Back Out
There
This cartoon combines two of the weaker types of cartoons for this series which are the misunderstanding plot and the Lincoln and Clyde misadventure, though to be fair, the latter type has an interesting addition of Lincoln’s other friends, Rusty, Liam, and Zach. At the very least with this one, we get a strong sense of characterization, and the way it’s executed makes the experience thoroughly entertaining. What Lincoln’s friends get up to is that they worry about him on account that he hasn’t hung out with them in a while. They find that he’s been spending a lot of his time at Ronnie Anne’s old house long after she moved away. Coming to the conclusion that he has post break-up blues over her (even though Lincoln has a different love interest and “Relative Chaos” has several moments where he and Ronnie Anne agree they’re not a couple), they set out to try and “cure” him. This is where the whole plot becomes problematic and a little unengaging. As is common with misunderstanding plots, everything that happens is based on wild assumptions, and no one thinks to directly ask said person what really goes on. Actually, the other friends do suggest respecting Lincoln’s privacy or talking with him about the issue, the smart option, but Clyde flat out insists on spying on Lincoln and going along with the assumption. These guys following their belief instead of taking a chance and finding out the truth just makes them look dumb and not that well suited for being leads. However, they seem just fine as leads anyway for how great these guys value Lincoln as a friend. They treat Lincoln to a legitimately fun and thoughtful boy’s day out filled with things they love to do like trips to the arcade, rock-climbing, go-carting, and going to the pier all in stylish white suits. Even when they follow an assumption for all they know could be completely wrong, their subsequent attempts to get Lincoln a new girlfriend are thoughtful given their mindset. They even make for a few humorous encounters between Lincoln and some of the girls, even though a few encounters don’t work as well. There’s also fun personality quirks from all of Lincoln’s friends working off of each other. We have Clyde as the overconfident brains, Rusty is both boastful as a ladies man but also hilariously nervous about something happening to the white suits, Liam adds in a unique country feel with his mannerisms, and Zach…honestly doesn’t add that much apart from going with the plan. Going back to the misunderstanding plot guidelines, you can easily predict that the guys find out the real reason why Lincoln was constantly at Ronnie Anne’s old house, which was to look out for a package that was sent there. While they look like total fools, it’s great that Lincoln understands their motivation, though it is disappointing that we never see how they stopped a bus they sent Lincoln on. Also, as the cartoon ends, we see that the guys’ actions weren’t completely pointless when Lincoln feels like he does miss Ronnie Anne a bit after all, opening up possibilities for how he’ll truly cope with her not being around in the future. While this cartoon is fueled on a dumb plot thread that lessens the engagement factor, the fact that Clyde and the gang still come off as likeable and devoted friends as well as some noticeable effect of their efforts help what we see to come out good. 9/10
Spell it
Out
When a cartoon character has their own unique way of going about life, chances are that character is one of my favorites, and Lucy probably has the most unique way of life out of all the Loud siblings. Her fascination with darkness shapes practically everything she does, like how she dresses in black, always has her hair cover her eyes, hangs out in a coffin, goes for night walks with her pet bat, has a dark monotone voice, and her tendency to scare people. These are all examples of how Lucy stands out as a character, but like “Back in Black,” she’s made even better for how endearing she is through her unusual ways. The opening to this cartoon consists of several ways Lucy’s siblings seemingly ignoring her. They turn down her disdain towards certain decisions, never listen to her when she says something, and overall don’t notice she’s not around. It’s quite impressive that someone as dark as Lucy can be so sympathetic through it all. It genuinely feels like everyone keeps ignoring her existence and never acknowledges that she has feelings too. Well, since Lucy has a habit of scaring people, it makes a little sense why this keeps happening. Fortunately, Lucy comes up with a plan to get back at her siblings. In previous cartoons, she’s mentioned a distant relative named Great-Grandma Harriet, who’s revealed to look just like her via an old photo. Her role is in the form of the reveal of an old trunk Lucy finds in the attic which contains an old book of spells. You can imagine all the fun Lucy has with this book as she uses it to work all kinds of spells on her siblings like killing Lori’s phone, making Lana’s butt itch, and making Lisa’s entire body sticky. While you wouldn’t expect these spells to work given the down-to-Earth nature of this show, they’re executed to be perfectly convincing and lead to funny reactions from the siblings which also feels cathartic after what they put Lucy through. However, it’s also fascinating how they work around the supposed spells. Since they continue to walk all over Lucy and she’s still highly sympathetic, we’re lead into the most drastic and convincing spell of all. Lucy takes extreme measures to cast a spell that makes all her siblings unable to speak, and the following montage of everything going Lucy’s way while the other Loud kids are forced to go along with her requests while they’re mute is extremely satisfying with Lucy being happy while everyone else endures what she did. However, time is also taken to get Lucy to regret becoming to her siblings what they were to her, and how she feels is easy to buy as is the nobleness of her decision to undo the spell through potentially making herself mute. Then, in an entertainingly staged scene where Lucy’s monotone voice is all that’s heard as the other siblings pantomime their words, we get creative reasons for what really caused the spells. The biggest reveal is for everyone else’s inability to speak coming from losing their voices by cheering for Pop-Pop at a shuffleboard match. It’s all nicely capped off by everyone realizing their fault in the matter and they all give a genuine apology, showing that even with their less than pleasing qualities, all the siblings truly do have a heart. Through effective comedy, creativity from the spells and the reveal of how they seemed real, and Lucy’s genuinely crafted sympathy, like her and the siblings coming together, this cartoon is a pretty magical result. 9.5/10
The Ranking
- 11 Louds a Leapin’
- L is for Love
- Pulp Friction
- Frog Wild
- Party Down
- Room with a Feud
- Lock n Loud
- Fed Up
- Out of the Picture
- Potty Mouth
- The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos
- Spell it Out
- Baby Steps
- Shell Shock
- Suite and Sour
- Back in Black
- Patching Things Up
- The Whole Picture
- Back Out There
- The Old and the Restless
- Kick the Bucket List
- Intern for the Worse
- Cheater by the Dozen
- Pets Peeved
- Making the Grade
- Vantastic Voyage
- No Such Luck
- Brawl in the Family
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode which is our April Fool's Day kick for Season 2, "Fool's Paradise," and the Loud kids once again show consideration of the world around them as they try to get a good new job for Dad in "Job Insecurity."
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