Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Let's Not Be Skeletons (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 48) - 'Toon Reviews 19


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Let’s Not Be Skeletons
Serious topics in cartoons stand out the most when there’s a creative way of showing them.  This cartoon covers gun control, and at this time, it’s fitting with constant shooting reports appearing more frequently than expected.  Despite the creative approach, the execution is very mixed. 
Keeping with the show’s cartoony tone, guns are portrayed as a remote control that turns whoever it’s pointed at into a living skeleton, an imaginative way of portraying what guns do.  However, the skeletons are still sentient which doesn't make them the best creative interpretation of the real world weapons. 
The products are introduced by a guy named Gil Ferris who explains the Skeleton Remotes via song.  This one stands out for its upbeat tune as Gil states how the Skeleton Remotes work and how they can help.  It’s fun and convincing enough for everyone to buy one, though the fact that Gil seems shady doesn’t feel comfortable, especially with the direction the story goes in. 
I understand that most real life shootings occur when troubled people lose a sense of control and go mad with guns, and that’s really tragic.  However, I find it hard to believe that ALL people would act that way, and that’s a huge issue with this cartoon.  Once everyone gets a Skeleton Remote, they all go crazy with them turning everyone and everything into a skeleton.  Not only does this talk down to audiences by saying all people use weapons irresponsibly, but it makes established well-developed characters look bad.  Some approach the remote believably paranoid of villain attacks, but for the most part, it feels like the plaza is just going around turning people into skeletons for the sake of it.  It’s disturbing to see them reduced to becoming this dangerous.  They say they can adjust to being skeletons and use the remotes to beat bad guys since being skeletons costs them their powers. This could have a point considering A Real Magic Skeleton.  However, since the Skeleton Remote was advertised specifically to take out villains, treating being a skeleton as no big deal doesn’t work.
Even if this isn’t a big deal, the significance of everyone wanting the Skeleton Remotes in the first place is nonexistent and confusing.  Since K.O. is the only one to see how out of control everyone is, it's hard to watch as endures all his friends getting shot, including his loving mommy.  Then again, his perspective has issues too.  When all is said and done, no one is dead, they're just walking skeletons who lose their powers.  This makes K.O. look far too paranoid and overreactive, the dangers of the Skeleton Remote undermined, and the issue with it all the more confusing. 
Still when K.O. tries stressing the importance of controlling use of the Skeleton Remotes, a bigger issue is the people of Lakewood Plaza Turbo at their most  frustratingly dense.  First, everyone won’t listen unless he’s singing, though it does bring on a meaningful song on how the remotes shouldn’t be used in public areas.  That's true for real-life guns, but shootings still happen there FYI.  However, the crowd is too irrational to listen saying that what K.O. wants infringes on individual rights, even if he was not referring to everywhere. 
This irrationality leads to another uncomfortable scene of K.O. involved in a Skeleton Remote fight with Mr. Gar, the hero he looks up to the most.  What makes the whole conflict fall flat is that when things get really bad, it's revealed that the whole thing was just a dream.  Things being resolved by realizing they weren’t real is just a feeble attempt to excuse all flaws.  At least the last scene of a Congresswoman banning real Skeleton Remotes is funny through her building rage as she gets the law through the real Gil Ferris’ head.  If we're looking at this as a legit message though, it does severely fall flat since it doesn't take much to get that Congresswomen aren't enough to stop all shooting tragedies. 
I like the creative take on gun control and gun effects as well as the songs, but that's not enough to overlook the glaring flaws of this cartoon. The conflict exists through making most people reckless morons and the sole reasonable character overeactive. It's confusing as to whether becoming skeletons is good or bad. Above all, the cop-out ending removes any positive impact that could’ve come from exploring the topic.  While it’s not the worst thing ever, it’s the show at its most problematic.
D-


Cartoon Ranking
  1. Face Your Fears
  2. Let’s Take a Moment
  3. Mystery Science Fair 201X
  4. You Have to Care
  5. T.K.O.
  6. Back in Red Action
  7. No More Pow Cards
  8. Glory Days
  9. Legends of Mr. Gar
  10. We’ve Got Pests
  11. I Am Dendy
  12. Let’s Have a Stakeout
  13. You Get Me
  14. Let’s Be Heroes
  15. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
  16. We Got Hacked
  17. K.O.’s Video Channel
  18. Jethro’s All Yours
  19. Know Your Mom
  20. Everybody Likes Rad?
  21. OK Dendy! Let’s Be K.O.
  22. Villains Night In
  23. Lad & Logic
  24. A Hero’s Fate
  25. Plaza Prom
  26. We’re Captured
  27. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
  28. Let’s Be Friends
  29. We Messed Up
  30. Parents Day
  31. Plazalympics
  32. Presenting Joe Cuppa
  33. Sibling Rivalry
  34. Plaza Shorts
  35. RMS and Brandon’s First Episode
  36. Second First Date
  37. Stop Attacking the Plaza
  38. Just Be a Pebble
  39. The Power is Yours
  40. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
  41. Let’s Watch the Pilot
  42. Villains Night Out
  43. You’re Level 100
  44. We’ve Got Fleas
  45. You Are Rad
  46. Rad Likes Robots
  47. One Last Score
  48. Let’s Not Be Skeletons

Plaza Shorts Ranking
  1. Life of Darrel
  2. Action News
  3. K.O.’s Inner Monologue
  4. Where in the World is Mr. Gar?
  5. Rad vs Enid
The next OK K.O. review brings the ever awesome news woman Dynamite Watkins to the spotlight for her own adventure.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Episode 46 of Animaniacs featuring a Thanksgiving cartoon.
If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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