Why does Sega have more control over the comic than the movie?

[StarWarsSonic]

So I heard Sega set rules on what characters Can’t appear in the IDW series (Infinite) yet Paramount had free reign when making the Sonic movie. Take for example Sonic’s awful early design which they allowed.

i was just wondering why they have control of what can/can’t appear in the comic but don’t have any control over what happens with the movie franchise.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Different licensing agreement.

They gave more creative control to Paramount than they did to IDW would be the most likely explanation.

[DabigRG]

Because Hollywood is one giant clique.

[PublicEnemy1]

1 hour ago, Badnik Mechanic said:

Different licensing agreement.

They gave more creative control to Paramount than they did to IDW would be the most likely explanation.

And given what happened with Paramount, there's little doubt that SEGA's probably gonna be more controlling there, too.

[Rabid-Coot]

Movies cost significantly more to make and when you're throwing that kind of money down you want control.

[StarWarsSonic]

For the sequel would you guys prefer that all creativity remains solely in Paramount’s hands? or would you prefer Sega having more creative input into the story and characters?

 

[iambitter21]

2 hours ago, StarWarsSonic said:

For the sequel would you guys prefer that all creativity remains solely in Paramount’s hands? or would you prefer Sega having more creative input into the story and characters?

as much as it pains me to say this, paramount should have all rights for the creativity for the sonic movie sequel. they proved that they can listen to the criticism's of the detractors of the first trailers. if sonic team tried to do it, the fans wouldn't be happy one bit, especially due to it's constantly souring reputation nowadays.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

3 hours ago, StarWarsSonic said:

For the sequel would you guys prefer that all creativity remains solely in Paramount’s hands? or would you prefer Sega having more creative input into the story and characters?

 

That is fucking hard to say. Though I might lean more towards Paramount having more creativity since they actually listened to criticism when they fucked up and we’re quick as hell to fix their first attempt upon the initial trailer’s poor reception. Were it Sega, they would’ve dragged their feet or ignored things altogether.

I don’t mind alternate takes on Sonic so long as it well written and interesting, and those that aren’t—like Sonic Boom—tend to not bother me so long as they don’t force other takes to follow their direction at their creative expense.

[Sega DogTagz]

The goal of the comic and movie also weighs heavily in this discussion. 

Right from the start, when Sega moved the licence from Archie to IDW, it was made very clear that the new series was to be more in line with the games. The storyline launch point of issue #1 was a direct continuation of Forces. Everything in the comics has to get vetted and approved by Sega beforehand, because it has to near seamlessly integrate with their vision of the canon. We have seen the results of that with Tangle and Whisper already. Because everything was played so close to the vest, those two haven't been held back from bleeding over into back into Sega. They already have merch in the Sega shop and the have backflowed into the mobile games. 

The movie was always slated to be its own thing. Its own take on the character. Crafting its own canon and making its own origin story. It never needed to align itself with Sega's vision any more than making Sonic blue and fast. As much as Sega may want control, creating a solid end result is more important than creating something that aligns with their own vision, particularly so from Paramounts POV. When the deal was struck, it was likely made clear that the creatives had the final say so on just about every decision. Sega couldn't even stop them from butchering the main character on their first attempt. 

 

 

[Badnik Mechanic]

Regarding the paramount deal.

 

It's obvious Sega handed them utterly loads of creative rights. People in Twitter were complaining that the official Sonic Twitter didn't promote the movie.

 

But the sonic movie account was promoting it. Something tells me part of the agreement meant Sega surrendered a lot of rights including the promotion and even creation of merchandise for the movie.

[Rabbitearsblog]

I've been wondering about this too on why Sega has more control over the comics than the movies.  I guess because Hollywood plays by different rules when it comes to having licensing rights to certain franchises.

Also, I personally would rather have Paramount have full control over the sequel and any other Sonic the Hedgehog movies since they seem to care more about the characters than SEGA does.  And as long as they continue to craft great stories and develop the characters well, then I will be happy with whatever Paramount has in store for Sonic movies wise.

[VO.SUPER]

Movie studios rarely play by the rules of their licensee because the medium is so mainstream. Especially in the case of a property like Sonic who hasn't had the most consistent reputation; a lot of freedom was probably a big trade off SEGA made just to get this deal off the ground with Sony originally.

[SBR2]

Once again I gotta say I think people exaggerate the intensity of the mandates. They're honestly pretty simple things like "Keep the Characters in character" and stuff like that. 

[calamityCons]

I disagree with that, @SBR2. The mandates have often conflicted with the presented canon of the games. This is most egregious with the, “Sonic’s world has no money,” mandate. Which is blatantly false as the Chaotix are explicitly motivated by earning enough money to pay rent. 

[Styx_Linoone]

IDW are very different to Archie. They don't play by the mandates because it wasn't set directly on them unlike the folks at ACP. I don't know what this means for the purged characters like Shade, Scourge or any other Penders creation, but IDW are probably aware they won't go anywhere near them.

[Multikaris]

I believe that the comics, much like the web shorts and such, are considered "advertisments" for the Modern Sonic, while the Film, like Boom, is considered a unique universe.

[Scritch the Cat]

22 hours ago, SBR2 said:

Once again I gotta say I think people exaggerate the intensity of the mandates. They're honestly pretty simple things like "Keep the Characters in character" and stuff like that. 

Well, be that as it may, we have an episode on record demonstrating that Paramount had leeway.  “Don’t make Sonic an uncanny valley monstrosity” probably isn’t a strict mandate; it may be so self-evident to many that it was never a mandate at all, but someone at Paramount described a moment of showing their movie Sonic design to someone at SEGA, the SEGA person being skeptical, and Paramount staying the course anyway.  Either SEGA didn’t have the authority to override them, or they opted not to use it, and it wasn’t until the design released and almost everyone agreed with SEGA in on it that Paramount opted to change.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

On 7/16/2020 at 11:09 PM, SBR2 said:

Once again I gotta say I think people exaggerate the intensity of the mandates. They're honestly pretty simple things like "Keep the Characters in character" and stuff like that. 

Given how Sega mandated how Shadow should be presented in IDW in a manner that really didn’t sit right with a lot of people, I think people are justified in being wary of the mandates.

Nevermind that they also mandated Two Worlds, which I’m sure many would’ve rather IDW not do to begin with. Rather hard to say they’re simple over keeping characters in character only for them to come off as contradicting for certain other characters.

I’d like to give some benefit of the doubt, but Sega’s track record isn’t really good to take much value in what they say and intend.

[Eurisko]

Licensing contracts and such like and what parameters are set within them.

Think of it like Spider-Man's movie rights, Sony pretty much gets the final say on what happens with Spider-Man on the big screen even though Marvel/Disney own the character.

[mechagical]

My thoughts on SEGA's direct control upon the comics are them settling for a more unified direction with the games. The IDW canon is explicitly stated to be the continuation of Forces, and that too was a result of a think tank between Ian Flynn and Co. with SEGA and the Sonic brand team. The reason for this is most likely to build a new cohesive world where everything comes together, like how Sonic Adventure cemented the Japanese canon to be the one true canon, at least for the games. On the other hand, there was still lots of different interpretations of Sonic and friends in comics. 

The mythical "SEGA Mandates" thing is, in my opinion, is just a way to let SEGA control over the characterization of their existing characters, not necessarily about the story or even new characters. This goes for the movie too. In a recent interview of Iizuka and Fowler by a Japanese media, Iizuka said that Sonic's portrayal in the movie was closely supervised by SEGA and is only finalized if SEGA agrees with it. That means SEGA is okay with Sonic flossing, by the way. This is definitely a new mindset over the brand, but who knows what the future has in store.  

Original interview: https://www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999905/20200611138/
Translated: https://aawesomepenguin.tumblr.com/post/621693201307271168/the-sonic-movie-was-always-one-of-my-dreams

 

[Rabbitearsblog]

On 7/19/2020 at 12:46 AM, mechagical said:

My thoughts on SEGA's direct control upon the comics are them settling for a more unified direction with the games. The IDW canon is explicitly stated to be the continuation of Forces, and that too was a result of a think tank between Ian Flynn and Co. with SEGA and the Sonic brand team. The reason for this is most likely to build a new cohesive world where everything comes together, like how Sonic Adventure cemented the Japanese canon to be the one true canon, at least for the games. On the other hand, there was still lots of different interpretations of Sonic and friends in comics. 

The mythical "SEGA Mandates" thing is, in my opinion, is just a way to let SEGA control over the characterization of their existing characters, not necessarily about the story or even new characters. This goes for the movie too. In a recent interview of Iizuka and Fowler by a Japanese media, Iizuka said that Sonic's portrayal in the movie was closely supervised by SEGA and is only finalized if SEGA agrees with it. That means SEGA is okay with Sonic flossing, by the way. This is definitely a new mindset over the brand, but who knows what the future has in store.  

Original interview: https://www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999905/20200611138/
Translated: https://aawesomepenguin.tumblr.com/post/621693201307271168/the-sonic-movie-was-always-one-of-my-dreams

 

It does make me wonder that with the movie's financial success, will this cause SEGA to change some of their mandates to fit in with the movie or will they keep the mandates the same?

[Mobotropolis]

Archie had more creative freedom in the early days of Archie Sonic -- and look what happened. 

Even before the legal nightmare that lead to The Pendering Archie Sonic was a disaster. From introducing hundreds of characters that were not suitable to use elsewhere in the franchise to making multi-issue story arcs that did not involve the game characters to a tonal shift from an action comic to something teetering between a political and romantic drama. SEGA tightened the leash to stop that from ever happening again.

The Movie took some artistic liberties when it came to Sonic and Robotnik's design and backstory -- but was still about in-line with what I expected Sega to allow them to do under their watchful eye. It was Sonic X: The Movie to me. I'm sure they had some guidelines for Paramount to follow.

Felt the visuals being off at first was less to do with mandates/creative freedom and more to do with various creatives working with a character in a medium that has never been done before. Even professionals aren't going to completely nail it on their first try. You get better with trial/error and practice.