Sonic The Hedgehog Movie 3 Trailer Drops

A couple of days ago the new trailer for the third installment in the Sonic movieverse (four if you count the Apple TV+ exclusive Knuckles) hit the internet. This has been an interesting franchise not only because the first and second movies (links to go my “Finally Watched” reviews of each film) were so good, a rarity for a video game adaptation as it remembered how to adapt a video game properly AND tell a good story, but that they really wanted to give the fans the best experience possible. After the backlash against the original Sonic character model they went back and fixed it, where most studios would just find a way to call the fans garbage for wanting a proper representation of characters they knew, loved, and perhaps even grew up with.

While I still wouldn’t have minded if they went animated and stayed on their home planet, this could almost prove me wrong and suggesting live-action can work more often than I thought, when the right care is put into it. It pleased the fans AND casual audiences, meaning more people wanted to see it and more positive word of mouth, which in the era of social media is worth more than regular advertising once the movie finally makes it to the theater, was spread. You don’t have to be a fan to enjoy the movie, but fans are rewarded with seeing their beloved characters in a new media format done right.

So when a new trailer drops for a third movie, it already has a good start, but also more burden. As every other adaptation out there seems to just be using someone else’s brand to make their movie instead of a movie about the characters of that brand and why the brand matters to audiences, thus far the Sonic movies have shown giving fans what they want can still lead to a good movie. Will the third movie continue that trend, given how marketing, celebrities, access media, and producers/directors has messed this up in the past? Does this movie actually make fans excited for the next adaptation? Let’s see.

The article that pointed out to me this trailer was out tried to talk about this as an adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2. While I haven’t played the game, I’ve seen Shadow’s story adapted into the Archie comics and the Sonic X cartoon. Like those, I’m willing to bet they simply took elements of that story and used it to make this story, hopefully in ways that respects rather than attempts to replace the game’s story. (The video games are the source material. Any unnecessary deviation is the writer or director’s fault, while some deviation is needed between media translation.) For example, Eggman/Robotnik’s dad is behind Shadow in the movie I hear. A quick double-check tells me that Gerald Robotnik is Eggman’s grandfather as well as Maria, meaning Ivo and Maria are either siblings or cousins depending on how big the family is. Sonic X also had Shadow being created on Earth rather than Sonic’s home planet/dimension, making the family ties different as Eggman is from Sonic’s world in the games while this Robotnik is an Earthling. Like with Tails and Knuckles, things were changed for the sake of the movie timeline, like Knuckles now being part of a tribe that killed Sonic’s mentor for his power and the dimension-hopping rings.

That same article also mentioned that two of the popular girls from the game, Amy Rose and Rouge The Bat, are absent since they weren’t introduced in the movies yet. One of the failings of some of the comic book movies like Spider-Man and Batman is that they dropped too many villains and characters in at once because the parent company wanted to promote a character in the comics or sell more merchandise based on those characters. While I wouldn’t mind seeing Amy Rose join the cast if they tone down her Sonic obsession a bit and I can take or leave Rouge, plus characters like Cream the rabbit, you don’t want to drop in a character just to have them there. There has to be a story around it, and even though “Team Sonic” is on good terms with GUN in the movies going into this one, having a flood of anthro aliens flood in at once would cause GUN some concerns. Even Sonic X was careful to slowly add the full game cast at the time to the series. Probably no chance for Princess Sally and the other SatAM characters to show up, but I wouldn’t mind an easter egg or two for them.

As for the story, I’m curious what alterations will take place from Shadow’s regular origin, Apparently Maria still plays a part, so depending on her fate Sonic’s young friend Jojo could be the one to reach Shadow…even if that means putting up with her mom again. The only consistent thorn in my side when it came to both movies. maybe they can either keep her out by having Jojo visiting Sonic on vacation while mom and stepdad go on a belated honeymoon or actually fix the parts I didn’t like about her. The humor isn’t the cringy “quirky” nonsense, though given Carrey’s performance as both Robotniks that could change. When there is humor it seems to fit into the story, like Knuckles line about wanting to fight Shadow. It’s in keeping with his character as the last survivor of a warrior tribe. The acting is still good by the voice actors and the humans, and what we see of Tom still showed that the lungs heart of the first two movies, and the movies’ theme of a found family, has a good chance of being remembered while still being a good introduction to new franchise characters not seen in the previous film.

It’s nice to have a trailer that does make me excited for a new entry in a movie or TV series, something I just haven’t had in this flood of reimagines, poor adaptations, and changes for the sake of anything other than the story. I really want to see this movie, and hopefully it lives up to the first two films. Also wouldn’t mind seeing the Knuckles series to see how that holds up, but I’m not spending money on Apple+ just for that and the Peanuts cartoons. I just really hope it’s as good as it looks.