‘Just Give Him Gloves!’ The Sonic Community Reacts to the Sonic Movie Design

So, if you hadn’t noticed already, the design for the blue blur in the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie has been leaked. Take a moment to look at it, absorb its detail. And then, let us know what you think… because the rest of the community sure did, on social media, and as you’d expect reactions have been… slightly… mixed?

Just for reference, this is the key image of Sonic, likely the final version that we’ll all see when the movie hits cinemas later this year. You can check out TSS’ Breaking News story linked above to see the rest of the images. So with that in mind, let’s start off with the most concise reaction; mine:

Link: @SvendJoscelyne

I think that kind of captures a broad range of emotions there. Sonic co-creator and former Sonic Team head Yuji Naka was also conflicted, but was perhaps a little more honest. Via Twitter user SonicJPNews:

Links: nakayuji / SonicJPNews

Links: @nakayuji / @SonicJPNews

Japanese Sonic voice actor Junichi Kanemaru also weighed in, with a bit of a monologue written across several tweets in response to Naka-san’s reaction. He seemed a bit confused at first, but has since come around and is overall quite positive about the design.

Wow…… It’s as if a masterpiece by a great artist was renovated only by guessing… Well, this different version might be challenging but rewarding in its own way. We still don’t know anything about it. 

Elsewhere in the community, the range of emotions were projected in a much more… extravagant manner. It’s fair to say that most of those that saw the design weren’t exactly jazzed about it.

Link: @TheCortenator

Link: @SonicFanDU

Link: @JimJam707

Link: @DaveLuty

Link: @Mlickles

Link: @GigiDutreix

Comparisons were made…

Link: @LegendCartBoy

Link: @SC126HD

Link: @MegaDriveBrad

Link: @_Nooonie

Some even took to riffing on the leaked style guide; this user edited the slide that noted Sonic’s character as being ‘Chill & Likable [sic]’ and took things to a whole different dimension:

Link: @MistysMisties

The worrying thing is, other Twitter users didn’t get the gag and actually started to believe that the document really said ‘Chill & Lickable’. Surely the poor movie producers don’t deserve that kind of carry-on. We kind of feel sorry for them at this point.

But, amidst all the hollering and recoiling, there were a bunch of fans who were much more positive about the whole thing. Some really liked the design, particularly in the context of a live-action character mingling with real-world actors. Others wanted to reserve judgement until they see the film in motion to see whether the design language fits the world the movie studio has built around the hero.

Link: @Boostifer

Link: @Mardiculous

Link: @AsteriskOff

Some in the community even took to creating some cute fan art of the movie-canon Sonic, and we’ve even been blessed with crossover comic memes too.

Link: @BrandonMeza137

Link: @Jamo_ART

Link: @bebtacular

Link: @Boostifer

Link: @linesonwhite

Perhaps the smartest reaction to all of this, however, is from one fan who knows that the only true way to deal with this is to just sit back and enjoy the ride – because this train’s not stopping anytime soon.

Link: @KidderDudder