They’re Getting Rid of Sonic the Hedgehog’s Teeth After All

The motto of Stan Twitter isn’t so much “ask and ye shall receive” as it is “yell and scream and you’ll force some animators to turn around a new character design in under six months.” That’s apparently what’s happening with the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie, which released a trailer this week that tried to position Sonic as a mob boss.

But that’s not what most people were upset over – what really fucked everyone up was the teeth.

[Sonic the Hedgehog movie pitch meeting]

Jim Carrey: [chanting] teeth, teeth –
Director: teeth, TEETH
Paramount execs [pounding the table]: TEETH, TEETH, TEETH! https://t.co/eDzzAmSjDC

— Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (@Hello_Tailor) April 30, 2019

And while I’m not one to body-shame Sonic…let’s be honest, it’s a weird humanoid figure that comfortably (or uncomfortably) straddles the uncanny valley.

Left is original screenshot. Right is my rework to make #Sonic more stylized. pic.twitter.com/IhXeAZYlQI

— Edward Pun (@EdwardPun1) April 30, 2019

Within 24 hours, plenty of fans were able to rework Sonic into a more appropriately stylized form, like the one above. And now the filmmakers themselves want to do the same thing…except it’s the entire movie…and they want it all done in six months. On Thursday, the Hollywood Reporter found a Twitter account that appeared to be from director Jeff Fowler announcing that they would, in fact, change Sonic’s design.

“Thank you for the support. And the criticism,” Fowler wrote on Thursday. “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”

Gotta fix fast, indeed! Most CGI-animated movies take upwards of three or four years to make. You could put your kid through high school in the time it takes to make a single Pixar film. And while, in this case, it would only be modifying one CGI character in a largely live-action picture, we’re talking about Sonic in the Sonic movie – a character bound to appear in over half the shots, if not more, doing things like talking, sprinting, action-ing, etc. And all those shots, all those frames, would have to be edited, approved and distributed by November 8th.

I don’t have high hopes for this. But feel free to start your own Sonic release date pool amongst your friends and coworkers.