What was the point of making the new live-action/CGI Sonic the Hedgehog movie coming out?

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Hi. I am just curious about this.

The Sonic the Hedgehog games were introduced in the '90s. The first game came out when I was a teen.

I do not know too much about Sonic. I didn't grow up with Sonic and I wasn't an avid fan. I grew up with Mario. I know a lot more about Mario and company than Sonic. I recall playing a few of the Sonic games but I never beat any of them.

I know about some of the games, the cartoon shows and comics from the '90s and beyond. There gave been a few animated Sonic movies.

The games have declined in popularity since the '90s. Sega no longer produces their own consoles. They make licensed games featuring Sonic and related characters for Nintendo consoles.

The new live-action/CGI movie was originally supposed to be out in theaters in November 2019 but there was so much backlash from fans online about the titular movie character's movie design the studio went back and retweaked it and postponed the film's release until February 2020.

Why are they waiting till now to make and put out a live-action/CGI movie? Why didn't they do that back in the '90s when Sonic was at its peak of popularity?

Is making and putting out the new film a last-ditch effort to stir up interest in Sega and Sonic and the games?

Sonic in its heyday was one of the most popular video game franchises out there. It wasn't as popular as Mario but was still popular.

It is now by far nowhere near as popular as Mario. Mario is still one of the biggest video game franchises in the world, 4 decades going.

Please help. Thank you.

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@JGoldman10,

Money. They wouldn't be making the new film if they didn't think it would be profitable.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

Why didn't they make the movie back in the '90s? Why are they waiting till now?

That cheesy live-action Super Mario Bros. movie that came out in the early '90s came out at the peak of SMB popularity. SMB fandom was big back in the late '80s to early '90s.

2 Replies

@JGoldman10,

I don't know, there could be many reasons, chief being that Mario is human and easily cast.

There may not have been the money available or cg wasn't good enough or they may have felt there wasn't enough demand. All sorts of reasons.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

To this day I still wonder why John Leguizamo's Luigi didn't have a mustache. Luigi's handlebar mustache is his trademark.

1 Reply

@JGoldman10,

Maybe it was ripped off by a mental patient like in High Anxiety.

https://www.aveleyman.com/Gallery/2017/D/26609-8503-0.jpg

Sorry I watched that film again yesterday and it's still very fresh in my mind.

0 Replies

@JGoldman10,

According to the CEO of Sega, when he announced the live action Sonic movie:

Quote:

Like with this CG animation production, we would like to expand our business into other entertainment areas beyond what we are currently involved.

https://www.engadget.com/2016/02/10/sonic-live-action-animated-movie/

Presumably, this meant that Sega wanted to focus on their games and the occasional animated shows in the 1990s. Considering how bad the live action Mario Bros film was, it is possible that Sega had wanted to avoid a similar mistake in the 90s.

Video game movies rarely get made at the peak popularity of a game. Doom was popular in the early 90s, but its film was released in 2005.

2 Replies

@Rebelofnj,

Hi Reb. What was the deal with the comics?

0 Replies

@Rebelofnj,

They've still not got round to making Space Invaders.

Or Pong.

2 Replies

@izzythepush,

You're talking about making film adaptations of these classic games?

If so, who would want to watch those?

Space Invaders could work as a movie. However the characters from the game appeared in the movie Pixels. The plot of the movie involved aliens using classic video game icons from the '80s (and weirdly other '80s digital pop culture icons) to invade Earth.

How would a Pong movie work? What backstory would it have?

2 Replies

@JGoldman10,

It wasn't meant to be taken seriously, I was just having a bit of a laugh.

If you want to write comedy you need to recognise jokes.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

To make a cartoon, comic, or movie adaptation or any kind of genre and/or medium adaptation out of a video game the game itself needs to have a backstory, or you need to give it one to make your overall story work.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

There are plans to produce a film trilogy based on Tetris, though it has been a few years since there has been an update.
https://variety.com/2016/film/news/tetris-movie-trilogy-1201805092/

1 Reply

@JGoldman10,

JGoldman10 wrote:

Why didn't they make the movie back in the '90s? Why are they waiting till now?

Maybe the studio in question didn't have the rights. Maybe the studio didn't have a promising or deemed worthy script or director readily available. Definitely the tech used for the advanced CGI didn't exist back then.

Quote:

That cheesy live-action Super Mario Bros. movie that came out in the early '90s came out at the peak of SMB popularity. SMB fandom was big back in the late '80s to early '90s.

Not sure why you think this would be a valid point for creating and releasing a Sonic film decades ago. Super Mario Bros is a completely different system and fanbase. Not sure why you think they're the same. Also, bringing up this expensive turd of a flop is further proof that other studios wouldn't risk making and releasing a Sonic adaptation back in the 90s. Studios are pretty risk averse.

1 Reply

@JGoldman10,

That's a first, not recognising a joke after you've been told it's a joke.

Flippin' 'eck JG.

0 Replies

@Rebelofnj,

I wonder why that is, there's so much original source material.

(Just for Mr Goldman. I'm not being serious, it's called irony.)

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

I wonder why that is, there's so much original source material.

Wait?! Isn't Sonic the Hedgehog based on the lead character from Shakespeare's Richard II? Surprised

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@JGoldman10,

Izzy is joking about Space Invaders and Pong.

BUT, it is possible to make a story out of those games, if one makes some significant creative choices. There is also no guarantee that the story will be any good.

2 Replies

@tsarstepan,

I think the earliest example of a feature film to use CGI-animated characters in it was the first live-action/animated Flintstones movie from the early 1990's.
The Mask with Jim Carrey had CGI animation in it too.

1 Reply

@Rebelofnj,

You could make a cartoon, comic or movie out of Centipede or Millipede. Both of those games have backstories.

You can give a game like Dug Dug a backstory.

1 Reply

What was the point of making the new live-action/CGI Sonic the Hedgehog movie coming out?

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