I wrote a Sonic movie in my head this morn. Does this suck?

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

No really, while making my coffee I just started thinking on the fly about how I'd probably do it. It would be like a quick paced, 100-minute Fury Road-style story, and I mixed different canons.

So we got the Floating Island, that's where Sonic and all his friends live. It's powered by the Master Emerald and the seven others, guarded by Knuckles, and it's governed by the Acorn family (if there was any, ANY way Archie could be brought on board, I'm writing them in).

The movie opens with Sonic saving Tikal from some Badniks, and then we see G.U.N displaying Shadow, a hopeful peacekeeping weapon they made (mainly developed by Maria Robotnik, who I retconned into no longer being sick). Eggman and Snively steal Shadow, they fly to the island and use Shadow's Chaos Control to steal the Master Emerald so they can power this big ass robot and hopefully take over the world. Uncle Chuck also gets injured during this, leaving Sonic feeling kinda guilty.

So Sonic, Tails, Amy, Sally and Knuckles (I don't want to use too many characters) reluctantly team up with G.U.N to get the Master Emerald back before the island dies, and stop Eggman. Along the way G.U.N uses their technology to help Sonic and co. unlock some of the hidden "zones" on the island, and that's where they discover the power rings. That factors into Sonic's personal growth through the movie, can he use the power of the rings and control his Golden Sonic form without it killing him? Can he learn to trust his friends more and not always try to do everything on his own? That'll also lead into the big climax where he transforms and they fight the big ass robot.

Meanwhile, Sally and Amy (they're the best of friends, I'm not shipping anyone here) do some sleuthing and find out that G.U.N also wants to experiment on Sonic. Dun dun duuuuuuuuuun.

Ideally it'd be way more dramatic than Boom, but not grimdark. There's plenty of jokes, it'd be bright and colorful, but I would still want the audience to cry (in a good way). If you've seen Big Hero 6, that's how I'd want the atmosphere to feel like.

Also, it's not an origin story. This is happens to be one of Sonic's encounters with Eggman.

[Deleted]

Its not bad. I would love to have a read of it when your done.

[BorneAgain]

Solid enough, and I like that most of the main cast already knows each other. I think GUN and Shadow might work better if hinted at and their complete reveal saved in a sequel. The dynamics of both Shadow as a created lifeform similar enough to Sonic and the shades of gray nature of GUN are worth getting fleshed out and could get lost in a quick paced film that's also got a plot about the heroes foiling Eggman.

Something this film could do is have an underlying dynamic of the residents of Floating Island having to adapt to the technological threat of Eggman's forces, with perhaps Knuckles and Amy not keen on using such technology themsevles with the former as a bit of a stubborn traditionalist keen on using Emerald artifacts instead and the latter fearful of the possible threat to the wildlife (reflecting her protection of animals in various games). Then on the other side you have the technophile Tails already tinkering with crashed badniks/vehicles (and perhaps some remnants of GUN technology) and Sally believing they have to utilize every tool to combat the threat of Eggman. All with Sonic in the middle playing peacemaker and wondering if he can utilize the power rings safely. If the setting already has modernish technology, then obviously this plot won't work, but if not, there's potential there.

At the end the heroes defeat Eggman with the narrative suggesting the Floating Island residents will be able to combine both technology and the environment effectively (ala the good Futures of Sonic CD). But the post credits stinger has GUN looking over their intel of the incident and very interested in the power displayed by that blue Hedgehog...

[weaselboy]

Use even less characters, putting limitations on yourself will force you to make interesting new decisions.

[Burst]

Yeah, in general, I'm sick of origin stories, mostly because some characters (most egregiously a certain Batman and Spider-Man) have had them told OVER and OVER and OVER ad nauseum. I agree with the above post, Shadow et al seem like they would best be saved for a sequel.

The tricky part about the technology vs paradisical idealism thing is... I'm pretty sure that's exactly what the Angry Birds movie is setting up. Frankly, Angry Birds and Floating Island/Sonic Boom/Early Sonic share a pretty damn similar setting.

I will say that I feel Sonic lends himself better to longer-form stories a la comics or TV series; a movie just has way too little time to set everything up unless you keep a relatively sparse cast. It's doable, but I'd want to avoid the X-Men III/Spider-Man III problem of trying to put too many characters/settings into one film.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Jan 16, 2016 11:34:21 GMT -5 Burst said:

Yeah, in general, I'm sick of origin stories, mostly because some characters (most egregiously a certain Batman and Spider-Man) have had them told OVER and OVER and OVER ad nauseum. I agree with the above post, Shadow et al seem like they would best be saved for a sequel.

The tricky part about the technology vs paradisical idealism thing is... I'm pretty sure that's exactly what the Angry Birds movie is setting up. Frankly, Angry Birds and Floating Island/Sonic Boom/Early Sonic share a pretty damn similar setting.

I will say that I feel Sonic lends himself better to longer-form stories a la comics or TV series; a movie just has way too little time to set everything up unless you keep a relatively sparse cast. It's doable, but I'd want to avoid the X-Men III/Spider-Man III problem of trying to put too many characters/settings into one film.

Yeah, the Archie comic, as great as it is, does have a butt ton of characters ever with them currently focusing on just the game cast and the Freedom Fighters.

And before a (convoluted, it's a long and sordid story) legal issue arose, there were even more regulars Sonic interacted with, including an older brother of Sally's and an entire society of echidnas relating to Knuckles. Trying to address all that in a film, even a trilogy, would be a unique kind of stupid.

I was trying to do a lot of compression in the story, with the Acorns ruling Angel Island and all, something balanced that would appeal to different people parts of his fanbase. Not easy I know, but it was strong coffee.

So far as major screen time, I didn't want to go past Sonic (who would be the "viewpoint" character, no human deuteragonists like Chris Thorndyke or anything like that), his four friends, Maria and the head of GUN opposing Eggman, Snively and Shadow. That's ten people with major speaking parts, so I'm cutting out pretty much all the Freedom Fighters but Sally.

I also wouldn't want to get too dark, no edgier than SatAm maybe. Tone wise, it would overall be fast and funny enough so families would enjoy it, but still smart and suspenseful, where critics could say, "this is a good film in general." It wouldn't be this artsy fartsy philosophical Nolanized Sonic, but at the same time there's no bathroom stuff, it would basically,take itself seriously.

Like I had in mind a big scene where there's an argument between Sonic and the head of GUN. Nothing that's super Oscar baity or over the heads of kids, just as a scene for a big revelation and emotional turning point.

[Lupin the Third]

As a uber-fan of Sonic SatAM, and the original Sonic games, I will say this:

When can we start, and how much money do I have to throw at people to make this happen?

[Malcolm]

As someone who isn't that much of a fan of SatAM I must say that I actually like the idea.

Except I'd have had Sonic and his pals live on South Island(or "Mobius" Island), but that's me.

[Burst]

Jan 16, 2016 16:40:26 GMT -5 Clash, Never a Meter Maid said:

And before a (convoluted, it's a long and sordid story) legal issue arose, there were even more regulars Sonic interacted with, including an older brother of Sally's and an entire society of echidnas relating to Knuckles. Trying to address all that in a film, even a trilogy, would be a unique kind of stupid.

Yeah, I remember all the drama related to Penders and the soft reboot. Hell, I still encounter Sonic fans who are still pissed that the reboot put pants on Sally, but I digress. In a sense, a clean slate for Archie was needed, just from how cluttered things had gotten over the years, and IMO it was one of the best done soft reboots this side of the 2009 Star Trek movie.

I think the problem with trying to go for a "Ultimate" Sonic continuity is that, like with any adaptation, it's going to be impossible to please everyone. Then again, I haven't been super active in the fandom since maybe 2010-2011ish so I really don't know how the fandom factions break down nowadays, especially since I haven't really paid attention to any fanbase that Sonic Boom has brought in at all. That being said though, (and this is tempered by not having seen any of Boom) I think there's such a thing as too bare-bones of a Sonic setting, and it would be good to at least have the various factions and groups in the background for the proper milieu.

And this is again personal preference, but I would be happy if it was just made very clear that THIS IS NOT OUR EARTH because as I think I said in a different thread, Sonic in a present day-ish setting has always felt a bit shoehorned in.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Jan 16, 2016 18:33:20 GMT -5 Burst said:

Jan 16, 2016 16:40:26 GMT -5 Clash, Never a Meter Maid said:

And before a (convoluted, it's a long and sordid story) legal issue arose, there were even more regulars Sonic interacted with, including an older brother of Sally's and an entire society of echidnas relating to Knuckles. Trying to address all that in a film, even a trilogy, would be a unique kind of stupid.

Yeah, I remember all the drama related to Penders and the soft reboot. Hell, I still encounter Sonic fans who are still pissed that the reboot put pants on Sally, but I digress. In a sense, a clean slate for Archie was needed, just from how cluttered things had gotten over the years, and IMO it was one of the best done soft reboots this side of the 2009 Star Trek movie.

I think the problem with trying to go for a "Ultimate" Sonic continuity is that, like with any adaptation, it's going to be impossible to please everyone. Then again, I haven't been super active in the fandom since maybe 2010-2011ish so I really don't know how the fandom factions break down nowadays, especially since I haven't really paid attention to any fanbase that Sonic Boom has brought in at all. That being said though, (and this is tempered by not having seen any of Boom) I think there's such a thing as too bare-bones of a Sonic setting, and it would be good to at least have the various factions and groups in the background for the proper milieu.

And this is again personal preference, but I would be happy if it was just made very clear that THIS IS NOT OUR EARTH because as I think I said in a different thread, Sonic in a present day-ish setting has always felt a bit shoehorned in.

Oh man, fans are still mad about that? I have a confession: I LOVE the new Sally design, it's adorable. Now she looks like she fits with the rest of the cast, plus she has frigging lazer gauntlets, that's badass. Before that, some artists were drawing her all leggy and modelish, like a wannabe Minerva Mink. It looked stupid.

Off Angel Island, I'd probably set the movie in a vague fantasy style future. Not too crazy like Meet The Robinsons but like Station Square or the settings in Sonic X, where you could see advanced tech existing but it was still slightly rooted in reality.

And granted, it'd be impossible to please everyone, so I'd take a "Force Awakens" approach- try to pinpoint a few of the more popular aspects of the franchise and work with them. Yeah, there'd be that one fan pissed and going "where's Antoine?" or "where's Rouge?", but there's a reason most greatest hits albums aren't super long unless it's an anthology.

[CMWaters]

So I'm guessing you'd save Super Sonic for a sequel?

[The Sam]

Not as good as my Sonic fan script, where Sonic and Tails get captured by Dr Eggman and so they have to be saved by their friend Sam the Hedgehog (original character, do not steal) who is faster and cooler than Sonic. After Sam saves Sonic and Tails from Eggman, Sonic declares Sam the new king of Mobius. And then the rest of the movie is Amy having all kinds of sex with me .... I mean Sam the Hedgehog.

[HMARK Center]

I'm an old codger SatAM fan, so I'd give anything for that to become the core story again, but that's a noble attempt at using the various settings/characters/etc. I have such little patience for a lot of the post-Sonic Adventure characters and whatnot, but there are ways to use them decently.

I always just wanted to see an attempt at Sonic that combined the best aspects of SatAM (a strong but somewhat vulnerable Sonic, the team relationship among the heroes, nature/balance vs. tech, a truly threatening Robotnik) with the best aspects of the Archie continuity (e.g. the Tales of the Great War history arc, the Knuckles series and the development of the Floating Island, etc.). For a singular movie, a Freedom Fighter style team works since it gives Sonic established relationships to play off of and inherently limits the cast to just those who have a role to fulfill. Plus, it gives you a defined antagonist with a clear reason why Sonic and Robotnik dislike one another - planet Mobius is imperiled by the evil mechanical dictator who wants a world of perfect order and conformity, but the hero, who has had a lot taken away by said dictator, represents freedom from conformity and is basically a living deus ex machina that drives the villain mad with rage.

I'd just never be able to make modern era game fans happy with my own ideas, though; to me, modern Sonic, in terms of the video game world he resides in, is a failure because it utterly lacks consistency. This doesn't have to be a problem; Super Mario, after all, is a series where every game makes it clear that the Mushroom Kingdom is not a consistent place, and it's usually just fine for it. But Super Mario is also a game series that doesn't try to tell "epic" stories...not that Sonic '06 and various others qualify as "epic", but you know what I mean. One minute Sonic's world is bright, colorful, and utterly fantastic, the next it's set in a realistic human world, but all the while it ties itself up with voice acting and would be sprawling stories half hearted attempts at world building that don't really go anywhere. Rouge the Bat, Silver, and characters like them really wind up serving no purpose; they're just there and made to pop up in games because fans would complain if they suddenly weren't there. This works fine in Mario since the characters are just what they are; they're not there to be developed, and the only rule of Super Mario is that "there are no rules", but again, the attempts at epic storytelling and world building that go nowhere in Sonic make all the voice acting, the scripts, all that stuff really meaningless. In short: post-Genesis era Sonic has never really committed to a vision for what it is, and thus becomes a mess of unnecessary characters, half-hearted world building, and, outside of that, games that don't wind up doing very well.

Plus, I associate the modern Sonic fandom with a lot...uh...not great things, but I guess that's a separate issue.

[xCompackx]

Jan 16, 2016 23:25:07 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

I'm an old codger SatAM fan, so I'd give anything for that to become the core story again, but that's a noble attempt at using the various settings/characters/etc. I have such little patience for a lot of the post-Sonic Adventure characters and whatnot, but there are ways to use them decently.

I always just wanted to see an attempt at Sonic that combined the best aspects of SatAM (a strong but somewhat vulnerable Sonic, the team relationship among the heroes, nature/balance vs. tech, a truly threatening Robotnik) with the best aspects of the Archie continuity (e.g. the Tales of the Great War history arc, the Knuckles series and the development of the Floating Island, etc.). For a singular movie, a Freedom Fighter style team works since it gives Sonic established relationships to play off of and inherently limits the cast to just those who have a role to fulfill. Plus, it gives you a defined antagonist with a clear reason why Sonic and Robotnik dislike one another - planet Mobius is imperiled by the evil mechanical dictator who wants a world of perfect order and conformity, but the hero, who has had a lot taken away by said dictator, represents freedom from conformity and is basically a living deus ex machina that drives the villain mad with rage.

I'd just never be able to make modern era game fans happy with my own ideas, though; to me, modern Sonic, in terms of the video game world he resides in, is a failure because it utterly lacks consistency. This doesn't have to be a problem; Super Mario, after all, is a series where every game makes it clear that the Mushroom Kingdom is not a consistent place, and it's usually just fine for it. But Super Mario is also a game series that doesn't try to tell "epic" stories...not that Sonic '06 and various others qualify as "epic", but you know what I mean. One minute Sonic's world is bright, colorful, and utterly fantastic, the next it's set in a realistic human world, but all the while it ties itself up with voice acting and would be sprawling stories half hearted attempts at world building that don't really go anywhere. Rouge the Bat, Silver, and characters like them really wind up serving no purpose; they're just there and made to pop up in games because fans would complain if they suddenly weren't there. This works fine in Mario since the characters are just what they are; they're not there to be developed, and the only rule of Super Mario is that "there are no rules", but again, the attempts at epic storytelling and world building that go nowhere in Sonic make all the voice acting, the scripts, all that stuff really meaningless. In short: post-Genesis era Sonic has never really committed to a vision for what it is, and thus becomes a mess of unnecessary characters, half-hearted world building, and, outside of that, games that don't wind up doing very well.

Plus, I associate the modern Sonic fandom with a lot...uh...not great things, but I guess that's a separate issue.

Since you mentioned it, I personally don't mind the "realistic" setting as long as you make it very clear as to why Sonic and co. are there. Sonic Adventure kinda(?) did that with Knuckles being part of an ancient Echidna race and all that, but just do something to explain it. I doubt we'll ever see a Sonic Adventure-esque story again after the disaster of '06, but you never know.

[Malcolm]

Jan 16, 2016 23:25:07 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

I'm an old codger SatAM fan, so I'd give anything for that to become the core story again, but that's a noble attempt at using the various settings/characters/etc. I have such little patience for a lot of the post-Sonic Adventure characters and whatnot, but there are ways to use them decently.

As much as people love SatAM and as much as a cult following it had, SatAM was never the core story to the series, even in the early 90s(aside from the sloppy attempt as claiming that Amy Rose was Princess Sally).

If anything, the UK's Sonic the Comic's story might be a better contender for the core story since a lot of the backstory is lifted from the "Sonic Bible" of the early 90s(which was the Sega of America story at the time).

Now that I think about it, when you look at the conflicting boxarts and conflicting manual storylines, the original American story was pretty inconsistent as well when you look at it outside of the games themselves...

Anyway, here's a wiki article about the early Sonic canon:

sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Early_Sonic_canon

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Jan 16, 2016 23:25:07 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

I'm an old codger SatAM fan, so I'd give anything for that to become the core story again, but that's a noble attempt at using the various settings/characters/etc. I have such little patience for a lot of the post-Sonic Adventure characters and whatnot, but there are ways to use them decently.

I always just wanted to see an attempt at Sonic that combined the best aspects of SatAM (a strong but somewhat vulnerable Sonic, the team relationship among the heroes, nature/balance vs. tech, a truly threatening Robotnik) with the best aspects of the Archie continuity (e.g. the Tales of the Great War history arc, the Knuckles series and the development of the Floating Island, etc.). For a singular movie, a Freedom Fighter style team works since it gives Sonic established relationships to play off of and inherently limits the cast to just those who have a role to fulfill. Plus, it gives you a defined antagonist with a clear reason why Sonic and Robotnik dislike one another - planet Mobius is imperiled by the evil mechanical dictator who wants a world of perfect order and conformity, but the hero, who has had a lot taken away by said dictator, represents freedom from conformity and is basically a living deus ex machina that drives the villain mad with rage.

I'd just never be able to make modern era game fans happy with my own ideas, though; to me, modern Sonic, in terms of the video game world he resides in, is a failure because it utterly lacks consistency. This doesn't have to be a problem; Super Mario, after all, is a series where every game makes it clear that the Mushroom Kingdom is not a consistent place, and it's usually just fine for it. But Super Mario is also a game series that doesn't try to tell "epic" stories...not that Sonic '06 and various others qualify as "epic", but you know what I mean. One minute Sonic's world is bright, colorful, and utterly fantastic, the next it's set in a realistic human world, but all the while it ties itself up with voice acting and would be sprawling stories half hearted attempts at world building that don't really go anywhere. Rouge the Bat, Silver, and characters like them really wind up serving no purpose; they're just there and made to pop up in games because fans would complain if they suddenly weren't there. This works fine in Mario since the characters are just what they are; they're not there to be developed, and the only rule of Super Mario is that "there are no rules", but again, the attempts at epic storytelling and world building that go nowhere in Sonic make all the voice acting, the scripts, all that stuff really meaningless. In short: post-Genesis era Sonic has never really committed to a vision for what it is, and thus becomes a mess of unnecessary characters, half-hearted world building, and, outside of that, games that don't wind up doing very well.

Plus, I associate the modern Sonic fandom with a lot...uh...not great things, but I guess that's a separate issue.

If by "not great things" you mean the adult material produced by some fans, then a ton of children's properties have similar issues. And to be honest, the one thing that concerns me is my hope that kids don't stumble upon it, but so far as adults if they're into that, whatever, that's their business.

I know it's an extremely tricky and dodgy issue, but at the same time I think a lot of Sonic fans- who aren't hurting anyone, mind you - are just flat out bullied by people online often.

The tricky thing about writing Sonic is not only how he has so many different continuities, but how said continuities appeal to particular audiences. So I just went with elements of what I felt were arguably the two most popular canons, and I figured if a story was strong enough that it could possibly be appreciated both by newcomers and various factions of his fandom.

Maybe it wouldn't necessarily "replace" someone's favorite Sonic setting, heck I have my biases and preferences. But hopefully it could be enjoyable enough to where it wouldn't cause too many online fights. Wishful thinking maybe, but I'd be hella ambitious with this thing.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Jan 16, 2016 21:14:25 GMT -5 CMWaters said:

So I'm guessing you'd save Super Sonic for a sequel?

No, Golden Sonic would be a clear and present danger in the first film. I actually wasn't thinking about a sequel or a trilogy, at least not first and foremost, mostly just making one great Sonic film that could stand alone.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Jan 16, 2016 11:29:19 GMT -5 weaselboy said:

Use even less characters, putting limitations on yourself will force you to make interesting new decisions.

I got it- Maria should be the head of G.U.N. She has incentive to examine Sonic, get back her creation Shadow and stop her nutty cousin Eggman.

[Sir Woodrow]

My most pressing question, is there a part for Mark Wahlberg?

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Jan 18, 2016 15:41:07 GMT -5 Sir Woodrow said:

My most pressing question, is there a part for Mark Wahlberg?

Knuckles.

Seriously, why not? He's great at playing beefy and kinda clueless but still good-hearted characters.