In a recent interview, Jim Carrey weighed in on the controversy surrounding the design of the titular character in the upcoming live-action Sonic the Hedgehog film.
Paramount revealed the first trailer for the movie at the end of April and immediately the gaming community responded negatively to Sonic’s design. Many fans think the character looks less like the hedgehog from the games and more like a buff ten year old in a very realistic halloween costume.
Shortly after the reveal of the trailer, and as the opinions on the design grew louder, the director took to Twitter to announce a redesign of the character. Now, Jim Carrey, who plays Sonic’s reoccurring nemesis Dr. Robotnik in the film, has provided his own perspective on the issue.
As reported by The Wrap, Carrey addressed the redesign during a press tour for his upcoming series “Kidding.” The actor had this to say:
"I don’t know quite how I feel about the audience being in on the creation of it, while it’s happening. We’ll have to see what that entails. Sometimes you find that the collective consciousness decides it wants something and then when it gets it, it goes, ‘OK, I don’t want it.'"
From the quote, it sounds like Carrey believes fans should trust the filmmakers to do the right thing, and that filmmakers should not let fan opinions weigh so heavily on the production. He goes on to compare the process of making changes this late in the game to the cobbled together nature of Frankenstein’s monster.
Some folks agree that changing the character’s look this late in production might not be the best solution. When the director announced the redesign on Twitter, fans celebrated at first. But then, animators with experience integrating 3D characters into live-action projects began to weigh in. They expressed concern for the workload of the animators on the project. This convinced the studio to delay the film, but some still wonder if that will be enough.
Carrey’s concern seems unrelated to that, but either way, it probably wouldn’t have made a difference. With the level of negativity hurled at Paramount over the design, it didn’t have much of a choice. Even moviegoers with only a basic familiarity with the character can clearly see the issues with the design. And the overwhelming positivity heaped on Detective Pikachu in regards to its bringing beloved video game characters into the real world doesn’t help Sonic’s case.
In the end, despite his opinion, Carrey doesn’t seem to care all that much about the outcome of the Sonic film. The actor said the reshoots don’t involve him, and implied that once he’s done with a film, he doesn’t have much of a stake in its success.
"I don’t really concern myself with things once I did my thing. I’m not super concerned about it. It’s gonna happen how it happens. It’s either going to be a good thing or a bad thing."
Sonic the Hedgehog releases in theaters February 14, 2020.
Source: The Wrap