Emerald Chaos

On center mouth vs side mouth. I think it works best if the mouth can be wherever it's needed tbh. I think if it's stuck either in the center OR at the side, it ends up looking unnatural. Whereas if it can move around the muzzle freely then it can be positioned for optimally emphasizing expressions

Sonic's normal design in absolutely no way precludes a story that takes itself seriously.

You can hardly compare CGI-ing a fairly minor character to fit into an already existing cinematic universe (and honestly, the changes to Rocket were pretty minimal) To a massive redesign of an iconic character who has been around for decades as one of the foremost symbols of an entire form of entertainment. PeterPancake was implying that Sonic looking like Mickey Mouse somehow limits his appeal to a wider audience. When he does that, I think he's forgetting that Mickey Mouse is the most famous and beloved cartoon character of all time. You know what Disney have never done? Made a live-action Mickey Mouse movie with a realistic design for him. I wonder why

I genuinely didn't expect it to be this bad. I thought they would at least have the most basic grasp of the appeal of Sonic's design if nothing else. It looking weird in live action isn't a good excuse when things like Space Jam and such exist. People can deal with things looking a little disjointed, changing an iconic design this much is an awful idea.

"That wouldn't translate well to a live action movie" Here's a thought then. DON'T MAKE IT A LIVE ACTION MOVIE I'm so over this.

I do kind of wish they would explain more of what Blaze's world is like. In Rush Adventure we got the whole island/old time ship thing, but the impression I always got was that that was just a small part of the world and not what the entire thing was like. Blaze is supposedly a princess. A princess of what exactly? The entire planet? A particular land? Her house? What kind of life did she live prior to Rush that lead to her being the recluse loner that she was in that game? It's such an undercooked concept but it sounds like it should be really important to understanding how the character functions. It's implied in S3&K that Sonic has some sort of destined connection to the Chaos Emeralds. Perhaps Blaze is his counterpart from another world where the knowledge of her connection to the Sol Emeralds is better preserved and disseminated and that's had an impact on how the people of her planet view her and on how she's grown. It's expecting too much from Sega to ever revisit these old ideas and expand on them. They're just going to continue to bounce from one half baked idea to the next and it's a bit frustrating.

Mighty and Ray don't "need" to be everywhere. But there's no point in arbitrarily sectioning them off and saying they can NEVER be in certain games or the comics. There's also no point in adding in new characters willy-nilly if already existing characters can fill their roles just fine. The currently existing characters can be used in plenty of new and creative ways.

OP mentioned Angel Island and Little Planet as examples of settings that have a cohesive theme. But I disagree that they do. Stages like Ice Cap Zone and Sandopolis are as far apart as you can get in terms of theme, after all. So I'm less sure if it's varied level themes that are actually the problem you have here. Maybe it's more about the games having a more unified style? I would like to see more revisiting of established locations in the universe in a way that makes sense based on what's been shown before. Real world building as opposed to Sonic Forces "80% of the world is Green Hill Zone", jeez. SEGA seem intent on treating Sonic's world the same way Nintendo treat Mario's. As something malleable that can be molded to whatever they want the content of the new game to be. However on a case by case basis, the locations in the series have more relevance to the story and Sonic is a more story driven series. So when they then treat it as though the places have no real permanence they undermine the player's investment. It was really frustrating to see the Lost hex introduced as YET ANOTHER mysterious flying landmass in the sky when you already have Angel Island and Little Planet. Just how many of them ARE there in the sky of Sonic's world? It just feels lazy to me. Done with no respect of what came before it.

At this point I feel like a Sonic game literally only featuring Sonic and Eggman would be a waste of the potential of the other characters. I'm fine with Sonic being the only playable character, but there's virtually nothing you can do with just Sonic and Eggman that couldn't also be done in a game that features the other characters in some way

Wasn't someone doing a similar project to this for Triple Trouble? I got the two confused for a moment. I think the Triple Trouble one is less Mania style and is more attempting to capture the feel of the original game though

Throw me in the side that doesn't like the way Wisps are implemented in Sonic's gameplay. I prefer Sonic's core gameplay to be as gimmick free as possible and what the Wisps do is changing his form for a shallow one use power up, especially when a lot of what they do are abilities that Sonic should have the ability to do on his own, things that already have some kind of representation in the series or would make for more interesting gameplay if played out normally. I would rather use Sonic's abilities to scale heights, or at least a spring, than use a rocket power up for instance. For a series that has such potential in its unique forms of movement it's a shame to see that potential squandered on power ups that feel generic, like they could be found anywhere else. I also am not a huge fan of how disconnected they feel from Sonic's world being literal aliens. They have no history to add to the series, in comparison to the Chao whose backstory in SA1 shows they've been around for a long time and implies a connection to the chaos emeralds. Wisps are just kinda aliens who are here now. They do little for the mystique and intrigue of the world, which I suppose is very indicative of Sonic Team's current approach to the series. They aren't distinct enough to be characters, they don't feel personal enough to be pets. I do agree that recent showings, like the Wispons show some potential in fun and creative usage of Wisps, it builds on a more literal interpretation of the Wisp's concept as a power source, which is the most interesting thing about them, rather than using them as a cheap power up gimmick, so if you ask me, keep them away from Sonic's gameplay and do more stuff like that with them and I'll be fine with them.

Surely they'd have some say in who voices Sonic. It's their franchise, at the end of the day

It's odd for them to change their priorities for something like this, however. Lately they seem to have been stressing consistency/recognisability of the brand. Changing his voice actor for the movie seems to run counter to that. And if they plan to replace Roger with the new actor in the games, then surely they realize that introducing a new Sonic voice through this spin off movie is a pretty risky move. Or maybe they don't. It's SEGA after all.