It’s easy to think that the cost of the redesign of Sonic the Hedgehog had to have cost millions upon millions to accomplish since some people were putting the number up at around $35 million according to Mike Floorwalker of Looper. The actual sum though was only around $5 million since the shots that were shown in the trailer were about all there were. The movie wasn’t finished by the time the trailer came out, which means that the humanized version of everyone’s favorite blue hedgehog wasn’t bound to stay the way he was thanks to the reaction taken from fans. It was easy enough to say that fans needed to chill out and roll with it, but even in saying that it was hard to reason why Paramount couldn’t have gotten it right the first time around. There’s a time and place for realism to be honest but in a movie like this it just doesn’t seem like the time. I would have to agree that the teeth that Sonic was showing in the original trailer were pretty horrific.
The biggest issue here though wasn’t the cost, it’s the fact that fans think they know best, ALL the time. There are those moments when yes, it’s better to listen to the fans since they’re the ones that read the books, the comics, watch the shows, play the games, and could possibly even give the creators lessons on their own creations if need be at times. But there are also those moments when the fans need to step back, sit down, and be quiet. Some would argue that the latter doesn’t happen all that often since many fans are known to voice their opinions long and loud no matter how much people might want them to just sit back. In this case though there does seem as though the fans had the rare moment when their input was actually a good idea and was put to good use. Dan Reisinger of Inc has more on this subject. The Sonic we almost got wasn’t quite a horror story reject, but it was close since he was way too humanized considering that he’s more of a cartoon character and kind of needs to be kept that way. This current version is definitely what fans were wanting and is bound to get a lot more attention simply for his looks than anything.
There’s still the issue of Dr. Eggman however since if anyone that’s played the game or followed the story knows, the evil doctor that is Sonic’s mortal enemy is actually a pretty heavy guy with chicken legs and a very bald pate, along with a huge, bristly mustache. It’s kind of hard to see why they didn’t stick to this figure as well and instead went with a slicked-back version of Jim Carrey that seems to be trying to prove that he can still be funny. So far the trailer looks decent and it might be that Carrey still has the stuff that helped him to become one of the funniest men in show business for so long, but whether it’s consistent throughout the movie is yet to be seen. At this point Carrey has been so intent on alienating so many people in the last several years that it’s hard to fully accept him back as a comedian or an actor, but then again he’s pretty good at what he does so it’s not impossible. But one has to wonder what was wrong with a fat suit despite the fact that some people seem to want to see them as a shame whenever they’re used. In a big way, pun very intended, they’re better than the old school method of having an actor gain a lot of weight and then lose it once the movie is all said and done with. That kind of body morphing has been done by several actors and while Jim has never done it such a thing is always possible.
Overall Sonic the Hedgehog hasn’t suffered any massive hit when it came to redoing the visuals for his character and the result is that he looks better than he did and is far more appealing to more people at this point. So basically the whining, crying, and puling have paid off this time and one has to wonder if a precedent of sorts has been set or if Paramount took a look and realized just how badly they’d messed up and decided to fix it to keep up their reputation. Something seems to indicate that both might have happened, but all in all the company isn’t about to turn out a movie that people have already said ‘no way’ to with the full knowledge that it would probably flop. There’s no telling if Sonic will do all that well to begin with, but thankfully his look will help in getting people interested at least.
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