Sonic The Hedgehog

Daith

Bustin make feel Good!
Citizen
Very much.

That is (among others) one of Transformers big problems. The robots are not treated as characters. They expected us to be sad Ironhide died but he had less dialog over three movies than Sonic did in his first ten minutes of screen time.

Bumblebee seemed to learn this lesson only for Rise of the Beasts to disregard it totally by shoving in fifteen robots and four? factions.

It’s super maddening because IDWv1 solved pretty much all of this by having a small infiltration team and holomatter avatars which would allow you to have characters without needing $15,000 and three weeks of rendering time.
While the chances of them learning anything are slim let's not slam RotB before we even have a trailer to slam on. Hopefully they simplify the designs a tad so it's not impossible for them to focus on the bots more. Though using Avatars would not only give chances for the bots to have more characters but allow the actors to get some face time as well. Though does anyone know how well Cullen acts in person?
 

MrBlud

Well-known member
Citizen
12 robots, three humans, and four factions?

You’re shoving in MORE characters and MORE factions than “Eternals” with (likely) an hour less of runtime.

That’s 100% going to be a clusterfuck
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Because I can't point to any one obvious thing that Sonic did differently.

I can. On paper these movies seem like they're trying to follow the 'cartoon character in the REAL WORLD' shovelware formula beat for beat but I've realized that they actually don't. There are some things they did differently, maybe even accidentally.

One of the fastest ways to kill your movie is to remind audiences that they're watching a movie. Almost every 'cartoon character in the REAL WORLD' movie inherently does this. 'Cartoon character in the REAL WORLD' gets into hijinks that make messes and cause migraines for the boring jerk whose apartment they hide in. The joke is always that the cartoon characters are out of place and don't know what they're doing. Somebody in the industry thinks it's funny. But even if it were funny, the joke is only a joke if you continuously keep in mind that there is a real world that the characters should not be in. It's reminding audiences that they're watching a movie. It's idiotic filmmaking.

With Sonic, the joke is that he's fast. It's different, somehow. You still get reminded all the time that he's out of place but you're given something to focus on that keeps you anchored into the movie. He's fast in his world too. His weirdness is defined without reference to the real world.

It's also Robotnik. It's hard to find Sonic too out of place when Jim Carrey's standing there being a genuine live action cartoon even before his transformation. Thanks to him, the REAL WORLD in these films is internally defined as cartoony without reference to Sonic's presence. Instead of a cartoon world and a boring real world, it ends up being two cartoon worlds that form a tonally consistent universe.

These films could have been full cartoons like Sonic X and they would make complete sense. For once, being live action is just the format, not the plot.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
It also helps that they made Sonic a genuinely charming and likable fish-out-of-water, less like the obnoxious Chipmunks and Smurfs and more like, well, Will Ferrell in Elf, which was arguably the film that started this "wacky fish-out-of-water in the real world" movie trend.
 

LBD "Nytetrayn"

Broke the Matrix
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I feel like it should be noted that unlike "cartoon character in the REAL WORLD," that's not really what this is. Sonic isn't a cartoon or a video game character, his world is no less real than ours. It's not like he hopped out of a TV or Game Gear or something.

He's an alien from another planet, whose legacy guided him here. He never feels like he's supposed to go back, and in that way, this isn't just "our" world or the "real" world -- it's his world, too.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
I feel like it should be noted that unlike "cartoon character in the REAL WORLD," that's not really what this is. Sonic isn't a cartoon or a video game character, his world is no less real than ours. It's not like he hopped out of a TV or Game Gear or something.
You're taking that description too literally. Off the top of my head, the only movie that fits your line of thinking is Fat Albert.

The Chipmunks from the Alvin movies are natives to the real-world. The Smurfs in their movies are from another reality. They're all "cartoon characters in the REAL WORLD" not because any of them dimension-hopped through a TV set (which none of them did), but because they are characters whom we the audience know to have originated from animated works made decades ago that are now appearing in live-action feature films that take place in fictional versions of the 21st century real world.
 
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The Doctor Who

Now With Sheffield Steel!
Citizen
I feel like it should be noted that unlike "cartoon character in the REAL WORLD," that's not really what this is. Sonic isn't a cartoon or a video game character, his world is no less real than ours. It's not like he hopped out of a TV or Game Gear or something.

He's an alien from another planet, whose legacy guided him here. He never feels like he's supposed to go back, and in that way, this isn't just "our" world or the "real" world -- it's his world, too.
They also very smartly skipped a lot of the fish out of water stuff by having him already been on Earth for a long time before he's discovered. So he already has a working understanding of society, if somewhat warped.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Box office update.

Doctor Strange is still #1. Downtown Abbey debuted and took the #2 spot, knocking everything else down a peg. Sonic 2 has finally fallen from the #3 spot down to #4. Still on the leader board.
 

Daith

Bustin make feel Good!
Citizen
Well it goes live on Paramount + tomorrow. So things may dip some. Especially when Top Gun and Bob's Burgers come out this week.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
It should dip by now. Still being a force on the leader board by the time it hits Paramount + is an accomplishment.
 

Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen
There's scenes I'm curious about now that it'll be out on digital. The main one is that when Robotnik was initially grabbing the Master Emerald, he was flashing with energy. What I'd like to confirm is was it just my eyes or were there flashes of a "Fat Robotnik" silhouette in that scene.
 

LBD "Nytetrayn"

Broke the Matrix
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
You're taking that description too literally. Off the top of my head, the only movie that fits your line of thinking is Fat Albert.

The Chipmunks from the Alvin movies are natives to the real-world. The Smurfs in their movies are from another reality. They're all "cartoon characters in the REAL WORLD" not because any of them dimension-hopped through a TV set (which none of them did), but because they are characters whom we the audience know to have originated from animated works made decades ago that are now appearing in live-action feature films that take place in fictional versions of the 21st century real world.
FWIW, I was thinking of stuff like Rocky and Bullwinkle, Space Jam, and the new Chip 'n Dale. So, maybe not so literal, but still. They're like, cartoons. Actual cartoons. In our world.

Swap Sonic out with a cooler version of E.T., and you're in pretty much the same spot we are now, as far as the film premise goes.

In other news...

 

Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen
Well it goes live on Paramount + tomorrow. So things may dip some. Especially when Top Gun and Bob's Burgers come out this week.

While Paramount+ might effect things, Sonic 2 might not dip all that much. The movies mentioned still fit into "not direct competition" and it's Memorial Day weekend so a number of people will be at the movies.
 

Pocket

jumbled pile of person
Citizen
Also it's not like that many people have Paramount+ besides, like, hardcore Star Trek fans.
 

Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen
I'm gonna laugh if Top Gun debuts to knock everything else down a peg...and Sonic only moves down to 5th place.
 

Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen
I had forgotten Paramount owned Nickelodeon. It makes even more sense that they're greenlighting a cinematic universe off a family movie.
 


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