Let's Watch the Pilot (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 42) - 'Toon Reviews 19

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Let’s Watch the Pilot

An admirable thing about the creative process of Cartoon Network is that they look everywhere for creative talent, even from young artists.  They often showcase those talents through uploading pilots to potential new series on their YouTube channel for the public.  It’s a great way to see one of the steps of getting a show off the ground. 

Pilots are basically short cartoons that give a general idea of a show which executives can approve. It’s interesting to see how much they differ from the final product through things like the visual look and personalities of certain characters. 

For this show, back when it was penned as Lakewood Plaza Turbo, the pilot has a few key differences from the current show. The art style isn’t as unique, many characters look radically different, and there’s more emphasis on aggression between characters than charm.  This is why it’s fun to get a cartoon devoted to K.O., Rad, and Enid watching that very pilot on a talk show hosted by the charmingly enthusiastic newswoman Dynamite Watkins.  You get the sense that they’re watching in real time as the entire pilot plays in the background while everyone commentates.

As a matter of fact, you can commentate on the pilot yourself because I'm including the actual pilot right here:

As for this cartoon's commentary, it's a particular highlight being filled with many comedic jabs at how they started out.  There’s exclamations of how weird the settings and characters look. Everyone catches K.O. moving his mouth without saying words. There's a gag reel showing why Enid no longer has a loin flap.  An explanation for why most of the Boxmore characters don’t show up in the pilot pokes fun at weird dance animation commonly seen in shows like Tiny Toon Adventures.  It’s all humorous behind the scenes entertainment that looks into how far shows can come from their pilots. 

At the same time, presenting the whole series as a show where K.O. and his friends are just actors makes the show we’ve been seeing all this time less investing.  It feels like everything we’ve experienced isn’t real.  Since no other cartoon is like this, there’s no good reason why this one presents the whole series as something the characters act in instead of its own creative world.  It also goes a bit against how characters are meant to act now when the three stars fight over who’s the best “actor.” While this is fitting for Enid and especially Rad, it goes a little against the cute and charming kid we expect K.O. to be. 

Out of their tensions though, when they storm away from the pilot, there is a good moment to tie into what we know from the series proper.  As they lament about how bad the pilot makes them look, K.O. discusses how hard he works to be as good as his co-stars. He sees them as flawless while he keeps seeing himself completely fallible.  It’s much like his self-doubts of becoming a great hero brought up in many cartoons which may or may not matter depending on the context we’re given.  Under normal circumstances, it’s still a nice moment of confiding, and the three stars being cheered for their good moments in the pilot brings their lamenting to a good conclusion.  We even end with one last effective jab at the pilot with a wild story why K.O., Rad, and Enid have different noses from the pilot. 

The whole existence of this cartoon brings some uncomfortable implications on what we think we know about the show.  With the right frame of mind though, it's a really entertaining way to show the importance of pilots and what it’s like to look back on them.

B

The Ranking

1. Face Your Fears
2. Let’s Take a Moment
3. You Have to Care
4. T.K.O.
5. Back in Red Action
6. No More Pow Cards
7. Glory Days
8. Legends of Mr. Gar
9. We’ve Got Pests
10. I Am Dendy
11. Let’s Have a Stakeout
12. You Get Me
13. Let’s Be Heroes
14. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
15. We Got Hacked
16. K.O.’s Video Channel
17. Jethro’s All Yours
18. Know Your Mom
19. Everybody Likes Rad?
20. Villains Night In
21. A Hero’s Fate
22. Plaza Prom
23. We’re Captured
24. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
25. Let’s Be Friends
26. We Messed Up
27. Parents Day
28. Plazalympics
29. Presenting Joe Cuppa
30. Sibling Rivalry
31. Second First Date
32. Stop Attacking the Plaza
33. Just Be a Pebble
34. The Power is Yours
35. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
36. Let’s Watch the Pilot
37. Villains Night Out
38. You’re Level 100
39. You Are Rad
40. We’ve Got Fleas
41. Rad Likes Robots
42. One Last Score

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Dendy learns the consequences of intentionally unleashing T.K.O. and how to be a better friend to K.O.

If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.