Small Details You Missed In The Sonic The Hedgehog Trailer

To say the Sonic the Hedgehog movie is controversial — well, that would be an understatement.

Not everyone's been a fan of Sonic's legs. Fans don't like the way some of his colors have changed. His human teeth are freaking people out more than anyone might've assumed possible. Really, the talk of the internet is that this movie is going to be the bomb of the century — proof that films based on video games just don't work.

But those people are missing the point. There is joy to be found here, not unlike the joy in picking up a Sega Genesis controller to play Sonic the Hedgehog for the very first time. You didn't care about what his eyes looked like, or whether or not he had the right kind of teeth. That wasn't a concern back then. Why let it be now?

We're looking forward to seeing Sonic the Hedgehog when it hits theaters later this fall, and to prove it, we've dug through the movie's latest trailer to find all of the things you might've missed on your first watchthrough. These small details, which you'll find below, don't tell us everything we need to know about Sonic the Hedgehog. But they do have us ready to drop a couple of dollars at the movie theater to see it, good or bad.

What's a Sonic the Hedgehog movie, honestly? This is probably not going to blow up at the box office. No one's expecting it to be the next Avengers or Star Wars. More likely than not, it'll be one of those popcorn flicks that we'll barely remember seeing a year after it comes out. But goshdarnit, Paramount decided to wrap its arms around this movie and give it a big hug anyway.

They replaced the stars in the Paramount logo with gold rings. How can you not appreciate that?

This is the legendary Paramount Pictures we're talking about. The folks who brought us Titanic. The company responsible for kicking off the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man. Paramount has a long history in cinema, and it puts its name on big money movies. If you're a Sonic the Hedgehog fan, you can't help but be a little touched that Paramount is going all-in on this thing.

Lord knows how the Sonic movie got the green light. But you can't say Paramount doesn't want it to work.

There weren't a whole lot of Sonic the Hedgehog video game references in this trailer; at least, not as many as we expected. Other than the hero and villain, no other characters from the games are present. There are no inexplicable loop-de-loops to be found. Sonic blazing through an area at top speed only to be stopped by something incredibly dumb, like a wall of spikes? You won't find that in the trailer, either.

But you didn't have to go past the first couple of seconds if you wanted a nod to the video games. It's on the large highway welcome sign and on Tom Wachowski's police car. Green Hills, baby: a clear reference to Green Hill Zone, the very first level in the original Sonic the Hedgehog.

According to IMDB, Green Hills is a small, rural town. And that's pretty much all we know about it at this point. Green Hill Zone, however, is a classic. Not only does it show up in the first Sonic, it cameos later in some other games, too, such as Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Mania.

We'll be interested to see if Green Hills and Green Hill Zone share any other characteristics besides their, uh, green hills.

How fast can Sonic the Hedgehog run? It's a question as old as Sonic himself. And it's one that was tussled about by science lovers over at Stack Exchange. Yes, there was a serious discussion about the maximum speed Sonic the Hedgehog could achieve, whether normally or in one of his Super Sonic or Hyper Sonic modes. The Sonic Adventure DX manual reportedly lists it at 3,840 mph, for what it's worth.

In the Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer, however, he's clocked at a speed of 760 mph. But you know what? We have proof that's not his top speed.

Later in the trailer, Sonic laces up and races down a clear stretch of road, breaking through the sound barrier in the process. And it just so happens that an object has to be traveling faster than 767 mph to surpass the speed of sound. So when Sonic gets nailed by Tom Wachowski's radar gun in the trailer, he's not really giving it his all. He's actually — relative to his capabilities — taking a jog.

If you're a runner, you're well aware of what your hobby can do to sneakers. You're wearing them out far more quickly than someone who is walking around their daily routine. And you'll likely go through a few pairs of sneakers in a year.

You probably won't ever have the mountain of murdered sneakers Sonic has, however.

This clip was all too brief, just a visual of what Sonic's speed means for his footwear and a look at what he's worn in the past. But it shows that Sonic, despite being a hedgehog, has some human problems to contend with, too. He's constantly having to go out and find new sneakers. And those sneakers that have given out for good? He doesn't seem to have a garbage collector at his little pad in the cave, so instead, they go into this pile — a graveyard of sorts for the sneakers worn by "the fastest thing alive."

Here is where things divulge from official Sonic the Hedgehog lore — and yes, there is official Sonic the Hedgehog lore. In Sonic's comics, his lightning-fast speed is derived from his power sneakers and the fact that he trained on a special treadmill. In the movie trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog, however, Sonic's gift appears to be the work of something else entirely.

As evidenced in a few different shots, Sonic's quills are buzzing with electricity. And Sonic himself appears to have a strong electrical current running through him.

What's the deal here? It's probably the reality of putting a movie together. There is only so much time to tell a story, and rather than go through the complete tale of how Sonic came to achieve his renowned speediness, the writers instead chose to provide an alternative explanation. It happens all the time in movie adaptations, and while it will probably earn the film a little bit of scorn from Sonic the Hedgehog purists, these decisions are made in order to tell a more coherent, compact tale.

In short: it'll be fine.

You might have been startled to see actor Jim Carrey looking like Jim Carrey in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer. This is the guy who is playing Dr. Robotnik? Why isn't he a little more round? Where is that huge bushy mustache that's become Dr. Robotnik's trademark? And wait — the US military is working with Robotnik, a villain?

This trailer started to clue us in on the story we're going to see in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. And one aspect of that, with relation to Dr. Robotnik, is the origin story of how this man came to be Sonic's archnemesis.

Dr. Ivo Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog appears to be a military contractor, of sorts. When power goes out in a large swath of the United States, Dr. Robotnik is called in to assess the situation and solve the problem. It's clear that, along the way, he crosses paths with Sonic. And that's what kicks off the rivalry some of us have been playing out repeatedly since the first Sonic the Hedgehog video game released in 1991.

Sonic the Hedgehog is a creature of Earth — at least, that's what we've been imagining all these years. All of those enemies Sonic has been facing off against? In early games, they were animals from this planet, trapped inside machines. Most of Sonic's stages have looked like regions from Earth, too. And are we just going to ignore the cities with all of the humans frolicking about in games like Sonic Adventure?

The Sonic the Hedgehog movie might be doing away with that preconception, too. Because if its trailer is to be believed, Sonic might be an alien from another planet.

In a short scene from the trailer, Sonic is riding in a truck with Tom Wachowski, played by James Marsden. When Sonic is questioned by Wachowski — about what, we don't know — Sonic offers up a rather interesting response: "It looks like I'm gonna have to save your planet." Notice that he says "your planet" and not "the planet" or "our planet." This implies that the current planet that Sonic is on — Earth — is not his actual home.

Sonic as an alien? Well, in a lot of Sonic's early appearances in Western markets, the action took place on planet Mobius, not on Earth like modern Sonic media. While that version of the character is no longer current, perhaps the film is making a return?

Gold rings are a big deal in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe. In almost all of the video games, Sonic collects gold coins that can protect him from harm, and as long as Sonic has some gold coins on him, he can't die. Gold rings can also take on a larger form, transporting Sonic to brand new locations in the game. You'll find these hidden throughout levels or at the end of stages, ready to whisk Sonic away to a secret bonus area.

It looks like the latter of those gold ring varieties are going to play a role in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie.

During the trailer, Tom Wachowski and Tika Sumpter's character (who is still unnamed, apparently) appear to be falling from the top of a tall building, headed for certain death on the street below, when Sonic tosses a large gold ring underneath them. A completely different location is visible on the other side of the ring.

Where would Sonic get such a ring? How is he both freakishly fast and capable of wielding the powers of teleportation? That's something we'll have to learn in the movie, it seems. 

As we mentioned before, we didn't get a whole lot of callbacks to the original Sonic the Hedgehog video game series in this trailer. There weren't many opportunities for us to freeze-frame a moment and pick apart all of the Easter eggs the filmmakers included. But the folks behind the Sonic the Hedgehog movie did give a shout-out to some of Sonic's oldest fans, those who've been watching the hedgehog speed around since he was doing it as a pixelated sprite.

The tagline for the Sonic the Hedgehog film is "EVERY HERO HAS A GENESIS." And if you're a child of the '90s, that hits you right in the feels, doesn't it?

The phrase is a bit of a pun, acknowledging two things: one, that this is Sonic's first starring role in a major film; and two, that Sonic got his start in video games on the Sega Genesis. This Sonic movie looks to be blazing a new path, as far as adherence to the video game universe is concerned. But it's still heartwarming to see that the famous blue hedgehog hasn't forgotten where he came from.

Any fears about the portrayal of Dr. Robotnik were put to rest when we reached the end of the Sonic the Hedgehog trailer and understood what was happening. Suddenly, it all made sense. We were getting a look at an early Ivo Robotnik — still a bit of a jerk, but not quite an evil villain yet. That would come much later. That would come after a whole lot of unsuccessful hedgehog hunting.

At the end of the trailer, we got to see Jim Carrey go full Robotnik, donning the wardrobe we most often associate with the main antagonist in the Sonic video games. And his mustache got a little more wild, too.

We've been theorizing about how Ivo Robotnik ultimately becomes the more evil version of himself, and we think it might have something to do with losing his mind over his constant failure to apprehend Sonic. What else would cause this clean-cut doctor to become such a crazed lunatic? That's just speculation, though. In order to get the full scoop on Dr. Robotnik — and the rest of the story in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie — we'll have to watch it.

We'll be looking forward to doing that this November.