Sonic The Hedgehog Film Getting Design Overhaul Following Backlash
Gotta edit fast.
After Paramount Pictures unveiled the first trailer for the upcoming live-action Sonic the Hedgehog film, the internet all but collapsed in on itself. Response was intense and widespread, with the harshest criticism being lodged against the design of the titular blue speedster. People let their hatred for Sonic's appearance be heard — and hear it, the Sonic the Hedgehog team did.
Following all this criticism, Sonic the Hedgehog director Jeff Fowler announced on Twitter that the film is getting an overhaul that will change the way Sonic looks.
"Thank you for the support. And the criticism. The message is loud and clear... you aren't happy with the design & you want changes. It's going to happen. Everyone at Paramount & Sega are fully committed to making this character the BEST he can be," tweeted Fowler, adding the hashtag #gottafixfast along with a wrench emoji and a peace-sign emoji.
While most seem open to Paramount altering Sonic's design for the upcoming movie, there has, ironically, been some backlash this response to the original backlash. The issue of "grinding" and "crunching," terms to describe working tirelessly under a tight timeframe to achieve a certain end goal, has come up in conversation after Fowler's announcement tweet. Many are concerned that the film's visual effects team will be forced to work long hours with little or no extra pay, particularly because Paramount hasn't mentioned anything about delaying the release of Sonic the Hedgehog to accommodate for the redesign. As one Twitter user wrote, "I feel so bad for the animators [of] the Sonic movie... There isn't any announcement of movie delay for reanimating the redesign model... Which implies a ton of overworked animators killing themselves to meet crunch time. It's not their fault either."
On the other hand, some are convinced that the Sonic team will – gasp! — not actually redesign anything. Like a forest fire, a conspiracy theory about the Sonic the Hedgehog trailer being "fake" and featuring a purposefully off-putting design for Sonic sparked up mere hours post-announcement. A subsection of social media believes that Paramount intentionally created a Sonic that would kick up a lot of criticism (getting the whole world's eyes on the film because of it), announce that the team was dedicating extra time and effort into making changes based on fans' reactions and suggestions (thus making audiences feel like they had a say in what the film ends up being), and then release the "redesigned" movie that actually features the animation Paramount had in place from the get-go. YouTuber Jenny Nicholson joked that the theory is "better than the Illuminati."
It's unclear what the redesigned Sonic will look like, though many have offered their own suggestions to those working on Sonic the Hedgehog. Some want the zippy blue hedgehog to have thinner legs and larger feet, while others wish for a Sonic with a mono-eye like he has in the SEGA designs everyone is familiar with. The overwhelming consensus is the hope that Sonic will get reworked to have teeth that aren't so creepy and human-like. His current chompers are the things of nightmares, and they are not welcome here or anywhere.
The world will get to see the brand-new Sonic in his full, redesigned (or maybe not, depending on whether that conspiracy proves true) glory when Sonic the Hedgehog opens in theaters on November 8.