Archived on 2019.05.04
A couple of days passed from the 'Sonic the Movie trailer impact' - after seeing the first trailer featuring a blue furry creature we are totally not familiar with, most of the fans were mad or at least skeptical about the design of Sonic. Even the people who are involved in development of original Sonic series, and moreover the creators of Sonic himself - Ohshima-san the artist and Naka-san the game programmer - were confused and worried about the drastic change of their beloved son.
My energy was drained over these two days and I even had nightmare because of the design. It was already decided that I was to mourn over what they have done to Sonic forever. And I still will.
Yet, to our surprise: a Twitter account, which seems to belong the movie's director Jeff Fowler, posted following words:
Thank you for the support. And the criticism. The message is loud and clear... you aren't happy with the design & you want changes. It's going to happen. Everyone at Paramount & Sega are fully committed to making this character the BEST he can be... #sonicmovie #gottafixfast 🔧✌️— Jeff Fowler (@fowltown) May 2, 2019
Wow. I can't believe what I'm seeing here.
But I'd gladly take this offer.
No wonder they had to make some move after having this much of thumbs-down on the trailer.
The news spread like wildfire and reached the creators of Sonic quickly as well. Here are their reaction:
The relieved
Naka-san's reaction:Upon hearing the news, Naka-san expressed his thankfulness towards Sonic fans.
ソニックファンの力は凄いですね。良い方向に向かうと良いですね。ソニックを愛してくれて本当にありがとうございます。— Yuji Naka / 中 裕司 (@nakayuji) May 3, 2019
映画「ソニック・ザ・ムービー」のデザインが変更へ。製作側が折れる | AUTOMATON https://t.co/RXCBN3OQGJ
🔵 Naka-san:— ●SonicJPNews● (@SonicJPNews) May 3, 2019
"The power of Sonic fan is great. I hope this will bring it to a better direction.
Thank you very much for loving Sonic."
RT⬇
He also borrowed the translation of his tweets by TSSZ to RT-with-comment the tweet by Jeff Fowler. Oh wow, I didn't expect him to push it that hard. Go Naka-san!
The power of sonic fans is amazing. It is good to go in a good direction. Thank you so much for loving Sonic. https://t.co/uKiY2GLXjf— Yuji Naka / 中 裕司 (@nakayuji) May 3, 2019
Kanemaru-san's reaction:
Kanemaru-san was also relieved by the news and moved by the power of love of Sonic fans.
涙が出ました。— 金丸淳一VoiceActor&Vocalist Kanemaru Jun-ichi (@junichisonic) May 3, 2019
ファンの皆さんにぼくも感謝の気持ちでいっぱいです。 https://t.co/xZsACP8gW7— 金丸淳一VoiceActor&Vocalist Kanemaru Jun-ichi (@junichisonic) May 3, 2019
🔵 Kanemaru-san on the news of Movie Sonic's redesign statement by director:— ●SonicJPNews● (@SonicJPNews) May 3, 2019
"I had tears."
"I'm filled with thankfulness to the fans."
RT⬇
At the same time, he was worried about the staffs who have been working on Sonic Movie until now who will now might have to start their months of work over again...
"They can't go forward, nor back...行くも戻るも— 金丸淳一VoiceActor&Vocalist Kanemaru Jun-ichi (@junichisonic) May 3, 2019
ニッチもサッチも
どうにも…。
指示のままに心血注いだ
多くのスタッフさんを思うと
これまたせつない。
My heart aches when I think of the staffs who worked hard on thir job with everything they've got accoding to the direction they were given."
- Junichi Kanemaru
He also announced that he deleted some of the tweets he made to avoid his message to spread in ways he does not wish to.
"The tweets were my true feelings, but I deleted them in order to avoid unintended deforme and distorted publications.感情をのせたつぶやきは真実ですが、意図しないデフォルメや歪曲された掲載を避けるためディレートしました。— 金丸淳一VoiceActor&Vocalist Kanemaru Jun-ichi (@junichisonic) May 3, 2019
加えて、皆さんのお気持ちも大変感謝しております。
Also, I thank you for your support to what I said."
- Junichi Kanemaru
And so he concluded the topic with his usual positiveness.
He is off to watch Sonic X, which the first three episodes are now on the official website of TMS Entertainment for limited time!
— 金丸淳一VoiceActor&Vocalist Kanemaru Jun-ichi (@junichisonic) May 3, 2019"Alright, I guess I'm going to continue to watch the series!
So I can charge my energy with Sonic World!"
- Junichi Kanemaru
"Because we don't want to stay in this kind of emotion, do we?だっていつまでもそんな感情のままでとどまっていたくないでしょ。— 金丸淳一VoiceActor&Vocalist Kanemaru Jun-ichi (@junichisonic) May 3, 2019
前に進まなきゃ楽しいことはやって来ないもの。
ForgiveするためにForgetしなきゃね。
What you put out
What you get back.
与えることは受けとること。
If we don't go forward, fun things don't come to us.
Forget to Forgive."
- Junichi Kanemaru
He once taught us about 'Forget to Forgive' on Twitter before, and I remember it very well.
Kanemaru-san's passion and positiveness are blessing. I'm really glad that he is the Sonic's soulmate for over 20 years.
Yasuhara-san's reaction:
Yasuhara-san, the lead game designer of the classic era of Sonic, is also glad to hear the news! Such a warm comment.
Congrats to All Sonic fans. Your loves and efforts made it happen. 🥳 And I thank to all staffs of Paramount & Sega for making the Big decision and your continuous hard works, 🙏❤️ https://t.co/o3sL7GY0IR— Hirokazu Yasuhara (@Yasuharah) May 3, 2019
Ohshima-san's reaction:
Ohshima-san hopes that the Movie Sonic will become one that will be loved by everybody, just like all Sonic appeared in the series. I really hope so too.
It is my ideal to be sonic everyone loves.— Naoto Ohshima (@NaotoOhshima) May 3, 2019
The skeptical
Maekawa-san's reaction:Maekawa-san is a little disappointed about the director's decision.
He is also suspecting this to be a marketing strategy... which can't be denied 100% at this point.
ソニックのデザイン変更ですか…。— 前川司郎 (@mizuhano) May 3, 2019
自分的にあのデザインは挑戦的な試みだと感じていたのでちょっと残念。
でもあのデザインじゃなかったら正直ここまで話題にもならなかったハズ。
全てはプロモーションの一環なのかも🤔
🔵Maekawa-san:— ●SonicJPNews● (@SonicJPNews) May 3, 2019
"So they are going to change Sonic's design...
Personally I felt that the design was a challenging attempt, so I'm a little disappointed.
But if it weren't for that design, it wouldn't have become such a hot topic.
It's probably a part promotion tactics?🤔"
RT⬇
"Not copying what Darwin said, but to survive, we need to keep changing.ダーウィンの台詞じゃないが、生き残るためには変わり続ける必要がある。— 前川司郎 (@mizuhano) May 3, 2019
例え間違えたとしても、変わる為のチャレンジはやめちゃいけない。
Even if we make mistakes, we shouldn't stop challenging to make a change."
- Shiro Maekawa
Another wise word from this man.
This is very true, and I find it good that the filmmaker accepted took this ooportunity as their challenge to try their style. It just didn't turn out the way majority of the audience - not only the main target but also those who are not very familiar with Sonic - found favorable. Which means a failure as a product with existing characters.
It is a good contrast to Detective Pikachu, another live-action movie with existing game characters turned into furry 'realistic' 3D models. It was just released today and it seems to making its steps towards success.
And this comparison becomes even clearer when these two works are directly put next to each other... like in this case:
Uh-oh. That's awkward.🔵In Japan, Sonic the Movie's trailer which was released today on Twitter, is already being shown on cinema screens. For example right before Detective Pikachu movie. https://t.co/mdXedz8ds5— ●SonicJPNews● (@SonicJPNews) May 3, 2019
The surprised
Moriki-san's reaction:Moriki-san, the mecha designer who worked on machines in the anime Sonic X who recently showed his numerous design boards of Sonic X mechas, reacted to the news too with surprise and confusion.
I hope he doesn't think this is the Sonic in the games today though...
映画「ソニック・ザ・ムービー」のデザインが変更へ。製作側が折れる | AUTOMATON https://t.co/VMfvEoB3Lf @AUTOMATONJapanより— 森木 靖泰 (@kouryoukan) May 3, 2019
今のソニックってこんなんなんだ！
アニメ「ソニックX」の頃からは随分と変わったなぁ…
「ソニックX」は足掛け3年間位関わってたっけ？
🔵Moriki-san:— ●SonicJPNews● (@SonicJPNews) May 3, 2019
"So Sonic today looks like this, huh. He changed a lot from the time of Sonic X...
I think I took part to Sonic X for almost 3 years?"
RT⬇
And the eternal entertainer
Roger's reaction:Oh Roger, you are the blessing too. Always there to lift up our day.
Message received, everyone. Changes have been made and you're welcome.🤓 pic.twitter.com/kKck0Wp16W— Roger Craig Smith (@RogerCraigSmith) May 3, 2019
- - - - - - - -
Alright, that's about it for the reactions!
Most of them seem to be glad to hear this news and are now a little more positive about the movie.
But some doubt conspiracy theory - was the Movie Sonic design for the sake of promotion? If then they succeeded in marketing for sure - but it hurt so many fans' feeling and Sonic's brand. The wound is still deep and I'm not sure if their 'new design' will be enough to heal it.
Though I'm glad they realized, even if it was pretty late, that this was NOT okay and the design definitely needed a change.
But I'm still going to keep my expectation low until I see what they actually will show us. I already had enough of let-downs.
I just hope that the people on the side of production won't have to sacrifice themselves because of the director's decision - either they already have the actualy design hidden deep behind the curtain, or the release MUST be delayed to extend production schedule. Although if he former scenario was the case, I'm going to be even more mad to the fact that they unnecessarily made fun of us fans and hurt original creators of Sonic.
We'll see!
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