Thursday, August 10, 2017

'Toon Reviews 4: The Loud House Season 1 Episode 21

The Loudest Yard


 
 
 
  
 
There are only three cartoons in this season that I consider bad.  We’ve already covered two, “The Green House,” and “Two Boys and a Baby,” and this is the third one.  It’s the least bad of the three, but there are still a lot of factors that prevent it from being enjoyable.  The main premise of the cartoon is that Lincoln is signed up for football despite not being good at sports after not being willing to do basic exercises.  I’m not fond of Lincoln being forced into something he’s not good at when Mom could’ve just goaded him to try harder at basic exercises and use football as a threat if he doesn’t, though you have to wonder why she only has him and no one else exercise.  At the same time, Lincoln doesn’t hold much sympathy because he really doesn’t try.  As a result, I can’t go along with either side of the situation.  Now, we are treated to a lot of Lincoln’s relationship with Lynn here which is nice.  We’re used to seeing her roughhouse with Lincoln a lot due to her love of sports, but as we watch her willingly coach Lincoln at football, this cartoon proves that she really does care for him.  The only problem is that, once again, Lincoln isn’t really trying, resulting in a lack of sympathy.  The lack of sympathy grows even more when Lincoln decides that Lynn should disguise herself as him on the actual football team, perhaps the most stupid idea he has ever come up with.  The kicker is that it actually works for an entire season with Lynn going in Lincoln’s place while he sits around and reads comics literally everyday even if it should’ve been easy to figure out that the player wasn’t Lincoln if someone just looked closely or took off the helmet. In other words, this part of the cartoon is hard to suspend disbelief towards.  What really makes the cartoon bad though is the ending.  The truth ends up exposed during the final game when Lynn sprains her ankle and everyone sees who she really is when her helmet comes off.  Lincoln admits his wrongdoing and fills in for her, the moment staged to be one to redeem himself by winning the game.  Instead, Lincoln ends up scoring for the other team and everyone’s mad at him.  If he had actually won the game and realize that he is capable of sports, everything in the cartoon would’ve been worth it and this would be one of his best performances.  However, we close things out with the impression that Lincoln is a disgrace to everyone who can’t do anything right, and, as is normal with most weak cartoons of this show, nothing is accomplished.  If it wasn’t for the great portrayal of Lynn and Lincoln’s relationship, this cartoon would be a lot worse than it is.  Still, it suffers from stupid plot decisions, unlikable characters, and an ending that really sours everything.  Because of this, it’s a good one to skip. 4.5/10
 Raw Deal
 

 
 
 
 
 
People often tell me that I shouldn’t let fear rule my life.  This is what helps me relate to this cartoon a lot.  It starts out like it’s going to be a great day out at a national park for the Loud family, Lincoln especially.  The theme of not letting fear rule your life comes into play when Lucy brings out a set of cards that predict everyone’s future, one of them saying that Lincoln’s day will end in tragedy.  It doesn’t seem like much to believe in at first, but slowly, in a lot of clever and funny ways, the rest of the sisters’ good predictions come true, making it likely that Lincoln’s will come true too.  The rest of the cartoon follows Lincoln too paranoid to take part in all the fun things to do at the park with his family.  I can identify with Lincoln a lot because there are times when I worry a lot about certain bad things happening.  However, while I mostly put them aside and live my life hoping for the best, Lincoln goes the extreme route by keeping himself from doing anything.  The ideas he has for what bad things can happen to him have a comedic charm to them and they’re easy to sit through since he’s bringing his lack of enjoyment on himself.  Even so, I can’t help but feel sorry for the fact that he ends up missing out on a lot of great things to do so much so that it overshadows the humor of his paranoia.  That, and Lucy, who’s normally on good terms with Lincoln, doesn’t seem to show much sympathy for him considering that she made him feel the way he does with her predictions unlike most of the rest of the family.  These points are remedied somewhat by Lincoln realizing he had nothing to worry about and learning something from it, him being the only Loud to see a usually dormant geyser go off, and a hilarious ending gag involving Lucy’s cards.  This cartoon’s heart is easy to sense even if you don’t relate to it on a personal level.  Even more importantly, while not perfect regarding entertainment, there’s still plenty of elements to make it an enjoyable experience. 8/10
The Ranking
1.      For Bros About to Rock
2.      Undie Pressure
3.      Project Loud House
4.      Space Invader
5.      Driving Miss Hazy
6.      Left in the Dark
7.      Toads and Tiaras
8.      Picture Perfect
9.      House Music
10.  Save the Date
11.  Sleuth or Consequences
12.  Hand-Me-Downer
13.  No Guts No Glori
14.  Roughin’ It
15.  Attention Deficit
16.  Changing the Baby
17.  Along Came A Sister
18.  April Fools Rules
19.  A Novel Idea
20.  Sound of Silence
21.  Butterfly Effect
22.  A Tale of Two Tables
23.  Cereal Offender
24.  Cover Girls
25.  It’s A Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud House
26.  The Waiting Game
27.  Overnight Success
28.  Raw Deal
29.  In Tents Debate
30.  Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru
31.  Out on a Limo
32.  Linc or Swim
33.  The Sweet Spot
34.  Heavy Meddle
35.  Get the Message
36.  Come Sale Away
37.  Ties that Bind
38.  Making the Case
39.  Chore and Peace
40.  The Loudest Yard
41.  Two Boys and a Baby
42.  The Green House
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Lincoln has to juggle four dates at a Sadie Hawkins Dance and in turn come up with a "Dance, Dance Resolution" around it, and Lincoln hanging with Bobby and Lori hanging with Clyde at a fair turns out to be "A Fair to Remember."

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