Ugly Sonic's Chip 'N Dale cameo was almost Jar Jar Binks instead

Jar Jar Binks
(Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)

Ugly Sonic made waves with his cameo in Chip 'N Dale: Rescue Rangers, but the moment almost belonged to another character entirely: Jar Jar Binks. 

Storyboard artist Simeon Wilkins shared some of his artwork from the movie on Instagram, revealing the role Jar Jar almost played in the scene. "One more sequence from Rescue Rangers – the Fan Expo chase," he wrote. "It’s great that the bones of this scene stayed fairly firm, while a bunch of characters were swapped out. Most notably, Jar Jar was replaced with Ugly Sonic."

The artwork shows Jar Jar seated at a table while the chipmunks talk to him, though there's no dialogue included, so we can't hear the Gungan's distinctive way of speaking. 

Ugly Sonic is the original version of the blue speedster created for the movie Sonic the Hedgehog, eventually redesigned to the more game-accurate version which made it to the finished product. Jar Jar, meanwhile, is the CGI Star Wars character played by Ahmed Best, who hasn't been seen in live-action since the last prequel movie, Revenge of the Sith

As it turns out, the animation company who created Ugly Sonic returned for Chip 'N Dale. "They also did Ugly Sonic, the OG ugly version with those teeth," director Akiva Schaffer told Total Film. "We had to recreate our own for this movie because we had to make everything from scratch, but there was something pretty great about having the original company that had made the design do it again and repeat their mistakes on purpose this time."

Chip 'N Dale: Rescue Rangers is streaming on Disney Plus now. For more on the movie, check out our full interview with Schaffer – and fill out your watchlist with our guide to the best movies on Disney Plus

TOPICS
Molly Edwards
Senior Entertainment Writer

I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.