'Toon Revies 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 35: Plazalympics

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Plazalympics

A harsh truth to K.O.’s quest to become a hero is that he’s not as strong, big, or powerful as the ones he looks up to.  His Pow card level is phenomenally low, and the only times he’s all powerful are when he loses his true self.  It’s a huge challenge for him, but this cartoon softens the setback in ways that could work for anyone with certain insecurities. 

There's an event called the Plazalympics where heroes compete in physical challenges for the key to Lakewood Plaza Turbo.  The event has a lot of potential for fun, but when getting to the theme, there’s more to it.  K.O. disappears as Mr. Gar goes through the tradition of picking the teams at random. Instead of being teamed with Rad and Enid, K.O.’s joined by much weaker heroes, Potato the rabbit and Colewort the living broccoli.  Among this group, K.O. gets much more appreciation for his powers considering that they’re weaker than him and don’t seem to have powers of their own.  It puts his shortcomings in a new light in a way. 

This idea is especially present during the actual challenges.  The have creative setups like throwing the heaviest teammate, punching big rocks, and a relay race, all energetically commentated by news anchor Dynamite Watkins.  More importantly, there’s an interesting way of showing how K.O. is not as weak a hero as he seems.  When Colewort and Potato try using physical strength, they don’t come close to what the stronger heroes accomplish.  However, when K.O. competes, he actually gives an exceptional performance, showing how far he’s come with his powers. Now they're strong enough to punch a boulder to pieces.  The challenges make it clear that K.O.’s powers really aren’t anything to scoff at, especially with Colewort and Potato feeling inferior.  Actually, Potato is far more accepting of paling in comparison to K.O. while Colewort is outright ashamed of his shortcomings.  It’s nice that K.O. still has faith in his team and never talks down to the two. 

It’s during the final relay race when the Boxmore robots crash the Plazalympics when K.O.’s team shows how strong they really are as the only ones in good enough shape to compete.  As expected, K.O. is the fastest of the three, but out of the lamenting over their shortcomings from his mates, comes a shining payoff.  As the one most put down by not being as cool as K.O. or his friends, Colewort ends up doing something about his earlier moment of getting steamed up when he’s upset.  Through carrying on, Colewort’s steam propels him enough to win the race, even beating the fastest Boxmore robot, Raymond.  This act is a fitting end for the plights of the weaker heroes and shows that no one is truly worthless. 

That said, it is uncalled for to have Colewort act full of himself because of this one accomplishment, turning down an offer to hang out with K.O.  In fact, there’s a surprising amount of apathy from many characters throughout the cartoon.  This really becomes an issue with how unmoved the guys who are friendly with K.O., including Rad and Enid, are about how the efforts of this kid and his teammates paid off.  Why couldn’t they act more proud of them?  At least a montage of K.O. and Potato hanging out together is a cute enough end to the cartoon. 

Still, we’re left with a fun story of a sporting event with creative staging of challenges and fresh new perspectives on characters.

A-

The Ranking

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

The next OK K.O. review takes things in a spooky direction with an interesting reveal about Enid's family.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Animaniacs Episode 30.

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