The Frightening Smile of Sonic the Hedgehog

Within the last twenty years, Sonic the Hedgehog has solidified his position as a cultural symbol for classic platformer games. Debuting on the Sega Genesis home system in 1991, Sonic has been featured in nearly 79 games. Known for his teenage-punk attitude, and his need to “go fast,” Sonic zips around his world collecting golden rings and trying to thwart the diabolical plans of Doctor Robotnik. Now, on the eve of his first ever commercial movie, which stars heavy-hitting actors like Jim Carrey, he seems to have stalled before even hitting the runway. The reason? Heavy backlash to his on-screen character design, specifically, his frightening smile.

First and foremost, like his name suggests, Sonic is a hedgehog. Considering that his original character design came from a twenty-year old console game, however, which could only produce 16-bit graphics, designers of the live-action blockbuster had a wide berth to take creative liberties. What they eventually landed on, debuted in the official trailer, has fans less than thrilled. In fact, many are downright frightened. In the opening scenes of the latest theatrical trailer, Sonic, voiced by Ben Schwartz, and police sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), look awkwardly at one another until Sonic plays it cool. “Uh, meow?” he says, opening his mouth wide.

It’s at this point that many fans have become squeamish, because inside of Sonic’s mouth is a full set of human teeth. Many fans have wondered why, exactly, designers made this decision, especially considering that real hedgehog teeth are cute and tiny, according to fans on Twitter. Backlash to Sonic’s teeth have been so widespread that Jeff Fowler, the movie’s director, made a rare appearance on Twitter to acknowledge fan reaction and to promise to rethink the character design altogether. Almost a week after Fowler made these comments, the movie was pushed back until 2020. The movie was originally slated for Nov. 8.