Let’s flash back to a million years ago in internet time to April 2019: Paramount released a “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie trailer and people totally freaked out.
Not because they were excited about the live-action movie starring a character reminiscent of their childhoods, but because the iconic hedgehog’s CG design was straight-up terrifying.
Sonic had a seemingly endless supply of very large human teeth, and it made many fans uneasy, to say the least:
The collective meltdown led director Jeff Fowler to postpone the movie in order to redesign the blue hedgehog that walks upright to look a little more ... realistic. Or at least something that more closely resembled what he looked like in the original video games.
Well, folks, it seems like its finally time to take a gander at the new newly designed Sonic.
“Today is the DAY!” Fowler tweeted on Tuesday morning. “Could not be more excited to share our new Sonic with you. THANK YOU for your patience and support. This wouldn’t have been possible without the fans.”
The new trailer features a new Sonic — with bigger eyes and smaller, albeit still human-looking teeth, throughout.
Here’s a good side-by-side of the Sonic in the original trailer and the new version.:
Ben Schwartz of “Parks and Recreation” fame voices Sonic, while James Marsden of “Westworld” plays Tom, the hedgehog’s new best friend who helps him defeat his enemy — Jim Carrey as the evil Dr. Robotnik.
In August, not long after the initial Sonic backlash, Carrey expressed concern over allowing fans to sway the character’s design while speaking at the 2019 Television Critics Association summer press tour.
“It’s an interesting thing. You just become their Frankenstein monster at some point, right?” he said, per Entertainment Weekly. “But I don’t know. I don’t know quite [know] how I feel about the audience being in on the creation of it while it’s happening.”
He continued: “So we’ll have to see what that entails, because sometimes you find that the collective consciousness decides it wants something, and then when it gets it, it goes, ‘OK. I just wanted it. I didn’t care about it. I just jumped on the bandwagon,’ or whatever. But I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Well, it seems what happened was a redo of the redesign. By the looks of it on Twitter, most fans approve of Sonic’s new look and thanked Fowler for listening to them.
Though, some still have a few jokes about the whole fiasco …
… It seems the new new Sonic is a win.