In the Bargain of the Century, Paramount Spent Only $5 Million to Fix Sonic the Hedgehog‘s CGI

When the newly designed trailer for Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog hit the web on Nov. 12, reactions were pretty much universally glowing—the studio had listened to its fan base and redesigned the inherently terrifying, “realistic” take on Sonic from the ground up. Now resembling his videogame self that is still beloved by generations of kids who grew up playing battered Sega Genesis systems, Sonic seems ready to finally make his big screen debut.

It seems natural to assume that the studio must have had to reach deep into the coffers to pull off that kind of miracle transformation of what is literally the film’s title character, and indeed, some of the early reports claimed that Paramount had spent more than $35 million to do so, bringing the total budget north of $125 million. Paramount, however, says that initial number is bogus: In reality, they redesigned Sonic for what has to be considered the bargain of the century, at only $5 million. It’s an incredibly paltry number to take a character design from “everybody hates this” to “everybody likes this,” if you ask us.

According to Indiewire, costs were low because VFX work on the film was “far from complete” when the initial trailer was released and the decision was made to redesign Sonic. The site’s source also stresses that rumors of the VFX team slaving to finish the design in time are “far from true,” for what that’s worth.

Director Jeff Fowler, in any circumstance, has accepted the whole debacle with some serious grace from the beginning, thanking fans “for the support and the criticism.” His new take on the film, starring Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic, along with Jim Carrey, James Marsden and Tika Sumpter, is scheduled to hit theaters in wide release on Feb. 14, 2020. Check out the new trailer again below.