Ben Schwartz reflects on “Ugly Sonic”: Start of the “Sonic” film series
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Ben Schwartz reflects on “Ugly Sonic”: Start of the “Sonic” film series

Posted on by Amelia Pressman

With the upcoming release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3Ben Schwartz – who voices the title character – looks back on the beginnings of “Ugly Sonic”.

When the trailer for the first film in the series was released in 2019, fans immediately reacted negatively, criticizing Sonic’s appearance and especially his human-like teeth. The reaction was so intense that the filmmaking team promised to redesign the character and postpone the film’s release date by three months.

“Maybe sometimes you need a little push to really look in the mirror and hear the fans and then really figure out if you want to adapt. And that’s what we did,” Schwartz said The Hollywood Reporter at Sonic3The premiere in Los Angeles takes place on Monday. “How often can you imagine a movie that really listens to the fans and the studio takes money and time to change it because they think it would make the movie better? I think that rarely, if ever, ever happens.”

Director Jeff Fowler, who was behind all three films in the franchise, added: “From the ashes of ‘Ugly Sonic,’ this beautiful trilogy of films, this phoenix, had to rise.” It was a necessary sacrifice, but yeah, thank you, Ugly Sonic , for the memories.” To promote the new film, Paramount Pictures is even bringing the character back in some form and giving away an ugly Christmas sweater featuring “Ugly Sonic.”

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Sonic, Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba) and Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) reunite against a powerful new enemy, Shadow (Keanu Reeves) – a mysterious villain with powers they have never faced before. Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Adam Pally and Natasha Rothwell also round out the star-studded cast, and Marsden said of newcomer Reeves: “He’s the best.” He’s so perfect for this character because he does this sort of brooding, mysterious thing so well mastered, but it can’t fully mask the warmth and kindness in his heart that is so perfect for the character.”

Schwartz joked that after adding new A-listers for each film, he’s set his sights on Daniel Day-Lewis for the fourth film: “If we can’t get DDL in 4I don’t know what I’m doing with myself.”

Fowler also weighed in on the future of the popular video game character, noting, “Sonic has been around for 30 years, there are so many great characters to incorporate into this film world.” The films we choose, we always do so because we feel like it’s a really great story that could take our cinematic universe in exciting and interesting new directions. I think the possibilities are endless and for now I’m just going to enjoy the third movie tonight and then we’ll wake up and maybe see where we go from here.”

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hits theaters on Friday.

Ash Crossan contributed to this report.

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