Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Plaza Film Festival - (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 2 Episode 3) - 'Toon Reviews 40

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Plaza Film Festival


This show is not just about nonstop action.  It’s also a gathering of a huge menagerie of characters with their own unique powers at one plaza.  This comes with the prospect of interesting social events like film festivals.  Out of this cartoon centering on such an activity is a beneficial lesson on what comes from making such an art form.  


With a film festival at the plaza coming up soon, K.O., Rad, and Enid are hard at work on their entry, a standard action saga with all the expected tropes.  You got dramatic narration, incessant explosions, surprise reveals, the works.  At best it’s a decent continuation of their video making skills, but they believe it will achieve great acclaim at the film festival.  Later on, the Boxmore robots show up, boasting that they have the true award-worthy film.  Winning this festival will be huge for them because the award is made of plutonium, an explosive substance needed to blow up the plaza.  K.O., Rad, and Enid aren’t too worried about this though, confident that no film will be better than theirs.  

Soon, the festival arrives and through the event, there’s a very creative take on the idea of film criticism.  First there are the negative comments that are portrayed by huge bricks that crush the people who made the films.  It’s a great visual interpretation of how criticism of any kind can really bring filmmakers down.  K.O., Rad, and Enid go really overboard with their use of negative criticism on other films.  Some of them are documentaries of personal experiences, while others are avant-garde or cover unique genres like silent films.  Still, the three main heroes always seem to have a reason to call the film lackluster, resulting in a brick crushing the other filmmakers and their pride.  Their own pride, however, is crushed to the fullest extent when their film is bombarded with negative criticisms that leave them under an absolute mountain of bricks.  


If that’s not enough, when the Boxmore robots’ film is up, which consists of nothing but parodies of famous existing film scenes, it’s met with praise.  Contrasting the bricks, this is a great visualization of what praise can do to filmmakers, as the positive comments are portrayed as clouds that lift them up high.  It seems that this was part of their evil plan by making a film with the most crowd-pleasing tropes, and it’s working.  That said, it turns out to be another example of the outside world acting dense.  They may enjoy the film, but don’t they realize that they’re helping the bad guys?  

Out of this setup though is a great way of dealing with criticism.  K.O., Rad, and Enid decide to not let the negative comments crush them, but instead learn from them and construct themselves better.  They get rid of all the bricks, except for those of irrational criticisms, and do what they can to stop the Boxmore robots from blowing up the plaza.  They fail to do that, but it still works as a comedic ending.  

Plus, the very idea of handling negative criticism by learning from it is a clever and inspiring message to come out of this filmmaking cartoon.  It’s overall a fun show that provides benefits for those aspiring to enter the arts.

A

Season 2 Rankings

1.      Lord Cowboy Darrell

2.      Seasons Change

3.      Plaza Film Festival


Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where K.O., Rad, and Enid find they need help from other heroes at the plaza to learn teamwork.

If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.


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