UPDATE: Call-in Date Pushed Up
Support has gained in the effort to bring what is presently a suspended Sonic fan film to official fruition.
It’s not Richard Kuta directly fronting the effort. But with his apparent initial blessing, it is another Sonic fan, Sonicthehedgehog360, organizing an effort to place a mass call-in to Sega of Japan beginning December 1st. (11/06 Update: The date has been moved up from December 5th to December 1st, which is a business day.) That, at least, is the call to arms plastered on the call-in’s official hub. Presently a showcase of fan works, the site promises to have details on how you can contact Sega of Japan and voice your support for Kuta’s work.
“I really saw some great elements in Kuta’s movie. Storyboards, story elements, voice samples, and the feel of the movie really hit me,” the organizer said on why he’s moving forward with the effort, even after Kuta indefinitely suspended development on the fan film. “I just couldn’t let a project go to waste from troll attacks.”
When the day comes, participants will get instructions on how to call in to SoJ via their computer. In the interim, Sonicthehedgehog360 is using the page as an outlet for other fan works, including music and art, with the first in a series of live Internet performances scheduled for next Saturday at noon, eastern time (and not this Sunday, as previously reported.)
It is a Kuta Aid, of sorts–even after Kuta swore off the project.
“I instructed (Sonicthehedgehog360) to cancel the call-in since the project is dead,” Kuta wrote in a comment on this site yesterday morning. “I sincerely have given up on this project and made my departure from the Sonic community.”
But Sonicthehedgehog360 says in an E-Mail to TSSZ News he did seek initial approval from Kuta to organize the effort–likely before the aforementioned comments were made. He also said that while Kuta has no involvement in the organization itself, there are context clues in the effort.
“The call-in site being ‘on’ says something about the status of the movie,” the organizer said, noting interest has piqued from hundreds of Sonic fans.
If the effort does make it to December 5th, we will follow up with those call-in details for those interested. But if nothing else, the effort shows that even if Kuta abandons the notion of a Sonic film, there are plenty of others willing to pick up where he left off.














“The greater the truth the greater the libel.” ~Ellenborough, Lord
“Nor do they trust their tongue alone, but speak a language of their own; can read a nod, a shrug, a look, far better than a printed book; convey a libel in a frown, and wink a reputation down.” ~ Jonathan Swift
“He’s not the Messiah. He’s a very naughty boy!”
And again, I’ve had to edit / blow away posts on this matter.
So again, I will remind everyone that personal attacks or otherwise inflammatory items will be tossed, and I will begin with IP bans if it continues. This includes things that I don’t find related to the story, like personal photos or references to them. We are not AED. Don’t test my tolerance.
-T
Kind of makes me glad I ditched the blue hedgehog a very long time ago before this generation war began. Anyway, I have no idea why this “movie” is being made with characters from SaTAM. Sonic fans these days don’t even know that show existed nor have they even played the 3 games on the Genesis. Honestly, why would a Sonic fan today care about characters from a Saturday Morning show that was on before they were even born? If this “movie” had the recent characters from the newer Sonic games, then Sega might take interest.
I’m sorry to say that this “movie” and the call in is just a waste of time. Why would some big video game company from Japan want to take interest in a Sonic the Hedgehog movie with characters that were not made by them? Sega would only make something using characters that are in the games and not some Saturday morning cartoon from the 90’s.
@A Knothole Resident:
I know that you don’t think to highly of Michael Bay and how in your mind, he ruined Transformers for you. I’m a fan of the original 80’s cartoon, but I did enjoy the 2007 movie, but I was glad I didn’t see the sequel. About if Hasbro is regretting letting Bay make the movies, I would like to say that it’s all about the money. As long as the movies are Transformers, people will eat it up and spend money to see it. Quite honestly AKR, maybe if you used your talents on something else instead of some Saturday morning cartoon and a boring comic, you could have been successful and not have to deal with all this hate.
@Sonichedgehog360
You’re really wasting your time with this call-in. Sega is concerned with the Sonic universe that they have made with the newer games and the Anime, not looking back with an old Saturday morning cartoon and that comic that really needs to end. I mean, who reads that anyway?
@ Kuta: Uh, no it’s not imperative that someone follow everything a franchise has produced in order to draw in fans. Look at TMNT – a lot of what sold back then (to kids) was the cartoon and comics that Archie Comics adapted from the more graphic, darker Eastman and Laird series. As much as I (a girl, mind you) was okay with the cartoons, I was thrown for a loop when the first live action movie came out because it seemed…off. Splinter was originally a rat instead of a guy turned into a rat, the turtles cursed, and there was no Bee Bop, Rock Steady, or Crang floating around in that Technodome base they had in the cartoons.
Little things like that and later finding out that the Archie comics/cartoon was just some watered down trip got on my nerves, just as you’ll probably alienate the fanbase by claiming this encompasses everything Sonic. There’s a difference between paying homage to something – an example would be how the current TMNT cartoon sometimes has a character running around in an outfit from the original cartoon, or look like another character from it – to distinctively catering towards one side of the fandom. The most I’ve seen you do since you announced this project how many years ago was simply toss in Metal Sonic to appease the game fanbase. I might think he’s cool, but to me your project is mostly still a bastardization of that Sonic origins story from way back and SatAM.
Also, Mysterious Guy Y said it best – you’ll stretch the truth just to get more support for this thing. You’ll gall SatAM fans on by saying its set in that while going somewhere else that prefers the game continuity and say that it encompasses all elements (when it’s just really an awkwardly placed Metal Sonic amidst a SATam locale backdrop.) Oh, and you gave Sonic and Tails some sort of compromise between their SatAM designs and next gen ones. D:
@ John – He only has 8-9 people signed up for this call in? Ha ha. Such an accomplishment lol.
“This is funny… I could make a documentary about all the opposition there was in making this Sonic movie, and probably make a ton of money. Trolls, keep up the good work! I’ll have a juicy documentary to make if this movie makes it!”
To be honest, I’d actually prefer to see THAT movie. I’d imagine it’d be a lot more interesting.
@A Knothole Resident: The presence of SatAM Robotnik destroys your (unimaginably slim) chances. That design is little known and hasn’t been used in forever. Not even the Archie comics use it. Get him outta there!
Well that makes 2 consecutive new post that I’ve made that have been deleted.
Lets see if this comment can avoid deletion by staying strictly on topic.
In my opinion this call in is a foolish idea, that will only end up hurting this movie project.
Unlike some people here, all I have IS negativity, and I don’t mind that one iota. Apologies if that offends anyone, but I seriously don’t want nor see the occurrence of a Sonic movie based on a ten-years-dead cartoon series (even disregarding the successful comic book spin-off which still prints to this day), when it directly conflicts with the canon of the main continuity, the game series (even if the games’ plots have, recently, been absolute trash at worst, corny as @#$% at best). It just doesn’t make sense; you’re catering to what is, for all intents and purposes, the vast minority of Sonic fans, and fan-service on THIS kind of scale doesn’t happen to such a small portion. Let alone one from absolute nobodies, particularly when big-name people, like Ken Penders and DreamWorks, have been trying to do the same thing with roughly the same success as I’ve described.
It won’t happen. It SHOULDN’T happen. If there WAS going to be a movie, it should be one based on the primary series (the games), but even then, the writing of that series must pick up the slack before it can happen (because the plots of the games lately are nowhere NEAR the level of a quality movie).
Who was the moron that told him he shouldn’t call in a saturday? God damn it!
@GT
He would have just tried again on the following Monday, besides I kinda want to see the results of this, they should be hilarious. The kid running this thing didn’t even know about the call time limit of the original service he was using. And the one he’s using now seems kinda iffy about when it charges you.
The whole concept of contacting (pestering) Sega for this movie is ridiculous in the first place. Made even more foolish that a call in is the worse way to go about it, a mass snail mail in would be more effective. But they won’t use that method because there’s no way Kuta could get any praise or attention. Rest assured that when December 1st comes, Kuta will be at that site all day, fishing for compliments and getting his ego stroked.
Well, I’ve removed the SatAM episodes, and not because of your request MYG. I did because I’m going to do what’s right, not follow the Rich’s bad example from the past where he sold DVDs on eBay. Even though thousands of people upload cartoons to YouTube all the time, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to keep my good name. I’m not going to blow that away even if this was for an Academy Award-winning script. Don’t even bother me with the “oh, he’s a flip-flop… blah, blah, blah.” I know what choice I needed to make, I repented, and I made it.
Now, I’m deeply angered by the smut-throwing here. If you don’t want the movie made, then sit back and let the thing fail on its own. If the movie doesn’t have the polish, it won’t make it… got it? People working for Sega will figure it out if it’s worth it or not, and will live with it. They’re trained professionals with more than enough experience to figure things out.
@Sonic360
Yes, you are correct when you say that the people working for Sega are trained professionals. The same trained professionals who decided to pass on this movie a couple years back. So the professional response would be not to pitch the same movie to them again, by staging a scripted call in.
But it’s not the same movie, if you mean the script. It’s like 4th draft if I remember correctly. Plus, after waiting a number of years, it’s logical to try to re-submit the idea. If it’s not worth it, let ‘em deny it. I don’t care. I actually liked Night of the Werehog, and that was at least something near-cinematic quality.
By the way, thanks for not holding the SatAM video upload thing against me. That was a dumb thing to do, and I’m not going to make the same dumb mistakes other people have made. Plus, there’s plenty of Sonic sites that could be closed down from the illegal content… “Fast” *cough* “Feet” “Sonic” *cough “Stadium”.
@Sonic360
Should you really be saying that about a forum that you are a member of? Also, the reason why it doesn’t make sense to re-pitch this movie is because in this case, the studio specially told the “director” not to contact them again about it. Why else do you think that YOU have to organize this event? If this wasn’t true, Kuta himself would be constantly pitching this movie over and over again like he did up until 2009. He also wouldn’t be hiding behind another studio in hopes that Sega doesn’t find out he is involved. (I’m referring to his most recent pitch that he claimed he made)
I actually don’t mind TSS having that content on their site. It’s a fan collaboration, so there’s going to be various people with differing standards working on there. TSS is still nice, and has a nice professional look to it. At the very least, Sega likes their Summer of Sonic events and sends them promo material all the time. I’ll just stick to subjects that are liked there since anything that has “sonic: SotCE” tagged on it are immediately banned, previous to me posting on there last week’s topic btw.
Shoot, did someone answer my question but then it got deleted?
I can answer for you. Jealousy. I don’t understand jealousy myself, but the trolls will do all they can to make you think that they’re good, honest people. That’s definitely not the case, though. Don’t believe them, no matter how good they twist the facts, or lie. It’s quite obvious if the project wasn’t any good, the trolls would let it fail on its own.
@ Sonic360 – A good person tries to follow through on what they say about 99.9% of the time. I can’t say Kuta’s a good person given how much he’s flip flopped about the production status of this project along with details attached to it. As a Sonic fan, I am by no means jealous of Kuta. If I was truly that jealous I’d go out and make my own movie or something of equal merit within the community to get the cred and respect that he wants so badly. However I am irate, tired, and just plain sick of hearing about this project every chance he gets a little soapbox to rant about the hate or hype it up with what little progress he’s made. He claims to have been doing this for what? 5-6 years? 10 years? And all he has to show for it is some 40 second trailer and a load of drama attached to it. If he really wanted it done, it’d have been done, or if it was really too much he’d have given up and moved on like he claimed last week.
Then again, I’m the type of fan perfectly content with drawing fan art, writing fanfiction, or even possibly submitting a portfolio to Archie Comics to pencil stories for one of their Sonic comics. While I’m still working on it I’m not posting about it everywhere I go in as a means to get the cred/respect if I did get the latter. In fact, acting like that serves to hinder my focus, not to mention the very real possibility that I could be turned down.
Whereas I’m being more realistic towards what I can accomplish, Kuta hasn’t and apparently doesn’t acknowledge the fact that he can/has failed in getting this thing made official. Those C&D notices should have been indication enough, but if the both of you really want to go there with this call in, all I can say is be prepared for the very real possibility of having this fall on deaf ears, legal action, etc.