Beach Episode
A beach is one of the most charming places to spend time at, to me anyway. The tropical climate, the texture of the sand, the cool wetness of the waves, and the possibilities of many activities enhance its appeal. For that, even though this cartoon doesn’t offer world building or plot development, it’s beneficial enough to see many great characters enjoying the beach.
It seems that the entire plaza just decides to take the day off so they can all enjoy the beach. They even have their own hub modeled like their usual home with Gar’s Cabana as opposed to Gar’s Bodega. It isn’t long before everyone, including K.O. and his co-workers, have enough time to actually enjoy the beach, and it’s all so pleasing to see. Their excitement of running out on the sand, gags and stunts pulled while playing in the water, and still frames to highlight any other activity greatly reflects the atmosphere.
It’s enough of a threat when the Boxmore robots show up to spoil everyone’s fun planning to turn the beach into a trash dump. Even lifeguards, portrayed by Mr. Gar and Carol, can’t do anything to stop them due to the capabilities of kicking sand in the face. To further immerse in the beach setting, K.O. and his friends challenge the Boxmore robots to beach challenges to determine its fate. The challenges play to the appeal of the setting while also fitting the characteristics of the featured players. A volleyball game is made exciting by the use of powers to provide enough force to score points. Limbo offers creative struggles for each character to go down low enough mostly through their design. Even K.O. ends up losing by a hair. Only Shannon finds success in the challenge by only having her head roll under.
Before the final challenge can take place, the show’s action aesthetic takes shape within the beach. Everyone is under attack by a monstrous wave marked by three glaring watery snake heads. Interestingly enough, it has some background from the likes of Raymond who once tried surfing such a wave and has dubbed it Wavezilla. If that’s not enough, the story goes in a surprising direction with K.O. suggesting there’s only one chance they have to stop Wavezilla from destroying the beach. He and his friends have to work with their enemies, the Boxmore robots, to stop it. There’s a lot of enjoyment in the surfing scenes that follow, but when most of them try fighting Wavezilla, they don’t stand a chance. In a clever twist calling back to a seemingly innocent scene from earlier, K.O. figures out exactly why Wavezilla is rampaging. The water in his sandcastle moat, which has a face, is actually Wavezilla’s son. When K.O. offers the son back, Wavezilla ceases its attack, and everyone, including the Boxmore robots is impressed with such resourcefulness. The shot of K.O. shaking hands with his enemies is very telling of there being hope for better selves in these enemy robots. Even though these incarnations of them turn to dust from so much exposure to ocean air, the idea still persists.
For now,
the last scene of a beach party is the best way to close this beach day. It’s truly amazing how strong a cartoon can be
just from watching great characters in a great setting.
A+
Season 2
Rankings
1. Your World is an Illusion
2. T.K.O.’s House
3. Final Exams
4. CarolQuest
5. All in the Villainy
6. GarQuest
7. Dendy’s Power
8. Crossover Nexus
9. Lord Cowboy Darrell
10. Bittersweet Rivals
11. Beach Episode
12. Red Action to the Future
13. My Fair Carol
14. Are You Ready for Some Megafootball?!
15. Boxman Crashes
16. Wisdom Strength and Charisma
17. Gar Trains Punching Judy
18. I Am Jethro
19. Mystery Sleepover
20. Super Black Friday
21. Point to the Plaza
22. Project Ray Way
23. Special Delivery
24. Seasons Change
25. The So-Bad-Ical
26. Monster Party
27. Sidekick Scouts
28. Whacky Jaxxyz
29. Plaza Film Festival
30. Let’s Watch the Boxmore Show
31. Be a Team
32. Plaza Alone
33. Soda Genie
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