Thursday, June 13, 2019

Sitting Bull / The Spies Who Loved Me (The Loud House Season 3 Episode 16) - 'Toon Reviews 30

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Sitting Bull


There are quite a few cartoons focusing on the younger Loud sisters as a group, but they only make up half of the girls in the family.  You really have to wonder what the older Loud sisters as a group have to offer.  That’s where an interesting point for this cartoon comes in. 
Lori, Leni, Luna, and Luan are revealed to have a babysitting business which really suits their status in such a big family.  Being the oldest inevitably means frequently looking after their many younger siblings, so why not expand that to other young kids?  Then you have the next oldest Loud in line for babysitting, Lynn.  It’s no secret that she’s highly aggressive and competitive when it comes to her love for sports, or as the show puts it, she’s not the caring nurturing type.  Looking back at her past roles which include one of the show’s worst works and her roughhousing of the younger Louds here, it seems like she’s not fit for babysitting.  She also disturbingly doesn’t take the legit criticism well either.  She may be next in line, but for how unapologetically rough she is, she clearly has a long way to go to before being trusted with babysitting. 
The older sisters give in though, and Lynn gets a chance at joining the business by looking after kids the other sisters are too booked to take on themselves.  However, Lynn’s aggression leaves significant marks of concern by the time her session is through.  Through ignoring the kids’ complaints and requests for what they want to do, Lynn keeps putting them up for physical activity they’re not cut out for.  They’re criticized for not wrestling like she does, injure themselves from weight-lifting, eat raw eggs, and are traumatized by Lynn’s sports injury story.  It’s at this point where Lynn seems more like a person who should not be anywhere near a young child showing more care in athleticism than the well-being of youths.  It would be better if the other older sisters taught her how to care for little kids if she really wants to be a babysitter, but that’s never the case.  Instead, Lynn proves to be more difficult to deal with as she takes over the other sisters’ clients, and while we don’t see what she does, she clearly still did not do a good job.  All these clients drop the Louds as babysitters, thus hurting their business. 
Now forced against Lynn, the other older sisters fight back by assigning her a family of rowdy quintuplets.  From their horrific experiences of caring for them and all five kids ganging up on Lynn when she arrives at their home, she seems set up for some heavy karma.  Eventually though, the other older sisters feel bad for doing this to Lynn, maturely understanding that for all her faults, she never means to be bad.  As it turns out, when they set out to rescue Lynn, she’s got the quintuplets under control, her aggression being the only thing they resonate with. 
As a conclusion, it has merit for showing that people can be great caretakers if given the right kids to look after.  Still, there are a few flaws with the message.  It would be better if Lynn could just learn to get her rough nature under control.  Even if she is better at caring for rowdy kids, what will happen if she has kids who are well-behaved, and how can she expect to take good care of her own younger siblings?  At least she’s still shown to be good at heart as she works hard to get back the babysitting clients she lost. 
As it stands, this cartoon is a cute look at the older Loud sisters’ group dynamic, as well as Lynn’s character, but the concerning moments and confusing messages are hard to ignore.

B-


The Spies Who Loved Me


Most fans of this show know that the Casagrandes are set to get their own spinoff.  I, for one, think is a great way to make use of the concept of Ronnie Anne moving in with this big a family while leaving the Louds to their own lives.  For that, one can look at this cartoon as a test to see how well the Casagrandes work in starring roles without the Louds paying a visit. 
They all get a chance to demonstrate their roles as caretakers to Ronnie Anne when she sets off to go downtown by herself.  The grandparents hear this, and are instantly worried for her safety, and it’s not just them who are worried.  Word gets to the rest of the Casagrandes, and they’re just as concerned for Ronnie Anne.  All throughout though, they all act as the same paranoid, over-protective relative as they spy on everything Ronnie Anne does.  It’s great to see many distinct characters put their differences aside to look out for the member of their family who’s still quite new to their home. 
However, it can also get a little much that they freak out over every little thing Ronnie Anne does.  It’s like they think she’s completely incapable of doing anything, immediately assuming the worst of all activities no matter how innocent.  They don’t even notice her resourcefulness in situations like being surrounded by pigeons, being under a falling air conditioner, and a biker coming at her.  They only go with the grandma’s superstitions that the use of her good luck charms saved her which get more ridiculous the more they’re brought up.  In a smart move, Ronnie Anne does find out what they’re doing and is understandably frustrated.  That said, deliberately ignoring their call is kind of harsh. 
For how overbearing this overprotective angle can get, a few things help make it work.  As I already mentioned, their care and love for Ronnie Anne is undoubtable all throughout, and is beneficial to prove this family can carry a show well.  There’s also a great use of the dynamic character traits of each member of the Casagrande family.  We have Carl acting cool and macho while constantly getting reminded that he’s only 6.  He goes out to personally watch over Ronnie Anne with his older sister Carlota, who provides the best knowledge of how video phones work and is the most rational of them all.  CJ is an innocent child in a teen’s body through it all.  Aunt Frida is enjoyably overdramatic, and Uncle Carlos is enjoyably nerdy when it comes to knowledge of the city and other strategies. 
Speaking of other strategies, it makes for an interesting climax.  The family puts a tracker on Ronnie Anne to watch her in secret, but it gets stuck to a rat and they end up watching where it’s going.  They end up thinking she’s at an old decrepit high crime building, and when they go there, after some ridiculous suggestions they face a ton of rats.  Luckily, Ronnie Anne arrives in time and beats the rats back with a strong use of street smarts.  After that, there’s a satisfactory conclusion where after being so overprotective, the Casagrandes become rightfully trusting that Ronnie Anne can look out for herself.  It’s also nice that Ronnie Anne is considerate enough to check in on them more often.  That’s the best compromise any family can ask for when it comes to letting their kids be independent. 
Despite most of the characters going a little too far with overprotectiveness, the heart and vast variety of characters work in this cartoon’s appeal.  It generates enough hope that they are capable of holding a spinoff.
A-

The Ranking

1.      Head Poet’s Anxiety

2.      Roadie to Nowhere

3.      Shop Girl

4.      Breaking Dad

5.      Gown and Out

6.      Fandom Pains

7.      Insta-Gran

8.      Selfie Improvement

9.      Scales of Justice

10.  Net Gains

11.  Crimes of Fashion

12.  The Spies Who Loved Me

13.  No Place Like Homeschool

14.  The Mad Scientist

15.  City Slickers

16.  Missed Connection

17.  Fool Me Twice

18.  Deal Me Out

19.  Teachers’ Union

20.  Tripped!

21.  White Hare

22.  A Fridge Too Far

23.  Sitting Bull

24.  Pasture Bedtime

25.  Absent Minded

26.  What Wood Lincoln Do?

27.  Friendzy

28.  Pipe Dreams

29.  Be Stella My Heart

30.  Rita Her Rights

31.  Ruthless People

The next Loud House review features perhaps the best-staged story of the series in an endearing musical starring the one and only Luna Loud.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Lion 4: Alternate Ending" 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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