However, the overall uncanny valley nature of the eyes continues to unsettle. A few weeks later, director Jeff Fowler tweeted that the movie had been delayed to Valentine’s Day 2020. Related: Sonic the Hedgehog Fan Art Imagines Jim Carrey's Dr. Robotnik Look. It’s a nightmare fuel combination of weird textures and uncanny valley, a futile attempt to capture some sense of realism with this smart-talking blue hedgehog who broke the land speed record. The creators of the new Sonic design clearly tried to give him a human-like appearance but quickly realized they made a terrible mistake. Pikachu may have new added textures but he's still 100% cartoon-style Pikachu, The same goes for the other Pokémon seen in the film; even the ones whose added features veer a tad too close to realism, they are still rooted in the sprites they're supposed to be. Sonic, one of the world’s most oddly beloved video game characters, had been given a full set of human teeth, two eyeballs with way too much distance between them, a freakishly elongated body with muscular calves and furry fingers instead of gloves. As soon as the new trailer dropped, conspiracy theories started to pop up. The result was a series of unsettling creatures that were too human in appearance for the audience to warm to, and too stylistically detailed to be seen as anything other than a stab at realism. If you put the two clips of Sonic panicking side by side, the difference is stark. They’re big and bright, like the delightful and cool cartoon version of the character — and not, crucially, a freak of nature haunting the uncanny valley. This is where the Roger Rabbit comparison feels apt. The VFX designer for the upcoming Sonic The Hedgehog movie says that the new design is actually what they started with originally.. It’s a nightmare fuel combination of weird textures and uncanny valley, a futile attempt to capture some sense of realism with this smart-talking blue hedgehog who broke the land speed record. The intended audience knows instantly who these characters are and seeing them integrated into a real-life setting feels natural and fun instead of forced. It gives everyone exactly what they want to see. The silhouette of Sonic revealed by the teaser poster already conjured up questionable images of what the hedgehog would look like, but new images only confirmed fans' worst fears. Here's how we'd have fixed it. But then there’s Sonic the Hedgehog. In response to the change, satirical gaming news site The Hard Times quickly updated its homepage with a new leading story: “Sonic fans now drunk with power demand Big the Cat be added to the film." On the subject of appendages, Sonic finally has gloves again — as opposed to thick white hair coating his man hands. The movie’s artists were “taking a little more time to make Sonic just right.”. Sonic is literally all of us.). When the first trailer for the upcoming Sonic movie came out, fans were shocked by the hedgehog’s new appearance and it wasn’t long before they started creating memes roasting the new character design. Note also the distance between his eyes. I do like Ben Schwartz' voice for him, though. 2019 looks set to be a big year for the video game movie, or at least a new spin on it. His socks are properly huge and cuffed. With one of the worst track records in the medium, his trash bag of consecutively dreadful video games led to the rise of a cottage industry of YouTubers who regularly mock his games for millions of views. Sonic will be voiced by Ben Schwartz, best known as Jean-Ralphio from Parks and Recreation, while Dr. Robotnik will be played by Jim Carrey. The League of Legends World Championship heads to China with massive opportunity, challenges. The redesign was apparently led by artist Tyson Hesse, who drew the Sonic comic books published under Archie Comics, as well as the fantastic introduction sequence to 2017’s Sonic Mania release. Tips to help you win. But given the spread of trailers and promotional material based on the original cursed design, as well as the time it took for the director to respond after people’s reactions, this theory doesn’t seem likely. From a purely branding point-of-view, it’s no wonder Sega were reportedly disappointed with these changes. However, times have changed, technology has improved, and nostalgia remains the best way to make bank at the box office, so of course, it was Sonic's time. While the trailer for Pokémon: Detective Pikachu has its detractors, overall the responses have been very encouraging and a lot of that comes down to its basic design. A one-stop shop for all things video games. 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It may look better in motion and once the final touches are added, but these changes highlight the difficulty in trying to take something deliberately cartoonish and translate it into a vague sense of realism. Scroll up again. The last thing this film needs is to lean into realism, and making the textures more cartoonish would greatly improve the basic visuals of this design. Related: Screen Rant's 50 Most Anticipated Movies of 2019. Her favorite topics include star studies, classic Hollywood, box office analysis, industry gossip, and caring way too much about the Oscars.