Jim Carrey Responds To Sonic The Hedgehog Movie Backlash, Delay And Redesign

I hear you Jim, but that sonic movie was close to being a horror movie.

Sometimes, the customer knows what they are talking about.

It's not really the audience creating it. People just want it to look like the regular sonic that Sega created.

"Jumping the bandwagon" seems to be a fitting phrase, considering what's been going on the past few years.

Yeah, and either way people will still hate on it. This will go nicely next to my copy of Double Dragon and Mario movie.

Has he never heard of the phrase "The customer's always right"?

"Ownership"? Of what? What did he hope to own?

He should be more positive on his remarks. I am sure that there are many fans of his that did not like Sonic's appereance and they were vocal about it.

@ALinkttPresent I think Mr Carey is relating to expression of design being influenced by outside stakeholders. Warner Bros’ muddled run with the DC films are a prime example of too much meddling messing up a clear direction.

A film is a collaborative effort between many different people who put their own stamp on it. They put their blood, sweat and tears into it. As a result, they feel a certain ownership over it which is natural and deserved.

When outside opinion shapes the direction of something like that, it feels a little bit like a blow and its understandable to take it personally.

Its kind of like if you practiced hard for something and then some of the audience told you it’d be better if it was done their way. You wouldnt feel great about it is all I take his comments to mean.

I just don’t believe it’s gonna blow the box office doors off just because of a fan-voiced redesign. There, I said it. I’m a huge Sonic fan but if u were expecting this to be the pendulum of the movie’s success, u are sadly mistaken. Yes let’s make him more cartoony. That’ll make him more believable in the real world (which is the worst premise ever). I’ll watch it for what it is: a tribute to a truly great character. The fact that it’s even happening would’ve blown my mind as a kid.

That old Sonic design gave me Emu War Flaskbacks

When it comes to storyline I agree listening to fans is a really bad way to write TV shows (“bring Bobby Ewing back in Dallas”, and “Lois and Clark should be together”, come to mind). Audience wish fulfilment destroys drama and story progression.

With the Sonic thing I think the images were so bad even before anyone had seen the film, it was going to stop anyone going to see the film. That would mean millions of dollars wasted. The question is will changing all the CG in the film actually make people come and see this film?

I’m guessing not.

@Cosats he is entitled to his opinion, as much as you and everyone else have your own.

Given the utter lack of taste reflected in Carrey’s own illustrations, we’re really lucky the fans won the day.

Maybe it is time to make another useless painting, Jim? The old design of Sonic was not very good at all. Nothing is wrong with wanting the character to look like how it does in the game.

@RyanSilberman That phrase is wrong in so many ways.

Well, it’s not too late for someone to take ownership of the original design choice they made for Sonic...

The original design for Sonic was absolutely atrocious though. Sometimes the customer is right.

Even with a new Sonic it will still fail domestically.

Tbh I kinda agree with him. While I thought the design looked horrible I really didn't care. However if enough people agree with my point of view then a lot won't go and see it. If a redesign helps to create more interest then more people might go and see it.

It’s a Catch-22. It seems like just hollow pandering by changing the design and they might just be putting more time into something not worth it either artistically or commercially. But keeping the original design will anger fans and cost them money due to backlash by internet mob. I think they should have just got this turd out as soon possible, without prolonging the inevitable.

Not defending the movie design at all, but let's be honest here, a majority of people hating the design and the movie itself hated sonic already and just joined the band wagon and don't plan on seeing it anyway if they decided to change it, or if the design was good in ths first place. The hatedom is honestly the worst part of sonic (cough thanks to Arin cough)

T'is true, no one will own anything in the future. Now there's audio and video streaming, no one buys the music or movies anymore. Soon the same will happened to games. You are only renting.

Housing will become more expensive as population increases, and no one can afford to buy houses anymore. Everything will be rented to you and when you died there will be nothing to pass to your children.

You entered this world naked and you will leave this world empty handed as well. That's the nature of life.

I think his words in this case are wise and aware, most people seemed to be excited just to get to hate on a thing way more than they actually care about the thing itself. This plays itself out over and over and it's been magnified with the rise of social media. If they make the film look absolutely awesome I doubt every person that retweeted or liked something ripping on the original design will plunk down cash to see it, as they were just happy to be part of the outrage.

@farcry007 Honestly, I consider his art the most tasteful thing he's created in the past 30 years...I'm personally sick of his anti-establishment mumbo-jumbo when he clearly is someone who has gotten by by being an atrocious ass to others. Anti-vaccination to boot.

Didn't like the design one bit. But completely agree, because I have been saying the same thing since they announced a redesign.

I totally understand what he's getting at here, but this movie is going to be awful regardless.

It really should be up to a creator to create something how they see fit, not cater to a bunch of people who don't care about the movie creating fake outrage for a laugh on social media.

He has a good point, but I like to think that the reason why there was such a backlash, was that there genuinely were that many passionate Sonic fans out there, and only wanted the best for him. I know that just isn't realistic, not in this modern day negativity, but I do count myself among the passionate fans. The difference with me, is I embrace all changes to Sonic, whether good or bad, simply because I just love the character.

I can understand what he's saying, and he looks to be the best part about this movie. However this isn't like the studio interfering to make something worse, people looked at the design for sonic and it was bad. This wasn't a fan write in campaign to change the design for Sonic, or protests, this was "everybody looked at it and laughed or cringed". You absolutely could have released the movie as is with people saying it was bad like they were.

I was going to see the movie either way for not only it being a sonic movie but because Jim Carrey was starring in it. That said I wasn’t excited or looking forward to it after seeing that atrocious design of sonic. Now after them delaying and saying they will make him look better I’m more eager to see where it goes. I understand where he is coming, however you guys don’t have to change anything other than the design lol. I don’t see how that is going to be a major problem with “ownership” if everything else is staying the way it is. You guys were confident enough to have the movie release as it is, why will the one main issue that you’re fixing to cater be a question on it now?

Jim Carrey is a has-been. Who cares what he thinks?

He’s not wrong. Bandwagoning ruins so many forms of entertainment media. Especially with the likes of Hollywood being so reactionary these days with social media and all.

Problem is that a movie film wasn't a good idea to begin with.

Jim is right, it's like IMDB.. Bandwagon of hate or love, even if something is overrated or underrated. People don't think, they just go with what's trending.. Figures why most things like memes are usually cringe worthy.

I understand what Jim is getting at and probably contractually made to defend, but, in this case, the previous design had some clear issues.

@RyanSilberman The problem with that phrase is that it isn't universally applicable.

For example when it comes to stuff that requires knowledge and expertise of a certain thing, the customer often is and will be wrong.

@psychoBrew Jim Carrey is a great guy most of the time. Has-been or not, he's a decent human being.

So don't be a d***.

Jim Carrey does have a point about the bandwagon, though in this case I think it was wise of the studio to attempt to fix it.

I think he has the least to worry about though - Jim Carrey's involvement was the one positive thing that people DID say about the movie 🙂 Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing him in it.

It'd be one thing if this was an original character in and original movie, but this is a preexisting character getting a movie adaptation. The whole point is to get preexisting fans excited enough to convince general audiences to go see the movie. Both fans and nonfans agree that the design was horrendous. It's far from the only issue, but it's the one that was easiest to point out. I'm of the opinion that the entire foundation of it is at fault. Watching the trailer made me feel like they got whoever to make it and didn't really care if it was any good or not because they'd just use the brand name to fill seats and call it good. The problem is the brand itself has been a hot mess for a long time now, with games ranging from okay to terrible. The best Sonic game we've had in a long time was made by long time fans. Sega itself doesn't understand what it is people like about Sonic. Honestly, I was not surprised in the least that they gave the okay for a movie that has gotten such a negative reaction from the fans when they've been doing the exact same thing with the games. I don't think a redesign is going to help this movie very much if at all. It'll be like putting a Hello Kitty band-aid on a on a severed limb.

Carrey isn't entirely wrong, but he's definitely looking at this from the wrong perspective. You don't make an adaptation for something like this trying to take ownership of it. You do so to celebrate what it means to the people who love it. Like I said before, if this was something entirely original and not an adaptation then this wouldn't be a big deal. But it's not original, so it has fan expectations to live up to. I'm sure there are a decent number of people getting on the hate bandwagon, but for me this is a character that I grew up with. I didn't start with Nintendo, I started with a Sega Genesis and the Sega Six Pack. I spent years collecting the games, comic books, and watching the cartoons. When I say the movie looks terrible it's coming from someone who wants to see Sonic make a comeback, not someone who doesn't care or actively wants to see him fail. If the people making the movie care more about "ownership" than about the source material I feel like it'll end up turning into a blame game later trying to pin the blame the result on anyone but themselves.

I can't remember the last time I liked this guy in a movie. So I couldn't care much less about his opinions.

Thing is, I don't respect most of Hollywood to begin with.

I was only vaguely interested in seeing it cos it looked so awful - like how you can’t look away from a roadside wreckage.

Now they’re cleaning it up in the cgi department, I have absolutely no interest. If anything, I truly believe this decision will hurt the film.

Trying to spin Sonic fans thinking the movie looked crap into some kind of profound statement is ridiculous.

Losing ownership? OK, let's forget about the fan backlash, and think about how one of the original creators of Sonic, Yuji Naka, went out and apologized for how the first CG Sonic looked. Why did he have to do that when he has nothing to do with making the film? It's because he has some ownership, maybe not legally, but creatively of the character. If he is so disappointed about how a character he co-created turned out, then maybe changing the character is a good idea.

If you ever wanted full ownership, you should have invented your own character. Sure they might have paid all the licenses to use Sonic for this movie, but by no means do they have full ownership.

If I borrow someone's bike for 1 hour does that make me the owner of the bike during that hour? Partly, yes, but if I break the bike while borrowing it I have to answer to the true owner.

I read his point as being that some people will complain about various aspects of it, demand that they're changed and then, when they are, won't bother going to see the film anyway. Which is probably true.

tbh i don't think the redesign will help ticket sales, i thought people would go see it as a hate watch, the redesign could take it from hilariously bad to meh. they should put the original on dvd as a bonus feature though

I think he's right. The film is probably going to be rubbish with or without the redesign, so I imagine most of the people who wanted the redesign or are going to skip it based on reviews hence the want but don't care comment.

It reminds me of the episode of The Simpsons where Homer is allowed to design his own car. Homer thinks he knows what he wants, and he thinks he knows how to design automobiles. It turns out to be a monstrosity and a mish mash of random ideas.

People think they know how to make movies. People should see finished films and rather like them or hate them. I don’t think a general movie goer should have any say in the creative process, and they definitely shouldn’t be able to whine until they get their way because it’s how they imagined the character.

@RyanSilberman One of the worst phrases to stand by, ever.

@RyanSilberman U must have never worked a customer service job. 😕

Well the way I see it, the less it looks like SEGA's Sonic, less I'm going to treat this as a real Sonic movie other then the names and really off model designs, it just looks like a bootleg film which I could care less about

I'm not entirely convinced Jim Carrey knows what Sonic is and how it's a gaming icon. Otherwise he would understand the outrage.

This guy gets it. So much.

@RyanSilberman the phrase is largely a myth even in the actually relevant domains (and industries/services taking it literally can end disastrously at times, too), but when we talk COMMISSIONED FICTION WORKS, I have bad news regarding who their actual customers are.😜

@Enigminator yup, especially regarding certain things that are often banned from discussion here because no one can talk about it all in a responsible mature manner. A lot muddied by politics, etc.

I always love that certain people feel that politics need to be brought into any comment section. It is easy to make fun of Carrey. He brings problems on himself. If the Sonic movie doesn’t do well, then he might start complaining just like he did after being in Kick-Ass 2.

Jim is right.i think he will look to fake and not real with the og look

3x hate on in the comments. I hate that phrase. You don't put hate "on" something, you just hate it.

@Kalmaro I must be the only one that didn't care about how he looked....I thought the trailer was good for what the movie is...I had no problems. WIll I go to the theatre to see it? Probably not, I haven't been to a movie in 15 years. I'll watch on Netflix or buy it on Vudu...

He has an point, but it depends on who is making the comments. Still since the studio behind has listen to the fans I doubt it the case this time.

Studios can react in three ways. The way this studio is reacting. The second option is doing nothing or option 3 which is the worse. Call everyone who disagree with you an racist of any kind (cough Disney cough)

@nintendolie Nintendolife.com: Come for the Nintendo related news, stay for the nihilist / existentialist comments

As an artist myself, I don't like the idea of design by committee or for the audience to have too much influence over the final product, but sometimes constructive criticism is seriously needed. That original Sonic should not have made it past focus groups...

Still, it is a slippery slope.

Be fair to the quote, he said he wasn’t sure how it will be yet with the outside input. He’s not taking a hard stance here. He’s left room for something not traditional, which is actually impressive for Hollywood

Haven't been a Jim fan since he turned on Kick-Ass 2. The original Sonic design was a horror show

I think he's absolutely right in that there was more people who wanted to complain about it than there was people who actually cared about the movie. "Sonic looks horrible, I'd never watch that!" "Would you watch it if Sonic looked amazing" "Meh, probably not... But gawd he looks awful!"

@ALinkttPresent The guy is unhinged. Wonder if had to sit on eggs for months to get in character. Boring.

@tseliot Spent several months snooping as usual.

I can see where he’s coming from. People say they want something, they get it, then find the don’t like it. But given the history of game movies, I think studios need to start listening to the fans. Plus I still believe this was all planned for hype.

And as for “ownership”, gee Jim, what happened to “everyone owns everything?” I think he’s just bashing free speech again.

I think Jim Carrey should stick to pulling his silly faces to entertain toddlers, or maybe seek some help with his clear psychological problems.

Imagine if restaurants took this "customers need to shut up and just take it" approach of the entertainment industry these days.

"Excuse me, waiter, this tastes horrible. I need to send this back."
"Pfff, what do you know? Just eat it and deal with it. The cook knows better than you."

It's also interesting how quick certain people defend corporations and the richest of the rich these days.

I completely agree with him

@BensonUii ...and yet plenty of people still buy and/or defend Microtransactions.

He is definitely becoming more bizarre in his behavior and words. I like some of work but he is slowly changing my mind on wanting to see him in anything else.

He’s not wrong. Sonic fans all together though are pretty horrendous. Even some of you dumbies on this site hating on the Carrey casting as if he's not the perfect guy to play a cartoony villain.

I will say the design of Sonic wasn’t that good (but Sonic has always been bad). Even vfx artists publicly pointed out why.

"I just wanted it, I didn't care about it. I just jumped on the bandwagon" there's a lot of truth in there.

When they make movies based on existing properties, there are going to be some expectations. Yet, it seems that Hollywood likes to make big changes to established properties, and sometimes it comes across as something done for its own sake. In this case, it was a character design that many thought looked bad and unappealing. That's actually another thing I think Hollywood likes to do. The CGI people seem to like making aesthetically-questionable things. As I recall, the modern Ninja Turtles movies also had complaints about the look of the characters.

Geez, I really get the sense that some of you didn’t even read the quote or bother to make sense of it. It’s almost like some people just wanted to jump on some sort of moving object that has lots of forward momentum. Like a heavy wagon of sorts, one that’s got a band of people on it perhaps.

I can see where Carrey is coming from, but Hollywood has done audience test screenings for decades and has adjusted films based on that feedback.

From relatively small stuff like adding Red and Andy meeting on the beach in The Shawshank Redemption or Spock’s burial casket on Genesis in The Wrath of Khan to quite major reshoots for things like Last Action Hero or Rollerball, Hollywood has always listened to audience feedback to adjust films. While Sonic is slightly different, I don’t think it’s the major change to the film making process that Carrey thinks it is.

They announce a Sonic movie and I expect to see Sonic in it, not something that barely resembles said character.

@Yorumi Yeah and this whole mentality of people just jumping on a bandwagon is just ridiculous in this case. It's just a vain attempt to dismiss criticism about the original design.

@RyanSilberman I'm pretty sure he's aware of it, but it's just a terrible phrase, along with any other that generalizes on a situation. Even between customers, they could want entirely different things, so how can you please everyone? They could also want something that just is just too much cost producing or trouble making for what they are paying.

What a muppet.

Apparently he doesn't get it. He also apparently doesn't get that anything he says goes in one ear and out the other since he stopped being even remotely relevant a LONG time ago...

Producers made the decision to redesign Sonic because they feared for their bottom line. That's it. If this movie was a work of love or passion or even fandom, the online mob would've received more pushback, and perhaps the studio would have come to the defense of the film as it was. But it was conceived of as a cash grab, a franchise boost, an exercise in branding, and as such would've been a total failure if people stayed home as a protest. I for one thought it looked ridiculous in all the right ways, in a way that keeps with the spirit of the franchise better than visual fidelity can hope to. I'm with Carrey on this one. A more savvy PR person/firm could have turned this into gold without redoing the film.

@nintendolie you must be a hoot at parties...

@Kalmaro so bad its good lol shot by tranquilizer, so fast he can taunt and move missiles without even being super sonic.

He's definitely right. I mean, I don't care about this movie and I do think the Sonic design is terrible. I feel like that's a huge majority of peoples perspective on it and the efforts of redesigning basically the whole movie won't turn up a profit.

I'll get back to you with "my" opinion once I get my daily dose of 12 hours of unsupervised youtube/twitch/twitter exposure.

@Kalmaro xD good joke

It's a delicate balancing act. On one hand, its absolutely important to respect the audience and to listen to them when something (whatever it might be) isn't working or is headed for disaster.

On the other hand, you do want the creators to be allowed to create without caving to the ridiculous whims of the audience. This is where the showrunners, producers, directors, actors, etc.. prove their mettle

There is some truth to that statement. I can give it a pity watch, just because they're trying yanno?

@UmbreonsPapa

Well said

Fruitcake, this guy is a lunatic. Just do loud things to stay relevant, as any other actor nowadays. Their actors, who gives a damn what they think anyway.

I'm inclined to generally agree with him but in this instance, their initial design was a serious misstep.
On the other hand, Jim Carrey is mentioned by name in a suicide note from a woman he gave a venereal disease to and I like bringing it up as it's easy to dig up on google.

@RyanSilberman As someone that is the manager of a video game store, and has worked in customer service/retail for over 10 years I can 100% tell you beyond any shadow of a doubt that the customer is not always right. Most of the time they are wrong. A customer will tell you they are right, but for them "right" actually means "what I want". The world does not work that way. You do not always get what you want, especially when you are trying to break the rules to accomplish that.

@scottienigma i will add my 15 years of retail/CS experience to your ten and agree with you. My favourite was always when they held you personally responsible for price hikes 'I'm wearing a badge with my name on it buddy, I'm clearly not the one setting the prices of benefiting from It in any way sans my low hourly rate'.

@Mr_Persona I try!
@MrVariant Yeah, that wasn't OP or anything. Dude apparently can just stop time at will

@sonicmeerkat damn that's Charlie Sheen territory. Didn't know he could go worse than that white Aretha Franklin tribute. And he even tests under alias Jose Lopez. Even crazier to look that up.

Somebody stop me as the mask was apparently a cry for help.

@Heavyarms55 Agree with you here. Jim Carrey also has gotten crazy lately, as is evidenced by his tasteless illustrations and some of the things he says and does. Then again, most of Hollywood is completely insane so it's not like he has much of a choice if he wants to be successful.

@Kalmaro
but really its funny

@RyanSilberman everyone has heard that phrase, which is too bad, because it's awful and useless.

Alrighty then!

@RyanSilberman that doesn't apply to art, the redesign is as absurd of an idea as the original ugly design in the first place...

It's a videogame movie, strike one!
It features Jim Carrey,
strike two!
Oh forget strike three, that's too much already... count me OUT!

I liked the ugly Sonic they went with first. I really don't understand the idea of fans being unhappy about making the appearance of their favourite characters weird. But most of all, those people didn't even see the whole thing yet. Maybe in this case, the weird look of Sonic would have been the only thing that made the film interesting at all. Now we'll probably get a bad film with a normal looking Sonic, a film forgotten after a year. A bad film with a weird looking Sonic on the other hand, that's something I might even pay to watch, and it would certainly not be forgotten that easily.

You know that isn't true?

@Aaronnnnn
Honestly, I think the series has just garnered the bad rep through its run.

From the amazing Genesis days there was the shaky leap into 3D with the Adventure titles, to the utter meme that is Shadow the Hedgehog, to the NASCAR pile-up of Sonic 06 that destroyed a lot of the blue blur's credibility, to a rocky recovery through Unleashed and Black Knight before finally getting back on his feet and sprinting with grace with Colours and Generations... then getting into another NASCAR pile-up with Lost World and the Sonic Boom game back to back that literally annihilated a lot of people's hope that they had in the series.

I remember following some pretty big Sonic fans on Youtube back in the day and let me tell you, after Sonic Boom, their overall love for the series, in general, dropped like a rock. People really enjoyed Sonic Mania but at this point, a lot more work is needed to pull Sonic out of the rut he's currently in, especially with the lackluster reaction to Sonic Forces.

I don't really understand his comment. The producers were free to keep the design the same and hit the intended release date. People are free to not see the movies. This was not a movie that was going to have 100% of people like it anyway. Yeah, the Sonic model sucked, but the bigger problem is the movie just doesn't look good.

@Jawessome
I agree with you but also disagree. They did put a lot of time and effort in this movie. However, Sonic is an already well established design know by many and changing it look so extremely may have been a little to much. And being told something is could be better isnt bad, depending on frame of mind. If you do something wrong and is corrected, it's dicpline. If you work on a art or a craft it can be contructed criticism. Soz it may hurt to hear your design was called, but it could be for the best in the long run.

Jumping on bandwagons? Loony Jim should be more concerned about how he jumped the shark years ago.

Who cares, Jim? I bet he never played this game before. He is just an actor making a lot of money and do not care about us but himself. The same for all celebrities who worried about themselves but us. They just need our money for their wealthy. SMH.

For the vast majority of movies he’s right, but this doesn’t apply to this one at all. The movie is aimed at Sonic fans and has absolutely nothing to offer for anybody else. Sticking with the old design would mean it had nothing to offer them either.

On the spectrum of stupid marketing moves, there isn’t one much dumber than targeting something at a specific audience but then neglecting to focus on what appeals to them.

Well he's not wrong.

This movie is likely to be a complete trainwreck whether they fix Sonic's design or not, and I'd wager many of the loudest voices still won't watch it. For a bunch of very good reasons, mind.

I wouldn't listen to a guy that sends creepy videos to a woman half his age😏

@Supaguy idc

I am a sonic fan, don't get me wrong, but I am going to see the movie just because of Jim Carey's hilarious performance. A good plot line and a decent looking Sonic is just a bonus for me.

Sometimes Jim the critics are right. Would he be happier if the film remained the same and bombed hard at the box office, because it was absolutely going to.

Plus, directors getting "creative" with beloved video game heroes has a track record of destroying the characters completely. How much creative licensed can you really expect to have for characters that just about an entire generation have spent hundreds of hours staring at and literally controlling in a visual setting.

Just make sonic look like sonic for crying out loud.

Also, would people lay off the, oh this movie is bad anyway statements. It's a kids film, sonic was always intended for kids. This film is for kids, it's going to be terrible for adults, that's the whole point!

That's the trouble with these Hollywood types nowadays. They all want "creative ownership" of things they didn't create.

@RyanSilberman The problem is the customer is rarely right, he's talking bloody bollocks.
The design was atrocious, but I can see where he's coming from.

"Ownership of anything is going out the window"....

He says about the licensed franchise the company that hired him was altering outside the licensing design guide.....

@spoonmanx Not even a single like.....

Kids.....pfft.

Honestly, it doesn't even matter what the redesign looks like at this point... this movie is gonna be "Super Mario Bros. Movie" bad.