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

[Shadowlax]

That's the type of humor I wouldn't use as a barometer for this , or rather it depends how live action this movie is. The reason that movie it iis how it is, because its a redband comedy movie, the actors get away with just cursing and improving because in these types of movies you don't have to write much, you put funny people on screen get them to say shit vaguely related to what plot you have going and what you need. Kevin heart has made a living off stuff like this the past few years. 

I would imagine the sonic movie would be more structured, you can't leave it to improve when shit has to be animated. And considering the main draw will be animated animals, the live human parts are going to revolve around such things. Unless they pull a transformers and try to make the human parts the main parts , and make the animated character toy promos while the humans are main characters, then It might be hot ass garbage. So hopefully not, but we will see.  Though if they do go that route, we might get a shit ton of characters in the movies then, cuz toys. 

[AstroSeedP]

Using everything that's been confirmed as building blocks, how would you guys make this movie? 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

2 hours ago, CottonCandy said:

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. 

I believe we also got some film staff,  renowned for their work in the Deadpool movie.

[FriendBot]

I know, this is probably completely meaningless but we MIGHT have a release date for the Sonic movie.

A SEGA employee just tweeted out some stuff about the Sonic movie (yes, she also posted the fanmade poster so take that what you will)

And this just showed up on the movie's IMDB page.

So uh yeah, shall we count down to when we get to see this possible trainwreck?

EDIT: Whoops, looks like Ms. Marlene Sharp deleted those tweets about the movie. So uh yeah, nevermind. It's all a ruse. Sorry.

[CaptainRobo]

So, This man named Jeff Fowler who will be the director of the Sonic movie had previously directed an animated short called Gopher Broke which was released in 2004. Tim Miller did also work on it too.

Here is the film that he had made. Watch it if you like.

So, I wish good luck on him on directing this movie. But, I'm really skeptical on the CGI/Live Action part. If they are going with that direction, I could see that they could make it based on Sonic Adventure which take place in a city filled with humans. I don't expect this to be great as none of the video game movie adaptations were great. So, even though this get critically panned, at least we still got an fun action-packing movie to watch. It will be interesting what will this film will be about.

 

 

[FantasticMrRobb]

I don't think it'll be that bad, Head of Sonic Team said it's looking good.

I mean, that's not what assures me, but that if Sonic Team drops the ball again with something big as Sonic's first movie movie, it may be a little harder to recover financially this time than it was with the Boom games.

[CaptainRobo]

We don't know much about the movie, and I'm thinking that we will get the next batch of news about the movie at E3. So, I'm expecting that the Live Action-CGI hybrid film will be much like these commercials.:

      

 

But, as you know, I'm still skeptical on this film, but it should still be entertaining and fun to watch, but we will see.

                                                                                                      

[FantasticMrRobb]

To be honest, since SEGA and Sonic Team just have to make the movie live action CGI or whatever the correct terminology is for it, I'm glad we've seen what they could do with their commercials already. Because the 3 that you just linked look pretty damn nice. I was a little worried about it at first, but seeing how nice the Progressive and Sonic Boom commercials look, long as they're still in this direction, I think it'll be just fine.

Ultimate irony if one of the humans' name is Chris. It would be nothing short of poking fun at the community, lol.

[CaptainRobo]

Well, since that the movie will be live-action/CGI hybrid, I fully expected a plot about Sonic and his friends gets ended up in Station Square and will have to save the city from Dr. Eggman. I just hope they don't put most of the focus on the humans. But, as you know we will probably have to wait for E3 to see about this. Anyway, the only characters that I could see being in this film besides Sonic and Dr. Eggman are Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and possibly maybe Cream and Cheese and the Chaotix?

It's too bad that the movie will not be fully animated like this one. It would be an visual masterpiece.:

 

[Scritch the Cat]

On 2/17/2017 at 6:32 PM, Monkey Destruction Switch said:

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.

To be honest here, everyone saying "Sonic doesn't need to have his origins explained" might as well be saying "Sonic doesn't need to have a live-action/CGI Hybrid movie".  There are ample other media confirming that Sonic doesn't have to have a backstory to be entertaining, but they also show that he has to have something.  The various Sonic media that did just fine telling a present-day story about him, did so because their world was made for Sonic and vice-versa.  Take the first game for example; it had several backstories told externally, naturally contradicting one another, but you could jump right into the game not knowing what they were, and still get the best it had to offer.  Sonic's speed is a gift horse people don't have to look in the mouth while it's enabling him to do cool things like run through loops.  The special stages look like a nonsensical, psychedelic M. C. Escher dream, but they're fun to play and they get you the better ending, so it's not worth caring about too much.  Likewise, even if you didn't read any backstory you could pretty easily figure out what the game was about and what was at stake; Sonic was obviously an animal saving other animals and their gorgeous environment from somebody who was imprisoning the animals and polluting their environment.  The game adequately conveyed those plot points visually, and in a way that was exciting even if it was simple, and while future media would expand in plot complexity, they'd still harken back to the theme established there.

Put Sonic into live-action, and a lot of those assets are no longer a given.  The real world, for example, does not have an abundance of roads that go through loop-de-loops, or arrangements of objects spinning around in front of alternately angel fish and birds, or goofy-looking battle robots powered by animals, or a supporting cast of other anthropomorphic animals.  Sure; they could build some rollercoaster-like environments and fanciful robots and spinning jewel formations in the sky/sea with emeralds in their cores, or more likely they'd just make them CGI, and they could make some other CGI animals as Sonic's supporting cast, but if that's the route they're going, you kind of have to wonder why they even wanted a live-action element to the film.  Also, while this may be a petty dig, I've played enough modern Sonic games to determine that simply watching Sonic's most iconic antics happen isn't nearly as fun as controlling them.

So from where I'm standing, I don't expect a partially live-action film to duplicate the same appeal Sonic had in other media.  It needs to do something else with the brand and the character that wins people over in its own way, and yes; I think an origin story is the most obvious way; if not the only way.  An origin story has the advantage that it all-but necessitates the film being about Sonic.  The fatal flaw of that fan-made movie from a few years back--the one that impressively convinced Jaleel White to reprise his role--is that Sonic was barely in it.  I wasn't a big fan of those people's Mega Man film either, but at least that movie was actually following Mega Man; the scenario of their ostensible Sonic movie was that Robotnik was attacking G.U.N., and Sonic was showing up on occasion to bail them out--ostensibly on Planet Mobius, but it was very obviously Earth.  Look; if having generic soldiers, generic civilians, generic cities and generic forests is just a necessary evil you have to put up with in live-action films, then the surreal CGI hero had better be something really special and spend a lot of time onscreen.  Again, an origin story fills that role fine, and if you want more plot material to work with, it's best for the representatives of the "real world" not to take Sonic for granted; more can actually happen if he and the humans serve as each other's foils.

As for the formerly-slightly-official US backstory about Kintobor...yeah; I'm not a fan.  On the Sonic side of things, the backstory about him somehow already being a hedgehog who already runs fast but also living in Nebraska and being named Sonny and interning at a science company and not being blue until somehow running fast turns him that color, is just a really ridiculous combination of surreal and mundane, and as for Robotnik, I just hate the idea of good and evil being controlled by positive or negative energies that people get charged with; not the mention that the bit about his name flipping around when he turns evil is just stupidly unnecessary.  You don't need to put forth such a contrived reason someone is named "Robotnik" when it's obvious that he's obsessed with robots.

However, I just today came across a planned backstory made by the Japanese staff that I liked a lot better.  In this version, Sonic the Hedgehog would have been the reincarnation of an eccentric but heroic human test-pilot who died trying to break the sound barrier, returning as a powered-up version of the animal he was likened to as a human.  As a backstory to the games, I think it's too farfetched and arbitrary, but if they insist on having a human element in their movie, this is one I think has a lot of heart to it and also touches on things that are nostalgic to many people.  The only thing it lacks is a way of establishing the other iconic characters; the Robotniks could easily be worked in with the military science undertones, but the anthropomorphic characters require some more imagination.  Still, I'd love to see them try!

Edited May 16, 2017 by Scritch the Cat
Grammar corrections.

[RictalRose0]

Ah yeah the pilot backstory. I kinda like that one. And Sonic coming from Christmas Island sounds a bit more fitting that him being from freakin' Nebraska. Since the classic Sonic titles are ALL about islands. It also incorporates the pilot elementi into Sonic, whereas the Nebraska story has him already being a runner which I get but it's not as charming, and doesn't explain why he's got a plane and is a pilot. And yeah I don't like the "Robotnik was a good scientist until he was hit with the evil ray" story either. I dunno, it feels like it strips some of his character away. He's just evil because of an accident, instead of becoming like that out of his own greed and lust for power and control.

[Shadowlax]

On 2/17/2017 at 9:32 PM, Monkey Destruction Switch said:

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.

I don't think even in like unleashed where they looked super cartooned, humans besides the ones named robotnik, fit the bill of the aesthetic ever. They could literally always be animal people and it would be more visually interesting 100% of the time. Also the theme with eggman and his tech coming in and industrializing everything and turning things bad fighting nature. But sega decided to not give a shit about coherent themeing a while ago, and there is problably some sony exec who wants this like this, so they don't care if it fits. 

The thing that worse about this is the fact that its a movie, see in a game, there is a ( sometimes) fun video game, that you can play and you can just ignore the thematically weird humans juxtaposed that would easily be better as animal people you were helping out. But this is a movie, you have to just deal with it, or not watch it. And the last time sonic media that wasn't a game was filled with humans I don't care about was Sonic X, and that was horrible for the most part

The concern I have this project the most is about live action, but not in a direct sense. But its one I see happening commonly which is, this being a live action kids thing will give it an excuse to be bad. And it will be bad, and that's sort of it, because they don't really care about making a good movie, they care about making money and this shit will be formulaic as hell as to fall in line of all its ilk. I don't want it to be bad , two of my favorite movies of all time is a live action crossoever , who framed rodger rabbit and space jam. " its for kids" is an excuse to make a product that isn't really good, or entertaining even for that audience. And lord god please don't let it be trying to be funny, making terrible jokes about a series and fanbase they don't really understand. 

The best result is the early transformers movies, I mean the best result is sonic spacejam/who framed rodger rabbit , but I doubt thats happening. So under realistic current nostalgia hungry movie maker cynicism standards. Early transformers is the best result, it will not really be about sonic and friends, but the human characters, and sonic and friends will only be used for spectacle. It will kinda be funny, but not really and it will just be, ok. And i can live with that timeline. Bright side, they could do a shadow the hedgehog story legit with Live action crossover people . Real human not alien looking sa2 maria.

[Scritch the Cat]

Like it or not, in the Japanese canon, Sonic games always took place on (some sort of) Earth, that explains why humans whose last name is Robotnik are around to begin with, and if they're going for live-action, we almost certainly will get other humans...who hopefully won't be as terrible as Chris Thorndyke or Sam Whiticky, but who knows?  I think the key thing to remember in these sorts of scenarios is, someone or other is going to look alien.  Robotnik looking alien to Sonic's world wasn't a big issue because he was playing the role of an alien invader.  That gets rather more complicated when you have other characters, and in some cases, they might actually decide that it's more convenient to make Sonic the alien in the human world, ala Sonic X.

My preference would be that the anthropomorphic animals inhabit Earth but are rare, and have only been rediscovered relatively recently, after a war with the humans forced them into hiding.

[Blueknight V2.0]

These two pictures regarding the 2018 Sonic The Hedgehog movie I found online. The first one is a UK advertisement from the Sonic News Network Wikia. The second one I found was on DJ2 entertainment's (who is also helping make the movie) website links will be provided. http://dj2entertainment.com/new-page/   http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Untitled_Sonic_the_Hedgehog_feature_film 

 

Also I think the reason for announcing the third character in Sonic Forces a month early, is so Sega and/or Sony will announce the release date with a trailer at E3 2017. This ain't the first time media outside of games had trailers released at E3, look at E3 2014 with the Ratchet & Clank movie and Sonic Boom TV Series trailers. And also Sony recently along with Univesal released promo art for their upcoming 2017-2018 projects like goosebumps 2, Jumanji, Jurassic World 2 and an animated Grinch movie, Peter Rabbit and more. However among the movies not listed was the 2018 Sonic The Hedgehog movie. And looking at Sony Pictures Animation wikipedia page for upcoming films, i'd say Sonic would release in either April or May 2018.

 

[Blueknight V2.0]

The official Sonic The Hedgehog tweeted a post with a picture mimicing spider-man homecoming, the picture is not real and doesn't have anything to do with the Sonic 2018 movie. What is interesting is it says Get ready for the action/adventure movie of the year. This post comes almost 3 weeks before E3 2017 wher I think they will announce the release date, title and film details alongside a trailer. April or May 2018 is highly probable for release due to Sony Pictures Animation wikipedia page. Sony Pictures Animation is also a production partner with Sega and Marza Animation Planet for the movie.

 

[CaptainRobo]

Well, we will wait and see if they will announce some of the details about the movie. I could see them revealing a logo and a release date. I'm not sure if the voice actors will reprise their roles. Maybe they will, but we will see.

Anyway, we all know Marza is going doing the animation for the movie. If you want see more of their works. You can watch some of their works here.:

 

If you didn't know, they did also make an Resident Evil movie, which will be coming to the US on only one day.:

 

[Blueknight V2.0]

To have better promotion for the 2018 Sonic Movie, Sega could also be making a game based on the movie, I don't see why they wouldn't since most movies do get games based on them (for example: Ratchet & Clank Movie/PS4 2016).

[CaptainRobo]

Given how that this movie is being made by the same company that had made first two Smurfs movies, Pixels, Ghostbusters, and the Emoji Movie and have screwed up Spider Man two times. Sadly, the chance of this movie being good is zero. I just don't see the point of redesigning the characters just for the movie. As you see, for example, in this picture, the Spongebob movie which was kinda decent have their characters retain their designs when they showed up on the live action scenes. It show that you do not need to make them realistic just to make them fit in.

One of the writers who used to work on the movie say that Sonic and the others will get redesigned, but won't change that much in the film. I think it mean they will just put a few tweaks just to make them fit in the live action scenes. Maybe they will prove me wrong. I don't know. I just don't like the idea of making them look very realistic, it just feel wrong and creepy. Hopefully, they will retain their designs.

[Tracker_TD]

18 minutes ago, CoolRobo said:

Given how that this movie is being made by the same company that had made first two Smurfs movies, Pixels, Ghostbusters, and the Emoji Movie and have screwed up Spider Man two times. Sadly, the chance of this movie being good is zero. I just don't see the point of redesigning the characters just for the movie. As you see, for example, in this picture, the Spongebob movie which was kinda decent have their characters retain their designs when they showed up on the live action scenes. It show that you do not need to make them realistic just to make them fit in.

One of the writers who used to work on the movie say that Sonic and the others will get redesigned, but won't change that much in the film. I think it mean they will just put a few tweaks just to make them fit in the live action scenes. Maybe they will prove me wrong. I don't know. I just don't like the idea of making them look very realistic, it just feel wrong and creepy. Hopefully, they will retain their designs.

The animated parts are being done by MARZA, who are responsible for the CG stuff in Sonic games anyway. I doubt they'll look that bad. 

[CaptainRobo]

4 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

The animated parts are being done by MARZA, who are responsible for the CG stuff in Sonic games anyway. I doubt they'll look that bad. 

I know that Marza is doing the animated scenes for the film, but maybe you are right, the characters probably won't look bad.

[Blueknight V2.0]

A little off-topic, but while waiting on news for the Sonic The Hedgehog 2018 movie, possibly at E3 2017. I'm just wanting to show all of you that the Sonic movie could look similar to another video game movie releasing soon, but closer to the game looks. And also implying slight redesigns.

Sly Cooper, which started back in 2002 along with Ratchet & Clank and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, currently has an unknown release date and that news on the movie is coming this month, but not at E3 2017 according to the CEO of Blockade Entertainment. Now before bringing up the Ratchet Movie (which I thought was pretty good, however there was room for improvement and they should have used the original script, then it would've been like Ratche & Clank Future A Crack In Time), I just want to say that the Sly games have way better stories when compared to Ratchet & Clank (with the exception of A Crack In Time). The fact also is that Sly has been delayed since 2014 (originally supposed to have been released last year), which tells me they are making it better than Ratchet, same with Sonic 2018 it's also been worked on since 2014. Sonic games already have great stories and Sonic Forces might just take it to the next level for the game division. They also said Sonic 2018 would bring together the serious and humour from the games saying it will be like the games at their best. Sonic Boom with it's first multi-part episode already aired and half-way through the second season, so far the stories of Sonic Boom are also improving and chances could be we see another Sonic Boom game announcement at E3 2017. Now the Sly Cooper trailer above is just the concept trailer, the characters will look different in an updated trailer, look at the Ratchet & Clank movie announce trailer and compare it to the E3 2014 trailer, the difference is concept and finished designs.

[CaptainRobo]

So, I found some footage of a movie called Robodog which is being made by Marza which they will be doing the animation parts for the Sonic movie. The movie was assumed to be cancelled, but we do not know if it cancelled or not. It pretty most likely that the movie had been cancelled. So, the fate of this movie is unknown:

But, anyway, with E3 around the corner, we could get some news about the Sonic movie there. Who knows?

 

[AstroSeedP]

On 6/6/2017 at 2:16 PM, CoolRobo said:

So, I found some footage of a movie called Robodog which is being made by Marza which they will be doing the animation parts for the Sonic movie. The movie was assumed to be cancelled, but we do not know if it cancelled or not. It pretty most likely that the movie had been cancelled. So, the fate of this movie is unknown:

But, anyway, with E3 around the corner, we could get some news about the Sonic movie there. Who knows?

 

Funny, that video is mine. Anyways to clarify, Robodog has been canceled. In order to cleanup workspace now that Marza has currently been hired for many other projects by different companies, it had to be dropped.

[Blueknight V2.0]

Just found out that Sony Pictures Animation's Youtube Channel releases new videos every wednesday and the fact that E3 2017 is from tuesday the 13th - thursday the 15th, could also mean we should see a trailer for the 2018 Sonic movie at E3 2017, possibly on the 14th since it's a wednesday and also Sony and Sega are both attending this E3 this year.

https://www.youtube.com/user/SonyAnimation/videos

[Sega DogTagz]

On 6/7/2017 at 3:56 PM, BxB-Meister said:

Funny, that video is mine. Anyways to clarify, Robodog has been canceled. In order to cleanup workspace now that Marza has currently been hired for many other projects by different companies, it had to be dropped.

Oh man, that RoboDog sneak peak actually looked really good. My kind of kids movie.

You could even merchandise the hell out of that little guy

I hope canceled gets changed to --> pushed back until we have the spare time. I'm happy Marza's getting the kind of attention as to where they have to shelve pet projects, but at the same time it sucks to see that much hard work just sitting on the cutting room floor. Its crazy to think of how far the company has come in such a short amount of time.