If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:
Death Peck
The subplot of Star wanting to fix the relationship between
monsters and Mewmans is certainly a noble one.
However, episodes like this show how sloppily structured it is. Star has only just started to do something
about the monster prejudices by appointing a monster expert who’s actually a
monster. It doesn’t really make sense
that she’d easily get a lot of kingdoms to support her cause this quickly and
that her friendship petition is now one signature away. It can be argued that it happened off screen,
but it probably should’ve been addressed in the episodes before this so not to feel
sudden. If you can get past all this,
the actual episode is quite good in its own right.
The biggest strength is Star taking her main
goal seriously. She’s so determined to
get all of Mewni on friendly terms with each other, and that includes being
respectable of who she’s consoling. It’s
a kingdom of pigeons living in a rundown castle, and their prince, Rich Pigeon,
is the signature she needs. If anything,
it’s her accomplices, Marco and Pony Head, who are more irrational and
impatient here. They’re bothered by the
fact that the entire kingdom can only speak in pigeon warbles and can’t
understand the concept of Star’s friendship treaty. I understand Pony Head feeling this way given
her character, but this is not what I expect from a safe, reasonable guy like
Marco. It becomes even more of an issue
when he’s the one who initiates what follows.
He decides to forge Rich Pigeon’s signature by taking his foot and
leaving its mark on the treaty, and that reckless act ends up breaking his
leg. Only then does the pigeon kingdom
notice the visitors and the rest of the episode is basically the birds chasing
Star and her friends down.
The actual chase
is great fun and excitement as the three run from an oncoming angry flock,
rescue each other, and rush to hide from their sight. It just would have been stronger if it wasn’t
started by a boneheaded move from someone who’s usually too good for this type
of stuff. Speaking of boneheaded, though
Pony Head is more expected to make stupid decisions, it doesn’t make her
actions that do everyone in any less frustrating. When the three are hiding, she seems helpful
by finding a giant pair of legs they can use to fight off the flock. However
it’s hardly genuine since she seems more interested in stealing jewels and messing
around with smaller legs. The real
kicker comes when they’re surrounded, and just as Star is about to reason with
them, lots of treasure and even Rich Pigeon pours out of Pony Head. I don’t care how reckless she is. Kidnapping is obviously not going to solve
anything.
So even more stupid character
decisions put Star and the others in harm’s way as the pigeons condemn them to
death by a thousand pigeon pecks.
Fortunately, there’s a good payoff when Rich Pigeon appears and
literally speaks on the prisoners’ behalf.
He shows great responsibility as a prince by seeing reason for change
through talking like the Mewmans and signing up for Star’s noble peace cause. Much of the characters may have been overly
dumb and irrational, but it’s great that the well-reasoning win out in the
end. I also applaud Rich taking
initiative to move past being a mindless bird so to make all royal matters
work. Along with enjoyable action and chases,
this episode may not have the best character moments, but its benefits are very
much present.
B-
Ponymonium
I must admit that Pony Head started out with a lot of promise. However, with
every season, she gets progressively worse.
Now, an episode unrelated to other key subplots in Season 3 is all
about her, which includes background on her family. It’s here where she pretty much fully
transforms into a bad character up to the point where you can’t help but wonder
why Star is even friends with her.
She arrives at Pony Head’s place for a visit, and instantly Pony Head
comes off as unlikable. It’s bad enough
that she has an annoying ego in front of friends, but she has total dominance
over her own family. Her being next in
line for the throne seems to be a major cause for this. The worst offense is that she has the
audacity to call them bad when she rules over them like a dictator. She doesn’t allow her sisters to express
themselves in any way, makes them follow what she thinks is normal and cool,
and whenever her sisters judge her, she rudely fights back. There’s honestly no other way to interpret
this than Pony Head is a total tyrant to her family. Once again, she dares to play victim in this
matter and say her family is the bad guy when it’s obvious that she’s out of
line. She’s even rude when Star, the only
one present she claims she can trust, tries to reason with her. To put this simply, Pony Head comes into her
own as fully unlikable and any time she’s on screen, the episode is a pain to
sit through.
As for Pony Head’s sisters,
at first they seem perfectly sympathetic and that Star is in the right for
siding with them. Character-wise,
there’s not much depth to them as they’re all defined by one simple trait. One is a sad nerd, one is a cute innocent
baby, two are creepy twins, etc. Other
than that, there’s nothing very memorable about them. Even when they say their names, I can never
remember them afterwards. That said,
they still seem pretty likable especially after how Pony Head treated them, and
there’s even potential for Star to form a more legit friendship with them.
Then anything likable about them is soon
quashed when they show the lengths they’re willing to go to with their problems
with Pony Head. They want to stop Pony
Head from becoming queen by setting herself up to look like she killed one of
the sisters. They even have that very
sister locked in a closet which has already put everyone in a mournful state
under the false belief that she ran away.
It gets worse when Star points out how extreme these measures are for a
bad attitude, and they respond by trying to kill her when she tries
escaping. That’s not even mentioning
that there’s no compatibility between them when they all prove selfish amongst
each other through each sister wanting the power all to herself.
Before any of this craziness can happen, Pony
Head appears and breaks the plan up.
This may seem noble and that Pony Head was the true good one all along,
but the fact is, neither of them are likable.
One has a simply horrible attitude and refuses to change while the rest
of them respond to the issue psychotically.
It’s said they’re like this to each other all the time, but that just
makes this family come off as abusive and unhealthy. The only positive is that Star herself
remains level-headed and reasonable through all this, and the episode sides
with her judgement. For that, the
episode avoids being one of the worst things ever, but when it comes to this
cast, the same can barely be said for the Pony Head family.
D-
The Ranking
- Moon the Undaunted
- Stranger Danger
- Sweet Dreams
- Return to Mewni
- Rest in Pudding
- Demoncism
- Toffee
- Club Snubbed
- Puddle Defender
- Sophomore Slump
- Starfari
- Lint Catcher
- Princess Turdina
- Scent of a Hoodie
- King Ludo
- Marco and the King
- Death Peck
- Book Be Gone
- Trial by Squire
- Lava Lake Beach
- Ponymonium
The next Star vs the Forces of Evil review features two cartoons further developing Star's butterfly form. One shows her spotted at night, and the other reveals exactly where she keeps going to.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "It Girl" and "Deconstructing Arnold" from Hey Arnold.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment