Sonic’s butt, Jim Carrey’s Snidley Whiplash mustache, and “Gangsta’s Paradise” in a preview that we’re not sure if we’re supposed to take seriously.

The Sonic the Hedgehog live-action movie hasn’t been the smoothest production so far. Sony originally obtained the film rights for the Sega video game icon in 2013, but then decided it didn’t want them, opening the door for Paramount to take over in 2017. Then there were the early leaks of Sonic’s character design for the movie, which was so jarring that even Yuji Naka, Sonic’s original creator, asked “Couldn’t they have created a design with better balance than this?”

And now comes the first look at movie Sonic in action, with the official trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvvZaBf9QQI

Despite Naka’s concerns, the movie’s artists aren’t backpedaling on the decision to give Sonic a much more human-like head-to-body size ratio than his video game version, as well as a trimmer midsection.

▼ And here is movie Sonic’s butt.

While Sonic has never had quite the soft and cuddly look of fellow video game star Pikachu, or even former rival Super Mario, the movie version seems to have scrubbed any cuteness from his look, doubling down on his cocky confidence instead.

As for the plot, the trailer shows that the movie is set in the real world, specifically the northwestern United States. Sonic apparently runs so fast he causes a wide-scale blackout, and so the military calls in a scientist, played by Jim Carrey, to capture him.

▼ Given his non-rotund physique, we’re guessing the character will go by Dr. Robotnik, the name used in English versions of the Sonic games, and not the original “Eggman” (although that mustache is definitely Snidely Whiplash).

This scenario is a reversal of the standard Sonic game narrative, in which Sonic is the one going on the attack to stop Robotnik’s schemes, although in the trailer movie Sonic mentions to his San Francisco cop buddy that “Basically it looks like I’m gonna to have to save your planet.”

Aside from running really fast, Sonic is shown tossing one of the franchise’s often-seen golden rings, although this time it opens a teleportation portal which he uses to save his friends. There’s also a scene in which Sonic battles Robotnik on the roof of a skyscraper while the villain hovers about in a flying machine firing missiles.

▼ It’s a gutsy move to have one of your action set pieces be pretty much the same as a boss fight in the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game, widely regarded as being the absolute low-point of the entire 28-year-old franchise. It’s an especially gutsy one to then direct the sequence like it’s a Looney Tunes cartoon.

The trailer is set to Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise,” and it’s hard to tell whether the choice is meant to earnestly convey what a badass Sonic is, or if it’s supposed to be taken as a bit of comedic irony. Actually, you could say the same about most of the trailer, including Carrey’s dismissively intellectual put-downs of the Army major he’s shown talking to, though maybe that fuzzy line between rebelliously cool and clownishly puffed-up is the most appropriate place for a movie based on a franchise that peaked in popularity in the mid ‘90s.

Online commenters haven’t been particularly kind to the trailer either, with reactions including:

“Why do I live in a reality where this exists?”
“That’s the Walmart version of sonic”
“The movie is a sin against nature.”
“’Gotta go fast.’ No Sonic gotta go home you’re drunk.”
“Did…..they even try?”
“And they said the Emoji Movie looked bad…”
“This whole thing just seems like a YouTube parody, I can’t believe this is a real movie.”
“I think Paramount knew that Sonic’s design was weird and now they’re rubbing it in our faces.”
“Dragonball Evolution: ‘”We have the worst live-action cartoon movie.’ Sonic the Hedgehog: ‘Hold my rings!!!!!’”

Before it wraps up, the trailer tells us “Every hero has a genesis,” but if that’s going to be a promise that sequel films are on the way, and not just a nod to Sonic’s Sega Genesis debut hardware, the live-action Sonic movie is going to have to change a lot of minds when it comes out in November.

Images: YouTube/Paramount Pictures
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s hoping no one decides to make a Bonk’s Adventure live-action movie.