Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Roadie to Nowhere / A Fridge Too Far (The Loud House Season 3 Episode 3) - 'Toon Reviews 30

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Roadie to Nowhere


For how popular she is with fans of this show, it’s disappointing of how Luna was snubbed of starring roles last season.  The best she got there was “L is for Love” which on the whole was more about all the kids, and inciting the conflict of “Yes-Man” a cartoon mostly about Lincoln.  Other than that, she mostly had silent cameos and single lines that could’ve gone to anyone, with sparse moments playing to her strengths.  It just doesn’t seem fair that such a strong and admired character wasn’t taken advantage of.  Season 3 makes up for this with quite a few cartoons with Luna as the lead starting with this one which makes her more interesting than ever. 
In addition to being a fun character with a lively musical passion, Luna is also the most relatable of the Louds.  Other cartoons explored how her passion guides her life, how her less musically talented family lets her enjoy what she does, and her anxieties around other people.  These are all identifiable conflicts in real life, and the trend continues here which I can relate to as someone wanting to get into the arts like her.  Luna starts off immensely enjoying playing rock n roll, right down to scoring the headlining position for her school’s rumble concert.  In fact, she enjoys it so much, she believes she’s well on her way to “rock n roll fame.” 
Then she learns about her roadie Chunk, who also performed rock n roll when he was her age, wanted to reach the goals Luna has in mind.  However, instead of a big star, Chunk is just a simple roadie, and based on Luna’s observations, he appears to live in his van.  Everything she learns makes Luna fear that her ambitions of becoming a famous rock star are too naïve.  Honestly, with my creative ambitions, there are times when I feel that way too. 
The things Luna gets up to as a result are believable reactions to doubts in such lofty ambitions.  However, even her alternatives have interesting ways of showing they don’t work for her.  She tries smaller roles in the music business, but turns out to be too excited about the jobs to be productive.  She’s also reasonably disturbed or annoyed by more commonplace career fields.  Interestingly, one of those commonplace fields, IT, turns out to be a great fit for her since working keyboards is much like mixing music.  By the way, this scene also features more strong continuity with Mr. Grouse still working in this field. 
While Luna seems all set to put aside her passions, she sees some light in her anxieties through advice from her elders.  One is her music teacher who reminds her that she can still enjoy working with music as a hobby.  She also finds Chunk performing a small gig who reveals to be happy where he is so long as he’s doing what he loves.  Also, living in a van turns out to be another misunderstanding the Louds are accustomed to, but here, Luna’s assumptions were staged pretty convincingly. 
In the end, Luna is inspired with meaningful career advice to not worry about the future and enjoy what she loves. That’s one of the best supports any starving artist can get.  The big finish where she performs at the rumble with Chunk is not just a great listen, but is a grand way to show how happy and accepting of her life she is.  With this cartoon, Luna is greatly welcomed back into the spotlight via relatable conflicts, character development, and good emphasis on the musical bug you just can’t shake.

A+


A Fridge Too Far


Families often get into conflicts and disagreements since it’s not always easy to live together.  This is also true for the Louds which are in a much bigger family than normal.  However, when a cartoon is about their arguments, the kids are often unnecessarily aggressive, uncaring, scornful brutes.  Sometimes, they even disregard their established good traits making for an unpleasant viewing experience and a main reason why several older cartoons don’t hold up.  The fights would probably be better if there were humorous exaggerations to them, but there usually aren’t.  It feels like the kids are really angry with each other over something stupid and want to hurt each other.  There’s hardly any good entertainment.  With the kids appearing to grow closer and work as a team better as of recent, sibling fights have noticeably ceased which is nice.  This cartoon shows that despite this, there are still conflicts this big family can face, though it’s a more entertaining and better staged one. 
This time it’s about them showing annoyance of their snacks constantly getting snagged from the fridge.  At the start, you’d think that Lincoln would be the only one to suffer this turn of events as usual.  However, it’s soon apparent that all the Loud kids have a problem with the filching.  This leads to a sequence of elaborate stunts to protect their favorite snacks from getting stolen by another sibling.  There’s surprise watermelons dropped on feet, blue paint bombs, electrocution, and even radiation among other things.  They’re certainly more creative retaliations than fight clouds, though it is disturbing that rather than brushing off cartoonish pain gags, they have believable outcomes like casts.  Also, the fight still loses points for being over something stupid. 
Keeping with the kids’ stronger bonds, the fight actually doesn’t last long, and is brought under control in the middle of the cartoon instead of near the end.  A plan is set to color code the fridge’s compartments to better divide the snacks, and it works well to keep the kids happy and cease the fighting.  This is an interesting not to mention considerate solution to settling the matter, allowing the kids to have their issues, but still be more mature with settling things. 
Then comes another conflict when Dad gets involved.  Further looking into his established cooking skills, he plans a special meal for an investor hoping to take a big step in starting his own restaurant.  However, when he places his ingredients in the fridge, the kids show disgust in them and throw them away.  This is one of the cartoon’s weaker moments since the kids aren’t quite as considerate of Dad as they are with each other.  Surely they could have guessed that those strange new ingredients were for something he was cooking and not anyone’s snacks.  Also, for such a smart child, Lisa really should have figured out that the ingredient she throws away is not what she claims it is.  Making up for this is the kids realizing they’re all at fault here, and when Dad’s desperate to make something, they suggest his leftovers.  It’s a nice mature sacrifice and has merit to it based on the lengths they took to protect it.  Even nicer is that the investor loves the leftovers, even more than the fancy meals he usually gets, putting Dad on the right track to his dream job. 
Ultimately, this is one of the better sibling fight cartoons with good entertainment in the brawl, focus on settling things, and a nice showing of family love in the end.  It’s still a weak conflict, but given the setup, it’s a well-handled weak conflict.
B+
The Ranking
1.      Roadie to Nowhere

2.      Insta-Gran

3.      Tripped!

4.      White Hare

5.      A Fridge Too Far

The next Loud House review follows Lori get into a selfie battle with the previously mentioned Carol Pingry, and the kids think school days will be easy in home school.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Steven Universe episode, "Future Boy Zoltron."
If you would like to check out other Loud House reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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