Sonic-Thumbs-Up

This year is the 25th Anniversary of one of the most recognizable video game mascots of all time, Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog! In honor of that, it’s being reported that Sony is developing a new movie starring the fleet-footed blue rascal.  We first reported the plans for this movie in 2014, but things have been quiet since.  The movie is said to be a combination of live action and animation, so presumably it will look something like the ‘Alvin & The Chipmunks’ movies, but considering that the movie won’t be ready for release until 2018, that’s just a guess.  It may wind up being a lot more animated with some motion capture elements or it could feature live action human actors inserted into a CGI world.  Who knows?

Sonic the Hedgehog made his debut in a self-titled game on the Sega Genesis in 1991 and quickly established himself as the mascot of the entire consol in the same way Mario became synonymous with Nintendo.  But whereas the ‘Super Mario Brothers’ brand was able to be adapted to a variety of different types of games and evolved over many generations of consoles, Sonic faltered, as did Sega as a whole.  But at the height of Sonic’s popularity, the character was featured in over 30 games and starred in an animated series.  He has even already appeared in a hit movie, Disney/Pixar’s 2012 ‘Wreck-It Ralph‘.

Movies based on video games have a tendency to… well, suck.  More mature adaptations like the ‘Resident Evil’ franchise and the Angelina Jolie-starring ‘Tomb Raider’ movies have done well but other attempts based on ‘Super Mario Brothers’, ‘Mortal Kombat’, ‘Street Fighter’ and ‘Hitman’ and many, many others have all failed.  Even big name stars like Jake Gyllenhaal (‘Prince of Persia’), Mark Wahlberg (‘Max Payne’) and Aaron Paul (‘Need For Speed’) haven’t proven enticing enough to lure gamers away from their consoles.

This year sees the release of four video game-based movies– ‘Ratchet & Clank’ in April, ‘The Angry Birds Movie’ in May, ‘Warcraft’ in June and ‘Assassin’s Creed’ in December. Their performance could determine whether or not these types of movies can become a viable force at cinemas.

Are you a Sonic fan?  Do you think a movie will prove successful?