First Litwak’s Arcade, now The Oasis?
It won’t be long before Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, based on Ernest Cline’s 2011 novel of the same name, premieres in theatres. In a dystopian near-future ruined by the evils of pollution, political corruption, and climate change, a despondent mankind turns to a worldwide network of virtual reality for work, education, and entertainment.
The fantasy online world features a number of pop culture cameos so extremely high it would make more modest product placement advertisers blush, featuring the likes of Tracer from Overwatch with her signature salute to the towering figure of The Iron Giant‘s titular character. Additionally, it looks like SEGA has gotten our favourite Blue Blur in on the action as well, as Sonic the Hedgehog himself has been spotted by eagle-eyed fans in a leaked commercial for Ready Player One.
According to user Jack_Frak on the RPO subreddit, there is also an alleged unreleased TV spot that features a long shot of Sonic zipping across the battlefield, rolling up in his signature ball form and Boosting with that familiar blue glow from the games. On top of poor resolution issues, Warner Bros. Pictures has expectedly taken it down.
As for the video above at least, you can spot Sonic in the thumbnail on the right-hand side. Fittingly enough, his cameo in this scene is very much “blink and you’ll miss it,” but you can see it for yourself below in this still in case the above trailer gets pulled:
Ready Player One hits theatres on March 29, 2018. A Sonic the Hedgehog movie is also currently in production with an expected theatrical release in November 2019.
Sidenote, I find it hilarious how they kept his canon 3ft height intact for this movie. So short.
Source: Reddit
Update: New leaked footage has emerged which shows Sonic performing a spin attack followed by a homing attack during the films climax has been uploaded to the following google drive location.
Sonic appears at around 23 seconds and can be seen zooming along the centre of the shot, he then launches up into the air and performs his signature homing attack move.
Well then, which one of y’all are using Sonic as their VR avatar in the future? It’s gotta be one of you…
Dibs
Sonic in a Spielberg film….. who’d have thought huh?
Awesome!
Sonic is a midget
Yeah, in VRChat you run across two types of Sonic-style avatars: appropriately sized or giant monsters. Either way things are weird for somebody. The monsters are weird for everybody else, but the appropriately sized ones just don’t really work as a player since you’re too small for most interactions.
I’d imagine him being a little taller, as Sonic seems to be slightly taller than Mario. Yes, Mario’s still a small Italian midget, but I don’t think he’s as short as Sonic’s portrayed here.
Still have no idea how that VR gear makes any sense. Would you, y’know, stumble across a wall or something while you’re pretending to be Duke Nukem?
Interestingly enough, Sonic along with most of the humanoid animal characters in the series are actually 3ft”3in or 1m tall. Of the characters I recognise, he’s closest to Tracer in this shot who’s about 5ft”4in or 1.62m average according to the official Overwatch reference document. With that in mind this makes more sense, though I generally agree he seems short in comparison to everyone else. Even though Sonic’s height as of 1998 has been pretty consistent, his model changes and position relative to the camera are usually why people think he would be bigger.
E.g Sonic’s quite distant from the camera in the Adventure titles for platforming purposes, although he appears bigger when starting a stage or from a checkpoint at a standstill. On the contrary, in 3D boost titles he’s more rounded out and is closer to the camera in general. The best example would have to be Sonic 06 when watching cutscenes or in hubworlds. Elise has a pretty thin frame in general but Sonic and friends have a pretty alien anatomy to them. Large heads and simplified animal like facial features, along with big hands and feet despite what their limbs would suggest. Hence when carrying Elise or when she’s kneeling down, Sonic and the others look huge in comparison.
Yeah, Sonic has always been slightly taller than Mario, as seen in their Olympic game trailers right before the game starts.
VRChat The Movie: Journey to the Oasis
I predicted Sonic the Hedgehog will have the SMALLEST role in this movie. ?
Wow, I’m in a movie? Amazing