Sonic The Hedgehog Director Thanks Fans After Redesign Debut

Sonic the Hedgehog, new character design, voiced by Ben Schwartz
(Image credit: (Paramount))

If we’ve learned anything this week, it’s that Sonic certainly lives up to his speedy name! Earlier this year, the first trailer notoriously had fans booing the SEGA character off the big screen due to its wonky character design. So, director Jeff Fowler announced his team would be going back to the drawing board on Sonic. It’s now been six months since then here we are with a new trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog, fans are more optimistic about the upcoming release!

After an outpouring of love for the Sonic redesign debut, Jeff Fowler took to Twitter to thank fans for their support. Check it out:

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High fives all around! Just a few months back, Sonic the Hedgehog was looking like a massive disaster as the trailer virally disappointed fans for adapting the video game character loosely from his famed design. Jeff Fowler is likely feeling a weight has been lifted after taking the risk and listening to fans, spending more time on the film and it being accepted by audiences ahead of its early 2020 release. Seems like it was a good call!

Sonic the Hedgehog was originally supposed to come to theaters last weekend next to Midway, Last Christmas and Doctor Sleep. Instead, it was pushed back three months to February 14, 2020 with filmmakers tasked with overhauling the design to better resemble the Sonic fans know and love. The original Sonic the Hedgehog foolishly had the character with nightmarish human teeth and long legs. You’d think the creatives might have seen this coming?

The latest look a Sonic the Hedgehog not only features a nicer character design, but the movie itself looks better! Check out the new trailer for yourself:

It’s kind of inspirational actually. If a design team can kowtow Sonic from that to this, you can check off your seemingly unattainable goals in a few months too. I don’t know about you, but I’d totally watch a documentary about how the animators gave the Sonic the Hedgehog its makeover in the last few months.

It’s not everyday a director listens to fans and actually goes back in to production after public pressure. The movie’s Dr. Ivo Robtonik, Jim Carrey recently spoke to this – cautioning that the fan’s control over a piece of cinema could become “their Frankenstein monster at some point”. Valid point, but in this case many would say it started out more Frankenstein in the before picture.

Sonic the Hedgehog follows the blue speedster (Ben Schwartz) as an alien who seeks refuge on Earth after being chased around for his powers. He befriends a cop named Tom (James Marsden) and faces off against Jim Carrey’s Dr. Ivo Robtonik. The movie comes out on February 14, 2020.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.