me happy how they care about people feedback tho', which is good for me.

 

Yeah, and it's specifically over something that doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things.

I only say that because "don't listen to the fans" is a bit of a double-edged sword for me. There was this sort of hipsterish response to Paramount changing Sonic's design about compromising artistic integrity to appease some loudmouths on the internet or whatever, but I don't think anyone who didn't just have an axe to grind on principle would argue the new design isn't a thousand times better than the old one.

Point is if there are some minor things you can address (and adding some names on a poster takes a lot less manpower than overhauling the design of your movie's main character after some of the animation has already been completed) without totally upending your vision or strategy, there's no reason not to.

 

People also love to act like responding to feedback in cases like this will mean they're going to respond to more, worse feedback, and... that's a huge leap.

 

As a Sonic fan I agree with you, as someone who saw the first movie and did not give a FUCK about the generic ass human characters I agree with u. That said I completely see why the studio would want a name like James Marsden on the poster to appeal to general audiences. I’m fine with this as long as the Sonic actors are also on the poster, which they now are

 

Absolutely baffled by the idea that people don't want to see actors playing significant parts credit on the poster. I've never heard a single complaint about the amount names on, say, MCU posters, and look at this thing:

Spoiler: Spoilered for size

I think the idea that adding the additional credits ruins the layout of the names to be incredibly pernickety and I'd much rather see the actors whose characters appear on the poster credited. Especially Colleen, for whom the work on this film could very well lead to other avenues being opened for her career. And on the point of listening to fans - this affects the movie itself in no way at all. Nobody's viewing experience should be changed by two more actors being credited on a poster that features their characters to begin with. This was also an extremely low impact change in terms of the project's resources. It's not like every single fan demand is going to met on a whim like this. The first film was delayed to accommodate a design change because the original was utterly reviled and, given the trend of live-action CGI interpretations of cartoon characters up to this point, was probably the product of some soulless suits anyway. It seems that this second film has largely been able to pursue the vision of the team rather than following a generic cookie cutter plot meant to get bums on seats to watch James Marsden talk to "Sonic the Hedgehog". I think it's somewhat patronising to suggest that a team that now seems to have the space to tell the story that they want to will fold to every individual piece of feedback.

 

There's a reason "slippery slope" is literally a fallacy, lol.

 

You know who's NOT listed on that Infinity War poster? Bradley Cooper (voice actor for Rocket). So even being a famous multiple-time best actor academy award nominee doesn't guarantee a spot on the poster for voice actors.

Interestingly, the other day I saw a mainstream media article on this whole Sonic movie poster debacle, and their reported take on it was slightly different. According to them, the problem with the original poster (and the reason for the fan complaints) wasn't that it only listed the higher profile people, but that it only listed MEN. So the poster was changed to include women as well and make it not sexist.

 

Lead actors should always be credited on posters regardless of their level of fame or how much space it takes up. People deserve credit for their work.

 

These are what the in-movie credits are for.

 

I guarantee you the people that work hardest on any big VFX movie will never get their name in print

 

That’s a very fair point that should’ve been obvious, but I’m ashamed to say it’s not something I was thinking of. Obviously I’ve made the point that the actors should be credited when their characters are on the poster, but in a film like this, the look of the character isn’t always the look of the actor, so how do we decide who to credit then? If the VFX team as a whole is credited, that’s a start, but then individuals among that team or freelancers brought in for this specific project don’t benefit much from this. At the same time, it obviously isn’t feasible to have the name of everything single person on the poster. I know end credits are obviously a thing but I certainly think it’d be fair for VFX artists to be credited on posters which use their work.

 

I think there continues to be some misunderstanding about what the purpose of a movie poster is. It's only purpose it to get butts into theater seats. That's it. Movie posters don't give anyone credits. As was said before, that's what the in-movie credits are for.

Sometimes an actor's agent may have contractually arranged for their name to appear on the poster, but in many cases, if a poster deigns to list someone's name, it's simply because the advertising executives who designed the poster figure that more people will be interested in seeing the movie because of the name on the poster. Sometimes this means listing the actors, particularly if they're famous and popular. Sometimes it means listing the director if they're famous and popular. Sometimes it just means saying something like "from the producer/writer of SomeOtherMovie" because no one knows or cares about the names of producers or writers, but SomeOtherMovie is famous and popular, so linking it to the movie on the poster will increase ticket sales. And sometimes (a lot of times, actually), no one at all gets named on the poster. Just the film's title and a release date. And ALL of those options are fine and none of them are disrespectful. It's just an advertisement for the film, not for the people who made it.

 

To the point that sometimes actors don't want to be credited on the poster, you all know about Robin Williams's Genie in Disney's Aladdin by now.

 

This

 

That's a bit why this whole situation has had me feeling bittersweet. Colleen deserves as much credit as Ben and Idris, regardless of fame level. She works just as hard and brings just as much to the table. But when the conversation starts being framed around crediting people for their work.. well that's not really the issue is it. Voice acting is acting, but the final on-screen performance is a shared credit. It takes a full team weeks to bring 5 seconds of recorded dialogue to life. And the people responsible for the visual element will never receive their due. They'll be replaced 10 times over before the voice actor will, because artists at large are treated as disposable. And you'll never know a single one of their names, much less see them on a poster. No one will ever rally for them, because no one will ever even know who they are.
I'm happy and excited for Colleen, and I think she should have been up there from the start, just like Ben should have been on the first posters. She deserves it because she's an incredible actress. It's an undeniable victory. But a poster is not about credit for hard work. If it was, a poster would be nothing but names. There are more that deserve it than you could even fit.

 

I'm not even going to post it in a spoiler tag for the curious but...

A new unannounced Jakks Pacific Sonic toy was discovered a few hours ago...

And it literally spoils the ending of the movie. No really, the ending of the movie is doing the rounds on twitter so... beware!

 

I have not seen it and I’m not going to look it up but I have 2 guesses...not gonna say what though.

I’m usually good at avoiding spoilers. I don’t use Twitter but I hope it doesn’t pop up everywhere.

 

Spoiler: So hyped to see this in the film

 

It's going to be a fucking torture to wait until April.

Time to live under a rock.

 

lmao "if you've been caught up with the trailers you're not gonna be spoiled by this" my ass.

Me being super duper smart, I for some reason dared to look and then tried to forget I saw it, only to then go and see someone in my Twitter timeline go "OH WHAT'S THIS? insert image here"