11 best sidekicks (no Jar Jar Binks here)

It's always the leading person that claims all the glory, grabs all the headlines and that everyone remembers but where would Captain Hook be without Smee (who had no rank oddly), Shrek without Donkey or The Beatles without Ringo Starr? No-one gets through sidekicks like Dr. Who but here's another random list of those closely linked to the main person in books/games/tv/films.

11. Patrick Starfish from SpongeBob SquarePants
Where would SpongeBob be without Patrick, the loveable pink blob that lives under a rock next door, when SpongeBob goes on an adventure, Patrick is always by his side. Portrayed as being fat, lazy, ignorant and unintelligent (not to mention the only character without a nose), it has to be asked in an underwater world where everyone works for a living, why doesn't Patrick (presumably he borrows from a loan shark) though this means he's always at SpongeBob's beck and call. That you can follow him on Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/Patrick_Star and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/patrickstar show he is clearly as much of a fans favourite as SpongeBob himself.

10. Lewis from Inspector Morse
Lewis (not to be confused with Officer Anne Lewis from RoboCop) is a Detective Sergeant who was the sidekick to Inspector Morse in all 13 books by Colin Dexter. Set in Oxford, England (who would of thought so much crime needed solving there). A bit like the great detective predecessor Sherlock Holmes having Dr. Watson, Lewis was constantly put down with comments or demeaned by Morse who meant this in a playful manner.

9. Luigi from Super Mario Bros.
So if they are 'super' Mario brothers, that would make the surname Mario.....which makes Mario become Mario Mario (a sentence with Mario in 5 times is too much) and Luigi is the green overall wearing alternative to his red wearing brother. First appearing in 1983, Luigi is sometimes portrayed as a more cowardly (especially around ghosts) character than the brave heroic Mario though both have the same aim which is to save Princess Daisy. While Mario is portrayed as a typical Italian American, Luigi comes across more of a stereotype Italian, I bet he loves a Dolmio Day.

8. Garth Algar from Wayne's World
Played by Dana Carvey in the movie's, Garth was Wayne Campbell's wingman, ever eager to help him with his musical endeavours and 'schwing' when a foxy lady walks past. Garth would almost blunder his way through life but to his friend Wayne, everything he did was 'cool'. I have a theory that when Garth grew up, he had a sex change and became JK Rowling.

7. Dr. Watson from Sherlock Holmes
Perhaps the most known sidekick, at least from classic literature, Dr. Watson was an assistant and sometime flatmate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's great detective and narrated all but 4 of the books featuring Holmes. Although he never actually uses these words, 'Elementary, my dear Watson' is a part of modern speech when someone cottons onto what someone is trying to explain to them. With a medical background (he is a Dr. after all), it's a wonder he was a sidekick to a detective but this made the relationship between the pair all the more interesting.

6. Robin from Batman   
Robin was first played by Richard 'Dick' Grayson way back in 1940 and since then has been played by 4 others in the popular comic. In  1983 when Grayson left to become Nightwing, Jason Todd took the role though was later brutally killed by The Joker in 1989. Since then the character has been portrayed by Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown (the only female Robin) and is currently Damian Wayne, Batman's son. While most of the movies feature Batman alone with no sidekick, it was the popular 1966 ABC series 'Batman' that people most remember Robin. Batman & Robin are often referred to as The Caped Crusaders or The Dynamic Duo. Debates rage over whether Batman needs a Robin but the Batman universe is richer for having the character but Robin is essentially an early teen fighting crime and supervillains....please kids, don't try this at home.

5. Chewbacca from Star Wars
Chewbacca is a 7 foot tall version of Cousin It from The Addams family who barks and growls in a way only Han Solo can understand. The gentle co-pilot of Solo's Millennium Falcon featured in 4 of the 6 Star Wars movies and classic lines like 'Aaaaaaaaaargh!' and 'Urgh' have led him to becoming a firm fan favourite. In the 1978 Star Wars holiday special, Chewbacca's wife and kids can be seen as we got to visit his homeworld Kashyyyk (28 points in Scrabble) and has no-one ever asked the question, what does Chewbacca smell like?

4. KITT from Knight Rider
Seriously! just look at that car, that's why it's included in this list, not to mention it's a talking car that can drive itself, maybe they know Optimus Prime

3. Gromit from Wallace & Gromit
The hugely popular BBC plasticine adventurers  have survived every story by virtue of Gromit. While Wallace dithers about inventing the most useless creations and getting the pair into trouble, it's Gromit that keeps a cool head so they always prevail. First appearing in 1989's A Grand Day Out, Gromit has no visible mouth and never speaks a word but has there ever been a more expressive character to grace our screens?

2. Short Round from Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

Why does he feature on the list let alone at number 2? because he's not Shia Lebeouf! Short Round almost encompasses what was so great about the first 3 Indiana Jones films, the vaudeville-esqe slapstick routines, the adventures where everything was survived by the skin of your teeth (teeth don't even have skin) and just dumb luck.  Temple Of Doom saw Indiana skirting around Shanghai with 11 year old Short Round (played by Jonathan Ke Quan who's other film of notice is The Goonies where he played Data) who serve's as a perfect addition to add friction to Indy's personality. From Shocking Dr. Jones out of hypnosis to driving a 1936 Speedster in a car chase, Short Round shouldered a lot of the burden in defeating the treacherous Mola Ram

1. Ron Weasley/Hermione Grainger from the Harry Potter franchise
The perfect sidekick(s) because throughout all the books, they feature as main characters alongside Harry Potter and without them, he probably would still be wondering where the Philosophers Stone is, trapped in the Chamber Of Secrets or even a prisoner in Azkaban. Ron was fantastic in his role of encouraging Harry to do risky and daring ventures while Hermione was the brains behind the trio, take any of these away and the chemistry is gone along with the chance of success. Though hero is the titular hero, it's only as he was sheltered from this world of witches and wizards so his innocence helps the reader to understand this wonderful world and have everything explained for us poor, plain muggles. In reality, the last book should of been called Harry Potter, Ron Weasley And Hermione Grainger And The Deathly Hallows but I guess the spines on books have only so much room to print titles.

The Avengers juggernaut (not Cain Marko)

As of writing, The Avengers movie (Avengers Assemble in the UK due to the 'New Avengers' TV series starring Joanna Lumley, Avengers Assemble sounds like a film about a group of superheroes who attempt to put together some flat pack furniture) has grossed worldwide almost $1.2billion (around £800million, how Greece must of wished it made this movie to solve all that countries money problems) and shows no sign of slowing down. It was released less than 3 weeks ago and is currently the 4th highest grossing film of all time behind Avatar ($2.78b), Titanic ($2.18b) and Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($1.32b), while it should overtake the last Harry Potter movie in the next week, it remains to be seen if it can compete with the two James Cameron goliaths but it has that potential.

I saw The Avengers in 3D on the day it was released worldwide, the marketing and hype for the movie were years in the making, the slow hype has paid of, in the 2008 Iron Man film, there was the tease of Captain America's (I wonder if the true cause of America's financial problems come from Captain America asking for his back pay) shield and in the 2010 sequel, Iron Man 2, the closing credits featured Thor's hammer 'Mjolnir' to leave fans waiting for the characters solo movies leading into this collective collaboration.

   The Avengers features Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and The Incredible Hulk, the two flawed Hulk movies, Thor and Captain America (After watching Captain America, I feel like riot police aren't using their shields properly) have done well at the box office but compared to other Marvel movies, have been modest at best. Iron Man has fared better but nowhere in the league of the Sam Raimi's Spiderman trilogy or The Dark Knight. The success of combining these characters has delightedly astounded Disney (who bought the rights to The Avengers and Iron Man 3 from Paramount) but why has the movie seemingly come out of nowhere to do so well.

   The answer is simply that it is a damn good movie and people want to see it again. The success of Avatar and Titanic was that the audience went back again and again to see the film. If someone hasn't seen Avengers and needed someone to go with, i'd happily go again and see it. It's a feel good film, a family film that most ages can enjoy. It's interesting what Marvel has created leading up to this film, 4 completely different film franchises, all leading up to this one point, each character given their established plot, specific traits and their own big personality. This is the first time that i can think of where a studio has spent 4 years creating a universe to set up one BIG blockbuster. For all the special effects, explosions and nasty villains, the actors are given ample time to shine in their roles and most importantly, no-one is deemed superior to others, they are equal. It's a great feel good movie with cinematic magic and no matter how much marketing a studio does to promote their films, there is nothing like word of mouth to fill cinema seats and has anyone heard a bad word said about this film?

The film isn't perfect (where does the Tesseract come from and what exactly can it do?) but it's exactly what a summer blockbuster should be, The Dark Knight Rises is released in a couple of months and the bar has been set very high in 2012.

View The Avengers trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPoHPNeU9fc

View The Dark Knight Rises trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8evyE9TuYk