Storm the
Castle
For the last episode of this season, we get a grand adventure
that brings together everything great about this show. We start off with a strong display of Star
and Marco’s appealing friendship. They may
get into a disagreement when Star unwisely puts getting a sandwich from a
monster over common safety, but they never let their tensions separate them for
long with Star even realizing how out of line she was. However, that’s when the episode starts
building in greatness when Star finds that Marco’s been kidnapped and she has
to sacrifice her wand to get him back. Along
the way, she teams up with Ludo who was kicked out, and his
henchman who was kicked out first on Mewnipendence Day, Buff Frog, who inform
her of how Toffee has taken over. We get
some amusing banter from each member of the trio such as Ludo not even hiding
that he’s just using everyone to get his castle back, Buff Frog seeing himself
as a father to the tadpoles Ludo sent him, and Star just wanting to go in to
attack Toffee to save Marco despite Buff Frog’s attempts to restrain her. This helps make the adventure enjoyable with
these personalities working off each other.
As for Toffee, this episode has him at his most menacing as he keeps
Marco locked in a clear box, lets him go to fight him only to reveal that he’s
immune to Marco’s simple karate moves, and really drives a hard bargain when
getting Star’s wand. When she rushes
into fight, while her wand is effective at first, it takes a while for it to
break Marco’s box. Even when it does
break, it rebuilds itself stronger than before and Toffee has it close in on
Marco. With no other option, we’re led
to the episode’s display of another strong element of this show, character
development. Star proceeds to give Toffee her wand, except he
really wants her to destroy it. This is
followed by a highly emotional scene where Star whispers to the wand and it
slowly loses all its power and Star has to watch every part of its destruction. Really, the loss of anything you’re attached
to can take a sad toll on you, and we had a whole season to see how attached
Star was to her wand, so her sadness is easy to buy. This move ends up being for
the best since not only is Marco set free, but it also destroys Ludo’s castle
as well as Toffee (for the moment anyway), and Star even gets an upgraded wand
out of her move. Plus, even when Star’s
parents finally find out about her recklessness with the wand after Marco’s
parents break from their standard happy loving parent personas and responsibly
inform them, they’re instead glad that she’s safe and don’t punish her. Still, even with the good that came from this
emotional adventure, there’s an air of suspense for the future with Star
needing to learn how to use her new wand especially since it doesn’t have all
its star power and half of it is left at the scene of destruction, leaving a more
bittersweet ending opening up possibilities for more character-building
adventures in the future. For all its
adventure, good humor, genuine emotion, and great potential for what’s to come,
this is, on the whole, an amazing end to this season. 10/10
The Ranking
- Storm the Castle
- 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
Final Thoughts
While I was never unfamiliar with Star vs. the Forces of Evil, I’ve never pushed myself to watch it
religiously. After viewing the entire
first season, I’m going to start doing that since this show really is further
proof that not only is Disney the leading force of animated feature films, but
also a huge provider of some of today’s best animated TV shows. With a creative and fun premise, likable
characters, and the evil threat starting on a small scale but increasing in
menace to the end, it has the makings of a greatly appealing series.
On the surface though, it could be very easy for the show to
go overboard with its high amounts of energy.
Several moments have characters messing around looking for fun that it
can turn out overbearing. You get
something creative out of it almost every time courtesy of Star and her wand
and the many dimensions she takes her friends to as well as interdimensional
characters which is a plus, but something is needed to allow the audience to
properly take everything in. Thankfully,
there is an element that allows that, and that is heart. It’s mostly shown through the main character
and how she goes about her life with the people she meets. Although Star is highly reckless and just
wants to happily rush in and blast monsters, she never ceases to show that
she’s a caring interdimensional being.
Even from the start of the season, she shows some legitimate effort to
show that she cares for and respects the wishes of the people taking her
in. As reckless as she can be with
her magic usually through not understanding how things work on Earth, it’s easy
to see her clear intentions to help and also get a good laugh at how
literal-minded she is. Plus, Star also
works well as a character when she has someone like Marco to work off of. He’s at his best whenever he gives Star
helpful advice on how Earth works as well as words to live by to get over her
flaws such as knowing that the monsters she fights have feelings too, or to
give a warning before doing something crazy, or that she doesn’t need magic all the time which prove effective with Star becoming more mature and thoughtful as
the season goes on. Likewise, Star also
helps bring out the best in Marco mainly by allowing the well-known safe kid to
show off his karate moves, making him a surprisingly big help in the heat of
battle, and on a smaller scale, helping him make significant progress of
getting closer to his crush throughout the season. Basically, the heart of this show, mostly
from Star and Marco’s friendship at the center, is a beneficial element it
couldn’t work without. Sure, it may not
always work when we focus on uninteresting one-note characters like Marco’s
friends or crush characters like Marco’s Jackie or Star’s Oskar, and when we
don’t get an impression that a character truly learned something, but since it
works on the majority, the heart truly is a valuable asset.
Regarding the titular forces of evil, the way it’s presented
is somewhat interesting. Frequently in
the early episodes, they would amount to Star and Marco getting randomly
attacked by Ludo and his army who simply want Star’s wand for power’s sake,
ultimately serving as a comedic part of our heroes’ fun-filled adventures. Honestly, Ludo’s role in the show seems
pretty routine at first. He and his army
pop in, he complains that his army isn’t complying, Star and Marco beat them
back with some cool moves, and then he escapes in a huff. They’re still fun, but don’t feel much different
from each other. As the season goes on,
even if the main plots continue to focus on Star and her friends getting up to
comedic, the opposing forces still find a way to increase in threat. This is mostly due to the inclusion of Toffee
who starts adding more intellectual tactics to Ludo’s crazed wand-obtaining
attempts, his stoic businessman-like appearance selling how vastly different
his villainous ways are from Ludo’s.
With each appearance, Toffee proves to be more of a threat starting with
proving how close Ludo can get to the wand, then making a monster fear replacement leading to just that, then kicking Ludo out of his own castle, and
finally threatening to crush Marco unless Star destroys the wand even if it
does end up destroying him (for now). Even when they’re part of comedic
slice-of-life episodes, moments of this kind of threatening evil are
effectively woven in and never feel out of place. They even make for some
emotional moments such as Buff Frog getting fired by Ludo and later pitied by Star
who’s always prided herself on fighting monsters, Ludo losing everything, and
especially Star giving up her wand for the greater good. In a way, past instances like Star seemingly disappearing forever when going through mewberty and the drama faced when she
and Marco set out to save Princess Pony Head from St. Olga’s reform school kind
of foreshadow how heavy and foreboding the tone would become. In the end, when Star’s wand is upgraded but
with the other half of its star power lying out in the open, that’s further proof that the threat of evil will just continue to grow, and while fun
times will still exist for Star, it’s also time for her to think seriously
about matters. Given how well this show
can balance out its fun moments and serious moments, most of the time anyway,
what we see in this first season certainly builds a lot of promise for the
seasons to follow. That’s just a major
plus to Disney storytelling after all.
Even though it falls a bit short of the top 10 leagues of
animated series for being too hyper at times, the debut season of Star vs. the Forces of Evil presents the
show as a fun, creative romp with great heart, lovable well-developed
characters at the lead, and genuinely growing threats amidst the seemingly
light-hearted adventures. It’s a show
worth checking out wherever you can view Disney animated TV series, and one
that entices me to be more aware of what shows they put out.
Highly Recommended
That's it for Season 1 of Star vs. the Forces of Evil. Next time, as we enter the month of December, we'll be getting into the spirit by looking into all 19 of the Christmas specials from Rankin/Bass. Until then:
Stay Animated Folks!
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