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Knuckles is an American television miniseries created by John Whittington and Toby Ascher for the streaming service Paramount+, based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series published by Sega. It is a spin-off of the Sonic the Hedgehog film series and is the first live-action Sonic television series. The series takes place between the events of the films Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) and follows Knuckles the Echidna as he trains deputy sheriff Wade Whipple in the ways of the Echidna warrior. Whittington was head writer, with Ascher as showrunner.
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Idris Elba reprised his voice role as Knuckles from the film series and stars alongside Adam Pally, reprising his role as Wade. The series was announced in February 2022 during a ViacomCBS investor event, with Elba on board with the project. Production began in London, England, in April 2023, with Sonic film director Jeff Fowler directing the pilot and further casting announced. Ged Wright, Brandon Trost, Jorma Taccone, and Carol Banker directed the following episodes. Tom Howe composed the score.
Knuckles premiered on April 26, 2024, with all six episodes. Over its premiere weekend, it became the most-watched original series on Paramount+. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise directed towards the action sequences and Elba and Pally's performances, although some criticized the show for its writing and lack of focus on the title character.
Premise
While struggling to adjust to life on Earth, Knuckles the Echidna takes on deputy sheriff Wade Whipple as his apprentice, training him in the ways of the Echidna warrior to help him prepare for a bowling tournament in Reno, Nevada where his estranged father will be competing. During their journey, Wade is reunited with his mother and sister, while Knuckles is pursued by a former agent of Dr. Robotnik, who now seeks to take the echidna's power for himself.
Why It Makes Warriors, Not Jokes
- Much like the first two Sonic movies, this series is faithful to the games. Examples of references to both the films and the games include:
- The wooden sign Knuckles runs by, which references the one used in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
- The car-like bed next to Sonic's race car bed, which is inspired by Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog comics, while also referencing the Tempest racecar Knuckles uses in Sonic Drift 2.
- Agent Mason repeating Knuckles' line Do I look like I need your power?
- Knuckles gliding as he and Wade make their escape from the IceCap Ski Resort, which said gliding references the Mid-Air Dash Glide from Sonic Advance 3.
- Speaking of the IceCap Ski Resort, said the building is a reference to the Ice Cap Zone from the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 game.
- Knuckles punching a bounty hunter a few times until performing an uppercut, which references his Punch Attack in Sonic Adventure 2
- The Flames of Disaster, which is "Flames of Disaster" is an alias for a part of the sun god Solaris, Iblis, an antagonist in the 2006 video game Sonic the Hedgehog (despite being an atrocious game overall).
- "Unskilled, untrained, so unworthy" being sung, which references Knuckles' comments against Sonic the Hedgehog when they first met in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
- And the one scene where with the Flames of Disaster, Knuckles takes charge spinning around like a drill as trails of energy and fire circle around him. Knuckles performs similar moves throughout the video game series, notably in Sonic Frontiers with the Drill Spin Attack and/or Boost. He also slams both fists on The Buyer's mech, much like his Meteor Punch attack in Sonic Battle. And this one is in the climax of the series, by the way.
- Wade and Knuckles' chemistry is amazing.
- Speaking of such, despite the issue of Wade Whipple taking up too much screen time, it is nice to see him grow into character development throughout the series, even more so than the first two Sonic movies. This is especially noticeable in the second half of the series (episodes 4-6).
- The acting is still great, as to be expected from a live-action piece of Sonic the Hedgehog media by Paramount Pictures, including:
- Ben Schwartz still does greatly and entertainingly as Sonic the Hedgehog, thanks to him reprising his role in the
- Tika Sumpter still does a great job portraying Maddie Wachowski.
- Incredible performances by Adam Pally and Idris Elba.
- Idris Elba still continues to be excellent as Knuckles. In the second movie, Elba as Knuckles sounded like the late veteran James Earl Jones, so much so that he might as well be a good impressionist for Star Wars' Darth Vader alongside The Lion King's Mufasa, and he sounds no different here.
- Phenomenal CGI and visual effects to the point where much like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), the visuals look like they came out of a Pixar film, which is impressive for a limited miniseries that is also a Paramount+ exclusive.
- The soundtrack, like the movies, is amazing, especially since the music here was composed by Tom Howe (who composed the music for Ted Lasso and the 2017 Wonder Woman movie), which is surprising, since the composer for any Sonic movie-related media usually is Tom Holkenborg (also known as Junkie XL). The show's theme, "The Warrior", which was written by Scandal, is an excellent song, and is indeed a fitting choice for a theme song for this show. Even Knuckles said "This is my jam" when he and Wade Whipple were listening to this song in the post-credits scene of the 6th and final episode of the show.
- During the scene where Knuckles is grounded in the attic, Sonic mentions video games to him and says "They've come a long way since the '90s", referencing the first Sonic game's creation back in 1991, which is a nice touch.
- Like the first two movies, despite being comedic and zany, there are some genuinely heartfelt moments, like the scene where Sonic has a talk with Knuckles on the rooftop in episode 1, and even the scene where Wade Whipple finally confronts his father somewhere near the beginning of Episode 5.
- "I do not make jokes, Wade Whipple. I make warriors."
- While the jokes can be corny at times, they are at least funny, especially the one scene where Chief Pachacamac crashes into the window as he is saying goodbye to Knuckles.
- The characters from the movies are still likable, and most of the original characters are likable, including:
- Sonic the Hedgehog is still the loveable space alien and is a friend of Tails and Knuckles even though he only appears in one episode of the series. He convinces Knuckles to do stuff since Dr. Eggman is gone and even has not returned. He is mentioned in later episodes of the series.
- Miles "Tails" Prower is still the cute two-tailed fox that he has always been, and is still logical and intelligent.
- Maddie Wachowski is still the wife of Tom Wachowski, including her still being the adopted mother of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. She doesn't like that Knuckles stops the three people trying to fix the hole in the Wachowski house (seeing how Sonic and Knuckles destroyed half of the house during their fight when the two first met in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 during nighttime while Tom, Maddie, Rachel, Jojo, and Randall were in Hawaii) and Knuckles making a chair out of stuff.
- Dr. Eggman, even though he only appears in flashbacks and is mentioned several times in the show, is still the villain who wants to defeat Sonic and get his power. He still has an incredible performance by Jim Carrey, even though Jim Carrey only reprises his role as Dr. Robotnik during flashbacks.
- Jack Sinclair is a motorcyclist who was originally Wade's bowling partner and friend until they got into an argument. He's also intimidating, and can even be seen as the best villain of the show.
- Gwendolyn "Wendy" Whipple is the mother of Wade Whipple and Wendy Whipple, as well as the former wife of Peter "Pete" Whipple. She's also a kind-hearted mother and cares about her children.
Schmuck Qualities
- While it is awesome to see Wade get some character development, he does admittedly take up way too much screen time, causing Knuckles to not have enough of it, which is highly ironic, considering that "Knuckles" is the name of this show in the first place.
- Some unlikable characters (which is shocking, considering there were no unlikable characters that have ever been present in any Sonic movie-related media before this one) such as Wanda Whipple, Pistol Pete Whipple, The Buyer (the latter 2 of which are shockingly lame and uninteresting villains compared to Dr. Robotnik and Agent Stone, especially in The Buyer's case, since he is a Doctor Robotnik carbon copy).
- Due to being a TV show, the special effects are a bit of a downgrade.
- That one infamous moment in the third episode where Wanda Whipple stabs her brother, Wade Whipple, with a fork during the Shabbat Dinner. We wish we were joking. To make matters worse, she never gets any form of comeuppance for it, making her a Karma Houdini.
- Speaking of such, the third episode, The Shabbat Dinner, is not only the only truly bad episode of the whole show but also the worst thing to ever come out of the Sonic Cinematic Universe overall.
- While still indeed likable, Knuckles can also be somewhat unlikable in some scenes, like when he turns the living room of Sonic's house into some fighting pit (which causes him to be grounded for it) in the first episode and in the fourth episode, where he lets some crazy man named Jack Sinclair kidnap Wade Whipple, mostly because he said that he must learn to rescue himself to become a true warrior (to be fair, Wade Whipple did rescue himself at the end of the "Flames of Disaster" scene in said episode). Though he is nowhere as unlikable as his Sonic Boom counterpart.
- Despite this, though, none of this manages to negatively affect Knuckles' likability or character development in the show to the point of flanderization.
- Similar to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, while the post-credits scene is great to watch, it could come off as underwhelming for some people, especially if you wanted a teaser for Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
The Entire Series
Reception
Viewership
In its premiere weekend, Knuckles became both the most-watched Paramount+ original series and the service's most-watched kids and family title ever, with more than 4 million hours streamed over the time frame. The series' debut also had a positive effect on the other Sonic titles on the service, with viewership up 278% over the previous daily average.
Critical response
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 71% based on 28 critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Pairing Idris Elba's terse echidna with a befuddled Adam Pally, Knuckles could use some extra punch to appeal more broadly beyond youngsters but hits just fine as light family entertainment." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 61 out of 100 based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Meredith Coons of The A.V. Club gave the series a B- rating. She commended the visuals, performances, comedy, and story and concluded her review by saying, "It’s got some heart, too, which is always good, and unlike its prickly protagonist, it doesn’t take itself too seriously." Ryan Leston of IGN gave the series an 8 out of 10 rating. He praised the performances of Elba and Pally as well as the chemistry between their characters, the action scenes, the comedy, and the use of licensed music, and wrote, "Knuckles is a fun, chaotic bonus level that nails everything that made the Sonic movies great, earning a well-deserved fist bump." Rendy Jones of RogerEbert.com compared Knuckles favorably to the mainline Sonic films because of their writing, characterization, and performances. They wrote that while the series "functions largely as a streaming-only clone of the first film, it displays a personality missing from the mainline movies by veering into welcoming absurdism and whimsy."
Brian Lowry of CNN largely disliked the series for its plot, pacing, and characters. They felt that lacking Jim Carrey from the Sonic films "to help carry the load" led to an inferior product with no discernible target audience in mind. Ferdosa of Screen Rant gave the series a 2.5 out of 5 star rating. She felt that it failed to live up to its potential due to its use of human characters, uninteresting setting, lack of creativity, and lackluster writing and comedy, though she directed praise towards Elba's performance and the CGI rendering of the animated characters. Michael Thomas of Collider gave the series a 5 out of 10 rating. He similarly felt that the series failed to reach its full potential, directing criticism at the lack of focus on the title character and the uninteresting villains. He would, however, commend the buddy comedy aspect and the action sequences.
Trivia
- The hat seen in the show's teaser image and that Jack Sinclair wears in the series before Wade takes it for himself and later gives it to Knuckles is a reference to the hat worn by Knuckles in Sonic OVA.
- This is the first Sonic television series not to feature Sonic's name in the title (except in the early title).
- This is the first live-action television series based on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and also the first television series where he or any of his character variations does not serve as the main protagonist. Sonic himself only appears in the first episode. (Although he is mentioned later on and makes his appearance in the introduction credit.)
- Aside from flashbacks and mentions, this is the first series to not feature Robotnik.
- It is also the first one to not feature Amy and Shadow since their debuts in Sonic X.
- Kid Cudi previously sang "Stars in the Sky", which was featured as the end credits theme of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
- This is the first Sonic series to be rated TV-PG-L instead of TV-Y7 or TV-Y7-FV.
- Of all foreign dubs, only the French and Latin Spanish dubs have Sonic being voiced by someone that has previously voiced him instead of his film series voice actors:
- In French, Malik Bentalha is replaced by Alexandre Gillet, who previously voiced Sonic in the games since Sonic Generations, and in general since Sonic X.
- In Latin Spanish, Luisito Comunica is replaced by Jorge Roig Jr., who previously voiced Sonic in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and season 1 of the Sonic SatAM television series.
- In addition to being the first Latin-Spanish voice actor for Sonic in general, Knuckles marks the first time in nearly three decades that Jorge Roig Jr. reprises as Sonic.
- Each episode's title sequence ending shows Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Wade as a band. In each, Wade has a different instrument.
- Episode 1: Tambourine
- Episode 2: Cymbals
- Episode 3: Bell
- Episode 4: Accordion
- Episode 5: Maracas
- Episode 6: Gong
- This is the first Sonic television series to be available in UHD.
- A promotional video for Brazil was released on May 3, 2024, adopting the scene where Wade encounters Knuckles while lifting weights. In this video, Wade has been digitally replaced with Brazilian actor Kleber Bambam, while the plotline references a fight between Bambam and former professional boxer Acelino Freitas on February 25, 2024, in which the former was knocked out after 36 seconds.
The plot of this series is similar to that of the first film, as both media involve a character and a man traveling across the United States of America, and a villain tries to get the protagonist's power.