Translating the bizarre, spiky stylings of a cartoon character as iconic as Sonic the Hedgehog into a live-action film was always going to be tough.

And while we’re probably not reaching Howard the Duck levels of weirdness here, we’re a little worried that Sonic won’t end up looking quite as adorable as Detective Pikachu.

The first glimpse of CGI Sonic has been released today in a tweet by Paramount Pictures, the distributor of the 2019 flick Sonic The Hedgehog, which aims to bring the titular hedgehog to life alongside big-name stars like Jim Carrey as his nemesis Dr. Robotnik (aka Dr. Eggman) and James Marsden as Sonic’s pal Tom.

Sonic himself will be voiced by the beloved Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation), and while we’re all on board with that choice, Sonic’s physical appearance is looking a little… off.

I’d say that the most off-putting element is the presence of bulging muscles in place of his usually-gangly limbs, but another thing that has fans concerned is the idea of Sonic’s distinctive visor-like eyes being replaced with two separate eyeballs, for the sake of seeming a little more grounded in our reality.

“I don’t think SEGA was entirely happy with the eye decision, but these sorts of things you go, ‘It’s going to look weird if we don’t do this,’ executive producer Tim Miller told IGN.

“But everything is a discussion, and that’s kind of the goal, which is to only change what’s necessary and stay true to the rest of it. He’s not going to feel like a Pixar character would because I don’t think that’s the right aesthetic to make it feel like part of our world.”

That’s not to mention the addition of fur, of course, another change that’ll take a bit of getting used to.

“That was always Stage 1 of adapting it to what the real world is and what a real animal would be like,” Miller explained.

“It would be weird and it would feel like he was running around nude if he was some sort of otter-like thing. It was always, for us, fur, and we never considered anything different. It’s part of what integrates him into the real world and makes him a real creature.”

Of course, Miller directed the hugely-successful Deadpool, which happened to feature one of the single most faithful yet appropriate translations of a cartoon character to a live action movie we’ve ever seen, so we’re inclined to take his word on it.

But still, we can’t help but feel that the partial reveal here might just be a way to gauge fan reaction and make tweaks to the design between now and the film’s release in November 2019.

Let’s just hope they don’t pull a Howard the Duck. In the mean time, for a bit more reading on Sonic, here’s our take on why Sonic the Hedgehog 2 may have the greatest soundtrack of all time.

Watch: Howard the Duck (1986) movie trailer:

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