'Sonic the Hedgehog' Had Just Probably Pulled Off a Brilliant Marketing Stratagem

When the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog dropped earlier this year, it was heavily panned.  The film it was marketing was clearly problematic.  But its most unforgivable offense was its character design for the eponymous blue speedster.  It was an unparalleled CGI abomination, rightfully earning the universal loathing and ridicule of everyone.

Responding to the backlash, the director of the movie announced via Twitter:

“Thank you for the support. And the criticism. The message is loud and clear... you aren't happy with the design & you want changes. It's going to happen. Everyone at Paramount & Sega are fully committed to making this character the BEST he can be... #sonicmovie #gottafixfast”

That was a couple of months ago, and last week, a new Sonic the Hedgehog trailer got released.  And this time, it featured the redesigned Sonic, which is now closer to his original, iconic look.  Not only that, but the trailer is better cut overall.  It made Sonic the Hedgehog actually feel like a fun movie to watch.  As a result, the general response was very positive.

It’s rare for filmmakers and studios to actually listen to fans and go out of their way to fix their messes.  Thus, it has been a nice feel-good story.

Or is it?

Here’s a cynical, alternative thought worth considering: what if we had been played?  What if it was all a sham?  What if it was a marketing ploy all along?

I imagine a conversation between two studio executives going like this:

“Hey.”

“Yo.”

“Have you seen the cut so far for our Sonic the Hedgehog movie?”

“Yep.”

“What do you think of it?”

(Shrug) “It looks unremarkable at best.”

“I know right?  Reminded me of that live-action Woody Woodpecker movie that nobody asked for.”

“Sounds about right.  Nobody asked for a live-action Sonic movie, too.  We’re uncreative hacks, you know.  We’re only concerned with making money above all else.  Anyway, don’t worry about it.  Even if this Sonic the Hedgehog happens to suck, those dumb kids and nostalgia-obsessed nerds would still buy tickets to see it.”

“I hope you’re right.  But fatigue for unoriginal CGI cash-grabs is becoming a thing, you know.  Moreover, Detective Pikachu – a video game film adaptation with a cute CGI critter serving as main character, just like Sonic the Hedgehog – will be released first, and Sonic the Hedgehog will surely pale in comparison to it.”

“Hmmm. You know what?  I have an idea for Jedi-mind-tricking these suckers into liking our Sonic movie more than they probably should.”

“Really?  How?”

“For our first trailer, let’s make it intentionally terrible.  We will not show how Sonic actually looks in the finished product.  Rather, for this trailer, we’ll have the CG team make a badly rendered Sonic to be featured in it instead.  The character design must look so stupid, obnoxious, and utterly unlike the original design.  We’d want everyone to believe that this would be Sonic’s appearance in the movie, and we’d want everyone to hate it passionately.”

“Oh, why would we want to do that?”

“Rule of contrast!  A moderate event experienced after an extreme event will yield a dramatically different reaction than experiencing the same moderate event on its own.  By presenting a terrible trailer first, the second trailer – and the movie, for that matter – will come off as great in comparison.”

“That’s brilliant!”

“Moreover, we’ll trick these losers into thinking that, because they have complained so much of how Sonic looks, we are compelled to ‘fix’ the character.  Of course, we won’t really do such a thing since, in the first place, the movie has had a faithful-to-the-original-design Sonic all along.  But, to them, it would appear that we are thoughtful and receptive to fans’ feedback.  That would allow us to somewhat make them sympathetic for this movie.  Then, when we finally release the trailer with a ‘redesigned’ Sonic, they would respond to it more favorably than if we had presented the character accurately from the get-go.”

“That’s 4D chess of marketing right there!  The hype for it will be off the charts.  Plus, the ‘redesigning’ would also give us an excuse to push back its release to a later date, further giving it more distance away from Detective Pikachu.  Genius!”

“Yep.  (Looks at his watch) Hey, come on.  We’re gonna be late for our meeting with other Hollywood execs.  We need to discuss what next IP we can profit from and ruin somebody’s childhood with.”