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

[SBR2]

18 hours ago, Mayor D said:

https://www.sonicstadium.org/2017/01/toyworld-solid-roadmap-of-sonic-games-for-next-few-years/

Sega are now taking licensing queries for the movie.

Odds are we'll get some interesting news on this film this year if that's being done.

I'd certainly hope we'd hear something about the movie this year if it's coming out next year. Then again we're like two months away from the Power Rangers movie and there's still no full trailer so what do I know.

[DaddlerTheDalek]

On 12.1.2017 at 3:51 PM, SBR2 said:

I'd certainly hope we'd hear something about the movie this year if it's coming out next year. Then again we're like two months away from the Power Rangers movie and there's still no full trailer so what do I know.

I think we could get a teaser poster & teaser trailer this year.

[SonicComicFanboy]

I fully expect to see a teaser & poster reveal at E3 &/or SDCC this year.

[kadybat]

On 1/8/2017 at 9:41 PM, Mountaindewandsprite said:

I hope the characters look realistic like these:

Why?

[Celestia]

The fan reactions to that would probably be pretty funny, at least for the first ten minutes before it got old.

Does that count as a positive?

[Zippo]

I have no doubt in my mind that this will be a horrendous disaster. The fundamental failure of the movie is making this a live action hybrid. Sonic just fits in poorly with real people, it just does not work. You just know they're going to add in cringe inducing child actors and singers. This will not go well. Video game movies have a stigma for a reason.

On 1/8/2017 at 11:41 PM, Mountaindewandsprite said:

I hope the characters look realistic like these:

 

I feel my lunch coming up.

[Baconjack]

8 hours ago, Zippo said:

I have no doubt in my mind that this will be a horrendous disaster. The fundamental failure of the movie is making this a live action hybrid. Sonic just fits in poorly with real people, it just does not work. You just know they're going to add in cringe inducing child actors and singers. This will not go well. Video game movies have a stigma for a reason.

My thoughts exactly. When this film first got announced years back as a PG-13 film in the style of Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy, I was excited. However, as time goes on, my excitement for the film has greatly dropped as the style of the film constantly changed. Now, with the film looking more likely to be a Smurfs and Chipmunks ripoff, I've got no doubt that this film will be both a critical and possibly commercial flop like the Ratchet & Clank film released early last year. Obviously, this is a video game film, but this Sonic film is shaping up to match the quality of a Disney direct-to-video sequel, or any film directed by Zack Snyder or Michael Bay. Live-action hybrid does not work with Sonic, and this was most prominent in '06. 

The film's only saving grace at this moment is the excellent animation work of Marza. And if they announce any child actors or singers in this film, I'll pull off an AVGN and not watch the film. I doubt this will be the case though, I'm expecting the film will use the existing voice cast from the games at this point. 

[SonicComicFanboy]

7 hours ago, Sir Laptop said:

My thoughts exactly. When this film first got announced years back as a PG-13 film in the style of Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy, I was excited. However, as time goes on, my excitement for the film has greatly dropped as the style of the film constantly changed. Now, with the film looking more likely to be a Smurfs and Chipmunks ripoff, I've got no doubt that this film will be both a critical and possibly commercial flop like the Ratchet & Clank film released early last year. Obviously, this is a video game film, but this Sonic film is shaping up to match the quality of a Disney direct-to-video sequel, or any film directed by Zack Snyder or Michael Bay. Live-action hybrid does not work with Sonic, and this was most prominent in '06. 

The film's only saving grace at this moment is the excellent animation work of Marza. And if they announce any child actors or singers in this film, I'll pull off an AVGN and not watch the film. I doubt this will be the case though, I'm expecting the film will use the existing voice cast from the games at this point. 

 I don' think the film will be anywhere as bad as the recent Chipmunks and Smurfs outing, it does have a Deadpool alum working on it after all.  My only worry is they will do something stupid like give Sonic & Co an annoying Chris Thorndyke-esque human kid to hang around with.

 

  Also it will be really hard to pick a proper live-action Robotnik/Eggman.

 

  But yea, At best the movie will be average which I can live with, at worst its garbage, but hey, at least it'll probably end up better then the Mario Bros. movie from the 90's & Doom, would be pretty hard to be worse then those. XD

[johnboy3434]

So, as far as Sonic's backstory goes, do you think they'll go with the Kintobor/experiment backstory from the American release way back when, or are they going with the Japanese version of "animals from the South Island are furries"?

[Kellan]

I hope they don't do Kintobor, just because I always thought the name was silly.

Oh wait, I just thought of something worse. What if they end up having Sonic actually come out of a video game, like the Fat Albert movie? That would be awful!

[SonicComicFanboy]

52 minutes ago, johnboy3434 said:

So, as far as Sonic's backstory goes, do you think they'll go with the Kintobor/experiment backstory from the American release way back when, or are they going with the Japanese version of "animals from the South Island are furries".

 

 

 But yea they don't really need to explain why anthropomorphic animals exist, just focus on telling a good story.

[Mr. Armstrong]

On 30/1/2017 at 9:17 PM, Kellan said:

I hope they don't do Kintobor, just because I always thought the name was silly.

Oh wait, I just thought of something worse. What if they end up having Sonic actually come out of a video game, like the Fat Albert movie? That would be awful!

Eggman sounds worse but sega still uses it, on the other hand.

If this is true it would be interesting to know what would happen with development of the Sonic movie.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

On 1/30/2017 at 8:31 PM, johnboy3434 said:

So, as far as Sonic's backstory goes, do you think they'll go with the Kintobor/experiment backstory from the American release way back when, or are they going with the Japanese version of "animals from the South Island are furries"?

I would be EXTREMELY surprised if they went back to that ancient origin that's no longer remotely consistent with the franchise's identity (assuming it ever was). My ideal would be not explaining Sonic's origin at all - he's just a funny animal with super speed, The End. And considering Sega's keeping a closer eye on the character and franchise than they used to, I think it's at least fairly likely I'll get my wish (though certainly not guaranteed).

[Chris Knopps]

9 minutes ago, Monkey Destruction Switch said:

I would be EXTREMELY surprised if they went back to that ancient origin that's no longer remotely consistent with the franchise's identity (assuming it ever was). My ideal would be not explaining Sonic's origin at all - he's just a funny animal with super speed, The End. And considering Sega's keeping a closer eye on the character and franchise than they used to, I think it's at least fairly likely I'll get my wish (though certainly not guaranteed).

That... Sounds way to minimalistic/boring to me... I'd like for Sonic to have SOME extra meat on him than that.

This is working in good and bad ways. GOOD because of the comics getting their reboot and BOOM slowly fading from existence, bad because they're still doing things to make people skeptical ala Lost World and Project 2017, the former causing issues with consumers and the later, well, Game Scoop...

I'm gonna keep saying this. Thank God for SEGA of America, Fire and Ice definitely made BOOM end on a perfect note, then Whitehead with Mania, those folks deserve many inappropriate rewards I'll not say here.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

5 minutes ago, Chris Knopps said:

That... Sounds way to minimalistic/boring to me... I'd like for Sonic to have SOME extra meat on him than that.

This is working in good and bad ways. GOOD because of the comics getting their reboot and BOOM slowly fading from existence, bad because they're still doing things to make people skeptical ala Lost World and Project 2017, the former causing issues with consumers and the later, well, Game Scoop...

I'm gonna keep saying this. Thank God for SEGA of America, Fire and Ice definitely made BOOM end on a perfect note, then Whitehead with Mania, those folks deserve many inappropriate rewards I'll not say here.

Well, just to be clear, I'm not saying Sonic can't have character depth or development. I just personally prefer to not go into detail about where he came from. It COULD work, but I think it's "safer" not to - I would be shocked if they could come up with something that anything close to the whole Sonic fandom would consider acceptable. Furthermore and more importantly, it just isn't necessary in any way - you can tell a great, fun story in the present without worrying about the past too much. I feel like that matches Sonic's own attitude, anyway. You can certainly go into things like how he met other characters, but we don't need to learn where Sonic himself ultimately came from IMO. There's a certain level of minimalism which I think is actually a strength and maybe even a signature trait of the series - cartoony characters with evocative attitudes fighting evil robots and getting magical gemstones, no explanation needed, just enjoy what it is! - and I think it can be embraced on some level while having good characterization and stories at the same time.

[johnboy3434]

My only objection is that if he's going to be interacting with human beings... I'm sorry, but a world where anthropomorphic animals and humans live side-by-side like it ain't no thing is in need of some explanation. Either you need an exposition dump in the beginning describing this alien society, have Sonic and friends be the result of genetic experimentation, have the animals be an isolated culture making first contact with humanity, or something else to that effect. That's not "spoiling the magic", that's basic storytelling skills.

On a more fantastical note, not a single video game movie has ever gotten a positive response from critics (the closest was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and I think its 44% on RottenTomatoes was solely on the merit of its visuals). Wouldn't it be something if Sonic the Hedgehog, of all fucking things, broke that trend? That would be one last shot fired in the old schoolyard debate: "Sega did what Nintendidn't: Make a decent film."*

*For reference, four films based on Nintendo properties have received a wide American release: the infamous live-action Super Mario Bros., and the first three Pokémon anime features. By contrast, Sega's lone contribution to the subgenre thus far is House of the Dead, one of Uwe Boll's... works.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

1 hour ago, johnboy3434 said:

My only objection is that if he's going to be interacting with human beings... I'm sorry, but a world where anthropomorphic animals and humans live side-by-side like it ain't no thing is in need of some explanation. Either you need an exposition dump in the beginning describing this alien society, have Sonic and friends be the result of genetic experimentation, have the animals be an isolated culture making first contact with humanity, or something else to that effect. That's not "spoiling the magic", that's basic storytelling skills.

Though I know it may not be uncommon for people to be weirded out by such things, personally, I really, really, REALLY disagree with this. Anthropomorphic animals are surreal to begin with, so I don't get why having them live alongside humans is suddenly too weird to tolerate. I mean, I can sorta get that it's not what's expected, and I do think it feels a bit more natural if society is mostly made from one or another, but at the end of the day, I don't see why so many other cartoony concepts can just be accepted with no explanation but this one can't. If they make human society seem too realistic it might be weird, but there's no reason they HAVE to do that. As long as it's a reasonably cartoonish (I know it's live-action but I'm talking in terms of tone) and unusual world in general, I don't think it will ruin anything to have anthropomorphic animals just happen to be one of the unrealistic aspects. This is probably how things like old Looney Tunes cartoons and the original Dragon Ball "got away with this", too.

It may be unusual or even "weird", but that doesn't mean it's bad, much less a violation of "basic storytelling skills". I doubt there will be many viewers who struggle to accept it to such an extent that it actually harms their enjoyment of the movie, unless they handle it in a particularly bad way or something.

Also, I honestly wonder, do you feel like the games are also deficient for failing to address this? Because they've shown at least one human alongside at least one anthropomorphic animal from the very beginning.

[johnboy3434]

36 minutes ago, Monkey Destruction Switch said:

Also, I honestly wonder, do you feel like the games are also deficient for failing to address this? Because they've shown at least one human alongside at least one anthropomorphic animal from the very beginning.

It became a problem once we got to Adventure. Robotnik/Eggman, with his cartoonishly round body and two-foot-wide mustache, fit in with the anthropomorphic animals despite being a human. Then all of a sudden Sonic is lounging by the pool near a normally-proportioned human woman in a form-fitting bathing suit. Then in Adventure 2 there's suddenly a United States analogue, complete with President and shadowy intelligence agency that murders little girls for the sake of protecting its pet projects. The absurdity of Shadow the Hedgehog wasn't that he used guns, but that he used realistic looking guns, despite having giant cartoon gloves. The contrast was too glaring and in-your-face.

To contrast, look at when celebrities like Bing Crosby appeared in Looney Toons: They had disproportionately large heads and extremities, like Bugs and Daffy, but were still recognizable as themselves. When someone with completely normal proportions showed up, it was out of place and sometimes a punchline in itself.

It's a step closer to reality than the franchise had been up to that point, and that step was crucial for my immersion, and probably the immersion of a lot of players.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

2 hours ago, johnboy3434 said:

It became a problem once we got to Adventure. Robotnik/Eggman, with his cartoonishly round body and two-foot-wide mustache, fit in with the anthropomorphic animals despite being a human. Then all of a sudden Sonic is lounging by the pool near a normally-proportioned human woman in a form-fitting bathing suit. Then in Adventure 2 there's suddenly a United States analogue, complete with President and shadowy intelligence agency that murders little girls for the sake of protecting its pet projects. The absurdity of Shadow the Hedgehog wasn't that he used guns, but that he used realistic looking guns, despite having giant cartoon gloves. The contrast was too glaring and in-your-face.

To contrast, look at when celebrities like Bing Crosby appeared in Looney Toons: They had disproportionately large heads and extremities, like Bugs and Daffy, but were still recognizable as themselves. When someone with completely normal proportions showed up, it was out of place and sometimes a punchline in itself.

It's a step closer to reality than the franchise had been up to that point, and that step was crucial for my immersion, and probably the immersion of a lot of players.

That does make sense, and in general I agree. But as far as the movie is concerned, I have a question: Even with live actors, do you think it's possible they could give the movie a cartoonish enough feel that the existence of Sonic characters wouldn't feel thematically inappropriate? Not saying whether they will or not (we don't know anything about the movie), just whether or not you think it could happen in a satisfactory way.

[Baconjack]

If anyone is sceptical as I am about this film, I suggest all of you go watch Fist Fight, which I just believe got released in cinemas. The guys who are writing this film both wrote this film, and my hopes have been raised just a little bit. I thought they would both be terrible ex-Disney channel writers, but I'm obviously wrong with this. Seems like we're on the right track so far.

[Ayliffe]

4 minutes ago, Sir Laptop said:

If anyone is sceptical as I am about this film, I suggest all of you go watch Fist Fight, which I just believe got released in cinemas. The guys who are writing this film both wrote this film, and my hopes have been raised just a little bit.

...yeah, my hopes just plummeted

[Baconjack]

6 minutes ago, Ayliffe said:

...yeah, my hopes just plummeted

I watched it just today to get an overall feel for the writers. They're a lot better than Disney Channel alumni. Good for an otherwise relatively shitty comedy movie. Rotten Tomatoes is reliable, but not with every movie, hence why DC movies struggle to get above 25% on RT now. 

I thought these guys were going to be garbage ex-Disney Channel writers or Pontaff wannabes. I'm glad I'm wrong. 

[SBR2]

Fist Fight looks like one of those movies critics will hate but I will love.

Also Sir Laptop DC Movies struggle because they're shit and Pontaff are awesome.

[CottonCandy]

1 hour ago, Ayliffe said:

...yeah, my hopes just plummeted

The original writers aren't involved in the sonic movie anymore, right? We got new writers, Patrick Casey and Josh Miller, if I'm not mistaken. 

[SonicComicFanboy]

Yeah, Fist Fight just looks like more low brow juvenile "adult" humor.  I would hope and pray a Sonic film would be nowhere that bad.