Before and After: Sonic the Hedgehog’s Movie Design

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Sonic the Hedgehog has been on a roll recently (no pun intended) with the release of his Olympics crossover with Mario on the Nintendo Switch and a feature-length movie in the pipeline.



But when the blue blur’s first movie trailer dropped in April, the fan backlash was fast and furious. Everyone’s favorite iconic hedgehog went from being a lovable cartoony mascot, to a mutant freak.

He had muscular legs that were human-like, a mouth that resembled the Annoying Orange with a full set of realistic teeth, and beady little eyes as opposed to his naturally giant Precious Memories eyes. Objectively speaking, he just looked plain creepy and weird by any reasonable standard, with uncanny valley to boot. It didn’t help that Gangsta’s Paradise was playing in the background.

Sonic’s original movie design left millions of fans outraged.

The backlash was strong but not unusual. Fanbases are known for being very vocal when movie adaptations stray from the source material. What was unusual was Paramount’s reaction. They decided to actually postpone the film’s release in order to redesign the titular character. It was an unprecedented move, but one that director Jeff Fowler and his SFX team deserve a ton of credit for.



The new trailer complete with a fresh Sonic redesign was just uploaded and it looks like the wait has been worth it. This is the Sonic we all know and love!

Sonic’s new movie design is much more faithful to his original video game appearance.

In the revised trailer, Sonic can be seen petting a real dog and speeding around Green Hill Zone. There are even some interesting costume choices as he plays darts at a honky tonk bar and speeds around a baseball diamond. Some of the new trailer even shows updated scenes from the previous trailer, except with the redesigned Sonic – which allows for some good comparisons.

Sonic dons a cowboy hat as he plays darts.

Suffice it to say, Sonic’s redesign is amazing. It’s much easier on the eyes than the previous model, and honestly, the whole movie looks much better for it. You can check out the trailer below and decide for yourself.

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