Kick the
Bucket List
This is another cartoon about Lincoln and Clyde getting up to activities best suited for their age, so that’s a sign that it’s not going to be as exciting as something with more interesting characters like most of Lincoln’s sisters and the side characters. Nevertheless, what’s present in this cartoon is still fun and even relatable to an extent, especially if you’re a student. If you are one or were one, breaks from school are no doubt something special to look forward to such as spring break. With many days off, there are so many opportunities for fun, which is precisely how Lincoln and Clyde approach their upcoming spring break. They have a whole itinerary of the best things they could do in a week and intend to do everything on their list. It is smart that they planned what to do ahead of time and that the very thing that gets in the way of their schedule is out of their control. Clyde’s dads surprise him with a vacation to Hawaii which Clyde won’t be back from until the last day of the break. This factor makes it easy to get behind their attempts to work a week’s worth of activities into one day. However, even if what Lincoln and Clyde decide to do is easy to get behind, it’s still not that exciting especially since it’s easy to predict that rushing through the activities will backfire if you’re old enough to know that’s what happens when you do it in real life. From watching recorded episodes of their favorite TV show as it fast-forwards, to attempting and failing to ride a new Dairyland ride by cutting the line, to ending up orange while trying to swim in a pool of gelatin, the fun activities that continually backfire just keep on coming and their pretty obvious. They’re thankfully funny most of the time, but they happen so much you wish that Lincoln and Clyde would remember what they learned about how schedules shouldn’t get in the way of having fun back in “Overnight Success.” There’s even more backfiring fun when their rushing leads Lincoln and Clyde to split up to finish the list. This is where the enjoyment picks up when some of Lincoln’s sisters are thrown into the mix at times as well as Clyde having a humorous running gag of posing random objects as Lincoln as he does his share of activities, and constantly loses them. However, the most exciting part of the cartoon comes at the end when Lincoln and Clyde meet up and have a ride home filled with non-stop action which always has you question what will happen next. Not only does the race home save the most amount of entertainment for last, but it also effectively gives Lincoln and Clyde the message of how having fun is more important than schedules, even though they should already know this. It may be easy to predict that things will go wrong, but since this cartoon is still highly entertaining as it is, it’s easy to forgive all that and enjoy what we have. 9/10
Party Down
What’s so special about taking a lot of distinct characters and bringing them together for a party? It’s that a cartoon featuring this scenario is bound to turn out to be an exciting gathering with various character interactions and various points of view. That’s the case with this party-themed cartoon, and the way the party builds up to a big, fun gathering is effective through the story direction. It’s about Lori being allowed to throw her own party, and she wants everything to be perfectly sophisticated based on what she reads in a magazine. However, through Lori following the magazine closely, the party may be sophisticated, but it’s very boring for all the guests that attend, and you really get their boredom as they struggle to go along with the sophisticated mannerisms of the party without enjoying themselves. It’s only when some of the Loud siblings show off their skills when the party gets more fun for the guests, unsophisticated as it is. They include Luna making music out of anything she could fine, Luan telling jokes with her dummy, Mr. Coconuts, to an audience more receptive than her family, and Lincoln performing party tricks he studied disguised as a Russian exchange student. Since what they do doesn’t fit the guidelines of Lori’s magazine, Lori ultimately bans them from the party, though thankfully, she isn’t nearly as harsh or bossy when doing so as she was earlier in the series, so that’s another clear sign of development for her. However, without Lori’s family around, the party suffers as more guests are driven to leave and Lori slowly realizes that her trying to be sophisticated isn’t making for a good party. Even if she was in the wrong for relying too much on that magazine, Lori is still sympathetic in this case since her intentions were understandable and she was never too hostile towards anyone who was simply trying to liven up the party. However, that long time of Lori’s boring party and brief scenes of her siblings wanting to make things fun is what builds up to an incredibly lively party big on fun and featuring one fun character moment after another. It also builds into a more satisfying conclusion to show that Lori’s learned to lighten up and have fun when it comes to parties. It starts off with a fun party with her family that even she adds onto, but then Leni, through her interest of posting things, informs the guests who left of a more exciting party, which leads to Lori being rewarded with the big party she wanted as well as enjoyable interactions between the guests and the Louds. Then when Mom and Dad come home to the wildly fun party, it would be easy for them to ruin the mood and stop the party just when it was getting fun. Thankfully, they willingly join in the harmless fun, sealing the deal to this ending party being the perfect conclusion to this story. Basically, this is one of those cartoons where everything just works with Lori’s great portrayal, a relatable setup, and a sense of fun that builds up to a grand finale of memorable character moments. 10/10
The Ranking
- 11 Louds a Leapin’
- Frog Wild
- Party Down
- Lock n Loud
- Baby Steps
- Suite and Sour
- Back in Black
- Patching Things Up
- The Whole Picture
- The Old and the Restless
- Kick the Bucket List
- Intern for the Worse
- Cheater by the Dozen
- Making the Grade
- Vantastic Voyage
- No Such Luck
- Brawl in the Family
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