Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Stage Plight / Antiqued Off (The Loud House Season 3 Episode 25) - 'Toon Reviews 30

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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."
If you would like to check out other Loud House reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

2 comments:

  1. 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.

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