Sunday, November 8, 2020

Whatever Happened to Rippy Roo? - (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 3 Episode 7) - 'Toon Reviews 40

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Whatever Happened to Rippy Roo?

When you know that a show is on its last season, some of the most satisfying plots it can have are those that answer previously unknown questions.  Sometimes, they can even introduce characters who were mentioned or shown in flashbacks a lot, but never had a big role in the main timeline.  Throughout the series, there have been incorporations of several members of P.O.I.N.T. showcasing where they are now.  An exception to the rule has been a personal friend of Carol’s, a small aqua babbling kangaroo-like creature called Rippy Roo.  Enter this final season to take advantage of this and offer all the background on this little guy necessary.  

It begins when a simple showing of his Pow Card collection brings Rippy Roo to the attention of K.O., who says she’s the only P.O.I.N.T. member he knows nothing about.  Then, almost as if this instance was a foreshadowing sign, after Carol comes to pick him up, they both happen to come across Rippy Roo, now wearing glasses.  There’s no shortage of endearment to her and Carol reuniting for sure, and she takes a good liking to Carol’s son too.  

From there, the cartoon explores newly revealed background on Rippy Roo.  One of them is lore-based involving her pouch.  It’s funny enough that it holds a big variety of items, but the big one for this story is one of P.O.I.N.T.’s biggest foes, and one that was seen once before, a mecha-maw.  It grabs K.O.’s binder of Pow Cards, prompting him to go into Rippy Roo’s pouch to get it back.  Inside is a space-like dimension of any object imaginable floating around, making for a sense of wonder appearing in the background as K.O. pursues what’s his.  Regarding the binder though, questions are raised over how he could think that a three-ring system was enough protection or how it got so revolting.  

Anyhow, the bigger thing to take from Rippy Roo isn’t big on action, but does say a lot on who she is as a character.  While K.O. is in her pouch, she and Carol have an intimate conversation at the local coffee shop.  They talk about where they’ve been since P.O.I.N.T., what’s become of the other members, and how nice it is to be back together.  As a cute touch, there’s a good distinction of character through the way both character communicate with Carol’s audible English, and the sound of Rippy’s babbling.  The cartoon is also one step ahead with Carol always able to translate what Rippy is saying.  All of this nicely captures the feel of reunions, and also doesn’t shy away from their more dramatic sides.  

Carol is vocal about how affected she was by Rippy suddenly disappearing.  After what became of the rest of P.O.I.N.T., she needed a friend like Rippy to confide in, and she wasn’t there.  Adding depth to her character, Rippy emotionally admits that her path of focusing on her studies and getting a PHD was to help find Carol’s old lover Laserblast.  She’s even broken that her efforts seemed to be in vain.  As the great person she is, Carol understands where Rippy has come from and is appreciative of her making the effort.  That’s true friendship right there no doubt, and her studies even prove effective when K.O. returns with the mecha-maw.  Being linguistic, she translates what the mecha-maw says, uncovers why it took the Pow Cards, and gets them back.  

So an old friendship is rekindled and a new one is made in the end.  It would be great is both Rippy and the mecha-maw showed up more after this, but that’s no deal breaker.  Through the creative atmosphere of the series and likable characters, this cartoon offers the best introduction to familiar or previously mentioned characters one could ask for.

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.      T.K.O. Rules

2.      K.O. vs Fink

3.      Whatever Happened to Rippy Roo?

4.      Chip’s Damage

5.      The K.O. Trap

6.      We Are Heroes

7.      K.O., Rad, and Enid!

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where we officially meet Rad's family on his home Planet X.

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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