Sonic the Hedgehog will hit theaters with a much more preferable Sonic design on Valentine’s Day, 2020. Produced by Paramount and directed by Jeff Fowler, Sonic the Hedgehog will follow a long lineage of video game movie adaptations. Whether or not the producers of this movie want it to be a part of that lineage is a different story as video game movies have been notoriously bad for as long as they have been around.
From Doom and Super Mario Bros. to Alone in the Dark, video game movies have always been regarded as less than substandard. This consistency is colloquially known as the video game movie curse.
As for whether or not Sonic the Hedgehog can break away from the curse’s tradition, its success or lack thereof is at least partially dependent on marketing and, more importantly, if the movie is actually good. Paramount successfully reacted to the negative public reaction to Sonic’s initial design, but it also shut down the animation studio responsible for that redesign after they finished work on ostensibly saving the movie’s look and reputation. One question many people are asking though is whether or not the redesign is enough.
A comparison between the original design and redesign of Sonic shows great potential. Sonic actually looks like a video game character in this movie, much like Pikachu in Detective Pikachu, as opposed to the Hollywood-ized look of the initial trailer. On the other hand, comparing both trailers still shows the exact story elements. The original Sonic the Hedgehog video game series never had any actual story to them so it can be understandable for Paramount to take as many liberties as it did, even though it seems Sonic’s original creator has his reservations. The important thing is whether or not these liberties pay off.
In the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie, Sonic befriends James Marsden who harbors the troublesome hedgehog from the hands of the military. The stereotypical military people commission Dr. Robotnik, played by Jim Carrey, to hunt down and capture Sonic. On the face of it, this could seem like a worthwhile action flick. It clearly borrows popular elements of today’s action movies like slow-motion explosions prominently featured in the Transformers movies. Similarly to the Transformers movies as well, Sonic the Hedgehog involves the big bad military. Again, Sonic's game stories have ranged from absolutely nothing to totally odd anime-style narratives so there is no real blueprint.
Basically, the video game movie curse has a tendency to haunt films that were put together without the proper amount of dedication put into adapting them. If Sonic the Hedgehog is just going to borrow every aspect of its story from elsewhere, then there is no point to the movie besides putting a recognizable character on a bigger screen. The main issue with Sonic the Hedgehog, including its newest trailer, is that Sonic and Dr. Robotnik can easily be replaced, but both characters show promising leads.
The video game movie curse may not be a concrete rule but it certainly has a history of followers. If Sonic the Hedgehog can outrun the problems that plague all those unfortunate films, then there could be a chance for something special.
There is indeed a long history of movie adaptations of video games; however, not all of them have no value or merit to them. There are a number of exceptions to the video game movie curse. Street Fighter was released in theaters in 1994 and is still a decent and enjoyable action flick. With what little narrative elements there are to the Street Fighter video game series, one can imagine that there are not a whole lot of expectations to develop a good story in a subsequent film adaptation.
The first important lesson to note is that most films, much like the video game industry, are made within the studio system and require a worthwhile return-on-investment profit margin in order to, not only be considered a success but also to be produced in the first place. Therefore, there were numerous examples of popular action movie elements of the time being implemented within the story of 1994’s Street Fighter. Simply put, M. Bison wishes to take over the world and Guile has to stop him; this is a very popular action trope, mainly because it is quickly captivating and it sells.
Another example of a film adaptation of a video game turning out fairly well was 1995’s Mortal Kombat. Based on the second most popular fighting game franchise of the time, this movie has redeemable qualities for similar reasons as Street Fighter. The movie could easily be mistaken for a story from one of the Mortal Kombat games, as the story modes in every one of those games have been consistently regarded as B-movie material in the best way possible for generations, including Mortal Kombat 11.
The most recent examples of video game movies that found success among critics are 2018’s Tomb Raider and 2019’s Detective Pikachu. Tomb Raider does what most video game movies fail to do and that is recapture the narrative of the source material, as the film is ostensibly a retelling of the 2013 video game of the same name. This method of adaptation could ultimately prove to be a successful way to bring games to the big screen but could only ultimately work with games that have a great story to begin with.
Detective Pikachu also does well to honor its source material. The Pokemon in the movie are animated with a strong dedication to their original drawn version, and the movie is also well-known for its charm, as a dedicated Pokemon movie should be.
The video game movie curse really refers to the fact that these movie adaptations have never produced a film that has won any major award or broken any particular box office record, though Detective Pikachu was a success with 431 million dollars in ticket sales. More specifically, the curse is associated with recent movies like 2016’s Assassin’s Creed and Warcraft which sit at 18% and 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively. It is only a matter of time to see where Sonic the Hedgehog ends up with the critics.
Sonic the Hedgehog is scheduled to release in theaters February 14, 2020.