Monday, January 28, 2019

The Sparrow Scouts (Hilda Season 1 Episode 4) - 'Toon Reviews 26


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The Sparrow Scouts
In an endearing move to develop Hilda’s transition from wilderness life to city life, we get this episode that grants her human friends who frequently join her for adventures.  In the process, there’s also development to the environment of Trolberg as well as previously explored concepts. 
As the title suggests, one of those concepts has been of a scout troop called the Sparrow Scouts.  They got plenty of focus during the parade in the last episode, and two scouts, Frida and David, had a fair share of moments here and there.  Now, as Hilda becomes a Sparrow Scout to follow in the footsteps of her mother who was also part of the team, her friendship with Frida and David is pretty much solidified. 
The main focus of the episode is on the three of them forming a team for one specific badge.  Groups of scouts are assigned to clear an area of a park of waste and plant a garden there.  It’s a simple setup, but it’s made interesting by charming chemistry between the three characters.  Frida puts a lot of value in the badges she’s earned and has an almost aggressive need to be the best of the best.  David is easily distracted and nervous and is in need of someone to tell him what to do.  Although it’s apparent that one of the two is truly productive with badge challenges, Hilda’s knowledge of the wilderness is a worthy factor towards success.  It also makes for cute clashes of worldviews when Hilda’s plan ideas inspired by her wilderness life put Frida and David at a loss for words. 
Also aiding in making their simple badge quest stand out is the world-building involved, showing that in this world, a wall cannot stop supernatural things from happening.  After a long day of gardening, the kids come back the next day to find their hard work vandalized.  The cause for this is a very agitated anthropomorphic onion-like creature called a vittra.  Through a rude yet hilarious rant, he explains that through their planting, the kids dug up all his friends and brethren who were hibernating below the surface.  Apparently, the tops of their heads look an awful lot like weeds most people would pull, so I can call this a creative explanation for an occurrence.  There’s clearly no way they could have known they were pulling up creatures, so it does get frustrating that the vittra constantly insists they did it on purpose.  His ire also sparks less pleasing parts of Frida’s character flaws when she shows so much concern for her mere badges that she gets herself trapped in the vittra’s lair. 
This leads to a creative and nicely staged explore through the lair as Hilda goes after Frida.  There’s plenty of surprises through every hole, and a few off-the-wall elements like the vittras having tiny cows for pets.  After some trial and error through finding Frida, a deal is made that if they retrieve the dug up vitra, Frida will get her badges back.  The resulting climax at the mulchers is fun to see with plenty of suspense as Hilda rushes to free the vittra, and her new friendships grow as they save her from a nasty fall.  I have to question how they knew they saved all the vittra since some could have been mulched earlier that day, but that’s just me.  There’s also some good heart at the end when Frida writes a diary entry discussing that even if she failed to get a badge, she’s grateful for getting a new friend. 
That said, I wonder if any other Sparrow Scouts were willing to put off weeding.  Are there even other vittra around?  Major head scratchers like that as well as the somewhat basic story and characterizations make this less great than the other episodes.  Still, it’s a charming episode to fully introduce Hilda to her first true human friends.
A-

The Ranking
  1. The Bird Parade
  2. The Midnight Giant
  3. The Hidden People
  4. The Sparrow Scouts

In this episode, while waiting for Hilda, David finds a strange rock and takes it home with him.  The next review is on the results of that move.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "The Status Seekers" from DuckTales.
If you would like to check out other Hilda reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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