Sonic The Hedgehog Producer Opens Up On What Went Wrong With Ugly Sonic
Tim Miller, who was a producer for the Sonic The Hedgehog movie, addresses the issues that led to the infamous Ugly Sonic design before it was fixed.
Sonic the Hedgehog producer Tim Miller opens up about the infamous Ugly Sonic design. Released in 2020, Sonic the Hedgehog is based on the platformer video game series of the same name, centered on the titular creature with super speed and electrical abilities. In the film, Sonic, voiced by Ben Schwartz, teams up with the town sheriff (James Marsden), in order to stop the evil scientist Doctor Robotnik (Jim Carrey). The film went on to become the sixth highest-grossing film of 2020 and spawn two sequels (one of which is currently in production) as well as an upcoming spin-off Knuckles movie, coming a long way from the overwhelmingly negative reaction to its first trailer.
When the titular character first appeared in the 2019 trailer, the Internet was quick to ridicule the beloved creature's design. In particular, his small, beady eyes as well as disturbingly realistic human teeth were criticized by fans of the iconic character's original video game look. Due to the widespread backlash, Sonic the Hedgehog was delayed by Paramount for several months as director Jeff Fowler and his VFX team amended the character design. While Ugly Sonic lives on in Internet memes, the updated design was well received and the Sonic the Hedgehog movies have earned a dedicated following.
During an appearance on Corridor Crew, Miller addressed the Sonic the Hedgehog design controversy. The producer spoke to exactly what went wrong with the original design, citing usual animation rules and the complications of placing an animated character into a live-action human world as the reasons for Ugly Sonic's existence. Check out what Miller had to say below:
"The real thing is the design. Jeff [Fowler] is an animator, and I hired him right out of college. So he was at Blur for, I don't know, 15 years. And he's a character animator, that's his first and foremost thing. When he attacked the design problem, he's thinking of it as an animator. He's thinking, I gotta have a character who can look like he got a pair of shoes from a kid's bedroom. I have to have hands that can open up doors and pick up human objects. A character with no teeth is a problem for animators, and those eyes that are in the default design, they're not anything that approaches real. It was really hard to do.
On the other hand, you have a brand that everybody knows, and everybody loves to look at this character, but he's gotta fit into this real world. And there's a lot of examples where there's a translation of that. So he does it, and of course, mayhem ensues. So then, I go over to Jeff and I said, 'here's what you need to do: you need to go out, and you need to say, I f*cked up to the fans, you need to say mea culpa, I hear you, we will fix this,' and Jeff said, 'already did it.' He didn't wait for the corporate machine to get around to putting out a message, which I feel like would've been the totally wrong thing to do. He just did it. It was the smartest thing he could've possibly done. I know it's goofy to say this, but I was very proud of him."
How Much Did Sonic's Design Change?
Miller's support of his creative team and director is heartwarming given the vitriol that Ugly Sonic inspired after that fateful trailer release. By giving Fowler a chance to improve upon the design and handle his response to the fans of the character, the producer helped pave the way for the now-beloved rendition of the speedster that audiences have seen in both films to date. Miller's references to what went wrong in the original design are the exact features that were upgraded in the final design. In particular, Sonic's eyes were made larger and more cartoonish, closer to the video game design's shape, as were his teeth, which are mercifully less visible in the new design. The character's coloring was also made slightly brighter, and his hands and fingers are larger and more clearly covered in the character's signature gloves. In all, Sonic's design changed significantly in order to make him look less realistic and more like the video game character, which greatly benefited the film.
The attention that Paramount and the film's creative team showed to Sonic fans paid off, allowing the film to launch an enviable franchise. Sonic the Hedgehog 2's box office broke records in its opening weekend, becoming the highest-grossing video game movie in the U.S. With Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and a spin-off about Knuckles (Idris Elba) forthcoming, audience excitement remains high, allowing Paramount to build an extended video game franchise and succeed when many other studios have failed. In the future, aspiring video game adapters would do well to take a note from Fowler and his team and listen to fans of the source material.
Source: Corridor Crew
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