The first trailer for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog live-action movie dropped today, and you can best believe the internet has been a ring-grabbing frenzy after witnessing what can only be described as a literal, cinematic nightmare. That's not to say it will be a bad movie, Sonic just looks a little creepy is all.
As someone who did not grow up with a Sega console, I don't really have much opposition to this movie being made simply because I was never a huge fan of the Sonic games. Personally, I've gained more joy out of the memes that owe their origins to the little blue dude than the actual games ever did. This is probably for the best though, because if I was a long-time fan of the series and had just seen this trailer, I would not be super thrilled by the, let's say "creative direction", that this film seems to be taking.
If you've been on the internet at all today, chances are you have seen a screenshot of Sonic's weirdly humanoid-adjacent teeth. While it is in fact cannon that Sonic has a nice set of chompers (for eating chili dogs, of course), there is something rather unsettling about it here. But who am I kidding, nothing about Sonic's character model is working for me.
Honestly though, I would like to give this movie the benefit of the doubt. I'd like to think that the goal here is to introduce Sonic to a new generation - one that was perhaps too young to witness the sins committed by the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. After all, our children shouldn't have to pay for the crimes of their parents. That said, if this movie even remotely comes close to hinting at a love interest then I am going to ejector seat myself right out of the cinema; we simply cannot subject the children who will inevitably end up seeing this the kind of unflattering inter-species erotica that we were forced to endure. But I digress.
It's actually kind of nice to see Jim Carry return to form in what I can only hope is supposed to be a comedic role. If there was any actor capable of animating a live-action version of a maniacal Dr. Robotnik, it would be him. Throughout his screen time in the trailer I saw glimpses of antics that were at times somewhat reminiscent of his older, more iconic personas such as the Mask and Ace Ventura. I sincerely hope that his talents aren't being wasted here, but only time will tell.
As far as plot is concerned, it looks like Sonic is going to have to save Earth from Jim Carrey, which I guess can only mean that Sonic is actually an alien from another world. Huh. Well, I guess if we're taking inventory here, adopting an out-of-this-world backstory for a movie adaptation more or less worked out for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In any case, while details surrounding Sonic's origin are a bit unclear, it is certain that Dr. Robotnik is hellbent on murdering him. For whatever reason. Probably for being an alien.
If everything goes to plan, Sonic the Hedgehog is scheduled to release on November 8th of this year. I'm kind of hoping that this trailer is the only one we get until then, because I don't think showing more of the movie is going to do it any favors.
