BW Media Spotlight

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.

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