Friday, February 1, 2019

The Nightmare Spirit (Hilda Season 1 Episode 6) - 'Toon Reviews 26


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The Nightmare Spirit

To me, animation, a medium where anything can be drawn out, goes well with dreams or pictures in one’s head where anything goes.  This concept works in this episode’s favor, and through developing characters in the process, it all works well. 
By now, it’s clear that Hilda’s relationships are the heart of the show, and bond with David and Frida is at its most endearing here.  David, who’s easily frightened, has a problem of dealing with nightmares every single night.  The opening features one of a crazy adventure of getting lost in a sewer and attacked by rats.  This is a big reasons he blame Hilda for his nightmares.  This may be harsh judgement, but given how much of an outlier Hilda is to the group, it makes sense that her adventurousness can be problematic. 
Still, that part of Hilda helps her plan to cure David’s nightmares.  She leads David and Frida to where an all-knowing being called the rat king is spotted.  Following an eerily familiar incident with sewer tunnels, the rat king is revealed to be made of innumerable rats talking in unison.  This imaginative being is productive in Hilda’s cause as she exchanges one of her secrets for a reveal of who’s been giving David nightmares.  The answer validates Hilda’s constant concerns about a teenage girl she was suspicious of.  When she and Frida catch her near David’s while he has another nightmare, they follow her to a campsite. There, she tells other girls about his nightmares, giving a strange green glow in the process. 
The next day, with the help of a mysterious caped librarian who somehow knows what book they need, the kids learn that girl is a marra.  That is, a creature who haunts rooms every night to continuously give people bad dreams.  All the pieces picked up in the episode build up to a huge climax where Hilda sets out to stop the marra’s torment over David.  Through switching bedrooms with him behind the adults’ backs and applying what she knows about marras, Hilda successfully catches the main one.  A deal is made to have the marra try to give Hilda, a usually brave child, a nightmare, and if Hilda doesn’t wake up, David will be spared. 
The ensuing nightmare brings an interesting idea to light.  Hilda’s nightmares start out frightening with spiders, giants, and other supernatural creatures, but given her knack for adventures, she’s unmoved by all this.  Then you consider earlier scenes like being quick to brush off bike-riding, and her uneasiness while riding Frida’s bike as well as what the secret she gave the rat king was.  Not to mention the marra knows the rat king. 
Hilda’s biggest fear turns out to be something as simple as being unable to ride a bike. She suffers through a nightmare where she loses her friends and the earth crumbles because of this.  It says a lot that her biggest fear is something so seemingly insignificant.  That’s so true to life.  Eventually when the room switch is discovered, David returns and feels bad for Hilda’s cries of agony over the nightmare.  Deciding it’s not fair for her to suffer for him, David wakes Hilda out of her horrors, claiming he can deal with his own nightmares if she can.  With this bold move from a timid character, we get closure with David is no longer affected by the marra, and he and Frida better accept Hilda as she is. 
It goes without saying that the episode really makes the bond of these friends feel like something special.  Through unfolding in a story of impressive growth, imaginative plot points, and going all out with dreams, it’s easily one of the series’ grandest experiences.
A+

The Ranking
  1. The Nightmare Spirit
  2. The Bird Parade
  3. The Midnight Giant
  4. The Hidden People
  5. The Troll Rock
  6. The Sparrow Scouts
The next Hilda review centers around the elves' business with legal paperwork-related matters as Hilda and Frida have to settle a land matter with a lost clan of them to save David.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Season 3 premiere of Star vs the Forces of Evil.
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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