The 'Sonic the Hedgehog' movie is getting a major change after 'loud, clear' criticism of Sonic's look - here's what's going on

Let's be clear up front: The "Sonic the Hedgehog" movie looks very silly.

That isn't intended as a knock — this is clearly a film aimed at younger audiences.

-It stars a snarky, anthropomorphized hedgehog that can run at nearly 800 miles per hour.
-It features Jim Carrey as the bad guy, Dr. Robotnik, in his silliest role in years.

Though "Sonic the Hedgehog" started life as a marquee video game on the Sega Genesis, the character has outgrown his retro gaming roots to become iconic across generations.

Gaming websites were particularly critical of the movie trailer.

Kotaku described the trailer as "horrific." The headline on Eurogamer read, "The first Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer is even worse than you expected."

Fans on Twitter and Tumblr were similarly critical.

The backlash was swift, loud, and primarily from people who could be described as "very online" — folks who can get the attention of the film's maker, Paramount, and Sega.

"Sonic the Hedgehog" director Jeff Fowler took to Twitter on Thursday afternoon with a message intended to assuage concern over Sonic's look.

"Thank you for the support. And the criticism," he wrote. "The message is loud and clear... you aren't happy with the design & you want changes. It's going to happen. Everyone at Paramount & Sega are fully committed to making this character the BEST he can be... #sonicmovie #gottafixfast"

Given that the movie is expected to arrive in November, Fowler and Paramount still have some time to tweak the look of Sonic before the movie arrives.

One artist on Twitter offered a pretty clear example of the simple changes that could be made to help make Sonic look less bizarrely human:

Left is original screenshot. Right is my rework to make #Sonic more stylized. pic.twitter.com/IhXeAZYlQI