In news that seems VERY conveniently-timed to keep everyone talking about the upcoming Sonic movie’s design, it appears that someone connected to the studio’s PR department has woken up and is assuring that what we’ve seen this week – both in internal presentations and network promotional material – is not the final look of the cinematic-universe blue blur.
Our friends at Tails Channel managed to get a comment from someone connected to the inner workings of the studio responsible for the movie. Channeling either Captain Obvious or Captain Damage Control, the source said that, while the leaked images are genuine, they don’t represent the final design that we will see when the movie hits theatres in… what, only a few months’ time?
On the one hand, it’s kind of an obvious point that images used in internal presentations don’t always contain final designs for projects. There’s almost always a few tweaks here and there to be had before things go ‘gold’ – and if these documents weren’t meant to be seen by the public in the first place, it usually doesn’t matter how up-to-date the renders are. Not a lot of C-level business tend to care as much as we fans do, about that kind of thing.
On the other hand, this all does smell a little bit of someone who’s seen the reaction to the leaked design and tried to quell the backlash (although as our feature shows, a number of fans did actually like the look too). So, we leave it up to you, gentle reader, to interpret these comments as you wish. We include Tails Channel’s video below.
Honestly, at this point I’d be quite happy if we all just pumped the brakes on this thing and just wait for an official trailer to drop – this will probably happen at next week’s SXSW Sonic panel… but then again, it probably won’t. Who knows with this wacky rollercoaster ride?
I’m not really sure “damage control” makes much sense. Sonic’ll look how he’ll look. Telling us these aren’t final won’t change the end reaction when the official trailer finally rolls around.
I’m gonna say damage control, not because I don’t like the design, but because this is a common pattern with leaks that trigger such widespread… let’s be charitable and say ‘mixed feelings’.
(I don’t like the design, but that’s just me)
I agree with this. I’d even say that it may not be farfetched if something like the following took place:
PR person 1: This design is quite different from how the character has appeared so far, do you think it will “catch on”?
PR person 2: It’s hard to answer that… what if we showed them around a few unofficial places, and (i) if people like it we will say it was a leak or (ii) if people don’t like it we will say that it is not what it really looks like, while we work to amend it.
I wasn’t expecting _everyone_ would hate it but I wonder just how many fans were super hyped about a big time Sonic film only to be shown that it’s “not really Sonic!”
“It’s this new thing we’re calling Sonic for the sake of being unique and controversial, or I don’t know wtf”
Or maybe that is the final design BUT they leaked it to see how people would react to then tweak it by using fan ideas!!!?
Just a random thought lol