Detective Pikachu director says the Sonic the Hedgehog movie team is in a difficult spot, and he "wouldn't want to be in their shoes"

Detective Pikachu is being praised by critics the world over, and it seems one of the strongest points of the movie is just how well it does bringing Pokemon to live in a live-action movie. On the other side of the coin, the team behind the Sonic movie recently revealed that they're going to make changes after the extremely negative public backlash. It's not a situation anyone would want to be in, and that goes for Detective Pikachu director Rob Letterman.

In an interview with the Verge, Letterman shares his two cents on the whole Sonic situation, and how his team managed to nail Pokemon designs from the get-go.

“There’s no right or wrong to how you make one of these movies. It would be very difficult for us to redesign anything. We spent a year designing all the characters ahead of shooting so that we could get it all right. If we were off by an inch on Pikachu, [actor] Justice Smith’s performance would go right out the window. For us, it would have been impossible — but that doesn’t mean they can’t do it. I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes — they’re in a difficult spot.

We studied a lot of animals and how they behave and how they interact to ensure we got it right. Bulldogs, in particular, for Bulbasaur and how they act in packs or how they get you to pay attention. There’s an extraordinary amount of craft that went into making the movie on the animation side as we tried to bring everything to life.”