Sonic Creator Weighs In On Leaked Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Images

Yesterday leaked images emerged for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog live-action movie and to say [...]

By Liana 'LiLi' Ruppert

Yesterday leaked images emerged for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog live-action movie and to say fans of the long-standing franchise were less than thrilled would be a massive understatement. To make matters even worse, it looks like the original creator of Sonic, Yuji Naka, is also weighing in and his thoughts echo that of many: It's bad.

Loosely translated thanks to Twitter's translation feature, his tweet reads "I feel that it is important to look at the whole body visual of Sonic and head body and stomach. Did you not get a little more balance?"

A little more in-depth translation reveals it's a bit more than that, instead talking about the roundness of his stomach and him mentioning that the design as a whole is incredibly unbalanced. When a full body shot emerged, that concern became even more focused:

Understandably, the overall fan reaction has been harsh though we did learn a bit more about the movie alongside the images. According to a small blurb that has since been taken down:

"You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in the world who isn't familiar with SEGA's beloved IP, Sonic the Hedgehog," writes Hamagami/Carroll. "But global reverence does come with a unique price. In creating a licensing and packaging program to be used worldwide and to be applied against targeting multiple audience demographics, it was necessary to strike a balance between staying true to the Sonic brand, while appealing to a global audience, and differentiating from previous Sonic merchandise packaging.

"The challenge of creating a global licensing and packaging program targeted to multiple demographics came with several strategic requirements: 1) signal a new modern take on the brand without abandoning its core essence, 2) appeal to a worldwide audience and 3) clearly differentiate from previous merchandising efforts.

"Our approach was to create a system that was versatile and modular, so that various Sonic IPs including Classic Sonic, Modern Sonic, Film Sonic, Animation Sonic, and other events could be integrated seamlessly within the baseline packaging look."

The movie itself, and the full-on design of the iconic character, will be crashing theaters on November 8th.

Thoughts on how his design turned out? Do you agree with the masses or just don't understand the upset? Sound off in the comment section below, or hit me up over on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy!

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