The Sonic movie redesign
You might remember it as ugly Sonic
The archive has not found a surviving copy.
2019·The platform era·unexpected
The internet hated a character design so uniformly that a studio delayed a film and rebuilt him.
At a glanceThe facts
- Remembered as
- ugly Sonic
- Spread in
- 2019
- Began as
- A commercial release
- Where it started
- commercial-release
- Format
- Event
- Who or what it shows
- The title character of the film Sonic the Hedgehog
- Made by
- The redesign was led by Tyson Hesse
- Origin
- Not an upload originally
- Available
- Not held by ViralWorld
What this wasThe story
In April 2019 Paramount released the first trailer for a live-action Sonic the Hedgehog film. The character had been redesigned toward realism: small eyes set apart, visible fur, and human teeth. The reaction was instantaneous, universal and mostly about the teeth. Within days the director said the design would change.
It became the reference case cited every time an audience objects to a design, usually by people demanding the same outcome and rarely getting it. The original model survived as a joke: it appears, credited as Ugly Sonic, in a later Disney film about characters whose careers went wrong.
Why it matteredWhat changed
After the reaction to a trailer a studio redrew its main character and moved the film three months. The film then had the biggest opening weekend of any made from a video game.
TimelineIn order
- Posted
The first trailer is released online. Viewers object to how human Sonic looks.1
- Corrected
The director, Jeff Fowler, announces on Twitter that the character will be redesigned.1
- Posted
A second trailer with the new design is released, to a far better response.1
- Record
The film is released, three months later than planned.1
LegacyWhat it left behind
- The redesign took about five months and is estimated to have added five million dollars to the budget.1
Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later
This was released commercially before the internet carried it. Originally published on commercial-release.
Where it came fromWhat we know
There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. There is no copy of it here either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is what this page can tell you.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This was released commercially before the internet carried it. Originally published on commercial-release.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
SourcesWhat was read
Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things