How will Sonic 3 handle this? The important question (S2 Spoilers)

[VO.SUPER]

Since it looks to be a big topic going on and Sonic 2 already seems to be hinting at Shadow's association with Gerald Robotnik, the all important question comes up:

Will they shoot Maria or not? How will they handle her plot in general?

I'm of the opinion they can do it off screen without the rating bumping up, but others disagree. Was shooting Maria even a good decision in the original or did that just seem to come off as hokey to people? But since her death at the hands of the government was so integral to... everything about Shadow and his character, how do they handle the subject of her death in a more natural manner?

[Rabid-Coot]

She can steal metals bit and die to a door as they escape.

[Wraith]

The change I expect them to make is for them to just make Maria older than she was in the games. Children rarely die in kids movies but a young adult of some kind that acts as an older sister to Shadow would be in line with what those movies typically show and create a parallel with Sonic and Longclaw.

[caitash]

If she’s in it (which I’m expecting her to be, aged up or not) I’m still expecting her to die but expecting they will change her death so it happens another way and not via being shot.

[Slashy]

59 minutes ago, caitash said:

If she’s in it (which I’m expecting her to be, aged up or not) I’m still expecting her to die but expecting they will change her death so it happens another way and not via being shot.

She does not have to be shown being shot to have it implied. I think people are making this a big deal than it actually is.

This is a PG film.

[Kuzu]

Aging Maria up so we don't have to see child murder definitely seems ideal.

[Solister]

2 hours ago, Kuzu said:

Aging Maria up so we don't have to see child murder definitely seems ideal.

Anakin would like to have a word

Spoiler

Just in case, that scene (that's the full scene) made Revenge of the Sith a PG-13 movie.

 

But wow, I didn't link all that: Shadow > Gerald > Eggman > Maria.

I just expected Shadow to appear as a new antagonist, pretty much how Knuckles was one in 2, probably without a redemption arc and much likely without Eggman in his back. Maaaaaybe I could see Rouge appearing and Metal Sonic as a side antagonist.

[VO.SUPER]

3 hours ago, Kuzu said:

Aging Maria up so we don't have to see child murder definitely seems ideal.

If to retain the PG rating then yeah that'll probably need to be the case. Unless she dies of physical exhaustion because of her illness, which idk if that would increase the rating to PG-13.

We'll definitely have an answer if that rating changes.

[PeterPancake]

I don't think them increasing the rating to PG-13 is out of the question. The Harry Potter films started PG and then went PG-13

[mayday2592]

TBF, the Harry Potter movies aren't as goofy as the Sonic films that are very clearly targeted at a young audience.

[Austroid]

But how precious would it be to see a young Maria with Shadow? Make everyone's hearts melt before the tragedy!

(Also idk why, but it'd be kind of funny if Jim Carrey also played Gerald Robotnik, but they just covered him in prosthetics or artificially aged him.)

[Johnny Boy]

I still say get Bryan Cranston to play Gerald.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I’m gonna go with the ageing up, but if they don’t they’ll still likely keep it off-screen like the games did.

Either that or use a laser blast instead of a real gun instead. At worst, I think they’ll rewrite the entire backstory into something else entirely to keep Shadow vengeful and dangerous, but they don’t seem to be afraid of having characters die, albeit off-screen like the original SA2 scene.

I’ll be more shocked if they showed it on-screen over avoiding it entirely. But deaths aren’t as taboo in such works as long as it isn’t too visceral for a rating bump to PG-13, unless they actually want to go that far—which I can also see them doing.

[PeterPancake]

21 hours ago, mayday2592 said:

TBF, the Harry Potter movies aren't as goofy as the Sonic films that are very clearly targeted at a young audience.

The first 3 films absolutely were, in all the ways you can imagine. But they bumped up the rating to reflect the more mature stories from Goblet of Fire onward, and it's part of the reason why the market for the Potter films was able to grow so large. The character grew WITH the audience 

 

I could see Paramount applying a similar logic here, and wanting to ensure the third film can compete in the same market as your standard CBMs. 

[Razule]

The 6-11 year olds who watched the first movie when it came out will be 10-14 by the third movie's release. Just in time to be old enough to handle a little implied child murder.

[Leebo4]

On 4/18/2022 at 4:19 AM, Razule said:

The 6-11 year olds who watched the first movie when it came out will be 10-14 by the third movie's release. Just in time to be old enough to handle a little implied child murder.

Trying to go the full Harry Potter route in maturity I don’t think will work, maybe go a little darker but I think paramount will want to keep all the movies appealing to all ages. Especially since it would be jarring to have the goofy charm and pop culture references of the movies and turn it to the potter film levels

 

Have Maria then just have it implied and off screen, no need to show it

[Johnny Boy]

They can just handle it the same way they did in the games. Have a soldier point a gun at Maria, the screen fades white or black, and the audience has a good idea on what happened to her. Easy.

[LunchPolice]

On 4/17/2022 at 7:12 PM, Johnny Boy said:

I still say get Bryan Cranston to play Gerald.

You, my friend, are a genius and a visionary

[GentlemanX]

I mean, in SA2 you never see a soldier or Maria die for that matter. It's all implied off screen. ShTH and Sonic X both obviously showed the soldier with the gun, but in the original game the only thing to actual imply what killed Maria was the gunshot, with Maria still walking around and talking to Shadow immediately afterward. Shadow doesn't even say Maria died over the course of the game, that's not outright said until Gerald mentions it in his diary. (All this is the English version mind you, not as well versed on the Japanese script so it might be implicitly stated somewhere in there).

I imagine it'll be a PG-13 and we'll have something similar with Maria being the same age and having implied to have died without actually showing the death. Back in the day the film would have probably gotten away with that and retained a PG rating, but given how blockbusters go nowadays I imagine implying murder in a serious way will earn the PG-13 regardless of the age of the character.

[Scritch the Cat]

I don’t want this movie rated PG-13, but it does pose a rather interesting question: If a game rated E-10 can show it, or at least, enough to make clear it happened, then what exactly is E-10 supposed to be analogous to in MPAA terms?  

Ultimately, these things are not as objective as many people seem to think.  Many were utterly shocked that a game full of realistic guns got an E-10 rating, but westerns were full of realistic guns and they used to be the near epitome of wholesome, moralistic American entertainment; often rated G.  The old Frankenstein movie got away with a child murder, though some viewers were outraged.  On the other hand if you tried to put a reference to homosexuality in anything back then, you’d likely get an X-rating.  A few movies have been re-rated as sensibilities change and as new ratings have been added.

[Slashy]

Pat Casey and Josh Miller already answered this.

 

 

This came from an Alamo Drafthouse LA screening that had a QA with the two film writers.

[Mangoaxe5]

Just do what the Sonic X 4Kids dub did, and say that she got captured.

[Scritch the Cat]

2 hours ago, Vampfox said:

Just do what the Sonic X 4Kids dub did, and say that she got captured.

Whoa; is that a joke?!  If not. 4Kids is worse than I thought.

[Mangoaxe5]

9 hours ago, Scritch the Cat said:

Whoa; is that a joke?!  If not. 4Kids is worse than I thought.

No I'm not joking. The dub just says that she was taken away.

 

[batson]

It's dumb if we can show things in childrens video games that we can't show in childrens movies.