Sonic is getting a redesign after fans expressed…less than favorable reviews of the hedgehog’s look in the Sonic the Hedgehog trailer.
The trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog may have only dropped a couple of days ago, but the fan response was loud and clear: Sonic looks super creepy. While fans expressed some displeasure with some of the other aspects of the movie like Jim Carrey’s look as Dr. Robotnik and the childish humor highlighted in the trailer, no criticism was as loud and collectively unhappy as the criticism on the film’s Sonic design.
The director of the movie, Jeff Fowler, took to Twitter to let fans know their criticism had been heard, and that changes would be made.
Thank you for the support. And the criticism. The message is loud and clear… you aren't happy with the design & you want changes. It's going to happen. Everyone at Paramount & Sega are fully committed to making this character the BEST he can be… #sonicmovie #gottafixfast 🔧✌️
— Jeff Fowler (@fowltown) May 2, 2019
The tweet was accompanied by the hashtag, #GottaFixFast, which is quite the understatement. Sonic the Hedgehog is set to release in movie theaters on November 8, and a redesign of the main character, especially when the film is all but completed is a huge deal.
Fans’ main complaints stemmed around the too-human features of the speedy hedgehog. While the character has a body similar to the Sonic we all grew up loving, the character had very human-looking legs (save for the blue fur, of course) and even more unsettling: he appeared to have human teeth.
The entire design gave many fans too much of an uncanny valley effect and a serious case of the willies. Obviously, that’s not what you want people to think when they see your movie’s hero, so it’s not surprising to hear that the team behind Sonic the Hedgehog want to make sure everything is just right for the film’s November release.
What is surprising is that the studio is willing to shell out the bucks to make such a huge change this late in the game. This is certainly going to be a really big job, and with the movie’s premiere date only about 6 months away, there isn’t a lot of time to tinker with Sonic’s look.
We’ll have to wait to see what Jeff Fowler and the Sonic team do to restyle Sonic’s look. Until then, we can all sleep soundly knowing that (hopefully) Sonic’s human teeth won’t be a new canonical feature.