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Tim Miller: Sonic Movie Redesign Will Please Fans

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Camjo-Z

Camjo-Z

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Oct 25, 2017
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https://variety.com/2019/film/news/sonic-the-hedgehog-redesign-tim-miller-1203263993/

Big screen adaptations of nostalgic properties like Sonic are no strangers to keyboard critics, but the film's executive producer Tim Miller explained to Variety why the decision to redesign was an important one.

"This is a franchise, and it has to be great," Miller said during a sit-down this week to discuss his upcoming trip to San Diego Comic-Con. Miller has a hand in "Sonic," under the purview of director Jeff Fowler, who himself is a member of Miller's effects and production company Blur Studio.

"Look, I was with fans and so was Jeff. When the s–t hit the fan, I went over there and said, "The most important thing to do, man, is say, 'I f–ked up,'" Miller said. "He'd already sent a tweet out an hour before I got there. He's a good man. It was exactly the right way to handle that. The fans have a voice in this too. There's a right way to listen."

While the new pass on Sonic has pushed the film to Valentine's Day 2020, Miller thinks it will pay off. When asked if he's seen the new designs, Miller said "in fact I have. And I think the fans will be pleased."
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I find it kind of hilarious that he's like "I WAS WITH THE FANS" when one of the most alarming things about this movie was his IGN interview long before the infamous trailer where he admitted to completely changing the design to the point where even Sega wasn't happy. But hey, all will be forgiven if they actually manage to salvage this thing.
 

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LewieP

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Based on the trailer, I really don't think just fixing the character design will result in an interesting film.

Still baffled they went down the path of Sonic invading our world, when it would have been far more interesting to set the movie in Sonic's world (even if they had a human audience stand in for people to relate to).
 

Deleted member 29599

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How on earth did it even get this far in the first place? Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of how the character looks would have been able to tell that this movie version was a complete disaster. So bizarre.
 
Raijinto

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Not gonna lie a part of me wants to at least see into the reality where they make him somehow even worse. Even though I want the film to be good.
 
Kinthey

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Oct 27, 2017
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Camjo-Z said:
I find it kind of hilarious that he's like "I WAS WITH THE FANS" when one of the most alarming things about this movie was his IGN interview long before the infamous trailer where he admitted to completely changing the design to the point where even Sega wasn't happy.
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From that interview:
The most challenging part of Sonic's updated design isn't revealed in this teaser: his eyes. The filmmakers struggled with how best to depict Sonic's eyes because often he's only seen with one, and that wouldn't translate well to the live-action movie.

"I don't think SEGA was entirely happy with the eye decision, but these sorts of things you go, 'It's going to look weird if we don't do this.' But everything is a discussion, and that's kind of the goal, which is to only change what's necessary and stay true to the rest of it," said Miller. "He's not going to feel like a Pixar character would because I don't think that's the right aesthetic to make it feel like part of our world."
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Makes me wonder if the eyes will get changed. Though I don't really know how you could make sonic's eye look good.
 
Solid SOAP

Solid SOAP

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Tim admitted the design sucked so bad that SEGA hated it, so perhaps it actually is good?

Or perhaps not!

Literally the only reason this franchise exists to this day is the strength of the character design. How do you fuck that up!?
 
Aaron

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Guessing Sega executives came down on him like

L1F.gif


he's saying "FIX IT, FIX IT," not sure why it wasn't captioned

The whole logic behind "it's gotta look realistic" will never not seem stupid to me. It's a blue hedgehog who runs fast. What part of this was demanding realism?

main-qimg-fdc8f30613b7592d46ac303fdd1df217


This would make as much sense within the universe as the original film design.
 
Ferrs

Ferrs

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Oct 26, 2017
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Sonic design just don't translate will in a movie with real actors and environments. It's going to be a mess either way. Should have been full CG only...
 
manchego obfuscator

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you just know that at every single possible stage prior to the release of the first trailer, people tried to warn Miller et al. that the character design would lead to massive backlash and they should go with something more faithful to the game designs, and that those warnings went completely unheeded. can't imagine how costly this reworking must be, especially after licensors were already developing merchandise based on the original movie design

I feel bad for the animators; seems unlikely that the delay is long enough to prevent crunch on this movie
 
Biestmann

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Aaron said:
Guessing Sega executives came down on him like

L1F.gif


he's saying "FIX IT, FIX IT," not sure why it wasn't captioned

The whole logic behind "it's gotta look realistic" will never not seem stupid to me. It's a blue hedgehog who runs fast. What part of this was demanding realism?

main-qimg-fdc8f30613b7592d46ac303fdd1df217


This would make as much sense within the universe as the original film design.
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Realism doesn't have much to do with it, I think. It comes down to the design mock-up you posted just looks a million times better.
 
Billfisto

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Instead of going the The Smurfs route, they should have really leaned into the Sonic fanbase stuff. Just a bunch of cartoon animals with humanoid breasts, shooting guns, screwing, and copping attitude.
 
Solid SOAP

Solid SOAP

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Kinthey said:
From that interview:

Makes me wonder if the eyes will get changed. Though I don't really know how you could make sonic's eye look good.
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I feel like they're just going to increase the size of them to more closely resemble the original look. Something like this:

D08PJemWsAEZt6m.0.jpg

Literally just changing the shape of his eyes is all that needs to be done. That, and subtle things like his nose shape and such.

Why do these animated, cartoony properties need to be re-explored as realistic affairs!? Lion King looks like it barely works, who though Sonic should be envisioned as a realistic entity!?
 
FlintSpace

FlintSpace

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Oct 28, 2017
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I have no stakes in this movie, but damn i am now invested in it.

Changes has to be better than those teeths.
 
Vex

Vex

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Why would you say this without just showing it first before bragging lol? You know now if you fuck up we are gonna tap dance on dat ass right?
 
J-Spot

J-Spot

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Oct 27, 2017
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They need to go ahead and release an image of the redesign now rather than redo the whole movie and wait for a trailer to find out if it's still horrible. There was an implication that Tyson Heese was brought in to help which gives me some hope, but they should just show it off now.
 

mclem

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Oct 25, 2017
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LewieP said:
Based on the trailer, I really don't think just fixing the character design will result in an interesting film.

Still baffled they went down the path of Sonic invading our world, when it would have been far more interesting to set the movie in Sonic's world (even if they had a human audience stand in for people to relate to).
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Make it Howard the Duck in reverse; have both $humanaudiencestandin and Robotnik travel over from our dimension.

Done.
 
Finaj

Finaj

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If the script isn't good (and just by watching the trailer you can tell that it obviously isn't) then the design doesn't really matter.
 

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all those animators doing crunch just so they can fix the cg on a movie that's going to be terrible. rip.
 
SJRB

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If they nail the design this time, this movie better be a fucking blockbuster after all the outrage.
 
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