Monday, November 23, 2020

Carl - (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 3 Episode 16) - 'Toon Reviews 40

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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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