Speaking as a gamer, when I first heard that there was going to be a movie based on the videogame character Sonic the Hedgehog, it's safe to say that I was a little apprehensive.
Movies based on videogames have never lived up to their respective expectations in the past (here's looking at you Super Mario Bros. and Final Fantasy), but I was fully willing to buy into all the hype and see what everybody's favourite fast blue hedgehog looked like on the big screen.
Sadly, after Paramount and Sega dropped the trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie earlier this week, my greatest fears were realised. And it was nothing to do with Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik or even the overarching story the trailer was teasing, it was the fact that Sonic looked terrible.
If you haven't seen the awful trailer, check it out below:And I was not the only one who thought that one of the most iconic characters in the videogame industry looked utterly dreadful, as people flooded Sega's Twitter feed with scathing comments and memes regarding the appearance of the savior of Green Hill Zone:
In fact, one artist went viral after posting his quick fix for the live-action Sonic:
Do you see that? That redesign actually looks watchable because it actually looks like Sonic!
In fact, the backlash was so hostile and unrelenting, that the movie's director, Jeff Fowler, took to Twitter yesterday to promise changes:
Yes, Fowler stated that: "Paramount & Sega are fully committed to making this character the BEST he can be" - and yet nobody from either of those companies looked at the final design and said, "Hang on, that looks nothing like Sonic".
That being said, it is great to see the people behind the movie listening to their fanbase and actually committing to change the character with the fans' interests at heart. However, with the movie currently scheduled to release on November 8 this year, and with presumably a lot of CGI to reskin, the production team certainly have a lot of work on their hands.
#GottaFixFast