Eddie Lebron's Fan Film, "Sonic"

Just to add that he may have something on his hands here. A lot of the backlash is that he's putting his own take on an established brand. That's great for getting as many eyes on the project, but also comes with the back-handed slap of added scrutiny of your work, especially if it deviates. However, a great director with a solid idea has the potential to make it big.

It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but look at how much Chronicle, a low budget shaky cam sci-fi film, became a box office hit. This is why I'd love to see the crew do something original rather than derivative.

 

But Chronicle had a $15 million budget.

 

cant believe Im doing this, but heres both.
http://vimeo.com/user7716432

 

$15 Million is pretty low by today's standards. Look how much it made back.

 

Chronicle is a good example (and an awesome film; watch it) but I think a better example would be something like The Blair Witch Project. Or Paranormal Activity. Zero budget. Millions at the box office. Those two films gave their creators entire careers and opened near-impossible doors. I'm with Gene in that I think Eddie's efforts might be better applied to generating something original. I feel he may have let his fandom get the better of him by focusing his studio's output on fan-derivative projects for the last several years. He needs to produce something original. Then his career could really take off. I see that Kuta actually posted in this thread. I hope you didn't mind me naming you in my previous post up there Kuta. How are things going for you? Have you seen "Sonic" yet?

 

I believe he said during the stream (wish it was recorded so I can look back to be 100% sure) that he would like to work on more original projects in the future, plus he would like to continue this, but if he got help from Sega/Sonic Team. Not going to say impossible, but it's unlikely, but you never know. If he can fix most of the criticized stuff, get more resources, and make this into a small series, I'd definitely give it a watch. As said, he has the potential.

 

Given Sega's financial situations lately, I very much doubt he'll get that, even if he convinces Danica Patrick to voice Princess Sally/Amy in an effort to get more endorsements, since that seems to be what Sega's banking on lately to get projects through the door.

I'd say just cut losses, "Live and Learn", and move on to a project which can have better dedication to something new.

 

It was better than expected.

And to Eddie's credit, it's probably as good as Hollywood would have done with a live action/CGI Sonic movie. It was delightful to hear Jaleel White again, and Robotnik wasn't too bad. I can see where they were going with the characterization, but it was flawed, partly due to the actor's ability, and partly due to the fact there wasn't anything to prompt good acting and character development. This was the same as going to the theater to see an extended preview of a movie about to come out where they show you about 10-15 minutes of a scene or two and getting everyone excited for the upcoming release. Except here, there's nothing. THIS IS IT.

But hats off to Eddie. He created a film in a competent manner, and obviously shows real skill as a film maker.

 

Watched it earlier.

Definitely flawed but I wasn't expecting an Oscar winner going into this.

For what it's worth, I liked the concept, it's just a shame it will probably never be expanded upon. The CGI was passable considering it was a low budget fan film so I can forgive the out of place CGI but I will say this; Sonic was too slow, he needed to have being faster.

Also in regards to the whole racism thing someone spoke of earlier;

Spoiler

It's not once implied that humans as whole exterminated the population of South Island. It was quite clear to me that Dr Robotnik and only Dr Robotnik was behind the attack of the Island. I'm not really sure where people got the first idea from.

That aside, I enjoyed it for what it's worth, nothing special but not a train wreck either. Eddie did a good job if you ask me.

 

1. Audio Pops and Glitches
2. Pacing
3. Voices don't sound like their coming from where the characters are on screen
4. E-Robots don't sound like robots
5. Shit keeps running through, landing on, or driving through the dirt-floor of a forest - and no dirt or sand get's kicked up into the air with the impacts
6. 2 YEARS TO MAKE - 18MIN TO SHOW FOR IT
7. Toy guns SOUND like Toy guns
8. The Acting
9. Low-Bit spin-dash SFX in a hyper-real setting
10. Interrogated GUN Soldier is on Inversion Table with PADDING
11. "ROBOT-IH-KUH-ZATION"
12. Sonic's Face
13. "SEE SOMETHIN' YA LIKE?"
14. People saying "Blue Blur" and being dead serious
15. Over-use of the first-person "speeding through the forest" shots
16. Sonic's legs aren't moving the same speed he's running So he looks like he's running in place, while sliding around the environment
17. Sometimes jumping sounds, othertimes completely silent - even if he's RIGHT in front of the camera
18. The entire film feels like an excuse to get Jael White to voice a semi-real 3D Sonic stradling things like Motobugs & rockets & Buzzbombers
19. AUDIBLE Background Hiss while a tall GUN soldier is talking that cuts in and out with is recorded dialouge ...oh, and Robotnik as well
20. Green Hill Zone is just some random forest - but then later is a shitty CGI render
21. Knuckles has FINGERS!? - Sounds like a dumbass

What's worse was hearing Eddie on SonicR TV using "I didn't have time during the 2 years of production" as an excuse for why his 18min video sucks.

The one redeaming feature of this "video" was it's soundtrack, by HYBRID TWO
http://hybridtwo.bandcamp.com/album/sonic-ost

 

Again, why Knuckles in the ending? Wouldn't it make more sense to have Tails in his place admiring Sonic? Why.... Why does it feel like I've worked on this before.



I swear, it's this without the appropriate context.

 

Wow, this sure brings back memories.

 

This film is bad. If you like it, you should feel bad.

lolkuta

Fucking... SPEC. SPEC. Like it's going to be pitched and picked up.

Fucking... SPEC. Why? Why why why.

Somebody take the rum and coke away from me.

 

I brought up the racism thing, and I got it from the scene where...

Spoiler

After Sonic helps those GUN soldiers out, one of them is talking about how they don't know if they can trust Sonic because he's a "South Islander", and it seemed to be said in a negative way. That line just screamed "LOL TEH BIGOTRY" to me.

Perhaps racism wasn't the best word. I mean, hedgehogs are a species, not a race... or are they? O_O

Oh yeah, did anyone else LOL when Robotnik said "robotica-zation"? That's another goof I just remembered.

 

Telling you, basic plot that's too poorly laid is just "Burn all the furries."

I don't even understand the point of GHZ at the end other than, "Look! Game thing! Mick Foley cheap pop! "

 

Seems like the movie was supposed to be setting up for Sonic 1, which kind of makes sense. As for Knuckles, I don't remember exactly what he said (other than wanting to show Sonic wasn't the only "Islander" or whatever he was called), but he did compare Sonic and Knuckles to Mega Man and Proto Man and thought it would fit the scene better.

 

Bang bang!

I enjoyed it for what it was. I think it helped that I didn't go back and watch it until AFTER I'd read your reactions, and thus had lowered expectations.

It was way past cool to hear Jaleel White again, I wasn't nearly as put off by the low-quality CGI, and the cameos were pretty awesome. I can tell a lot of heart and effort was put into this, and it was an enjoyable, if all-too-short ride.

 

"You have no idea what we're in for."

Basically he was trying to make Knuckles a prophetic character who in turn would "betray" Sonic to test him if Eddie was to approach a film based on Sonic 3. I think. The movie lacks exposition.

 

Thing is, Knuckles is nothing like Protoman at all. I don't even see how the parallels are drawn other than they're both red. Is it the whole "red man is bad guy versus blue man" thing? Because Mega Man had that setup for a purpose. Protoman was always testing Mega Man to see if he had the heart to endure all the warfare.

Knuckles was straight up booked as a gullible idiot from the get-go.

 

Everything I was going to say has all ready been said. Knuckles has fingers and jagged hand spikes, Sonic's face animation which is creepier than the Adventure 1 face animations, the lack of plot, the fact that this fanfilm is trying to merge game lore with comic lore, the fact that the Motobugs don't even make the grass move when they speed on by, the way they somehow make Green Hill look less interesting and out of place than it all ready does, the fact that the Gamma robots sound more like the 4Kids voice rather than the game voice, the random yet KINDA fitting cameos that came out of nowhere...

Heck, the SECOND I saw the runtime and the "(SPEC)" part, I was like "Are you serious? This can't be right... This can't be all of it." But it was.

What a huge, major, amazing let down. 19 minutes I'll never get back, and for the first time in my nearly 30 years of life, I actually wish I could have done something different with my time. Today was starting out good. I saw a few really good internet videos and clips today. It actually made me positive about seeing the Sonic fanfilm. If it was half as decent as the Megaman film or better, then I might actually like it! But then, I get this... And this is suppose to be a pitch to Sega for a theatrical film? Really? You wasted our time, got us all hyped, for that?!

Excuse me while I find some meds to calm my sour stomach.