"Train wreck. Disaster. Abomination." Those are but a few of the words some would use to describe the live action Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer. And anyone that did use those words were being generous because I can assure you, there are much harsher criticisms out there. Still, the overwhelmingly negative response was justified. The title character was Sonic in name and speed only. His design was so far removed from the designs he's had over the years that whomever was responsible for his movie design did more than "take liberties" with it. Sonic wasn't even wearing gloves and his hands looked like some freakish, mutated cat paws. Thankfully, the movie's director, Jeff Fowler heard the complaints loud and clear, stating that changes would be made. That was back in the beginning of May. Last week, he tweeted that the movie wouldn't release until February 2020, the 14th of that month to be precise.
The original release date for the movie was slated for November 2019 and I figured that would be ample time to overhaul LA Sonic's design. But the idea that the CGI workers would face mad crunch did cross my mind and crunch is the kind of work environment that no one should have to deal with. No doubt the delay to 2020 is to give the filmmakers more breathing room to work and as long as that leads to Sonic look a heckuva lot better than that thing we saw at the end of April, I'm OK with that.
Having said all of that, I still don't think LA Sonic will be a picture that will be a bright spot for our favorite spikey blue rodent. If I'm being honest, I'm looking forward to LA Sonic for all of the wrong reasons. I do want the movie to be better than Double Dragon, though.
Once again, I have to commend Jeff for being one of the better people when it comes to handling criticism. Recently, a trailer for the CW's newest Arrowverse show, Batwoman dropped on YouTube and it has far more dislikes than it does likes, which prompted the lovely members of the shill media to say that the trailer was "attacked" by fans simply because they didn't like it. Batwoman is a show I'll be passing on, but Jeff, you sir, have encouraged me to spend money on LA Sonic.
I wish Jeff Fowler and everyone else working on LA Sonic the best. Being able to take criticism goes a long way with others so it looks like Jeff and his team will be rewarded for it. At the very least, they've got my support. So again, this is another case of a Sonic game releasing on a holiday. (Sonic 3 released on Feb 2nd in 1994.) Since the movie is releasing on Feb 14th, how about instead of Valentine's Day, we call it Hedgehog Day?
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