Carl
It’s not unusual for a story with a simple premise and at times an even simpler title to have a deeper meaning and heavier atmosphere. That’s the best way to describe this cartoon that starts out as a harmless adventure, but then doesn’t hesitate to catch the audience off guard with its plot points.
It’s still uneasy to shake off the idea that K.O.’s father is Professor Venomous, but for how genuine he sounded in getting rid of Shadowy Figure, K.O.’s open to bond with him. This has even gotten to the point where he’d rather hang out with Professor Venomous than his hero friends who already get along well with him. That said, I don’t really get how Professor Venomous saying he’ll get rid of Shadowy Figure translates that he’s already done it now as K.O. suggests. A few red flags begin raising the moment K.O. shows up to see Professor Venomous. He seems happy to see his son, but there’s always an air of phoniness, like he’s just putting on a pleasing act to hide his true intentions. True, he goes along with granting K.O. with his recreation of a megafootball game featuring the Boxmore robots, but it doesn’t leave K.O. very impressed.
What does get K.O.’s attention is a special experiment Professor Venomous has been working on. It’s a harmless looking goo creature K.O. affectionately names Carl. Despite Carl’s cuteness, K.O. discovers that it’s made from the same goo of the traumatizing trap Professor Venomous caught him and his friends in a while back. This makes K.O. suspicious of his trust in Professor Venomous, and it only grows when Carl becomes monstrous and runs rampant. If that’s not enough, Professor Venomous constantly tries to get K.O. to unleash his dark turbonic power to stop Carl, and even makes Carl stronger. While the T.K.O. form could be helpful, K.O. still refuses to let him rise and go full villain. That said, by calling Rad and Enid for help, he shows great resourcefulness by observing the situation, and forming a plan for them all to beat Carl together.
So that one problem is solved quickly, but that’s not all as first seen with K.O. still at a conflict with his father. When offered to go back with Rad and Enid, he chooses to stay with Professor Venomous. Even so, K.O. claims that Professor Venomous seemed to intentionally plan Carl’s rampage while Professor Venomous tensely tells K.O. he never forced him to do anything. This enough to finally convince K.O. to leave, but the damage is done.
He feels bad for trusting Professor Venomous would solve his problems and feels more helpless than ever, especially with no one around to comfort him. For that, he’s a sitting duck for T.K.O. to seize opportunity and break out of the subconscious into the mind, no doubt angered over being banished back there. Berating K.O. for trusting adults, something he was always against, T.K.O. forces K.O. into the subconscious while he takes over. If that’s not enough, Professor Venomous reveals that he has a turbonic form too. He claims that it’s because he and Shadowy Figure reached a compromise, but there’s a suggestion that Shadowy Figure actually took full control from Professor Venomous. As T.K.O. is convinced that he’s meant to be a villain and teams up with the newly formed Shadowy Venomous, the dangers of his power are bigger than ever. That said, the extent of this moments effects may seem a little much as the following cartoons will show.
Nevertheless, it’s a solid storytelling direction of this cartoon to
seamlessly go from fun and innocent to dark and impactful.
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. Dark Plaza
7. GarQuest
8. Dendy’s Power
9. Crossover Nexus
10. Lord Cowboy Darrell
11. Bittersweet Rivals
12. Beach Episode
13. Red Action to the Future
14. My Fair Carol
15. K.O.’s Health Week
16. Are You Ready for Some Megafootball?!
17. Boxman Crashes
18. Wisdom Strength and Charisma
19. Gar Trains Punching Judy
20. I Am Jethro
21. Mystery Sleepover
22. Super Black Friday
23. Point to the Plaza
24. Project Ray Way
25. Special Delivery
26. Seasons Change
27. The So-Bad-Ical
28. Monster Party
29. Sidekick Scouts
30. Whacky Jaxxyz
31. Rad’s Alien Sickness
32. Plaza Film Festival
33. OK A.U.! Alternate Universe
34. Let’s Watch the Boxmore Show
35. Be a Team
36. Plaza Alone
37. Soda Genie
Season 3
Ranking
1. Big Reveal
2. Let’s Get Shadowy
3. T.K.O. Rules
4. K.O. vs Fink
5. Whatever Happened to Rippy Roo?
6. Red Action 3: Grudgement Day
7. Carl
8. Chip’s Damage
9. The K.O. Trap
10. We Are Heroes
11. Let’s Meet Sonic
12. You’re a Good Friend K.O.
13. Radical Rescue
14. Planet X
15. Deep Space Vacation
16. K.O., Rad, and Enid!
The next OK K.O. review shows the emotional toll of T.K.O.'s takeover, and everyone too upset and hopeless to even try to stop him.
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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