Jim Carrey on Sonic the Hedgehog redesign after criticism: 'We’ll see if it’s a good thing or a bad thing'

Sydney Bucksbaum

Jim Carrey isn’t too worried about Sonic the Hedgehog being delayed due to criticisms of the CGI character leading to a complete redesign.

While speaking at the 2019 Television Critics Assosiation summer press tour Friday during a panel for Showtime’s Kidding, the actor addressed the controversy surrounding the video game adaptation film being pushed three months after the backlash about Sonic’s human teeth and overly large muscles in the first trailer shocked and upset fans.

“It’s an interesting thing. You just become their Frankenstein monster at some point, right?” Carrey said when asked about the decision to go back and redesign the main character. “But I don’t know. I don’t know quite how I feel about the audience being in on the creation of it while it’s happening. So we’ll have to see what that entails, because sometimes you find that the collective consciousness decides it wants something, and then when it gets it, it goes, ‘Okay. I just wanted it. I didn’t care about it. I just jumped on the bandwagon,’ or whatever. But I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Carrey then continued with, “I don’t really concern myself with things once I did my thing. I’m not super concerned about it. It’s going to happen how it happens. It’s either going to be a good thing or a bad thing.”

The actor and comedian then explained how “ownership of anything is going out the window for all of us.”

“All I know is, just like everything else in our world, we’re feeling out of control of the process,” Carrey said. “We do what we can do, and then technology is going to have its way, and people’s opinions are going to have their way. And who knows what that’s going to turn into? I believe in auteurs, and I believe in creatives. I believe in having them do it. As far as something like a Sonic character, that’s something people have a sense of ownership from their childhood. So, of course, they’re going to get involved if they can. We’ll see if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

Paramount’s live-action adaptation of the iconic video game character was originally scheduled for release on Nov. 8, but after the trailer prompted swift backlash, the studio pushed the release date back to Feb. 14, 2020.

“Taking a little more time to make Sonic just right,” director Jeff Fowler announced in a tweet alongside an illustration of Sonic’s hand holding up a sign with the new release date. Paramount subsequently officially confirmed the change.

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