Plaza Alone
I see this cartoon as one of those instances where the crew decides to stretch the limits of their imagination by throwing in whatever bizarre idea they can think of. The final result features that concept for better or worse.
At the start, the story feels like something completely simple and innocent with K.O. waking up to his birthday, his 6th-11th one just so you know. His big birthday wish is to celebrate it with his good friends Rad and Enid. Though this is clearly a major shock to both of them who had no idea it was his birthday, they nicely decide to make him in charge of what they do for the day. For K.O., the best thing to do with his friends is spend time at Lakewood Plaza Turbo even if they already spend every day there.
However, when they arrive on this day, which happens to be their day off, no one’s around at the plaza. Though every place and shop in the center being deserted disturbs K.O. at first, Rad and Enid are quick to point out a major benefit to all this. With no one around, they’re free to have all the fun they want around the plaza, making it much more exciting, even for young K.O. Whether they’re sledding down mountains of hair, playing with equipment of the Fitness Dojo, or making sculptures out of mountains of food, the following montage is fun to see. It perfectly captures the benefits of being alone in a public area with no one to stop you.
On the subject of being alone, that leads into the real cause for this cartoon when K.O., Rad, and Enid find themselves in the break room and discover its disadvantages. It becomes terrifying to K.O. that only he and his friends are the only ones around and is quick to blame himself and his birthday wish for it all. For the next several minutes, everyone is in a total daze and the cartoon starts going all out with being really weird. There’s debate over whether K.O.’s birthday wish really did make everyone disappear complete with radical designs and talks in a groan-like tone. Then things get even weirder with Rad becoming a hot dog that K.O. eats, K.O. turning into a horse because of this, and Enid admonishing K.O. when turned into the moon.
It’s all certainly imaginative, but kind of goes too far with randomness. Also with the creepy vibes, it’s hard to get invested in the creative visuals. It makes me wish that they would just consider that everyone’s at home because the plaza is closed for the day. With that in mind, there’s no reason to go this far with weirdness. Of course, another possibility is that everyone’s hiding to give K.O. a surprise party, and that’s exactly what happens considering it is his birthday. At least the conclusion is a nice one and everyone laughing at the bodega employees’ freak-outs feels much more funny than mean from an audience perspective.
Still, it’s hard to take in how creepy the random weird moments end up
feeling. Is it really that bad or
somehow impressive? Taking up a lot of
the cartoon doesn’t help much either. There’s enough charm to be able to sit
through this, but at the end, don’t be surprised if you wonder what the point
of it all was.
B-
Season 2
Rankings
1. Your World is an Illusion
2. T.K.O.’s House
3. Final Exams
4. CarolQuest
5. Dendy’s Power
6. Crossover Nexus
7. Lord Cowboy Darrell
8. Bittersweet Rivals
9. Red Action to the Future
10. My Fair Carol
11. Are You Ready for Some Megafootball?!
12. Boxman Crashes
13. Wisdom Strength and Charisma
14. Mystery Sleepover
15. Super Black Friday
16. Point to the Plaza
17. Special Delivery
18. Seasons Change
19. The So-Bad-Ical
20. Monster Party
21. Plaza Film Festival
22. Let’s Watch the Boxmore Show
23. Be a Team
24. Plaza Alone
25. Soda Genie
The next OK K.O. review gives an in-depth look at the new management of Boxmore.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews, we officially wrap up the Steven Universe saga with the final two episodes of its epilogue series.
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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