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

[Failinhearts]

Its under the Sonic Boom section......

"That's no good!"

[Frogging101]

Oh lord...

 

Could it be?

I can't think of any other way to interpret "First CG animated film in the Sonic Franchise". I guess this confirms the existence of what has been discussed in this thread.

I think it's a tad bit sexiest that they say the target market as only 'boys'. What about girls?

It's sexist in the same way that targeting it at children of ages 6-11 years is ageist. In other words, it isn't.

Edited February 1, 2014 by Frogging101

[Tani Coyote]

I always considered Sonic a shonen series to begin with given the main focus is on the boys, so I'm not surprised that any cartoon is likewise going for that demographic.

 

The Brony phenomenon says it all about how your target demographic isn't necessarily the one you get, however.

 

Now I'm curious if there was a translation error or something of the sorts when printing the signs... but that'd be a very interesting error if it is.

 

Maybe Hedgehog Day will have something special after all?

[Junko]

I think it's a tad bit sexiest that they say the target market as only 'boys'. What about girls?

It's simply a target market. What they're aiming for, but not necessarily who'll watch it.

[Willsy]

Remember the SA3 and Shenmue 3 trademarks. They were fake, and it pains me to say this, but this could be fake too.

Okay slap me. Slap me real hard.

I'm thinking that this might be direct to DVD though due to the fact it's hinted that the film is based on Boom. Or it could be like Star Wars The Clone Wars.

[Sapphire]

Marketed to boys 8-11? Not 19 year old girls? Pssh. Blasphemy. 

 

I saw this coming once the Sly movie got announced a few days ago. (I'm so pumped for all these video game movies!!!) Hopefully this is true though, I don't want to get too excited if there's really not a movie planned.

[Salamander]

The "film" clearly refers to the Boom series, which is why it's categorised under the Boom header and put right at the bottom of the list.  If it was a separate movie it would be in a separate category and if it was a Boom movie it would be right at the top of the Boom list.

 

It's simply a target market. What they're aiming for, but not necessarily who'll watch it.

 

In addition, it's clearly the same target market as Sonic in general.  Predominantly male cast of colourful anthropomorphic animals...

[Zaysho]

As I think about it: is it possible "film" is a typo of some sort? All the info on the board tells us stuff we already know about the upcoming show. "Sonic Boom" is clearly the first CG animated TV series in the franchise. I know it's a stretch, but I dunno if we should take this as confirmation of a film, let alone not in 2014 (unless SEGA has been uncharacteristically free of leaks the last few years). Unlike the unnamed Sonic game coming in 2015, there's no confirmed date for this "film," but we do know "Sonic Boom" is coming this year and it could possibly just mean the first couple episodes will air as a "movie" or one-hour event, which is a fairly common practice nowadays.

[Tani Coyote]

As was mentioned, "film" can be used in a manner that still means "cartoon." This could very well be choice of words taking us for a ride.

 

The only reason to be suspicious at all remains the domain name, which could still just be talks.

 

SEGA said 2014 was going to be a big year for Sonic though, didn't they? We might get a trailer for all we know at some point this year... though expect a 2016 release date if so.

 

Furries be taking over the movie theater, yo.

[VO.SUPER]

So, should we move this to the Boom board, since the likelihood of this being a boom movie is rising?

[Badnik Mechanic]

No.

 

Because it's got nothing to do with Boom at the moment.

[Tani Coyote]

Indeed. It's purely speculation if the film has anything to do with Boom (however likely), and of course, if the film even exists.

Mike Pollock has confirmed he hasn't been contacted about a film (courtesy of an interview by SSMB's own Jason Berry), but even if he was I don't think he'd able to tell us yet. Never mind they might have replaced him for the film with a bigger actor the same way Kevin Miller's been replaced for Sly Cooper.

Sounds strange but let us remember Hollywood has this idea that big name actors are the key to success.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

I could really only see them replacing VAs for the movie if for live-action roles. Otherwise, stick with the current cast and develop them!

[Tani Coyote]

That would be ideal but the fetish for big name actors means they'd probably get someone to replace Roger and possibly Mike.

The good news is big name actors rarely do video game or animation roles so it would leave the main franchise untouched.

[JCWithTheRojoTee]

The idea of a Sonic movie sounds pretty interesting, especially if (and not likely) they follow the SATam story. I would love to see a movie done about the Endgame story arch from the Archie comic series, as well.

[Tenko]

Never did understand Hollywood's fascination for taking a well known franchise, going "oh its popular let's cash in" and then hiring some producer/studio/director/writer's who between them all change the characters, story and basically everything fans loved that made it popular so much that its only that franchise in name alone, and then when the finished product bombs sitting there stone faced saying "welp we have no f'n clue why it didn't do well, oh well on to the next one".

Dragonball comes to mind...Alvin and the Chipmunks, Smurfs, Transformers to an extent, Mario Bros (as loved as it is for the wrong reasons), in fact almost every video game/anime/book/cartoon series Holloywood movie..with the exception of the ones where the creators actually had a modicum of control. Like Harry Potter where the writer pretty much had her way with everything from casting to changes made for the purpose of making it into a movie.

Sure a copy paste of existing content doesn't give the "artists" their own flare or whatever, by all means make a few surprising changes to make it work as a movie...but you gota stop and ask yourself, now am I making an "insert franchise here" movie or am I shitting all over it?

This is what worries me every time I hear a new video game movie is in the works. Sonic included.

[Tani Coyote]

Indeed. It really is best if the creative team behind the source material is able to direct the film. That's what gives me optimism about the Ratchet and Sly films, and I hope one of SEGA's branches is actively involved with any Sonic film. Preferably SEGA America.

Hollywood completely butchers adaptions when left to its own devices because it has this fetish that they know what's right, when they should be looking at what made the source popular in the first place and find a way to market that to a wider audience.

[Jolt_TH]

If that's the case shouldn't it be SoJ rather than SoA that should be involved, of course it depends on the continuity the movie would be based off of

[Tenko]

Like with the long overdue Warcraft movie. They have a team from Blizzard including Chris Metzen the main lore guy as well as being pretty high up in the company he does a lot of writing and voice acting and it's basically his child to an extent.

You at least have faith then that the final product will be what the company wanted and if it bombs its their fault. Not some over zealot'ish Hollywood team screwing the fans over for what could have been.

[Tani Coyote]

If that's the case shouldn't it be SoJ rather than SoA that should be involved, of course it depends on the continuity the movie would be based off of

SEGA Japan didn't make Sonic popular, SEGA West did. Left to just Japan, Sonic would have been dead in the water.

He may have been designed and developed by Japan, but it was ultimately America and Europe that made Sonic big, no matter how much Japan hates that fact.

So while SEGA Japan would have the final say, I'd hope it would be the western teams that would be in charge of most direction of the project.

[Tenko]

While that may be true, most of the fully Sega West Sonic games have been pretty bad or sub par. Their original Sonic backstory and cannon was horrible, and personally I like the original design from Japan over the softer rounder American Sonic regardless of how iconic. The sharper edgier Sonic art from Sonic CD and the OVA etc were much cooler than SatAM or Spinball Sonic.

I would rather Sega of Japan handled the making and designing of it, and its story, but as you say Sega West was up until recent years much better at marketing, so let them handle the distribution and the marketing of the thing. They would know better how to speak to the many markets of the world compared to Sega Japan.

[Tani Coyote]

Why not have it designed by SEGA West as well? They know the Western culture and what will appeal to it.

 

When you have to market a foreign-made product, you can promote it all you want, but it's still ultimately foreign made and the clash can be noticeable; this is why SEGA America edited all of Japan's ideas in the first place. Had SEGA America kept all of SEGA Japan's ideas 100% intact and not bothered to edit them, I imagine Sonic might not have been as solid as he was in the 90s.

 

The easiest way to see the power of making cultural changes? Ask someone who didn't grow up with anime to watch one with you; they will most likely not be able to remember any of the characters' names, from my experience. For a simple reason: it's a different culture. I don't think it's a coincidence a fair number of Japanese franchises usually make the English names first, accordingly; the English-speaking West is where the market is.

 

The fact of the matter is, in terms of pure sales (that is, beyond personal preferences one way or another), SEGA West knows what to do with the brand better than SEGA Japan. SEGA Japan just has the almighty power of being the legal owner of the IP.

 

It is a common tragedy in property law that whoever owns something isn't the one who'd use it most efficiently.

 

Or, to recap, if any movie is going to sell well in the West, it should probably be made by the West. While foreign companies have made films that have sold well in the West before... I think SEGA Japan's demonstrated they're not one of them and likely never will be one of them.

[Tenko]

Its a double edged sword really, as you do have the general public to think about who would fall into that trap you mention.

But you also have the fans who like things as original as possible.

Sometimes editing doesn't go down too well. Your anime example can also be used in that way. 4Kids being a prime example when they were around. They went about taking out Japanese references, the violence of what little there was in what they had, and changed the more Japanese names to English ones etc etc, and things like One Piece bombed. It wasn't until Funimation nabbed it off them and reversed all their changes that it got more popular and sold the merchandise 4Kids expected but didn't get. Sonic X fans weren't too happy with their edits either.

But yeah it can work in favor too, Yu-Gi-Oh! was a hit (tho fans still want an uncut one) as was Digimon and they were edited to hell and back. Pokemon too, tho I can understand most of the name changes in the games etc as the originals are really out there.

The west isn't as bad as it was with editing, they tend to be more frugal now, especially now we have the Japanese cannon in the west Sonic games now too. Guess I wouldn't mind either way, at least we won't end up with a Brown Sonic and Ovi Kintobor now huh lol

[RK64]

For this rumored Sonic film....why not have it based on Sonic Boom? Not only it would be a great way to kick of this new "sub-brand" of the Sonic series, but it would make producing the film a lot easier. You can have Sega America, the shows writers and even Big Red Button/Sanzaru be heavily involved making the film. Plus they could re-use assets from the show/game and have brand co-existence with this; Sega Sonic is in games, while Boom Sonic is in media.

 

That being said, I would love for CGI renditions of classic Sonic locations like Green Hill, Lava Reef and City Escape be on the big screen (my god, the movie in 3d having a scene with Sonic running away from the gun truck with it sending cars flying toward the screen or having the while chase Sonic with plants flying everywhere and sonic jumping in/out of the screen trying to escape the while.....man !).

[Tenko]

Ever since Boom was first hinted at and then the film rumors popped up, I have kinda assumed it would be a Boom movie. One of those straight to DVD type feature length pilots. I just assumed with Sony being involved and the amount of TV series they distribute in different countries via DVD it wouldn't surprise me if it was just a pilot dressed as a movie.

Tho you know what they say about assuming making an ass out of you and me haha