User:Cloudsie/sandbox/Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) first trailer

Why It Sucks

1. The main problem with this trailer is that it contains is the most infamous movie element of all time: Sonic's first design. The way he appears is is too humanoid and looks more like a knock-off of his original game counterpart, as he not only looks closer to a human child than a hedgehog with longer abdomen, but also a giant smurf in a poorly-made Sonic the Hedgehog costume, a miniature Grinch or even a giant Over the Hedge RJ raccoon painted blue. As a result, many fans posted their own fixes of the design, which later becomes an meme.
   • Speaking of which, he's not even wearing gloves, as he has the white hands on the fur, which makes them unfaithful of the source material.
2. Extremely poor grasp of the original source material, even worse compared to most other video game adaptations. For example, rather than being seen with tan arms as usual, Sonic is seen with blue arms, even if it's not the biggest deal in the world. Another example is Dr. Eggman's/Robotnik's costume that looks literally nothing like his original counterpart (until the end of the trailer, much less, the first of the two stingers of the final film as well as second movie), as he has hair, is thin, and his glasses and big moustache are missing.
3. Most of the jokes are weak at best and hit or miss at worst. One joke for example, the scene where Tom hid Sonic in a duffle bag, and some bystanders asked if he had his child in there, had its punchline omitted, making it seem like a bad joke at best.
4. Way too many nostalgia references, which is especially bad thanks to Sega's constant nostalgia pandering in the 2010s. Although thankfully, it shows that it isn't at least that unfaithful compared to most other video game adaptations (except the the original design of Sonic).
5. The song that was used in the trailer ("Gangsta's Paradise" performed by Coolio featuring L.V.) isn't really fitting for a franchise about speed and was criticized as inappropriate, as it is about gangsters reflecting on their wasted lives and how future generations are doomed to repeat the violence they committed, like crimes and perhaps the quite overused of swearing.
6. Showcased some of the blander cinematography of the film that were overused.
7. Two conflicting tones: trying to be taken seriously and edgy, and trying to be a joke lighter, but neither ends up being consistent. Because of this, it is rather way too playful, juvenile and unusual, especially since many movies in the trailers usually had their dark and light moments at all.
8. The CGI for Sonic didn't fit well in the slightest. In addition, some special effects felt its unfinished, such as Tom and Maddie falling through a portal ring. Its quite obvious that they had James Marsden and Tika Sumpter laying their backs on a green screen set on the floor, though the special effect would look much better in the finished film.
9. The trailer managed to spoil one of the film's two stingers at the end of the trailer, which is Robotnik being stranded on the Mushroom Planet and gaining his classic appearance.
10. Laughable quotes and tagline in the trailer, like "Every Hero Has A Genesis". Also, keep in mind, the Sega Genesis is named Sega Mega Drive outside of North America and Chile, so if they said "Every Hero Has A Mega Drive" instead in every other country, it would not work as well, as people would think it meant driving long distances.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Fortunately, after the criticism of Sonic's design, director Jeff Fowler announced that the movie would be delayed to Valentine's Day, 2020 to fix Sonic's character design to make it resemble his design in the games, indicating that he can actually handle criticism, unlike Balan Company or Mattel. The film became a success among fans and moviegoers, as well as the highest-grossing video game movie adaptation domestically, and one of the top 5 highest grossing videogame based movies of all time. It did so well in fact, that a sequel based off and named after the second game of the same name was released in April 2022, which retained the redesign, along with Tails and Knuckles, with similar designs that match the redesigned Sonic model.
2. Sonic got himself some good lines, like:
   • "Uuuhhh... meow?"
     • "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
   • "Look at this! I took 9 million steps today."
   • "Basically, it looks like I'm gonna have to save your planet."
3. The second trailer was a massive improvement, even fixing a lot of issues from the first trailer, including the infamous Sonic character design.
4. Because of these improvements, this film helped greatly in trying to break the infamous "video game movie curse".
5. Regardless of how unfitting it is, Gangsta's Paradise is a very catchy song and thanks to the trailer, it became popular again due to the memes it spawned, mostly because of the Chorus.
6. The acting is improved in movie.
7. This design for Sonic ended up appearing in Chip N Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) as Ugly Sonic, and he became his own character in the movie to the point where he is separated from the actual Sonic we know and love, and now he's became redeemed since he was made as a funny parody of the old design, plus he has an important role throughout the film which gave him a redemption.

Reception

The first trailer premiered on April 4, 2019 at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and was released online on April 30. The trailer received a mostly negative reception from critics, audiences and fans of the series, with Gita Jackson of Kotaku calling it "horrific" and "a blight upon this weary earth". Sonic's design was criticized, particularly for his humanoid appearance. However, many praised Carrey's moments in the trailer as Dr. Robotnik. The use of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" as background music was also criticized as inappropriate and doesn't really fitting in the franchise. Conversely, CNET's Sean Keane praised the humor and references to the games. Within a day of the trailer's release, it had been viewed over 15 million times on YouTube. Just moments before the second trailer was released with a redesigned Sonic, Paramount Pictures made the original trailer private. The video shown in the infobox for this article is an upload by a different channel.

Despite the trailer's negative reception, many people have created numerous internet memes based on the trailer, including the Uh...Meow?" quote as well as Sonic's design from the trailer.

In fact, not long after, the Cats (2019) trailer released, which received even more negative reception for having equally uncanny character designs. In fact, they looked so bad that viewers started making comparisons between the Cats character designs and the now-scrapped Sonic design.