For those who may no longer recall, the drama faced by Ugly Sonic began all the way back in 2019. In one of the most bizarre instances ever of a movie production setback, the backlash to the design of Sonic in the original “Sonic the Hedgehog” trailer, released in April 2019, was so intense and unanimous that it prompted Paramount to delay the film’s release so that Sonic could be given a brand new look, with appropriately big eyes, duly-placed gloves, and, most of all, a lot fewer visible teeth.

For the “Sonic” franchise, the rest is history. The first movie, which ultimately made it to theaters in February 2020, broke all financial records for a video game movie, and became the last big box office success story before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; its recently-released successor has kept the streak going with even bigger numbers. But for poor Ugly Sonic, it was infamy. “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers” hilariously posits the design’s subsequent condemnation to cautionary obscurity as a familiar riches-to-rags Hollywood story, with one performer trying hard to bounce back from being turned into an international joke. We can only be thankful that the filmmakers were able to make it happen — the redemption of Ugly Sonic may not have been in a lot of people’s cards for 2022, but it’s exactly the sort of perfect touch that can make a meta-comedy like “Chip ‘n Dale” so uniquely fun.