While I personally enjoyed the two Sonic movies as colourful, big screen explosions of hyperactive nostalgia, there’s no denying that the more natural home for video game adaptations has been the realm of television. Shows like The Last Of Us, Fallout and – to a lesser extent – Halo (sorry Halo), have thrived on the small screen thanks to streaming services hurling vast amounts of coin at a format that excels at expanded world building.
However, whereas the average Sonic game doesn’t really require multiple episodes to make its point, the Sonic universe has expanded massively within the space of only two movies, and so to handle the load, Knuckles, the hulking, red echidna, has been awarded his very own spin off while production gears up on Sonic 3.
But are the pockets of Paramount+ sufficiently deep enough to provide six episodes of frenetic, family carnage in order to synch up with the films?
After giving it a spin, you may be surprised…
After the events of Sonic 2 that saw the warring fractions of Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna become friends to ward of the latest attack from Dr. Robotnik, we find the red bruiser struggling to adapt to a peaceful life living with the Wachowski’s in Green Hills. Constantly veering back into his warrior mindset for even the smallest things, Maddie grows increasingly frustrated with his antics that’s seen him stealthily take out a bunch of decorators like Rambo and psyching up the family dog to do battle with his greatest foe – the mailman.
While Sonic and Tails try to get him to chill the eff out, we find that childish sheriff deputy Wade Whipple is having issues of his own after he is bounced off of his local bowling team by an eight year old girl. With his confidence swimming backstroke in the toilet, the bumbling goof is at a pretty ebb, but before you can say “road trip”, Knuckle sees the downtrodden deputy as a perfect foil to take under his wing and embark on a warrior’s journey to the bowling tournament in Reno, so they hop in a squad car and off they go.
However, Mason and Willoughby, two corrupt agents working for G.U.N., see Knuckles leaving Green Hill as a perfect opportunity to track the brawny mammal in order to trap in and sell him to the mysterious Buyer, a wild-eyed, beared, former associate of Dr. Robotnik who want to take Knuckles’ power of his own. After being supplied with weaponry charged with the echidna’s super-charged quills, the two agents launch their first assault on their target as he awkwardly bonds with Wade in (where else?) a bowling alley. Can these odd bedfellows manage to fend off yet another attempt to harness the superpowers of a brightly coloured, anthropomorphized, woodland creature from another dimension?
Probably the first thing you notice about the first episode of Knuckles is how ridiculously expensive it looks. Rumour has it that the show has more visual effects shots than the entirety of the first movie and you’ll certainly believe it on the strength of this incredibly perky first offering. Simply put, the show is essentially Sonic 2.5, which gives us more time to chill with its denizens while we await Shadow the Hedgehog to arrive in the third installment. Not only is Idris Elba’s gruff, blunt Knuckles front and centre (obviously) but substantial screen time is devoted to Ben Schwartz’s Sonic, Colleen O’Shaughnessy’s Tails and Tika Sumpter’s Maddie Wachowski – but although the show hasn’t stretched quite so far as to bring James Marsden back (CGI characters don’t come cheap, y’know), there’s a healthy cast to try and match the unbridled energy of Jim Carrey.
Thus we get Adam Pally’s loveable dufus upgraded from backup comedy sidekick to head comedy sidekick as he bounces of the stern, straightlaced rumbles of a fantasy character who’s first instinct is to simply punch first and neglect to ever ask any questions at all.
The result, while hardly the most innovative of shows, proves to be surprisingly endearing and in the years since Sonic first raced into cinemas, it’s a franchise that seems to be growing on me more and more, the more I think about it. This means that the cartoon, knockabout silliness that the movies trade in is doubled down with here. For some, the rampant immaturity will probably be too much to bare and the focal point will most likely be Pally’s excitable man-child who spends most of tbe episode yelling like he’s on children’s TV. But guess what, this is children’s TV and what balances out that unrestrained exuberance is that the show is trying to put a spot of pathos inbetween the endless 80s needledrops (it particularly gets great mileage out of The Warrior by Scandal). However, while Pally gets to drop some backstory about his absentee father, the newer members of the cast go all out to be as over the top as they can. While we’re busy digesting the fact that Christopher Lloyd is voicing Knuckle’s ghostly elder, Pachacamac, they then hit us with former Hound, Rory McCann, sporting a hefty beard as grungy, arch-villain, the Buyer, British comedian Ellie Taylor and rapper Kid Cudi as tooled up G.U.N. agents and, weirdest of all, The Mighty Boosh’s Julian Barratt shows up as the melodramatic, alpha male, captain of Wade’s bowling team.
However, not to be undone by such eccentric casting, the action is lush and vibrant with the first episode ending with an expensive looking brawl between our digitally created hero and the two, rogue G.U.N. spooks who either sport giant, metal, punching gloves or a sizable laser gun to help bring down their quarry and proceed to wreck an entire bowling alley. It’s crisp, bright and – most importantly – clear to follow and while I doubt that every episode will be loaded with such vibrant CGI, it’s good to see that the studio is clearly putting the effort to make the production values between the movies and the show match.
Still, we’ve still got five episodes to go and so anthing could happen, but as it stands so far, Knuckles is not only a fine addition to a franchise that’s become more endearing over time, but it strengthens it too.
But then, isn’t that exactly what Knuckles is for – to add strength?
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