What is Sonic the Hedgehog (2020 Film)?

It refers to the meme cycle around Paramount's live-action Sonic the Hedgehog film, especially the fan backlash to the character's initial CGI design revealed in the April 30, 2019 trailer[7].

Where did Sonic the Hedgehog (2020 Film) come from?

The mockery started with a muscular teaser silhouette posted by IGN on December 10, 2018, and exploded when the full trailer arrived on April 30, 2019 with a toothy human-looking Sonic[6].

What does Sonic the Hedgehog (2020 Film) mean?

As a meme, the name is shorthand for the redesign backlash and the photoshops, jokes and reaction images that swarmed the film's marketing before release[1].

How do you use Sonic the Hedgehog (2020 Film)?

The format is typically a photoshop or side-by-side that zooms on a jarring design detail such as the teeth or the muscular legs, played as a reaction to something else being unnaturally rendered[6].

Is Sonic the Hedgehog (2020 Film) still popular?

The peak was 2019, but the redesign story is still cited whenever a studio caves to online design complaints, and images from the original CGI still circulate as reactions[7].

Why did Paramount change Sonic's design?

Director Jeff Fowler tweeted on May 3, 2019 that the team would rework the design following the trailer's negative reception, and the release was pushed from November 2019 to February 14, 2020[5].

Who led the Sonic redesign?

Sonic Mania Adventures animator Tyson Hesse stated he was brought in to lead the character redesign for the revised version shown in the November 12, 2019 trailer[1].

What did Sonic's original Japanese creators say?

On December 11, 2018, @SonicJPNews translated reactions in which co-creator Naoto Ohshima argued Sonic is a fairy, not a real hedgehog, and Yuji Naka noted the response looked "very badly received"[1].

How did PewDiePie factor in?

On May 3, 2019, PewDiePie uploaded "Fixing Sonic the Hedgehog," redrawing the character from memory; the video collected more than 5.8 million views in 72 hours[11].

How was the film actually received?

Reception was mixed leaning positive: Metacritic gave it 47/100 and Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 64% score with the consensus calling it "fittingly fleet and frequently fun"[12][13].

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020 Film)

2018event / image macroclassic

Published September 28, 2026

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020 Film) refers to the online meme cycle sparked by the live-action Paramount film, where fans revolted against the character's toothy, humanlike CGI design revealed in the April 2019 trailer. The backlash forced director Jeff Fowler to publicly promise a redesign, an almost unheard of studio reversal that turned the whole rollout into one of the defining internet spectacles of 2019.

sonic memes character design memes backfire memes photoshop memes uncanny valley memes

Overview

The Sonic the Hedgehog (2020 Film) meme is less a single joke than a two-stage cycle of collective mockery aimed at a Paramount Pictures live-action adaptation of the Sega game. Round one, in December 2018, targeted a moody teaser poster showing a hyper-muscular Sonic silhouette, which fans immediately photoshopped into absurd variants3. Round two, in April 2019, hit when the first full trailer revealed a CGI Sonic with small eyes, separated fingers and a full mouth of human teeth, prompting jokes, comparisons and outright horror across Twitter and Reddit6.

The format that stuck was reaction and remix: side-by-sides comparing movie Sonic to game Sonic, screenshots zoomed on the teeth, and photoshops swapping the face for characters like the Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty1. Coverage from Mashable and The Verge treated the reaction itself as the story, not the movie6 7. What made the whole thing unusual was the resolution: on May 3, 2019, director Jeff Fowler tweeted that the design would be changed, and when the redesigned Sonic appeared in the November 2019 trailer, the meme flipped into praise, gratitude and a joking #ReleaseTheSonicCut hashtag riffing on #ReleaseTheSnyderCut1.

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter / Reddit (viral spread)

Date

2018

The film itself was first announced on June 10, 2014 as a joint Sony Pictures and Marza Animation Planet project, with producer Neal Moritz attached2. Deadpool director Tim Miller and animator Jeff Fowler joined in 2016, with Fowler making his feature directorial debut8. Paramount Pictures acquired the rights from Sony in 2017 and, in February 2018, targeted a November 15, 2019 release9. None of these announcements produced much online noise. The meme cycle only started with the visuals.

The catalyst was a teaser poster IGN published to Instagram on December 10, 2018, showing a heavily muscled Sonic silhouette lit from behind1. Within a day, Twitter user @stevezaragoza posted a photoshop pasting Gritty's face over the poster, racking up more than 8,600 retweets and 38,000 likes in two days1. The next day, December 11, 2018, Twitter user @ThatCubeGamer tweeted a rumored second poster, captioned "this can't be real this can't be real this can't be real," showing Sonic's legs straddling the Golden Gate Bridge, gathering more than 9,500 retweets in 24 hours1. The meme was born less from the film and more from the ad campaign.

How It Spread

The initial December 2018 wave spread fastest on Twitter and Reddit. Twitter user @myanimewaifu posted a drawing of what "the back" of the new Sonic must look like, hitting 2,200 retweets and 9,700 likes in two days, while DeviantArt user jazzjack-KHT swapped in Ugandan Knuckles and Jake5713 cross-posted the image to /r/TwoBestFriendsPlay, where it cleared 865 points at 96% upvoted in a day1. Game Grumps co-founder Arin Hanson (@egoraptor) tweeted a physical recreation of the Golden Gate poster that pulled more than 1,900 retweets and 18,000 likes overnight1. Japanese outlet @SonicJPNews translated skeptical reactions from Sonic creator Naoto Ohshima and Yuji Naka, giving the mockery a note of official disapproval1.

The second and much larger wave hit when Paramount released the first full trailer on April 30, 2019, scored to Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise"6. Reactions latched onto Sonic's design almost immediately. Mashable ran a piece rounding up the jokes, noting the trailer had "forever changing the way we think about the speedy blue mammal"6. The Verge published its coverage under the headline "No one can save you from the first trailer for the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie"7. Twitter user @BrandyLJensen argued the best jokes were simply factual statements like "Sonic has a full set of human teeth," and @Hello_Tailor imagined a pitch meeting where the room chanted "Teeth!"1. The Reddit /r/movies trailer thread cleared 5,800 points and 3,000 comments10.

On May 3, 2019, director Jeff Fowler announced on Twitter that the design would be changed4. That same day, YouTuber PewDiePie uploaded "Fixing Sonic the Hedgehog," a video attempting to redraw Sonic from memory, which pulled more than 5.8 million views in 72 hours11. On May 24, Fowler confirmed the release was moving to Valentine's Day 2020 with the note "Taking a little more time to make Sonic just right," a tweet that drew more than 6,800 retweets in a day5. The redesigned character debuted in a second trailer on November 12, 2019, credited to Sonic Mania Adventures animator Tyson Hesse1. When the film opened on February 14, 2020, it scored 47/100 on Metacritic and 64 on Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus described it as "fittingly fleet and frequently fun"12 13.

How to Use This Meme

The format is almost entirely visual and comparative. A common convention is a side-by-side of a reference Sonic (the classic Sega sprite, the 2019 CGI, or the redesigned 2020 CGI) against something jarring, whether a mascot face, a real hedgehog, or a crudely redrawn version. Reaction tweets typically zoom on one specific body part, often the teeth or the eyes, and treat the observation as the punchline. A related riff is the "how are you not dead / I have no idea" screenshot from the second trailer, used as a two-panel exchange reaction image on Reddit1.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020 Film)

Overview

Origin & Background

How It Spread

How to Use This Meme

Frequently Asked Questions

References (12)