Sunday, October 11, 2020

Gar Trains Punching Judy - (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 2 Episode 32) - 'Toon Reviews 40

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Gar Trains Punching Judy

It’s often surprising when it comes to finding side heroes to make a cartoon out of, but the results are almost always exceptional.  This is the case with this cartoon that not only helps Mr. Gar make peace with his past, but also benefit an interesting hero called Punching Judy.  

She’s often referred to as K.O.’s babysitter, and was even the first hero outside of the main cast seen on the show.  Only here is where her looking after K.O. is seen at the forefront of a cartoon as well as where there’s true insight into her background and personality.  There’s a fighting tournament coming up, and she feels she needs the proper training to really be ready for it in spite of being apparently skilled a lot already.  

As she insists on getting someone more experienced, K.O. decides to call upon Mr. Gar for that.  An interesting layer to this is that Punching Judy recognizes Mr. Gar as his original hero persona, El-Bow.  She doesn’t hesitate to bring up all his accomplishments, but Mr. Gar is visibly disturbed of being reminded of that name.  After all, it was just one cartoon ago that showcases how he’s come to dread being El-Bow.  However, it’s Punching Judy’s background depth that gets him to look past all that.  She’s desperate to win this tournament because of family drama with her sister, Punching Trudy, who’s literally overpowered her in everything, even the most mundane things.  It can easily get bothersome as she never stops saying that Judy can’t get the best of Trudy.  

Now, Mr. Gar’s idea of training is very standard only relating to physical work.  Acts of punching, push-ups, weight-lifting and, poses in front of a sunset help Punching Judy for sure, but what she really wants is a pep talk.  It seems, though, that Mr. Gar is deliberately trying to avoid that, thus leaving her visibly nervous when the tournament does come.  That said, anxiety doesn’t hold Punching Judy back enough to keep her from advancing when fighting everyone else.  Only the presence of Punching Trudy is truly intimidating, down to the point where the tournament is stopped so they can work it out.  

Here, Mr. Gar finally admits that he too is in a lot of anxiety to give Punching Judy the pep talk she needs.  However, K.O. is given a chance to shine through with his strengths.  Through his childlike innocence, he performs his own montage for a special kind of training, emotional training.  It’s interestingly amusing to see things like talks on the couch, holding hands, and especially crying things out be set to such powerful music.  This small suggestion proves effective as Mr. Gar opens up to Punching Judy better than ever.  I will say though that out of all the failures that have held him back, it’s kind of shallow that he doesn’t mention his biggest drawback involving Laserblast.  Maybe it’s because it’s too morbid for Punching Judy to hear about, but it’s still not opening up as much as he can.  What is stated is extremely helpful to Punching Judy though.  She’s open to play true to her strengths based on her character design.  Being bigger with her legs than her fists, Judy uses that to her advantage against Trudy, and finally wins after being mercilessly upstaged so many times.  

Ultimately, Punching Judy gets her satisfying conclusion, and Mr. Gar has a stronger connection with his fellow heroes.  I wish him helping other heroes like this was seen more than this one cartoon because the results here are really worth checking out.

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.  Red Action to the Future

12.  My Fair Carol

13.  Are You Ready for Some Megafootball?!

14.  Boxman Crashes

15.  Wisdom Strength and Charisma

16.  Gar Trains Punching Judy

17.  I Am Jethro

18.  Mystery Sleepover

19.  Super Black Friday

20.  Point to the Plaza

21.  Project Ray Way

22.  Special Delivery

23.  Seasons Change

24.  The So-Bad-Ical

25.  Monster Party

26.  Sidekick Scouts

27.  Whacky Jaxxyz

28.  Plaza Film Festival

29.  Let’s Watch the Boxmore Show

30.  Be a Team

31.  Plaza Alone

32.  Soda Genie

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode, a beach episode.
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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