Thursday, April 25, 2019

White Hair / Insta Gran (The Loud House Season 3 Episode 2) - 'Toon Reviews 30

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White Hare


When animated shows are conceived, the original concept is sometimes different from the final product.  For this show, the original concept was that it was going to be about a family of rabbits; one boy and 25 girls to be exact.  This cartoon revisits that concept in a fun look at what might have been. 
The framing device for the concept is Lincoln acting cool to impress a new girl, but he’s very adamant about not letting his sisters know.  This old setup isn’t exactly the best one to follow at this point.  With how much Lincoln’s been on the same page with his sisters compared to the early days, being against them shouldn’t still be the case.  The best thing to come from this is the start of continuity between other cartoons with Lincoln directly referencing one about his sisters’ love advice to make his point.  It even comes with stock footage. 
Anyway, the rabbit angle comes when Lincoln runs into the woods, finds a rabbit with 25 sisters, and gets knocked out.  We go into Lincoln’s mind and the look at what might have been unfolds.  It follows a boy rabbit named Warren who’s largely outnumbered by girl rabbits in the family.  Like Lincoln, Warren wants to impress a new girl, but the rabbit sisters do what Lincoln fears his human sisters will do by acting pushy with their advice.  Each of the rabbit sisters have a fun personality.  True, a couple of them are the same as some of the sisters we have now, but there are a few unique traits out of this bunch.  To name a few, there’s a paranoid one, an artistic one, a meditative one, one glued to her phone, and a narcoleptic one among others.  However, only a little of these traits are shown, making each rabbit sister feel not as fleshed out as they could be.  This makes it clear why this concept was changed.  Too many characters often makes for disproportionate development and appeal from them all, even if it does make sense for rabbits.  Heck, it’s the case for the human sisters sometimes. 
This setup also showcases a big problem of the series about constantly making Lincoln the main character of certain cartoons, or Warren in this case.  In order to make the boy look good, the girls have to look bad and follow a hive mind by acting the same way with only their interests telling them apart.  The fact that the sisters, human or rabbit, have interesting and fun traits on their own means they lack good likability and individualism that could do them justice.  This is proven when Warren follows his 25 sisters’ advice on the girl, resulting in a cringe-worthy sequence of messing up and looking bad in front of her. 
However, it’s after this bit where there seems to be more of an attempt to show how likable the sisters truly are.  Lincoln wakes up and sees the actual rabbits from earlier help the boy rabbit win over that new girl.  Believing his sisters did have the right advice after all, he goes back to them.  This leads to an endearing sequence where they all praise him for who he is, selling their genuine love for their only brother.  Convinced by them to be himself, Lincoln does so, and that puts him on friendly terms with the new girl. 
It kind of makes the fantasy pointless since Lincoln could have seen sense if he just watched the real rabbits and didn’t pass out.  Still, this is an interesting look at what the show's initial idea even if the changes are for the best, and the actual cartoon has lots of family love all around.

B+

Insta-Gran

This show often tends to lean towards the basic side a lot, but there are also plenty of times where it follows interesting story concepts.  This cartoon offers one of the more out-of-the-ordinary plots while also fitting the family themes of the series well. 
It’s about Pop-Pop bringing over a special guest during a visit to the Loud House called Myrtle.  The kids take an instant liking to her as she shows keen interest in just about everything they have to offer.  In all honesty, I can’t blame them.  Myrtle truly does make some very endearing and charming first impressions as a character. 
However, this is both a blessing and a setback when Myrtle makes an impromptu visit the next afternoon smothering them with love as if she’s their actual grandmother.  While it’s not exactly clear, there are heavy implications that she makes several impromptu visits as a montage of how her family love effects the kids’ personal lives shows.  Most of what she does is not in line with their lifestyle, though at least one of Lincoln getting a bowl-cut haircut leads to a creative outcome. 
A good thing about all of this is how it’s another example of all the kids seeing eye to eye with similar feelings on how Myrtle treats them.  Like with the majority of the second half of Season 2, this is refreshing after starting out with one kid being sympathetic and the rest adding to the challenge more often than not.  It also makes for nice compatibility where they all come to the conclusion that the only way out of Myrtle’s grandmotherly nature is to break her up with Pop-Pop.  What follows is a creatively devised plan put into action using lemonade, soup, and a few disguises to get Myrtle and another nursing home resident to make kissy faces.  With a touch of photo-editing and a quick scene of Lynn as a ninja, everything seems all set to leave Pop-Pop single. 
Before the kids can go, Myrtle catches them and invites them to a birthday party she’s throwing.  Specifically, this is a birthday party for herself and before she spotted the Loud kids, she was the only guest.  It turns out that there’s a legit reason for her overbearing love and insistence on being the kids’ grandmother.  She was an only child and never found the right person to start her own family with.  Being in a big family themselves, the kids realize how wrong they were to break Pop-Pop up with Myrtle.  It’s a strong moment from them all where despite their feelings on matters, their life is quite lucky compared to other people. 
They set out to rid of the phony photo via a climax with a fair share of self-aware humor with Lincoln suddenly with his normal hair and Lynn suddenly in her ninja suit.  They’re too late to do that though and we soon cut to a surprisingly humorous scene of Pop-Pop going mad with heartbreak as he chases that male resident with a pool noodle.  It only takes an honest explanation to settle everything, and the conclusion is satisfying for all.  The kids agree to welcome Myrtle as their grandmother, but there is an agreement for her to visit on certain days.  However, it’s disappointing that we don’t see any of those certain days because Myrtle only makes cameo appearances for the rest of Season 3. 
Fortunately, as a cartoon by itself, it’s an endearingly interesting story with fun and memorable moments, and great respect to and feel of the nature of families.
A

The Ranking

1.      Insta-Gran

2.      Tripped!

3.      White Hare
 
The next Loud House review follows Luna learn how hard it is to make it into music, and the kids find a way to divide leftovers in the fridge, unknowingly at the expense of others.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Buddy's Book" from Steven Universe.
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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