Unlike any other art form, movies require hundreds of people and piles of money. With such financial risks, studios want to attract as many people as possible and make a big profit. I often complain that chasing profits ruins movies. Imagine if Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) had to satisfy investors for The Last Supper.
In May, Paramount released its trailer (预告片) for a live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie. Everyone was excited, including me. I love this character, in part because he’s ridiculous. Hedgehogs (刺猬) aren’t fast, nor are they blue. Had the game’s designers ever actually seen a hedgehog? Who cares? Sonic has always looked cool. Nobody would play a video game featuring a realistic hedgehog character.
When I saw the movie trailer, though, I worried. Sonic’s eyes were too far apart and his big teeth looked like they would eat my fingers. His body looked like a child wearing pajamas(睡衣). Sonic didn’t look cool. He looked like the half-human result of a failed genetic experiment.
You know the internet. People there will fight you for saying the sky is blue. This time, however, the internet stood together: Sonic looked TERRIBLE. People joked about it all over social media. Paramount couldn’t ignore this online outrage and quickly announced a redesign, at great cost to the company.
At first, I thought it was awesome. Back when I was a kid, there was no social media. We would have been stuck with creepy, crappy (怪异且蹩脚的) Sonic and his terrifying teeth. After the redesign, Sonic looks cooler than ever. I’m glad the studio broke its budget to get Sonic right.
But I’m a little worried, too. What if this starts a trend? What if directors keep going to Sina Weibo or Twitter to make people happy? One thing I’ve learned in life is that if you try to make everybody happy, nobody will be happy.
If an art form only exists to make money by giving audiences what they expect, can we really call it “art” anymore? Some of my favorite movies are ones that nobody liked at first. Usually, what makes them good is the same thing that made them unpopular. Studios might end up with lots of money but we would end up with a lot of bad movies.
【小题1】What is the author’s main purpose in writing the text?| A．To describe his love for the character the hedgehog, Sonic. |
| B．To promote the movie Sonic the Hedgehog for its redesign. |
| C．To complain about how bad Sonic looked in the film trailer. |
| D．To express his concern over studios’ attempts to please audiences. |
| A．Sonic looked awful in the trailer. |
| B．Sonic looked like a realistic hedgehog. |
| C．They chose the wrong actor to play Sonic. |
| D．The plot of the movie was dull. |
| A．Anger. | B．Surprise. | C．Humor. | D．Thrill. |
| A．Great works of art are always disfavored at the beginning. |
| B．Great movies are ones that reflect the audience’s tastes. |
| C．The best movies will end up with great profits. |
| D．A good movie could gain little popularity at first. |
