When the first trailer dropped for Sonic the Hedgehog, fans were ready to riot. The public’s reaction to the new look of the titular character was so vitriolic that the studio had to go back and change the entire design of the movie. This left many to wonder what Paramount Pictures was ever thinking in the first place. Now, we know that those in charge were well-aware that audiences were going to hate the look of Sonic, but they decided to push forward anyway.
Animator Max Schneider recently revealed that Paramount had a feeling that folks wouldn’t be overly fond of the animated hedgehog’s new style. They figured that the general audience member would be much more accepting and wouldn’t care too much about the change, and executives thought they could just ride out the initial backlash from the diehard fans and everything would turn out fine.
After all, this is exactly what happened with the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Those who loved the source material despised the new look of the turtles, but the film still went on to dominate the box office. It therefore makes sense that the same would happen with Sonic the Hedgehog.
Unfortunately, the backlash to Sonic’s design was much more overwhelming. Rather than risk losing a fortune at the box office, Paramount decided to delay the film’s scheduled release and spend some money to fix the problems. Thankfully, the reaction to the most recent trailer has been much more positive.
Tell us, though, do you think Paramount made the right choice by redesigning Sonic the Hedgehog, or should they have just stuck with their original design? Sound off in the comments with your thoughts.