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

[STK77]

17 minutes ago, DaddlerTheDalek said:

I wonder who she could be.

What kind of actress is she? Does she usually play in the same personality? That could give us a clue.

[Groovy[K]2000]

Sorry to interrupt, but can I just say how much I love the way everyone on this thread interacts? From the fanart sharing to the polite discussion, everything seems so nice. On Twitter and YouTube there's been nothing but hatred and  toxicity regarding the Sonic Movie and Sonic in general. But finding this thread has given me a breath of fresh air! 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

4 minutes ago, Groovy[K]2000 said:

Sorry to interrupt, but can I just say how much I love the way everyone on this thread interacts? From the fanart sharing to the polite discussion, everything seems so nice. On Twitter and YouTube there's been nothing but hatred and  toxicity regarding the Sonic Movie and Sonic in general. But finding this thread has given me a breath of fresh air! 

I like that as well.

 

33 minutes ago, STK77 said:

What kind of actress is she? Does she usually play in the same personality? That could give us a clue.

I'm not sure.

[STK77]

15 minutes ago, Groovy[K]2000 said:

Sorry to interrupt, but can I just say how much I love the way everyone on this thread interacts? From the fanart sharing to the polite discussion, everything seems so nice. On Twitter and YouTube there's been nothing but hatred and  toxicity regarding the Sonic Movie and Sonic in general. But finding this thread has given me a breath of fresh air! 

Oh, it gets heated on this website sometimes. But most people on here enjoy talking about Sonic as fans and not haters.

[a knothole resident]

59 minutes ago, Groovy[K]2000 said:

Sorry to interrupt, but can I just say how much I love the way everyone on this thread interacts? From the fanart sharing to the polite discussion, everything seems so nice. On Twitter and YouTube there's been nothing but hatred and  toxicity regarding the Sonic Movie and Sonic in general. But finding this thread has given me a breath of fresh air! 

Just rolling with the punches basically =P

[PeterPancake]

The most anticipated thing is what Sonic will look like and whether Tails is in the movie 

[CaptainRobo]

5 hours ago, Operationgamer17 said:

Natasha Rothwell has booked a role in Sonic, according to deadline. 

https://deadline.com/2018/07/wonder-woman-1984-gal-gadot-natasha-rothwell-insecure-joins-1202432938/

So, I guess she officially casted? Hm. Never heard of her. I try look her up on wiki, but she doesn’t seem to have her own Wikipedia page like the others does have. So, I look up her filmography on IMDB. She does seem to have a role in a recent movie called Love, Simon. She also did have a role in a very popular TV show called Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

https://m.imdb.com/name/nm5625020/

2 hours ago, Groovy[K]2000 said:

Sorry to interrupt, but can I just say how much I love the way everyone on this thread interacts? From the fanart sharing to the polite discussion, everything seems so nice. On Twitter and YouTube there's been nothing but hatred and  toxicity regarding the Sonic Movie and Sonic in general. But finding this thread has given me a breath of fresh air! 

Meh. There will always be haters. Not everybody will be pleased. I don’t blame them if they don’t like the movie and what it is going to be about. It’s their opinion. I would suggest you just ignored them, and just enjoy what it is going to have. The movie probably may not be perfect, but it may ended up look like fun.

[Polkadi~☆]

I'm just waiting for some kind of news on roles of the Sonic characters. Is it the original voices, or new ones?

Before someone even dares to say "it'll be a well known actor because Hollywood," there are many adaptations of properties that keep the original voice cast of the characters, regardless of whether they're well known. And that's not counting dubs, which will obviously have the original voices.

It could be a new actor, who for brand consistency can continue voicing Sonic in games after the movie, especially since Roger Craig Smith has had the voice of Sonic for well over 9 years by this point. But if it's a big B-list actor, that's kind of ridiculous to change Sonic's voice for one thing only, especially as it'd be expensive to keep the voice afterwards in the main part of the franchise.

[PeterPancake]

44 minutes ago, Polkadi~♪ said:

I'm just waiting for some kind of news on roles of the Sonic characters. Is it the original voices, or new ones?

Before someone even dares to say "it'll be a well known actor because Hollywood," there are many adaptations of properties that keep the original voice cast of the characters, regardless of whether they're well known. And that's not counting dubs, which will obviously have the original voices.

It could be a new actor, who for brand consistency can continue voicing Sonic in games after the movie, especially since Roger Craig Smith has had the voice of Sonic for well over 9 years by this point. But if it's a big B-list actor, that's kind of ridiculous to change Sonic's voice for one thing only, especially as it'd be expensive to keep the voice afterwards in the main part of the franchise.

Whoever voices Sonic in the movie won't continue to voice him In the games regardless of whether Roger stays on or not. They will be too expensive for Sega to afford AND they'd have to make a new contract separate from the Paramount one for the movie voice actor.

Why? Because the director/studio may want an actual actor to voice Sonic because it's a MOVIE. The ground rules for the games do not apply to this film. It's own thing.

[STK77]

1 hour ago, PeterPancake said:

Whoever voices Sonic in the movie won't continue to voice him In the games regardless of whether Roger stays on or not. They will be too expensive for Sega to afford AND they'd have to make a new contract separate from the Paramount one for the movie voice actor.

Why? Because the director/studio may want an actual actor to voice Sonic because it's a MOVIE. The ground rules for the games do not apply to this film. It's own thing.

Agreed. Roger is good for video games, but his voice isn't good enough for a this kind of movie. 

[CaptainRobo]

So, this lady posted some info about the movie back in June which nobody noticed. She claimed that she is now part of the production team. She posted an link to the movie’s IMDB page on the tweet.

https://twitter.com/kellycompeau/status/1022655458887094272

As I looked up the page, I found ton of people’s names listed on the Full Cast and Crew page. Not sure if this is legit or not, because anybody could edit on IMDB. 

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt3794354/fullcredits?ref_=m_tt_cl_scc

[Apollo Chungus]

I don't think I've actually posted in this thread before. That's largely because I don't care about the Sonic movie, and not really interested in discussing it. Seriously, I care so little that I don't even want to see the movie out of morbid curiosity. Nothing that I've heard about it over the five-ish years we've known it to be a thing has gotten me interested.

But I wanted to make a post about something that's been on my mind for a while, and something that the last couple of posts have been discussing enough to make me want to talk about it. I'll be up-front about this, but:

Roger Craig Smith should play Sonic the Hedgehog in this movie.

I'm not saying this as a fan of Craig Smith's portrayal - it's probably my least favourite voice for the character, due to how abrasive and (for a lack of a better term) dudebrah-ish he makes Sonic sound. But that doesn't matter in this case, nor should it. What matters is that Roger Craig Smith has been the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog for nearly a decade, and the only voice for that matter. Previously, there'd be more than one voice actor between the games and the spin-offs (Ryan Drummond vs Jaleel White in the late 90's; Ryan Drummond vs Jason Griffith in the early-mid 2000's), but not now.

Craig Smith has voiced Sonic in everything that requires a voice; the main series, the spin-off games, even the Sonic Boom cartoon; and has been doing so for eight years. For an entire generation of children growing up (maybe two at this point), Roger Craig Smith IS Sonic the Hedgehog. Those of us old enough to remember Sonic having a different voice may not think that idea matters, but it matters to them. It especially matters because, for a lot of people, this could be seen as the face of the franchise for some time. 

There's this weird cultural idea we tend to have where we decide a franchise or work has only really "made it", be it in terms of cultural recognition, artistic merit or some other means, when it's been adapted into a live-action film. Regardless of whether it worked much better as a video game, a novel, a comic, an audio drama (or an animated film, but shhhhhhhh); that doesn't matter to a good chunk of the public. Unless it's extremely bad, the live-action film adaptation will be the most widely recognised part of that series from here on out.

For the kids and teens who end up seeing this movie, they're going to expect to hear Sonic to talk in his usual voice, because 1) he's always sounded like that to them and 2) this is the official Sonic the Hedgehog movie; why wouldn't they want to make it feel right by using the 'real voice' of the character? There's an anecdote I remember about how David Hayter, the voice of Solid Snake in the Metal Gear games, took a massive pay cut to get as many of the original voice actors from Metal Gear Solid back for its GameCube remake The Twin Snakes. To him, retaining voice actor consistency was of the utmost importance: "...When they changed the voice of Kermit, I knew. When they changed the voice of Bugs Bunny, I felt it."

And if a 20+ year old man could feel it, what's to say that those who've grown up with the series in recent years wouldn't feel it either? If they saw Sonic on the big-screen, but he didn't sound like Sonic, why should they care about the movie? It's not the same character they grew up with - it's not their Sonic. Again, we may be used to Sonic changing voices, but Roger Craig Smith has voiced the character long enough that there are plenty of people who aren't, and will find the film alienating because of that.

For comparison's sake, there's an upcoming movie called Christopher Robin: it's a live-action film based on an adult Christopher Robin from Disney's take on Winnie-the-Pooh and has Pooh showing up as a central character. I feel like it's a dumb movie based on the same kind of tired psuedo-intertextuality that plagues shows like Gotham, but very importantly, it features Jim Cummings as the voice of Pooh. This is a smart choice because Jim Cummings has been voicing Pooh for decades; in TV shows, films, games, spin-offs, and countless other things. To many generations, he IS that character, and casting him as that character brings a sense of legitimacy to that film which would otherwise be lost if they cast any "real" actor.

Let me be upfront about this: the idea that Roger Craig Smith can't play Sonic because "it's a movie" or "they need a real actor" is complete and utter bollocks. No ifs or buts. That reasoning is misguided at best, and absolute nonsense at worst.

I don't take issue with characters not being portrayed by their voice actors in live-action films, if the character is a human. It makes more sense to cast a live-action actor to play a human character, because that's way more practical than trying to create a CGI human just to be voiced by their voice actor (unless the character is voiced and performance captured by the same actor, e.g. Rueben Langdon as Dante from Devil May Cry). I don't mind that Bob Hoskins played Mario in the live-action movie and not Captain Lou Albano from the DiC cartoons, or that Alicia Vikander played Lara Croft instead of Camilla Luddington in the recent Tomb Raider movie. It makes sense for production reasons, and I don't begrudge any films that do this.

But Sonic is an anthropomorphised animal, not a human. By necessity, he's going to be rendered in CGI, and will need to be voiced over anyway. Why not have Roger Craig Smith do his voice? There's no reason not to do so, and I refute the notion that Smith's acting quality isn't good enough for a film. A live-action film is not inherently superior to any other medium, despite the importance often placed on it. If he's not good enough for a film, then he should never have been good enough for the games and cartoons he's been voicing for years.

Roger Craig Smith is a voice actor. Sonic needs a voice actor for the movie. Roger Craig Smith can and should voice Sonic for the movie.

It may not matter to you, or to me, but it matters to the kids and teens who grew up with him. It matters that the Sonic they see on the big screen is their Sonic, and not some CGI alien knock-off voiced by Brendan Fraser or some other "legitimate" actor. They're the only ones right now who can have their Sonic on the big screen, so let them.

[Shadowlax]

@Apollo Chungus

My response to that is " voice actors change, it happens calm down " . And to be honest we are about due for another change, I wouldn't be surprised if after this film they changed everyone again

[STK77]

52 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

@Apollo Chungus

My response to that is " voice actors change, it happens calm down " . And to be honest we are about due for another change, I wouldn't be surprised if after this film they changed everyone again

AGREED. It's already been established that this film will be majorly different from the video games and all other Sonic media we've seen so far. There's no need to have the same voice actor. In fact, I think it'll be good to have a different voice actor for a change. 

1 hour ago, Apollo Chungus said:

It may not matter to you, or to me, but it matters to the kids and teens who grew up with him. It matters that the Sonic they see on the big screen is their Sonic, and not some CGI alien knock-off voiced by Brendan Fraser or some other "legitimate" actor. They're the only ones right now who can have their Sonic on the big screen, so let them.

This movie is not JUST for the people who are already fans of Sonic. Look at the interviews done for this movie so far. It's been stated that this movie is to broaden the fanbase. 

[Almar]

You haven't told us where theses hordes of non-Sonic fans they have to appeal are at and what the movie has to draw them in. It's not like Sonic is obscure among the gaming public (where the position of his series can be called a punchline).

[STK77]

45 minutes ago, Almar said:

You haven't told us where theses hordes of non-Sonic fans they have to appeal are at and what the movie has to draw them in. It's not like Sonic is obscure among the gaming public (where the position of his series can be called a punchline).

That's not the point of what I'm saying. I'm saying that the movie will not cater to existing Sonic fans, so we're probably going to get a different Sonic in the movie than what we're used to in the games. 

[Sonic Fan J]

You know, @Almar brings an interesting point I've kind of wondered about since BOOM!; who are these fans supposed to be that will broaden the fanbase and what type of affect will they have on the franchise. I keep seeing the lines not for Sonic fans and broaden the fanbase thrown together as a reason to not expect even the slightest similarity between the source material and the new property as if that's a good thing, but is it really? If the movie is a major success then wouldn't the logical thing to do be to follow the money and suspend every other aspect of the franchise to push the movie imagery that brought in the general audience? I know that's a bit of an extreme, but it has to be considered when you are divorcing the audience growing production from what the franchise actually is to make it appealing, then once you've hooked them they are going to want more of what brought them in in the first place and SEGA does not currently have that back catalog to draw on. They won't care for classic, adventure, modern, Archie, IDW, etc. because if they did they would already be fans without having to have the franchise given a radical face lift just to appeal to them so having that as the back catalog of history to be exposed to after being won over by the movie seems like a disrespectful bait and switch. I'm probably overthinking this as normal but isn't one the current problems that the franchise suffers from its divisiveness resulting in most outings being approached cynically before they even find their footing because the fanbase is so divided that every action seems like it is disregarding some aspect of the fanbase or another?

[STK77]

7 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

You know, @Almar brings an interesting point I've kind of wondered about since BOOM!; who are these fans supposed to be that will broaden the fanbase and what type of affect will they have on the franchise. I keep seeing the lines not for Sonic fans and broaden the fanbase thrown together as a reason to not expect even the slightest similarity between the source material and the new property as if that's a good thing, but is it really? If the movie is a major success then wouldn't the logical thing to do be to follow the money and suspend every other aspect of the franchise to push the movie imagery that brought in the general audience? I know that's a bit of an extreme, but it has to be considered when you are divorcing the audience growing production from what the franchise actually is to make it appealing, then once you've hooked them they are going to want more of what brought them in in the first place and SEGA does not currently have that back catalog to draw on. They won't care for classic, adventure, modern, Archie, IDW, etc. because if they did they would already be fans without having to have the franchise given a radical face lift just to appeal to them so having that as the back catalog of history to be exposed to after being won over by the movie seems like a disrespectful bait and switch. I'm probably overthinking this as normal but isn't one the current problems that the franchise suffers from its divisiveness resulting in most outings being approached cynically before they even find their footing because the fanbase is so divided that every action seems like it is disregarding some aspect of the fanbase or another?

Pleasing Sonic fans is virtually impossible. 

[Sonic Fan J]

So then what would you advise? Do you think attempting to bring in a new large audience that has no interest in the franchise as it currently is going to help matters, or do you advocate for dropping the franchise as it currently is, fans and all, so that a fresh start can be taken should the movie have the success SEGA and Paramount are hoping for?

[a knothole resident]

3 minutes ago, STK77 said:

Pleasing Sonic fans is virtually impossible. 

I think this is why the movie needs to be its own thing.  It avoids risking alienation from the fans of a certain Sonicverse, so from a marketing perspective, as polarizing as this story seems, fans of all incarnations will collectively experience a new adventure for the first time.

[Gotta Go Rational]

3 hours ago, Apollo Chungus said:

*post*

Apollo, I would say the opinion that Roger should voice Sonic in the movie isn’t an unpopular one on these forums. That’s because this is a Sonic the Hedgehog based forum. Nearly every active member here would consider themselves a Sonic fan in some regard, and don’t need any kind of pull to get them into theatres. Most of us on these forums will likely watch the movie, some of us will declare prior to release they won’t watch it, then end up watching it anyway. A tiny minority will abstain completely.

But movies cannot rely on a franchise’s already existing fanbase alone to generate as much profit as they want. They want casuals, non-gamers, families, normies, whatever group name you want to give those demographics.  One strategy that can be used to get people into a movie is the concept of stunt-casting. This can involve hiring a famous household name (or as close to that term as their wallets are willing to pay for) actor to play/voice a character, not necessarily because they are the perfect person in mind for the character, but because they want the famous name attached to the movie for marketing purposes. More people will pick up interest or at least be aware of the existence of the Sonic movie if, say, Tom Cruise was voicing the character, (I know he’d be an awful choice, I’m just using an insanely famous name to highlight my point) over “Roger Craig who”? (For the record, I really like Smith voicing Sonic. I’m just saying he isn’t a household name.) Marketing research has shown that stunt casting can work. Not all the time, but it can. And oftentimes movie studios are willing to take the risk of hiring a more famous and expensive name in the name of getting more butts in theatre seats come release.

So it depends on what you mean when you say that Roger "should" voice Sonic in the movie. Do you mean “should” in the sense of retaining a sense of integrity to the source material? I think you do, and I would agree. Or do you mean “should” in the sense of wanting the movie to be as successful as possible? If it’s the former, I think most of us already established Sonic fans would agree with you. This is a Sonic forum, you’re preaching to the choir, we’re fans already. It’s not a controversial opinion here. If it’s the latter, then I would hesitate to fully agree. You’re example of Jim Cummings voicing Winnie the Pooh is interesting. Another example that comes to mind for me is Peter Cullen voicing Optimus Prime in the live action Transformers movies. But Cummings/Cullen have been voicing those characters much, much longer than Smith has been voicing Sonic. 30+ years vs 8 years. There are still Sonic fans who “grew up” remembering Drummond voicing Sonic, and I think possibly even more who remember Griffith voicing Sonic. As a result Sonic’s voice is not as distinct as Pooh’s or Prime’s, his voice wouldn’t be considered as iconic or as memorable considering it’s changed within relatively recent memory. Having said that, the producers of those movies have taken the risk of having a less famous name voice those characters than what they could’ve went with. (Although they did end up getting famous names to voice some of the other robots in the Transformers movies, if memory serves.)

Regardless, an element of a movie's financial success can sometimes depend on the star power of the names attached. Again, I would prefer it if Roger Craig Smith voiced Sonic too. It would retain a certain sense of authenticity and connection to the games. The movie producers would go for it as well if the film was guaranteed to be a massive success, considering he’d be cheaper than a more famous name. But when it comes to a Hollywood movie, especially one based off an existing franchise, many decisions are going to come down to “Do we make this decision to appeal to the existing fanbase, or spend more money to go in a different direction in an endeavour to achieve greater mainstream success?” These are the kind of calculations that must be taken into account if you want the movie to be as successful as possible. It’s not so much “Different direction = Mainstream Success”,  It’s more “Different direction = Mainstream Success?”

I would hazard to guess that is likely the discussion the producers are having when mulling over who will portray Sonic, a discussion that in my opinion, is a little more nuanced than “There’s no reason not to.”

 

...watch Sonic end up being mute.

[STK77]

35 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

So then what would you advise? Do you think attempting to bring in a new large audience that has no interest in the franchise as it currently is going to help matters, or do you advocate for dropping the franchise as it currently is, fans and all, so that a fresh start can be taken should the movie have the success SEGA and Paramount are hoping for?

I think the fans need to stop being so strict with themselves and loosen up a bit. The fanbase has been very narrow-minded as of late. 

[Sonic Fan J]

I don't mean to come across as ignorant or patronizing, but could you clarify what you mean by loosening up and not being so strict with themselves. As it is, most Sonic fans from what I've observed give almost everything new thing in the franchise a chance regardless of their opinions going into it. This includes BOOM! when there was an extreme fear that everything they love about the franchise was going to be swept under the rug for it. Right now with the movie that is from what I can tell a similar concern; that it will be so divorced from what is loved about the franchise that here won't be anything for them to latch onto. That's not to say that they won't give the movie a chance (I can't say for myself beyond not paying/paying extra to see at least) and possibly even like it, but that there is a general concern that they won't get what they would be going in to see; Sonic the Hedgehog as they know him from his 27 year franchise.

[PeterPancake]

11 minutes ago, STK77 said:

I think the fans need to stop being so strict with themselves and loosen up a bit. The fanbase has been very narrow-minded as of late. 

And this is a huge problem. As Van said - Movie Sonic will not be classic Sonic, he will not he modern Sonic, he will not be Boom Sonic. He will be his OWN character; a new interpretation of the character.  And that is proving to be something a lot of fans are having a hard time accepting. That's why they tore into Tom, Jim Carrey Eggman etc - they keep expecting this movie to be run the same way as the games  using the same thought process and same rules. That's why there will be so many disappointed with this movie.

[Groovy[K]2000]

1 minute ago, PeterPancake said:

And this is a huge problem. As Van said - Movie Sonic will not be classic Sonic, he will not he modern Sonic, he will not be Boom Sonic. He will be his OWN character; a new interpretation of the character.  And that is proving to be something a lot of fans are having a hard time accepting. That's why they tore into Tom, Jim Carrey Eggman etc - they keep expecting this movie to be run the same way as the games  using the same thought process and same rules. That's why there will be so many disappointed with this movie.

Facts. That's literally the main reason this movie is getting hate, besides the fact that video game movies don't usually work too well.