The Write Stuff / Racing Hearts (The Loud House Season 3 Episode 24) - 'Toon Reviews 30

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The Write Stuff

It’s surprising how many times this season has delved into the creative process and discussed what makes successful art.  Being passionate for art myself, you can imagine how much I get into cartoons on this subject.  For this one, it looks into how to make compelling writing even if it tends to go against the guidelines a bit.  In addition, it also is a great starring role for Mom playing to the strengths of her character and giving her something interesting to do especially compared to her last starring role. 

Her passion for writing was introduced way back in the Season 1 cartoon “A Novel Idea” where she was revealed to be working on a novel.  Her work on it wasn’t exactly recurring since we saw little to none of it in Season 2.  In this season, Mom’s novel has come up rather frequently playing to the strength of utilizing continuity more.  Now Mom is taking a different direction to breaking into the writing field which also has the benefit of being supportive of one of her kids.  Lucy has signed up for a writing club which is fitting for her given her love of poetry.  However, it’s run by the authoritative Principal Huggins who puts no emphasis on being creative and spends entire sessions teaching kids how to follow the rules.  When it becomes enough to make Lucy consider dropping out of the club, Mom decides to show off what creative writing is all about by taking over the writing club herself.  Principal Huggins’ performance review practically opens the possibility right up. 

Right away, there’s no denying that Mom has the writing club under control more than Principal Huggins ever did.  In addition, her tips on writing have a lot of believable weight to them.  They mostly consist of taking the kids on field trips to observe things like the convenience store, a petting zoo, and interviewing people at the nursing home.  Random as these trips may seem, there’s creative truth to them, meaning that great ideas can come from practically anywhere.  It’s a productive way to make the club actually exciting for Lucy and the rest of the writing club who now consider it fun thanks to Mom. 

However, in the name of not making things too easy, Principal Huggins finds out about what Mom’s doing and makes her follow the rules or else she’ll lose her job.  This results in the writing club becoming just as boring as it was before Mom took over.  Admirably, Mom doesn’t give into these standards and sees them for how boring and lacking in creativity they are and sticks to what she believes in.  When the moment is right, she and the kids sneak out to express their creativity at a local coffee shop where everyone’s writing is met with great acclaim.  Although Principal Huggins finds out that the club snuck out, seeing the good that came from Mom running the writing club makes him see the good of having a little fun. 

I will say that while a compromise is a nice and appropriate conclusion, it doesn’t work that well. Mom’s customs seemed more in the right and Principal Huggins’ customs brought little to no good.  At best, they lay down the basic fundamentals which is important, but it’s clear the club already knew them.  At least they try to implement them in a fun way as we end with Mom skywriting adjourns the kids think of. 

As creative process cartoons go, this is easily another strong one for showing how to come up with great ideas and doing justice for the featured characters.

A

Racing Hearts

Continuing the trend of the last few cartoons of this season fleshing out side characters who have only had brief appearances prior, this one has been a long time coming. It was a big reveal that Luna has a crush on another girl named Sam bringing a cute way to represent those in the LGBT community.  Not only that, but it adds an interesting layer to Luna who’s already a great character in her own right.  It’s no surprise that many fans would want to see this relationship at play, and that’s where this cartoon comes in. 

It takes place against a fun backdrop of the entire town taking part in a scavenger hunt where they’re teamed up with different people and assigned to do different activities.  To Luna’s luck, she’s partnered with Sam, and is making sure everything goes smoothly, getting welcome couple support from her two older siblings all the way.  One big thing Luna expects from her and Sam together is to have a lot in common and this scavenger hunt offers many things for them to do together.  During the hunt though, that doesn’t turn out to be the case.  Sometimes they come to an activity Sam’s into like farming and rock-climbing which Luna can’t get into.  Other times the opposite is the case where they do something that Luna enjoys like laser tag and oddly enough dancing which Sam fumbles through.  As they put it, certain activities aren’t really their thing putting a believable challenge to them working as a couple.  That said, this point comes across as very repetitive where hijinks ensue whenever one girl is unable to perform an activity and says that activity is not really her thing.  Personally, I think it could have been more effective if they thought of different ways of saying given activities aren’t their thing or just have it go without saying. 

Fortunately, what pulls the story through is Luna and Sam’s undeniable chemistry.  It shows that they want the two of them to work well together as they never get annoyed by how much the other messes up activities.  Even when Sam hits Luna with a laser or Luna constantly spits something at Sam, they still wish to stick together.  There’s also a good attempt to make the best of the activities and try to find appeal in certain activities.  Then you have certain ways that make their true feelings for each other slightly more explicit than average, showing evolution in how couples in this community are portrayed.  At one point, they refer to their time together as dates and when too many things go wrong, they lament that they might not be perfect for each other like they wanted.  It’s much more meaningful when Sam starts feeling bad about this too. 

In an interesting twist, the way Luna and Sam finally do bond is when they both find something they can’t do.  The last challenge has them bake an apple pie and the result is them getting into a mess which they can only laugh over.  The last scene of them brings a healthy dose of heart to their relationship when they decide that they can work together by discovering new things to bond over.  After all, being together is the most important thing about their bond when all is said and done, and the hug they share proves it.  That said, you have to wonder why neither mentions their mutual interest in music, though it’s not enough to devalue their chemistry. 

Along with an interesting setting and various cameos enhancing this date, this may not be perfect, but it’s one of this show’s most endearing stories.

A

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.  Game Boys

37.  Pasture Bedtime

38.  Absent Minded

39.  What Wood Lincoln Do?

40.  Jeers for Fears

41.  Friendzy

42.  Pipe Dreams

43.  Be Stella My Heart

44.  Rita Her Rights

45.  Ruthless People

 

The next Loud House review covers Luan finding love, while Lincoln is sore that Clyde would rather hang out with someone other than him.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews takes us "Back to the Kindergarten" in 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.