Sonic Creator Yuji Naka Still Has One Problem With The Movie Redesign

Stil looks more like Sonic now, then that toilet brush, troll doll hybrid ever did.

It's understandable that the biggest critic would be the Sonic creator himself.

It's still good to see that he agrees it's an improvement.

I think the new design is as good as it can be, great even. There's no way you can make those joined eyes work in anything other than cartoons and comics. IMO he shouldn't be saying these things, he's just giving fuel to a mob of "fans" that just need a little spark to start complaining about anything.

I wish the home releases of the movie included the option to change the Sonic design to the old one, just for fun.

Well, at least it's improved. It looks so much better now.
I'm fine with separate eyes, in fact, i'm fine with everything in new trailer, except maybe some really corny jokes

old with the old, in with the gold.

I think the joined eye thing would look kinda odd, personally. I'm okay with the change.

For live action movies based on games I NEVER expect them to look or even resemble the original material they’re based off of. I woulda seen the movie at one point regardless of redesign. That said, new design is def more pleasing on the eyes, and much closer to how I know sonic.

Honestly I’m more leery of Jim Carrey’s performance. He and Will Ferrell don’t typically do well in roles like these. The roles call for like a balance of 70% serious and 30% over the top, but both of them typically go above send beyond the over the top part, which is more annoying than anything. Sucks too cause I loved 90’s Carrey in roles like Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber.

"I wanted to see a special DVD version of the movie which used the old design"

You and me both, Naka-san. You and me both.

I too have a problem with the eyes (not being joined together but maybe the way the pupils are looking a bit too big when there's close up shots) but when everything else looks nice, who's to complain?

"I wanted to see a special DVD version of the movie which used the old design."

This makes me think Naka is a fan of horror and monster movies.

It's a good as they're going to get him looking. Let's just be thankful that the nightmare inducing abomination that was their previous effort is no more.

Fans after first trailer: God I hate the design of Sonic in his new movie, death to Sonic and anyone associated with this dumpster fire movie!!

Fans after second trailer: I really like this new design but I'd really love to see a version of the movie with that first design, just for fun!

Jesus wept.

@nab1 that’s what they said about the smurf movies, until the latest one which is the best looking of them all. The director just didn’t want to commit to the design of the character and opted for a reimagining that sat well with his suspension of disbelief. He’s following the rule about eyes in real life but other directors would have celebrated that key part of Sonic’s design and cartoon origin.

@nab1 Slippery slope. Just going to sell out every artistic creation to the highest bidder? Gonna repeat the Super Mario Bros. movie?
It's his creation, his vision and subsequent plan, his opinion. Is it wise for sales to be causing a controversy? No, but we already passed that point when we got that gangly gremlin. We shouldn't have had to see that. If Naka had been more closely involved to convey Sonic properly, we wouldn't have needed to buy eye bleach. And I respect a creator that'll risk money (and this is a nominal amount of risk and money) for attention in exchange for proper love and care. The moment you don't, it becomes "poisoned," and that's no good.
If you want a study on this, look at how carefully Zootopia's character designs were made so that it didn't slide into "deviant" territory. And I've already mentioned the Mario movie for an example of how not to do it and what comes of it.

Honestly the design is improved but the movie still lookes cringey

where's Amy? Tails? Knuckles? Blaze? Chaos Emeralds?
i'm boycotting until they add the national dex!

he does looks much better, i'm not man enough to see this in theaters though.

So Sonic is a cyclops? And always meant to be a cyclops

I think it would be great to have an option on the Blu Ray to turn on the original effects. It would make for a fantastic Halloween movie!

But his eyes looked better in separated.
Joined eyes = Cyclops much ??

@OldMcGroin you have to admit it would make the perfect extra content for the home release, the forbidden original version

I personally still think his movie is not going to be good. Do not forget guys, that a good design doesn't make a good movie. Good writing and good characters do. And I do not think that we will get this with this movie. It will be okay, comes and then vanishes. Unless we get two or three more sequels like with the Chipmunks movies.

Honestly they should just ditch the life action part of the movie and just make it totally CGI.
It wil probably look better that way.

Only CWC type people will complain about the eyes and the arms being blue; everyone else thinks the redesign looks good enough to great.

In other news: Sonic never looked like a hedgehog.

Hopefully there’ll be an uncut release

I can understand the eyes not being joined together, because if they are animating the eyes in HD in 3D, they want to be able to have the orbs of the eyes look like they're moving, while of course in a 2D animation of Sonic, or in less detail, you can't see that shine in the eyes anyway, so you can just have the pupils more around and it looks fine.

That said, they at least made the part where Sonic's eyes normally join a light color to simulate the joined area.

I like the design choice with the eyes. It's an example of how you should properly alter a design for the sake of realism without compromising the spirit of the original.

@nab1 He’s an alien. He can look like classic Sonic and explain the eyes by him being an alien - he’s not an earth animal after all. It might look disconcerting to those movie-goers not in the know about this obscure video game character but fans would have liked it.

I think the connected eyes would've looked REALLY weird in a live-action movie. This is a welcome compromise IMO.

@Dm9982 To me based on the trailer this looks like it could be a return to the great 90's Jim Carey I'm pretty excited to see that alone.

Now he doesn't look like the Anti-Christ! He now looks like a beloved video game character!

@dougphisig That would be awesome! I’ve been wanting an Ace Ventura 3 forever. I wanted a Dumb and Dumber Sequel - we got the first which was complete crap, and then the true one with Jim and Jeff returning, and that was more vulgarity than funny.

I’m fine with vulgar jokes, not a prude, but I felt that went against the original Dumb and Dumber which was just stupid comedy. THAT is what I wanted, idiocy.

@Snivy102 I still think it is interesting how he's upset at the eyes (which really look a bit more natural) instead of the Arms not being the color of his skin.

Joining eyes would look stupid anyway.

So the man who designed Sonic to look nothing like Sonic, now thinks it should look more like Sonic. Um, OK dude, but why not design him to look like Sonic in the first place???

@OldMcGroin And not only that: a young kitten dies, every time a so-called true fan keeps complaining about things "still not right" about this perfectly fine redesign...

I'm curious to see what it would look like if his eyes were joint together, hopefully there's a good drawing or photoshop of it after the movie releases

Yeah, I mean it's not PERFECT, but it's still way, way, way better than the previous abomination. And I actually like the way his arms are blue now more too. I think they should change the game character's arms in all future versions to actually match the movie Sonic in that one aspect because it just looks more right.

Now this.....this does put a smile on my face
I actually wanna see the movie now

@nab1

"IMO he shouldn't be saying these things, he's just giving fuel to a mob of "fans" that just need a little spark to start complaining about anything."

He's the creator. He can say whatever the hell he wants and you have no right to tell him not to say it.

For reference, this is Sonic with his usual conjoined eyes:

I don't like the scrambled egg eye design, sorry not sorry

Great, now fix the script.

I think the whole thing was planned.

They released a trailer with an ugly Sonic knowing it will creates an uproar from fans, this gave the movie free publicity. The first design was fake, it was never meant to be in the film, they were designed specifically for the first trailer.

Do you know how much it will cost to overhaul a CGI design for the entire film (and at such a short time)? No movie studio will do that.

@impurekind Technincally we do have one of the game sonic designs with blue arms: Sonic Boom

Joined eyes only really work for cartoons and even Mickey moved away from them a long time ago.
New shorts with old-style design make them look more like button eyes.

@Lyokira Yeah, but that was another pretty terrible Sonic design, imo, to the point that I didn't notice the one thing that was actually a slight improvement.

I said it in another thread and I gladly say it again: For a live action movie the original design (with tweaks) would habe been better. But that's just my (lonely) opinion. 🤷‍♂️

Genuinely excited for this film now!

@NoTinderLife

Short time ?
They had a year.

I'm not entirely sure that this was a publicity stunt.
Cause that would give these studios a tad too much credit.
Studios are remarkably stupid and tone deaf.
It's equally likely they or Sega panicked and scrambled for a solution.

Either way whatever the cause it got everybody talking about it.

@Aquamine-Amarine

Overreaction much ?
It was just his ( or her ) opinion.

Edit: not only that but Naka didn't draw anything.
He was the lead programmer of the games and the head of Sonic Team.
Sonic was created by committee.
Naoto Oshima is the one that designed and drew Sonic.

@Dm9982 Agreed. I never really understood how his juvenile obnoxious humor became so popular with anyone older than middle school aged. I actually could never even slightly tolerate Ace Ventura, either, though I thought it worked well in The Mask, The Grinch, etc. But otherwise totally agreed on the lack of balance and constraint in those actors, and that it taints the role. I'm not liking what I'm seeing of his performance here as well....I think, personally, thats' what will turn me off the film more than anything to do with the actual Sonic stuff that seems better represented here than half of Sonic's games.

@NEStalgia The Mask is another one I’d like to see him do again. Really liked that one.

But yeah, most of the time, especially with Will Ferrell, I can only watch the movies once. It’s usually one of those things like, “Well that was stupid, I laughed, I needed that.” Like with Talledaga Nights Or Blades of Glory. I try to go back and rewatch and it’s all cringe. Almost everything of Carrey’s after the 90s is the same for me. Either cringe, or vastly too serious of a role for me, like Night at the Majestic.

It's crazy how bad the first design was, you almost think they did this all in purpose to generate hype . I wouldn't be surprised if this was all planned.
Hoping the movie flops because of Jim Carrey and his excessive political "statements."

@NEStalgia I liked him at Ace Ventura. It was cool. And he had some other good films. But then he turned political nuts like so many Hollywood "stars" and that just ruins it for me, and makes it harder to divide character and actor. Some I can give a pass, but since his choice of movies is questionable or subpar to begin with ... sayonara then.

I know sonic has one giant eyeball in the games, but if you did that in a movie, it might look excessively weird. I think there's always a risk of that when you mix designs from video games or animation into a "live action" movie.