'Toon Reviews 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 26: Stop Attacking the Plaza

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

Stop Attacking the Plaza

It’s established that Lord Boxman qualifies as being the main focus of certain cartoons even though he’s a villain.  In fact, this starring role has an interesting twist to his villainous ways, highlighting how petty and insignificant attacking Lakewood Plaza Turbo really is. 

His attacks on a mere shopping center are treated as the one-dimensional schemes they are. They interfere with what Lord Boxman should be focusing on, building robots for clients.  Looking at the plaza during a meeting with investors is the final straw, leading the head investor, Cosma, to challenge him to not attack it for one whole day or else she’ll get him fired. 

With that, the cartoon turns into Lord Boxman struggling to break his habit.  As is common with this plot archetype, little things keep reminding him of the plaza which makes it hard for him to resist.  Familiar as this story setup is, it does attempt to make Lord Boxman’s obsession understandable.  Tying into the second cartoon of the series, he mostly acts out of annoyance for the friendship everyone spreads at the plaza.  There’s also a wholesome moment of the fatherly side of Lord Boxman’s character. His robot children take the initiative to check on his well-being upon hearing about the challenge.  They smother him in family love to take his mind off the plaza, bringing out a lot of endearment from characters we’re not supposed to like.  They also bring up part of Lord Boxman’s obsession problem, which is that attacking the plaza is the only reason they exist. It's kind of a sad side to their creation. They want to be loved by their only parental figure, yet are merely his tools for a scheme that’s ruining him. 

Even with his obsession made understandable, Lord Boxman is too stubborn to accept help to get through it.  It is commendable that he tries to break it on his own terms, and for a while it seems like he’s finally going to commit to what Boxmore was meant to do.  It’s even presented in a creative way as he gets his assembly line up and running to song.  It’s a fun song, but hardly the best one I’ve heard since it feels like Lord Boxman is just talking his way through the music. Also, it abruptly ends when he still ends up making something that reminds him of the plaza. 

There’s an interesting bit to his ordeal when he finds out he spent most of his 24 hours stopping himself from attacking the plaza and now has five minutes left.  However, he uses the time to vent about his situation to K.O., Rad, and Enid at Gar’s Bodega.  It begs the question why he would do this. He expectedly gets the kids to try and coax him into attacking the plaza so they won’t have to worry about attacks again, hilarious as their taunts may be.  Also, their dynamic with Lord Boxman turns out to not be so black-and-white when they stop themselves from being the potential reason their enemy loses his job. 

That said, the ending leaves very little accomplishment when as soon as his 24 hours are up, Lord Boxman goes back to his old habits with little to no sign of moving past them.  At least it's meaningful that he now sees it as something he wants to do instead of something he needs to do.  It makes for an interesting message on how people have things they do to make them feel good even if they’re not moral.  That along with interesting looks into Lord Boxman’s relationships with his family and enemies make this cartoon turn out good even if it lacks in true character development.

B+

The Ranking

1. Face Your Fears
2. You Have to Care
3. T.K.O.
4. Legends of Mr. Gar
5. We’ve Got Pests
6. I Am Dendy
7. You Get Me
8. Let’s Be Heroes
9. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
10. Jethro’s All Yours
11. Know Your Mom
12. Everybody Likes Rad?
13. Plaza Prom
14. We’re Captured
15. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
16. Let’s Be Friends
17. We Messed Up
18. Presenting Joe Cuppa
19. Sibling Rivalry
20. Second First Date
21. Stop Attacking the Plaza
22. Just Be a Pebble
23. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
24. You’re Level 100
25. You Are Rad
26. One Last Score

The next OK K.O. review has K.O., Rad, and Enid get in touch with their inner animals while also seeing that some creative aspects of a world aren't always the best ones.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Mathmagic" and "The Bounce Lounge" from Star vs the Forces of Evil.

If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.