The GHZ Forum

Though several community watercoolers were offline yesterday in protest of the SOPA and PIPA legislation, those that remained active were abuzz of word some sort of official Sonic movie may be in development by Sega Sammy’s animation arm in Japan, Marza Animation Planet.

Though there remain skeptics, it helps when the alleged source is one of the main men behind Sonic, Yuji Naka. Recently, Mr. Naka took a trip to Marza, and via his Facebook and Twitter feeds, mentioned something about a Sonic animation while there. It had been tough to this point to get a proper translation, which has been key in determining what Mr. Naka actually said. So we asked our Japan based reporter Danny Russell, fluent in the language, to help us. From Danny, here is what Mr. Naka said in part:

"Marza Animation Planet is made up of members from VE R&D (http://sega.jp/corp/saiyo/csjob/ve.shtml), which is a division he had a hand in creating. It looks like they’re working on a Sonic movie. Their offices seem nice, and they have a screening room / theatre there."

Danny further clarified tonight, saying Mr. Naka’s remarks don’t necessarily confirm or deny anything that was fit for release–just that work toward a Sonic animation was seen while at the studio, and it appeared to be part of a larger movie project.

Sega, for their part, have said nothing on the matter. While the work could be for an upcoming game or an internal project, there is at least some hope Sega Sammy is pushing its animation studio toward pushing the company’s flagship franchise on to the big screen. If we hear anything more, we will pass it along. Thanks to all who tipped us off to this story.