Cognition Dissemination: Pray for the Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Team

The reaction to the Sonic the Hedgehog movie from the first trailer ranged from watchers thinking it was okay at best to wishing for its existence to be erased. Well, outside those hoping for the movie to at least be hilariously bad, like me, who believe there’s little chance of it being legitimately good. The new design for Sonic was harshly criticized well before that, when it was teased through a silhouette, for resembling a frightening fusion between a human and the most-used Sonic design. The movie itself appeared to be predictable affair, reminiscent of several other films that feature talking creatures interacting with humans. It was unsurprisingly similar to many other video game adaptations in how it barely resembled the games outside appearances from key characters.

It was startling that a project like this was being revealed just before the release of Pokémon Detective Pikachu, which showed how furry creatures can segue well within a real-world setting. The Sonic movie looked like the wrong way to do this.

The sole redeeming factor was Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. He won’t faithfully represent his gaming counterpart, either, but at least he looks the part. This also represents a chance for him to tap into his zany on-screen alter ego, which is mostly a relic of the 90s and is seldom seen these days.

After all this time, there was no way the producers couldn’t have been aware of how the internet felt about Sonic’s design. Heck, even some of the original creators and designers couldn’t help but weigh in, though they mostly did so in a vague and respectful way. Yet, the level of criticism seemed to take director Jeff Fowler by surprise after the trailer dropped, who said “the message is loud and clear” days afterward. He followed that up by saying “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.” He made it clear the design will be modified by the time the full movie releases, adjusted to presumably more closely resemble the current standard Sonic designs. But this also raised further questions.

A delay for the movie wasn’t announced alongside this, which seemed to imply that the animation team would be ordered to adjust this in time for the November 8th release date. CG animation is hard work, and Sonic being the main character here meant this would require a plethora of tinkering. They could only do this in time if they crunched hard, by working multiple hours of the day every day of the week with little-to-no breaks. Segments of the animation industry, like too many other entertainment and technology sectors, are known for having their workers crunch. The employees feel it helps them complete their work faster, while the higher-ups are happy to let them believe that regardless of whether it’s true.

Given the health and social and family life setbacks workers often suffer as a result of overworking themselves, it’s best if employees can avoid that. Yet, they don’t have a choice when managers require strict deadlines.

This is why the movie has been delayed until February 14th, 2020, as Fowler announced on Twitter. (You’ll want to note that this is Valentine’s Day, the perfect movie for the occasion.) This might give the artists enough time to redesign Sonic for all the scenes and promo posters, while still making him look polished enough so as not to be off-putting for anyone nonetheless okay with this movie’s concept (if they exist). Fowler tweeted this with the overly long hashtag of “#novfxartistswereharmedinthemakingofthismovie,” or “no VFX artists were harmed in the making of this movie” if trying to read that hurts your eyes.

However, that still may not be enough time for the artists to redesign Sonic within a sane timeframe. Pokémon Detective Pikachu director Rob Letterman noted to The Verge how difficult of a spot the movie’s team is in, and how the characters in that movie took around a year to design. Redesigning Sonic also means the team will either have to redo the lip movements so they fit Sonic actor Ben Schwartz’s already-recorded lines, or they’ll need to have him rerecord them from scratch — both will cost money. This will require serious work, and it’s tough to tell if an extra three months will be enough time to fix everything without still crunching. Then, there’s the question regarding whether the team will be paid for all the work they’ll have to do between November and February, and it will essentially be slave labor if they aren’t. Hopefully we’ll get some good answers soon.

The quality of the overall movie likely won’t be any better than before, since they aren’t changing the writing team. But even if you aren’t the praying type, do so for the team working on this movie, because all indications suggest they’re about to take a trip through hell.

Related posts:

The Sonic Movie Looks Like a Bonkers Time, Regardless of Your Stance Cognition Dissemination: For Sonic the Hedgehog’s Polished Future Cognition Dissemination: Ten Years Since Virtua Fighter 5, is the Series Dead? Cognition Dissemination: NIS America’s Software Slate Shows How Much Atlus USA Has Scaled down Their Work