After a tragic premiere of the first Sonic The Hedgehog trailer where our beloved video game character looked like a dude in a costume of Sonic with weird teeth and strange posture, the fandom exploded with backlash. It was hard to find people who were defending design choices for the movie. It seemed that the movie was heading in a horrendous direction and nothing could save it. However, the creative team behind the movie decided to change the design and push the release date back. It was the right choice!
Jim Carrey was asked about his thoughts on the redesign of the character. He responded by praising the director who wanted to create something that fans of the character would like. Jeff Fowler was determined to make a movie that would appeal to people who grew up playing Sonic games from Sega. At the same time, Carrey noted that the movie definitely got better after changes in Sonic’s appearance.
Mr. Fowler was quite nervous about going back to the drawing board and starting anew. The movie was mostly ready for post production but Mr. Fowler heard the feedback and decided to make Sonic more reminiscent of his original videogame design despite it clashing his original vision where he saw Sonic being a little bit more like a human.
The efforts of the CGI team and the filming crew were rewarded with a massive overperformance of the movie upon its release. The $57 million opening and praise from critics and fans alike were indicators that the team made the right choices and created a movie that audiences liked. The success story of the movie is still going on. It is undeniable that it will make big profit and start a lot of sequel conversations behind studio doors.
