Sonic the Hedgehog - the Movie: Here's What We Know So Far
Friday, 26th October 2018, 9:02am (UTC), 0 Comments
We've seen him in over 70 exciting games, but will Sonic be as good on the big screen in 2019 as he is on the console? Considering we're still way off the release date. It's pretty hard to say. But finally getting a real live action movie out of one of our most beloved game characters is exciting regardless.

We've collected all of the gossip and news so far on the film's release, so you don't have to.



The Production Lowdown

The feature film is set to hit theatres in the UK on November 28th, 2019 according to Sega and their producing partner Paramount Pictures. We may still have a year to go before we can make our final verdict on the film, but we're a lot closer than when the first announcement of the film back in February 2016.

Excitement mounted even more when the director of Deadpool Tim Miller took on the role of executive producer. He'll be joined by Jeff Fowler who is a newcomer to his role - hopefully bringing in enough contemporary talent and love for our blue friend. Although Fowler may not have been around for all that long, one of his previous shorts "Gopher Broke" was Oscar-Nominated. So, with an all-star production team, it's safe to say it looks promising!

It would seem that back in February 2016, they vastly underestimated how long it would take to get the action feature under wraps. Originally, the release date was scheduled for 2018. Yet, at least I will be with us just in time for the holiday's next year.

If you're nervous about the film's release, we get it, the writing might let us down, the animation may be terrible, it may be directed at the completely wrong audience. Which raises a very good question, which audience should the movie be targeted at?

Considering that Sonic the Hedgehog videogames were enjoyed by many kids who grew up in the 80's and 90's would it be fair to market the film at children? We're really hoping not, but the chances of that happening are still fairly slim, which you'll definitely understand if you have ever seen Deadpool.

Whilst there may not be all that much credible information flying about the internet about the Sonic movie (Even Reddit are letting us down!) we've collated the facts so far.

- The live action feature will contain live action footage and CGI animation. But will the graphics be as tight as we saw with Rocket in Guardians of the Galaxy? (Now we really want to see a face-off between the racoon and the hedgehog).

- Sega will be working alongside Paramount Pictures to produce the film.

- The CGI will be created by Marza Animation Planet who have been involved with features such as RESIDENT EVIL: VENDETTA, MOOM and SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HANLOCK. So, it's safe to say that aside from RESIDENT EVIL they're pretty much new comers to the Hollywood CGI industry. Can they be trusted to nail down Sonic's attitude and speed?

- The budget for the feature is a whopping $90,000,000.





The Actors Bringing the Characters to Life

There are many popular actors who almost made the cut for the film including Christian Bale, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Jason Segel and Tom Cruise. That seems like a pretty top cast to me, but for varying reasons, the casting directions included the following:

Jim Carrey as Dr. Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik,

James Marden as Sheriff Tom Wachowski

Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog

Lee Majdoub as Agent Stone

Tika Sumpter as the Sherriff's wife

We don't see Tails on the bill as of yet, but there are still plenty of actors and actresses who appear on IMDB without a role including Adam Pally, Natasha Rothwell, Neal McDonough and Frank C. Turner.

Whilst it's clear that they've missed a trick not including some of the considered actors (we're definitely talking about Christian Bale and not Tom Cruise), the movie still holds plenty enough promise. Although Sonic fans have already been a little dubious (that's putting things lightly) about the choice of Jim Carey as Eggman due to the vast differences in their voices.

The announcement which happened back on June 29th, 2018 over Twitter caused quite the storm. Even the original voice actor who played the role of Eggman in the videogames was consulted on the matter by the protesting Sonic fans. Valiantly Mike Pollock politely commented that he's more than happy for Carrey to take the role, however he would have gladly jumped at the opportunity.

Has Sonic lost its roots? Or are they just moving on to bigger and "better" things? You can certainly tell that the producers and executives like a gamble. Perhaps they should have just headed over to cute and cuddly slots sites and played Fluffy Fairground and tried their luck there instead of putting Sonic in the hands of some fairly new actors.

The Plot

There are definitely no spoilers hidden away in the plot which leaves us with plenty of room to run with our imaginations.

"A cop in rural town of Green Hills will help Sonic escape from the government who is looking to capture him." (IMDB)

Although, we can be assured that Sonic still remains the lovable rogue that we've come to know from the games. He'll be going head to head with Eggman once more whilst racing against the government who is also attempting to capture him. I don't think you need to be psychic to guess how the film pans out.

We're still waiting for a trailer date, maybe when that drops we'll have a better idea of the film will pan out, but so far, critics aren't very excited about the feature and chances are that it won't be the best video game film adaptation to hit the screen in recent years. Yet, for all of the loyal Sonic fans out there I'd remain open to the possibility of the film allowing you a different side to Sonic which you didn't get to see in the games!
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