Sunday, March 11, 2018

'Toon Reviews 13: The Loud House Season 2 Episode 23: Read Aloud/Not a Loud


Read Aloud
For a vain bratty character, it’s admirable that this show has made Lola one of the most likable Loud sisters.  She can be caring of others, is adorably appreciative when other people do something nice for her, and has her own insecurities.  Plus, when she does get bratty, rather than feeling annoying, her behavior is either hilarious for how exaggerated it is, or intriguing for how dark she can get because of it.  This cartoon features both likable layers of Lola’s character to great effect.  The Louds enter a contest at the library where they have to read a bunch of books for the sole purpose of winning a private pizza party at Chuck E Cheese parody, Spunk E Pigeon.  It’s interesting to note that they practically clean out the whole library in the name of a pizza party, but that’s what leads to the story’s main conflict.  Lola is the only Loud who doesn’t check out a book, and that’s a problem because the contest rules say that all members of a family have to read.  For much of the cartoon’s first half, the rest of the family struggles to coax Lola into reading a book, and their processes nicely evolve.  They first try to get her to read any book, and then realize that they’d have better luck getting Lola to read something related to what she’s interested in.  No matter what book they try to get her to read though, Lola has a snarky remark at each book suggestion which further demonstrates how enjoyable she can be as a brat due to the humor of said remarks.  In fact, Lincoln only succeeds in getting Lola to read a princess-themed book by stressing how much she’s letting the family down by not reading, but even then this tactic doesn’t work.  On the day of the contest’s deadline, we get a surprisingly intense quiz sequence where the librarian checks to see if everyone read, going to books of different topics, each one corresponding with each Loud’s interests, in the matter of seconds.  However, they’re disqualified because when Lola’s quizzed, she can’t answer the question related to her book.  As Lincoln stays behind to get Lola to really read in the contest’s final hour, we get the other likable part of Lola’s character relating to her insecurities.  The reason she never wants to read is because, apparently, Lola can’t read.  This isn’t exactly easy to get behind since past cartoons showed that Lola COULD read, and most of the time, the plots couldn’t advance without what she read.  Even if this continuity issue can’t be ignored, the context of this cartoon is still effective, especially for anyone in real life who has trouble reading.  Plus, it’s possible this cartoon takes place before those times Lola could read even if Lincoln was surprised she could in one of them, but we really don’t know for sure.  We also get another great big brother moment from Lincoln where he takes the time to teach Lola how to read for her own sake no matter how long it takes, deciding that helping his sister is more important than the contest.  Plus, even when the deadline passes, Lola is shown to be in a better place, reading better than ever, and even performing a generous act for her family by making everyone pizza, making the ending satisfying even though they lost.  While it is great that the Louds get their pizza party after all, at times throughout the cartoon, their focus on it can get concerning, complete with everyone, even Mom, being willing to lock Lola away because of it.  You could argue that the big family is desperate for a lot of good free food, but that idea is way harsh.  At least they decide Lola’s more important than the contest when she explains her reading issue.  Overall, even if it breaks continuity a bit, this cartoon is still strong for Lola’s great portrayal, the relatable premise, and an interpretation of how intense reading can be. 9/10



Not a Loud
Since Lincoln is the only boy in a family big on sisters and has white hair that no one else has, it makes sense that many would theorize his true upbringing.  This cartoon sets out to answer if he was adopted or not in a way that’s honestly hard to see coming, yet interestingly comes together.  Lincoln has to do a class assignment on his birth story and, in the process, finds many suspicions.  When he turns to the birth story section of his baby book (which, in a cute twist, is something all the Louds have), he finds it completely blank.  Also, when he asks Mom and Dad about his birth story, they don’t give him a straight answer for some reason.  With these two major suspicions in mind, Lincoln becomes determined to figure out how he was born and if he’s even a Loud, especially since given the lack of clear answers in the expected places, you’d be wondering the truth of his origins too.  His quest does tend to follow a strict routine where all his attempts work out the same way, making the viewing somewhat monotonous.  First, in some nice sibling bond moments, he and Clyde learn a tidbit about how Lincoln was born from one of the older sisters.  Put together, their memories amount to Mom and Dad expecting a girl, and then they came home with Lincoln carried by a scientist and an eagle, with men in black suits surrounding them.  Then, they take the bit of that information to heart, thinking that it means Lincoln has certain powers based on conveniently titled movies in Lincoln’s collection, and doing a field test to prove it.  This part of the routine doesn’t do much for me since it’s one of those moments that make Lincoln and Clyde look dumb for relying on fictional movies to determine the truth about Lincoln.  Even if it is believable for kids their age to think the movies are valid in determining Lincoln’s identity, while kids watching could enjoy it, older viewers would not be as easily invested since they know better.  That’s not even counting how repetitive the moments can be in terms of dialog and actions.  However, one engaging dramatic point comes from their research when they find white-haired parents who have a girl with characteristics of some of Lincoln’s older sisters.  This moment makes it actually believable that Lincoln could belong to this family, and it’s easy to buy into his demand for answers when he confronts Mom and Dad about this.  However, the family Lincoln saw turns out to be a coincidence when his parents finally share Lincoln’s true birth story, and it’s a solid highlight for this cartoon.  It’s a really out-there and creative scenario in which a broken down car led Mom and Dad to be picked up by the President of the United States and the First Lady in their limo, and the First Lady ended up delivering Lincoln.  It may be ridiculous, but I’m all for it since it suits the medium of animated storytelling’s way of allowing the people behind a show to express their wild imaginations.  Plus, it makes sense of all of Lincoln’s birth information, right down to the parents keeping the presidential seal blanket Lincoln was wrapped in and there being a legit reason why Lincoln was never told this story before.  It’s overall a cleverly-crafted origin story to put the Lincoln being adopted theories to rest that demonstrate how this show has a lot of appealing ideas to share.  As for this cartoon, it may be dull and repetitive in parts, but the moments of sweetness and the ever-creative birth story at the end help it stand strong.  Now, if only we knew why Lincoln has white hair.  Maybe some other time. 9/10
The Ranking
  1. 11 Louds a Leapin’
  2. L is for Love
  3. Pulp Friction
  4. Frog Wild
  5. Yes-Man
  6. Party Down
  7. Friend or Faux
  8. Room with a Feud
  9. Lock n Loud
  10. Fool’s Paradise
  11. Fed Up
  12. Out of the Picture
  13. Job Insecurity
  14. Potty Mouth
  15. Mall of Duty
  16. The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos
  17. Spell it Out
  18. Baby Steps
  19. Shell Shock
  20. Suite and Sour
  21. Back in Black
  22. Legends
  23. Future Tense
  24. Patching Things Up
  25. No Spoilers
  26. Not a Loud
  27. The Whole Picture
  28. Read Aloud
  29. No Laughing Matter
  30. Health Kicked
  31. Garage Banned
  32. Back Out There
  33. The Old and the Restless
  34. Kick the Bucket List
  35. Intern for the Worse
  36. Lynner Takes All
  37. Cheater by the Dozen
  38. Pets Peeved
  39. Making the Grade
  40. Vantastic Voyage
  41. Change of Heart
  42. ARGGH! You for Real?
  43. No Such Luck
  44. Brawl in the Family
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode, the Halloween special, "Tricked!"
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1 comment:

  1. I'm pretty sure Rita was just joking about being willing to lock Lola out.

    ReplyDelete