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Dear Paramount (and the rest of Hollywood for that matter),
I just saw Sonic the Hedgehog and let me just start out by thanking you for listening to fans on changing Sonic’s appearance. That was really the main reason that I went and supported the film on its opening day. As a member of the viewing audience I believe that my vote, as cast in ticket sales, matters. That is the primary form of communication that studios tend to understand when attempting to gauge audience response, and when looking to understand how to lay the groundwork for future movie-making ventures.
Unfortunately, this crude method of communication has led our beloved industry into a modern hole of blatant misunderstanding on what it is viewers actually want to see. As a filmmaker, storyteller, audience member, and avid Sonic the Hedgehog fan growing up, I would like to offer you some unsolicited and possibly irritating feedback. I do this in the hopes that you and the rest of Hollywood might be more apt to produce content, and stories, that both appeal to and satisfy the vast audience commonly referred to in our culture as a "fandom."
Nothing quite rivals the moment when a fan discovers that so-and-so studios has decided to take on the dangerously foreboding quest of turning their favorite work of masterful fiction into an iconic cinematic experience. However, that excitement tends to dwindle when fans discover that the studio begins deviating further and further from the original story that they originally fell in love with. Finally, the fans decide to buckle in and accept that the object of their childhood nostalgia has morphed into a concoction now vaguely resembling everything that they grew up loving. While this might be a satisfactory answer for the studios at the end of the day, this is never the pure outcome that the fans had dreamt when the news of production originally broke. And what many have taken for granted in the interest of obtaining a quick buck on opening weekend is that these Frankenstein films will become a documented legend, which will outlive everyone who ever worked on or was born during the production of those films.
Personally, I grew up obsessed, I mean literally obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog. The comics, the games (I beat Spinball twice), the cartoons. This was my childhood. So first and foremost, kudos to you for making this film. And there's no good way for me to segue into what I would like to call discussion points. So let's dive in.
First, let's talk about casting. Understandably, and without discounting his tremendous talent, Dr. Robotnik is a hard one to cast, and Jim Carry did an outstanding job as he does with any of his roles, however, this was a challenging role to fill that until the end I couldn't accept was the same character I grew up knowing. Granted Long John Baldry, God rest his soul, is not available for the part, I am left wondering who else out there may have been a more fitting aesthetic and personality. (I found the IMDB list of possibilities for this role and was quite shocked that you passed up the opportunity to cast Jim Cummings [Dr. Robotnik’s original voice actor in Sonic the Hedgehog 1993-1994]. Otherwise, some great look-alikes you had on your list were Paul Giamatti and Timothy Spall).
Now, let's talk about the main character that we all came to the theater to cheer on-Sonic the Hedgehog. Again, Ben Schwartz is a talented actor. He wanted the role, but so did a lot of other actors. But quite frankly Sonic is not Sonic without the original voice of Jaleel White. Seeing that he is still alive I am dumbfounded as to why, after voicing both English cartoons, he was not asked to reprise his role. And at the very least his counterpart Roger Craig Smith could have also been someone most fans would love to have heard reprise this role. To me, no one else can fill these shoes.
But let's move on shall we? My next topic of discussion is storyline. I would say that it is fair that as much as people can enjoy the art of creative liberties, it starts to walk a fine line when it comes to obliteration of original content. The story begins on what I can only assume is planet Mobius, appropriately paralleling the beginning of the beloved game in Emerald Hill to the opening of the movie. Again, not exactly canon, but I can accept that. Where the plot began dwindling is when Sonic was born with "powers" and essentially raised by an owl? Where is Uncle Chuck, Bernadette, and Jules? Suddenly, as a fan I am disconnected from the story I grew up knowing and loving. Why should this be important? Well, to us fans, these aren’t just characters in a story. They tap into the same veins of familiarity that our real life friends and family tap into. We become emotionally invested in them, and when they suddenly change into someone else, we no longer bridge the connection that they are the same being. Psychologists call the relationship that we develop with these characters parasocial relationships, and they are just as meaningful to us as our real life friends and family. And we can be left feeling just as estranged from our fictional friends as if our hillbilly, nut-scratching, socially deplorable uncle appeared at the next family gathering as a well-adjusted, dapper, and proper member of British Society. When our characters change, so do our connections to them.
In just about every re-telling of the Sonic the Hedgehog story, our hero in blue has always remained the same impatient, feisty, and bold character who always faced obstacles head-on. I was amazed that in this version, for the first time, Sonic ran away from his problems. Sonic ran away from his problems? I couldn’t make heads or tails of it (yes, I’m going to talk about tails too, but that’s later). Again, there were some homages thrown to Sonic’s original character. In this story he tries a chili dog for the first time, we see him go incognito as is one of his classic moves in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, he even taps his foot as he waits for the missiles to approach him at the end of this film. However, Sonic became dependent, alone, and afraid in this re-telling. The Sonic I grew up with was too brave for his own good (which often led him into trouble), was admired by everyone around him for his acts of heroism, and was fiercely independent, save the people that he brought into his close circle (aka the freedom fighters). To top it off he didn’t use any of his classic puns “I’m waiting,” “Time to juice,” or “Up, over and gone!” THIS. WAS. NOT. SONIC.
Again, with no disrespect to Jim Carrey, Dr. Ivo Robotnik’s character was way off base as well. In the original stories Dr. Ovi Kintobor suffers an accident and emerges as the evil genius and aspiring despot of planet Mobius Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Why he was a top-secret government weapon from planet Earth, other than to act as a slave to a plot-line in this re-telling, I’ll never understand. And although he does have side-kicks in many of the other versions of Sonic the Hedgehog (it would have been really interesting to see a creative/darkish twist on Scratch and Grounder -- throw in Coconuts and you have some real opportunity for comedy), but I’m left asking why not Snively at least? Instead we introduced a new character unknown to any of Sonic’s origin-Agent Stone? (No shade to Lee Majdoub who did an excellent job in his role).
I’m skipping over most of the human characters in this story as they were also there to serve the plot. Kudos to all the actors. I want to mainly discuss the characters that we know as fans.
Finally, let’s discuss the Sonic and Tails dynamic. In canon Miles Prower, an orphan, runs into Sonic and asks if he can live with him. Initially, Sonic declines, but after the two experience some adventure together Sonic takes him in and adopts him as his little brother and helps him change his name to Tails after learning that Miles detested his name. In this telling of the story however, Tails is tracking him and reporting back to someone about Sonic’s location? This leaves very little room for the original story to take effect. And you already know what I’m going to say about Christopher Welch (who recently reprised the character in the 2018 game “The Remote Survival Game”) or Bradley Pierce, both still alive and not reprising this role.
The entire plot of Sonic the Hedgehog has never been that Sonic was a refugee with secret powers. Sonic the Hedgehog has always been about a super speedy, headstrong, teenager, who was on a mission to stop a power-hungry, genocidal maniac known as Dr. Robotnik from his plans of world domination. Although I could appreciate the homages to the classic video game I found the characters, plot, and story line deviating heavily from any of Sonic's original canon.
In closing, I would like to genuinely thank you for the opportunity to voice my concerns. As a fan, I would like to suggest that at the least a panel of fans should be present to consult on scripts that would aim to represent any fandom story. I think the scripts should also be subject to more time in research before they are considered. I hope that this in some way serves as honest feedback to how, what I would like to think, many fans in varying fandoms would hope to see come from future fandom movies.
Best Regards,
Audra Everlin
aceofhollywood
