‘Sonic’ Franchise Continues Its Unexpected Run of Success

When the first trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie was released on April 30th, 2019, it looked to be the rock bottom of an already tumultuous production. The strange and—for many—uncomfortable design of the titular character, as hinted in a teaser poster from months before, combined with a fanbase lacking much faith in the project, resulted in the trailer being widely panned, mocked, and criticized both by fans on the internet and traditional media alike. Yet, this nadir of approval for the Sonicmovie would take a turn in just a few days, and much more than anyone had expected.

To put the immense backlash into context, the Sonic movie, which started production in 2013, was the child of two unpopular media trends that were both disliked by the public. The first is the movie being a mix of live-action and 3D anthropomorphic characters, a trend mostly popularized in the 2000s and early 2010s with the live-action adaptations of Garfield, The Smurfs, and most notably, Alvin and the Chipmunks. When the Sonic trailer arrived late to the party in 2019, these hybrid movies had become synonymous with strange visuals and painfully unfunny comedy.

The second was the Sonic media franchise itself. After the release of Sonic Generations in 2011, numerous games were made under the Sonic name of various genres and formats, but always with the common denominator of disappointment. Overall, both the fans and the creative team behind Sonic felt the franchise had become directionless and was quickly losing its relevance.

Further skepticism came when considering that the weakest Sonic games were usually the ones where he had complex dialogue or interacted with human characters, such as in the 2006 reboot Sonic the Hedgehog, where he kisses a human woman on the lips. This did not comfort anyone on the prospect of a Sonic movie. Maybe Sonic was just too shallow of a character to adapt on the silver screen, and his wisecracking, too-cool-for-school persona was destined to forever be trapped in the amber of nineties nostalgia.

When Paramount acquired the rights to a Sonic movie from Sony in 2017, they claimed that it would not be merely a kid’s movie, and one producer said they were aiming for a PG-13 rating. Most notably, they brought in some interesting names to be attached to the project, and producers behind the Fast and Furious franchise and Deadpool, respectively, were brought in. Another notable collaborator on the project was the animation studio Marza Animation Planet, which had produced a series of fan-favorite cutscenes and trailers for various Sonic games since the mid-2000s, a choice lauded by fans.

Leading up to the first trailer release, a teaser poster showing the outline of Sonic’s character design in the movie was released, to much skepticism and concern. An interview with one of the writers of the movie suggested that Sonic’s design would be “a little more realistic,” but fans were horrified by the sight of the titular hedgehog having an incredibly human-looking body, complete with muscular, well-defined arms and legs, combined with rather gross-looking blue fur. His iconic gloves were gone, revealing creepily skinny fingers, and his iconic shoes were ditched in favor of generic 2010s athleisure sneakers, with no socks. As one critic wrote on RottenTomatoes.com, Sonic resembled “a spray-painted marmot.” His face was obscured by shadows in the poster, with the studio wanting to reveal it later.

This negative response only grew with the release of the first full trailer. Set to a puzzling song choice of “Gangsta’s Paradise,” the three-minute video outlined an otherwise orthodox plot of a buddy comedy of two worlds colliding: the magical alien world from which Sonic came, and the sleepy little fictional town of Green Hills, Montana, whose name referenced a classic level from the games. But Jim Carrey’s performance as Sonic’s iconic arch-nemesis Dr. Robotnik was a high point of the trailer, with many people excited for his long-awaited return to comedy movies.

However, all of that was overshadowed by the full reveal of the movie Sonic’s design. Described as “nightmarish,” “ugly,” and “frightfully realistic,” viewers were greeted with an opening shot of Sonic’s weirdly small eyes and a complete set of human teeth. Full body shots revealed his skinny yet muscular build, with him having the proportions of a lanky adult man at a child’s height. Without his usual white gloves, he instead possessed paw-like hands that had white fur and looked like the result of a bad taxidermy job from the 18th century. Instead of a fun-loving cartoon hedgehog, Sonic looked more like a wet rat that had put in its hours at the gym.

As expected, fans flocked to social media to widely mock the trailer and its various bizarre creative choices. With over twenty million views in the first two days and hundreds of thousands of dislikes on YouTube, Paramount quietly removed any trace of their embarrassing release. Instead, fans focused on director Jeff Fowler’s Twitter account, where he posted a picture of Sonic’s hand holding a sign for the date of February 14th, 2020, captioned with: “taking a little more time to make Sonic just right.”

Keen-eyed fans quickly recognized that the art style of the image posted by Fowler belonged to Tyler Hesse, who had worked on the Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog series, amongst other animated projects. By bringing in an established artist who had experience with the franchise, Paramount received a lot of goodwill and cautious hope from the general public.

Hesse’s redesign of Sonic was unveiled in a new trailer released five months later. It featured larger eyes, new sneakers, Sonic’s signature white gloves, and a more rounded, cartoonish body that made him resemble his mainstream videogame counterpart. Now set to more appropriate music in J.J. Fad’s “Supersonic,” the trailer received an outpouring of support and had one of the highest like-to-dislike ratios of any movie trailer on Google in recent years.

The mood of the movie also changed with the new trailer: whereas the previous version had clearly taken itself quite seriously and wanted to highlight its visual effects, the new trailer expanded upon the positives of the old one. Starting with scenes showing off Sonic’s fun teenager-like personality, enjoying himself reading comic books and playing baseball by himself, the trailer then shifts to the wholesome dynamic between Sonic and his human friend-slash-adopted father Tom, played by seasoned “weird handsome guy who needs a small talking creature from another realm” portrayer James Marsden. In addition, Jim Carrey’s screen time increased drastically after only appearing once previously.

On release, the movie received overwhelming approval from audiences—earning a whopping 93% on RottenTomatoes.com’s audience poll—but critics’ reactions were lukewarm at best. With most of the praise singling out Jim Carrey’s performance and the movie’s supposed “charm” and family friendly appeal, most reviews from professional critics bashed on the movie’s blandness, immature humor, and excessive product placement, calling it “a nattering chore of a "family" comedy that feels written by committee and directed by indifferent machine,” according to the Onion's AV Club review.

However, the cast and crew of the movie remained motivated and inspired to bring the Sonic universe to life, with a sequel already teased by a post-credits scene featuring Sonic’s classic sidekick Tails, the flying fox. In early 2020, Director Jeff Fowler, as well as the leading stars of the film, expressed their desire to return for a sequel, hinting that it would further develop Carrey’s character, Dr. Robotnik, as well as incorporate Sonic’s rival, Knuckles the Echidna.

With the story centered around the return of Dr. Robotnik, the sequel introduced two new animated characters to pair with the titular hedgehog. The overly serious, no-nonsense echidna warrior Knuckles—identified by his large titular fists—was voiced by Idris Elba, providing his deep, commanding tone. Knuckles begins the movie as an antagonist, seeking revenge against Sonic for being part of the village that killed his entire clan. However, in the end, he is betrayed by Robotnik and thus sides with Sonic, with the two sharing similar past traumas from losing their family.

Another animated character, Sonic’s flying fox companion Tails, starred as the stereotypical techie sidekick with gadgets and is faced with a small side quest of gaining confidence next to Sonic, his longtime idol. Speaking of Sonic, the titular blue hero goes through a struggle to become a responsible leader and to take care of others, even when it is less obvious. His journey concludes with him evolving into the powerful golden form of the creatively named Super Sonic and an expanded found family with Knuckles and Tails.

Jim Carrey’s performance as Dr. Robotnik continued to be the biggest highlight of the movie, this time portraying the character as even more insane and wacky. However, Carrey also showed off his range during the final battle sequence, where he is terrifying, imbued with the near-infinite powers of the Master Emerald—the film’s magic MacGuffin item.

The film enjoyed much warmer reviews, both by critics and audiences, sporting 69% and 96% ratings on RottenTomatoes.com, respectively. Even so, it was still criticized for its dwelling on the underwhelming human plotlines, which add little to the main story and took up a big chunk of the movie. As a result, another common complaint was the runtime ballooning to 2 hours and 2 minutes, which is ridiculously long for a children’s film.

In contrast to the previous two films, there was little doubt about the production of the third installment of the Sonic film franchise, which was announced shortly before the release of 2. Writers of the film had publicly conversed with fans about their intentions of adapting the fan favorite character Shadow the Hedgehog, who was teased in the post-credits scene. For the edgy, dark, and angsty 2000s-era juxtaposition to the 90s campiness and fun of Sonic, the producers stated that they wanted a specific big movie star to voice Shadow. After much speculation and anticipation from fans, Keanu Reeves was enlisted to bring the iconic character to the big screen.

On the other hand, fans were concerned that Carrey had suggested shortly after the release of Sonic 2 that he was considering a retirement from acting, which meant that the role of Robotnik would possibly be lost for the much-anticipated third film. Fortunately, Carrey said that he would return if “the angels bring some sort of script that's written in gold ink that says to me that it's going to be really important for people to see.” Ultimately, the filmmakers confirmed that Carrey would return to the franchise not only as Dr. Robotnik but that it would be a dual role with him also playing Robotnik’s grandfather, Gerald.

However, a big wrench was thrown into the production of Sonic 3 as dual strikes from the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America were starting right before the filming was slated to take place during the summer of 2023. Even though the script was luckily finalized before the strikes started, filming had to begin with only the animated characters. Despite the untimely interruption, the production timeline remained steady, and there was no need to delay the December 2024 release date.

As many expected, Sonic 3 had a darker tone than the previous two films, with it dealing with more serious themes of grief and loss, as well as having villains who didn’t crack jokes every two lines. Therefore, the movie also cut a little bit down on the more comedic human side characters, making them feel nicely included but also not getting in front of the main hedgehog-dominated spectacle. The locations in the film also changed to reflect this shift, with the usual sunny backdrops replaced by nighttime Tokyo, underground military installations, and space.

The movie also continues the titular character’s journey of needing to work together as a team—with his now eponymous named Team Sonic—but also incorporates the struggle Sonic has to stay true to himself and his family. This is accompanied by more strained relationships with his sidekicks throughout the film as Sonic and his friends face the most intimidating threat yet.

After the brief question about his possible retirement, Carrey stunned audiences by playing dual roles of the usual silly Dr. “Eggman” Robotnik alongside his much more sinister and cruel grandfather Dr. Gerald Robotnik. Imbued with classic Carrey comedy, the characters also flexed his impressive acting abilities, with his two characters convincingly being depressed, sadistic, or selfless. His performance was most notable for a hilarious viral scene where he dances with himself in a laser tunnel.

However, everything paled compared to the attention given to fan favorite Shadow, who embodied a dark parallel to Sonic’s story. Coming as an alien with no home on Earth, instead of finding a loving and supportive family, Shadow was captured by the government and forcibly experimented on and kept contained for over fifty years. Even so, he displayed his soft side with flashbacks of his unlikely friendship with Maria, the elder Robotnik’s young daughter, the counterpart for Sonic’s human adopted parents. But after an accident in which Maria was killed, Shadow lost his only emotional connection in his entire life and is characterized as cold, determined, and—other than occasional bouts of anger—emotionless.

The visual effects in this film were also on another level compared to its two predecessors, with Sonic and Shadow’s final anime-style showdown being the crown jewel of many fantastic action scenes in the movie.

With the release of the third film, it seems like mainstream critics have finally come around to applaud the Sonic franchise, with Sonic 3 having an impressive 85% Certified Fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.com, where fans also voiced their praise with a 95% audience score.

Looking forward to the future, the Sonic franchise looks incredibly bright, with a fourth already scheduled for release in 2027. The next installment is likely to feature Metal Sonic—his robotic antagonist counterpart—and the female hedgehog Amy Rose, another fan favorite. Furthermore, a Knuckles spin-off show was produced on HBO Max prior to the release of Sonic 3, signaling the successful evolution of the films.

However, the most incredible part of the film series has to be the commitment from the filmmakers to both consult and communicate with the fans openly about the direction of the franchise and also their respect and knowledge of the original source material, and its influence was heavily seen in the movies.

After almost losing the everyone’s faith with one of the worst media releases in the history of the internet, the filmmakers behind the Sonic the Hedgehog film series have managed to make it the most successful video game film adaptation of all time and have won over immense good will and a loyal, passionate fanbase, containing both lifelong Sonic fans and first-time viewers. The story of the series shows just how powerful a fanbase’s voice can be, changing the direction of a major film franchise.