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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."
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