Sonic The Hedgehog movie 2019 was redesigned by Sonic Mania artist Tyson Hesse

Sonic Mania artist Tyson Hesse has revealed that he was recruited to head up the recreation of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie design following fan rejection of the film’s original character design.

The first look at the Sonic movie was an unmitigated disaster. Its horrifying take on the blue speedster was so universally reviled that it sparked a wave of backlash so furious, the film was delayed and conversations about the undue pressure on its animators to comprehensively redesign the movie’s hero emerged. But now we have a new Sonic.

Hesse explained that he worked with modelers, riggers, texture and fur artists and animators to help redesign Sonic. The end result is an anthropomorphic hedgehog that looks like the actual game character, rather than a strange human/hedgehog hybrid made in a lab.

Superhero costumes and backstories were changed without care and video game movies usually fared even worse, especially monstrosities like Super Mario Bros.

This new Sonic would not haunt us in the dead of night, waiting to smother our screams with his ungloved, creepily human hands. His tiny, separated eyes would not bore deep into our very souls. His teeth...well, they’re still teeth but they were not distressingly apparent.

Hesse has a long history with Sonic, having contributed to the Sonic comic series and created the animated intro for 2017’s Sonic Mania. He also developed spin-off animated shorts for the game.

In that sense the original trailer for Sonic The Hedgehog seemed peculiarly old school, with a character that looked nothing like the one from the games. But as seen in the new trailer he’s been redesigned and we know who to thank: Sonic Mania artist Tyson Hesse.

The redesign was a success, one met with a reaction almost as overwhelmingly positive as the backlash to the original was furiously petrified. And it turns out Sonic fans have a familiar name to partially thank for a movie hedgehog that looks much more in line with what they’d hoped for out of a movie take on the character: Tyson Hesse.

Sonic The Hedgehog will release February 14, 2020. It was originally set to release this month.