The early imagery we saw for 'Sonic The Hedgehog' - including the most recent photo of Dr. Robotnik, played by Jim Carrey - didn't exactly inspire confidence in us.
For one, how exactly do you transpose what's existed as a pixellated character in people's minds to a live-action, photo-real environment? The very construct of the character doesn't make sense out of a 2D setting. What's up with the spikes? How do his eyes work?
This trailer answers, well, none of these questions. The animation that's on show is the kind you'd expect from a movie that was released about 10, maybe 15 years ago. It looks so clearly patched in that your mind can't help but think of how ridiculous it must have been for James Marsden to try and emote to a talking blue hedgehog.
Not only that, you've got veteran character actor and 'Battlestar Galactica' alum Michael Hogan in there, and yes, Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. In short, there's a wealth of acting talent here. Why didn't somebody think about the design and animation as much? Better yet, how come nobody thought it was a daft idea and stopped them from making this? The studios were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
'Sonic The Hedgehog' lands in Irish cinemas on December 26th.
