The Sonic The Hedgehog movie became infamous when fan outcry led to a complete re-work of Sonic’s design, though the end product was generally well-received, earning the best opening weekend of any video game movie ever. A newly released previsualization for the film has taken us back to the days of Sonic’s overly realistic original design–but also shows some of the hidden work that goes into these films.
Previsualisation is a filmmaking technique where rudimentary animation is used to map out whole scenes of a movie, especially those where CG and live filmmaking are mixed together. The technique was first used extensively by George Lucas for his Star Wars prequels, of which a number of previs scenes were later released as deleted scenes and bonus content.
The Sonic previs in question was released by artist Ellery Ortiz, who has previously worked on blockbusters like Aquaman and Terminator: Dark Fate, and currently works as a previs artist for Blizzard Entertainment. With the previs meant to serve as a blueprint for the production process, Ortiz’s sequences were made long before Sonic was re-designed–with the original design looking even more unnerving in its low-res previs form.
Other early animations for the Sonic movie have been unleashed upon the world before this, including this deleted scene showing baby Sonic in all his PS2-era graphical glory.
