Poll of the Day > I still don't believe that the original Sonic movie design was ever a thing.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like, they didn't focus test it at all until the movie was finished?

Youre a sonic denier huh

Every important decision is made by a group of white dudes in suits whose only friends are white dudes in suits.

They know Sonic is "popular" but don't understand why.

ya, i thought it was a fake design to stir up fake outrage to boost sales

they wouldn't have delayed the movie if it was just going to be regular sonic from the beginning

Blightzkrieg posted...

Every important decision is made by a group of white dudes in suits whose only friends are white dudes in suits.

They know Sonic is "popular" but don't understand why.

absolutely this

we would have got creepy sonic if people didn't get pissed imo. its not like the money behind the project would deign to spend 2 hours watching it lol

I certainly believe the people running Hollywood live in a world so completely different then the average person that they have no idea what is actually good or bad to most people and thus instead make decisions based on statistics and trends, sometimes resulting in insane outcomes (rather then the typical boring ones that results from this behavior) that nobody with common sense would typically make.

The logic here was probably something along the lines of seeing Detective Pikachu make money with their more "realistic", Pokemon art style being a marketing focus (or something similar), then having someone do the same for Sonic and not recognize it was an abomination because they have no idea what Sonic is anyway.

TigerTycoon posted...

I certainly believe the people running Hollywood live in a world so completely different then the average person that they have no idea what is actually good or bad to most people and thus instead make decisions based on statistics and trends, sometimes resulting in insane outcomes (rather then the typical boring ones that results from this behavior) that nobody with common sense would typically make.

The logic here was probably something along the lines of seeing Detective Pikachu make money with their more "realistic", Pokemon art style being a marketing focus (or something similar), then having someone do the same for Sonic and not recognize it was an abomination because they have no idea what Sonic is anyway.

The original 'ugly Sonic' leaks were before Detective Pikachu even released though.

rjsilverthorn posted...

The original 'ugly Sonic' leaks were before Detective Pikachu even released though.

I remember clearly that I saw "realistic" Detective Pikachu before seeing ugly Sonic. Either you are mistaken, or the movie trailer for Detective Pikachu was already out by then.

rjsilverthorn posted...

The original 'ugly Sonic' leaks were before Detective Pikachu even released though.

dectictice pikachus first trailer was in 2018. movie out in 2019.

first sonic movie trailer was 2019, movie out 2020.

Accrovideogames posted...

I remember clearly that I saw "realistic" Detective Pikachu before seeing ugly Sonic. Either you are mistaken, or the movie trailer for Detective Pikachu was already out by then.

Oh I'm sure there were trailers for Detective Pikachu before the first ugly Sonic leaks, my point was that Sonic was obviously in development before Detective Pikachu was released so the decision wasn't based on Detective Pikachu making money. Could just be a case of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_films#

rjsilverthorn posted...

Oh I'm sure there were trailers for Detective Pikachu before the first ugly Sonic leaks, my point was that Sonic was obviously in development before Detective Pikachu was released so the decision wasn't based on Detective Pikachu making money. Could just be a case of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_films#

The movie trailer for Detective Pikachu was very well received, so they could have based their decision on that.

ConfusedTorchic posted...

they wouldn't have delayed the movie if it was just going to be regular sonic from the beginning

Depends how committed they were to making the scheme seem believable.

adjl posted...

Depends how committed they were to making the scheme seem believable.

Let me put my tinfoil hat on.

Accrovideogames posted...

Let me put my tinfoil hat on.

There have been less contrived marketing schemes. But also hollywood executives are notoriously out of touch with what fandoms actually want and have a tendency to ignore feedback from people that do know what's going on. I'd honestly say it's probably about 50/50 whether it was a marketing scheme or genuine incompetence.

I'm pretty sure it's genuine incompetence. Hollywood really is out of touch with reality.

ConfusedTorchic posted...

dectictice

Go home helly, you're drunk

Focus testing is a thing. Everything from movie posters to soundtracks to film titles is focus tested. (This is the reason why "dude holding a gun" is such a popular video game cover) There is absolutely zero chance they showed the original design to a group of people and they all said "yeah, that isn't completely horrifying"

But there is a good chance they asked a focus group what they wanted out of a sonic design and used that as inspiration, and this was the result.

It's also entirely possible that the focus group they hired knows nothing about Sonic. It would be like deciding to make a new James Bond movie in which the main character unexpectedly comes out as bisexual and hooks up with "Bond boys", then testing it in front of a focus group consisting entirely of LGBT activists who never watched a James Bond movie before.

Blightzkrieg posted...

Every important decision is made by a group of white dudes in suits whose only friends are white dudes in suits.

They know Sonic is "popular" but don't understand why.

haha then they really screwed up on the new saints row, didn't they.

Blightzkrieg posted...

But there is a good chance they asked a focus group what they wanted out of a sonic design and used that as inspiration, and this was the result.

Accrovideogames posted...

It's also entirely possible that the focus group they hired knows nothing about Sonic.

So they asked people what they wanted and they said "nightmare material, please"

I really feel for the animators.

They knew the public would react negatively to the design but there was nothing they could do about it. And then they got to redo all their work...

Zareth posted...

So they asked people what they wanted and they said "nightmare material, please"

Probably more along the lines of "do you want this movie to be more fantastic or realistic?" or "do you want Sonic to look more animalistic or anthropomorphic?" and when realism and anthropomorphism won out, they ran with that and created the first draft we got.

regardless, it was probably the funniest bit in the Rescue Rangers movie so thanks for that

Blightzkrieg posted...

Every important decision is made by a group of white dudes in suits whose only friends are white dudes in suits.

They know Sonic is "popular" but don't understand why.

It actually looked like they didn't listen or consult any white dude from the 90s. It looked more like they let the Adventure Time generation design sonic.

keyblader1985 posted...

Go home helly, you're drunk

no i don't smoke