Disney continues to fail at preserving its legacy. It all started with a mouse, but it may be ending with a rat as they continue to attempt to replace their animated history with Oscar-friendly live-action “demakes” of their beloved cartoons. Snow White and Lilo & Stitch‘s live-action teasers are out, and I don’t care. The actress playing Snow White won’t shut up and keeps making things worse, but for our purposes it’s the outright disgust at their own legacy that is hurting the brand alongside the activism.
Meanwhile, when SEGA brings the Sonic and company to live-action, they respect their legacy. They listened to fans, considered sacrilege in modern Hollywood culture, and you’d think other Paramount productions would get the hint. Their successes with this franchise and the fact that Marvel Studios went downhill when Disney took it over and threw out respecting comic lore while Star Trek continues to crash and like two different movie Enterprises would send the message: respect your legacy and those who are fans of that legacy.
I did my reviews of the first and second Sonic movies and very much enjoyed them. I even liked the sequel more, and bringing my favorite Sonic character (Tails, for those of you not reading my Archie Sonic comic reviews) is only one reason. That means I have great hopes…and great fears when it comes to the third film. A new trailer dropped this week, so let’s see how that affects my expectations.
Actually, not much. To be fair my opinion is high, so at least it didn’t lower my expectations. That’s a nice change in modern Hollywood. We get to hear more of Keanu Reeves as Shadow than the previous trailer gave us, but the only complaint there is they could have gone with an actual voice actor, maybe current VA Kirk Thornton or previous voice Jason Griffith. Using Tails’ actual voice actress did that character wonders. On the other hand, I want to hear the character, not the actor, much the same as in a physical portrayal. That gets harder when the actors and actresses want you to see them playing the role instead of the character they’re playing like they do these days. It’s why so many superheroes take off their masks now even in public. And Reeves’ few lines do sound good. So points there.
Not sure how I feel about Jim Carrey playing both generations of Eggman/Robotnik, though. Good as Carrey is, giving him someone to play off of besides his sycophant assistant would be nice, seeing he has to play against a character who won’t be there until later and another who will only be there in post production after the special effects people move in. They do come off as distinct at least. Curious why Robotnik super-glomps Santa, though.
The humor doesn’t appear to be interfering with the drama, unlike so many productions. Even the moment where Knuckles has Sonic facing the wrong way is organic to the scene. The previous movies were good at the balance, though the Knuckles solo series I can’t watch because I don’t have Paramount Plus seems to be more of a comedy. I’m hoping for something closer to the movies.
Overall my expectations are about the same, but since they’re on the high end that’s okay. Can’t wait until my lack of income puts this on the Finally Watched list.
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