The live action Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer has finally been released, and it’s left
us feeling a whole assortment of emotions.
In case you’ve been out of the loop, Paramount and Sega have teamed up to bring us something
we were really unsure we actually wanted – a live action Sonic movie.
So, today, we’re breaking down what happened in the trailer with this video, and explaining
some of the things that seemed to deviate from the classic video games.
Let’s start off by discussing what happened in the trailer.
It starts off with a blue blur speeding across an empty road, passing by a sheriff’s car
that reads ‘Green Hills’.
The speedometer in the car reads 760, and James Marsden, the officer in the car, is
confused as hell.
Cut to Marsden picking up a glowing seemingly electrified strand of blue hair.
Or rather, a quill, cause you know, he’s a hedgehog.
The Paramount logo then plays, which may perhaps be one of the only cool things about this
trailer – the logo has incorporated the rings and sound effects from the video game.
We then cut to a POV shot of Sonic running through the forest, and then dropping down
into a den under the ground, where we see his shadow cross in front of a massive pile
of shoes.
Which is kind of gross.
We then see Sonic’s realistic little hands pop in a cassette tape, which starts playing
the song Gangsta’s Paradise by Coolio.
This then plays over top of shots of Sonic doing stretches in the middle of a road before
hunching down to run, with voice over that says “Gotta go fast.”
There’s an energy explosion of sorts, and we get a birds eye view of the electricity
going out of a city.
We then cut to a military general in front of a group of other officers briefing them
that twenty minutes ago, an energy surge knocked out power across the entire pacific northwest.
We then see footage of a large bus roll up into a military base, and the general suggests
bringing someone in, to which one of the other generals responds, you’re not suggesting
who I think you’re suggesting.
And bam, we get our first glimpse of Jim Carrey in action as Doctor Ivo Eggman Robotnik, antagonising
the guy in charge of the base for a solid thirty seconds before we cut to the next scene
– James Marsden bursting into a trailer with his gun and flashlight, discovering Sonic
for presumably the first time.
Sonic’s reaction is “uh, meow?”
And Marsden shoots him with a tranquilizer.
We then cut to Sonic sitting in a car with Marsden, who says he wants answers, and Sonic
replies that he’s going to have to save their planet, all while Robotnik uses a robot
attempt to attack them.
Sonic blasts them off the road, and Robotnik keeps coming at him.
We then see Carrey looking at one of sonic’s quills, stating that whoever this creature
is, its their job to secure it, neutralize it and see what makes it tick.
From there, we get a montage of Sonic in action, fighting Robotnik’s robots, all to the captions
of ‘every hero has a genesis’ which is a nice little callback to the Sega Genesis,
the first video game system that Sonic appeared on.
Then the trailer ends off with a slow motion sequence in which Robotnik fires a ton of
small rockets at Sonic, and the hero runs through them all, in a very Quicksilver-in
the Fox X-Men films- kind of scene.
Except, compared to the X-Men Quicksilver scenes, it appears as if time has completely
frozen, which definitely isn’t the case – it’s probably just a stylistic choice
to show off just how fast Sonic is, except, you know, he has dialogue, which doesn’t
make any sense – can he speak super fast too?
Sorry, we’re getting nitpicky.
From there, we get the end title card that makes use of more of the video game franchises’
sound effects, followed by a comical scene where James Marsden has Sonic in a duffle
bag in a building, and he’s asked by bystanders if he has a child in his bag, to which he
responds, not my child.
SO WHAT DOES THAT ALL MEAN?
Realistic Sonic This is the first time where we see this realistic
Sonic in action outside of leaked images.
While he’s a little easier to digest in this form, we still can’t get over his limbs.
Those fingers.
Those legs.
It’s still a little unsettling.
The voice acting from Ben Schwartz at least seems to be pretty solid though.
But, to be critical, the moment between Sonic and James Marsden where Sonic pretends to
be a cat in a last ditch effort to not get shot really felt like the trailer was attempting
to appeal to viewers the same way that the Detective Pikachu trailer did – except,
you know, Pikachu looks like Pikachu and Sonic has weird legs that we still can’t get over.
Combined with the Quicksilver similarity, it seems that there’s a few things the film
has ‘borrowed’ from other franchises and made use of.
Sonic’s new powers During the montage in which we see Sonic running
around, there’s a moment where he throws a ring into the air, the ring expands, and
it’s insides become a portal, teleporting James Marsden and another character elsewhere,
out of danger.
That’s a power that’s new.
Jim Carrey’s Dr Robotnik A big chunk of the trailer is preoccupied
by Dr Robotnik’s arrival, and Jim Carrey doing what he does best, although it does
seem a little like Carrey is playing a caricature of other roles he’s had in the past.
Luckily, this seems to change as the trailer goes on, that seems to dissipate a wee bit.
But let’s talk about the look – he has hair.
He’s relatively slim.
That doesn’t align much at all with what fans of the Sonic games will know Eggman as
though.
But fret now!
The end of the trailer also gives us a glimpse of a Robotnik that’s much more in line with
the look of the villain in the video games, which we’ll likely see more of in future
trailers and teases.
How he ends up going through this visual transformation is yet to be known.
Another important point – this Robotnik originates on Earth.
Sonic also mentions to James Marsden that he’s here to save their planet.
This implies that Sonic will likely be coming from elsewhere, or, based on his den and discarded
shoe collection (earth shoes just aren’t as durable I suppose), Sonic has been trapped
here for a while.
Perhaps the Robotnik we see at the end of the teaser is actually a Robotnik from the
future, who came from Earth to follow Sonic and ended up in his world, ultimately becoming
the Robotnik we know from the games.
Gangsta’s Paradise The song by Coolio plays throughout the trailer.
And out of everything that happened in this teaser, it’s what has us the most baffled.
….REALLY?
REALLY?
THIS IS THE SONG YOU CHOSE TO USE PARAMOUNT?
I’m sorry, but how are we supposed to take any of this seriously when we have Sonic running
around to Gangsta’s paradise?
How is that any bit relevant?
ANYWHO, musical choices aside, we’re curious to see how Sonic is brought into our world,
and what kind of threat he’s attempting to stop – could it be Robotnik?
Assuming that the energy trace those military types were discussing came from Sonic, as
the trailer implied?
Or perhaps that energy source is the threat that sonic is trying to stop, and Robotnik
and the government are hot on his tail, thinking he’s the threat to the planet instead.
Theories galore!
So, what do you think friends?
Are we being too harsh?
Do you think this film actually stands a chance at being good?
Can you get over Sonic’s strange realistic body?
Or do you think Jim Carrey will be the only good thing in this movie?
Let us know all of your thoughts in those comments below!
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In the meantime though, thanks for watching!
I’ll catch you all in the next video!