Controversy Creates Cash

As an artist myself I understand the necessity to allow an artist to have some measure of creative-license when designing their version of someone else' intellectual-property. That being said, I also feel that it is the responsibility of the artist to honor the source-material and original-concept FIRST, then ad-lib and and put your own tweaks and designs on it later on so that it does have your own personal touch. You wouldn't have been hired for the job if the producers did not see something in your portfolio that impressed them. There is something that you do or something that you offer that other artists do not and that is why you got the job.

I have to say that I am amazed and impressed with the redesign. Not only with the quality, but them being able to redesign a new character-model from scratch and re-purpose it in all of the scenes of the film, in addition to re-shooting some footage here and there. Sonic LOOKS like.....Sonic. I mean, look at the difference between the previous-model and the re-design.

Is it a 100% 1-to-1 copy of the video-game version? No. Does it need to be? No. All I ever asked is that when I look at the character I can immediately tell who or what it is even from a distance.

Granted, with this new-design his eyes are not quite as large and do not connect in the middle like the video-games and cartoons (which admittedly I think is weird now that I think about it,) but they don't need to in order for it to look and feel like Sonic The Hedgehog. They are big enough, and far more expressive than before. This Sonic has fur on his arms. Not a deal-breaker for me because that has been an inconsistent design-feature over the years in games. The sneakers are PERFECT. His body is correctly proportioned. The colors are more accurate (in particular his chest-fur color.) Instead of having no gloves with white-fur, they gave him his gloves. They just did an outstanding job. He looks adorable. He looks cool. He looks warm and friendly. A major-upgrade over that hideous-thing that they showed before.

We spend so much time complaining about things, why can't we all just stand up and applaud Paramount for actually doing the RIGHT thing for a change (I guess they feel that since they DESTROYED Terminator they could at least fix Sonic.)

We are consumers. Movie studios are purveyors of goods. As such being the case, it is Paramount's responsibility to provide products that we want to consume, or they won't get our money. Simple as that. This movie was all-but guaranteed to be a flop before. Now people my age that grew up with Sonic are excited to see it. People my age that have kids that may not necessarily be fans of Sonic may look at this as something they can share with their children to open up dialogue. It is always good to share your childhood-experiences with your children. It helps them learn about who they are and may encourage them to be more vocal with you about things they are passionate about. Lastly, kids of today that are fans of some of the Sonic cartoons and games from in recent years will definitely want to see it now. When kids see big people excited about something they usually want to be in the act as well.

There is literally *NOTHING* bad about what Paramount did here. The idea that some people claim that they should have stuck with the original-design makes no sense to me. Not from a financial-standpoint, and not from a practical-standpoint.

People make mistakes. It's called human-nature. How we handle rectifying those mistakes is how we are measured and how we grow. I'm not saying this movie is going to be a blockbuster-hit or anything. It's still a video-game movie and those films have not traditionally done well. This movie still may not do all that great. I mean, even with them nailing many aspects of the source-material, the movie itself still has to be good. What I will say is that this movie at least now has a shot at being decent. I mean, for all we know Paramount may have purposefully gave us that frighteningly-bad initial-design that we did NOT want any parts of, so that they could play the hero by making a "resigned" version of Sonic that IS what we want just to garner interest in people that may not have been interested initially.

Controversy creates cash.

A hill on a flat-plain is just a hill. A hill viewed by someone standing in a valley, looks like a mountain. I do hope the movie does well. There is truly an untapped-market in terms of video-game franchises on the silver-screen. We need something to be the catalyst that entices movie studios and gaming companies to bring more franchises to theaters. If a major 1st-party IP like Sonic The Hedgehog can do well, that may open the door for many pleasurable-experiences to come.