Sonic the Hedgehog (film)

For the character which the movie is based on, see Sonic the Hedgehog.

"If these Movie People REALLY want to sell me and EVERYONE, In General: Get Sonic’s Shoes and Arm Colour Right, Get Mike Pollock to play Robotnik, and HONOR the Past Source Materials in the Story of this “Movie”."

- Chris

Sonic the Hedgehog is the name of the live-action movie adaptation of the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series, originally set to be released on 8 November 2019 before being delayed to 14 February 2020. The film is notorious for the backlash to Sonic's character design, and unlike Chris's unsuccessful Sonic Boom Protests, Sega actually complied with fan demand to change Sonic's design after the initial design was collectively mocked by the internet for being unintentionally creepy.

Previews
Leaks for the then-upcoming movie revealed several drastic changes from the source material. Responding to news on the film in June 2018, Chris used his psychic powers to confer with Sonic to learn that Sonic disliked the movie, also alluding to his undying hatred of seeing Sonic with blue arms, something that put him in hot water back in 2014.

Sonic did not inform Chris that the movie designers had given him blue arms. When Chris found out from a March 2019 leak, he was displeased, showing that his 2014 viewpoint was anything but changed:



Chris's animosity with the movie's character designs even extended to Jim Carrey's casting as Doctor Robotnik.

When the design of Robotnik was revealed, Chris raged:

The first trailer was released on 30 April 2019. Days later, Chris attempted to reach out to the movie's staff via Twitter (not realizing they cannot see his tweets as his account was in protected mode at the time):



Chris was not alone in his displeasure with Sonic’s design, as the trailer received widespread backlash for his creepy design. Jeff Fowler, the film's director, claimed they would redesign him again before its release.

A relieved Chris (attempted to) thank him:



It's worth mentioning the first trailer prominently uses the song "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio, though this is most likely a coincidence. As a side note, the main trailer for Pokémon Detective Pikachu uses the song "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler, also probably coincidental.

In January 2020, Chris responded to a leak of Sonic's redesign:

Chris rated the redesign it 9 out of 10 – possibly docking a point for the inclusion of blue arms.

Release
General criticism of movies based on video game franchises are not uncommon, with very few exceptions such as Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. According to the BBC in 2001, the genre has a poor record at the box office, and Uwe Boll’s attempts only worsened the notoriety of the genre. Quite simply put, many movies based on video game franchises do not perform well because it lacks the interactivity and non-linearity that makes video game franchises like Sonic successful.

Nonetheless, Sonic the Hedgehog managed to overperform its opening weekend projections, was met with a moderately positive reception from critics and received praise from fans of the video games, and though it was hampered by COVID-19 leading to shutdowns of movie theater chains worldwide, it managed to be a hit and become the third highest-grossing film of 2020 (in no small part due to blockbusters being unable to play in a large capacity with a public concerned about contracting the virus). A sequel, which featured a more video-game-accurate design for Doctor Robotnik (seen at the very end of the first film), Tails, and Knuckles was released on 8 April 2022. Chris ultimately had other plans though...

Chris liked the movie, writing on Twitter...