Movies

Sonic The Hedgehog director on intense design backlash and CGI overhaul: ‘That’s a great problem to have’


Sonic The Hedgehog underwent a dramatic transformation (Picture: Paramount)

Sonic The Hedgehog made headlines all over the world last year when that first trailer dropped, unveiling the iconic character covered in CGI fur, with a slender physique and what appeared to be human teeth.

The internet went into overdrive over the unpopular design, which caused director Jeff Fowler and co. to take another look at everyone’s favourite blue hedgehog and completely redesign him.

In fact, the backlash was so severe that the movie – starring Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz and James Marsden – was delayed by a few months, dropping in cinemas earlier this year instead of the original release date of November, 2019.

And, chatting to Metro.co.uk ahead of the film’s digital release, Jeff opened up on the rejig, insisting it was ‘great’ that fans reacted so strongly to Sonic 1.0.

‘It really was a reminder of just how big the fan base is and how passionate they are,’ he told us. ‘That’s all great stuff. That’s a good problem to have.

‘There are so many people around the world that care so deeply about this character that they voiced their opinions in that way.

‘I just very feel very fortunate and grateful that fans embraced version two as much as they did. That was a huge relief on our side.’

Despite the film only dropping two months ago, Jeff signed on to helm Sonic all the way back in 2016.

And he knew right from the beginning that the design would be the hardest part of the movie to perfect.

Well… He definitely wasn’t wrong…

Sonic the Hedgehog director Jeff opened up about the changes (Picture: Paramount)

‘I will say that, if you’d asked me back in 2016, what was going to be the trickiest aspect of making a live-action hybrid movie? I definitely would have said Sonic’s design,’ the 41-year-old continued.

‘Everyone realised that this was going to be very challenging, by applying this level of detail and giving him more realism than you’ve ever had before. 

‘Because traditionally, he’s always been very cartoony, very stylised, very kind of anime. And that just wasn’t really gonna work for the movie and the story we were telling. So it definitely was very new territory, and took a little trial and error as we all witnessed.’

Jeff also explained that everyone behind the scenes saw the backlash as a positive, and they were ‘all on the same page’ in terms of the changes were eventually made.

‘Time was definitely a factor. But the one benefit of that response was that it was so unilateral,’ he said. ‘And everyone was very clear that they wanted us to do a little bit more work on it. 

‘But actually, as strange as it sounds, the fact that the response was so strong was great. It really got everyone on the same page. Everyone was fully on board and that meant it was time to roll up our sleeves and get to work and get it fixed. 

‘The most important aspect of the film is that fans can see the Sonic they know and love, and be excited about watching the movie.’

The end result was wildly popular with fans, and although the critics were divided over the film as a whole, Sonic stormed ahead in the box office, bringing in more than $300million worldwide (£241m).

Not too shabby for a blue hedgehog, eh?

Sonic The Hedgehog is available to download and keep now.

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