The announcement of a live-actionSonic the Hedgehogmovie left many fans (and even non-fans) sweating nervously. Live-action adaptations of animated works and videogames have an infamous reputation and many expressed dread over how Sega’s speedy mascot would look in a realistic setting. And after a tease via a movie poster a few months ago, we may have seen thefilm’s final designfor the Blue Blur thanks to a leak and it’s unsurprisingly left many fans less than thrilled. But what’s particularly shocking is that even Yuji Naka has expressed his displeasure with it.
Yuji Naka is the man who is usually attributed to being the creator ofSonic the Hedgehog, having been a programmer for the very first game in 1991 and had worked on the series until he departed Sega in 2006 to start up his own studio, Prope (though now he’s currently working at Square Enix). Following the images of the live-action Sonic being leaked, Naka posted his opinions of it on Twitter - his initial reaction being “Is this a Sonic movie?”
He later followed this up by writing “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?” These are admittedly translations according to Microsoft Translator but it does seem that, regardless of the exact wording, Naka is not impressed with the design; a sentiment shared by a large chunk of the fanbase, though there are some who admit to actually liking it and others admitted that it’s not as bad as they feared when theposter was released.
The reactions are a far cry compared to theDetective Pikachumovie, another film releasing this year that brings fantasy cartoon animals into a realistic setting. That movie (which now hastwo fancy trailerscompared to theSonicmovie’s zero trailers) has so far received otherwise magnanimous praise for its interpretation of the franchise it’s based off of and making the Pokemon designs both realistic and accurate to their original appearances.
TheSonic the Hedgehogmovie is currently slated to release on June 06, 2025.
