Plaza Shorts (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 47) - 'Toon Reviews 19

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Plaza Shorts

The following review is on a series of short cartoons comprised into one episode.  About a year before OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes premiered, there were a series of web shorts created to show audiences what the show would be about.  These shorts frequently suggested they would lead to a full-fledged series and can all be viewed on Cartoon Network’s YouTube channel. 

Five shorts originally meant to go online before the series premiered showed up after the show aired.  Why it was decided to make them into an official episode for the season, I do not know.  However, since this is next to be discussed, these shorts are here for me to review and will be placed in their own ranking.  Here we go:

K.O.’s Inner Monologue

One of the most charming things about K.O. this season has been how he monologues to himself about everything he witnesses.  It brings a lot of insight to every little thing he encounters and brings interesting ways to tie into his goal of becoming a hero.  The basic idea is what we get in this short. 

K.O. just does the simple task of mopping the floor while his thoughts bring interesting points to how this will help him become a hero since it allows him to be reliable and attentive.  Even simple offhand comments on his work from his co-workers are seen as ways to help him as K.O. takes it that his hard work is paying off.  It’s all cute stuff, but since we’ve seen stuff like this a lot in the show already, it really isn’t anything special. 

It does stand out a bit when K.O. encounters a man living in a can display he accidentally knocks over whom he interprets as a “Great Sage.”  The man considering the can display his home is a creative idea who hasn’t been seen anywhere else giving the short some credit.  Plus, it makes for a humorous conclusion when him slipping on a can allows K.O. to truly be a hero by “helping” him. He keeps the old man steady as he slides through the bodega.  It’s capped off by a comedic dynamite explosion and K.O. monologue to himself with praise as the old man complains. 

This short may not be anything special, but it’s still a very good show of one of the things worth loving about K.O. 9/10

A-

Action News

In many cartoons now, Dynamite Watkins has been an entertaining commenter on the featured action.  Because her appearances have only been small, getting a short devoted to her role as news reporter is very welcome to see. 

As an established wrestler turned reporter, she approaches every news story with great enthusiasm, giving a creative edge to her role.  It makes basic reports on a featured fight and a robbery at Lakewood Plaza Turbo stand out as interesting and exciting. 

Speaking of the robbery, it’s the main subject of Dynamite Watkins’ report as she interviews K.O., Rad, and Enid on what happened.  The interview itself brings comedy out of Rad and Enid fighting over who caught the thief which is humorously portrayed as them just spouting gibberish.  It's capped off by K.O. revealing he just cut to the chase by tying up the thief.  There’s even a great punchline to why the bodega is destroyed for an off-the-wall reason unrelated to the robbery.  The excitement doesn’t even stop there with Dynamite Watkins giving an emphatic sign off and a hilarious weather forecast where “EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE!!!”  

This is indeed a great and fun news report short showing the true appeal of Dynamite Watkins, but it’s really only a warmup to what we’ll get later…

A+

 

Life of Darrell

An interesting thing about the Boxmore robots is that even when they’re destroyed and have to be replaced with new versions of themselves, they retain the same memory and knowledge.  It's like they were never destroyed at all and live to fight, get destroyed, and come back to fight again.  They're basically video game character regenerating, but much more hilarious. 

It all unfolds in an infomercial Lord Boxman is holding to demonstrate where the Boxmore robots come from by continuously creating Darrell robots to attack the plaza.  All the while, Darrell keeps approaching Lord Boxman like a “daddy” when he’s really his master. He remains chipper and upbeat as he follows orders and gets replaced with the push of a button while still remembering what happened to the old him.  The comedy from the short builds as Lord Boxman keeps getting frustrated with Darrell’s cheerfulness and inability to destroy the plaza.  It's even true with Darrells with highly advance weaponry and a giant Darrel.  It finally hits a high point of laughs when he melts down surrounded by an army of fresh new Darrells calling him “daddy” making for the perfect outcome for an over-the-top villain. 

It makes for a laugh-filled riot on one of the most unique aspects of the featured robots and the most ingenious concept out of these featured shorts.

A+

Where in the World is Mr. Gar?

Unlike the earlier shorts that are just explorations of the primary aspects of the series, this one tells more of an interesting story with the featured characters. 

It’s a basic story of K.O., Rad, and Enid just hanging around as they work at the bodega with circumstances leading them to wonder about their heroic boss, Mr. Gar.  We know he’s much deeper than a simple all-powerful hero with what has aired from this season. It doesn’t feel appropriate to be viewing a cartoon about him being an all-powerful hero at this point, even if this was meant to come out before the show premiered. 

Still this is a simple fun story where the bodega employees wonder where Mr. Gar is on a top secret mission .  It’s powered by a hilarious sequence of them going nuts over staged emergencies they use to have a reason to call Mr. Gar that clash with him being easily annoyed.  At the same time, it’s just endearing to see the three main protagonists simply hang out as buds on the same page. 

Eventually, it’s discovered that Mr. Gar never left the bodega and that his secret mission was just a game.  It’s an anti-climactic reveal, but it fortunately can be seen as humorous unexpected outcome.  As for the short, it’s just a simple funny time sure to give you a laugh for a minute.

A-

Enid vs Rad

First of all, it’s interesting that this short starts with K.O. playing the same video game Mr. Gar was playing in the last short.  As for the short itself, it’s another short story as opposed to a quick look at one of the main elements of the series, but isn’t quite as interesting. 

Rad and Enid fight over whose job is harder and challenge each other to see how hard they have it by switching jobs.  I admire they don’t drag this predictable convention out longer than it needs to, cutting to the chase within the cartoon’s first few seconds.  Also, there are interesting ways they find out how hard each other’s job is.  Rad deals with an endless line of pesky customers asking for ridiculous favors. As an interesting design choice, the customers are all the same humanoid figure closing in on Rad.  Enid discovering how hard Rad has it isn’t staged as hilariously as she just finds out how hard the job is through lifting one box. Still discovering there’s a lot more heavy boxes with the push of a button is a nice touch. 

The story ends as you’d expect with Rad and Enid better understanding each other. It does cleverly ties into that video game where the featured duck characters get mutual respect for each other.  It ends the conflict in a cute childlike way since playing the game is all K.O. does here.  It’s still basic and nothing special, but still fine as it is.

B+

Overall, these shorts are good for a laugh, and a lot of them give more information on characters and ideas of the series.  At the same time, the fact that some also devote time to things we’ve seen a lot of makes you wish they weren’t delayed and don’t have the same rewatch value as full cartoons.  Still, they’re worth watching if you’re interested for simple fun times with K.O. and his friends.

A-

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. You Are Rad
45. We’ve Got Fleas
46. Rad Likes Robots
47. One Last Score

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 attempts to give a creatively staged lesson about gun control with mixed results.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Episode 44 of Animaniacs featuring The Senses Song.

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