Interdimensional
Field Trip
When you take Star’s powers and the common school event of
field trips, you can bet that you’ll get a memorable and creative experience
out of that. In the case of this
episode, we also get some decent character building as well. The field trip starts out with a large chorus
of complaints when the kids of Star’s class dread taking a field trip to the
boring paper clip factory. As Ms.
Skullnick, being more of a downer than ever before, counteracts this by stating
that life is boring, Star is led to prove her wrong by taking charge of the
class. As the leader, Star changes the
field trip location to an extraordinary dimension, which is never given
a name, filled with creative spots like magic portals that put kids on a
horse’s body, stingrays to surf on, and upside-down buildings kids can
walk on. Now, it is easy to predict that
a reckless character like Star will realize that being in charge is a lot
harder than it looks especially when the kids feel the need to do dangerous
stunts which Star has to prevent.
Granted, there’s a lot of humor and enjoyment from the dangerous stunts
they attempt to pull, but this plot convention has been around long enough to let
you know how everything will play out.
However, a subplot involving Ms. Skullnick helps make the cartoon stand
out as something all its own. We know
that she was turned into a troll and there’s no way of turning her back to
normal, but in this other dimension, she learns about positives that come from
being a troll such as living longer and having extra strength. This gets her to feel more positive about her
permanent troll state, and she gets a grand shining moment through fixing the
mess Star’s leadership caused. It’s her
newly-discovered troll strength that helps her save her class from a creature
said to be the universe’s deadliest that may not seem threatening at first
being made of thread. In an ironic turn
of events, she ultimately uses the boring old paper clip that started this
whole plot to take the creature down.
So, Star learns the expected lesson of the importance of discipline and
rules, but what Ms. Skullnick learns about herself is really worth a mention.
On another note, little moments throughout the episode show some nice progression
of Marco’s relationship with Jackie as he has many scenes of texting her cute
cat pictures, then after helping to save her and the class, they’re both
sharing a seat on the bus with Star’s support helping make it happen. Basically, predictable as it may be at times,
in addition to being fun and creative, this episode strengthens itself on
character development. 9/10
Marco Grows
a Beard
With a title like this, you might not think that this episode
would have a lot to offer, but in execution, there’s a decent amount of
character development and game changing elements. The central plot is Marco wanting to grow
a beard to impress Jackie, but it’s Star who becomes the focus
character where she gets one of the most beneficial lessons she could
learn. We’ve known since the beginning
that Star values her wand a lot, and it was involved in almost everything she’s
done. This episode exaggerates her using
her wand for everything a bit, but when you think about it, Marco’s claim about
her habit makes sense given her attachment.
She uses her wand to help Marco’s beard grow faster, but
that’s where the habit further shows how problematic it is when the beard grows
so fast that it covers the house.
However, this sets up a challenge for Star when her wand gets lost in
the beard, and she has to rely on non-magical means to shave the beard
off. Of course, it’s hard for Star to
get confident enough to fix everything at first, but through her own dream, she
recognizes how strong and capable of adventure she was before she got her
wand. Star basically figures out she can
solve the problem without magic by herself, really showing how mature and
self-aware she’s become. So, she puts on
a great display of ingenuity as she gets through the beard, finds Marco, and
even takes out Ludo and his monsters all with normal means of brute force,
sheers, and her own laser-shooting puppies.
For stepping out of her comfort zone, this is easily Star at her most
respectable. As for game-changing
elements, it all has to do with Ludo’s role here. As he and his army look for Star’s wand in
the beard, he bullies and orders the monsters to brave the beard when they’re
hesitant to do so. Yet, when he has the
perfect chance to grab the wand, he lets memories of a tickle monster get to
him, and is thrown into a laughing fit by the beard leaving Star to grab
the wand and beat everyone, making Ludo look like a huge hypocrite. In fact, his hypocrisy is later called out by
Toffee who was shown to be more respectful to the army. He ultimately convinces them that he’s the
better leader and tosses Ludo out. Up
until now, Ludo, while enjoyable for his comedic high temper when attempting to
get Star’s wand, was rather one-dimensional for wanting to get it solely for
power. Being kicked out of his domain
and army brings a lot of potential for development from him. With everything stated here, this is easily a
great example of how so much can come from a simple story if you have the right
execution. 9.5/10
The Ranking
- St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses
- Blood Moon Ball
- Mewberty
- Mewnipendence Day
- Diaz Family Vacation
- Marco Grows a Beard
- Fortune Cookies
- Sleep Spells
- School Spirit
- Party with a Pony
- Interdimensional Field Trip
- Freeze Day
- Quest Buy
- Monster Arm
- Cheer up Star
- Star Comes to Earth
- Brittney’s Party
- Matchmaker
- The Banagic Incident
- Lobster Claws
- Pixtopia
- Royal Pain
- The Other Exchange Student
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the epic season finale, "Storm the Castle."
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.
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