A few days ago, you never would have guessed that Knuckles the Echidna would be voiced by Brixton Lore from the Fast & Furious franchise. And yet, here we are. That being said, I look forward to seeing what Idris Elba does with Knuckles the Echidna in the second Sonic movie. Especially since Ben Schwartz was surprisingly brilliant as Sonic in the first flick.
But of course, Elba’s Knuckles isn’t the first time the Echidna has been adapted for the screen. The red rodent has seen 5 appearances thus far in film and TV. But of course, this begs the question – which of Knuckles’ film and TV appearances are the best of them all?
5) Sonic Mania Adventures (2018)
Knuckles appears in the third episode of Sonic Mania Adventures, a small series of shorts based on the excellent video game. Knuckles’ short has him comically attempt to defend the Master Emerald from theft, followed by a guest appearance by Rya the Flying Squirrel.
The animation is beautiful, and even more admirable when you learn it is created by fans. Knuckles has no voice here, so his personality is conveyed entirely through facial expressions. This alone competently portrays Knuckles as the brooding, short-tempered brute he is from the games and Sonic X.
Conclusion: Given this iteration has no voice, we can’t judge him based on that merit. However, the beautiful animation expresses Knuckles’ personality brilliantly. Given that this is a carton short, however, means it can’t go up too high on this ranking of Knuckles’ animated adaptations.
4) Sonic the Hedgehog OVA (1996)
Compared to the other animated features on this list, Knuckles the Echidna doesn’t get any backstory in this 90’s Sonic the Hedgehog animated movie. Apparently, he traded it in for an Indiana Jones-esque hat and the ability to defy gravity. He’s just sort of there.
In the OVA, Knuckles seemingly pops out of nowhere to save Sonic and Tails from Metal Robotnik. A self-described treasure hunter, Knuckles doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the plot and proves useless once Hyper Metal Sonic bursts onto the scene. However, he does hold Sonic back before Hyper Metal Sonic perishes in the lava, much to Sonic’s chagrin.
Conclusion: What’s there to say? Knuckles is at least better animated than his Sonic X counterpart, but that can be said for the OVA whole. The problem is, that he doesn’t have a whole lot going on here other than being a friend of Sonic and Tails. Given the OVA was originally intended as a pilot for a TV Series, perhaps he – and the rest of the cast – would’ve been fleshed out a little more. However, given the TV series never came to be, we will never know.
Regarding Knuckles’ voice in the movie, it doesn’t really suit the Echidna. He sounds far too upbeat, all of the time. But honestly, there’s nothing distinctive about Bill Wise’s performance to describe. It just doesn’t fit the character.
3) Sonic Underground (1999)
Knuckles is a recurring character in the French-animated Sonic Underground cartoon. Here, he is once again the guardian of the Floating Island and Master Emerald (or Chaos Emerald, as it’s known here). Sonic and his siblings run into him while investigating the island for their missing mother. Unfortunately for them, so are Robotnik’s minions, Snoot and Dingo.
Much like other media, Knuckles proves easy to manipulate by the villains. He spends much of his debut episode, “Friend or Foe”, locking horns with Sonic, under the impression he’s wanting to steal the Chaos Emerald. The misunderstanding is eventually solved and, from hereon, the Sonic Underground and Knuckles are buddies. This doesn’t stop him from later turning in the hedgehogs to Robotnik in exchange for containing the Chaos Emerald (although he eventually betrays him out of guilt).
Conclusion: Given Sonic Underground uses mostly original characters outside of Sonic and Robotnik, it’s refreshing to see another character from the games get the ‘Underground’ treatment. Aside from some slight deviations, he remains remarkably true to his videogame counterpart. His conflict between wanting to save Mobius and his friendship with the hedgehogs is also somewhat interesting.
The issue is really with the voice. Brian Drummond doesn’t sound like Knuckles. It seems like the creative team were aiming towards a younger version of the character. Therefore, Knuckles’ voice sounds more pre-teen than his other appearances. Saying this, it’s not Knuckles’ quintessential voice adaptation.
2) Sonic Boom (2014-2017)
When Sonic Boom hit televisions in 2014, older fans of the ‘hog were miffed about the relatively light-hearted nature of the show compared to its predecessors. This is especially evident in its portrayal of Knuckles, who is now a simple-minded oaf, who can’t read or tell left from right (although he appears fairly knowledgeable on the topic of feminism).
That said, Sonic Boom is a TV Show for kids and having a dumb character to laugh at probably helped its popularity. And let’s face it, if they had to dumb down any characters, Knuckles was the right choice. He is often the most gullible character in the mainstream Sonic universe.
Conclusion: Sonic Boom is a kids’ comedy, not attempting to break new ground. Unlike, say, Sonic X or Sonic the Hedgehog, it isn’t aiming to tug at the heartstrings or impress with epic story arcs. It’s just a slice of good fun for children to enjoy – dumb Knuckles is just one part of that.
And all that aside, Travis Willingham does a good job with Knuckles’ voice. It has a similar gruffness to Dan Green’s take. It really seems to suit Knuckles well, given he’s ‘the muscle’ of the gang. Willingham wouldn’t be a bad alternative choice for Knuckles the Echidna in the upcoming Sonic movie.
1) Sonic X (2003-2004)
Riding off the successful coattails of its contemporary videogame cousins, Sonic X brought the likes of Amy Rose, Cream the Rabbit to kids’ TVs. And, of course, Knuckles joined in the fun, too.
Here, Knuckles has a love-hate relationship with Sonic that transcends over the course of the series. This is perhaps not surprising given that Knuckles is a brooding, ineffectual loner and Sonic is an outgoing, impulsive extravert. Knuckles himself rarely has character arcs of his own outside of the anime’s Adventure and Battle videogame adaptations. But a memorable episode has Knuckles team up with an adventurer called Hawk to find a Chaos Emerald which is a nice deviation from the show’s usual antics.
Conclusion: Sonic and Knuckles’ tense relationship is an intriguing ground for drama. The show does well in portraying this dynamic and the difference between the pair’s methods. It erases a problem that occurred in the OVA and Sonic Underground, where the character had no qualms at all with Sonic and therefore, lost an interesting aspect of his personality (in the latter’s case, he was frosty with him in his first episode but was buddy-buddy with him from its ending onwards).
Meanwhile, in the voice department, Dan Green gives a gruff, violent voice to Knuckles. This is certainly an interesting vocal concept for the character, but due to the voice direction, Knuckles can sound loud and overbearing at times. There’s not much range in Knuckles’ voice and, as a result, he loses some of the depth from the Japanese version of the show.
