OK Dendy! Let's Be K.O. (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 46) - 'Toon Reviews 19

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OK Dendy! Let’s Be K.O.

In most cartoons, K.O.’s best friend Dendy has starred alongside him or popped up randomly to advance the plot, but now she’s the star of one.  Through doing a simple task, she makes it stand out with her likable quirks and charm as a technical analytical genius. 

When K.O. realizes he’s scheduled to visit his grandma and can’t work, Dendy fills in for him.  Her interesting approach to what’s basically doing K.O.’s bodega work are shown through an analytical checklist of everything he does.  True, it brings some stalker implications, but given what’s known about Dendy, this reveal seems fitting. 

It’s also amusing to how strictly Dendy follows her data on K.O.’s routine.   There’s something funny about characters of certain personalities trying to perform traits they’re not accustomed to but can never fully step out of what suits them.  Dendy’s feeble attempts to mimic K.O.’s enthusiasm filtered by her intellectual tone have a charm that’s all hers.  It brings cuteness not often expected from a genius character.  Keeping what Dendy’s trying to do interesting, she breaks from the charade when it gets too uncomfortable or hard.  Instances include keeping her shoes on even though K.O. doesn’t wear them, and awesomely working her technical skills while cleaning the store. 

She may be posing as K.O., but you can’t deny it’s really Dendy.  This is especially true when she calls out an evil robot attack before anyone else.  The attack gives light to a robot frequently seen in the background at Boxmore, but has never been fully explored, named Ernesto. 

Since much of what he’s been seen doing was business work, the fight at first ties into that. Ernesto gets so tied up with reading flashcards of his entrance speech, Rad and Enid take him on without trouble.  It’s during this robot battle where we get a humorous jab at the need for family shows to have life lessons.  Dendy, still striving to be K.O. as much as possible, happens to list learning a life lesson after the section on the evil robot attack.  She responds by openly stating a lesson about the importance of being oneself.  This move plays with the life lesson convention through showing why they’re always saved for the end.  Ernesto becomes a much more brutal fighter because of what Dendy said.  It shows that the convention of lessons coming at the end exists so that no antagonist can take advice to heart and the story can safely end which is what happens with Ernesto. 

Dendy bluntly stating the lesson plays on how characters learning things often feel like they’re going through motions of a formula and don’t mean anything.  This contrasts greatly with how she’s able to help defeat Ernesto.  Through analyzing the fight, she herself genuinely learns to be herself by becoming K.O. in her own way instead of acting exactly like him.  Since her true personality was constantly shown in her few attempts, it’s a fitting lesson for the story. It's topped off with a nice display of her primary technical skills as she mans a K.O. hologram to defeat Ernesto. 

Despite one line suggesting Dendy fill in for K.O. every day from his close co-workers, this scene is just the perfect turning point for Dendy’s role in the cartoon. It builds up to the truly crowing moment of winning a fight all by herself.  It shows how capable she is of starring in a cartoon of her own as she subverts expectations and plays to her own strengths, making the experience adorable in a scientific way. 

A

The Ranking

1. Face Your Fears
2. Let’s Take a Moment
3. Mystery Science Fair 201X
4. You Have to Care
5. T.K.O.
6. Back in Red Action
7. No More Pow Cards
8. Glory Days
9. Legends of Mr. Gar
10. We’ve Got Pests
11. I Am Dendy
12. Let’s Have a Stakeout
13. You Get Me
14. Let’s Be Heroes
15. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
16. We Got Hacked
17. K.O.’s Video Channel
18. Jethro’s All Yours
19. Know Your Mom
20. Everybody Likes Rad?
21. OK Dendy! Let’s Be K.O.
22. Villains Night In
23. Lad & Logic
24. A Hero’s Fate
25. Plaza Prom
26. We’re Captured
27. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
28. Let’s Be Friends
29. We Messed Up
30. Parents Day
31. Plazalympics
32. Presenting Joe Cuppa
33. Sibling Rivalry
34. RMS and Brandon’s First Episode
35. Second First Date
36. Stop Attacking the Plaza
37. Just Be a Pebble
38. The Power is Yours
39. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
40. Let’s Watch the Pilot
41. Villains Night Out
42. You’re Level 100
43. You Are Rad
44. We’ve Got Fleas
45. Rad Likes Robots
46. One Last Score

The next OK K.O. review features a collection of Plaza Shorts.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Episode 43 of Animaniacs.

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

Lad & Logic (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 45) - 'Toon Reviews 19

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

Lad & Logic

Much like the last cartoon, this is another one about a side character.  The interesting thing about this one is that he’s fleshed out immensely despite how little he appears.  Mr. Logic is Lakewood Plaza Turbo’s robot barber programmed to provide logical solutions to all problems.  That’s basically all there is to him, so his backstory being out so interesting is impressive. 

It’s brought on by K.O. being more naïve than usual as he points out that Mr. Logic is a robot, and I can’t believe he couldn’t notice earlier.  It does have some interest to it when K.O. wonders if Mr. Logic was always good since all the robots he knows are evil.  From there, the cartoon is the life story Mr. Logic shares. 

He was the first robot created by Lord Boxman, back then called Lad Boxman, who wanted to create a logic-based machine to give him what he needed for the perfect evil schemes.  Speaking of Lad Boxman, his schemes were much more productive back then than they are now, mainly about attacking the top hero organization P.O.I.N.T.  Watching how Mr. Logic provided the main steps in Lad Boxman’s goals is interesting for how he’s not doing it to be evil. He was simply a machine programmed to be logical, and morality is really not a factor.  This is further shown during a montage where he created Boxmore with his creator and was unmoved by the villainy. 

Also worth noting is how much Lad Boxman valued Mr. Logic as a friend, making it shocking that he would later be so bothered by friendship.  At one point in the flashback where Lakewood Plaza Turbo was first being built across the way from Boxmore, Lad Boxman started throwing a fit over it existing. In other words, his hatred for it really does have no real weight behind it.  Mr. Logic even had good points that the existence of a shopping center for heroes could be good for Lad Boxman’s evil business, but Lad Boxman was too irrational to listen.  The points are lessened somewhat with Mr. Logic suggesting Lad Boxman solve his problem by destroying the plaza though.  Still, it’s nice that the story shows the meaning behind Lord Boxman’s business and goals, even if there technically is no meaning. 

Now, it would not be far-fetched to wonder how Mr. Logic became a barber out of being built to serve Lad Boxman.  Well, while approaching Mr. Gar, sporting really big hair and building the plaza at the time, to learn about him, Mr. Logic was goaded to cut his hair in a unique style.  Then Mr. Gar gave a passionate speech about businesses being used to create and how good it makes him feel.  This right here is the true beauty of creation, which can be inspirational for things like going into the arts.  This also helped Mr. Logic see what could come of using business to create instead of destroy, which of course Lad Boxman refused to see. 

Through it all, there’s something insightful about Lad Boxman from Mr. Logic’s confrontation with him.  He lives to destroy, but he created Mr. Logic and today makes his own robot children, so he does know of the logical choice of creating.  However, Lad Boxman irrationally disregarded his point and attacked the plaza.  Out of these actions though came Mr. Logic’s defining moment as a good guy as he helped Mr. Gar take out one of Lad Boxman’s huge robot junkfish.  He opened up his barber shop shortly after, and with this story in mind, it becomes clear that heroism truly can from even the smallest of actions. 

Ultimately, this flashback-centered cartoon shines for the interesting depths to the characters, main or supporting.  Not to mention there are clever ways the featured event fall into place and make for an insightful and inspirational watch.

A

The Ranking

1. Face Your Fears
2. Let’s Take a Moment
3. Mystery Science Fair 201X
4. You Have to Care
5. T.K.O.
6. Back in Red Action
7. No More Pow Cards
8. Glory Days
9. Legends of Mr. Gar
10. We’ve Got Pests
11. I Am Dendy
12. Let’s Have a Stakeout
13. You Get Me
14. Let’s Be Heroes
15. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
16. We Got Hacked
17. K.O.’s Video Channel
18. Jethro’s All Yours
19. Know Your Mom
20. Everybody Likes Rad?
21. Villains Night In
22. Lad & Logic
23. A Hero’s Fate
24. Plaza Prom
25. We’re Captured
26. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
27. Let’s Be Friends
28. We Messed Up
29. Parents Day
30. Plazalympics
31. Presenting Joe Cuppa
32. Sibling Rivalry
33. RMS and Brandon’s First Episode
34. Second First Date
35. Stop Attacking the Plaza
36. Just Be a Pebble
37. The Power is Yours
38. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
39. Let’s Watch the Pilot
40. Villains Night Out
41. You’re Level 100
42. You Are Rad
43. We’ve Got Fleas
44. Rad Likes Robots
45. One Last Score

The next OK K.O. review follows Dendy take on the ultimate task of impersonating K.O. for a whole day.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Animaniacs Episode 41.

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

'Toon Reviews 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 33: The Power is Yours

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

The Power is Yours

Back in the day, there was an animated series covering the importance of taking care of the environment called Captain Planet.  It was about a group of teens using various powers to summon an eco-friendly superhero to fight against threats to Earth.  There would also be a PSA on environmental topics afterwards.  I’ve never seen it, but from a few short clips, it seems decent aesthetic-wise with good intentions, but doesn’t feel like a must-watch show.  This cartoon pays tribute to this old show and makes a point that even long after the end of the show, environmental problems still persist even if some say they don't exist. 

The conflict gets going when one of the original Captain Planet villains, Dr. Blight, teams up with Lord Boxman showing interest in how much his company pollutes.  Since Lord Boxman needs money for Boxmore, he agrees to go through with his guest’s pollution plan.  Also, given that he never even noticed how much he pollutes like most people would, it’s humorous to see someone do it intentionally.  It’s especially funny when Dr. Blight plans to destroy the world, and Lord Boxman calls out the obvious hole in her plan that they, the bad guys, also live on the world.  She brushes the flacy off though. 

The pollution scenes from the excessive smog, hot temperatures in winter, and huge puddles from the melting ice caps work entertainment wise for exaggerating real problems.  However, it’s concerning that even though these problems are in front of everyone, except for K.O., this cartoon is another example of people being too dense about matters.  Out of this denseness though comes even more of a tribute to Captain Planet.  One of the original Planeteers, Kwame, shows up disturbed by the bad effects of climate change.  There’s also a clever allusion to how long the show has ended with the other Planeteers giving up on their quest.  This means new Planeteers exclusive to this show is formed via power rings Kwame saved.

Just like in the old show, they summon the titular Captain Planet.  From there, the cartoon essentially becomes a Captain Planet episode going beat-for-beat in solving environmental issues.  That said, Captain Planet does stand out in the show’s simple style and even having his own Pow card.  Captain Planet stops the pollution from spreading while making corny one liners.  When Lord Boxman steps in, he easily defeats Captain Planet through hitting him with enough pollution. The new Planeteers then have to take care of things on their own, which does present an added challenge when their usual tensions make it hard to do the job. 

There are unfortunate implications when they only stop fighting when K.O. uses his heart power, manipulating them to get along instead of them doing so on their own.  Then, through more identical mimics of the old show, the group uses realistic environmental solutions to bring Captain Planet back to finish the job.

After that is a very blunt PSA about how climate change still persists which is true, but doesn’t have much of an edge to make it fit in this show.  It does get interesting when the cartoon ends with a sudden shift to the original Captain Planet animation style. K.O. and his friends are more realistically drawn as they present alternate energy solutions which is honestly pretty cool to see. 

This cartoon may be a little too on the nose with its tribute, but it’s overall fun for it to portray a well-known environmental show in its style. I certainly can’t fault the realistic message it spreads, preachy as it may be at times.  It’s not the best thing from the show, but it lets its strengths combine to give it enough merit to check out.

B

The Ranking

1. Face Your Fears
2. You Have to Care
3. T.K.O.
4. No More Pow Cards
5. Legends of Mr. Gar
6. We’ve Got Pests
7. I Am Dendy
8. Let’s Have a Stakeout
9. You Get Me
10. Let’s Be Heroes
11. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
12. K.O.’s Video Channel
13. Jethro’s All Yours
14. Know Your Mom
15. Everybody Likes Rad?
16. A Hero’s Fate
17. Plaza Prom
18. We’re Captured
19. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
20. Let’s Be Friends
21. We Messed Up
22. Presenting Joe Cuppa
23. Sibling Rivalry
24. Second First Date
25. Stop Attacking the Plaza
26. Just Be a Pebble
27. The Power is Yours
28. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
29. You’re Level 100
30. You Are Rad
31. We’ve Got Fleas
32. Rad Likes Robots
33. One Last Score

The next OK K.O. review looks into the pasts of Carol and Mr. Gar when they were part of P.O.I.N.T. as Silver Spark and El-Bow.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Episode 27 of Animaniacs.

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