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

[Red Hot Jack]

12 minutes ago, Jango said:

Kiiiiiinda late to the party, son =\ Sorry. I at least hope we get a Mania sequel afterwards to clear the sour taste from our mouths...

And I have the IDW comics as my Sonic Oasis.

[Rowl]

40 minutes ago, Jango said:

Kiiiiiinda late to the party, son =\ Sorry. I at least hope we get a Mania sequel afterwards to clear the sour taste from our mouths...

Hopefully with only brand new zones. No rehashes anymore. I'm so sick and tired of this nostalgia pandering. 

[StaticMania]

Dude, they haven't even brought back Ice Cap and Carnival Night zone yet..c'mon.

[Alexios31]

Do you guys think we will get a trailer next week during the panel?

[Tarnish]

26 minutes ago, Rowl said:

Hopefully with only brand new zones. No rehashes anymore. I'm so sick and tired of this nostalgia pandering. 

Not to keep the focus on the games topic, but I'll just say: It's kind of hard to do that when most themes for stages/zones have already been done. At this point, there's not that much new they could do with themes if you ask me. Plus, as a closing thought: to me it seems Mario has been doing the same themes for stages as well (Odyssey I guess brought something new in that regard), yet I don't hear people complaining about Mario doing it all that much.

They might not call it Green Hill, but if you see another stage with green grass and brown colored tiles, you'll no doubt think "Oh, just another rehash of Green Hill..".

[Gabz Girl]

1 hour ago, Jango said:

Kiiiiiinda late to the party, son =\ Sorry. I at least hope we get a Mania sequel afterwards to clear the sour taste from our mouths...

Yeah, here’s to hoping they announce a Sonic Mania sequel (in development!) at the panel next week though I’m keeping my expectations in check. We will definitely see the movie trailer there, though I wish they could reveal it early since everyone knows what “realistic” Sonic looks like now!

[StaticMania]

Quote

...yet I don't hear people complaining about Mario doing it all that much.

People have been.

It just only applies to the NSMB series (which is in stasis), so it doesn't matter.

[SaturnWolf]

I'd be more shocked if we didn't see at least SOMETHING at SXSW. First trailer? Doubt it. But maybe an updated version of the first poster now that we know what Sonic looks like. More than we did back in November, anyway.

[Roger_van_der_weide]

1 hour ago, StaticMania said:

Dude, they haven't even brought back Ice Cap and Carnival Night zone yet..c'mon.

Lego DImensions got you covered there buddy.
Even had these sweet remixes...Err, interpretations of the songs and everything.

Topic back to the movie! Err.. I got nothing to say about the movie. Waiting for the trailer this weekend, I guess. Or the anouncement to an anouncement for when we get a teaser trailer. Whatever.

[CaptainRobo]

I know I talk about this guy before. This guy seem to defend the movie a lot. He like to make fun of the fandom a lot. Here is one of the recent tweets that he post about the movie. What do you think?

So, I hear a lot of bad things about this guy. What happened about this guy?

[Tracker_TD]

14 minutes ago, CaptainRobo said:

I know I talk about this guy before. This guy seem to defend the movie a lot. He like to make fun of the fandom a lot. Here is one of the recent tweets that he post about the movie. What do you think?

So, I hear a lot of bad things about this guy. What happened about this guy?

The long and short of it is he’s a kid who’s overly focused on Sonic being dark and realistic (and is a huge Ken Penders fan), who once rang up SEGA’s Customer Support (for tech support) to pitch his 30 minute long review of the IDW comics at them as a reason for Ian Flynn to be fired. In addition he’s gone after prominent folks in the Sonic fan base for... trying to have fun whilst they’re suffering from depression.

He’s just not a nice person and I recommend his takes fall on deaf ears because I’m tired of his sorry ass showing up in this thread as some kind of notable voice. I don’t like “callout” stuff but this kid doesn’t deserve the time of day.

[PeterPancake]

He's not wrong. I was around when Sonic Boom designs were revealed. And I was actually defending the silhouette design from angry fans who hated what they saw 

[SaturnWolf]

Different doesn't mean good. Especially with this series where "different" usually means "going to be fucked beyond all repair."

[Sonic Fan J]

10 hours ago, PeterPancake said:

It's just overwhelming and discouraging. I just want this movie to make Sonic as popular as he was in the 90s. That's all I want - for Sonic to stand toe to toe with other franchises. And there is hardly anybody to share my excitement. Not Reddit, not YT, not here, not anywhere. I just want this movie to prove everybody wrong and be great.

The problem that I think that exists here is when you say Sonic you typically imply anything that shares the same superficial details and is named as such where as most people you talk with immediately think of the games, cartoons, or comics which all typically still resemble the original design if they don't outright use it. So what ends up happening is that it looks like you are happy with anything named Sonic as long as it makes the brand popular again. The counterpoint to that of course is whether or not the brand can be called popular if what is popular is anything but the brand. I mean if you made a successful battle royal game and called it Sonic Shoot'em Up it would be a successful game with the Sonic name on it but it sure would not be Sonic. A bit of a hyperbolic example but that is how a lot of people are looking at the movie as superficial similarities are not enough for them. By superficial comparisons the USA and Canada are pretty much the same country since they are both rough democracies on the North American continent that happen to have English speakers as the primary population but they couldn't be more different. For most people Sonic has to be Sonic as they know him or it just doesn't matter. Now conversely, if people didn't find the design unappealing and the movie was the greatest piece of fiction ever then it might play out differently, but with what has been presented Sonic fans who just want a good Sonic "as they know him" product there is nothing to be positive about with the movie.

All of that said though, most fans share your passion. They want to see good Sonic products that are universally recognized as good without stigmas like IGN claiming Sonic was never good. That does not necessarily mean they want him to be as popular as he was in 90s since that only serves to fulfill a shallow sense of validation that it's okay to like Sonic which you shouldn't need to feel validated that you like something. Now of course popularity has its benefits such as larger budgets and more care put into the product to keep it profitable, but as long as the franchise makes a profit games will still be made and even on a lower budget there is still a chance for things to turn out well such as with Mania that could slowly build a good reputation and increase popularity. Conversely, if the movie becomes a billion dollar branch of the franchise then I feel that the brand as we know it would be ice boxed to focus on the biggest money making aspect of the franchise and fan forums like this would dry up in a hurry because that is not the form that hey want to follow the franchise in.

It's the bane of projects like this in that they are stuck between a rock and a hard place with existing fans as they fear something untruthful to what they love becoming popular and replacing it. It was no different with BOOM!, but where that was a $20m project for pretty much the entire brand the movie by itself in nearly 5 times that before marketing and merchandise and it is even more drastically different than BOOM! in certain respects. Most notably, people who love the original design do not want to see what they consider an ugly design replacing it or just being affiliated with the brand. To them it hurts the brand which increases its chances of going belly up. It's one of the reasons projects like this which have the intention of increasing brand awareness and not just trying to cash in on the logo need to be more truthful to source material since if they are too different it starts to make the project look bad at its job regardless of its quality. Then having people who say they love the brand, are familiar with it, and have even worked on it making these decisions and defending them when they have openly disregarded all but the most superficial of details makes them look either faithless or incompetent which is also not good for the health of the brand. Its not about what needs to be done to sell the product or make it popular, its about accurate representation which this movie needed if its goal was increasing brand awareness. Realism is not accurate representation. Tom in small town Montana is not accurate representation. Non-fantastical Earth is not accurate representation. Sonic running from the actual US government and not a fantastical parody of it is not accurate representation. Taking Sonic out of his world to interact with humans in a daily life setting is not accurate representation (there's a reason those aspects of X are considered the most boring). That lack of accurate representation (regardless of how inconsistent the franchise is outside of Sonic's appearance and Eggman making robots and being the antagonist is) is what turns fans against this movie because what they want to see isn't anywhere to be seen.

I would say in the end you want to share your enthusiasm with the wrong group of people. You're excited because it's Sonic on the big screen and want to share that energy with other Sonic fans but to a lot of them what they see is not Sonic beyond the most superficial of details and as a result they are very jaded and not receptive of your enthusiasm. There's a reason 'purist' is a word affiliated with Sonic fans and your acceptance of the movie makes you look like a sell out who will accept anything even fecal matter as long as Sonic's name is on it. It's unfair to you and everyone else who likes what they have seen. Conversely, it's why I've pushed you so hard as I love your enthusiasm and as someone who loves Sonic and wants to give this movie a chance as a result of that your positivity and genuine hopes and joys for this movie is something I would like to rub off on me. Unfortunately it hasn't and I think the reason for that is simply that nothing the movie is aiming to do is why I come to Sonic and love the franchise in the first place even though for the most part I actually understand why they've made all of the decisions that they have for this movie. But probably the biggest offender to Sonic fans and why a lot of us can't share your enthusiasm is being told again and again that this movie isn't for us anyway. When you stop and look at it like that and then see it appear extremely unfaithful it's little wonder that people attack it and are negative about it. After all, why should fans support something that isn't for them?

Still, your positivity and desire to share that excitement you have shouldn't be drowned out and I'd recommend find what small circles of movie fans there are and engaging with them. Be that tracking them down on other sites or starting a thread here to talk solely about the excitement that the movie brings to you and the hope it gives your for the brand (I don't know If that type of thread would be allowed at this point but it is a thought). Me personally, I'm very bitter and cynical about this movie, more so about the plot than anything (Indiana Jones or Brendan Fraser Mummy movie setup over buddy cop road trip any day of the week for me would have been a better Sonic movie) but even then I hope you can find joy in this movie that you are so excited for and people to share that joy with. Sorry most of us here aren't the people for that, but I really do hope you can find people to share your enthusiasm with.

7 hours ago, Splash the Otter said:

I don't believe you. Sonic needs to be popular again, otherwise he's just a failure!

Sonic will only be a failure once SEGA can't make any more money off of him. While his popularity can affect the amount of money he makes SEGA he is still popular enough to not be a failure.

[JosepHenry]

I was defending the Boom designs back then too. I still really like it.

This however is just a total betrayal of Sonic's design in all of his versions. This is different and bad.

[Nicky Nicardo]

For me personally, Sonic becoming super popular again isn't a big priority. As long as I can enjoy the movie, I'm good. Better than good. And so far, based solely on the plot information that's been revealed and what I've seen of Sonic's design, I see nothing that would stop me from enjoying it. I can't say for sure that I'll enjoy it, but I also can't say that I'll hate it either. As of right now, I'm looking forward to more and more OFFICIAL reveals and information so I can get a better idea of what's actually gonna happen.

[CaptainRobo]

11 hours ago, PeterPancake said:

It's just overwhelming and discouraging. I just want this movie to make Sonic as popular as he was in the 90s. That's all I want - for Sonic to stand toe to toe with other franchises. And there is hardly anybody to share my excitement. Not Reddit, not YT, not here, not anywhere. I just want this movie to prove everybody wrong and be great. 

I wish for that to happen. I still have some faith on the movie. Maybe the design will grow on me soon. I think I'm slowly to get used to this kind of design now. I'm still looking forward to this movie. I think it will still be a fun decent movie to watch.

[Tarnish]

1 hour ago, Nicky Nicardo said:

For me personally, Sonic becoming super popular again isn't a big priority.

To put it simply: I get no enjoyment from something being popular. I get enjoyment from something being good. If it's popular AND good, that's cool, but I'm still only getting enjoyment from the 'being good' part.

I honestly don't see what's the big desire for 'Sonic to be popular again', other than so you can say 'Look at me, the thing I like is SOOO popular! A lot more popular than the thing you like!'.

[Splash the Otter]

10 minutes ago, Tarnish said:

I honestly don't see what's the big desire for 'Sonic to be popular again', other than so you can say 'Look at me, the thing I like is SOOO popular! A lot more popular than the thing you like!'.

I don't know, I guess it's kind of disheartening when something you like used to be a cultural icon but isn't anymore.

[Tarnish]

4 minutes ago, Splash the Otter said:

I don't know, I guess it's kind of disheartening when something you like used to be a cultural icon but isn't anymore.

I for one couldn't give less of a crap if Sonic is still a cultural icon or not as long as his stuff is good.

Also, what exactly do you want? You're saying he's not popular anymore, yet he still gets games, ton of merch, comics, cartoons, now a movie..is that really not 'popular' enough?

[Splash the Otter]

6 minutes ago, Tarnish said:

Also, what exactly do you want?

I just want the series to be respected by more people, that's all...

[Shaddy Zaphod]

And that will happen as a result of it being good, not popular.

[Indigo Rush]

Sonic as a pop culture icon was a case of bottled lightning: it's never going to be able to rekindle that initial spark in the early 90s. The difference between Sonic and, say, Pokemon, is that Pokemon was not only meticulously calculated to be a success in all forms of media, but had a strong formula and a consistency that would ensure its evergreen likability and they capitalized on it quick. 

Sonic had that sort of potential, but lacked the consistency across different forms of media and regions. The games were different from the cartoons were different from the other cartoons were different from the OTHER cartoons were different from the comics were different from the other comics were different from the novels and so on and so on... and this was all within it's first 5 years of operation. 

Additionally, and most crucially, the quality of the games and lore were inconsistent at best. Then Sonic lost a little of its identity when SEGA stopped being a hardware manufacturer. Take heart that Sonic as a brand and icon is very much permanent, but while it's possible to raise the quality of every facet of the series, it can't garner that universal appeal it once had; Sonic's bad reputation precedes itself... and this is not considering that the novelty of Sonic can't be made fresh again to pop culture anyway, Pokemania is never going to happen again, either. The best we can hope for is for the series' products to improve in quality... 

...and so far in the past 3 years, we have one great nostalgic sidescroller and mini cartoon series... but also one mediocre action game, a not-so promising racer coming up, a bunch of free to play mobile games... and now a live action film that has yet to win over the hearts of the fans of the character. It's just not happening right now.

If there's anything I've learned following this series, especially during the Sonic 4 and Sonic Boom chapters, is to just kick back, crack open your favorite drink and enjoy the madness. Enjoy Sonic in whatever form you've always enjoyed it in. Else, be driven to create your own, or collaborate with others. That's how Mania happened. 

[Myst]

Nothing much, just the same picture from before, BUT...

 

I put the link into Google Translate and this is what I got..

"A moving image of Sonic the Hedgehog has just been filtered in "Sonic, The Movie". According to sources, this image would be part of a collage of the "Kids Choice Awards"

That explains the Nick Jr. cartoons on top and bottom. Looks like we get our trailer during the KCAs, March 23rd guys!

[Multikaris]

On 3/7/2019 at 11:33 AM, Indigo Rush said:

Sonic as a pop culture icon was a case of bottled lightning: it's never going to be able to rekindle that initial spark in the early 90s. The difference between Sonic and, say, Pokemon, is that Pokemon was not only meticulously calculated to be a success in all forms of media, but had a strong formula and a consistency that would ensure its evergreen likability and they capitalized on it quick. 

Sonic had that sort of potential, but lacked the consistency across different forms of media and regions. The games were different from the cartoons were different from the other cartoons were different from the OTHER cartoons were different from the comics were different from the other comics were different from the novels and so on and so on... and this was all within it's first 5 years of operation. 

Additionally, and most crucially, the quality of the games and lore were inconsistent at best. Then Sonic lost a little of its identity when SEGA stopped being a hardware manufacturer. Take heart that Sonic as a brand and icon is very much permanent, but while it's possible to raise the quality of every facet of the series, it can't garner that universal appeal it once had; Sonic's bad reputation precedes itself... and this is not considering that the novelty of Sonic can't be made fresh again to pop culture anyway, Pokemania is never going to happen again, either. The best we can hope for is for the series' products to improve in quality... 

...and so far in the past 3 years, we have one great nostalgic sidescroller and mini cartoon series... but also one mediocre action game, a not-so promising racer coming up, a bunch of free to play mobile games... and now a live action film that has yet to win over the hearts of the fans of the character. It's just not happening right now.

If there's anything I've learned following this series, especially during the Sonic 4 and Sonic Boom chapters, is to just kick back, crack open your favorite drink and enjoy the madness. Enjoy Sonic in whatever form you've always enjoyed it in. Else, be driven to create your own, or collaborate with others. That's how Mania happened. 

And also a mediocre portable side-scroller, various passable comic books & web comics, and a strangely enjoyable yet unfortunately short-lived television show. In the end, the series has two branches plus various short-lived side branches and pseudo-branches (for instance, the comics aren’t recognized as a separate thing in the latest style guide), which is the real problem. We need these aspects to be more recognized, with merch of comic characters and perhaps even have them weasel their way into the games.