WARNING: This post contains SPOILERS for Sonic the Hedgehog.

After massive internet outcry, the filmmakers of Sonic the Hedgehog dramatically revamped the CGI design of their hero, but what really changed? Given the massive popularity of the Sonic the Hedgehog video games, the sheer influence they’ve had on pop culture at large, and the highly passionate fan-base the franchise continues to attract, it’s a surprise that it’s taken this long for someone to make a big-screen adaptation.

Sega’s super-fast mascot has been one of the true icons of gaming since his 1991 debut, even as the games themselves went through tumultuous times and endless revamps. Still, Hollywood has never been one to turn down a big-name intellectual property, and Paramount clearly had big hopes for Sonic the Hedgehog once the movie was finally announced. A lot of that excitement, however, dissipated once the studio dropped the first trailer in April 2019. The trailer, which was weird for various reasons (not least the inclusion of the Coolio song “Gangsta’s Paradise”), sent the internet into a laugh riot over the redesign of Sonic. Gone was the cute and highly distinct blue hedgehog from decades’ worth of games and assorted media. In his place was a strange mish-mash of nightmare fuel and the uncanny valley, one that terrified fans many months before we were introduced to the glory of the first trailer for Cats.

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The backlash and mockery was so vast that Paramount made the shock announcement that the studio would delay the film’s release by several months to give director Jeff Fowler and the VFX team enough time to essentially redo their main character. It was a risky move, but it seems to have paid off, as audiences are far more satisfied with the new Sonic design, and the movie is already earning a pretty penny at the worldwide box office.

Sonic The Hedgehog's Redesign Is Different To The Original

Tika Sumpter and James Marsden in Sonic the Hedgehog

The new Sonic redesign is essentially a more polished and CGI-heavy version of the classic Sonic from the video games, specifically the 3D action titles like Sonic Colors and Sonic Lost World. It still remains something of a shock that Paramount decided to deviate so heavily from that distinct design, the one that has defined the character for decades and made him so popular. The first movie version of Sonic seemed designed to look “realistic”, or at the very least realistic within the confines of our human world.

That meant he had a more humanoid shape, distinctly human hands and teeth (the latter were especially unnerving), and oddly detailed eyeballs. Everything about this Sonic just seemed off in a way that meant you couldn’t stop looking at him to try and figure out what went wrong. Similar to the designs on Cats, this Sonic was too focused on a bastardized form of realism rather than looking cartoonishly appealing. As the internet showed, it didn’t work.

The Sonic audiences see in the movie is obviously not realistic, but it gives the movie the verisimilitude it needs for the audience to buy that this spacey blue hedgehog teenager is a fully-rounded character who James Marsden can hold down an entire conversation with. He has the appropriate fluidity of movement required of a mega-speedy creature and, most importantly, he’s cute and charming to the intended audience of small children. He is clearly Sonic the Hedgehog and not some lesser impersonator.

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The Challenges Of Redesigning Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic The Hedgehog bat

The VFX team working on Sonic the Hedgehog had a real mountain to climb with this redesign: They were tasked with basically reinventing their leading character (one who is in at least 70% of every shot in this movie), and doing so within the space of a few months. Effects workers are notoriously overworked and underpaid and many worried that said people would be forced into crunch mode to meet this deadline.

Getting Sonic to where he was with that first trailer would have taken months of meetings, storyboarding, brainstorming, concept art, and much more. A whole lot of people had to make a whole lot of decisions before a computer was even turned on to bring Sonic to life. That’s what makes the studio’s seeming obliviousness to the bad responses all the more perplexing. The redo would have required a similar process but in a far tighter time-frame. What the new Sonic design had in its favor was its adherence to a highly familiar and pre-existing design. The team knew that the fans wanted a Sonic closer in style to the one they liked and they eventually got it.

Kudos should go to them for pulling that feat off in a ridiculously short period of time with the internet watching with bated breath behind their shoulders. Unfortunately, as has happened to far too many VFX studios over the years, one of the companies behind Sonic's effects was shut down. Effects studios and freelance workers are forever struggling with the entertainment industry’s demand for faster work done at cheaper rates, and it’s the talented people who actually make such things happen that suffer the most.

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Did Sonic The Hedgehog's Story Change After The Redesign?

Sonic the Hedgehog with Nunchucks in movie

Changing the lead of your movie is tough enough, but what about the rest of Sonic the Hedgehog? Did the filmmakers take this delayed release date and use it as an excuse to fiddle around with a few other elements of the almost-final product? As shown in both trailers, the key story and characters remain the same, aside from Sonic’s look. His personality and voice work, as done by Ben Schwartz of Parks and Recreation, are intact.

Stories can change dramatically in reshoots but it’s crucial to note that what Sonic the Hedgehog went through can't technically be called reshoots and it’s doubtful they could have made major changes to the movie while only working on the lead character. The human cast wasn’t called back to add more scenes and there are no reports that Schwartz had to redo any of his dialogue. The reported costs of the CGI revamp was $5 million, and reshoots are often far costlier than that, so Paramount did what they had to do and left it at that. This certainly suggests a degree of confidence in the project. If they didn’t think it would do well with audiences, they probably would have dumped it in a January release slot with the original creepy Sonic design.

What Did Tails Look Like Before Sonic The Hedgehog's Redesign?

Sonic and Tails

The mid-credits sequence for Sonic the Hedgehog drops a major sequel hook in the form of introducing Tails, Sonic’s most famous sidekick. Tails is appropriately cute here, but their presence can’t help but make you wonder what they looked like before Sonic’s redesign. Did they get a makeover too? Truly, it’s sort of terrifying to imagine what the uncanny valley, vaguely humanoid version of a two-tail fox would look like. Given how little screen-time Tails has, if they did need to make a new version, it wouldn’t have been as labor-intensive as Sonic 2.0, which is certainly a small blessing for Sonic the Hedgehog!

Next: What To Expect From Sonic The Hedgehog 2