Wednesday, February 21, 2018

'Toon Reviews 13: The Loud House Season 2 Episode 12: Potty Mouth/L is for Love


Potty Mouth
Life is filled with things that are inappropriate or too hurtful to say and do, which is why films and TV shows have to be censored on certain terms.  This is a media practice that has been going on for years, and many shows often turn out some entertaining material which pokes fun at the need for censorship.  With this cartoon, The Loud House is now one of those shows to fit that trend.  When you consider a baby character like Lily, you might not expect a lot of personality out of her since she’s too young to be fully fleshed out.  However, her infant tendencies are what drive the censorship references that make up the cartoon.  Since we’re so used to bad actions or words being blocked out by cutting away or using a certain sound, these references have their own clever way here.  Since Lily can’t talk, she communicates what sounds like a curse word through her baby babble, making it not stated directly, but audible enough to deduce it as, what everyone else calls it, the d-word.  This is not only a unique way of making exactly what the word is clear when other shows with this plot normally leave us guessing what was said, but given that it’s coming from a babbling baby, it’s honestly kind of cute whenever Lily says it.  For the plot though, her apparent swearing is a big problem since she’s to be interviewed for a special daycare Mom and Dad have been trying to get one of the kids into since Mom was pregnant with Lori.  Through an effective use of montage, another mature layer to the Loud kids is shown as looking back at the times they used the d-word out of frustration makes them think they may have badly influenced Lily, and set out to take responsibility for their actions.  From an audience perspective, the times the kids use the word are humorously executed, as are all their attempts to not say it when they repeat what they did in front of Lily. Anyone can relate to this since when things get really frustrating, we can’t help what we say, especially at an older age.  However, even with them eventually becoming strong enough to not say the d-word, Lily still keeps on saying it, so when the daycare interview finally happens, the kids take it upon themselves to make it go well.  We’re treated to a humorous sequence of Lisa going in Lily’s place as the head of the daycare center, Dr. Shuttleworth, interviews her, and Lisa feebly attempts to put her intellect aside to act like a 1-year-old.  Plus, it’s an interesting follow-up to an earlier humorous aside that she lost her hair and teeth in a nuclear experiment gone wrong.  Then when Lily ends up saying the d-word anyway right after getting into the daycare center, Dr. Shuttleworth reveals that she was just trying to ask for a donut the whole time.  It’s certainly an interesting twist considering that, if you look closely, all the scenes of Lily saying what was thought to be the d-word involved donuts in some way.  However, you’d think that at some point the kids would figure that Lily’s babble could’ve meant anything.  It’s obvious that she still has a lot to learn when it comes to talking.  I’d also have the final scene of Lily cursing for real when Charles steals her donut down as a weak point, but since what we had was highly entertaining enough, the end bit doesn’t really sting at all.  In all, this cartoon has one of the most entertaining uses of censorship along with strong comedy and moments of the kids growing more considerate of their effects on the world around them. 9.5/10

L is for Love
When you stop to think about it, it’s astounding how many things family members can bond over, and some of them being a common occurrence in life. In the case of this cartoon, that common occurrence is finding love, and in addition to its strong sense of family bonds, the story also works in other engaging qualities that make it an impressive animated work for this season.  Everything unfolds when the kids discover a love letter marked L. Loud, and since their parents gave them all names that start with L, that means the letter could be for any of them.  Like the previous cartoon, this one effectively uses the filming device of montage to help tell the story, specifically through showing all the love interests all the kids hope the letter came from.  While most of the love interests match the kids’ interests, some of them show some interesting points to the characters, like Leni, a highly fashionable girl, liking a fat geeky boy, Lucy apparently having Rocky from “Back in Black” as a rebound crush in favor of a boy more like her, and Lily, with her infantile mindset, cutely crushing on her teddy bear.  Anyway, given their competitive and temperamental nature shown throughout the series, it would be easy for the kids to constantly fight over who the letter’s for.  Instead, the cartoon goes the more pleasing route by having everyone support each other to find their love all the way through with sending their crushes a signal, and giving a sign of affection after another letter comes with a rose, even if the letter’s not for them.  Of all the Loud kids though, Luna stands out the most, and given how she’s the favorite character of many fans, including me, it’s extremely welcome to get some development from her, especially since this season doesn’t feature a lot of cartoons with her as the lead.  Now, Luna’s always very caring and entertaining as well as one of, if not the most relatable Loud sibling.  Even her interests give her the most depth as they’ve been shown to define her purpose in life.  Here, we see that through being true to herself, she fears that she’s no match for her love interest, Sam, thus being too shy to show affection which is very relatable and sympathetic . Luckily, her siblings continue to show great support by urging her to keep trying, especially when it feels like the letter was from Sam after all.  It turns out that it was actually from Dad which ties into a story of how Mom kept sending love letters to him due to fearing he was out of her league, but the letters ultimately gave her the strength to directly tell him her feelings, and they perform the same ritual to relive the past to this day.  So amidst the love letter plot, we get solid development for the parents as well.  What’s more, the story they tell ties into another great trait of Luna’s, which is how her family bonds inspire her to get by in life.  She decides to show her affection to Sam with her own love letter and leads the other siblings to do the same with their crushes.  It’s after this scene where we end with a montage where all the kids are enlightened enough to sneak in their own love letters to heartwarming effect which includes an interesting layer to Luna’s crush.  It turns out that Sam’s not a guy Luna likes…

Sam’s a girl Luna likes.  Since she has a name that can go with any gender and no pronouns were used when discussing her with no reveal until the end, this works as an effective twist especially when you consider that this makes Luna bi (she was shown to also crush on guys earlier in the series).  Plus, even if Luna’s anxieties of winning Sam over were simply because of her not being cool enough, Luna can still be seen as relatable to real-life LGBT members who are often overlooked by society, only recently starting to appear in family shows.  I certainly look forward to see how this potential couple will work as well as how Sam turns out as a character.  This cartoon really packs in a lot of greatness with newly-revealed layers to the characters, some of the best moments featuring the Loud kids together, and the show’s biggest form of LGBT representation since the reveal of Clyde’s dads.  It’s big on charm as well as engaging executions. 10/10

The Ranking
  1. 11 Louds a Leapin’
  2. L is for Love
  3. Pulp Friction
  4. Frog Wild
  5. Party Down
  6. Lock n Loud
  7. Fed Up
  8. Potty Mouth
  9. Baby Steps
  10. Shell Shock
  11. Suite and Sour
  12. Back in Black
  13. Patching Things Up
  14. The Whole Picture
  15. The Old and the Restless
  16. Kick the Bucket List
  17. Intern for the Worse
  18. Cheater by the Dozen
  19. Pets Peeved
  20. Making the Grade
  21. Vantastic Voyage
  22. No Such Luck
  23. Brawl in the Family
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Ronnie Anne and her family take up the starring role in the season's second half-hour special, "The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos."
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If you would like to check out other Loud House reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.



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