PODCAST PROJECT

The host of Critic's Corner discusses the movie "Sonic the Hedgehog" and the backlash it faced due to the character design. Many video game adaptations don't follow the original source material, which upsets fans. After the trailer release, fans expressed outrage on Twitter, leading to a character redesign and a three-month delay. The new design pleased fans and the movie received positive audience reviews. The success of the film spawned two sequels. Today's episode, Critiquing the Blue Hedgehog, is brought to you by Movieflix. It is the largest streaming catalog filled with your favorite shows and movies for $8.99 a month. With my exclusive code, IAMACRITIC, enjoy a month free. Hello everybody, my name is Nicole Sandoval, and I will be your host for Critic's Corner. Welcome to our very first episode. As some of you might have guessed by reading the title, or by the music that I just played, the very first movie that we will be discussing is Sonic the Hedgehog. I thought this was an appropriate movie to discuss today because of all the criticism this film faced before it even came out, so without further ado, let's get started, everybody. So I think it's important to explain that the expectations surrounding Sonic the Hedgehog were pretty low even before the trailer was released and went viral on Twitter, as some of you might know, and this is mainly due to when Nicole Noble explains in her article, The Renaissance of a Video Game Movie, that many video game adaptations do not follow the original source material, which often upsets fans. For example, she cites the Resident Evil franchise. To the disappointment of fans, the very first Resident Evil movie opened with a cast of characters that were not even in the game. Although this heavily disappointed fans, the movie was a financial hit, making $103 million in the box office. This later led to the creation of 5 more movies, with the latest movie coming out in 2019. Although this is only an example of one franchise not following the original source material, it does reflect an overall trend. Therefore, when Sonic the Hedgehog was announced, a lot of its fanbase wasn't excited and already had their expectations set pretty low. Fans would later believe that their low expectations were justified when the trailer dropped. So now, let's move on and discuss the juicy part and the real reason that I chose to discuss this film with all of you today. So as some of you might remember, there was a bit of backlash that followed the release of the trailer of Sonic the Hedgehog, and this mainly was due to the character design of Sonic. According to Radio Times, why would Sonic the Hedgehog's movie design change? The character redesign of Sonic was meant to reflect the live-action world in which the Hedgehog found himself in. His large green eyes have been swapped with a smaller pair. He also had human teeth and a larger, yet sharper, more gaunt face. The vibrant blue of his fur had also been significantly dulled down. This led fans to express their outrage on Twitter, where many users expressed their sincere disapproval and even their lack of desire to watch this film. Ultimately, this led the director of the film, Jeff Fowler, to respond. In his tweet, he explained that he had received the message of the public and that he, along with Paramount Studios, were committed to making the best Sonic that they possibly could. As such, another character redesign was in order. This did lead the release of the movie to be delayed by three months. Originally scheduled to come out in December, the film was pushed back to Valentine's Day. Well, now that the studio and the director have committed themselves to redesigning the character of Sonic to please the public, I think it's wise to explore the consequences that followed. Right after our sponsor. Our second sponsor today is Rachel Cinema. Every Tuesday, they will be having a $2 sale on children's ticket, so if you and your family want to head out on a nice Tuesday evening, please check out Rachel Cinema near you. Alright, welcome back everybody, so let's talk about these consequences. According to Vulture, beyond the creepy tease how Sonic the Hedgehog saved itself, the character redesign was led by Tyson Hez, who was an artist who had previously worked in Sonic video games, comics, and animated shorts. His involvement was a consequence of the studio wanting to embody the character design of the original source material. So when the trailer dropped once again in November, fans were much happier with the appearance of Sonic. His teeth were smaller, he had his classic large green eyes, and wore his famous white gloves, and was more vibrantly blue. In all, he reflected the character design from the original video game. Obviously now, fans felt heard, and this reflected in their response to the film. Ultimately, this film would receive a 63% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, but a stellar 93% score from its audience. It seemed finally that a video game adaptation film had gotten something right, and that was following the original source material. In the end, the success of this film, which was a very successful film, let me make that very clear, spawned two more sequels. The third one, which will come out later this year in December, will be titled Sonic the Hedgehog 3. And that's all she wrote for today. If you liked today's episode, please consider subscribing. Our next episode will be dropped on Tuesday, we will have a new episode drop every Tuesday from now on. We will be discussing the Resident Evil franchise, so if you want to be part of the super awesome community, I'm not being biased at all, please subscribe. Until then, see y'all next time.