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Jeers for Fears
Scary moments in films and TV shows are a good way to build a
creative atmosphere, and are key in exercising one’s imagination. However, sometimes a bunch of frights all at
once can make things less impactful. For
that reason, this cartoon meant to feature a lot of scary moments loses a lot
of its appeal from how easily terrified the featured characters get.
Now this is a scary cartoon that’s truly impactful featuring
a creative story idea that builds upon a stunt that bends the rules for
childish satisfaction and soon goes out of control. Lola, one of the six-year-old Loud twins, is
well known for taking an interest in anything cute and beautiful.
Lincoln and Clyde hear that the smug jerky
popular kid in the class, Chandler, is going to a haunted house which is said
to be the scariest thing in town.
Lincoln and Clyde say they’re going too, which they never planned
on. If other kids besides Chandler and
his friends were going, this decision to go would have more weight to them. If
they’re the only known kids going, what do Lincoln and Clyde have to lose?
Anyway, an even bigger red flag is with how
they prepare themselves for the haunted house.
It’s not the strategy itself that’s the issue; it’s how Lincoln and
Clyde, who are really scared of the prospect of the house, react to it. They get Lincoln’s sisters to put on a bunch
of scary stunts for them. Their first
attempt goes all out with a moodily lit hallway culminating with all the
sisters posing as a frightening multi-headed monster making a surprise
appearance. Lincoln and Clyde’s screams
of terror are fitting reactions to this moment, but the same can’t be said for
other attempts. They keep getting toned
down to the point where it’s obvious that the things used to scare the boys are
clearly no more than props or someone in costume. However, Lincoln and Clyde are scared of them
all no matter how tame they are. It’s at
the point where it feels like they’re pathetically scared of everything and
have no good sense of judgement which is just sad.
Then Bobby, who for some reason is back in
town, comes to help them prepare for the haunted house by showing them around
the place. It turns out Bobby used to
work there, and knows what every scary sight really is and who’s dressed as
every surprise monster. Despite even
more overbearing scares from Lincoln and Clyde, they get the message and are
much more confident about going to the haunted house that night.
Then just when they’re about to enter it
again, they find all the former employees were fired because of what they
learned from Bobby, and the management upped the scariness. They run in terrified again, but I have to
question why they don’t consider that everything is still fake. I mean there’s no way the people running the
haunted house could put together real scares.
However, they end up running all the way through the house while trying
to find the bail out door, and impressively end up taking more of it than
Chandler and his friends. Heck, Chandler
is even on good terms with them and even invites them to hang out with him.
This can show that there was good inside him all along, or this is just
praising an apparent feat he’ll probably forget about. Speaking of being forgotten, Lincoln and
Clyde end up thinking nothing of how brave they ended up being. They’re
terrified by one last harmless makeshift scare from a squirrel and a crow. Was it really that hard for them to consider
that what they saw wasn’t really what it seemed?
As a scary cartoon, this one
can get frustrating with how scared of practically everything our heroes end up
being. Thanks to a well-crafted
atmosphere in some scenes and great support from characters in their lives, it
all turns out more bearable than one may think.
C
Tea Tale
Heart
She happens upon Lucy who has found an old
doll in the attic and plans to keep it in a small coffin. Lola really wants to play with the doll, but
Lucy insists that it’s for the best she keeps it safe considering how fragile
it is. To Lola’s delight though, the
next day Lucy is out of the house, meaning she’s now free to take the doll and
spend the day with her. It’s this
rule-breaking that slowly brings the effective fright factor into
fruition.
During a tea party, Lola
accidentally spills tea on the doll, and it soaks through to the body. I could say that what goes on could have been
avoided if Lola was more careful with how she poured the tea, but a few things
make this direction work. Lucy did say
that chaotic things like that are commonplace in Lola’s room, so it was bound
to happen. Also, Lola’s only 6, so it
makes sense that playtime would keep her from being as careful as
possible. She then acts fast to fix the
doll, but her attempts make it worse and eventually beyond repair with a red
dress and body and a cracked head, both worse than a tea stain. Luckily, Lola has the money to buy a
replacement doll and the skills to make it look like the original so Lucy will never
know.
The only thing left to do now is
to get rid of the doll she ruined, and it’s here where the story is at its most
frightening. The first time Lola tries
hiding the doll, it somehow finds its way back to her room, freaking her out. For the rest of the cartoon, she goes to
lengths more extreme than the last to lose what she broke once and for
all. She tries burying it, throwing it
in the dumpster, and paying Flip to take her to the pond where she can sink
it. It’s at this point where it becomes
crazy that the doll keeps finding its way back to her. In any other case, especially with dropping
it in the pond, it would be gone forever.
The fact that the doll always returns with visual reminders of where
Lola left it at that leaves one wondering how this can be. The creepiness of the situation is
capitalized by Lola’s terrified reactions to the doll possibly “haunting” her
and growing guilt as she lashes out to hide what she did. Consoling stuffed animals for emotional
support through all this is a nice touch to her age as well.
In the end, Lola breaks down and tells Lucy
the truth, and in a refreshing turn of events, Lucy is very forgiving. She understands that Lola didn’t ruin the
original doll on purpose and likes how it looks now that it can haunt
people. About the haunting thing, it’s
hard to guess why the doll kept doing that despite what Lucy says about it
reacting to being taken away from its owner.
The true answer is revealed in the last minutes that Lana kept returning
it to Lola thinking she wanted it back.
Given the frequent sense of uncertainty, this is a clever twist that
fits the nature of the characters.
That’s a big reason to why this scary cartoon works so well.
In addition to being a creative concept that
grows up in craziness from one misstep, it’s really enhanced by the approaches
to it from the featured characters. It’s
one of the show’s most imaginative and atmospheric works for sure.
A+
The Ranking
- Really Loud Music
- Head Poet’s Anxiety
- Roadie to Nowhere
- Tea Tale Heart
- Shop Girl
- Breaking Dad
- Gown and Out
- Fandom Pains
- Insta-Gran
- Selfie Improvement
- Scales of Justice
- Middle Men
- Net Gains
- Crimes of Fashion
- Everybody Loves Leni
- The Spies Who Loved Me
- No Place Like Homeschool
- House of Lies
- The Mad Scientist
- City Slickers
- Missed Connection
- Fool Me Twice
- Deal Me Out
- Teachers’ Union
- Tripped!
- White Hare
- A Fridge Too Far
- Sitting Bull
- Game Boys
- Pasture Bedtime
- Absent Minded
- What Wood Lincoln Do?
- Jeers for Fears
- Friendzy
- Pipe Dreams
- Be Stella My Heart
- Rita Her Rights
- Ruthless People
The next Loud House review is a Thanksgiving special where the Louds and Casagrandes try to stay together but end up going savage on each other while trying to prove themselves as the better hosts.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "The Trial" from Steven Universe.
It's ironic how the latter segment, despite having a standard plot, has more genuine scares than the former.
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