Paramount has been the butt of everyone’s jokes and outrage for the past week ever since they released a trailer for a new CGI Sonic the Hedgehog movie, which people were disappointed to discover looked nothing like the popular character.
Now, only a few days after the trailer release, director Jeff Fowler announced on Twitter that Sonic will be undergoing a major character redesign in response to the criticism. “The message is loud and clear,” he wrote. “You aren’t happy with the design & you want changes. It’s going to happen.”
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
Although netizens are expected to be happy about the change, a lot continue to criticize Paramount for only doing so after the widespread backlash and just a few months before the scheduled premiere in November.
“How much you wanna bet the visual dev team kept bringing up the design flaws to a corporate brick wall and now have to work overtime to fix mistakes that wouldn’t have been made if the higher ups listened,” one Twitter user said.
Another shared, “I really hope that when it comes to Sonic’s design getting fixed, that #gottafixfast doesn’t mean rushing out a new design and overworking the staff. Please delay the movie release before that.”
How much you wanna bet the visual dev team kept bringing up the design flaws to a corporate brick wall and now have to work overtime to fix mistakes that wouldn’t have been made if the higher ups listened. Cause I know studio artists who have gone thru this. https://t.co/PRm24yOTL4
— Tomme Fatale (@ellameno) May 2, 2019
I really hope that when it comes to Sonic’s design getting fixed, that #gottafixfast doesn’t mean rushing out a new design and overworking the staff. Please delay the movie release before that.
We’d rather wait for everything to be right than have a rushed mess, please guys. pic.twitter.com/FnGPnOap3i
— TRAFON (@RiseFallNick) May 3, 2019
My take on Sonic being redesigned:
I feel bad for the animators, but if they sign on, get paid and have time, we’re good
SEGA hated the design, the original creators did, the general majority did, this is on Paramount thinking they knew best. They did not. They’re paying for it pic.twitter.com/nNf8Lz2U3B
— TRAFON (@RiseFallNick) May 3, 2019
The Whole Sonic situation this week in a nutshell… #SonicTheHedgehog pic.twitter.com/ww4MJwoVeW
— Josh Hammerman (@HammermanJosh) May 3, 2019
Y’all the conspiracy theory that they intentionally designed the worst Sonic they could and released months of posters teasing the fake design only to incite backlash and stage a “redesign” with the animation they had all along is better than the illuminati
— Jenny Nicholson (@JennyENicholson) May 3, 2019
Sonic the Hedgehog is basically turning into the Fyre Festival of movies and I literally can’t wait to watch 10 documentaries about it
— Alex Hirsch (@_AlexHirsch) May 3, 2019
Other netizens, on the other hand, expressed gratitude to Jeff Fowler and Paramount Pictures for at least listening to the public outcry for a much better Sonic film.
How the studio and the creators plan to go about the complete CGI redo will be their call, but we do hope that they don’t work their staff to the bone to stick by the scheduled November premiere. All we want is for Sonic to look like Sonic and, for goodness sake, get rid of those teeth!
What do you think about the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog film?
