Sonic's back from the drawing board and looking pretty fly.
(Image credit: Paramount)
The whole weird Sonic the Hedgehog movie thing looks like it's finally heading for a happy ending. You may recall that Paramount released a trailer for it about six months ago and people got really, really cross about it, thanks to a slightly-too-realistic blue hedgehog with worryingly human teeth that looked like the result of either an illegal genetic experiment or a tragic teleportation accident. We've seen better free 3D models.
Naturally the internet was absolutely livid, prompting an embarrassingly quick about-face from the director, Jeff Fowler, who promised to go back to the drawing board. And now, six months later, we can see the results in this new trailer.
The difference in the design of Sonic is hard to miss; this time around the design team have gone for a much more cartoony feel that's more in line with the original games, and they've carried it off well. They've even put white gloves on him, rather than him having weird human-like hands.
This Sonic looks like a cartoon character made real, rather than a human trying way too hard to cosplay Sonic, and while there's bit of a Dreamworks face going on at times, there's a whole lot more life and expression to this redesigned version.
Put old and new Sonic together and there's no comparison (Image credit: Paramount)
Basically, this one doesn't make you feel like the kindest thing to do with it would be to put it out of its misery with a shovel. It's a lot more fun to look at and, from the trailer, seems to be a lot more fun to be around, too.
New Sonic's more Roger Rabbit than Polar Express, with a much more action-packed, madcap feel – although a lot of that's down to scene selection in this trailer, and without the redesign we'd have likely had the same scenes performed by uncanny valley Sonic.
Even dogs love the redesigned Sonic (Image credit: Paramount)
Unsurprisingly the fan reaction to this new trailer has been a lot more positive than for the original, which is a bit of a shame for anyone who delights in internet rage, but good news for Paramount.
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Fans have praised the work put in by the film's animators and designers to focus on Sonic's inherent quirkiness, and there's a definite feel that thanks to Paramount listening to the fans, there'll be a lot more people turning up to see it when it's released on 14 February.
Gotta give credit when due. While we can't judge the overall film yet, this trailer made me really happy. Them changing the design and focusing on that quirkiness of Sonic, made it so much better. Shout out to designers, animators and everyone behind working on that fix. pic.twitter.com/4IKtnPro03November 12, 2019
The Sonic Movie is a big PSA on how to listen to fans constructively. They took a DOA design and turned it into something special. People saying they will see the movie, I myself am now very interested. All the positivity and hype, #1 trend wordwide.Doesn't hurt to listen. pic.twitter.com/pMO88iPUWeNovember 12, 2019
That release date feels like one hell of a sick burn, though. Is Paramount having a jab at Sonic fandom by putting the film out on Valentine's Day, when people are kind of expected to have romantic plans that don't involve a cartoon hedgehog? It doesn't really look like a date movie to us.
The Sonic movie looks a lot more action-packed now (Image credit: Paramount)
We'll be there to see Jim Carrey's scenery-chewing performance as Doctor Robotnik, though; at least we might be as long as there's nothing on TV.
Jim McCauley is a writer, performer and cat-wrangler who started writing professionally way back in 1995 on PC Format magazine, and has been covering technology-related subjects ever since, whether it's hardware, software or videogames. A chance call in 2005 led to Jim taking charge of Computer Arts' website and developing an interest in the world of graphic design, and eventually led to a move over to the freshly-launched Creative Bloq in 2012. Jim now works as a freelance writer for sites including Creative Bloq, T3 and PetsRadar, specialising in design, technology, wellness and cats, while doing the occasional pantomime and street performance in Bath and designing posters for a local drama group on the side.
