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Selfie
Improvement
Plots that have characters make themselves crazy over
something incredibly minor don’t often do justice for them and can make the
experience frustrating. However, they
can work if the trouble they get themselves into is
entertaining and funny. The sisters of
the Loud family have a lot of dynamic and fun personalities, so what they get
themselves into is sure to turn out quite humorous, at least to me. This is a big reason why it was a smart move
for them to start getting cartoons with them as the lead more as the series went
on.
In this cartoon’s case, Lori is the
star. While she’s portrayed as a stereotypical teenage girl obsessed with her
phone and taking selfies, it’s remarkable how fun a character she is about
it. She's so used to getting a lot of
likes on her photos that she’s completely shocked that she’s been
out-liked by her rival, Carol Pingrey.
Before, all we knew about Carol was that she beat Lori out for homecoming queen. It was all we needed
to know that Lori had a problem with her, and here it’s revealed that her
one-upping has gone on for a long time.
Rather than just letting this minor setback go, Lori spends the majority
of the cartoon taking a lot of selfies with the sole intent of getting more
likes than Carol. This may be petty and
making a big deal over nothing, but what makes Lori’s attempts appealing is how
entertaining in watch they are. For one
thing, there’s a lot of unique setups to all kinds of selfies with a variety of
costumes, hairstyles, and accessories.
Along with different styles, entertainment is found in the struggles of
making the selfies come out good that come with being in a big family. Lori’s siblings frequently show up doing
their thing be it popping out of toilets, playing around, grave digging, or
demanding to be changed. The result is a
collection of hilarious ways the cute wholesome shoots go wrong and look
humiliating. So not to make the siblings
look too bad, their ruining of the selfies doesn’t last long, though to be
fair, it never feels like they were trying to ruin anything in the first place. Still, the challenges continue as Lori’s
selfies go wrong in many creative ways though some beg questions like why
there’d be bees in a tire swing.
The
entertainment factor of these selfie attempts is what keeps the cartoon
enjoyable as Lori’s desperation to get a great one escalates. In a smart move, however, she eventually
realizes how out of control she’s been on her own accord. It happens
when she not only ignores her boyfriend, Bobby, but makes him drive to a picnic
despite three hours apart and no wisdom tooth.
For all the legit thrills of her minor concerns, it’s refreshing for
Lori to better appreciate the good things she has. If that’s not enough, when she actually meets
up with Carol, they nicely bond over how they thing the other is better than
each other. That’s not even mentioning
how Carol’s been out of control with selfies too. It’s an unexpected move for these rivals to
become friends, and that further helps the cartoon. It’s probably not the smartest move for them
both to react to another selfie one-upping them, but at least they feel that
way together.
With cartoons like this,
it shows that no matter what a character gets up to, everything can work as long
as he/she is enjoyable, and the ensuing antics are strong with comedy.
A
No Place
Like Homeschool
Some of the strongest cartoons are those where the Loud
siblings are on the same page with certain matters and work as a team over what
they have in common. This cartoon shows
an interesting variation of this setup, though it does miss a few key
marks.
For starters, all the kids have
the same frustrations about school which, like a lot of conflicts with this
series, seem highly relatable. Among
them are how busy they are with their interests and how school doesn’t leave
time for them. The only sibling who
doesn’t seem bothered by school is Lola who’s apparently being
homeschooled. This runs the risk of a
continuity error since Lola has been implied to go to regular school several times in the past. However, it’s
easily covered up with the reveal that she’s doing homeschool for a six-week
period for pageant season.
Anyway, the
rest of the kids convince their parents to let them do homeschool too, and
when they agree, they legitimately believe that it means they’re free to goof
off. As fun as it is to watch the many
little moments of the kids enjoying themselves during school hours, it’s hard
to believe that none of them are aware of how important their work is. Is not one of them aware of the school part
of homeschool? Also, as nice as it is
for Lola to be the only one taking it seriously, it’s clear she
only acts this way because she actually has experience with homeschool. I guess from the experience angle, there’s
weight to the other kids’ perception, but it’s still off-putting that not one
other kid would know there’s work to be done.
That’s not even mentioning that while Lola uses her extra time for her
pageant training, the other kids don’t do any of what they said they need time
for while out of regular school. That kind of
makes them look lazy and cocky if you ask me.
However, their behavior comes with consequences when they learn they
have to take a test to see if they’ve been learning all week just one night prior. They have no choice but to spend the whole
night cramming in knowledge so they can be ready and not have to go back to
regular school. When they’re too prone
to distractions and fighting to actually study themselves, they have no choice
but to wake up Lola from her beauty sleep for help. This reluctant move on Lola’s part brings a
conclusion that kind of goes two ways.
On the day of the test, everyone passes except Lola who doesn’t even
finish meaning she has to go back to regular school. Then on Monday morning, she finds out the
other kids willingly gave up their homeschool and let the parents give Lola
another chance at it for the sake of her pageant preparations.
From the staging, it’s easy to take in the
genuine sibling love of the ending where the kids realize their faults and
leave homeschool to those who need it. At the same time, I notice a lot of
holes with the ending. The other kids
were up all night, but Lola was able to sleep until 3:00. How does she get more tired? For that matter, if she is tired, couldn’t
the test be held off until she’s ready?
The parents have the power to give them when they please. Most of all, why does everyone wait until
Monday morning to let Lola know she’s gotten another chance. The ending is still heartwarming, but letting
her be miserable about going back to regular school all weekend when that
didn’t have to happen really holds it back.
Even with a number of setbacks, it’s still impressive that the cartoon
as strong as it is, pulled through with plenty of heart that can come from a
big family.
A-
The Ranking
1. Roadie to Nowhere
2. Insta-Gran
3. Selfie Improvement
4. No Place Like Homeschool
5. Tripped!
6. White Hare
7. A Fridge Too Far
The next Loud House review explores Ronnie Anne and Bobby's new city life, and gives us yet another April Fools cartoon with Luan at her nastiest.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews make sure you're not the "Last One Out of Beach City" in Steven Universe.
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