Sonic the Hedgehog movie’s redesign of the blue speedster looks MUCH BETTER

Sonic the Hedgehog! According to 1990s cartoons he was the fastest thing alive, the fastest thing aliiiiiiive. In this day and age, he might just hold the record for being the fastest nightmare fuel on two legs. Back in April, the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog’s big feature film was released online, and the backlash to his design was overwhelming. SEGA’s Megadrive-selling icon had been reduced to a near-human abomination, a two-legged ferret whose most unsettling feature was his row of pearly white chompers.

As a reminder of that day of infamy, here’s what Sonic looked like then:

And here’s what his redesign looks like now!

Here's a wider picture of the allegedly leaked redesigned #SonicMovie standee image. Source is also unconfirmed. #SonicNews pic.twitter.com/fdS1KbBleU

— Tails' Channel | Sonic the Hedgehog News & Updates (@TailsChannel) November 6, 2019

MUCH BETTER! That design is the best of both worlds. You’ve got Sonic’s most popular look, weird but kind of cool CGI that shows off every single strand of his fur and while he still has two eyeballs the overall merger between snout and brow makes it look more like one massive ocular organ as Odin intended. While we’ve yet to see what he looks like when he opens his mouth, I’m feeling pretty confident that we won’t see each individual tooth screaming its existence into our psyche whenever the blue blitzkrieg runner has a snarky one-liner to deliver.

It’s amazing work by film director Jeff Fowler and the rest of the special effects crew, one that deserves to be repaid in kind by popping down to a cinema to see the movie when it races into view. “Thank you for the support. And the criticism. The message is loud and clear… you aren’t happy with the design and you want changes.” Fowler said at the time.

Thank you for the support. And the criticism. The message is loud and clear… you aren’t happy with the design and you want changes. It’s going to happen. Everyone at Paramount and Sega are fully committed to making this character the BEST he can be.

The caveat here is that the original December release date was bumped back to February 14 so that the redesign could be added to the end result. The film still looks like a fun time to be had thanks to its human element, particularly with Jim Carrey playing Sonic’s primary villain Dr Eggman with all the energy of a wacky nuclear bomb being set off in an energy drink factory.

Last Updated: November 7, 2019