Tuesday, June 1, 2021

The Troll Circle - (Hilda Season 2 Episode 1) - 'Toon Reviews 46

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After almost two years of hiatus, one of the most beloved animated Netflix series is finally back for new adventures, and this blog is the place to check out reviews of them:

 

Hilda (Season 2)


Basic Premise

In this modern age were streaming services are rising in prominence, Hilda has quickly become a true animated mainstay.  Becoming a huge topic of discussion across social media and winning numerous awards, it’s easy to see that it’s left a huge impact.  As my reviews of the first season show, I can understand why the show has such a big following.  There’s endless imagination to the premise of adventures in a world inhabited by mystical creatures for sure.  However, having them all center on the life of an endearing young girl brings an undeniable charm to whatever unfolds.  Each adventure from the season that came before has its own appeal with all the essential elements in place, and you’re always left feeling good when it ends.  For that, the promise of more of the same is all that’s needed to get the audience excited.

Now of all the hiatuses for shows that I have experienced, Hilda has had one of the absolute longest.  While most shows I watch have been gone from many months to a year without new content, this show has not put out any new content for more than two years.  For some people, this would be a sure sign of people losing interest and moving onto something else.  Since I personally never get like that with hiatuses, no matter how long they are, this never happened with me.  Plus, the long gap between seasons does show that a lot of care has been put into the series to make it the best it can be.  I can tell you from experience that the best art comes from people spending a lot of time on it without rushing.  Considering that one of the most appealing things about the show is its visual style that differs from the norm, that’s a clear sign that more time would be required to make it look great.  Having seen the second season, this also applies to the storytelling aspect.  The adventures themselves not only up themselves with imagination, but also with where it takes the characters and the drama and emotions that unfold.  Some of them even go beyond the average runtime, demonstrating a stronger magnitude to the material.  All of this and more only leaves stronger impressions of something big and special, two years in the making.

Also, this review set will start a new trend for this blog.  When it comes to ranking the episodes, they used to just apply to certain seasons.  This time though, the rankings at the end of every review will cover the entire series by taking the previous season's ranking and applying episode titles from the current one.  To make it more evenly spread, the titles will be color-coded so you know what episode comes from what season.  In the case of Hilda, Season 1 titles will be colored red and new Season 2 titles will be colored blue.  This will only apply to shows that are a few seasons in and any show I start reviewing fresh on this blog while shows that are several seasons in will be left alone. Arranging those amounts of titles will be very difficult and time consuming.

With all of this said, let’s waste no more time and get on with a new season’s worth of adventures for Hilda and her crew.  After all, “such is the life of an adventurer.”

Now on with the reviews:

The Troll Circle

The best way to start a new season is to briefly reintroduce the major hooks of the series and then incorporate them into an entirely new story.  With this in mind, it’s fortunate to see that this is exactly the case with this episode kicking off Season 2.  

As it begins, it feels like the show never left as we watch Hilda take part in one of her many adventures into what lies beyond her suburban home in Trolberg.  Through helping an elf in distress, her excursions lead her on an exciting chase that ends up in a section of the wilderness inhabited by trolls.  They may seem more like weirdly shaped rocks, but this only shows an upholding of the show’s own creative lore with them only being active at night.  As trolls are seen as dangerous where she lives, Hilda is driven to keep a lot of her adventures secret.  This in turn kicks off a notable reoccurrence for the season where she completely fabricates stories in front of her mother Johanna, who wonders what she does all day.  Why Hilda goes this far is odd since Johanna has been nothing but supportive of her adventures, though a believable reason is shown through this episode’s main focus.  

After returning home, Hilda is visited by Trolberg safety officer, Erik Ahlberg, who informs her that she’s won an essay contest, so she gets to join him on safety patrol.  This essay and its details of a troll encounter, the same one from the Season 1 premiere, is said to be kept from Johanna to not worry her so much, explaining the lies.  

In any case, Hilda seems to have it made the next day when she sets off on the patrol.  She gets to fly in a dirigible, gets great views of the city, and Erik seems fun and charismatic enough to follow along with having solid chemistry with his deputy, Gerta.  Then Hilda starts noticing hidden, largely unpleasant, layers to Erik due to her own knowledge on how trolls work.  The safety patrol consists of going around to various citizens of the town informing them of Erik’s protocols that sound very questionable.  The biggest one involves the use of bells that are supposed to fend trolls off.  From Hilda’s perspective, the way for the audience to side with her views on the matter is to look back on what was revealed about trolls in the show’s early days.  Trolls, in fact, get very upset at the sound of bells, and being a lover of the wilderness, Hilda sympathizes with their feelings, though she isn’t upfront about it.  

Then after finding the same trolls Hilda uncovered the previous day, Erik’s bell plan is put into action just as the sun goes down and the trolls come alive.  There’s an intense confrontation between them and Hilda, Erik, and Gerta, and it’s astonishing how much fast-paced action there is to this encounter.  It’s Hilda’s wilderness intuition and memories of the area that save everyone, but then there’s a twist to everything.  Erik knew that trolls don’t take kindly to bells, and is issuing the protocols to create dangers for him to look like a big hero to the town.  Instantly seeing the shadiness and dishonesty to the plan, Hilda leaves the scene in disgust, and the episode ends with a reflection on Erik’s disrespect and egotism.  Mostly keeping her findings secret though only enhances one of this season’s underlying conflicts while working alongside another.  She now has a rival to her views on innocent wilderness creatures with lots of information she feels the need to hide.  

All of this comes together in a worthy premiere to reintroduce old elements and start all new ones.

A

Series Ranking

1.      The House in the Woods

2.      The Nightmare Spirit

3.      The Tide Mice

4.      The Bird Parade

5.      The Midnight Giant

6.      The Troll Circle

7.      The Hidden People

8.      The Storm

9.      The Black Hound

10.  The Troll Rock

11.  The Lost Clan

12.  The Sparrow Scouts

13.  The Nisse

14.  The Ghost

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Hilda and the Woodman go on a pirate adventure full of ghosts, family drama, and discarded cod sandwiches.

If you would like to check out other Hilda reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them. 

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