How old mascot Sonic became a movie star

• Sonic the film

  had been the surprise card of 2020, so it returns on Wednesday with a second film, while a third and a series are already planned.

• After participating in Sega's greatness in the 1990s, the blue hedgehog lost the mascot war to Mario.

• Even if he still sells games, his return as a figure of pop culture could be done not on home consoles but in cinemas.

Sonic 2 the film

tumbles Wednesday in all the rooms of France.

And yes, a first

movie exists, released just two years ago.

He had also thwarted all predictions and outpaced the competition, winning at the top of the box office.

In France, with more than two million entries, and in the United States, where it has become the most profitable video game adaptation of all time.

Before

.

However, Sonic was not and still is not in a position of strength in pop culture in general, and in the video game in particular which saw him born but also lose the war against Mario.

How then to explain this return of hype, with already a third film and a derived series announced?

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"Sonic is for the cool kids!"

»

Author of the book

, at Third Editions, Benjamin Benoit recalls that Sonic was created in a commercial logic, in the midst of an internal war between Nintendo and Sega: "We had to find a rival to this pot-bellied plumber, sympathetic but neutral.

And replace this poor Alex Kidd who did not impose himself as a Sega mascot.

“However, the character of Sonic is effective, he has the answer, a sagacity, a cool attitude, and this from the home screen of the first game. Sonic, it's for cool kids!

The character participates in making the greatness of the Megadrive and Sega, and imposes itself as a figure of the 1990s with several sequels, animated series, comics or even Happy Meal menus at McDonald's.

But after a decade, the franchise is struggling to go the distance, like Sega faced with increased competition, with Nintendo, always, but also Sony and Microsoft.

According to Benjamin Benoit, the last very good Sonic game dates back

released in 2001 on Dreamcast, Sega's ultimate console.

The first movie legitimized Sonic on the big screen

Sonic the film

then arrives in a strange context, where the hero has just celebrated his 25th birthday with the diptych

but where he is not really expected by the general public.

He is even feared after the controversy around his look, changed in disaster after criticism from fans.

But that's not just context.

“This is one of the last pre-Covid films, comments the blue hedgehog specialist.

He had very little competition.

And the movie isn't really an adaptation of the games.

“Sonic's universe involves green plains, deserts, steampunk, or none of that in the film.

It is more like a

, a very American format, between Sonic and a second-class actor who live adventures.

»

An approach that we also find in

, as if to better legitimize the presence of these video game heroes on a cinema screen.

Benjamin Benoit thus hopes to find the promise of a video game universe in the second Sonic film, even if the adaptations of games into films may be a dead end, “because the mechanics are not compatible”.

At worst, there will always be Jim Carrey's

having fun like a little madman as Doctor Robotnik.

The character now belongs to the fans

"Sonic is and remains a video game franchise," adds the author of

.

She will never be talked about as much as when a good game comes out.

The next opus,

presents itself as an

à la

, but will not benefit from the exposure of the film since it is planned for the end of 2022. of the franchise comes from Sega.

Sonic doesn't really belong to them anymore but belongs to the fans.

The much-loved

, for example, is the work of developer Christian "Taxman" Whitehead, known for his ports and

of the series.

It even eclipsed the most official

Sega's

film director

Jeff Fowler is a self-proclaimed fan, listens to the community, and has worked on a Sonic game before, which goes to show that the franchise is in good hands, at least. At the movie theater.

It is also on the big screen that the return match between Sonic and Mario will be played, since after a

of sinister memory in 1993, the paunchy plumber soon returns in an animated film produced by the Illumination studio, behind the successes of

and

.

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