This year a couple of classic fluffy ‘90s video game characters are hitting the big screen in their first live action iterations. Ahead of Detective Pikachu’s release next week, the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog darted its way onto the internet this morning and it looks like there are quite a few changes from the video game fans know, love … or love to hate anyway.
Besides the character’s glaring buff and blue human legs, it looks like Sonic will also be an alien in his first big-screen iteration. In the trailer, the speedster says “looks like I’m going to have to save your planet”. Followers of his games probably don’t remember the blue hedgehog being an extraterrestrial before, but looks like he will be in the upcoming movie!
Back in 2018 when the film was seeking approval to be filmed in the town of Ladysmith, British Colombia, the film’s location manager, Abraham Fraser confirmed this Sonic is not of this world when he briefly explained the film. In his words:
Sonic is a video game character, who is an alien. The story is kind of ala E.T.. In the sense of a small town coming together to help the sheriff save our alien from the bad guys, which are the government chasing them. It’s very heartwarming. And I think it’ll be a big hit.
A blue hedgehog being of this world does make a lot more sense in an animated video game world than in a live-action one, but the movie does look to be ignoring the roots of the Sega game, even if they aren’t widely known. According to the “Sonic Bible”, which contains the complete background of the character, here is the iconic video game character’s true origins:
Sonny Hedgehog was born on Earth in the early 21st century, in the town of Hardly, Nebraska, population 1,226. He and his mother and five sisters live underneath a scraggly hedge beside the local burger joint, and subsist on burger scraps, milkshakes and the occasional slug or bug that crawls their way.
How will Sonic the Hedgehog be explaining Sonic’s home world? Is there a planet somewhere full of blue hedgehogs who where running shoes and speed around all day? I’d think an origin story about the hedge they lived under being contaminated with some chemical planet might have sufficed. Take a look at the trailer below:
Sonic the Hedgehog will star Ben Schwartz as Sonic, Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik and James Marsden as a cop named Tom. The movie will center on Sonic in the rural town of Green Hills as he tries to escape from the government who are trying to catch him. Sonic hits theaters on November 8.
