Sonic the Hedgehog is coming off two weeks as the No. 1 movie, and it’s breaking records for video game movies. But things could have gone a completely different way. When the Sonic first design was released, fans were not happy. They were vocal about the glaring human teeth and oddly long legs on the Sega character, and director Jeff Fowler listened.
Sonic’s voice for the film, Ben Schwartz, has a positive spin on the hate the movie originally received before the release date was pushed back and he got a skin upgrade. Here’s what the actor felt he learned from the initial reaction to Sonic the Hedgehog:
The biggest thing that I got from that was that all of these people were really excited to see the movie and there were people that really cared about Sonic as much as me, Jeff, James, Jim and everybody.
In other words, he heard the fit of rage about the movie moreso as loud caring. And considering how well Sonic the Hedgehog is doing right now, he seems to be right. It’s true, usually when people are mad about something, it comes from a place of passion, and Ben Schwartz saw that. Who knows how much pace and panic he and the filmmakers of Sonic the Hedgehog went through following all the memes and pointing at. Here's the first Sonic for the memories:
Ben Schwartz continued with these words to The Hollywood Reporter:
I’m really happy with how it ended up. When I saw the final thing I was really happy by how it turned out. I was excited because kind of the way I was playing the voice very much matched this final design.
Well, Ben… that’s probably because the Sonic we see in the blockbuster is how he’s supposed to look. The movie received a 64% Rotten Tomatoes critics score and a 93% audience score, as well as 3.5 out of 5 stars from CinemaBlend’s own Mike Reyes. It has some awesome easter eggs including, from Super Smash Bros and other Jim Carrey movies. Carrey’s long-awaited return to comedy as Dr. Robotnik certainly didn’t hurt its success either.
Jim Carrey previously seemed to take issue with the concept of redesign due to fan outcry. He said it might just “become their Frankenstein monster at some point.” But following the changes, Carrey has shown support for the redesign. He specifically commended director Jeff Fowler for not having an ego about the whole thing. The actor called Sonic the Hedgehog a “much better movie because of it.”
Even with all the changes made, fans cannot completely escape the original design. A couple toy products have hit the shelves with the original look, but hey, what can you do? Stalling the design and production of tons of physical toys isn’t exactly easy.
The cast and crew of Sonic the Hedgehog are certainly celebrating the redesign. What did you think? Would you have gone out to see the movie if the changes were never made? Sound off in the comments below.
