This cartoon takes a common trope and works in a lot of
entertainment and character building.
The trope in this case involves kids developing crushes on hot-looking
teachers. We lead into the trope with a
sympathetic premise on Lincoln’s part. He’s
usually a good student, but hasn’t been getting good grades lately, so he hires
a British tutor named Hugh to help him.
Unfortunately for him, it’s impossible to make any progress because all
of his sisters become infatuated by Hugh’s appearance and constantly pop out of
nowhere and flirt with him. These
moments could be a big problem with the cartoon, but they all come off as
hilarious in execution with the different ways the sisters manage to pop in on
the different locations Lincoln and Hugh use to study. The only issue with these moments is that
Lori is one of the sisters crushing on Hugh even though she has a boyfriend,
and we’re never given a reason as to why she’s cheating on him. My best guess is that Bobby isn’t around
during the flirting scenes, so Lori’s open to any present hot guy, but that’s
just me. Anyway, what also makes the
flirting moments work is that the sisters are still respectful of Lincoln. When he tells them he needs to study so not
to fail 5th grade, they back off.
If that’s not enough, they later go on to help him find out why he’s
failing. It’s a revelation that further
proves that Lincoln isn’t much different from his many distinct sisters. He too is guilty of crushing on a hot teacher
which distracts him from doing well. Finally, the
sisters help him find a way around this problem, and their advice thankfully
has Lincoln do well again. Yes, these
moments in the cartoon provide good proof that despite their quirks and habits,
the Loud siblings truly do care for each other, which in turn gives the show
some good heart. The main plot may
revolve around an all too familiar trope, but the humor and character-building
moments it gets out of it make it work out for the better. 9/10
Homespun
This is the final cartoon of this season, and I’m pleased to
say that it’s one that brings together everything great about this show. It’s a story that right off the bat displays
how none of the Loud siblings are alone when it comes to dealing with the trials
and tribulations of living in a big family.
They all have issues with the conditions of the house they live in and
grow to dread their lifestyle. The
appeal of the cartoon grows even more when the threat of an impending tornado
brings the siblings together in the basement.
For the rest of the cartoon, we’re treated to a big display of each of
the siblings showing off what makes them great characters, as well as some
enjoyable interactions between all of them.
We also get the best displays of the bonds between all 11 of the
siblings as they all manage to find ways around the problems they have with
their house by simply talking about them.
The more they do, the more they grow to be more appreciative of the life
they have and the house they live in. The changes in their mindsets are cleverly
built up through a series of newly-created flashbacks of everyone living out
their lives in the house. Each one is
highly humorous, features even more great moments and character interactions
from the Loud siblings, and best of all a nice wholesome quality that really
defines the joys of family life, which is especially true for a flashback of
the kids painting the house for Mom and Dad’s anniversary weekend. By the time the flashbacks wrap up and the
kids have a change of heart about their house, the tone shifts to make you hope
that the tornado doesn’t cause any harm to their house, and the desperation and sorrow of
the characters sells the intensity.
Thankfully, things turn out all right for the house in the end, and
that’s great to know for the sake of the characters. This cartoon is really the best way to show
off what has become the show’s strongest of themes revolving around how all the
Loud siblings are different yet the same, and how appreciating what you have is
a good thing to know to get around in life.
Add in some great performances from the characters involved, solid
comedy, and a bunch of cute family moments, and this cartoon comes off as one
big package of greatness. It's truly an amazing one to end the first
season with. 10/10
The Ranking
1. Homespun
2. For Bros
About to Rock
3. A Tattler’s
Tale
4. Undie
Pressure
5. Project
Loud House
6. One Flu
Over the Loud House
7. Funny
Business
8. Space
Invader
9. A Fair to
Remember
10. Driving
Miss Hazy
11. Left in the
Dark
12. Toads and
Tiaras
13. Picture
Perfect
14. Dance,
Dance Resolution
15. House Music
16. Save the
Date
17. The Price
of Admission
18. Sleuth or
Consequences
19. Hand-Me-Downer
20. No Guts No
Glori
21. Roughin’ It
22. Attention
Deficit
23. Changing
the Baby
24. Along Came
A Sister
25. Snow Bored
26. April Fools
Rules
27. Study
Muffin
28. A Novel
Idea
29. Sound of
Silence
30. Butterfly
Effect
31. A Tale of
Two Tables
32. Cereal
Offender
33. Cover Girls
34. It’s A
Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud House
35. The Waiting
Game
36. Overnight
Success
37. Raw Deal
38. In Tents
Debate
39. Lincoln
Loud: Girl Guru
40. Out on a Limo
41. Linc or
Swim
42. The Sweet
Spot
43. Heavy
Meddle
44. Get the
Message
45. Come Sale
Away
46. Ties that
Bind
47. One of the
Boys
48. Making the
Case
49. Chore and
Peace
50. The Loudest
Yard
51. Two Boys
and a Baby
52. The Green
House
Final Thoughts
After going through the entire first season of The Loud House, I can greatly say that
this is the show that Nickelodeon needed.
It’s a series that prides itself on simple, relatable stories, while
utilizing several little elements to make them entertaining enough to come back
to, just like the Nicktoons from back in the day. The biggest strengths of the show mostly
involve how the characters are used, which is appropriate because the family the
show is named after has a lot of them.
Each one has their own charming personality to help them liven up their
scenes, and when you put two or more characters together, you get a lot of
greatness from those distinct personalities working off of each other. While some characters are more enjoyable than
others, they’re all, on the whole, worth your time. The characters also bring out a lot of heart
behind the main themes addressed in the show such as how it’s best to appreciate what you have , or how the rest of the family knows how they feel. Plus, the relationship between all 11 of the
siblings does a great job of showing a believable look at family life. Although there are many times throughout the
cartoons where the characters annoy, tease, or fight with each other, that
never stops them from showing some genuine moments of caring. In other words, it lets us know that even
though sibling life, especially when it’s part of a big family, is never
perfect, love between others will always overpower any form of animosity. In addition to the way the characters are
utilized, the show also thrives on the simplistic tone of the cartoons. With the life of a big family as the major
focal point, the plots aren’t required to be big and spectacular, but rather
small looks at the little moments in life like getting to the TV first, wanting
to be treated like a grown-up, sharing a room, wanting undivided attention from
Mom and Dad, doing a project for school, wanting to join a club, or just going
about the house. These moments may not
seem like much, but this show takes them and makes what’s small feel like big
grand experiences thriving on humor, heart, emotion, and creativity. They make trying to turn the power on like an
underground investigation, a search to find out who clogged the toilet like a
crime investigation, dealing with a bratty sister like facing a monster, and
avoiding getting sick like getting through a zombie apocalypse. The portrayal of these little moments in life
give the show a certain charm that most modern Nickelodeon shows seem to be
lacking, and it’s one that entices you to keep on coming back. There’s also much to enjoy about the
simplicity of the art style which really fits the tone. Everything is simply drawn and painted
with solid colors with not much movement in the background. Yet, that’s all it needs to draw you in
artistically especially since the art style greatly captures the feeling of a
comic strip, right down to the opening titles of each cartoon designed like
just that (which also explains the frequent Peanuts references, which is
fitting to notice given the previous series of reviews posted on this blog).As you can see, on the inside and outside, this first season shows that The Loud House has much to admire. However, at this point, I’m hesitant to call it one of the best animated TV series. I’d say the show is top 20, maybe even top 15, material, but not exactly ready for the big leagues. For every moment of greatness, there are also a few misfires. Sometimes the characters get up to jerky moments that go too far, some moments, such as Clyde taking his crush on Lori too seriously when she’s obviously too old for him and a few of the gross-out jokes, are cringe-worthy, and quite a few cartoons have some major downer endings. The latter point is perhaps the biggest detracting factor. There are times when some cartoons end with the characters not getting a conclusion that completely satisfies the hardships they went through, the characters getting punished for doing nothing wrong or misdeeds that really weren’t that bad, characters not learning anything, and characters suffering even after they learned their lesson. Stuff like that sours the experiences and makes for some of the weaker entries of the season which includes three outright bad cartoons. That said, there are several times this season where the show proved how great it can be, with some cartoons even being worthy of a 10/10. Because of that, I believe that these weak points can be ironed out somewhat in later seasons. If we see signs of that in the second season, this animated TV show could go on to be worthy of being called one of the top ten greatest. To me, it seems like we are seeing some signs of that, but that will be further explored when it comes time to review season 2.
Season 1 of The Loud House is far from perfect, but the strong points immensely outweigh the weak points. It may not be top-tier material for all animated TV series at this time, but it has proven to be one of the best Nicktoons, which given what they’ve had for the past few years, is saying a lot. For that, I advise you to catch the show as it currently airs on TV, select the highest ranked cartoons from this post to purchase on digital, and look out for DVD releases.
Highly Recommended
That's it for The Loud House Season 1. Expect reviews of Season 2 on this blog sometime after it's completely finished airing. As for the next show to be reviewed here, we'll be covering the classic 80s Disney series, DuckTales, via its first DVD release. Until then:
Stay Animated Folks!
-Mike Clemente
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