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The first Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie trailer is here… and it’s endearingly goofy
The world has been on an absolutely wild ride ever since we first learned about the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie. At the end of last year, we were forced to contemplate the shadowy specter of the character’s cartoonishly massive legs. And back in March, an accidental leak of the mascot’s visage left us all scratching our heads.
But now, at long last, Paramount Pictures has finally unveiled the first trailer trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie. Let’s dig in.
First off, Sonic himself is just as weird looking as the teaser poster and leaked images lead us to believe. But Jim Carrey is there doing his Jim Carrey thing as Dr. Robotnik, so that should provide a lot of goofy fun. And you’ll notice that the whole thing is bizarrely soundtracked by Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” (Even though the rapper never shows up on screen, I’m not sure he would have seemed all that out of place if he had). There’s also James Marsden playing a Normal Human Policeman and a pretty decent activity tracker joke.
Also, “Every Hero Has A Genesis” might be the cleverest tagline ever.
Add it all up and you get a trailer that feels almost as endearingly goofy as the first Detective Pikachu trailer. I’m not sure if the whole movie will work, but I’m definitely interested in finding out for myself when Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie opens in theaters on November 8.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro
Tagged Sonic the Hedgehog
Blizzard files trademark application for Diablo television series
While Diablo IV continues to remain frustratingly out of reach, it looks like Blizzard is continuing on with their plan to produce “multiple Diablo projects” in the future.
On March 8, the publisher filed an application with the United State Patent and Trademark Office for a Diablo trademark related to “Downloadable films and movies featuring narratives based on a video game and provided via a video-on-demand service.”
By itself, this filing doesn’t mean much. But when combined with the persistent rumors that Blizzard is teaming up with Netflix (you know, the biggest “video-on-demand service” in the world) to produce an animated adaptation of Diablo, it starts looking a lot more likely.
Hopefully Blizzard has something to announce about a Diablo animated series (and Diablo IV, for that matter) soon.
Princeton Review names University of Southern California the Best Game Design School for 2019
The 2019 Game Developers Conference kicks off in just a few days, and like clockwork, The Princeton Review has used this opportunity to roll out their ranking of the Top Schools For Game Design in 2019.
Once again, the University of Southern California topped all undergraduate programs and was ranked #3 on the list of graduate programs. Meanwhile, New York University climbed atop the list of graduate programs for the first time ever and held onto its #2 ranking among undergraduate programs.
“The schools that made our lists this year have stellar programs for aspiring game designers and developers,” said Robert Franek, the Editor-in-Chief of The Princeton Review. “Their faculties are outstanding and their facilities are awesome. Just as impressive: their alumni include many of the video game industry’s most prominent artists, designers, developers, and entrepreneurs.”
A large number of schools retained their place among the top Game Design programs for 2019 including Becker College in Worcester (#3 in undergraduate and #11 in graduate), DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond (#4 and #6), Drexel University in Philadelphia (#6 and #10), and the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester (#8 and #7).
You can find the Princeton Review’s full ranking of Game Design programs for 2019 after the break. (more…)
Here’s the first Teaser Trailer for the Doom movie reboot Doom: Annihilation
Universal Studios has been promising/threatening to release a new film based on id Software’s Doom for years. But even though original stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Karl Urban, and Rosamund Pike all became massive stars in the intervening years since 2005’s Doom, the studio decided to go the reboot route when they officially announced the new adaptation last April.
Now we know that it’ll be titled Doom: Annihilation and that it looks to be a slightly more faithful adaptation of the game franchise. A newly released Teaser Trailer gives us a glimpse at a platoon of space marines (though no clearcut shot of the Doomguy), a roving band of demonic imps, goretastic special effects, and the promise that unethical scientific shenanigans opened a “Portal to Hell.”
However, the film also looks to have a much lower budget than 2005’s Doom, and that’s because Doom: Annihilation will be released direct to DVD/Blu-ray and streaming services sometime this Fall.
And just in case you were wondering what the developers at id Software think of the new film, they rather bluntly informed a fan that “We’re not involved with the movie” on Twitter.
BRACE YOURSELF… This is what Sonic will look like in Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie
The teaser poster for the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie was WEIRD. Sega’s long-running mascot was only shown in silhouette, but Sonic’s gargantuan size and ridiculously muscular thighs were a far cry from the portly cartoon character we all grew up with.
Well strap in, because things are about to get EVEN WEIRDER.
Hamagami/Carroll, one of the marketing agencies working with Sega and Paramount on Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, recently uploaded the first image of the character’s cinematic counterpart to their official website. This version of Sonic doesn’t seem as nightmarish as the shadow figure from the original poster, and it looks like the film’s producers even listened to fans and toned down his bulging muscles. But that said, something still seems really off about this image… even if I can’t quite put my finger on what that something is.
Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie will star Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic, James Marsden as a sheriff who introduces him to the real world, and Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. The movie will open in theaters on November 8, and Paramount is likely getting ready to release the first trailer soon.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro
Tagged Sonic the Hedgehog
Dark Horse will publish The Art of Cuphead this October
Cuphead‘s unique blend of vintage-style animation and ultra-hard platform shooting helped make it a huge hit back in 2017. An expansion, The Delicious Last Course, is slated to launch later this year, and fans will also get to page through the game’s gorgeous art thanks to The Art of Cuphead.
Published by Dark Horse, the 160-page hardcover will feature a “curated collection of artwork designed to capture the vintage look and feel of the Thirties”:
Peek at the early concepts, production work, and early ideas that went into the making of Cuphead’s characters, bosses, stages and more. Relive the most cherished and challenging moments of Cuphead and Mugman’s adventure to reclaim their souls from The Devil, all in a way you’ve never seen before! Guided by personal insights from game directors Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, take a one-of-a-kind trip through the Inkwell Isles and discover an all-new appreciation for Cuphead’s animation style and challenging retro gameplay.
The Art of Cuphead will be available in bookstores on October 22.
20th Century Fox used Alien: Isolation’s cutscenes and “new animations” to create a brand new Alien movie
Sega and The Creative Assembly have teamed up with 20th Century Fox to give Alien: Isolation a second lease on life. The 2014 game, which took place between Alien and Aliens, has been reedited into a feature-length digital series that gives fans another chance to experience the story of Amanda Ripley’s search for her missing mother:
Fifteen years after her mother disappeared on the deep space towing ship Nostromo, Amanda Ripley travels to a remote space station that may hold clues to her mother’s fate. But disaster strikes as she arrives at her destination.
The series will be available exclusively through IGN and will feature “a combination of new animations and original cinematic cutscenes from the game.” As part of this partnership, the website spoke to the animators about the extensive lengths they went to to create these new animations:
“[We knew] that we would need to change the POV from first person, where the player is the character, to one where you are now watching Amanda Ripley navigate within the world,” [Fabien DuBois, a Director at animation studio DVgroup] said. “We then made storytelling choices based on the idea that we would be going deeper into Amanda Ripley’s psychology – to discover her demons, her fears, her motivations. The final series is comprised of three types of scenes: brand-new scenes that are rendered from scratch, cinematics taken directly from the game, and first-person scenes from the game we re-shot, edited and inserted a CG model of Amanda Ripley. Viewers will get to enjoy an exciting narrative that doesn’t repeat the Alien: Isolation story, but completes it.”
All seven episodes of the Alien: Isolation digital series are now available, and the first episode has been embedded above.
This “Fan Animation” of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is amazing
It’s been several decades since Nintendo tried their hand at an animated series based on The Legend of Zelda, but several fans recently made a very compelling case for why they should try again.
The “Fan Animation” embedded above was recently uploaded by Qianya Yin and Youyang Kong. Based on a short scene from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the dialogue-free film features Link doing battle with a pair of Guardians and rescuing an adorable Korok. It’s impressive, very slick, and the perfect way to spend two minutes on a lazy holiday afternoon.
Those rumors of a live-action series from Netflix may have turned out to be a bust, but I would very happily sit down to watch an entire series of animated episodes created by this duo.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild