Sonic Live Action Movie Thread (Read OP for topic rules) "Trailer 2 on Page 482)

[Tarnish]

19 minutes ago, MadmanRB said:

But again I must ask why redesign sonic like this? why make it live action? why? why? why?

Because apparently we must ensure the popularity of Sonic at any cost? Even if that means destoying it?

[BlueSpeedster]

It's official... Paramount sucks at video game movies.

I can't wait to find out that there is an alternate dimension where the movie was still being made by SONY.

[Blue Blood]

50 minutes ago, PeterPancake said:

They weren't going to win no matter what they did. The design as seen in the licensing guide is not aesthetically displeasing at all. I've already showed it to several who don't really have a strong reaction to it either way. One of them thought he was cute.

The only thing off is the blue arms and shoes but this is more or less what Sonic was always going to look like. I was predicting this months ago, trying to prepare all of you. But I guess I failed because people are still acting surprised they went this route when the writing was on the wall for months 

Lol what the fuck are you even saying?

The only surprise that I'm seeing from anybody is that they're surprised that as bad as the design is, they were actually expecting it to be worse. Everyone expected Sonic to be a grotesque and  realistically featured bastardisation from at least the day that the teaser was revealed, or even from as far back as the film's original announcement. And you were trying to prepare people? For what? It's not your responsibility to "prepare" anyone for this. Defending every aspect of a controversial subject and not listening to the variety of criticism and concerns that people have isn't exactly a good way to prepare people either, but I digress...

As I said previously, this is exactly what everyone expected. I don't know why you seem to think you've earned a spot up on that high horse, to blame people for not liking this (frankly awful) look. It really doesn't matter if you've shown this to some people and they like it; everyone's going to have varying opinions. But it doesn't change the fact that, at large, reception to this design is overwhelmingly negative. When Sonic already has two beloved designs in fictional worlds and a third redesign from just a few years ago that continues to draw swathes of criticism... You think that they would have thought twice about using one of those before opting for the most drastic and generic redesign possible and plonking it into a live action realm.

This film has so far managed to hit every possible point on both the "bad live action adaptations" and "bad video game movies" checklists, and we've barely seen anything of it. It's not even come close to subverting expectations. This is the film that everyone expected and virtually nobody wanted.

[Osmium]

42 minutes ago, PeterPancake said:

And no, kids are not going to be scared of him. He is not some mutated monstrosity. I seriously don't understand the problem with the licensing guide. He was never going to have noodle arms and Hulk-sized hands and feet. 

So you know the opinion of all kids? There are children who shit their pants at guys in mascot suits coming at them, I don't think they'll react too well to this. Hell, I'm unnerved by it. 

[Scritch the Cat]

6 minutes ago, Demondeano18 said:

Was curious to see what this design actually looks like height wise, I'm guessing something like this?

tbh, he looks alot cuter when smaller lol

I doubt they'd give him the proportions of an adult human if their goal was for him to be short.

As it is, I agree with the above comments that say this thing's design makes it look weird when it is put into poses done by other Sonics.  A round torso provides a clean swivel point in poses more defined by limbs and the head; that human torso is obstructive.

Again, if realism is what they wanted here, something sure went wrong because the only real thing they chose to mirror is a human.  Something that looks like a human, though, has to move like one too or it's going to look wrong.  Note that we haven't even seen this thing in a ball yet, I think if they don't just ignore that part of Sonic, it will be by far the worst this model ever looks.

[SonicLegends]

Personally I think it's just passable and was expecting a LOT worse given what we saw of the silhouette such as not being able to see his eyes which appeared to look like beady eyes (an actual hedgehogs that is) that I was fearing. As mentioned on TailsChannel's recent video reaction on Sonic it does look like a compromise in design. Now that isn't to say it couldn't have used some improvement mainly looking at his iconic shoes as some people have fixed to make it so they still look like his but have the Nike icon and I was expecting them to mess up Sonic's smile in going with center mouth instead of side mouth so glad to see they didn't mess that up.

That said his "apparent" white gloves seem to be fur, but hearing that they will be actual gloves in the movie after listening to the TailsChannel video no clue. 

Also not too bothered by him having blue arms, I get it that they should have gone with the beige/tan arms instead just to go with how most people see him, but not annoyed by that given how other Sonic characters have the rest of their arms their same color aside from Vector and Charmy.

Lastly had they gone with the actual eye visor look I wouldn't trust them with it so the separate eyes is fine with me especially seeing as they're going with that real life live action look but that comes down to them never having to have done a live action movie in the first place.

Overall like I said I think it's passable, I'll take it over Skylander's Spyro and Adult/Abomination Mutant Ninja Turles to what I can think of what comes to mind at the moment.

 

 

[Marcello]

I imagine Sonic'll roughly go up to peoples' elbows.

[DabigRG]

So after sleepin on it, I think I have more of a proper take on this design:

• The white hands really do feel unnecessary. Even worse is that they've already been translating his shoes to be more in line with a brand like NIke(interestingly enough), so why not go whole hog and give him some greyish biker or work gloves to go along with it and his stated "youth with a lack of direction" portrayal?
• The white line between the eyes, on the other hand, is actually a neat middleground between his usual conjoined eyes and the more traditional separate ones. One that won't show too much outside of close ups, so while it is a meager attempt to maintain the illusion of one of the biggest hallmarks of his design for some, it also doesn't constantly stick out for it's own sake. It also seems to fade in with his muzzle anyway, so there's that too.
• Oh and finally, I guess I should say something about his nose. Now this is something I'd have to see the proper model in order to get a good feel for. But just going off of these working sketches, I'm in the middle: On one hand, it was probably the second most obvious change that could be made to make him resemble a real hedgehog a little more; on the other, it does seem like the silhouette is distinct enough from his usual jellybean nose to potential look off in the movie proper. So while I'm not totally against it, I'm gonna have to chalk it in as a likely negative once we see the final product.

So overall, I don't think it's a bad reimagining, but it does have it's hangups and irregardless, still sorta brings us back to square run regarding why.

[Osmium]

5 minutes ago, Marcello said:

I imagine Sonic'll roughly go up to peoples' elbows.

That somehow makes it even worse in my mind. 

[Alexios31]

Now I wonder if we will get an official "reveal" now that his character design has leaked?

[Meta77]

So what design do people want that dislike it. Sure gloves would be nice but honestly from what i gather is that they wanted this as a more realistic sonic set in a human world and not a cartoony sonic running around. If they wanted a fully cartoon sonic it honestly would have suit him better to be in a full cgi movie.

[Tracker_TD]

 

Translation of Naka’s thoughts. 

 

4 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

So what design do people want that dislike it. Sure gloves would be nice but honestly from what i gather is that they wanted this as a more realistic sonic set in a human world and not a cartoony sonic running around. If they wanted a fully cartoon sonic it honestly would have suit him better to be in a full cgi movie.

Just Sonic’s regular design but with fancy texturing would’ve been fine, seriously. This design is still cartoony, just freakishly so. 

Again, there is nothing unrealistic about gloves if he’s already wearing bloody trainers.

[pppp]

3 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

If they wanted a fully cartoon sonic it honestly would have suit him better to be in a full cgi movie.

Exactly that. That's what most of us wanted, an animated film entirely made by Marza.

I mean, the Mario movie is most likely gonna suck since its made by Illumination, but at least it'll look how a Mario movie should look like hopefully.

[DabigRG]

16 hours ago, DreamSaturn said:

This movie is coming out after a slew of Marvel movies that got the designs and how they could and should work down. Even if you consider that, after it went to Paramount, things were likely only finalized not THAT long ago, there's absolutely no reason for this movie to be so far beyond they struggle with the very basics of translating a character's design.

See, that's the hurdle I always come to whenever I think about this(which isn't often, mind, but still). 

While I won't pretend to know, much less have seen much of what the comics have done with him, Rocket seems like he may have always been recognizable as a raccoon with machine guns. Thus, the movie basically just took a regular raccoon, had it walk on two legs, dressed it in a jumpsuit and called it a day.

Sonic is different beast(heh) entirely, as his design was always meant to be more stylized, especially post-1998. From his huge ferns of anime-esque head spines, to the thin lanky arms and legs, his most enduring design has always been sleek and slim so as to be cool looking. Putting that in a live action or other more grounded format was always gotten be a struggle because he deviates so far from the inspiration that you'd either have to go with what's there while popping next to everything else, seriously reign in what's recognizable to be more true to life, or try to find some form of mildly content middleground.

16 hours ago, Gabz Girl said:

 Can’t imagine what Tails and the others would look like so I’m quite glad they don’t seem to be in this! =D 

Ah, I think Tails will be fine.

It's Knuckles and Amy one should be worried about--though which one should be moreso is up to the individual.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Man, I really feel bad for Naka in all this. You can tell that something he loves has been screwed up badly and even seems to be hoping it’s a fan design and that something better is coming. 

The fact he mentions it’s damaging to the IP is the worst IMO. It’s like saying “here’s something I put tons of work in being damaged now”.

[DabigRG]

16 hours ago, PeterPancake said:

He didn't dip his hands. That's likely the natural color of his hand fur. Wherever Sonic comes from, all of his people have it. 

 

That's like saying a black, brown and white Cat dipped himself in white to get that color. It's his natural coat that is the result of genetics 

Uh, considering Lego Dimensions, you might not be too off.

Of course, Archie(and possibly IDW, I haven't checked) completely blows that out the water.

[PeterPancake]

The modern design with "realistic" textures was never going to work. That design only works in a) a self referential parody of the genre like Roger Rabbit B ) A PG-rated kids movie about Sonic coming out of the games or C) an animated feature.

 

It does not work with the grounded, Sci-Fi approach they're taking with Sonic. It's not as simple as "Why didn't they use the game dezign". Think about what fits THEIR vision for the movie 

[SaturnWolf]

Just now, PeterPancake said:

It does not work with the grounded, Sci-Fi approach they're taking with Sonic. It's as simple as "Why didn't they use the game dezign". Think about what fits THEIR vision for the movie 

If this is what they wanted, maybe their vision sucks.

[SonicLegends]

2 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

See, that's the hurdle I always come to whenever I think about this(which isn't often, mind, but still). 

While I won't pretend to know, much less have seen much of what the comics have done with him, Rocket seems like he may have always been recognizable as a raccoon with machine guns. Thus, the movie basically just took a regular raccoon, had it walk on two legs, dressed it in a jumpsuit and called it a day.

Sonic is different beast(heh) entirely, as his design was always meant to be more stylized, especially post-1998. From his huge ferns of anime-esque head spines, to the thin lanky arms and legs, his most enduring design has always been sleek and slim so as to be cool looking. Putting that in a live action or other more grounded format was always gotten be a struggle because he deviates so far from the inspiration that you'd either have to go with what's there while popping next to everything else, seriously reign in what's recognizable to be more true to life, or try to find some form of mildly content middleground.

That's the thing I don't get with how people are comparing Sonic's look to Pikachu given the latter has a more simple design from the get go and even then the Pokemon live action movie has some grossly disturbing Pokemon looking at Jigglypuff (who they shouldn't have had in the movie anyway as it just doesn't work for her sadly whatever they went with for design), Aipom and Ludicolo. Then they do have some fantastic designs like Mewtwo they did amazingly. 

[Razule]

20 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

So what design do people want that dislike it. Sure gloves would be nice but honestly from what i gather is that they wanted this as a more realistic sonic set in a human world and not a cartoony sonic running around. If they wanted a fully cartoon sonic it honestly would have suit him better to be in a full cgi movie.

I really don't understand how random white hands could have seen as better than just giving him gloves.. people wear gloves.. they don't have to look like Mickey Mouse gloves, they could be fingerless or whatever, but why white hands?? Real life hedgehogs don't have feet that are a different color than the rest of their body.

[Jango]

It's amazing how not in touch the people making this movie even are with the franchise. When you type Sonic on Google Images, one of the 3 first results is the slender-ass Sonic 06 render... Which is the render they used as a basis. Like, no one thought about NOT using the pose and render proportions from arguibly the most infamous Sonic game to date? Seriously, you had one job. Why they didn't just went with the finger wagging then? At least that is iconic for GOOD REASONS. They just typed "Sonic" and rolled with it.

Well, I knew that the people behind this movie know shit about Sonic when they even got the ring sfx wrong on that animated poster.

What a disgrace this design is. The only good thing is that the leaked style guide hints at a brand segmentation, so hopefully, I can at least get my classic Sonic games, cartoons, etc. That is untill SEGA finds a way to ruin it too somehow... 

[Meta77]

21 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

 

Translation of Naka’s thoughts. 

 

Just Sonic’s regular design but with fancy texturing would’ve been fine, seriously. This design is still cartoony, just freakishly so. 

Again, there is nothing unrealistic about gloves if he’s already wearing bloody trainers.

yea but seeing sonic run around with blood red feet is a bit more unsettling for the trade off of white fur hands.

[DabigRG]

16 hours ago, PeterPancake said:

 

Some people wouldn't have been happy if they literally ripped the Unleashed model and put it onscreen. 

Well, considering they've been using the Unleashed model every since....

[Badnik Mechanic]

Hiya.

People who have spoken out against or said the movie Sonic design isn't very good

Yuji Naka - Co-Creator of Sonic. (multiple tweets)

Naoto Oshima - Co-Creator of Sonic (multiple tweets)

Shiro Maekawa - Sonic Adventure & Supervisor of Sonic X Scripts (Multiple tweets)

Gurihiru-san - Character designer & illustrator for Sonic Unleashed (tweet)

Nakamura_Shun - Producer at Sonic Team/Sega of Japan (Tweet)

Hirokazu Yasuhara - Sonic 1 level designer, also done work for Naughty Dog (tweet)

Jun'ichi Kanemaru - Sonic's voice actor in Japan, 1998 - Present day. (Tweet)

Kate Burning - Former Sega of America Community Team (tweet)

Former Sega Community Manager --- Based on the tweets they have been 'liking'

EB Games Australia - Major Video game Retailer for Australia (tweet)

Multiple videogame publications including GameXplain & Polygon 

 

People who have spoken out in favour of the design.

Ken Penders - Attention seeker (tweet)

3 fans. <--- I couldn't find anymore who didn't have some problem with it.

 

 

[Razule]

19 minutes ago, PeterPancake said:

The modern design with "realistic" textures was never going to work. That design only works in a) a self referential parody of the genre like Roger Rabbit B ) A PG-rated kids movie about Sonic coming out of the games or C) an animated feature.

 

It does not work with the grounded, Sci-Fi approach they're taking with Sonic. It's not as simple as "Why didn't they use the game dezign". Think about what fits THEIR vision for the movie 

The head still makes him look like he came out of a Disney movie, so not that grounded. Perhaps that head alone could work as a "realistic-ish" version if the body wasn't literally a human man's. But maybe Disney would have the common sense to not think a live action movie is the right vision for a movie with ambitions to make Sonic a "big name" again..

8 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

yea but seeing sonic run around with blood red feet is a bit more unsettling for the trade off of white fur hands.

Why does it have to be a trade-off though..

And if he randomly has Nike sneakers even though he comes from another world, then that's pretty unrealistic. Who knows, maybe we'll see barefeet Sonic running around for a while. Or maybe there's a Sonic world version of Nike who Sonic bought his shoes from. And then, why couldn't he, say, also buy some Nike gloves..?

Spoiler