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RockmanBN

Visited by Knack - One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
28,042
Cornfields
But Sonic and Shadow are like BFFs with the president

Reminds me that someone remade it for a birthday present
IMX2qygb27z2b7KzYGIZcJv5ebTj8XxEr8mn7zY026Q.jpg
 
Oct 25, 2017
3,071
No no, I enjoyed the movie for what it is, but it's very far from the ideal imo. I still hate the fact it's live action.

Some of you are conflating cities/people with being too realistic. There isn't some line where you can never include those certain real world elements, it's just that sometimes those attempts are uncanny, or lack the style I associate with the series.
 
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BossDumDrum

Member
Jan 3, 2020
1,310
Sonic's design in the movie was very well realized for his live-action environments. Try putting plastic looking Sonic next to real humans (ala 06) and things get really weird. One has to give design wise. And when the humans went cartoony in Unleashed to match Sonic, it just looked much better.
 

Gaia Lanzer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,678
Movie being good or bad is beside the point. It is the tired concept of the "fantasy character whisked away to our modern world... fish out of water and hijinks ensue", which isn't reserved to modern movies (The Masters of the Universe movie also did that all the way back in the 80s), which is generally used by studios (people on the inside have admitted this to be true) to save money (because it's cheaper to set a movie in our world than do something entirely in a fantasy world).

Now for me, Sonic will always be a cartoon character that fits best in a cartoon world. I'm not talking about the movies here, but the games. If there are human characters in Sonic games, I'd prefer them to look cartoony as well (like Eggman/Robotnik does in a good deal of the games). I think Unleashed did a great job in this regard. All the humans are cartoony-looking, which is perfect IMO. Let them look like exaggerated human toons. Hell, funny Mario is mentioned, HE looks like a character that could fit in with Sonic in Sonic's world (and vice versa).

Also, I'm kinda anal when it comes to art direction. Either you have everybody on the same page or it's a clusterfuck of contrasting visuals. It's like putting Feilix the Cat in a Nolan Batman movie.

sonic_1_enemy_concept.jpg


Sonic always had a thing for human women too...
It's how you depict the human women, though. Madonna was pretty cartoony, looking like a short-haired, old-school Donkey Kong Pauline.

No no, I enjoyed the movie for what it is, but it's very far from the ideal imo. I still hate the fact it's live action.

Some of you are conflating cities/people with too realistic. There isn't some line where you can never include those certain real world elements, it's just that sometimes those attempts are uncanny, or lack the style I associate with the series.
Cities aren't the problem, at least to me. It's definitely the lack of uniqueness or stylized take on the cities. You see cities in old-school Sonic games. There's still quite a lot of stylization to the look of those cities:
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evilromero

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,419
I loved them more than any other 3D Sonic.



You can be sure of it. If anything it has solidified this image of Sonic since so many people saw the movie and will want to see it extended into the games
Nah, modern Sonic is inherently problematic IMO. There was never an issue with a Sonic in a live-action movie. I think it was more how poorly he was depicted in the 2006 game alongside human characters. Honestly the more Saturday morning-like depiction of the Paramount Sonic works precisely because he's more Looney Toons-esque rather than the edgy fearless often too serious personality he has in the modern games. Paramount Sonic reminds me more of 90s AoStH more than anything.
 
Oct 25, 2017
3,071
Cities aren't the problem, at least to me. It's definitely the lack of uniqueness or stylized take on the cities. You see cities in old-school Sonic games. There's still quite a lot of stylization to the look of those cities:
maxresdefault.jpg
hqdefault.jpg

artworks-PQh31WEEQh02LqdC-r0F6tA-t500x500.jpg
Sonic1ProtoSLZ1StartSecret.png

ym7qot6sua151.png
artworks-000495010833-85kesn-t500x500.jpg
e25177b6a29fc9f7e83fb9b8040efa25334a9dd4v2_hq.jpg

Exactly. Every Sonic game has cities in some form, it's never been the problem. It's all about execution.
 

VICTORsaurio

Member
Mar 10, 2018
366
I haven't seen the movie, but judging by the trailers he still looks very out of place in the real world in my opinion.
 

Bedlam

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
4,536
Did it?

I still think Sonic in a real world setting is an absolute abomination of a concept. And the laziest one, too.
 

beelulzebub

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,647
Nah, modern Sonic is inherently problematic IMO. There was never an issue with a Sonic in a live-action movie. I think it was more how poorly he was depicted in the 2006 game alongside human characters. Honestly the more Saturday morning-like depiction of the Paramount Sonic works precisely because he's more Looney Toons-esque rather than the edgy fearless often too serious personality he has in the modern games. Paramount Sonic reminds me more of 90s AoStH more than anything.
Yeah, this nails it right here. I knew the movie was pandering to people my age (who are now old enough to bring in kids if their own) with casting Jim Carrey, but I didn't consider the tone was too. No wonder it felt familiar, it absolutely does nail the tone of that show.
 

BossDumDrum

Member
Jan 3, 2020
1,310
Nah, modern Sonic is inherently problematic IMO. There was never an issue with a Sonic in a live-action movie. I think it was more how poorly he was depicted in the 2006 game alongside human characters. Honestly the more Saturday morning-like depiction of the Paramount Sonic works precisely because he's more Looney Toons-esque rather than the edgy fearless often too serious personality he has in the modern games. Paramount Sonic reminds me more of 90s AoStH more than anything.

I mean. It doesn't hurt that the movie gives him proper fur and readjusts his design better to look more natural in the human world while establishing he isn't from our world. It's not like Garfield with the random cartoony fat cat.
And the fur keeps him still cute without running into the oddity of Smurf muscles.
 

Rust

Member
Jan 24, 2018
1,238
I too can't wait until they announce that the Player 2 character in Sonic Frontiers is going to be Sonic's best friend Tails James Marsden.
 

TheOGB

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
10,018
Unleashed did this in 2008 and it was good, so Sega's never doing that again
 

mopinks

Member
Oct 27, 2017
30,615
I kind of love how the Smurfs movie ended the "Smurfs just don't work in a real world setting" argument
 

Scruffy8642

Member
Jan 24, 2020
2,854
Eh, it works in the movie, but not in the games. Never understood their obsession with making Sonic take place in a world of humans, it's just so weird and feels so wrong.
 
Nov 9, 2017
1,481
RĂ©union
The thing is about the movie is that Sonic's presence is clearly explained, he is an alien on Earth. In the video games, it's more complicated.

In the 2D games, humans exist, because Robotnik exists, but he is the only one we've seen; besides, there's no explanation as to why Sonic exists either. There are cities, but how does Sonic fit into them? Why is he different from the other animals? Same question for Tails and Knuckles... The 2D games just avoided those questions by showing only one human and no one else, and a very cartoony one at that.

But then, the 3D games came, and man they were totally different.
 
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Quinton

Specialist at TheGamer / Reviewer at RPG Site
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
17,371
Midgar, With Love
I mean... have you seen any "strange non human creature in a human world" family flick? then you have seen this.
Its superficially sonic, otherwise its trope after trope. If you have seen the garfield movie, smurfs, chipmunks, or any of those kind...then you have seen this movie.

Yeah, it's just not my genre!
 

Aether

Member
Jan 6, 2018
4,421
Yeah, it's just not my genre!
mine neither, i think they are kinda bland mass market products without real artistic value personally.
Derivative, focus group tested family flicky.

Thats why im not shure how the sonic movie is geting so much positive feedback by being a
movie that could just as well be in the same universe as the Smurfs.
It kinda takes interesting IPS and waters them down, removes a lot of uniqueness.

There is a chance that the second one tones down those points and goes full on Sonic 3 (And Knuckles) plot wise, with focus on the core game characters. then this could work.
Rant done.
 

IrishNinja

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,837
Vice City

BossDumDrum

Member
Jan 3, 2020
1,310
mine neither, i think they are kinda bland mass market products without real artistic value personally.
Derivative, focus group tested family flicky.

Thats why im not shure how the sonic movie is geting so much positive feedback by being a
movie that could just as well be in the same universe as the Smurfs.
It kinda takes interesting IPS and waters them down, removes a lot of uniqueness.

There is a chance that the second one tones down those points and goes full on Sonic 3 (And Knuckles) plot wise, with focus on the core game characters. then this could work.
Rant done.

The Sonic movie got the feedback for 2 reasons.

1) It wasn't as bad as everyone thought it would be judging by the first trailer.
2) It's the best of this genre.

On the second point. It does a lot of things better than most movies of this type in that there's less of that pointless filler of "oooh, what does this thing do?" This movie is pretty dang short and uses the majority of its time to service the plot.

It also helps that unlike other movies of this nature, Sonic is able to have his own agency outside of the human sidekick since, he isn't just some random powerless character who actually needs the human companion to help him. He pretty convincingly doesn't want to leave and delays the decision to.

And as for the human companion, the plot doesn't linger on him more than it has to, at all. And while this leaves some holes on his end, most people are able to set them aside since they just give Sonic and Robotnik's story more screentime.

It's definitely not game Sonic, but as its own thing, it handles the genre well. But it still is... well cliched just by the nature of the story it's telling.
 

Aether

Member
Jan 6, 2018
4,421
The Sonic movie got the feedback for 2 reasons.

1) It wasn't as bad as everyone thought it would be judging by the first trailer.
2) It's the best of this genre.

On the second point. It does a lot of things better than most movies of this type in that there's less of that pointless filler of "oooh, what does this thing do?" This movie is pretty dang short and uses the majority of its time to service the plot.

It also helps that unlike other movies of this nature, Sonic is able to have his own agency outside of the human sidekick since, he isn't just some random powerless character who actually needs the human companion to help him. He pretty convincingly doesn't want to leave and delays the decision to.

And as for the human companion, the plot doesn't linger on him more than it has to, at all. And while this leaves some holes on his end, most people are able to set them aside since they just give Sonic and Robotnik's story more screentime.

It's definitely not game Sonic, but as its own thing, it handles the genre well. But it still is... well cliched just by the nature of the story it's telling.
Im well aware of those points. (Nevertheless, valid and well stated).
Its just that this bar is so low, and ... i have 0 interest in such a ... safe product.
I watched it because of all the positive feedback, and after 1:30 i thought...
that fellt like an episode of a sitcom, without really more substance.

If somebody like that kin dof thing, for shure. then its probably one of the best examples of the genre.
 

BossDumDrum

Member
Jan 3, 2020
1,310
Im well aware of those points. (Nevertheless, valid and well stated).
Its just that this bar is so low, and ... i have 0 interest in such a ... safe product.
I watched it because of all the positive feedback, and after 1:30 i thought...
that fellt like an episode of a sitcom, without really more substance.

If somebody like that kin dof thing, for shure. then its probably one of the best examples of the genre.

Yeah. I agree even if I like the movie.

The thing about this "fish out of water" plot is that it has a very low bar of entry for casual viewers and young children because it doesn't rely on a lot of pre-determined lore, or at the least sets us in a situation where you can take the most digestible aspects of it and slowly explain them. But it's just... so repetitive and rarely supports franchises. Hence why Smurfs bombed after only two movies, and the Chipmunks struggled to come up with material for multiple films.

The thing about Sonic I guess is that reception to this movie is dependent on the quality of the sequel because it is such a safe (generic) product its main purpose is supposed to be a jumping off point to potentially more in a direction that feels more uniquely Sonic.

And give Sonic credit, thanks to his super powers and the nature of his plots, he can support a direction closer to the games.
 
Apr 25, 2018
1,653
Rockwall, Texas
Sonic diehards are a weird bunch. Why do you have to justify your fandom? Just accept it was a decent kids movie, like detective Pikachu, and be done with it. No need to try to paint it as anything but this.
 

Monprr

Member
Nov 28, 2017
195
I feel like it works more when they are more exaggerated like robotnik rather than attempting to be more realistic or anime like Sonic 06. I thought unleashed did it perfectly with their human characters.
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Aether

Member
Jan 6, 2018
4,421
I feel like it works more when they are more exaggerated like robotnik rather than attempting to be more realistic or anime like Sonic 06. I thought unleashed did it perfectly with their human characters.
tumblr_inline_pol7prtzT01rupio6_1280.png
you want to say.... a cartoon hedghog works better with cartoon humans? who would have thought.

The problem is the realistic aspect. The closer to real world optics and humans they go, the weirder it gets.
 

En-ou

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,840
What argument? Anything can work in a movie...whether the movie is good or bad is another thing.
 

BossDumDrum

Member
Jan 3, 2020
1,310
I feel like it works more when they are more exaggerated like robotnik rather than attempting to be more realistic or anime like Sonic 06. I thought unleashed did it perfectly with their human characters.
tumblr_inline_pol7prtzT01rupio6_1280.png

It's as I say, it's a give or take. If the characters are cartoony, the humans need to be as well or vice versa.

This mod here is a rough idea of what I mean. The art style clash is less jarring the more detailed and real Sonic looks. As real as an alien hedgehog gets.

 

Acetown

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,297
I feel like it works more when they are more exaggerated like robotnik rather than attempting to be more realistic or anime like Sonic 06. I thought unleashed did it perfectly with their human characters.
tumblr_inline_pol7prtzT01rupio6_1280.png
"Perfectly" is a stretch I think, none of these look anything like Sonic characters.

I like how Naoto Ohshima chose to depict humans in his artwork. Just faceless background people.
sonic68qokn1.png


sonic65eek6h.png
 

lorddarkflare

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,323
Eh, FWIW, the combined on screen time of humans in both adventure games most likely is still exceeded by James Marsden's onscreen time in the movie. The difference is one is a hastily cobbled together mess of a world that has sonic plunked into the middle of it with no regard for how he and the rest of the world would interact, and the other is a fairly by numbers stranger in a strange land story that's all about that.



The movie was fine. It was a better than average kids movie.

Uhhh, average kid's movies are lesser-guided precision money-making schemes nowadays. They are average at a minimum and often really good.

Bless his heart, Sonic does not compare to most.
 

I KILL PXLS

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,608
Eh, I thought the movie was actually alright but I still think it's weird. I wish the movies took place in a setting more like the games. Like you could still have humans or even Isekai it, but the game setting is so much more interesting.
 

Dark Knight

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,375
I have no problems with Sonic chilling with humans, as humans exist in the Sonic universe. What I take issue with is that he's just in our world in the movie... it's just lazy is all, and doesn't concern itself with acknowledging or respecting the history of the character or the franchise.
 

BossDumDrum

Member
Jan 3, 2020
1,310
"Perfectly" is a stretch I think, none of these look anything like Sonic characters.

I like how Naoto Ohshima chose to depict humans in his artwork. Just faceless background people.
sonic68qokn1.png


sonic65eek6h.png

But you can't just have faceless background people if there are humans. At some point they need to get close. And frankly cartoony fits Sonic more than anime or real.

This is even better demonstrated in Man of the Year which TMS animated prior to Sonic X. (1:23)