Sonic's Horrifying First Movie Design Is Back, But Not Where You'd Expect

The 2020 live-action "Sonic the Hedgehog" movie was an unexpected success. When the first trailer dropped, fans were greeted with an ugly, inaccurate depiction of Sonic, complete with creepy human eyes. After this reveal, many expected the movie to earn a place on the list of worst video game movies of all time alongside the notoriously awful "Super Mario Bros" movie. However, after a massive outcry from fans and a fair share of memes, Paramount Pictures decided to delay the film to completely redesign the character to look more like the Sonic everyone knows and loves.

And it worked, as "Sonic the Hedgehog" was a massive commercial (per Boxofficemojo) and critical success, prompting a sequel in 2022 that made video game movie history. The film industry took notice, and the success of these films even helped revive Hollywood's interest in adapting video games to the big screen, with even Nintendo taking another crack at getting their mascot on the big screen. Like the "Sonic" movie, it received significant backlash upon its reveal.

Although the "ugly" Sonic design is a distant memory for most, this original nightmare-inducing Sonic design isn't gone forever. Instead, "ugly" Sonic recently made a surprising cameo that nobody saw coming.

On May 16th, Disney rebooted the fan-favorite 80s television series "Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers" as a movie on its streaming service Dinsey+. However, although the film shares the same title as the classic TV show, that's about where the similarities end. Instead of being a kid-friendly action cartoon, the reboot relies heavily on a hefty amount of meta-comedy performed by a star-studded cast such as Andy Samberg, Seth Rogen, and J.K. Simmons.

Additionally, the movie's strange combination of live-action and animation drew many comparisons to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." Like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers" features dozens of cameos from famous animated characters such as Peter Pan and Flounder from "The Little Mermaid." To the surprise of many, the reboot featured a cameo from "ugly" Sonic.

Sources everywhere have been mentioning spotting a cameo from Sonic in the new movie, but it's the original movie version, with comedian Tim Robinson providing a voice. Of course, this was only possible because Paramount produced both films. Unsurprisingly social media exploded with reactions to the news that ugly Sonic was in the movie. Although the cameo isn't a lengthy one, it's nice to know that Paramount has found comedy in its failed Sonic design. To see how and why "ugly" Sonic gets woven into the plot of "Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers," curious fans will need to see the movie for themselves.