Sonic the Hedgehog’s getting his own feature film! Yay?

Good day to you ladies and gents, its time to talk film news and in the midst of all my E3 hype, I saw this little news story that dropped online on my phone that man, Sonic the Hedgehog, was going to be adapted to the big screen in a feature film.

Now I was confused and thought it was a joke, but then saw it was official when the story came from superherohype, one of my most trusted sources of news. And I thought to myself, “Okay. It’s a Sonic film, probably gonna be CGI. I’m not overly fond of the idea, but I’m down.” But then I read the official article… And my heart just sank.

Check it out below:

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marza Animation Planet, a CG animation film production company of the SEGA SAMMY Group, today announced a partnership to develop a film based on the acclaimed Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. A hybrid CG-animated/live-action feature, the movie will be written by Evan Susser and Van Robichaux and produced by Neal H. Moritz through his Original Film banner, along with Marza’s Takeshi Ito and Mie Onishi. Toby Ascher will serve as an executive producer.

The film will look to capture Sonic’s irreverent tone and spirit, reuniting him with some of the most revered and infamous characters of the franchise, including the evil Dr. Eggman. Playful, mischievous, and quick on his feet in more ways than one, the world’s fastest hedgehog is known for his ability to move at supersonic speed to protect his friends from their enemies. For more than two decades, Sonic has been one of the world’s biggest gaming icons and a $1 billion franchise with more than 140 million games sold.

Commenting on the announcement, Hannah Minghella, Columbia Pictures’ president of Production said, “There are limitless stories to tell with a character like Sonic the Hedgehog, and a built-in international fan base. Along with our wonderful creative partners at Marza, we’re looking to capture everything that generations of fans know and love about Sonic while also growing his audience wider than ever before.”

Marza Animation Planet CEO Masanao Maeda added, “Sonic has had dozens of adventures on the console and the small screen, and we’re thrilled that he’s now coming to the big screen. Sony Pictures has had great success with hybrid animated and live-action features, and we’re confident that this collaboration will bring a fresh take to Sonic, while still capturing everything that the fans love about him.”

Marza is a leading CG animation production company with the vision to create films to the global market from Japan, by combining global storytelling and Japanese creativity. It plans to release one feature-length film each year.

Hannah Minghella and Andrea Giannetti will oversee for Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Why in the holy mother of hell would you want to do a CGI/live-action hybrid for a character as iconic as Sonic the frigging Hedgehog? Sony’s track record with animated films is sketchy at best, while Hotel Transylvania was alright and I’ve heard decent things about the Cloud With A Chance of Meatballs films, Sony are also the people behind The Surfs films… Let that sink in for a second. I don’t know about you, but when I think of the adaptation of cartoon characters in a CGI/live-action form, they normally have to interact with humans and I see The Smurfs, Garfield and Alvin and the Chipmunks… And look how great those films turned out to be, woo. I do not want my Sonic to fall into that trap too!

But what’s even worse is that Sonic’s been in this kind of jam before with a little series known as Sonic X. while it was just an anime, this show attempted to put Sonic characters in a real world setting and make them interact with humans and it was one of the most boring, painful and horrible things I had ever watched. If humans become a big part of this film and they suck too, my poor Sonic’s reputation will be ruined forever.

I don’t want to relive this is live-action, NOT AGAIN! Don’t make it like this Sony, don’t you dare.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am one of the biggest fans of Sonic EVER! I’ve been playing the games since the 90’s, he’s the reason I draw, I know the source material backwards and forwards, this is my world of understanding. So to see that Sega would even give the rights to Sony and let them do something so potentially dangerous to one of my favourite properties just scares the living daylights out of me and angers me to no end…

Now, that being said, maybe Sony know something I don’t, maybe they will make a good film and make me eat my words in a hardy sandwich. But considering CGI/live-action films in the past and Sonic’s past interactions with humans, I can only fear for the worst.

OKAY MINI RANT OVER.

So what do you think of this news? Are you jumping for joy at the chance to see Sonic on the big screen or are you worried as hell like I am? Be sure to leave your comments below.