What Sonic Team Thinks Of The New Sonic The Hedgehog Movie Poster

A couple of posters for next year's Sonic the Hedgehog movie were unveiled this week, leading members of Sonic Team (the folks behind the games) to share their thoughts on the design. We still haven't gotten a crystal clear look at the character but, based on the two posters available at this time, everyone seems to be bracing for the worst.

The first Sonic movie poster features the speedy critter in silhouette. We can't see all of his features or even his face but, from what we can make out, the design is taking a decidedly different spin on what fans have come to know from the games. His head has some odd proportions, his hands and feet are small and his body has some serious muscle tone.

To make matters worse, a second unconfirmed poster featuring a bizarre shot of Sonic's speed trail as seen from between his lounging legs has also been revealed and the angle of the legs is all wrong if we're to assume they are attached to the same body.

So for now, all we've got to go on is a weird crotch shot and a shadowy body that looks very little like the character of Sonic that most of us know. Over on the SonicJPNews Twitter feed, though, members of the game development team have started offering their take on what we've seen so far. Hopeful optimism is probably the kindest way to describe the tone of these comments so far.

First up is Mazin-san, who notes that newbies to the company used to have to wear a Sonic suit that was apparently a bit disturbing. His best estimation is that the new Sonic looks a lot like that same suit.

Moving on to Naka-san, he comments on an edited image that's been making the rounds recently. Some folks supposedly lightened the silhouette poster to reveal what Sonic really looks like, but that image has since been proven inaccurate. Naka is happy to learn that fact, though he still isn't convinced that the movie version of Sonic will be "cool."

I consider myself a pretty decently versed Sonic fan, but Ohshima-san's take on the character design drops some knowledge about the character I didn't even know; specifically that Sonic is apparently some sort of fairy. Though there may be something being lost in this translation.

Ohshima's take is that the original design of Sonic should have been fine for the movie and that they really didn't need to try to make the character look more realistic. As he notes, when the character of Mickey Mouse pops up in more realistic universes, he still looks like the cartoon version of the character and not a weird, more realistically proportioned version of a muscular mouse. And then there's Kanemaru-san's take, which is probably the most level-headed reaction imaginable.

Kanemaru's view is pretty admirable, stating simply that he did the best work he could when the character was in his hands and, after that, he tries not to stress on the interpretation of others.