'Toon Reviews 4: The Loud House Season 1 Episode 15

Cover Girls

 

 

 

Now here’s another cartoon that demonstrates how much the Loud siblings care for each other and are always willing to help.  You can see it right at the beginning which is an awesome action-packed sequence of the girls distracting Mom and Dad as Lincoln rushes to get home so no one realizes he missed his curfew.  Their care and love continues on well into the rest of the cartoon where Lincoln returns his sisters’ favor by covering for them on spring cleaning day while they go out to do other things.  You may think that the cartoon will feature Lincoln unfairly suffering by being the only one to keep up the charade while everyone else takes advantage of him, but the cartoon wisely goes in the direction that requires all the siblings to play their part.  Their grandpa, who they call Pop-Pop (just like what my family used to call our grandpa), calls them on video chat which prompts Lincoln to cover as his sisters as best he can so no one notices that they’re not home.  As more of the sisters come home, they start posing as other siblings too, and the cartoon results in one hilarious collection of different Loud siblings posing as other siblings.  There’s a lot of passion thrown into the acting that allows the characters to successfully emulate the different characters they’re imitating, but still remaining true to themselves.  Some of my favorite interpretations include Lana as Leni, Lynn as Lisa, and Lori as Lincoln.  Leni and Luan even put on a great homage to the Marx Brothers at one point.  Then, we get an ending where the kids get caught deceiving everyone by their parents who then proceed to punish them by having them go out and do what they wanted to do while dressed in their disguises, resulting in all of them getting into embarrassing situations.  This ending does have a bit of a downer tone that honestly unfairly sours things for the kids.  I mean, was their act of deception really THAT bad?  Honestly though, despite this being a bit of an issue with the cartoon, the ending is still tolerable since I’m still able to get a good laugh out of at least a few of the scenes of the kids being forced to do what they planned on doing in their disguises.  Also, it doesn’t change the fact that we still see the great factors of the bonds of the Loud siblings.  With that in place, I personally call this cartoon a good watch. 8/10

 Save the Date

The end of the cartoon, “Heavy Meddle,” suggested that the girl bullying Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, actually really likes Lincoln signaling the start of them potentially growing as friends.  This cartoon here shows that happening.  Although to get there, we start off with Lincoln being bullied by her again, this time with the kids at school teasing him about how this may mean she likes him.  Personally, I don't get why having a lover would be a reason for bullies to tease.  Finding love is seen as a great thing.  Why would bullies think otherwise?  Anyway, when Lincoln tensely rejects that, he accidentally hurts her feelings.  Following a hilarious over-the-top display of the trope of an average teenage girl reacting to a break-up from Lori whom Bobby broke up with on account that her brother, Lincoln, hurt his sister, Ronnie Anne, Lincoln finds himself roped into a double date with Lori, Bobby, and Ronnie Anne. This is part of an attempt for him to make things right with Ronnie Anne so Lori will get back with Bobby.  This is where we start to see some natural progression of Lincoln and Ronnie Anne warming up to each other.  At first, they’re not too pleased to see each other, but as Lori and Bobby start flirting with each other, clearly showing that they do not want to be broken up, the younger siblings find a common interest as they comment on the cheesy flirting.  The more they talk about this, the more Lincoln and Ronnie Anne start to like being together, ultimately going on to apologize for being such pains to each other.  This is a newly formed respect for each other that was a result of believable events, in this case, enjoying something similar, and is ultimately one worth getting behind especially since the other character pairing of Lori and Bobby, seems to be a very basic relationship established on flirting over each other, though its over-the-top tone and the clear care they have for each other make it enjoyable.  Because Lincoln and Ronnie Anne’s relationship is so appealing, it’s a bit frustrating when Lincoln goes on to hide that he’s starting to like her as the kids from school arrive at the very restaurant he’s at.  Is there seriously no reason why he can’t just tell Ronnie Anne that he doesn’t want them to tease him for liking her?  Anyway, this whole shtick ends up causing Lincoln to hurt Ronnie Anne again which seems like a sad end for what could’ve been a great relationship.  However, the cartoon remembers what greatness it set up by having Lincoln follow Lori’s earlier advice of how actions speak louder than words. Lincoln shows Ronnie Anne how he really feels about her by kissing her.  I can certainly see them as a couple, but the show is obviously pushing for Lori and Bobby to get together, so if Lori and Bobby do become a couple, wouldn’t it be awkward for Lori’s brother to end up with Bobby’s sister?  Well, I guess that’s a topic to be addressed in later seasons.  For this cartoon, we get a satisfying end that has Lincoln and Ronnie Anne remain friends and Lincoln avoid being teased for it, which is good because this cartoon really succeeded in building them up as a charming pair.  For that, I can proudly say that it left me wanting more. 9/10

The Ranking

1.      For Bros About to Rock

2.      Undie Pressure

3.      Project Loud House

4.      Space Invader

5.      Driving Miss Hazy

6.      Left in the Dark

7.      Toads and Tiaras

8.      Picture Perfect

9.      Save the Date

10.  Sleuth or Consequences

11.  Hand-Me-Downer

12.  No Guts No Glori

13.  Changing the Baby

14.  Along Came A Sister

15.  Sound of Silence

16.  Butterfly Effect

17.  A Tale of Two Tables

18.  Cover Girls

19.  It’s A Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud House

20.  Overnight Success

21.  In Tents Debate

22.  Linc or Swim

23.  The Sweet Spot

24.  Heavy Meddle

25.  Get the Message

26.  Ties that Bind

27.  Making the Case

28.  Chore and Peace

29.  Two Boys and a Baby

30.  The Green House

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where we really get to know Clyde's dads in "Attention Deficit" and witness one of Lincoln's worst displays of family love as he goes "Out on a Limo."

'Toon Reviews 4: The Loud House Season 1 Episode 14

Toads and Tiaras

 

 

 

 

This is another nice cartoon designed to emphasize the show’s theme of appreciating your family for who they are.  At the same time, it stresses the brotherly nature of Lincoln towards the twins, Lola and Lana.  With tickets to Dairyland as an incentive, Lincoln makes himself open to coaching Lola for an upcoming pageant which involves learning all the ins and outs of looking beautiful.  Things become complicated when Lola ends up getting hurt and is unable to compete in the pageant.  Determined to get the Dairyland tickets, Lincoln discovers that he has no choice but to have Lana take Lola’s place.  The challenge is that Lana, who’s open to getting her hands dirty complete with having the hobbies of playing in mud and carrying tools around, not to mention calling a dress a sparkly towel, is the complete opposite of Lola which makes Lincoln struggle to make her pageant material.  Through it all, we get a lot of admirable qualities from Lana.  Throughout this season, she’s always livened up her scenes with how she goes about playing dirty without hesitation, but here, she really tries hard to put all that aside to please her brother coming off as a sibling who truly values her family.  The thing is though, despite managing to pull off good pageant behavior in training, when taking part in the actual pageant, she just can’t escape who she really is.  While Lincoln doesn’t accept that at first, we eventually get a really sweet big brother moment from him when, after seeing Lana upset about not living up to his expectations, he comes to the conclusion that Lana should just be who she really is and show it off in front of the audience of the pageant, even if it means no Dairyland tickets.  Lana ends up winning them the tickets anyway though by just being herself which is a really nice moment for her, and while I don’t think the victory makes sense since what Lana does still isn’t appropriate for a pageant, considering the ending of “In Tents Debate” it’s extremely satisfying that she and Lincoln made it to Dairyland at all in the end.  On a side note, Lola gets a lot of enjoyable moments to, mostly showing off her monstrous side when she finds out what’s going on, and more of her nice side when she ultimately lets Lincoln and Lana keep what they rightfully won even if Lana got them by doing things she would never do.  Ultimately, the characters involved in this cartoon get a lot of nice sweet moments that show off their appeal which in the end, make you feel glad that everyone winds up being comfortable with who they really are. 9.5/10

Two Boys and a Baby

 

 

 

 

Sadly, we’ve got another flop to look at.  The worst part about this cartoon is that Lincoln is punished for doing nothing wrong.  The cartoon is all about him getting out of joining the rest of the family in visiting their literally unpleasing Aunt Ruth by agreeing to stay home and look after Lily which is something Dad usually does.  From there we’re treated with a collection of scenes involving Lincoln and Clyde, who comes over to help him, discovering how hard it is to take care of Lily.  I honestly find it hard to believe that Lincoln would have this much of a hard time with this.  He’s known what to do with Lily before, and they even legitimately bonded back in “Changing the Baby.”  To be fair, some of the moments of him and Clyde carrying out the task are fairly entertaining such as how they manage to get Lily to eat her lunch and an exciting chase scene through the park to find her after accidentally picking up the wrong baby.  Other moments though, are pretty cringe-worthy like when they yell in response to a zombie movie just after putting Lily down for a nap, and an uncomfortable amount of gross-out moments when they’re changing her including a scene where sh*t literally hits the fan.  I know they don’t show it, but the implications still make me sick.  However, what moves this cartoon into bad territory is the ending where after all those hardships Lincoln and Clyde went through, they end up being exposed to a baby with chicken pox and they and Lily have to stay at Aunt Ruth’s until they recover, and she really is as unpleasant as Lincoln described her.  The fact that Lincoln is forced to suffer in the end after suffering through the whole cartoon make what we see a complete pain which never makes for a good watch.  Perhaps things could have been better if Aunt Ruth’s turned out a lot better than what Lincoln constantly described, but them being accurate to what he said doomed the cartoon to fail.  Not to mention, that means Lincoln’s sisters had to suffer despite doing nothing to deserve it too, making the cartoon worse in that regard.  This cartoon could have come off as passable if it wasn’t for the ending, but since the ending is in place, it’s going near the bottom of the cartoon rankings of the season.  At least it wasn’t immediately doomed to fail like “The Green House” was. 4.5/10

The Ranking

1.      For Bros About to Rock

2.      Undie Pressure

3.      Project Loud House

4.      Space Invader

5.      Driving Miss Hazy

6.      Left in the Dark

7.      Toads and Tiaras

8.      Picture Perfect

9.      Sleuth or Consequences

10.  Hand-Me-Downer

11.  No Guts No Glori

12.  Changing the Baby

13.  Along Came A Sister

14.  Sound of Silence

15.  Butterfly Effect

16.  A Tale of Two Tables

17.  It’s A Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud House

18.  Overnight Success

19.  In Tents Debate

20.  Linc or Swim

21.  The Sweet Spot

22.  Heavy Meddle

23.  Get the Message

24.  Ties that Bind

25.  Making the Case

26.  Chore and Peace

27.  Two Boys and a Baby

28.  The Green House

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode including a fun cartoon with a concerning ending with "Cover Girls" and a cartoon sure to please the Lincoln and Ronnie Anne shippers, "Save the Date."

'Toon Reviews 4: The Loud House Season 1 Episode 13

For Bros About to Rock

Throughout the season, Luna has proven to be a really great character and addition to the Loud family always livening up the scenes she’s in with her love of rock, remaining the most level-headed amidst the chaos of the Loud House, and being the most effective in helping others mostly by providing the appropriate music.  This cartoon though shows off the best reason why she’s seen as the best character on the show by so many people, myself included.  Luna may have been currently shown to be awesome and always knowing what to do, but the start of this cartoon reveals a more flawed side to her character so to make her relatable.  Specifically, she’s been reported to get carried away with her musical passions and ending up ruining the first concerts of the rest of the sisters, and goes on to do the same to Lincoln and Clyde’s first concert.  What keeps Luna likable despite the flaws is that when Lincoln calls her out, she feels bad about her actions and strives do better for the rest of the cartoon.  This is something we hardly see from the other siblings who aren’t Lincoln, except when they’re together as a group, which really works in Luna’s favor.  The best part is that we get some reasons why Luna is the way she is, which is again something we rarely see from the other siblings.  She started out as a blank slate who didn’t know what to do with her life, but when she saw her first Mick Swagger concert, she was so moved and inspired by what she saw, her future became so clear to her.  These revelations do their part in fleshing out Luna that make you feel glad for her whenever you see her expressing herself by rocking out in cartoons after as well as before this one.  Plus, I find that her not knowing what she wanted to be before a certain event as well as having inspiring idols like Mick Swagger make her the show’s most relatable character.  Those traits are certainly true for me when it comes to my interests in animation.  Everything that goes on here builds up to a truly spectacular finale.  It offers lessons for both groups of characters to learn with Lincoln learning to be respectful of his sisters’ passions and Luna learning to keep herself under control and not try to make first concerts memorable until asked.  As a result, we end up with the beyond grand finish of Lincoln, Luna, and Clyde rocking out on the stage of Lincoln’s first concert and having an awesome time.  In fact, I call this moment the best one between two individual Loud siblings.  With the fun upbeat tone, character development, great lessons to walk away with, the show’s best display of sibling love so far, and one of its most satisfying conclusions, there’s nothing left for me to say except THIS CARTOON ROCKS!!! STAGE DIVE!!!!! 10/10

It’s A Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud House

I’m not always keen on cartoons that feature nothing but characters fighting, but in the case of this show, it’d be lying if it said that stuff like this never happens between families.  This trope is the focal point of this particular cartoon which features all the Loud siblings fighting over money.  I find them constantly fighting over money believable considering that the family is so big and we all want as much money as we can get so we can get the things we need.  Things start to get more interesting when they come across a note saying that there’s a big stash of money hidden somewhere in the house resulting in the rest of the cartoon becoming a hunt for the money.  Throughout the siblings’ constant fights to get the money, we do get some good comedic moments from everyone trying to hide what they’re doing, going through their own insane rituals of finding the money’s location, and starting and stopping brawls as they go to different areas of the house.  Despite the fun of the fight for the money stash, there are times where the fight brings out some nasty moments from everyone, including the usually nice siblings, particularly one of Luna using her amps to kick Lincoln out of her and Luan's room making it really unfortunate that this cartoon is teamed with "For Bros About to Rock." Basically, what we get isn’t a total win.  Nevertheless, everything leads to a very nice scene when all the siblings come to the conclusion that fighting over the money is getting them nowhere and that from now on they should share whatever money they find.  This makes the moment at the end where they all work together and uncover $500 to split evenly incredibly satisfying not only because they worked as a team to get it, but because it feels like they deserve it considering that they actually learned something before they found it.  Plus, unlike fighting cartoons like “The Sweet Spot” and “Chore and Peace,” you’re not left with the impression that anything like the fighting we saw will happen again here, which can only elevate it in terms of this quality.  On another note, this cartoon is another good example of how this show can really get a lot of character out of Mom and Dad without showing their faces (at least for season 1), which makes it fitting that Dad gets the final gag.  While some fighting moments are more pleasing than others, some good laughs and a conclusion that feels like something was learned make this cartoon thoroughly enjoyable. 8/10

The Ranking

1.      For Bros About to Rock

2.      Undie Pressure

3.      Project Loud House

4.      Space Invader

5.      Driving Miss Hazy

6.      Left in the Dark

7.      Picture Perfect

8.      Sleuth or Consequences

9.      Hand-Me-Downer

10.  No Guts No Glori

11.  Changing the Baby

12.  Along Came A Sister

13.  Sound of Silence

14.  Butterfly Effect

15.  A Tale of Two Tables

16.  It’s A Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud House

17.  Overnight Success

18.  In Tents Debate

19.  Linc or Swim

20.  The Sweet Spot

21.  Heavy Meddle

22.  Get the Message

23.  Ties that Bind

24.  Making the Case

25.  Chore and Peace

26.  The Green House

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Lana gets a chance to see what it's like to be girly and pink in "Toads and Tiaras" and Lincoln and Clyde are put through the tortures of watching Lily in a plot focusing on "Two Boys and a Baby."

'Toon Reviews 4: The Loud House Season 1 Episode 12

Along Came a Sister

Here’s a nice cartoon that does some good justice for the relationship of the Loud siblings through mostly showing how much they're willing to help each other when they need it.  It all unfolds when Lincoln volunteers to look after Frank, his class’s pet spider, over the weekend.  The only problem is that Leni is absolutely terrified of spiders and will most likely freak out and kill Frank if she finds out about him.  Now, the rest of Lincoln’s sisters end up finding out about what Lincoln’s up to and for the rest of the cartoon, they actually show off some nice genuine concern for the dilemma.  They all want to make sure that Leni doesn’t know about Frank and are quick to step into action when Frank is let out and gets loose in the Loud House through searching for him and making sure Leni doesn’t see him when he’s in sight, which also includes a cute humorous bit involving Lisa claiming that Leni is “lack-toes intolerant.”  However, the best and most entertaining source of family help comes in at the climax when an exterminator is called in to get rid of Frank for good.  Not only do all of Lincoln’s sisters show off a great amount of care for protecting Frank on their brother’s behalf, but they also make for a lot of gags that’s sure to keep the audience invested.  The best part about the climax though is what it ends up doing for Leni’s character.  She may be dumb, but that doesn’t stop her from being a truly loving and caring sisters since it’s she who puts her fear of spiders aside, saves Frank, and gets the exterminator to leave.  To think that I needed more proof as to why Leni is one of animation’s best dumb characters.  This may not be one of my favorite cartoons from the show, but the amount of sibling love shown from everyone involved make it a good watch which is all that really matters. 9/10

Chore and Peace

I understand that some people not always being happy with the chores they’re assigned is a normal part of life, which is what’s portrayed in this cartoon, but I can’t abide those feelings going to such extremes that make life hard for everyone else.  This is what happens with Lincoln, who is assigned with taking out the trash, when he feels like his sisters have better chores than he does and goes on strike from doing his chore unless someone trades with him.  I’m fine with Lincoln not liking his chore and wanting a different one, but the way he goes about expressing these feelings feel so wrong.  The striking scenes are tolerable, with a lot of humor from his chants, but the cartoon really falls apart because of how far Lincoln goes with his behavior.  Without him taking out the trash, the house becomes infested with the stuff, and Lincoln doesn’t seem to care about it.  I know he wants a different chore, but does he really want the house to stink and be full of trash?  If that’s not enough, the sisters respond to this by going on strike as well. This makes the cartoon more frustrating because they were shown to clearly not like the effects of Lincoln’s strike, yet they’re making the issue worse.  Again, do they seriously want this?  Couldn’t they try less house-destructive means to solve the issue?  Plus, after everything’s resolved, they all go on strike again because they don’t get paid for chores meaning this whole mess will happen again.  After what I saw become of the Loud House due to these actions, I’m certainly not happy about that.  Some little things save the cartoon from total destruction.  Like I said, there’s a lot of humor from the striking scenes, especially the chants, and there are some good laughs while everyone suffers the mess the house ends up in.  Mom and Dad have a nice comedic bit of constantly deciding not to get involved with what’s going on, which is a good commentary for tropes in shows where the parents aren’t present when the kids have issues.  Plus, there’s genuine suspense and heart when everyone rushes to do their chores when they find out Lily’s missing.  While these points prevent the cartoon from being bad, I still find it pretty frustrating to sit through due to the high amounts of irrationality.  It’s just not my idea of entertainment. 6/10

The Ranking

1.      Undie Pressure

2.      Project Loud House

3.      Space Invader

4.      Driving Miss Hazy

5.      Left in the Dark

6.      Picture Perfect

7.      Sleuth or Consequences

8.      Hand-Me-Downer

9.      No Guts No Glori

10.  Changing the Baby

11.  Along Came A Sister

12.  Sound of Silence

13.  Butterfly Effect

14.  A Tale of Two Tables

15.  Overnight Success

16.  In Tents Debate

17.  Linc or Swim

18.  The Sweet Spot

19.  Heavy Meddle

20.  Get the Message

21.  Ties that Bind

22.  Making the Case

23.  Chore and Peace

24.  The Green House

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where you'll surely rock out to Luna's first starring role with "For Bros About to Rock," and experience yet another sibling brawl in "It's a Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud House."