Ben Schwartz Reflects on “Ugly Sonic” Start to Franchise: “A Film That Really Listens to Fans”
With the upcoming release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Ben Schwartz — who voices the titular character — is looking back on the early days of “Ugly Sonic.”
When the trailer for the franchise’s first film debuted in 2019, fan reaction was immediately negative, criticizing Sonic’s look and in particular, his human-like teeth. The reaction was so intense that the filmmaking team vowed to redesign the character and delay the movie’s release date for three months.
“Maybe sometimes you need a little push to really look in the mirror and to hear the fans, to then really figure out if you want to adjust. And we did,” Schwartz told The Hollywood Reporter at Sonic 3‘s Los Angeles premiere on Monday. “How often can you think of a film that really listens to fans and the studio takes money and time to change it because they think it would better the film? I think it’s rarely ever happened before, if ever.”
Director Jeff Fowler, who has been behind all three films in the franchise, added, “It was out of the ashes of ‘Ugly Sonic’ that this beautiful trilogy of films, this phoenix, had to rise. It was a necessary sacrifice but yes, thank you ‘Ugly Sonic’ for the memories.” To promote the new movie, Paramount Pictures is even bringing the character back in some form, running a giveaway for an ugly Christmas sweater featuring “Ugly Sonic.”
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 sees Sonic, Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba) and Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) reunite against a powerful new adversary, Shadow (Keanu Reeves) — a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they have faced before. Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Adam Pally and Natasha Rothwell also round out the star-studded cast, as Marsden said of new addition Reeves, “He’s the best. He’s so perfect for this character because he does that sort of brooding, mysterious thing so well, but it can’t totally cover up the warmth and goodness in his heart, so perfect for the character.”
Schwartz joked that after adding new A-listers for every movie, he has his eyes set on Daniel Day-Lewis for the fourth film: “If we don’t get DDL in 4, I don’t know what I’m doing with myself.”
Fowler also weighed in on the future of the beloved video game character, noting, “Sonic’s been around for 30 years, there’s so many great characters to pull into this movie world. The ones that we choose, it’s always because we feel like there’s a really great story and it might take our movie universe in exciting and interesting new directions. I think the possibilities are endless and right now, I’m just going to enjoy movie three tonight and then we’ll wake up and maybe see where to go from here.”
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hits theaters on Friday.
Ash Crossan contributed to this report.
Source: Hollywoodreporter
