Well here’s a face I never thought, or wanted, to see again, the original Ugly Sonic design for the Sonic The Hedgehog Movie has returned as a minor character in the recently released Disney movie Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers.
Needless to say, the internet reacted over the weekend.
Ugly Sonic appears in an extended cameo throughout the film. Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers is something off a spiritual successor to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as it takes place in a world where animated characters are real and the cartoons they star in are just filmed they’ve acted in.
‘Ugly Sonic’ as he’s referred to, appears at the beginning of the film at a con that Dale is attending, attempting to get some clout and notoriety. He states that one day, he’s going to get his big break and appear as the star of a film or TV show. This is all said while giving us flattering slow-mo shots of his freakish human teeth. He appears a couple more times in the movie but we won’t spoil anything.
Ugly Sonic was the original design of Sonic that was to be used in the first Sonic The Hedgehog movie but was changed to the current more game accurate design following backlash on the internet.
As you can imagine the character’s return has seen netizens marked with confusion, fear, and a lot of memes and fan art. Many have remarked that they somehow made him even uglier than the original trailer.
The return of Ugly Sonic. #UglySonic #ChipNDaleRescueRangers pic.twitter.com/fZmkQy5zPG
— Wildcat1999 (I Stand With Ukraine 🇺🇦) (@WildcatME1999) May 21, 2022
Just a reminder that Disney made negotiations with Paramount to put the old movie Sonic Design in the Chip and Dale movie.
This is real, btw.#uglysonic pic.twitter.com/AjTOuY7IEq
— Cory G. (@g_cory) May 20, 2022
That shot when an anime character is about to go insane. pic.twitter.com/mSBNrLmhPA
— Scott Frerichs 🏳️🌈 (@KaiserNeko) May 20, 2022
I have no regrets 🧍🏻♀️ pic.twitter.com/HPtRad5ONr
— BebeV.E.M (@bebev_e) May 21, 2022
Chip ‘N Dale is pretty interesting as not only are there many Disney characters but a lot of third-party IPs as well. In an article with Polygon, the film’s director Akiva Schaffer said that he wanted Chip ‘N Dale to be a celebration of all animation, and that “You don’t want it to feel like an ad for Disney Plus.”
He said that it was difficult getting third-party properties into the film and commends the legal team for managing to get so many in the movie.
“The [characters] you see in the movie — sometimes we had to try two or three other things before we found one that could be licensed,” Schaffer says. “It was a process. […] You don’t usually come out of a movie and want to thank the lawyers, but we genuinely owe the Disney lawyers for being team players.
Well, it looks like Ugly Sonic has gotten the fame he was looking for, even if it’s exactly how he expected.
Not gonna lie, I kinda want to see him fight Neco Arc in a duel to death but perhaps we’re not ready for that just yet.