Ugly Sonic references the original, much-abhorred video game character design for 2020's Sonic the Hedgehog. When the trailer was first released in late 2019, fans disapproved so vocally that the character was redesigned to resemble longtime fans' expectations.
Some thought that the film was doomed. However, it later seemed the character could be saved. Ugly Sonic himself wasn't doomed either, as seen in the many memes he's spawned.
The first look at the 2020 take on Sonic came from ad agency Hamagami / Carroll Inc. Images from the company were leaked, revealing what the animated design of the film's version of Sonic looked like. People immediately regarded the design as off and, in one instance, "the stuff of nightmares." However, it wasn't until the film's first trailer came out that the full effect of the design was felt.
On April 30, 2019, the Sonic the Hedgehog trailer was released. The film was promised to be computer-animation-meets-live-action. The trailer simply fell short of expectations and the character's design stood out in a distracting way. Rather than matching the animation of Pokémon's Detective Pikachu, Sonic was punier, weird-looking, and had unsettling human-like teeth, quickly earning him the moniker 'Ugly Sonic' across social media.
The fervent backlash to Sonic's look made it clear that changes were necessary for the film to see commercial success.
Two days after the trailer's release, director Jeff Fowler tweeted and confirmed that major edits would happen to make the film live up to expectations.
These memes enjoyed a moment from the time the trailer came out to beyond the final film's release. In 2022, the meme officially picked up the moniker "Ugly Sonic" with the release of Chip N' Dale Rescue Rangers.
The character appears in the film in a meta form. Ugly Sonic is an actor who played Sonic the Hedgehog in the film's trailer within the Chip N' Dale universe. The cameo was genuinely funny and was a clever way to make use of the scrapped design. However bad the design was originally regarded, fans have found a way to come around and embrace Ugly Sonic.
In May 2019, Felix Kjellberg, who goes by PewDiePie on YouTube, announced he was going to try to draw Sonic the Hedgehog from memory.
“I think what freaked everyone out was the fact that he had human teeth at least that’s what I was bothered by,” said the YouTuber while attempting to draw Sonic. “Why does it look so creepy?” he asked of his own drawing. “I’m trying. I’m scaring myself.”
PewDiePie then tweeted that he would be putting his drawing on eBay. According to Dexerto, bidding on the doodle hit £10 million within hours.
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