Andrew J. Salazar, Co-Owner and Managing Editor of DiscussingFilm, shares the following breakdown of the trailer:
The brief teaser showed Jim Carry’s Dr. Robotnik in his lab, but he’s gained weight and has let the place go to the dumps with it being full of junk. He’s let his hair go crazy and now has a noticeable belly. Robotnik jokingly says that he’s been binging “carbohydrates.” His assistant, Agent Stone (Lee Majdoub), comes in and says, “We found him.” Stone presents Robotnik with one of Sonic’s blue electric quills, and, as he’s done before, Robotnik licks it and tweaks out. He yells, “Let’s do this!” to Stone’s face, which then cuts to a montage of Robotnik getting his hair cut by Stone and getting a fresh look with his game-accurate mustache, bald head, and depraved-looking eyes.
Loading on carbs? Noticeable belly? That’s the classic rotund Eggman I grew up with! Sure, it may not be a full blown roly-poly fat suit that leaves the guy looking spherical – but it sounds like a fun tick in the progression box of live-action Robotnik slowly turning into his game incarnation:
- Goggles? Check.
- Bald? Check.
- Wild Mustache? Check.
- Portly? …Maybe Check?
Andrew then goes on to share the details of the action and escalation of the trailer – the sure fire sizzle that all major action trailers end on:
The Sonic the Hedgehog 3 footage then cuts to Robotnik and an entire gang of henchmen, all armored with laser guns, waking up Shadow the Hedgehog in a cryotube. Shadow opens his eyes, which are bursting with red electric energy. We then cut to Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), and Knuckles (Idris Elba) facing off against Shadow in the middle of a huge city street at night. Shadow is noticeably dead silent as it’s still not revealed who the voice actor is. Knuckles jokes that this new Hedgehog is much stronger than the last one he faced, to which Sonic hilariously replies with, “You Mean me?”
The real money shot of the footage is Shadow the Hedgehog riding a motorcycle in the night sky over some skyscrapers and then using it to bounce himself towards Sonic, who is flying upwards at him at full speed. We see Sonic’s bright blue power clash with Shadow’s bright red energy in the night sky, looking like it’s straight out of an anime. The final shot of the exclusive footage showed Robotnik and Sonic away from a ring portal on an empty road. They both look grumpy and like they can’t stand each other’s company — implying that they’re going to have to work together to defeat Shadow.
Holy heck. We have some serious anime vibes for Shadow, and some delightful Knuckles sass. It’s fun to see that the trailer has not revealed any other animal buddies (such as Amy Rose or Rouge the Bat) and has also taken care to ensure that the voice actor for Shadow is still under wraps, for a further big reveal down the line.
It all sounds suitably ridiculous, which is exactly what the film is required to be. We are still a few months off the December release date, but the initial marketing sounds to be painting the film as every bit the wild and fun experience it needs to be to capture that Sonic Adventure 2 energy.
Are you excited to see Shadow’s live action debut? What about a pudgy Robotnik? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
Massive shoutout to DisussingFilm.
