Sonic The Hedgehog star Ben Schwartz chats redesign, nostalgia, and Jim Carrey

Sonic The Hedgehog star Ben Schwartz is only seeing the bright side of the whole redesign drama, insisting it gave the movie a ‘breath of life’.

That’s definitely one way to look at it.

The Parks and Rec star is voicing the iconic cartoon for the new movie, which was at the centre of an internet storm when fans were left horrified by the character’s original design.

However, fans were stunned when it was announced that the team would undertake a full redesign, with the new version looking a lot more like the hedgehog we know and love.

Chatting to Metro.co.uk, Ben said of the redesign: ‘The biggest thing for us…was that we had no idea if anybody cared about our movie. And so like, with this trailer coming [out], it was “Let’s see if we get any views.” And then we got all of them. We got all the views!

‘And so for us, it was finding that everybody’s passionate about this. So [it was] just a whole wonderful breath of life to our movie being like, “All right, let’s really push down. Let’s figure this out and work it out.”‘

However, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t felt the pressure, being the voice behind an iconic character that people have spent decades loving.

‘I think the pressure for me was like, I really want to make the fans proud and happy because so many people have been with this character, for instance, since 1991. So I was like, I want to make sure that I did them proud.’

Ben is starring in the movie alongside the likes of Jim Carrey and James Marsden, which was a dream come true for him.

Raving about the legendary actor, Ben described Jim as ‘engaging, connecting and he looks at you and he really listens.

‘And so I feel very fortunate that he first of all loves this movie, and he’s been very kind to me.’

What more could you want from your childhood hero?

And he’s not the only one to have spoken out about the redesign drama, with director Jeff Fowler telling Metro.co.uk he feared he was going to need witness protection after the backlash. Seriously.

‘I probably would have had to change my name and then move to the witness protection program,’ he quipped.

‘No, failure was not an option. We were going to get it right no matter what.’

Sonic The Hedgehog is in cinemas now.

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