{"id":92797,"date":"2019-04-30T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2019\/04\/talking_point_not_appealing_to_gamers_first_is_a_dangerous_strategy_for_the_sonic_movie"},"modified":"2019-04-30T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T17:00:00","slug":"talking-point-not-appealing-to-gamers-first-is-a-dangerous-strategy-for-the-sonic-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/04\/30\/talking-point-not-appealing-to-gamers-first-is-a-dangerous-strategy-for-the-sonic-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Point: Not Appealing To Gamers First Is A Dangerous Strategy For The Sonic Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/1e7fe4ce388bd\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/1e7fe4ce388bd\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"Stretch\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/1e7fe4ce388bd\/stretch.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/1e7fe4ce388bd\/stretch.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Stretch\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cEvery hero has a Genesis,\u201d the trailer tells us. Unfortunately, we\u2019re not convinced anybody at Paramount has ever even seen one. Whether you\u2019re a fan of the blue hedgehog\u2019s original Sega Genesis\/Mega Drive <em>oeuvre<\/em>, partial to his brave strides into the third dimension on Dreamcast or have been keeping up with his latest exploits across all platforms in the modern era, anybody who holds him in high esteem likely watched today\u2019s reveal for the upcoming live-action <strong>Sonic the Hedgehog<\/strong> film through their fingers in absolute horror. Regardless of which era you\u2019re a fan of, the version coming to cinema screens in November doesn\u2019t appear to please anyone who\u2019s ever enjoyed a platformer starring Sega\u2019s mascot.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps his timing is simply bad. The imminent release of <strong>Detective Pikachu<\/strong> and the deluge of media accompanying it leads to inevitable comparisons between the two video gaming franchise movies, but where the Pok\u00e9mon film and its design has met with much praise after initial shock at the Pok\u00e9mon&#8217;s &#8216;fur&#8217;, it\u2019s tough to find anyone who thinks that Sonic looks like anything but a nightmare.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"object object-youtube\">\n<div class=\"youtube\">[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FvvZaBf9QQI?rel=0&amp;hd=1&amp;showinfo=0&amp;modestbranding=0&amp;autohide=1&#038;w=900&#038;h=507]<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The trailer, reproduced above for your &#8216;pleasure&#8217;, puts the blue speed demon against a backdrop of resolutely bland environments, with most of its two minutes and forty-seven second runtime accompanied by Coolio\u2019s classic &#8216;Gangster\u2019s Paradise&#8217;. Why? Well, the why of it all seems to get a little lost. Are they trying to evoke some sort of mid-90s atmosphere, perhaps? Does it tie in lyrically to the movie or trailer in any way at all like The Turtles&#8217; &#8216;Happy Together&#8217; does in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1roy4o4tqQM\">the Detective Pikachu trailer<\/a>? Unless there&#8217;s some big plot point they&#8217;re keeping under wraps, it doesn&#8217;t appear so. It seems like somebody misheard a request for a \u2018cool\u2019 song and Coolio thusly found a cheque in his mailbox.<\/p>\n<p>The soundtrack is the least of our worries as Sonic enthusiasts, though. 2D traditionalists for whom <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/sonic_mania\">Sonic Mania<\/a><\/strong> is the first \u2018true\u2019 Sonic game since 1994&#8217;s <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/megadrive\/sonic_and_knuckles\">Sonic &amp; Knuckles<\/a><\/strong> will likely take one look at this ill-proportioned, half-scrawled napkin-sketch of a character and run a mile, but even fans of his lankier modern look must feel horrified at what the movie\u2019s designers have produced. Personally, we\u2019re partial to the blue hedgehog\u2019s original guise \u2013 the plucky little guy with \u2018tude and a rotund belly that (silently) raced through twisting glades and mystic caves to battle Robotnik \u2013 but despite losing a few pounds around the midriff, movie Sonic shares little in common with the hedgehog seen in the modern games, either. His response of \u201cEr\u2026, meow?\u201d when James Marsden\u2019s cop bursts in on him seems like an admission that somebody cocked up the character design.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"FootTap\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/1e905c11a5679\/foottap.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/1e905c11a5679\/foottap.900x.jpg\" alt=\"FootTap\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>Let\u2019s (for a moment) give them the benefit of the doubt! Sonic\u2019s never looked much like a hedgehog, and his design was famously modelled on Felix the Cat \u2013 perhaps that \u201cmeow\u201d is <em>actually<\/em> a real \u2018deep cut\u2019 for fans to pick up on. No? Anyone?<\/p>\n<p>Okay. But let\u2019s not forget that the reaction to the \u2018furry\u2019 Pok\u00e9mon in the Detective Pikachu trailer wasn\u2019t universally positive in the beginning. As we\u2019ve seen more and more of the \u2018mon revealed over the last few months, it\u2019s become clear that their design blends very well with the real-world setting of the film. There\u2019s a coherency there between all of the Pocket Monsters and, perhaps more significantly, it hones <em>very closely<\/em> to the source material. Say what you like about the fur, each and every Pok\u00e9mon we\u2019ve seen stays meticulously true to its original silhouette and design in the video games. Change the colour of any of them and they\u2019d still be recognisably Jigglypuff or Bulbasaur or Charizard.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, if you made this version of Sonic red, for example, would you even be able to recognise the character? Would the human body shape of the silhouette make you think of video gaming legend Sonic the Hedgehog if it hadn\u2019t been seared into your nightmares since the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/12\/the_upcoming_sonic_movie_has_received_its_first_poster_and_its_strangely_muscular\">initial teaser reveal<\/a>? Movie Sonic feels like Paramount thought they could save money by putting a CG head on a guy in a suit, or maybe <em>make<\/em> money on Halloween costumes. He&#8217;s what you\u2019d get if you gave crayons to an alien and told them to draw a blue dude with spines and red shoes. Tell the same alien to draw a mouse with big ears, red shorts and yellow shoes and they\u2019d produce something similarly off-model. There\u2019s no evidence of respect for the shape, form or anything at all related to the video game character\u2019s classic design. \u2018Blue hedgehog thing, red shoes, fast \u2013 go!\u2019<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"Look! Green Hills! Because that's a Sonic thing, right?\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/f9607e4f7e8a9\/look-green-hills-because-thats-a-sonic-thing-right.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/f9607e4f7e8a9\/look-green-hills-because-thats-a-sonic-thing-right.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Look! Green Hills! Because that's a Sonic thing, right?\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">Look! Green Hills! Because that&#8217;s a Sonic thing, right?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The thing is, though, we wonder how somebody who had no connection to the games \u2013 with no deep history or love for the character \u2013 would feel after watching the trailer. How would they compare it to, say, the Detective Pikachu trailer? After all, there are more similarities than we might care to admit. Both of them feature \u2018photorealistic\u2019 animals in a real-world setting; obnoxious furry things which wisecrack. With Pikachu voiced by Ryan \u2018Deadpool\u2019 Reynolds, how is this motormouth any different?<\/p>\n<p>Both trailers follow the same tired formula that <em>every<\/em> action-comedy follows (Music-Music-Stop-Gag-Music-Slow Motion Bit-Music) and both feature jokes which come off as average, at best. Jim Carrey\u2019s continual interruption of the army man brought to mind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fK8mneO8yvU\">Doctor Evil silencing his son<\/a> in <strong>Austin Powers<\/strong> and feels pretty weak, but the same could be said of the \u2018shove it\u2019 Mr Mime gag in Detective Pikachu. We thought you were supposed to put your best jokes in the trailer?! Let\u2019s hope that both films are less conventional than these snippets suggest.<\/p>\n<p>Early whispers regarding the Pok\u00e9mon film are very positive and we\u2019re confident that it\u2019ll be entertaining at the very least. Who knows \u2013 perhaps Sonic the Motion Picture will be an absolute masterpiece of the cinematic medium. As gamers, we may look at the trailer and weep, but how it will go down with the non-gaming public is difficult to judge. While Pok\u00e9mon is undoubtedly the bigger property in business terms, our gran couldn\u2019t point to Pikachu in a lineup, but show her a picture of a blue hedgehog and she\u2019ll know he\u2019s called Sonic and she\u2019ll know that he runs.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"Squint and you can almost imagine that it doesn't look rubbish.\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/2760ecdf0f4c4\/squint-and-you-can-almost-imagine-that-it-doesnt-look-rubbish.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/2760ecdf0f4c4\/squint-and-you-can-almost-imagine-that-it-doesnt-look-rubbish.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Squint and you can almost imagine that it doesn't look rubbish.\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\">Squint and you can <em>almost<\/em> imagine that it doesn&#8217;t look rubbish.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We doubt that Paramount is targeting our gran or \u2018the grey pound\u2019 in general, but the point is that Sonic carries a brand-recognition factor which arguably matches Pok\u00e9mon, even in a post-<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/mobile\/pokemon_go\">Pok\u00e9mon Go<\/a><\/strong> world. Whether \u2018broad recognition\u2019 translates to \u2018broad appeal\u2019 is another question, but if you showed non-gamers the two trailers side-by-side, we\u2019re not sure they\u2019d notice a vast gulf in quality. Will they go through existential angst trying to divine the reason Gangster\u2019s Paradise is in the trailer? Hell no \u2013 it\u2019s just a great tune! It will largely depend what other movies are releasing alongside this one, but if enough non-gaming cinemagoers recognise that blue monstrosity as Sonic and take a punt, perhaps it won\u2019t be the colossal bomb we\u2019re all predicting on the evidence of the first trailer.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a gamble, though. Detective Pikachu <em>feels like<\/em> it&#8217;s pleasing gamers first and then hoping to attract a larger audience on the strength of Pok\u00e9mon Go&#8217;s success and Ryan Reynolds&#8217; box office charm. Whether or not that&#8217;s true, Warner Bros.&#8217; approach feels less cynical &#8211; it seems like the filmmakers genuinely care about the source material and the studio has let them get on with making the thing.<\/p>\n<p>Paramount seems to have taken a different route with Sonic, ejecting or completely reworking many things the gaming audience hold dear in the hopes of a wider appeal from the off. It feels like it&#8217;s been focus-tested to death, dissected by executives who&#8217;ve never heard of Yuji Naka or Hirokazu Yasuhara or Masato Nakamura. We&#8217;ve seen the results of this before in numerous disappointing video game movie adaptations &#8211; need we mention the fundamental missteps of the <strong>Super Mario Bros.<\/strong> movie or <strong>Street Fighter<\/strong> (the 1994 one or the 2009 version &#8211; take your pick)? There are countless examples of missing the point. By alienating actual gamers this film runs the risk of falling into the chasm between an audience that actively avoids it and the masses that see nothing to indicate what the fuss is about and couldn&#8217;t care less. We\u2019ll see in November if that gamble pays off and if this attracts non-gamers, but we\u2019re not holding our breath. A glimpse of the \u2018proper\u2019 Robotnik and some giant mushrooms in the dying seconds was, for us, possibly the best thing the trailer had to offer.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture strip\"><a title=\"Robuttnik\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/9710d039da153\/robuttnik.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/9710d039da153\/robuttnik.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Robuttnik\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>Everything else, though? My word \u2013 what <em>were<\/em> they thinking?!<\/p>\n<p><em>What do you think? Have we missed any redeeming features? Or did you &#8211; and this is perfectly fine &#8211; like the trailer? Let us know with a comment.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cEvery hero has a Genesis,\u201d the trailer tells us. Unfortunately, we\u2019re not convinced anybody at Paramount has ever even seen one. Whether you\u2019re a fan of the blue hedgehog\u2019s original Sega Genesis\/Mega Drive oeuvre, partial to his brave strides into the third dimension on Dreamcast or have been keeping up with his latest exploits across [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}