Knuckles: the spin-off series of the Sonic films lacks spice – News

Not epic pork

Knuckles offers us – in theory – to follow the gruff Malabar for the duration of an adventure bridging the gap between the second and third film, scheduled for this end of the year. Through this desire for continuity, the series throws us into a pre-established universe, with the consideration for the neophyte viewer of a quick summary of past events; narrated by a passing Sonic. And that's the whole dichotomy that surrounds this series: if it wants to continue a plot, a range of subterfuges have been put in place to make maximum savings. James Marsden and Jim Carrey (Dr. Robotnik) are completely absent, and even Ben Schwartz and Colleen O'Shaughnessey, voices of Sonic and Tails respectively, can only be heard for half of the first episode. To justify these absences, Knuckles is quickly led away from Green Hills, cradle of the events of the first two films, to accompany Wade Whipple, deputy sheriff of the town introduced in the first film, in a bowling competition. Yes, bowling.

If this objective seems at first to be a sort of schoolboy excuse to experience epic adventures, it is ultimately nothing of the sort. To return to these famous production economies, the series actually does not really revolve around Knuckles, but around Wade. Less 3D animation, fewer costly lines for Idris Elba to pronounce… so many indirect constraints reducing the presence of Knuckles in certain episodes to less than a third of screen time, while his “disciple” continues the absurdities. In this sense, the series is a “worst-of” of the two previous films. While Sonic the Hedgehog 2 had (almost) achieved a fair balance between great moments and schoolboy jokes, Knuckles achieves the feat of being a rehash of the first opus only worse. We find the same story lines (the large anthropomorphic animal does not find its place in its new world, goes on an adventure with a human and finds a new family in him) and the same propensity to never want to take itself seriously . Everything is a pretext for waste, and if a few of them hit the mark, there are so many of them, incessant, that the ratio is ultimately low. There's very little subtext, and the characters are all archetypal, from the kindly idiotic and clumsy hero to the plague sister to the brains-and-brakes duo of villains.

Iblis Elba

These antagonists, played by Ellie Taylor and Kid Cudi, are at the heart of the subplot of the series, the one directly linked to Knuckles. Renegades from GUN, a secret agency briefly introduced at the end of the second film, they seek to capture the echidna to sell it to an ersatz Eggman coveting the powers locked in its spines. Thanks to the latter, the one who was once a deputy of the scientist will, in turn, be able to manufacture super-powerful robots. Once again, it's an almost exact copy of the plot of the first film in an outdated version and embodied by forgettable characters. With the exception of Wade, who was THE character we would have liked not to see again, all the recurring characters in this series are newcomers to compensate for the absence of known figures.

Among them, it is interesting to talk about Pachacamac (played by Christopher Lloyd), a character who will speak to those nostalgic for Sonic Adventure, where he appears as war leader of the Echidna tribe. Having already poured enough gall, we will not dwell on the ridiculousness of his role and we will rather salute the desire to please the old fans who came looking for a few cameos. This is one of the strengths of the two films released so far, particularly the second which connects the sometimes sharp references for hedgehog fans without hindering laymen in their understanding of the story. Same effort here, with several more or less obvious nods, ranging from the iconic hat that Knuckles wears in the OAV Sonic the Hedgehog to an interesting rewriting of the character's past. The time for a rock opera which, although too long, does not lack inventiveness, revealing to us that our hero would have fought and acquired the powers of Iblis, main antagonist of Sonic 2006.