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Stage
Plight
Romance continues to be a main topic as we get a cartoon
developing Luan’s formerly one-off love interest Benny. However, unlike “Racing Hearts” where the
main couple was shown to be taking its time, major milestones come pretty fast here. The way to them also gets pretty
awkward.
Luan discovers Benny’s taking
part in a production of Romeo and Juliet
and believes that it’s a great place to get closer to him. In the process there are two interesting
elements to her plan. One is her constant
interactions with her ventriloquist dummy Mr. Coconuts. Usually, he’s just a prop enhancing her
puns. Here, he’s like an actual
character voicing Luan’s conscious feelings.
It’s not the first place where inner thoughts have been vocalized like this,
but it stands out for expanding on what’s known about the character. The other key appeal factor occurs within
rehearsals held by Mrs. Bernardo. Her
creative ways of entering the scene and intentionally overdramatic performances
are great fun and full of theatrical spirit.
It suits the setting well and makes for a passionate character fun to
follow.
These two factors are the
biggest standout points since Luan’s awkwardness when trying to get what she’s
after gets overbearing. Sometimes she
comes off as pushy when interacting with other people. When she and Benny are initially playing
members of different families, Luan has so many kids change families for
requests she most likely can’t make happen.
Not only does this absurdly not raise any questions, but there’s really
no reason to do all this. They’re only
enemy families in the play, not real life.
They’re part of the same cast, so they can still talk to each other.
Then thanks to incompetent actors and Mrs.
Bernardo thinking they have good chemistry from simple conversations, Luan and
Benny become the play’s new stars. The
thing is, even though she’s in love with Benny, Luan is far too nervous for all
the kissing scenes in the play. She
keeps telling herself that she has to try and pull it off, but never really
does. The rest of the cartoon is a
collection of scenes where rehearsals are cut short to allow Luan to back out
of kissing. Sometimes the cancellations
are by chance, but most of them are feeble excuses that are obviously ruses yet
people believe them anyway. She even
opts to change the tone of the play by texting kissy emojis instead of actually
kissing Benny and still no one sees something strange about this erratic
change.
That’s at least the case at
first, and Benny calls Luan out on her behavior which is welcome. It also leads to a nice scene where Luan
tells the truth about her anxieties, and Benny, with his own ventriloquist
dummy, shows he understands. This is
where the rushed part occurs when this one conversation leads to a first
kiss. It’s nice that they’re opening up,
but kissing for real and not in the play doesn’t have the believable weight
since they only start being a couple.
This isn’t the strongest direction, but it makes for a good finish with
the play going great and a nice joke with the dummies talking on their
own which freaks out Lola.
While this cartoon leans towards a
little too awkward and some things aren’t thought out too well, the things that
do work make for a nice and fun performance.
B-
Antiqued Off
Lincoln’s material has been very generic and petty at this
point, especially considering how strong cartoons about his sisters have
been. It brings the impression that
maybe him being the star was hurting the show more than helping it. This continues to be the case in this cartoon
where he has trouble accepting that his best friend Clyde is spending time with
another guy.
Since the point that he
has more friends than just Clyde is clearer than ever with the cast becoming
broader in focus, this shouldn’t be a huge deal. Not only that, but the catalyst for the
conflict comes with unfortunate implications.
Clyde is into shopping for antiques, but Lincoln finds it boring, and he
drops out of doing that when Clyde invites him for a round of antiquing. Instead, Clyde takes Zach along with him and
the two of them have a great time, observing details about the stuff they
purchase the next day. Now I consider it
a nice move to have Zach be the one to take an interest in this activity. He’s always been the friend of Lincoln’s
who’s never had much of anything to his personality other than a radical
design. He’s just a pint-sized kid who
hangs out with Lincoln and nothing more.
Granted being interested in antiques isn’t much of a trait either, it’s
just an interest. At the same time, at
least it’s something.
Through it all
though, while there is promise in Clyde and Zach’s team up when it comes to
antiquing, the focus is on Lincoln and his jealousy over them. It’s not exactly easy to sympathize with him
since it’s painfully obvious that there’s nothing wrong with friends having
other people to do certain things with.
He just comes off as petty over the way things are, making a huge deal
out of an issue that really isn’t that bad and is perfectly acceptable.
Giving Lincoln credit, he does realize that
he has other friends he can hang out with, such as going to a magic show he and
Clyde apparently enjoy. However, when he
calls them all up, they say they can’t go meaning he has to go alone, though
you can easily tell they’re making things up and aren’t interested. Usually, the truth wouldn’t be known and life
would go on, but they just happen to be at the convenience store as
Lincoln’s there getting snacks for the show.
They have no choice but to fess up for lying, but they also tell him
that Clyde actually doesn’t like the magic show. Considering that a flashback to it features
him getting harmed in all the tricks, this opinion makes so much sense. The only reason he goes along with Lincoln to
the shows is to make him happy.
Then
comes the resolution which makes the whole thing problematic. Lincoln believes that the best way to
maintain friendships is to go along with all activities they like even if some
aren’t for him. This can be taken as him
making up for the harm he caused Clyde, but the idea of friends doing
everything together rubs me the wrong way.
Friends, even the best of them, don’t have to like everything and should
be allowed to make their own choices. Going along with things that don’t suit
them doesn’t sound healthy. The message
could work if Lincoln went for the joy of being with Clyde or if he tried
enjoying antiquing instead of letting himself be bored. Instead, it’s just a simple way of saying
friends must always do everything together no matter what which isn’t the
strongest path in life to take.
Unfolding in a very simple story with little to worry about, the morals make for a mixed experience.
There’s some endearment in the interactions, but they don’t make up for
what amounts to a weak watch.
C-
The Ranking
1. Really Loud Music
2. Head Poet’s Anxiety
3. Roadie to Nowhere
4. Tea Tale Heart
5. Shop Girl
6. Breaking Dad
7. Gown and Out
8. Home of the Fave
9. The Write Stuff
10. Fandom Pains
11. Insta-Gran
12. Racing Hearts
13. Driving Ambition
14. Selfie Improvement
15. Scales of Justice
16. Middle Men
17. Net Gains
18. Crimes of Fashion
19. Everybody Loves Leni
20. The Spies Who Loved Me
21. No Place Like Homeschool
22. Hero Today, Gone Tomorrow
23. House of Lies
24. The Mad Scientist
25. City Slickers
26. Missed Connection
27. Fool Me Twice
28. Deal Me Out
29. Teachers’ Union
30. Tripped!
31. White Hare
32. A Fridge Too Far
33. The Loudest Thanksgiving
34. Sitting Bull
35. Predict Ability
36. Stage Plight
37. Game Boys
38. Pasture Bedtime
39. Absent Minded
40. What Wood Lincoln Do?
41. Jeers for Fears
42. Friendzy
43. Pipe Dreams
44. Antiqued Off
45. Be Stella My Heart
46. Rita Her Rights
47. Ruthless People
The last review for this Loud House season starts a new beginning for the Loud family as Dad opens his own restaurant.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews, Steven Universe invites you to a "Kevin Party."
I guess you could say that Lincoln is a vanilla protagonist, where he has a much simpler personality in order to bounce off of more colorful characters. It's not a bad idea in principle, though when you put that character in the spotlight, it can be somewhat problematic since it could result in making them not be able to hold their own in an episode, or if their flaws are given more focus, and make them seem too unlikable.
ReplyDeleteYeah. That's a good way of putting it.
Delete