Knuckles, the Sonic the Hedgehog Paramount+ spinoff series that debuted on the streamer earlier this year, is now available on home video from Paramount Home Entertainment, and they sent Cherry the Geek TV a Blu-ray for review.
Knuckles is a six episode series that takes place between the films Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (coming later this year) and follows Knuckles (Idris Elba) on a hilarious and action-packed journey of self-discovery as he agrees to train Wade (Adam Pally) as his protege and teach him the ways of the Echidna warrior. Featuring appearances by Ben Schwartz as Sonic, Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Tails and Tika Sumpter (Maddie), the ensemble cast also includes Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gemstones), Rory McCann (Game of Thrones), Cary Elwes (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), and Paul Scheer (Black Monday).Â
This is a fun series aimed at younger viewers and fulfills its goal as light, family entertainment. Elba delivers his lines well, and there are a lot of fun performances. Edi Patterson is a standout as Wade’s FBI sister. The series also has a ton of great music– lots of 80s rock ballads, a fun rock opera scene featuring Michael Bolton, and a FANTASTIC opening credits sequence featuring the song “The Warrior” from Scandal. Some might complain that Knuckles takes a back seat to Wade’s story before having his big battle scene in the last episode, but if you look at the episode lengths (about 20 minutes not including opening/closing credits) this is really just a feature length film cut into six parts and the story fits that structure. Young ones will enjoy this regardless and no doubt watch it endlessly. The show serves it’s purpose.
Kudos to Paramount for releasing this on video as well. While we love the streamers and the many of the original series and movies on them, we love physical media too and believe the originals should get the physical media treatment as well. Paramount does a good job here. Video and audio quality are superb. The disc contains some extras as well:
- Cast Featurette (HD, 1:53) A short featurette with a few lines from many of the show’s cast members talking about how excited they were to be a part of the series.
- Working With Knuckles (HD, 1:03) A very short, one-minute featurette with cast members explaining what it was like to work with the humorless, very serious Knuckles.
- This or That (HD, 1:03) Another very short featurette with cast members choosing this or that—good or bad, strength or cardio, etc.
- Knuckles Impressions (HD, 1:03) Cast members do their very best impressions of Knuckles, much to Idris Elba’s delight
- Gag Reel (HD, 7:30) I wouldn’t say these are very funny, but it is interesting to watch and see the on-set puppet that was used to stand in for Knuckles while shooting the scenes.
As you can see, these extras are really short (a minute for each?!). C’mon guys–let’s do a little better. While we love that you’re releasing this on video, if you’re going to give us something that we can watch on Paramount+, at least give us a little more extra content for the Blu-ray. That’s a minor complaint though–at least there is something.
Knuckles is a fine companion to the Sonic saga and kids and young teens will enjoy it.
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