Wednesday, January 30, 2019

The Troll Rock (Hilda Season 1 Episode 5) - 'Toon Reviews 26


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The Troll Rock
A strong sign that a show has a lot of effort to it is how its seemingly small scenes have bigger meaning later.  The last episode featured David show fondness of a small interesting looking rock, and its last scene revealed it to move around.  It was staged as a cute sight gag to show David getting easily distracted.  With this episode, there’s much more weight to that little scene as shown at the start with a troll frantically looking for something in the area where David found that rock.  Tensions grow when that troll gets into Trolberg. 
Then there’s the main plot as Hilda attends parent-teacher night at her new school.  While she and her mother think she’s adjusted well to school, there’s an all-too believable counterargument to that belief.  Although Hilda hasn’t noticed this, she’s been disruptive in class asking off-topic questions, pointing out flaws in teachings, and giving rambles about subjects even after class.  According to her friends, the teacher, Ms. Hallgrim, is seriously considering transferring her to a special needs class due to this.  Such a drastic move makes Hilda seem challenged, when in reality, her behavior should be expected from her upbringing.  With Ms. Hallgrim being overly strict and closed-minded, what Hilda’s faced with feels right at home with any kid with a disability like autism regarding school.  There’s nothing really wrong with their approach; they just do things differently.  That said, Ms. Hallgrim immediately blaming Hilda for problems during parent-teacher night is pretty harsh. 
Speaking of problems, Hilda’s unique approach makes itself known when she notices something off about one of the rocks in David’s rock collection.  In addition to looking peculiar, it’s also grown somewhat since David found it and has come alive.  Hilda’s knowledge of such creatures leads her to see that the rock is actually a baby troll who stays dormant in daylight and grows in the dark.  However, only she, David, Frida, and Alfur are aware of it and try to keep it secret from everyone.  I understand it’s to not make Hilda look bad in front of Ms. Hallgrim, but there’s so much awkwardness that doesn’t help Hilda anyway.  She especially doesn’t help herself as she chases the troll through the classroom and the hallways making everyone really think she’s crazy.  It’s clear they probably would have been better off telling the truth of what’s going on.  At least in the gang’s pursuit of the troll, there’s nice compatibility from everyone and occasional nice sight gags. 
Eventually, Hilda is caught, and she and her mother are called in for a private talk with Ms. Hallgrim.  In a pleasing turn of events, instead of immediately buying into the teacher’s claims, Johana vouches in favor of her daughter.  Not only does this show she greatly understands Hilda and how she benefits from her new friends, but it’s a nice implication that even those in the spectrum deserve a chance.  Hilda also shows the benefits of her mannerisms when the baby troll is discovered and the larger troll from earlier breaks into the school.  She realizes the large troll was just looking for her baby, she returns him, and they leave the school in peace.  The greatest thing about this is that after all her strictness, Ms. Hallgrim does see merit in Hilda from this event, and they both seem to be on good terms in the end.  It would have been nice if other episodes after this one showed more of Hilda’s school life to prove this though. 
In spite of some potentially discomforting plot points, this episode is a great one making the most of little moments and strong character bonds.
A-

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

The next Hilda review is an interesting one of how people can get nightmares of the most unlikely things.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews there's noting to fear from a review of "Nothing to Fear" 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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