Indigo Rush

I want to attack this argument at it's root. You do not have to like or defend everything with Sonic it. I say this because I've been through that exact same mindset back in my teenage years. I was defending Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 2006 for corn's sake, and it had nothing to do with a genuine appreciation for the product itself, and had everything to do with an implied mandatory solidarity with Sonic in general. I've taken notice that the vast majority of people who defend Sonic's more ridiculous material are either children and teenagers who don't know any better, or adults who happened to get into the franchise at a time when similar ridiculous material was the way it was presented. This trend of blaming the community at large for Sonic's generally negative reputation as a game series is either a disingenuous or a naive perspective, and it wrongly invalidates the years of constructive criticism against Sonic's failings as a whole. Defenders are quick to attack IGN, for instance, (despite the site's founder having worked for them in a managerial position) for being biased against Sonic, not because they take issue with what was said, but because they put a number lower than 7 next to a picture of some box art with Sonic on it. It's a reactionary trend that does more to paint Sonic fans in general as overly sensitive and unreasonable children who don't care about the quality of a product, so long as their favorite character is represented in some shape or form. Enter the Sonic movie, where this horridly disfigured abomination of a furry's wet dream shows up, complete with uncanny human proportions and the soul of a corporate shill's merchandising factory, is being defended, not by studied film critics or seasoned and veteran fans of the series, but by kids and teens who take one look at the trailer, see a blue hedgehog running fast and rolling into a ball. They see Sonic in this twisted depiction of Hollywood's absolute worst pedigree, and feel the need to defend it. Because it's Sonic. Listen, if y'all really, truly cared about Sonic, you would ask for better than this; and seeing as not just Sonic fans, but the general public decried the film's main character for looking nothing like the character it's supposed to be representing it, I'm wondering how much thought you've actually put into this. If I can show a picture of Furry Movie Sonic to my older co-worker and they have to scrunch their brow and squint their eyes for a few seconds before saying "...is that Sonic?" then you done dog gone plum done screwed up, ya idiots. Demand better. If a bunch of rando's on the Internet had enough sense to ask for it, then why aren't you on the frontlines?

Not possible. Sonic's one true love is chili dogs.

I'm absolutely a sucker for casino levels. The best thing about them beyond the aesthetic is the opportunity to have a game within a game, what with slot machines, giant pinball courses, roulette tables, bingo, card matching, lottery balls, billiards and the like taking precedence. It works hand in hand with Sonic's inherent "spinball" mechanics so I always look forward to playing them.

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Christian Whitehead isn't an unfamiliar third party and had worked with Sega before.

I bet he'll be wearing red sneakers, too. 🙄 I'm looking forward to seeing this when it comes out; it's always interesting to hear people's different ideas on how to take Sonic into the third dimension!

Fixing Sonic's design won't necessarily make it a better movie, but it'll certainly make it less painful to look at.

BREAKING NEWS: They are officially delaying the film to February 14th 2020.

Oh, that's really, really rough. They look fairly on-model, but the animation isn't like the cartoon it's trying to emulate, the colors are a tad too bright and.. yikes, there's just no way they're going to be able to sell me on this. I resent the cliff-hanger at the end of Season 2, they had a satisfying ending right there. Now we see attempts to "finish" it crop up every so often, and it's always sub-par. I sympathize with those who loved SatAM, I really do; I gave it a second watch a month or so ago and enjoyed it, but it's best to leave it alone. I haven't seen anything (fan-made or otherwise) that can live up to the hype.

Using characters as a point of comparison to make a point doesn't make sense. A character and a film are not the same sort of thing. In comparing the television shows and a film though, I don't believe the movie will be any better, if anything it'll be significantly more harmful to the series' reputation. (it's also not an especially high bar) A film will have a much wider reach and more significant impact than some discontinued television shows. Being nostalgic over a bad product is not a good thing, and I don't believe that it's okay to normalize this idea. Saying "it's okay for it to be bad, kids will like it" is insulting to children, but also further devalues Sonic as an intellectual property. Honestly, the fact that you are willing to say what you did tells me you don't especially care about the bigger picture and only care about seeing a blue hedgehog on the big screen, regardless of it's quality, and I believe that this mentality is a detriment not only to the discussion, but to the Sonic brand overall. I care very deeply for Sonic as a brand, and straying so far from the iconic design and placing that onto a film that, thanks to confirmed leaks of major story beats and plot synopses is looking pretty dire, is not a sign for good things to come. It's not being handled with respect either to the holders of the Sonic brand or to whatever legacy it has left... in fact, right now, I'm coming off the heels of watching popular shows like The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight absolutely clowning on the awful design, and this is to an audience that's far, far larger than the Sonic fandom. Sonic has always been capable of so much more than what it's been. While it has the potential for making great gameplay experiences (and has!), one of its key appeals are the colorful and expressive character and the worlds they visit. To see it constantly side-lined with attempts to unironically establish Sonic as a part of the human world and to forgo it's fantastical origins is extremely disheartening if you've grown up with the series since the beginning: and the fact that the most recent Sonic games to be considered 'good', Sonic Mania, Generations and Colors, hearken to those fantastic alien-like environments and straight-to-the-point plot should be an indicator for what actually works for Sonic and what resonates with its audiences as well as the general public. The team behind the film ignored this reality and chose to do whatever the heck they thought would be popular at that given time, and it's not only going to date the film more than Sonic's original ad campaigns in the 90s, but it's going to result in a poor film that won't even be notoriously bad, just forgettable trash that isn't worth seeing more than once.

The next generation of children deserves better than this.

Not that there was any reason to doubt, but the trailer is indeed getting laughed at/groaned at in theaters: This entire thing is a disaster.

Eugh Yep, that's Iizuka-san subtly trying to distance himself from it.

No one. Likes. The design. This isn't a niche "only the most hardcore nerd cares about this detail" thing, it's universally hated.

It really isn't accurate. Paramount made a garbage design that nobody liked. They're only changing it after backlash, and this is only happening once.

I guess the bright side is that Sonic is still leaving an impact on consumable media. Granted, it's yet another cautionary tale, but it's leaving an impact.

Sonic was not created to be a realistic furry fantasy animal any more than Mickey Mouse was. He's a cartoon character, and that distinction ought to be respected.