‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ Trailer: He’s Furry, Muscular, and Ready to Take Down Jim Carrey
Who’s ready for some super-speed mayhem? Paramount Pictures has debuted the first official trailer for its upcoming family tentpole “Sonic the Hedgehog,” based on the widely popular Sega video game franchise of the same name. Similar to “Detective Pikachu,” this fall’s “Sonic” movie adaptation will put an animated blue hedgehog into real world settings and opposite human characters.
“Sonic the Hedgehog” stars James Marsden as a newly appointed town sheriff who travels to San Francisco and gets mixed up in Sonic’s mission to defeat the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik. In the film, Sonic is voiced by “Parks and Recreation” favorite Ben Schwartz and is depicted as a juvenile delinquent who is not only trying to thwart Robotnik’s plan but is also trying to evade capture by the U.S. government. Jim Carrey stars as the film’s cartoonish villain. Additional supporting roles are played by Tika Sumpter and Adam Pally.
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“Sonic” marks the feature directorial debut of Jeff Fowler, who worked as an animation researcher and developer on Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are.” Paramount has been trying to get the film past initial backlash over Sonic’s appearance, which slightly alters the character’s look from his video game roots and gives him clearly defined fur. Footage from the movie shown at CinemaCon divided journalists in attendance, with some saying Sonic looks “less creepy” than one might think and others calling his look “off-putting.”
For Paramount, “Sonic” marks a big fall title that will hopefully appeal to families through the Thanksgiving holiday. The studio is also launching high profile titles “Gemini Man,” “Terminator: Dark Fate,” and “The Rhythm Section” during the fall movie season. At least one big selling point for Sonic is the return of Carrey, whose last studio effort was Universal’s “Dumb and Dumber To” back in 2014. Since then, Carrey has popped up in indies such as “The Bad Batch” and “Dark Crimes” and has led the Showtime comedy series “Kidding,” which has put the actor in the middle of this year’s Emmy race.
Paramount will open “Sonic the Hedgehog” in theaters nationwide November 8. Watch the first trailer in the video below.
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