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


Badnik Mechanic

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15 hours ago, Polkadi~☆ said:

Those pieces of concept art really shows how misguided the direction of the film was before changing things, as it leaned heavily into the realistic bent. None of those pieces of concept art felt like anything you'd find in the Sonic franchise, even if they look cool. I'm glad things changed around and the lizards were replaced with the Echidna tribe, but sheesh, the fact that those designs were ever a thing is extremely telling for the development of the film.

At the very least, I hope the film's change to closely reflect the designs from the original (and still very successful) property serve as a wakeup call to Paramount executives, and Hollywood film executives everywhere. If it ain't broke and so on.

I agree. I never understood why Paramount or Hollywood in general always wanted to make these cartoonish properties realistic, when it clashes too much with the original property.  It does make me wonder though that now that Sonic's design has changed to resemble his video game counterpart more closely, would that change the direction of the plots that the executives were planning in the beginning or will they still go on with the stories they have planned, regardless of the changes in the designs?

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Oh sheesh those lizard designs. Glad they changed them to echidnas, because that would’ve clashed really badly with Sonic’s cartoony redesign. Longclaw still kept her original design though...

Urgh, that reminds me I really want to see Longclaw again. Wouldn’t even mind seeing her in Sonic media outside the movie, but I doubt that will ever happen. D=

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2 minutes ago, Gabz Girl said:

Oh sheesh those lizard designs. Glad they changed them to echidnas, because that would’ve clashed really badly with Sonic’s cartoony redesign. Longclaw still kept her original design though...

Urgh, that reminds me I really want to see Longclaw again. Wouldn’t even mind seeing her in Sonic media outside the movie, but I doubt that will ever happen. D=

The novelisation explains she comes from a race of warrior owls that comes from a different planet from sonic so that explains the clashing tones I guess

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Any word on an early digital release yet, like they're doing with Birds of Prey and The Invisible Man? Because I'm raring to watch this again from quarantine/lockdown!

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Sonic's heading digital early on March 31st. The DVD and Blu-ray has also been confirmed for May 19th. Press release with bonuses:

Get ready for epic fun and super-sonic action when everyone’s favorite hedgehog races home in the blockbuster hit SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, debuting early for purchase on Digital March 31, 2020 from Paramount Home Entertainment. The film will be available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and for rental on demand or disc May 19. 

The Digital*, 4K Ultra HD, and Blu-ray releases are packed with sensational bonus features: See Sonic the Hedgehog’s next adventure around the world in a new animation; get more of Sonic in deleted scenes; laugh at the hilarious blooper reel; explore the origins of the legendary blue hedgehog; see Jim Carrey bring Dr. Robotnik to life; watch along with awesome commentary by director Jeff Fowler and the voice of Sonic, Ben Schwartz; and more! Plus, for a limited time, the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray Combo packs will include a printed, Limited Edition comic book featuring an adventure with Sonic and The Donut Lord. 

Powered with incredible speed, Sonic the Hedgehog (voiced by Ben Schwartz), aka The Blue Blur, embraces his new home on Earth. That is, until he accidentally knocks out the power grid and sparks the attention of super-uncool evil genius Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey). Now it’s super-villain vs. super-sonic in an all-out race across the globe to stop Robotnik from using his unique power for world domination. Sonic teams up with The Donut Lord, aka Sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), to save the planet in this action-packed hit that’s fun for the whole family.

BONUS FEATURES ON DIGITAL*, 4K ULTRA HD COMBO, & BLU-RAY COMBO

Commentary by director Jeff Fowler and the voice of Sonic, Ben Schwartz 
Around the World in 80 Seconds—See Sonic’s next adventure! 
Deleted Scenes—Director Jeff Fowler introduces deleted scenes 
Bloopers—Laugh along with Jim Carrey and the cast 
“Speed Me Up” Music Video 
For the Love of Sonic—Jim Carrey and the cast discuss what Sonic the Hedgehog means to them 
Building Robotnik with Jim Carrey—See Jim Carrey bring supervillain Dr. Robotnik to life 
The Blue Blur: Origins of Sonic—Explore the origins of the legendary Blue Blur 
Sonic On Set—Visit the set with the voice of Sonic, Ben Schwartz

The 4K Ultra HD Digital and 4K Ultra HD disc releases present the film in Dolby Vision®, which brings entertainment to life through ultra-vivid picture quality with spectacular colors, highlights that are up to 40 times brighter, and blacks that are 10 times darker. The film also boasts a Dolby Atmos® soundtrack remixed specifically for the home to place audio anywhere in the room, including overhead**. 

The SONIC THE HEDGEHOG DVD includes the feature film in standard definition.

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This is awesome! Now I can watch the movie on digital much earlier than I anticipated!

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Check out some of these Sonic characters in movie style that I found. I could imagine the other Sonic characters looking like these in potential future sequels.:

 

Here is a good look of the Sonic Movie statue.:

Spoiler

 

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Apparently the movie will be getting a new "Sonic Short" along with it.

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It's weird how we're still not getting that Sonic Sez about phones in a movie theatre that was announced IIRC.

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An interview with Alin Bolcas who is one of the character modelers for Sonic.:

Spoiler

Thanks for speaking with us, Alin. Tell us about yourself and what you did on the Sonic project

I’m a character artist focused on modeling and facial expressions. I’ve started my professional career not long ago, graduated the Computer Animation course from Bournemouth University just over a year ago and then got hired as a modeler at MPC London. I was responsible for concept sculpting, modeling and creating the facial shapes of the redesigned Sonic.

How did you become involved with the film? What were you tasked with?

I was working on a different show when the news about the redesign started buzzing. On that same day, I had a meeting with my HOD after which I simply got tasked to take the previous Sonic model and reshape it into the very fresh paint overs and get it closer to the original game design. I felt really fortunate to be chosen to do it – I reckon part of the reason was that most of my personal pieces were stylized so my passion for this kind of work bridged the gap in professional experience.

Why was a redesign of the Sonic character needed? What was the goal with the new version?

From what I know, he got redesigned because the fans asked for it. The goal was to run in the opposite direction of the criticism and land on something cuter and more appealing which everyone would hopefully like. I was actually never against the first version. The first design simply lived in a more realistic world but I think that vision was too distant from what the audience expected him to be so it resulted in a negative response.

What were the biggest challenges you faced during production? Were there time constraints?

I’d say the very first days should have been the toughest given the gravity of the situation but it came so out of nowhere that by the time I realized it, we were in a safe zone. I think I was too focused on trying to give the best that I could so I luckily didn’t have time to think about much else. The really challenging bit came later on when I got to sculpting the facial shapes. It was a fun balancing act to meet the aesthetic requirements that the clients and animators asked for while keeping a relatively stable rig. I really didn’t feel pressured by time, I just knew we obviously had to finish him as fast as we could – in fact, the urgency of the matter had a positive effect on me, it got me more involved and I learned so much more.

Did you use ZBrush in your process? If so, how did it help?

Yes, it played a key role very early on in taking the previous Sonic and changing proportions and quickly iterating over the new design while preserving topology & UV in the attempt of salvaging as much as we could. Later, I’ve used it to sculpt some high poly details and extract displacements but I’d also quickly jump back and forth for handy for features like ZRemesher, Smart ReSym and so on.

What has the response been to the character redesign?

Amazing! Honestly, I’m never too happy looking back at my own work but I’m glad so many people went to see it and seem to have enjoyed how it turned out!

Source

 

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Seeing as the movie has been a box office success do you guys think they will increase the budget for the next film and if so how much ? personally with the first film being around $90m can see them jumping to $150m or something around that for the next movie, which would hopefully mean we can have more time in sonic's world.

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10 hours ago, A sonic fan said:

Seeing as the movie has been a box office success do you guys think they will increase the budget for the next film and if so how much ? personally with the first film being around $90m can see them jumping to $150m or something around that for the next movie, which would hopefully mean we can have more time in sonic's world.

I think that they will increase the budget for the next film and maybe there will be more scenes of Sonic's World since now they can add in more characters from the franchise, like Tails and Knuckles. Also, this would allow them to open up more story lines that are involved in Sonic's world.

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I don't see what would be the point of establishing Sonic as an effective exile who makes a town on Earth become his Gotham if the movies weren't going to focus on Earth.

Tails is already on Earth. Eggman will find his way back. We haven't even seen Amy and Knuckles so they can have or end up with no plots/characters endlessly tying them to Sonic Planet. I have no doubt that we'll see it again, but only in the most dramatic situations. I think anyone expecting the sequels won't overall stick to the technique that made the movie a hit is letting themselves walk into a letdown. I say that since I've noticed in both here and other boards like the 'chans that there's this hope the sequel/s will be the Sonic movie everyone who's not in favor of how the last one turned out want (including characters like Shadow or Blaze namely, Chaos Emeralds, etc.).

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25 minutes ago, Almar said:

I don't see what would be the point of establishing Sonic as an effective exile who makes a town on Earth become his Gotham if the movies weren't going to focus on Earth.

Tails is already on Earth. Eggman will find his way back. We haven't even seen Amy and Knuckles so they can have or end up with no plots/characters endlessly tying them to Sonic Planet. I have no doubt that we'll see it again, but only in the most dramatic situations. I think anyone expecting the sequels won't overall stick to the technique that made the movie a hit is letting themselves walk into a letdown. I say that since I've noticed in both here and other boards like the 'chans that there's this hope the sequel/s will be the Sonic movie everyone who's not in favor of how the last one turned out want (including characters like Shadow or Blaze namely, Chaos Emeralds, etc.).

Jeff Fowler himself said they made it Earth-based because of budget. They want to explore more of Sonic's world

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He can say whatever he wants. Money talks. Also, from what I've seen from fanart and YouTube and so on is that the normie audience actually received the humans/Earth elements rather well unlike what happened with Elise or 06. Therefore, it would be silly to just ignore them in the sequel/s. At worst, you'll get Tom running around with Sonic on Sonic World.

And accept it or not, they're not making movies for the fans. Meaning the crowd they reached towards don't really care if they never see Blaze or Cream or if the movies mostly happen on Earth. Wouldn't be surprised if we never really see any post-Genesis characters in sequels besides Shadow.

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1 hour ago, Almar said:

He can say whatever he wants. Money talks. Also, from what I've seen from fanart and YouTube and so on is that the normie audience actually received the humans/Earth elements rather well unlike what happened with Elise or 06. Therefore, it would be silly to just ignore them in the sequel/s. At worst, you'll get Tom running around with Sonic on Sonic World.

And accept it or not, they're not making movies for the fans. Meaning the crowd they reached towards don't really care if they never see Blaze or Cream or if the movies mostly happen on Earth. Wouldn't be surprised if we never really see any post-Genesis characters in sequels besides Shadow.

They are making the movies for EVERYONE, including the fans, which is the best possible thing they could do.

Money is also a factor, I doubt we are ever gonna see a full CGI fantasy world movie, because of budget, and they can't ignore the human side, so it will be both, I assume since the first movie was about exploring Earth, the sequels will explore other planets, and we will still see the hometown Green Hills with its human characters, as it's Sonic's home now.

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4 hours ago, Almar said:

And accept it or not, they're not making movies for the fans.

Well, the massive amount of fan service in the movie says otherwise.

The phrase you're looking for is actually that they're "not making a movie just for the fans".

There's a difference. They definitely did make this movie with fans in mind, just not exclusively.

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Okay, so I think I may be bored enough to give an in-depth explanation on my opinion of the film after seeing it a night or two ago.

So to start off, my opinion that it's corporate garbage still stands. Now, this doesn't mean it's in the same category of garbage that the likes of The Rooms or the new Cats are. At worst, it's mediocrity with moments, but it still feels very by the numbers and soulless. 

My main thing about it is that it literally did seem like it was rushing through plot points to check them off. We see Longclaw for the entirety of one minute, but the film tries to pull at the heartstrings because she told Sonic to be careful once then sacrificed herself, doing none of the legwork to actually show the bond between the two so you can actually feel for them. 

The same holds between Tom and Sonic. Tom spends the first third of the film annoyed by Sonic's antics. Then the film gets them to bond and have Tom start to like Sonic...over a montage, conveniently rushing the part where they actually build the dynamic. As such, the development comes off as inorganic and disjointed. I didn't like Tom himself though to begin with, and he didn't really improve much by the end. 

Robotnik in this film was...weird. Like, his humour was so out of step with the rest of the film it was more "wtf is going on" than amusing. And why is Agent Stone employed by him? I don't think they ever explained why Robotnik hired him, or why Stone continued to work for him. 

Any other character isn't even worth mentioning here because their actual presence in the film was so minimal. Even the wife character was barely in it and I remember her being a headlining character. They certainly didn't have personality worth talking about. 

The message of the film was kinda fucked. Like, the message with Tom was that he should stay in Green Hills to look after the people he cares about but;
1. We never get shown him actually looking after them. He even complains that he's called for menial work that isn't appropriate for a police officer. The film tries to argue that this is because they put their trust in him but it seems to me more like they can't be arsed to call the appropriate lines. Then again, this is an English town/city woman looking at a mouthpiece for more rural American values, which I don't really take stock of. One could argue that his wife would be one, but she was willing to move with him so that wasn't an issue at all.
2. The actual elephant in the room for me is that the film seems dead against Tom looking to improve himself and further his opportunities when Green Hills is a complete dead end. Like, how will things change for him now that he's remaining in Green Hills? He's still going to be bored with his job and there's still no room for growth by the looks of it. 

The pop culture references really stuck out in a bad way. Not the flossing, because that's a dance move and doesn't need context to be understood (Sonic is happy, he does a funny dance to celebrate). No, it was the weirdly frequent plugs to different movies and stuff that really got me, because they felt like they were there for the sake of being there, and are certainly things that you would need further context to understand, especially if you're the target audience of the film and are too young to know, for example, who Vin Diesel is and why he would be referenced in an action sequence because the role they would have seen of his (probably Groot) doesn't lend itself to the circumstances (yeah, I know about the concept of parental bonus, but this will still age like milk because of how clunkily it's handled). Also the less said about the product placement (looking at you Olive Garden) the better. 

 

So overall, this was at least not a slog to go through because of its pacing, but I didn't enjoy it, and no amount of surface level references to the games would be able to fix that (and it really was surface level).

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Covers for the physical release have been updated on Amazon to their presumably final form:

Very small changes, but thought it was worth noting.

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On 3/23/2020 at 3:58 AM, Almar said:

I don't see what would be the point of establishing Sonic as an effective exile who makes a town on Earth become his Gotham if the movies weren't going to focus on Earth.

Tails is already on Earth. Eggman will find his way back. We haven't even seen Amy and Knuckles so they can have or end up with no plots/characters endlessly tying them to Sonic Planet. I have no doubt that we'll see it again, but only in the most dramatic situations. I think anyone expecting the sequels won't overall stick to the technique that made the movie a hit is letting themselves walk into a letdown. I say that since I've noticed in both here and other boards like the 'chans that there's this hope the sequel/s will be the Sonic movie everyone who's not in favor of how the last one turned out want (including characters like Shadow or Blaze namely, Chaos Emeralds, etc.).

I do agree that the sequels shouldn't abandon the Earth stories with Tom and Maddie since they already introduced that concept into the movies and it would be frustrating if they just dropped these characters in the next films just to focus on the Sonic Cast.  On the other hand, the sequel and the possible future movies can find a balance between the two concepts by having Sonic have some adventures on Earth, but still explore more of his home world in the process.  If Knuckles does get introduced in the sequel, then I bet we will see many scenes with Knuckles on Angel Island.

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There will be a fight between Sonic and Tails at some point. Just as Sonic is settling into his new "family", Tails arrives and pretty much orders him to come back with him. This creates the necessary tension between the two,  and this continues until either Robotnik returns, or a new enemy arrives. Not sure how this will end though.

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