The Flickering Myth writing team go in hard on the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog…
One of the most iconic characters in all of gaming is set to make his big screen debut this November, and this week brought us our very first look at the Sonic the Hedgehog movie with the release of a trailer for the live-action/CG-animation hybrid.
Sonic the Hedgehog didn’t have the best of starts with its marketing efforts, the design of Sonic coming under fire from fans on numerous occasions, so there was definitely a lot riding on this first trailer… and, well, there’s simply no way to sugar coat this, so let’s just jump straight in with the thoughts of our writing team…
Scott Watson: ALL THE NOPES. I don’t even know where to begin with how bad and cringe inducing this looks. I can’t even say this is one for the kids. I think even kids would say this looks garbage. I feel violated.
Shaun Munro: Looks painfully bad. Jim Carrey’s mugging could be amusing but honestly the entire production looks super rough and low-effort.
Red Stewart: It’s sad man. I thought Carrey was actually inspired casting for Dr. Eggman, but it looks like he’s just playing himself. Plus they couldn’t even make him fat?
Graeme Robertson: Just no.
Eammon Jacobs: I can’t say I’m particularly keen on this – it looks incredibly campy and very cheesy. If that’s the point – then fair enough. I think it’ll probably be popular with younger audiences, but it’s not for me… I’d rather go back and play the games instead.
EJ Moreno: I have nothing nice to say. From character design to the humor, it looks bad. Pokemon: Detective Pikachu took a wacky idea and made amazing trailers, this took a wacky idea and made a bad trailer. Gonna be a hard pass for me.
Allen Christian: No film adaptation in the history of cinema has ever been so ill-advised as this. And they made a Battleship movie.
Andrew Newton: I actually quite enjoyed it. Sonic isn’t as cute as I’d imagine him to look but it’s certainly nice to see Jim Carrey back to his old form. Those who are saying it’s a bad video-game tie in obviously couldn’t have sat through Street Fighter: The Movie.
EJ Moreno: I sat through Street Fighter and still think this looks bad. Maybe it can be Super Mario Bros level of insanity though.
Allen Christian: At least Street Fighter came out at a time when Street Fighter was culturally relevant. This just looks awful. Like, I guess we’re going all the way back to 1993 when both this source material and brand of Jim Carrey humor were relevant to anyone. I laughed at the child in a bag joke and I liked Jim Carrey being bald with that big moustache, though, so I guess that’s positive.
Erika Hardison:I’m excited! I love Sonic and I wish Jim Carrey played more villains. It has to be just as cheesy as the cartoons though not the comics. The cartoons were hilarious. I’m so watching this.
Sam Thorne: Did I genuinely just hear Gangsta’s Paradise over a trailer for a sonic film? This is more jarring than the music choices for Sonic R. Also if they don’t call the sequel ‘AND KNUCKLES‘, they’re missing a trick.
Ricky Church: Well that was something. It wasn’t a great trailer to trailer to introduce people to, but I expect younger audiences will enjoy it. I thought some of the speed effects looked cool, but there is a whole lot of cheese involved and Jim Carrey hamming it up. I don’t know about the direction of Sonic himself or why they would pair him with Gangsta’s Paradise of all songs. As EJ pointed out, the marketing between this and Detective Pikachu is an interesting contrast and it looks like Paramount’s marketing team didn’t learn the right lessons from that.
Matt Rodgers: Detective Pikachu took a brand which I knew nothing about, and marketed it in a way that made me want to see the movie (which I have now done, and LOVED). This has performed the exact opposite trick. I used to spend hours collecting coins with Sonic on my Sega Master System, but this looks as though the filmmakers have never even played the game. I’m getting a real Alvin & the Chipmunks vibe, and my headache from watching that has only just subsided.
Tom Jolliffe: Abysmal. I’d elaborate but I think the departed cinematic masters, Bergman, Kurosawa, Hitchcock, etc, etc, are all spinning in their graves faster than that blue bastard I just watched. Jim Carrey appears to have lost the ability to be funny now too. Just… a huge mass of collective sighs which will raise CO2 levels around the world to dangerously high levels.
Villordsutch: It’s clear this isn’t for me. I mean at all. In the movies defence I’ve never been a Sonic fan. Now, I’m not defending the movie as this looks amazingly horrible. I’m getting violent flashbacks to that time I actually paid hard cash to watch the Super Mario Bros. film at the UCI. But hey! I am a fully-fledged, certified-adult and this really does look like a kids film. Let’s hope it doesn’t have a decades-old, long-standing fan base of adults that’ll also be wanting to see it as I feel they’ll rip it to pieces!
Tom Beasley: I’m going to be in the minority, I feel, but I’m on board with this. It’s not great, obviously, but the prospect of a completely silly Sonic movie in which Jim Carrey delivers one of his performances from the 1990s is massively exciting to me.
Eric Bay-Andersen: A big bowl of *sigh*. I used to be a huge Jim Carrey fan, but this just looks terrible – “you’re basic” and the Fitbit mention were utterly cringeworthy. In fact, the only good thing was the stars in the Paramount logo being substituted for golden rings!
Andy Naylor: What the hell is this? That’s 2 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back and that has made me lose all respect for James Marsden and Jim Carey.
Gerald James: “You know what iconic piece of music is associated with Sonic the Hedgehog? That’s right, Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise.” This looks like the most out of touch representation of an IP I’ve ever seen. And I’m counting the Mario Bros. movie. At least I smirked at the line “Every hero has a Genesis”.
Robert Kojder: It looks like an abomination to both video game adaptations and movies all around. I can’t find a single redeeming quality.
Red Stewart: I didn’t think the trailer was as bad as everyone is making it out to be, but it was definitely an indication that they’re going The Smurfs route with Sonic, which I believe is a big mistake. The appeal of fictional media has always been to take us to new worlds, not stick us in the same old boring real world. This looks to be a crossover between the aforementioned live action Smurfs and Hop.
Tori Brazier: Why must Hollywood continue to batter James Marsden? He is too pure for this. (Unless his role includes Oscar-worthy material, which somehow didn’t make it into the trailer….?) This is baffling.
Hasitha Fernando: This looks like an accident waiting to happen…
George Chrysostomou: Honestly, I’m surprised this has been signed off by anyone! Jim is looking fantastic but that’s really the only part of this that works for me.
Alec Frazier: Basic. That’s this. Desperate nostalgia for the 90s, using new technology. Well, except Jim Carey. His bit is incredibly stale and straight out of Ace Ventura. The “hedgehog” seems to just exist as a plot device. There seems to be little to no exposition. No effort is made to harmonize the sci fi technology with the real world. Add James Marsden, who is increasingly out of place in Hollywood. Watch as he reprises his role from 2011’s Hop. The pointlessness and dumb writing reminds me of the early aughties Rocky and Bullwinkle film, but even much worse. This was a mediocre cartoon, and a fairly decent video game, both of which thrived upon having built-in markets. In today’s market, this film has NOTHING to draw people in, other than a faint resemblance to yesteryear. It will flop, and badly.
So, certainly not to much love for the trailer from the folks here at Flickering Myth, and fears that we could be in for a Super Mario Bros.-level travesty when Sonic the Hedgehog races onto the big screen later this year. What did you make of the trailer though? Are we being overly harsh? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or tweet us @FlickeringMyth…
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG is a live-action adventure comedy based on the global blockbuster video game franchise from Sega that centres on the infamously brash bright blue hedgehog. The film follows the (mis)adventures of Sonic as he navigates the complexities of life on Earth with his newfound – human – best friend Tom Wachowski (James Marsden). Sonic and Tom join forces to try and stop the villainous Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) from capturing Sonic and using his immense powers for world domination. The film also stars Tika Sumpter and Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic.
Sonic the Hedgehog is directed by Jeff Fowler (Gopher Broke) and features a cast that includes Ben Schwartz (House of Lies), James Marsden (Westworld), Jim Carrey (Kidding), Adam Pally (Happy Endings), Tika Sumpter (Ride Along), Neal McDonough (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) and Natasha Rothwell (Love, Simon). It is set for release on November 8th 2019.
