'Toon Reviews 9: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 1 Episode 11

Mewnipendence Day

Although we’ve seen glimpses of Mewni, we’ve never really learned much about it.  This episode is where we get some insight on its history when Star invites some of her class for a celebration of the anniversary of the founding of her home dimension called Mewnipendence Day.  The backstory itself is fairly basic that can be applied to the founding of any country.  Settlers came and made their home, monsters attacked, the settlers beat the monsters with the help of magic from their queen, and then Mewni thrived into the big kingdom it is today.  That’s all there is to what this day is celebrating without anything to stand out from your average basic retelling of historic events.  However, it does lead to an honestly masterful bit of storytelling that reveals itself as the Mewnipendence Day customs unfold.  Star has everyone, who have no knowledge of Mewni and are mostly here for the feast, do a re-enactment of the monster massacre that allowed Mewni to get the freedom it has with some posing as the fighters and others posing as the monsters.  Marco believes that the fighters have an unfair advantage against the monsters who aren’t given any weapons.  Through very minimal dialog, Star is led to look over pages she frequently overlooks from a Mewnipendence Day history book she has.  That combined with her watching the battle reenactment slowly gets her to realize that monsters have feelings too, something she’s more than set up to learn given her need to fight monsters.  This part of the episode gets stronger with the subplot of Ludo and Toffee getting closer to getting Star’s wand.  Because of Toffee, Ludo sets up an ingenious way of spying on Star with a floating eyeball putting his henchmen out of a job.  One monster who’s been shown to be the closest to Ludo, Buff Frog, sets out to prove that he and the others deserve to keep their job by trying to steal Star’s wand himself.  When he somehow can’t use a special device of Toffee’s to retrieve it and is forced to retreat, Star has a good chance to blast him like she always does.  Instead, she lets Buff Frog go free, and it’s a defining moment for Star really realizing the humanity of monsters.  It’s as if she’s growing into a more mature and considerate person.  This even continues to the end when after a harsh scene of Buff Frog's biggest fear confirmed with Ludo kicking him out, Star offers him food during the Mewnipendence Day feast, making the conclusion satisfying for all.  Many characters involved get up to many strong moments of character development, enjoyment, and sympathy making this another strong entry for this season. 9.5/10

The Banagic Incident

 

After two fairly serious and heavy episodes, this episode once again focuses on the hijinks Star gets up to due to her misunderstandings of Earth’s customs.  Several instances show that Star is literal-minded of how Earth works, and that usually makes for some of her most enjoyable moments.  In fact, any time someone takes what someone says literally results in hilarity, and this episode has a lot of that on display.  It all begins when Star, determined to avoid boredom, finds an ad for a product called the Banagic wand.  Already, her literal-minded nature kicks in when she reads that the wand is seen on TV and goes to one to learn all about it.  The commercial for the wand that plays is filled with hilarity potential with Star buying into the marketing stunts on how it brings everyone together with friendship magic and that supplies are limited. Star declares that she must get it before it’s too late, even though all the wand does is make banana ice cream.  Admittedly, since we as an audience know that the Banagic wand really isn’t anything special, it can get concerning when Star doesn’t listen to what Marco has to say about it or that he needs to get to karate class.  Still, it’s easy to get wrapped up in all the fun that unfolds as Star sets off on her own to find the wand at “a better store.”  As a result, we get even more hilarious moments like mistaking strange looking people as monsters, assuming people who casually use the term “better store” is the place where to find the wand and acting like workers at a pirate-themed restaurant are real pirates which make them chase her.  This whole part of the episode is just non-stop fun and excitement especially since it happens because of a hilarious misunderstanding.  It also has a decent payoff when Star reciting the banagic wand commercial to get the restaurant workers chasing her on her side, showing that maybe there was more to the commercial than one might think.  There’s also a lot of time spent on Marco’s karate class where he struggles to cross a floor of hot coal while being taunted by Jeremy Birnbaum.  It’s certainly enjoyable as well, and what Marco goes through has a solid payoff when he lets his frustration at Jeremy out by chasing him which gets him to cross the hot floor, but this subplot feels like padding to elongate the story since Star’s story wasn’t long enough.  Even with that, it’s still well told as is what Star gets up to, even if her part probably should’ve come sooner in the season given her character growth at this point.  We’re overall left with a solid segment of laughs. 8/10

The Ranking

1. St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses
2. Blood Moon Ball
3. Mewberty
4. Mewnipendence Day
5. Diaz Family Vacation
6. Fortune Cookies
7. Sleep Spells
8. School Spirit
9. Party with a Pony
10. Freeze Day
11. Quest Buy
12. Monster Arm
13. Cheer up Star
14. Star Comes to Earth
15. Brittney’s Party
16. Matchmaker
17. The Banagic Incident
18. Lobster Claws
19. Pixtopia
20. Royal Pain
21. The Other Exchange Student

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Star fights boredom once again when she takes her class on an "Interdimensional Field Trip" and further learns that she's powerful even without her wand when "Marco Grows a Beard."

If you would like to check out other Star vs the Forces of Evil reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.