A reader worries about the upcoming Sonic The Hedgehog movie and suggests Hollywood looks to Japan for inspiration on adapting games.
With the news of the new Sonic movie everyones worried whether it will work, given Hollywoods track record of making our beloved games into movies. They never seem to get it quite right even though there have been loads from Super Mario Bros. to Silent Hill, Street Fighter, and more.
It seems no matter what they turn their hands to the movie is flop, for example Max Payne could have easily worked if just followed the game.
There have already been Sonic anime and manga and, yes, it was terrible. It started good but then went well weird and the voiceover didnt work very well. Which brings me to my next point. Japan as a whole really can do some amazing tie-ins to games if you see them as anime (stick with me on this). There are loads that have been done really well, for example:
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Animal Crossing
When They Cry
Steins;Gate
Gungrave
Sands Of Destruction
Clannad
Shuffle
OK, now a few people will be thinking, Hang on, Ive never heard of half of them but Gungrave was a PlayStation 2 title and did really well as an anime and there are loads of others. Which makes you think why can Japan do amazing work yet Hollywood gets it so wrong? But then again, the same thing happened with games based off movies, which were mostly really bad. So it begs the question: should games and movies stay totally away from each other?
Just for a laugh a team in the US made their own spoof trailer of Harvest Moon as a movie and you know what? It isnt that bad and shows if amateurs can do it maybe they can still save Sonic.
But the question is still whether videos games and movies should stay completely separate or does it require someone who plays video games to make a good movie about them?
We seem to have so many adaptations these days but whats funny is when we play games nowadays its like were watching a movie, with the cut scenes of games like Metal Gear, GTA V, and Red Dead Redemption.
Yet if we took their stories and put them in a movie would it work? Probably not, because youd just have a generic gangster movie or western, etc.
So back to my original point: will the Sonic movie work? Will it be funny and a bit slapstick like the old Channel 4 cartoon (remember that on Sunday morning?) Or will it take a much darker tone, where Robotnik has taken over the world and Sonic is a freedom fighter. Will characters die, like in Sonic Adventure 2?
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More to the point do the public want a Sonic movie? is it too little, too late? Sonic has had such a bad run these last few years. Someone said recently he was big in the 90s, yes he was – he was as big as Mario. Sonic is starting to make a small comeback with Sonic Mania and that did great. I believe Hollywood need to take a look at how Japan do their adaptations because a lot of them do work.
I myself, as I grow up with the original Sonic, will be interested to see were they take this. What I think would make a good story would be to start with Sonics origins and go for a much darker theme. Dont be afraid to hold back. Maybe I am wrong but only time will tell whether this will be a car crash or bring Sega back to the top.
By reader Chris
The readers feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. As always, email [email protected] and follow us on Twitter.
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