Some additional reference:
Open Season
Surf's Up
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
The Smurfs
Arthur Christmas
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Hotel Transylvania
The Smurfs 2
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
If in fact we're dealing with Sony Pictures Animation. Never watched any of those in their entirety to be honest.
on that note, "live action animation for a family audience" sounds like frightening/hilarious speculation, although the logical thing to expect. I wonder if Sonic will be kissing humans again. Or perhaps the return of Chris. we can cast a precocious and upbeat kid who's got a good moral sense and routinely mocks adults/Doctor Eggman (when Eggman finds a Chaos Emerald, the kid stomps on his left foot, steals it, and runs)
"Sonic...will you always be my best friend"
"Of course I will, little buddy"
In any case, it's at least more likely than almost any other video game movie. More so than Mario. Saying Pokemon is not allowed because there are a ton of them >=(
Sonic has his hand in almost everything nowadays. Sonic Monopoly, Sonic comics, all sorts of toys (old hat), new upcoming cartoon...