History Trivia / SonicTheHedgehog2020

* OrphanedReference: The movie starts InMediasRes with Sonic attempting to outrun Dr. Robotnik and his Eggpod, the scene freezes and after some narration from the title character, the film rewinds to the beginning of the film's story. During the rewind, there's a brief blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of Tom Wachowski's truck driving past an "Oregon Welcomes You" sign, except there's no point in the movie where Tom or Sonic ever visit Oregon, suggesting it's a remnant of a DeletedScene.

** In the Latin American Spanish dub, Creator/MarioCastaneda voices Robotnik, as he usually does with Creator/JimCarrey roles. His daughter, Carla, played Maddie.

* DVDCommentary: With director Jeff Fowler and Sonic voice actor Ben Schwartz.

** According to one CG artist, Sonic's first, more "realistic" design was an active decision by Paramount executives, with them hoping to imitate the aesthetics of the live-action ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' and ''Film/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2014}}'' films. They openly knew that fans would hate it, but they believed that it would be liked and accepted by the general public, similarly to how the aforementioned franchises had been received. However, the massive, almost universal backlash that followed the first trailer led them to immediately delay the film to allow Sonic to be redesigned to look more like his cartoony game design. The original vision and concept art for the movie shows that the director and team's vision was for a more traditional Sonic. The artist even quoted a tweet with the trailer of the redesign saying "yeah, pretty much what we wanted to do in the first place".

* The film got delayed after the backlash of Sonic's initial design, making it the third time Paramount has had to completely redesign a character in the middle of movie production due to negative reception. The first was Megatron from ''[[Film/{{Transformers}} Transformers (2007)]]'' after fans complained he looked [[https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Movie_Megatron_olduglyface.jpg nothing]] like the original design. About a decade later, the movie ''Film/MonsterTrucks'' had to be postponed for a full year due to Creech's original design being so [[https://www.lostmediawiki.com/Monster_Trucks_(unreleased_original_cut_of_children%27s_film;_2017) visually frightening]] that it terrified children in the test audience.

** The mid-credits scene in which [[spoiler:Tails appears]] was apparently a last-minute addition to the film, [[spoiler:made ''after'' the decision to redesign Sonic. So, there never actually was another design for Tails to match the original design for Sonic.]] This may have also been a factor in [[spoiler:[[RoleReprise bringing back]] Creator/ColleenOShaughnessey from the video games to voice Tails, rather than spending time looking for someone new.]]

* WordOfSaintPaul: According to Tyson Hesse, the echidna that shot Longclaw is [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure Pachacamac]]. He's also [[https://twitter.com/tyson_hesse/status/1229597005833330688?s=20 confirmed]] that the original Japanese game lore for the 16-bit games was studied by the film's crew members, and that Longclaw's design is indeed based on the bird tiles seen in the original Labyrinth Zone.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: Film composer [[Music/JunkieXL Tom "Junkie XL" Holkenborg]] [[http://www.tssznews.com/2020/01/17/junkie-xl-speaks-about-sonic-movie-score/ wanted to use Green Hill's theme as a reoccurring leitmotif throughout the film]], however, due to legal issues arising from the rights to ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1'''s soundtrack being owned by the game's composer, Masato Nakamura, this was ultimately dropped, though the theme can still be heard in snippets sprinkled throughout the film.

** Ryan Drummond, Sonic's voice actor from the Dreamcast days, [[https://twitter.com/RYANtheDRUMMOND/status/1236007487477866497 also voiced his praise of the movie and Ben Schwartz' performance.]]

* PermanentPlaceholder: [[https://www.amctheatres.com/amc-scene/a-speedy-guide-to-sonic-the-hedgehog According to this article]], Schwartz actually voiced Sonic for Creator/BlurStudio’s first animated tests, and the filmmakers liked his work so much they hired him for the full movie.

* ProductionThrowback: Even though Robotnik's allusion to ''Literature/CharlottesWeb'' seems strange, there is the fact that [[WesternAnimation/CharlottesWeb two]] [[Film/CharlottesWeb films]] were released by Paramount, who also released this film. Also, Sega perviously published a video game adaptation of the 2006 live action version for Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and PC.

* ThrowItIn: Given that the film includes ''Creator/JimCarrey'' it's not surprising a few of these made it into the movie.
** The song Robotnik dances to ("Where Evil Grows" by the Poppies) while experimenting on Sonic's quill was suggested by Jim Carrey, who listened to it a lot when he was growing up in the 1970s.
** From the same scene, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrhWFlnq8UA Jim Carrey has stated]] that he didn't ad-lib the line "Of course I want a latte, I LOVE THE WAY YOU MAKE THEM!" on his own. It was suggested by his assistant, Nicole, and they just ran with it.

** Most of the scenes between Robotnik and Agent Stone were ad-libbed by Jim Carrey and Lee Majdoub simply playing off each other, including Robotnik shoving his fingers into Stone's mouth, and when he punches him after leaving the Piston Pit saloon. The latter was done in ''one take.''
** The line “They don’t need time off to get DRUNK and put the boat on water” was Jim Carrey’s idea.

** The film's producer and Sony executive Neal Moritz didn't get along with new studio head Tom Rothman, who didn't see ''Sonic'' as a top priority as he wanted to focus on rebooting older Sony franchises as well continue to milk the ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' movie license for all its worth. Rothman sat on the film for more than a year before deciding to let Moritz start working on the film in late 2016. Tim Miller, who had just bailed from ''Film/Deadpool2'', was hired by Moritz as executive producer, bringing frequent ''Sonic'' collaborator Blur Studio into the movie. After a script rewrite to make the film more family-friendly, things seemed to be moving forward until the failure of ''Film/Passengers2016'' and the loss of financing partner Lone Star Funds resulted in Sony canceling the movie via turnaround before a release date could be announced. Moritz got tired of Rothman's antics and [[TakeThisJobAndShoveIt left Sony altogether]] in favor of a new contract at Paramount, who then bought the ''Sonic'' movie rights and finally moved the film out of pre-production. The budget cuts Paramount imposed upon the movie shortly thereafter resulted in filming being moved to Canada, instead of Atlanta as originally planned.
** After filming wrapped up, Sega, whose contract stipulated they would co-finance the movie and own half of the film's copyright, had to oversee every aspect of production to ensure it stayed faithful to the franchise. In particular, they frequently sent notes to the visual effects team expressing dislike towards Sonic's realistic, muscular body in the movie, with their biggest criticism being towards Sonic's eyes. They also initially forbade the producers from referring to Dr. Eggman as his former North American name, Dr. Robotnik, though in the end the producers and SEGA worked out a compromise to allow the name to be used.
** When the trailer was released, fans and critics complained over the original look of Sonic as being unfaithful to its source material and looking [[UnintentionalUncannyValley downright horrifying]] for children, the film's intended target audience. It turned out that the original design for Sonic in the movie [[ExecutiveMeddling was entirely ordered by Paramount]] because they wanted to replicate the aesthetics of their prior ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' and ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' films, openly knowing full well that the fans would hate it [[FleetingDemographicRule yet feeling the rest of the general public would be more open to it.]] The backlash ended up being so strong that director Jeff Fowler decided to go back and redesign Sonic altogether, which ended up adding additional months to the production schedule and forced the visual effects artists to work overtime. The release date was pushed back by several months so Paramount could properly compensate the visual effects artists. The redesign was rumored to have increased the movie's budget by $35 million, but in reality, [[https://www.indiewire.com/2019/11/sonic-redesign-cost-paramount-five-million-1202190493/ it ended up costing only $5 million.]]

** Creator/PaulRudd, Creator/ChrisEvans and Creator/ChrisPratt were also in the running to play Tom Wachowski. Concept images exist of a movie poster and the bar fight scene featuring Pratt and [[https://www.sonicstadium.org/2020/02/old-sonic-movie-concept-features-unused-villain-sonic-fighting-with-chris-evans/ Evans]] (respectively), specifically (the movie poster also features an earlier rendition of Sonic before the first trailer's design).

** Fowler explained that Super Sonic and the Chaos Emeralds were going to be in the movie, as well as Knuckles playing a major role, before the decision was made to focus on Sonic and Robotnik’s rivalry.
** Writer Pat Casey said that there was a draft that had [[spoiler:Tails]] as a major character with Sonic, but “that kind of fell by the wayside”.

** There used to be a bigger chili dog reference, with Tom offering Sonic one at the bar when he started feeling sad. He ate his and Tom’s chili dog in two seconds.
** Originally the townsfolk were going to help in the final fight, but it was deemed too absurd.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The initial design of Sonic in the teaser trailer and posters received a universally negative reaction, saying that Sonic's design fell hard into the UnintentionalUncannyValley. Paramount, Sega, and the filmmakers put the brakes on as hard as they could, and delayed the film's release by three months to redesign and reanimate Sonic. Fortunately, they called in Tyson Hesse to provide the new design, which ended up being much closer to his video game counterpart's design. This second design was rapturously received when finally unveiled to the public, and the movie would go on to be a modest hit.

** The film's producer and Sony executive Neal Moritz didn't get along with new studio head Tom Rothman, who didn't see ''Sonic'' as a top priority as he wanted to focus on rebooting older Sony franchises as well continue to milk the ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' movie license for all its worth. Rothman sat on the film for more than a year before deciding to let Moritz start working on the film in late 2016. Tim Miller, who had just bailed from ''Film/Deadpool2'', was hired by Moritz as executive producer, bringing frequent ''Sonic'' collaborator Blur Studio into the movie. After a script rewrite to make the film more family-friendly, things seemed to be moving forward until the failure of ''Film/Passengers2016'' and the loss of financing partner Lone Star Funds resulted in Sony canceling the movie via turnaround before a release date could be announced. Moritz got tired of Rothman's antics and [[TakeThisJobAndShoveIt left Sony altogether]] in favor of a new contract at Paramount, who then bought the ''Sonic'' movie rights and finally moved the film out of pre-production. The budget cuts Paramount imposed upon the movie shortly thereafter resulted in filming being moved to Canada, instead of Atlanta as originally planned.

** [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] with Creator/KoichiYamadera provides the voice for Dr. Robotnik, replacing the character's usual voice actor Kotaro Nakamura. It's also worth noting, however, that Yamadera is ''Jim Carrey's'' usual Japanese dub actor.

* OldShame:
** It's pretty clear that Paramount really regrets the first trailer of the movie, since they made the upload on their official Website/YouTube channel private.
** It's also shown in the "fastest trailer" for ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog22022'' that they're not proud of Sonic's original design either, as one of the FreezeFrameBonus still shots is an image of the design from the first trailer [[TakeThat with a big no symbol over it]].
** [[spoiler:Plus given that’s there’s no credit for Paramount and Sega in ''Film/ChipNDaleRescueRangers2022'' where the old design is used as Ugly Sonic, it’s likely they want to stay as far away from the design as possible.]]

** In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, Manolo Rey returns to voice Sonic in the movie. He has been voicing Sonic since ''WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground''. Amusingly, Tatá Guarnieri, who voices Robotnik, was Sonic in the original VHS dub of ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM''.

** The SEGA logo shown in the early trailer is very different from the one in the final film. It is not the SEGA IP mosaic logo and is more akin to the older ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]]''/''[[Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena Utena]]'' version of the logo, albeit with the SEGA logo appearing out of a ring.

** The SEGA logo shown in the early trailer is very different from the one in the final film. It is not the SEGA IP mosaic logo and is more akin to the older ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]]'' version of the logo, albeit with the SEGA logo appearing out of a ring.

** The SEGA logo shown in the early trailer is very different from the one in the final film. It is not the SEGA IP mosaic logo and is more akin to the older ''Anime/TheEndOfEvangelion'' version of the logo, albeit with the SEGA logo appearing out of a ring.

** [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM's]] original idea for the movie in 1994 was for the film to have a RogerRabbitEffect plot where a 12-year-old boy uses his father's computer to bring the hedgehog to life from his UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, which inadvertently allows Dr. Robotnik to escape, turn every kid in the real world into badniks and plots to steal the world's landmarks to create virtual reality experiences he can profit from. This forces Sonic and Josh to team up to defeat Dr. Robotnik and restore things to normal. The screenplay, written by [[Film/TheVagrant Richard Jefferies]] and titled ''Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World'', was well-received by Sega and MGM executives, but after the treatment was submitted MGM pulled out of the film, and after Creator/DreamWorks rejected his pitch the film was canned. According to Jefferies, Sega intended to tie the film in with the ill-fated ''VideoGame/SonicXtreme'', which is featured prominently in the treatment. A script was never written.