Greg’s
childlike innocence has been a great and charming aspect of this show at this
point. It's helped make Greg feel like a
real genuine child and also added a nice touch of cuteness to everything that
happened without feeling out of place. I
really appreciate that we have a whole episode devoted to that as we reach the
end of the story. As Wirt begins losing
hope of getting home, claiming that Greg’s messing around was the reason
they’re both in this mess to begin with, allowing the Beast to start turning
him into a tree, Greg takes it upon himself to be the leader of the brothers
and has them both sleep on their predicament.
Most of the episode is a look into Greg’s dream world which features a
great homage to classic cartoons of animation’s early days from happy cloud
beings and brutish beings of the north wind.
The dream sequences are great fun and a nice treat for any classic
animation fan. Then, like most episodes
of this show and any truly great animated work, the happy and cute stuff is
balanced out by dark and emotional stuff that closes the episode. Through his own dream world, Greg learns that
Wirt has been lost to the Beast, making it impossible for him to leave The
Unknown, which in turn gets Greg to realize what Wirt said about him messing
around getting them both in trouble is somewhat true.
It’s then when Greg makes the heartfelt and mature decision to give himself
up to the Beast and let Wirt go free, basically sacrificing his life for his
brother’s. This can easily be seen as a
strong emotional moment, but the fact that a child is making this life-changing
decision makes it truly impeccable.
Things get even darker as the episode ends when Wirt wakes up to find
Greg gone, falls into ice, only to be saved by Beatrice who keeps calling his
name desperately as he struggles to come to.
Every element of this episode is so neatly structured that it makes for
perhaps the show’s grandest experience at this point going from happy, to
emotional, to just plain terrifying. I
can’t help but love every moment of it. 10/10
Ranking
1) Babes in
the Wood
2) Songs of
the Dark Lantern
3) Hard Times
at the Huskin’ Bee
4) The Old
Grist Mill
5) Lullaby in
Frogland
6) The Ringing
of the Bell
7) Mad Love
8) Schooltown
Follies
Be sure to stay tuned for the next episode of the series, "Into the Unknown."
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