'Toon Reviews 20: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 2 Episode 17: Mathmagic/The Bounce Lounge

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Mathmagic

Sometimes entertainment can come from Star doing common everyday tasks, and for people her age, the most common one is going to school.  She’s gotten herself in academic trouble a few times before and this episode basically adds to the trend. 

The story is basically about Star being called up to the board to do a complex math problem after being called out for laughing at a joke from Janna instead of paying attention.  However, Star’s really bad at math and insists that the answer is a cat face no matter how far off from the point of mathematics she is.  It’s mildly funny for sure, but it doesn’t stray too far from typical class clown nature. 

Eventually, the equation solving process gets more interesting when the scene begins again for an inexplicable reason.  As a matter of fact, for much of the runtime, the scene continues to restart, only differentiating itself in a few areas. There's the punchline to Janna’s joke, Janna wearing an unusual hat, and what Marco says he needs to know the math problem for.  That said, the ending of the scene is always the same with Star being called up to solve the problem and the restarts occurring every time she refuses.  It makes the whole ordeal more interesting than it would be if it didn’t happen.  At the same time, it gets repetitive and dull, not helping that most of the episode is like this. 

The plot does make for something different when Star escapes math class to investigate the repetitions.  If you recall the episode “Freeze Day,” there’s a dimension called the Plains of Time where all time is controlled by Father Tie operating a giant wheel. That’s the best guess for the reason why the math scene keeps repeating.  When Star gets there, it doesn’t seem like Father Time has anything to do with what she’s going through.  He's enjoying running the wheel the way he was rearranged to do so last time. 

The real being Star has to talk to in the Plain of Time is another Magic High Commission member, Omnitraxus Prime, who’s in charge of space time.  He’s mostly made appealing through his creative design of a simple talking scull inside a humanoid body, though most of his appearances simply feature him in a sphere.  Despite looking big and threatening, he’s actually quite entertaining as he explains that Star can get out of this time loop if she just does the math problem instead of refusing. After all, there’s no good reason for Star not to do the problem. 

Then through putting Star through his body, Omnitraxus brings up another interesting point of there being different versions of Star in various dimensions.  They're all able to solve the math problem while the real Star is the only one unable to.  Adding to the creativity is all the different Stars represented as a galaxy of crystals all of which keep bringing weird occurrences to the real Star’s timeline.  It’s kind of stretching it that Star’s timeline is falling apart just because of a math problem. It’s never really explained why Star not doing the work has these consequences, but I can’t fault this reveal for making the simple math problem stand out more.  Plus, we get a creative climax out of this as Star finally solves the math problem as she and the world around her randomly change forms and fall apart.  Even though she gets the problem wrong, it’s still nice that Star is praised for trying, even by her disgruntled teacher Ms. Skullnick. 

While a bit monotonous at parts, I still can’t fault the episode for giving a creative edge to one of life’s common challenges. 

A-

The Bounce Lounge

Even if the location has only been seen a few times in the show, the Bounce Lounge is a favorite place for Star’s friend Pony Head.  Basically a place where people from different dimensions hang out, the Bounce Lounge is perfect for a character like her. 

That said, as is common for Pony Head, it’s uncomfortable and grating that the first thing we see in this episode is how hard she cries that the Bounce Lounge is closing.  Thankfully, this doesn’t last long when she, Star, and Marco go to the Bounce Lounge to investigate the closing.  They find that the whole place is dilapidated and deserted. The owner, Milly Sparkles, explains that the party is ending simply because business is slow. 

Star and Pony Head bring up that they haven’t been to the Bounce Lounge for a long time, which admittedly is a nice take on the fact that it hasn’t been seen much in the actual show.  Out of this comes a believable message on the importance of paying respect to what you value since they can be gone at any time. This can transcend to things even deeper than party spots.  From here, the plot is all about saving the Bounce Lounge which involves getting back the old crew.  Among them is Kelly who gets more development from her first appearance in “Goblin Dogs” as she deals with a breakup with her boyfriend, Tad, leaving a noticeable bald spot.  While it would’ve been nice for the breakup to get more focus, helping to save the Bounce Lounge does serve as a good coping outlet.  As for the rest of the crew, Star and Pony Head get a little too reckless recruiting them for their cause, taking them away from their new jobs and forms of partying. 

Fortunately, what happens is too exciting for this point to matter much.  The crew obviously isn’t enough to pay off the mortgage the Bounce Lounge owes. Since they’re together, they make the most of the Lounge’s last night for their own party.  It’s really fun and exciting to watch everyone hang out and enjoy themselves, selling how they value the Bounce Lounge.  It’s also interesting that through not trying so hard to save the Bounce Lounge, the crew attracts many interdimensional creatures.  This inspires everyone to try harder to attract even more creatures, and the more guest show up, the more exciting the party becomes.  With shots of dancing and fast-paced rocking party music, you never want the party to stop.  The last dollars for the cause come from Tad which does devalue what him and Kelly breaking up could’ve meant. Them dancing together as Tad puts himself back on Kelly’s head is still a pretty nice scene. 

However, even with all this partying, Milly Sparkles still says the Bounce Lounge is closed giving the real reason for this.  Although she looks young and keen to party, there’s a nice twist that she’s actually old and tired, thus needing to stop.  As understandable and interesting as this is, it begs the question why Milly didn’t say this in the first place.  It does make for a more realistic ending of everyone dealing with their favorite place being gone since it would’ve been too easy to keep the Bounce Lounge open. 

Ultimately, in spite of a few questionable character moments, there’s enough fun and excitement, and even mature messages, to allow this episode to leave a strong impression.

B+

The Ranking

1. Bon Bon the Birthday Clown
2. Ludo in the Wild
3. Into the Wand
4. Hungry Larry
5. Raid the Cave
6. Running with Scissors
7. Game of Flags
8. Baby
9. On the Job
10. Sleepover
11. Is Mystery
12. Naysaya
13. Mr. Candle Cares
14. Wand to Wand
15. Page Turner
16. Starstruck
17. Girls’ Day Out
18. By the Book
19. Friendenemies
20. Gift of the Card
21. Starsitting
22. Star on Wheels
23. Mathmagic
24. Camping Trip
25. The Bounce Lounge
26. My New Wand
27. Red Belt
28. Spider with a Top Hat
29. Star vs Echo Creek
30. Fetch
31. Goblin Dogs
32. Pizza Thing
33. Trickstar

The next Star vs the Forces of Evil review puts Rhombulus in the spotlight, and reveals how Glossaryck is doing serving Ludo now.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode "We've Got Fleas."

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.