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Sitting
Bull
There are quite a few cartoons focusing on the younger Loud
sisters as a group, but they only make up half of the girls in the family. You really have to wonder what the older Loud
sisters as a group have to offer. That’s
where an interesting point for this cartoon comes in.
Lori, Leni, Luna, and Luan are revealed to
have a babysitting business which really suits their status in such a big
family. Being the oldest inevitably
means frequently looking after their many younger siblings, so why not expand
that to other young kids? Then you have
the next oldest Loud in line for babysitting, Lynn. It’s no secret that she’s highly aggressive
and competitive when it comes to her love for sports, or as the show puts it,
she’s not the caring nurturing type.
Looking back at her past roles which include one of the show’s worst works and her roughhousing of the younger Louds here, it seems like she’s not
fit for babysitting. She also
disturbingly doesn’t take the legit criticism well either. She may be next in line, but for how
unapologetically rough she is, she clearly has a long way to go to before being
trusted with babysitting.
The older
sisters give in though, and Lynn gets a chance at joining the business by
looking after kids the other sisters are too booked to take on themselves. However, Lynn’s aggression leaves significant
marks of concern by the time her session is through. Through ignoring the kids’ complaints and
requests for what they want to do, Lynn keeps putting them up for physical
activity they’re not cut out for.
They’re criticized for not wrestling like she does, injure themselves
from weight-lifting, eat raw eggs, and are traumatized by Lynn’s sports injury
story. It’s at this point where Lynn
seems more like a person who should not be anywhere near a young child showing
more care in athleticism than the well-being of youths. It would be better if the other older sisters
taught her how to care for little kids if she really wants to be a babysitter,
but that’s never the case. Instead, Lynn
proves to be more difficult to deal with as she takes over the other sisters’
clients, and while we don’t see what she does, she clearly still did not do a
good job. All these clients drop the
Louds as babysitters, thus hurting their business.
Now forced against Lynn, the other older
sisters fight back by assigning her a family of rowdy quintuplets. From their horrific experiences of caring for
them and all five kids ganging up on Lynn when she arrives at their home, she
seems set up for some heavy karma.
Eventually though, the other older sisters feel bad for doing this to
Lynn, maturely understanding that for all her faults, she never means to be
bad. As it turns out, when they set out
to rescue Lynn, she’s got the quintuplets under control, her aggression being
the only thing they resonate with.
As a
conclusion, it has merit for showing that people can be great caretakers if
given the right kids to look after.
Still, there are a few flaws with the message. It would be better if Lynn could just learn
to get her rough nature under control.
Even if she is better at caring for rowdy kids, what will happen if she
has kids who are well-behaved, and how can she expect to take good care of her
own younger siblings? At least she’s
still shown to be good at heart as she works hard to get back the babysitting
clients she lost.
As it stands, this
cartoon is a cute look at the older Loud sisters’ group dynamic, as well as
Lynn’s character, but the concerning moments and confusing messages are hard to
ignore.
B-
The Spies
Who Loved Me
Most fans of this show know that the Casagrandes are set to
get their own spinoff. I, for one, think
is a great way to make use of the concept of Ronnie Anne moving in with this
big a family while leaving the Louds to their own lives. For that, one can look at
this cartoon as a test to see how well the Casagrandes work in starring
roles without the Louds paying a visit.
They all get a chance to
demonstrate their roles as caretakers to Ronnie Anne when she sets off to go
downtown by herself. The grandparents hear
this, and are instantly worried for her safety, and it’s not just them who are
worried. Word gets to the rest of the
Casagrandes, and they’re just as concerned for Ronnie Anne. All throughout though, they all act as the same
paranoid, over-protective relative as they spy on everything Ronnie Anne
does. It’s great to see many distinct
characters put their differences aside to look out for the member of their
family who’s still quite new to their home.
However, it can also get a little much that they freak out over every
little thing Ronnie Anne does. It’s like
they think she’s completely incapable of doing anything, immediately assuming
the worst of all activities no matter how innocent. They don’t even notice her resourcefulness in
situations like being surrounded by pigeons, being under a falling air
conditioner, and a biker coming at her.
They only go with the grandma’s superstitions that the use of her good
luck charms saved her which get more ridiculous the more they’re brought up. In a smart move, Ronnie Anne
does find out what they’re doing and is understandably frustrated. That said, deliberately ignoring their call
is kind of harsh.
For how overbearing
this overprotective angle can get, a few things help make it work. As I already mentioned, their care and love
for Ronnie Anne is undoubtable all throughout, and is beneficial to prove this
family can carry a show well. There’s
also a great use of the dynamic character traits of each member of the
Casagrande family. We have Carl acting
cool and macho while constantly getting reminded that he’s only 6. He goes out to personally watch over Ronnie
Anne with his older sister Carlota, who provides the best knowledge of how
video phones work and is the most rational of them all. CJ is an innocent child in a teen’s body
through it all. Aunt Frida is enjoyably
overdramatic, and Uncle Carlos is enjoyably nerdy when it comes to knowledge of
the city and other strategies.
Speaking
of other strategies, it makes for an interesting climax. The family puts a
tracker on Ronnie Anne to watch her in secret, but it gets stuck to a rat and
they end up watching where it’s going.
They end up thinking she’s at an old decrepit high crime building, and
when they go there, after some ridiculous suggestions they face a ton of
rats. Luckily, Ronnie Anne arrives in
time and beats the rats back with a strong use of street smarts. After that, there’s a satisfactory conclusion
where after being so overprotective, the Casagrandes become rightfully trusting
that Ronnie Anne can look out for herself.
It’s also nice that Ronnie Anne is considerate enough to check in on
them more often. That’s the best
compromise any family can ask for when it comes to letting their kids be
independent.
Despite most of the characters
going a little too far with overprotectiveness, the heart and vast variety of
characters work in this cartoon’s appeal.
It generates enough hope that they are capable of holding a spinoff.
A-
The Ranking
1. Head Poet’s Anxiety
2. Roadie to Nowhere
3. Shop Girl
4. Breaking Dad
5. Gown and Out
6. Fandom Pains
7. Insta-Gran
8. Selfie Improvement
9. Scales of Justice
10. Net Gains
11. Crimes of Fashion
12. The Spies Who Loved Me
13. No Place Like Homeschool
14. The Mad Scientist
15. City Slickers
16. Missed Connection
17. Fool Me Twice
18. Deal Me Out
19. Teachers’ Union
20. Tripped!
21. White Hare
22. A Fridge Too Far
23. Sitting Bull
24. Pasture Bedtime
25. Absent Minded
26. What Wood Lincoln Do?
27. Friendzy
28. Pipe Dreams
29. Be Stella My Heart
30. Rita Her Rights
31. Ruthless People
The next Loud House review features perhaps the best-staged story of the series in an endearing musical starring the one and only Luna Loud.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Lion 4: Alternate Ending" from Steven Universe.
