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

[SBR2]

So Toy Story 4 comes out in July and has a trailer and Dora comes out in August and had it's trailer revealed so the cut off seems to be about 4 months before the movie? So I'd say the Sonic trailer will be July.

[MrPolynomialX]

Unrelated, but what if this actually happens in the movie?

 

[CaptainRobo]

17 minutes ago, MrPolynomialX said:

Unrelated, but what if this actually happens in the movie?

 

I would love to see a scene of Tom's wife forcing him to buy McDonald's for Sonic happen in the movie! That would be hilarious! 

On an unrelated note, this remind me, I just have McDonald's for lunch yesterday.

[Tarnish]

14 hours ago, CaptainRobo said:

I would love to see a scene of Tom's wife forcing him to buy McDonald's for Sonic happen in the movie! That would be hilarious! 

On an unrelated note, this remind me, I just have McDonald's for lunch yesterday.

Don't worry, I'm sure the real world setting lends itself perfectly to a crapton of product placements.

[Myst]

 

Sonic discussion starts @ 33:51

 

[Sonic Fan J]

Nothing particularly noteworthy as it seems that she is in a minor role and generally was disconnected from most of the production. As a result I can't even take her calling James Marsden the hero of the movie seriously as she only had access to enough the script to cover her own scenes and thus can't speak accurately towards the whole movie.

At least though we've finally heard something again in an official capacity of some sort so maybe the silence is starting to break and Paramount might start the trickle of info that will properly shape how they want the movie to be perceived. Going silent for this long after releasing the motion poster just has not done the reception of this movie any favors and Paramount really needs to start shaping public perception even if we are 8 months out still as they already started anyway with the motion poster. They don't need to kick it into high gear yet, but they do need to turn the faucet back on even if it's just a slow drip. That is unless their plan is to let the negativity die down and then attack the market full force when the trailer finally drops in a few more months in the hopes of blowing everyone away.

Honestly I don't personally think that is the best idea myself since the movie and Sonic's reputation in general is not particularly healthy so starting a drip feed of gradually building hype before the trailer to encourage believing in the film instead of going in out of morbid curiosity since people are usually more receptive while feeling optimistic than when they are expecting a disaster. Either way we'll see, it's not like they are going to keep the movie under wraps until release, or at least lets hope not. That would definitely not speak well to the movie if they did. Though actually that makes me curious, does anyone know perhaps if their is a press embargo on this movie to minimize speculation and misleading the market while they put their marketing campaign together and wait for the CG to render enough to actually start putting together something to market?

[Scritch the Cat]

 

1 hour ago, Sonic Fan J said:

Nothing particularly noteworthy as it seems that she is in a minor role and generally was disconnected from most of the production. As a result I can't even take her calling James Marsden the hero of the movie seriously as she only had access to enough the script to cover her own scenes and thus can't speak accurately towards the whole movie.

At least though we've finally heard something again in an official capacity of some sort so maybe the silence is starting to break and Paramount might start the trickle of info that will properly shape how they want the movie to be perceived. Going silent for this long after releasing the motion poster just has not done the reception of this movie any favors and Paramount really needs to start shaping public perception even if we are 8 months out still as they already started anyway with the motion poster. They don't need to kick it into high gear yet, but they do need to turn the faucet back on even if it's just a slow drip. That is unless their plan is to let the negativity die down and then attack the market full force when the trailer finally drops in a few more months in the hopes of blowing everyone away.

Honestly I don't personally think that is the best idea myself since the movie and Sonic's reputation in general is not particularly healthy so starting a drip feed of gradually building hype before the trailer to encourage believing in the film instead of going in out of morbid curiosity since people are usually more receptive while feeling optimistic than when they are expecting a disaster. Either way we'll see, it's not like they are going to keep the movie under wraps until release, or at least lets hope not. That would definitely not speak well to the movie if they did. Though actually that makes me curious, does anyone know perhaps if their is a press embargo on this movie to minimize speculation and misleading the market while they put their marketing campaign together and wait for the CG to render enough to actually start putting together something to market?

As tired as people may be of hearing this, Paramount would need to change more than the model to increase this film's appeal substantially.  Doing so before releasing those teases of it online and in theaters might have made people more optimistic, given that the images don't indicate anything about the premise of the film, but now that they know the premise of this film is so far from what many think Sonic should be like, being pretty can't save it.

In fact, while the movie's redesign of Sonic was pointless, it arguably isn't as bad as it could have been given Paramount's track record--but everything else isn't even up to Paramount's dubious standards.  If what that Reddit leak alleged was true--and I see nothing officially released to suggest it wasn't--then this movie's minimal depiction of Sonic's canon makes Paranount's Transformers movies look like monuments to, if nothing else, capitalism.  That doesn't make them good movies, but making good movies was never the point of Transformers.  The point is to sell toy robots that transform, and tell a story about them fighting over something, and the movies at least accomplish that.  The fighting may not be Jackie Chan-caliber choreography, what it's over may be ill-explained and the robots may look like they're falling apart when they transform, but all of those essential elements are there, if clumsily.

Compare that to this Sonic movie: I'd say the Sonic model is still more visually appealing than the Bayformers--and certainly than the Bayja Turtles--and for all we know, the action and dialogue will be much better than we got in the Paramount Transformers movies, but that doesn't change that this film is going about being a Sonic movie all wrong.  It has the bare minimum at my most generous, but if the bare minimum of a video game's elements are all that filmmakers want to put in a movie, then why even adapt a video game?  You should be doing it to appeal to previous fans and potential new fans (usually children for this sort), and those people like the spectacle that more game elements bring.  Everyone else barely matters; a movie about Sonic by default isn't for them. 

Also I did say that was the most generous description; it's also arguable that this isn't even the bare minimum.  The bare minimum isn't just Sonic Vs Robotnik; at least for the origin story it has to be that in the right context: Robotnik acts first, doing industrial acts that harm animals and the environment, Sonic reacts and goes to stop him.  In this movie, neither seems to have the same motive.  Maybe they do, but that maybe hinges on how much you want to believe no news is good news over believing that leak, whose writer claims the movie is good, but not in a Sonic way.  

[CaptainRobo]

Not actually news, but the official Fandango Twitter account posted this for laughs.:

 

[Sonic Fan J]

23 hours ago, Scritch the Cat said:

 

As tired as people may be of hearing this, Paramount would need to change more than the model to increase this film's appeal substantially.  Doing so before releasing those teases of it online and in theaters might have made people more optimistic, given that the images don't indicate anything about the premise of the film, but now that they know the premise of this film is so far from what many think Sonic should be like, being pretty can't save it.

In fact, while the movie's redesign of Sonic was pointless, it arguably isn't as bad as it could have been given Paramount's track record--but everything else isn't even up to Paramount's dubious standards.  If what that Reddit leak alleged was true--and I see nothing officially released to suggest it wasn't--then this movie's minimal depiction of Sonic's canon makes Paranount's Transformers movies look like monuments to, if nothing else, capitalism.  That doesn't make them good movies, but making good movies was never the point of Transformers.  The point is to sell toy robots that transform, and tell a story about them fighting over something, and the movies at least accomplish that.  The fighting may not be Jackie Chan-caliber choreography, what it's over may be ill-explained and the robots may look like they're falling apart when they transform, but all of those essential elements are there, if clumsily.

Compare that to this Sonic movie: I'd say the Sonic model is still more visually appealing than the Bayformers--and certainly than the Bayja Turtles--and for all we know, the action and dialogue will be much better than we got in the Paramount Transformers movies, but that doesn't change that this film is going about being a Sonic movie all wrong.  It has the bare minimum at my most generous, but if the bare minimum of a video game's elements are all that filmmakers want to put in a movie, then why even adapt a video game?  You should be doing it to appeal to previous fans and potential new fans (usually children for this sort), and those people like the spectacle that more game elements bring.  Everyone else barely matters; a movie about Sonic by default isn't for them. 

Also I did say that was the most generous description; it's also arguable that this isn't even the bare minimum.  The bare minimum isn't just Sonic Vs Robotnik; at least for the origin story it has to be that in the right context: Robotnik acts first, doing industrial acts that harm animals and the environment, Sonic reacts and goes to stop him.  In this movie, neither seems to have the same motive.  Maybe they do, but that maybe hinges on how much you want to believe no news is good news over believing that leak, whose writer claims the movie is good, but not in a Sonic way.  

I pretty much agree with everything that you're saying, but it's kind of a tangent from what I was talking about; marketing.

Regardless of how bad we think the movie will be and how off IP it is Paramount began their advertising campaign with the release of that motion picture and IGN interview. It's been over four months now and they haven't done anything else of any note. That doesn't really speak well of how they've handled either the feedback or marketing in general and I can't help but wonder what's going on and why. As much as this movie isn't for me or anyone else who wanted to see Sonic as they knew him from the games on the big screen the whole marketing, or lack thereof, has piqued my interest and I'm curious about the story that is being told from it. A lot of this movie to me looks like a faithless project and the constant negativity to the design and plot combined with four months of silence since the beginning of the advertising campaign leaves me wondering what is going on behind the scenes.

[Dr Ryan]

This movie will do just fine and the current situation is normal. Literally no one else is even thinking about this movie outside of the Sonic fandom yet (probably most of which are on this thread) and that's fine at this point in time. The Sonic fandom will make up a tiny percentage of the audience anyway. At about the six month mark promo with be ramped up like it is for literally every mainstream film and we'll start to see a lot of more of this movie. We didn't see anything of Detective Pikachu until November (six months before). We haven't seen ANYTHING of Terminator 6 or Star Wars yet and they're both out at the same time as Sonic (depending on territory).

The only difference with Sonic compared to these other franchises is that we're all balls-deep into the character and are tracking the film ridiculously closely.

The current situation is normal and it will be fine.

It's not a faithless project. We have Jim Carrey, Tim Miller, what's-his-face who's voicing Sonic and a bunch of other known actors, a great composer and a huge budget.

All of this is normal.

[Gamecuber64]

1 hour ago, Dr Ryan said:

This movie will do just find and the current situation is normal. Literally no one else is even thinking about this movie outside of the Sonic fandom yet (probably most of which are on this thread) and that's fine at this point in time. The Sonic fandom will make up a tiny percentage of the audience anyway. At about the six month mark promo with be ramped up like it is for literally every mainstream film and we'll start to see a lot of more of this movie. We didn't see anything of Detective Pikachu until November (six months before). We haven't seen ANYTHING of Terminator 6 or Star Wars yet and they're both out at the same time as Sonic (depending on territory).

The only difference with Sonic compared to these other franchises is that we're all balls-deep into the character and are tracking the film ridiculously closely.

The current situation is normal and it will be fine.

It's not a faithless project. We have Jim Carrey, Tim Miller, what's-his-face who's voicing Sonic and a bunch of other known actors, a great composer and a huge budget.

All of this is normal.

Everything on here is exactly what I keep trying to tell people. You guys are forgetting that the majority of the audience seeing this film is just going to be a general audience. The Sonic fanbase likely a small percentage of everyone who's seeing this movie

 

And that's also why I mentioned that most people I know remember the name "Robotnick" and not "Eggman" (even if they have been using "Eggman" for the past few decades, it still isn't iconic). Hell whenever I have a picture of Shadow or Silver or someone, they always ask "Why is Sonic black?", "Why is Sonic grey?", "Why is Sonic a pink girl?", etc. I even met a couple of people at my high school who thought Sonic was Nintendo.

 

I completely disagree with SEGABits when they said playing Gangster's Paradise over Live & Learn during the trailer is "a middle finger to fans" .

GENERAL AUDIENCES DON'T KNOW WHAT CRUSH 40 IS PEOPLE!!!

[PeterPancake]

Exactly. And the marketing right now is perfectly normal 

[Splash the Otter]

1 hour ago, Gamecuber64 said:

Everything on here is exactly what I keep trying to tell people. You guys are forgetting that the majority of the audience seeing this film is just going to be a general audience. The Sonic fanbase likely a small percentage of everyone who's seeing this movie

 

And that's also why I mentioned that most people I know remember the name "Robotnick" and not "Eggman" (even if they have been using "Eggman" for the past few decades, it still isn't iconic). Hell whenever I have a picture of Shadow or Silver or someone, they always ask "Why is Sonic black?", "Why is Sonic grey?", "Why is Sonic a pink girl?", etc. I even met a couple of people at my high school who thought Sonic was Nintendo.

 

I completely disagree with SEGABits when they said playing Gangster's Paradise over Live & Learn during the trailer is "a middle finger to fans" .

GENERAL AUDIENCES DON'T KNOW WHAT CRUSH 40 IS PEOPLE!!!

But why isn't the movie being made for Sonic fans? Shouldn't we be the target demographic?

[CaptainRobo]

 

2 hours ago, Dr Ryan said:

This movie will do just fine and the current situation is normal. Literally no one else is even thinking about this movie outside of the Sonic fandom yet (probably most of which are on this thread) and that's fine at this point in time. The Sonic fandom will make up a tiny percentage of the audience anyway. At about the six month mark promo with be ramped up like it is for literally every mainstream film and we'll start to see a lot of more of this movie. We didn't see anything of Detective Pikachu until November (six months before). We haven't seen ANYTHING of Terminator 6 or Star Wars yet and they're both out at the same time as Sonic (depending on territory).

The only difference with Sonic compared to these other franchises is that we're all balls-deep into the character and are tracking the film ridiculously closely.

The current situation is normal and it will be fine.

It's not a faithless project. We have Jim Carrey, Tim Miller, what's-his-face who's voicing Sonic and a bunch of other known actors, a great composer and a huge budget.

All of this is normal.

Agreed, I think everybody seem to forget about this post about the feedback with a picture of Jeff, Tim, Aaron, and Iizuka that was posted a while ago. They seem to be all pretty happy, confident, and aware of the design. They wouldn't even bother uploading this, if they are scared and have no faith, which is not true. I think this is going to ended up be a fun movie to watch.:

Spoiler

 

1 hour ago, Gamecuber64 said:

Everything on here is exactly what I keep trying to tell people. You guys are forgetting that the majority of the audience seeing this film is just going to be a general audience. The Sonic fanbase likely a small percentage of everyone who's seeing this movie

Going to have to agree. I think they want everybody to watch this film. I do think that a lot of Sonic fans will probably ended up watching this. They probably know that most of the people who might be watching the film are going to be people who don't know anything about Sonic. They probably might go to watch it for some casual fun.

Now, I know none of the designs that we have seen so far are the actual design. I'm think he will look closely to the previous ones, but he will probably have a bit of minor changes. I hope he look something like this one seen in this picture that I draw.:

Spoiler

BTW,  I'm kinda hoping that Reddit leak isn't actually true, because the guy say that none of Sonic's friends appear in the movie. That is a shame if that happen.

[Diogenes]

1 hour ago, Gamecuber64 said:

GENERAL AUDIENCES DON'T KNOW WHAT CRUSH 40 IS PEOPLE!!!

Okay but that doesn't mean they can't like a good song when they hear it (and if you don't think Live and Learn is a good song that people would like, well, that's a separate issue).

I'm not saying everything in the movie has to be a reference for fans to pick up or that nothing should change from how it is in the games (or whatever medium has your favorite Sonic) but if a Sonic movie can't succeed with the raw material Sonic offers, there wasn't any point in making a Sonic movie in the first place. If the raw material is good, and the movie made from it is good, it won't matter if people don't already know everything ahead of time, the movie is what would make them like those things.

[Plasme]

Does Sonic even have the appeal for a general audience anymore though? Not to be a downer, but most people think Sonic's a joke, they only talk about him to take the piss out of him. And I get that they are making it for kids, but does Sonic even appeal to kids anymore? Especially the horrible redesigned Sonic of this movie.

And that's 'gamers'. I can't imagine someone who wants to see Avengers or Toy Story would have any interest in seeing a Sonic movie, just being honest.

If anything, a Sonic movie is such a weird thing to make that it should probably have a lower budget, be authentic and aimed at the Sonic fanbase.

[Endy]

25 minutes ago, Plasme said:

Does Sonic even have the appeal for a general audience anymore though?

sonic is a sassy talking animal who will be featured in a movie that will be heavily advertised. children will love him, and that's who the movies for. Movie isn't meant for aging Sonic fans who get all picky about how much from the source material they borrow.

[Plasme]

4 minutes ago, Enderwoman said:

sonic is a sassy talking animal who will be featured in a movie that will be heavily advertised. children will love him, and that's who the movies for. Movie isn't meant for aging Sonic fans who get all picky about how much from the source material they borrow.

How many kids even know what Sonic is?

[Endy]

1 minute ago, Plasme said:

How many kids even know what Sonic is?

Thats why theyre gonna put ads out to let people know to see the movie! advertising is magical

[Plasme]

1 minute ago, Enderwoman said:

Thats why theyre gonna put ads out to let people know to see the movie! advertising is magical

Sure, but just because a film gets loads of advertising doesn't mean it's going to sell well.

Personally, I think it will bomb precisely because the general public is a really bad audience to market the film.

[Endy]

Just now, Plasme said:

Sure, but just because a film gets loads of advertising doesn't mean it's going to sell well.

Personally, I think it will bomb precisely because the general public is a really bad audience to market the film.

Sonic is a sassy cartoon animal and will be teaming up with a cop to make jokes and blow things up. Tried and true formula for a film, really.

If you're expecting them to put this big budget movie out for the Sonic fanbase that's apparently slowly regressing into its own niche to the point where kids don't even know what it is and the alleged fact that Sonic's sheer lack of popularity defeats any change of the movie succeeding regardless of the formula and Sonic's inherent appeal as a character then you're looking in the wrong place.

[Sonic Fan J]

@Enderwoman your entire argument actually supports @Plasme's concern in the first place if I'm reading what you are saying; that is that Sonic is completely irrelevant to the movie being sold. That being the case who exactly are the movie makers trying to appeal to by using Sonic at all? Then considering that supposedly one of the aims of the movie is to create brand awareness how is that accomplished by being something completely different?

My issues with the movie aside it's why I'm so curious about the marketing for the movie as it will give me some insight to what the actual idea is with this film because as it is right now it makes no since to use Sonic at all if not to bank on his name and fans padding out the box office numbers. I mean let's be honest here, if not for Sonic being here would this movie have gotten nearly as much attention from Sonic fans as it has? Sure Tim Miller's name would draw attention to the movie from his fans but Sonic's name is what draws Sonic fans because they are Sonic fans. This whole idea that Sonic can sell a movie to non fans but only by not being Sonic through and through speaks to me of faithlessness in the IP and again begs to know why use Sonic at all. It really does read as a cash grab and that doesn't make sense to me since there is no demand for Sonic on the big screen for the supposedly much more massive than the dozens of millions of fans general audience. Again it's why I'm looking forward to seeing more of how this movie is advertised as it will be quite interesting to see their intentions on display.

[Endy]

5 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

@Enderwoman your entire argument actually supports @Plasme's concern in the first place if I'm reading what you are saying; that is that Sonic is completely irrelevant to the movie being sold. That being the case who exactly are the movie makers trying to appeal to by using Sonic at all? Then considering that supposedly one of the aims of the movie is to create brand awareness how is that accomplished by being something completely different?

My issues with the movie aside it's why I'm so curious about the marketing for the movie as it will give me some insight to what the actual idea is with this film because as it is right now it makes no since to use Sonic at all if not to bank on his name and fans padding out the box office numbers. I mean let's be honest here, if not for Sonic being here would this movie have gotten nearly as much attention from Sonic fans as it has? Sure Tim Miller's name would draw attention to the movie from his fans but Sonic's name is what draws Sonic fans because they are Sonic fans. This whole idea that Sonic can sell a movie to non fans but only by not being Sonic through and through speaks to me of faithlessness in the IP and again begs to know why use Sonic at all. It really does read as a cash grab and that doesn't make sense to me since there is no demand for Sonic on the big screen for the supposedly much more massive than the dozens of millions of fans general audience. Again it's why I'm looking forward to seeing more of how this movie is advertised as it will be quite interesting to see their intentions on display. 

I would argue Sonic isn't irrelevant, but if someone wants to make the point that Sonic is too niche to even make a big budget movie out of to market to the masses then they're looking in the exact wrong place (Hollywood). Fans seem to be getting real picky over the details over what exactly makes it 'Sonic' and appealing when frankly all it needs to carry the general appeal of the series is Sonic doing cool things. which, unless I'm somehow mistaken the movie is very much capable of delivering on that. The masses, the children this film is for, do not see a completely different character or sect of the series when they look at a Sonic. they see a sonic

[Myst]

George of the Jungle, Mr. Magoo, Dudley Do-Right, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Alvin & the Chipmunks, The Smurfs, Jem & the Holograms, Fat Albert all got live-action movies LOOOOOONG after their franchises were relevant. (I bet kids walked into The Smurfs movie completely oblivious that it was based off of a cartoon series.)

I think Sonic is a liiiiittle bit more relevant than the aforementioned properties (He's featured in Mario games, had a Lego tie-in and a Macy's balloon for crying out loud)

I actually think Sonic is more popular now than he has been in many years. (Maybe not as popular as he was in the 90's, but far more popular than he was in the Saturn, Dreamcast & Heroes era.) He's been appearing in a lot more merchandising lately too. T-Shirts, Pixelpals, Funko Pops, children's storybooks, Build a Bear..

[Blacklightning]

26 minutes ago, Enderwoman said:

The masses, the children this film is for, do not see a completely different character or sect of the series when they look at a Sonic. they see a sonic

We've heard anecdotes in this very thread of actual children being able to make that distinction and going as far as to say "that's not Sonic", but for sake of argument let's ignore that.

The truth of the matter is that it simply doesn't work that way, and throughout the history of the franchise this is a thing we've seen time and time again. Every time a split has occured in the fanbase has been because there have been enough elements of mutual exclusivity for people to like one and not another, and rather than draw new fans into Sonic's core and spread throughout all his ventures all it's really done is created more side gigs and left people in holding patterns within them, separate from everything else Sonic's ever done. We just sat through this in the form of Sonic Boom - where people who got into the franchise because of it saw none of the show's writing they liked in any other facet of the franchise, and frankly it's debatable whether even their own game spinoffs were cut from the same cloth - and the fact that nobody has looked back on that and seen the same warning signs re-emerging is just madness to me.

It's one thing to suggest using media to draw people into Sonic as a whole but without anything in common with it besides "he's blue and moves fast", those people will ultimately remain right where they are, making the whole thing kind of a wasted venture.