Sonic the Hedgehog’s second movie trailer looks, uh, good?
Back in April, Paramount Pictures released the first trailer for its upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie, based on Sega’s iconic mascot. It was not well received, mainly on account of this:
Predictably, fan backlash to the drastic design choice was fierce, and on 2 May, director Jeff Fowler announced that the familiar blue hero would be redesigned Three weeks later, on the 24th of May, Fowler also confirmed that the film would be delayed from its planned November 2019 release date until February 2020 – the latter announcement helping alleviate concerns that the visual rethink and the intensive effects work it would entail would be a rush job.
Today, the new trailer dropped, giving fans their first official look at the new Sonic and – to our admittedly great surprise – the blue blur is much better for his digital spa treatment.
Nu-Sonic looks far closer to the character design fans will be used to from the video games, animated series and comic books Sonic has starred in over the decades. He’s now sporting his trademark gloves rather than white-furred hands, has cartoonish trainers instead of realistic sneakers, and perhaps more importantly, sports appropriately massive and striking eyes.
The redesign continues to take a few liberties – Sonic still has two distinct eyes, but clever shaping and colouring help create the illusion of the video game design. His overall texture is still broadly furry too, though much closer to quills than the original movie design.
Better still, the new trailer actually makes the film seem less “toxic horror show” and more “fun family movie”. It offers a bit more clarity on the background, with Sonic (voiced by American comedian Ben Schwartz) revealing he chose to come to Earth from his homeworld (called Mobius in some Sonic media, though not formally named such yet for the movie) to get away from people trying to steal his power.
After his super-speed antics alert a military operation to Sonic’s presence on Earth, he teams up with human pal Sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) to escape, and defeat the mad scientist Dr Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey) – thankfully, Paramount and Sega aren’t going for the “Eggman” name here.
Overall, it’s a much better edit of the film’s material, and a vastly superior aesthetic choice for the headline hero. For once, fan outrage has done good.
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