The Tide Mice (Hilda Season 1 Episode 8) - 'Toon Reviews 26

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The Tide Mice

Raising stakes is a great way to make an animated work an unforgettable experience.  It gives a variety of feels that use heavy and life-threatening moments to make happier moments meaningful.  To do it well, I believe that one must have it naturally build up through a character doing something seemingly innocent only to realize the truth of actions later.  Not to mention, it gives a major edge through showing what happens when morals aren’t followed.  It’s for these reasons why this episode is especially strong. 

Hilda, a well-known loyal friend to those she knows, innocently wants to help them achieve their dreams.  David is talented at singing, but every time he tries out for the Sparrow Scouts chorus group, the Warblers, something happens to embarrass himself and ruin his audition.  In addition, Hilda’s mother, Johana, can’t get a big break as a graphic designer in Trolberg and has to take up menial work at a hardware show.  Both cases feature believable goals that seem unattainable, so Hilda has a believable cause to take action. 

By chance, the local library has a vast reference section, and one of the books contains a section on what sounds like the perfect way for Hilda to help her friend and mother.  There’s a simple, yet creatively structured spell involving offering their items to a tide, saying a chant, and getting a mouse to bring them good luck.  Both David and Johana finding success in their respective goals thanks to the mice brings a suggestion that Hilda brought the right solution.  Subsequent montages of things going great because of their successes further suggest this. 

However, since all this happens in the first half of the episode and that Hilda getting that book was quick to get the attention of that mysterious librarian, you feel there’s a catch.  It’s soon discovered when Frida apparently notices something about David.  It seems Hilda was never around to see him, or her mother for that matter, acting weird with glowing eyes and other anomalies.  This is all an after effect of the tide mice spell where at the end of 30 days, Hilda will possess the souls of those she offered the mice to.  Hilda didn’t know this because she didn’t bother to check the suggested footnote in the book she read. 

It’s at this point where the stakes are raised, and the story is not so innocent.  Hilda, as an adventurer always keen to discover, was in too much of a rush to get all the facts.  Now she’s made herself a witch, and the lives of two good people are at stake.  It’s by far one of the biggest scopes her adventures have had.  There is an antidote to the spell that Hilda only has one night to enact.  During a Warblers concert where David steals the show, Hilda has to break the act and hurry to get him and Johana to the tide to lose their mice and reobtain their souls.  There’s a scramble to get the mice that cause a panic followed by a climactic drive as they head to the tide pool as Hilda starts absorbing the souls.  It’s very suspenseful that they all have to rush to a designated place while the victims are losing their life forces. 

They get to where they need to be, and all is well with the right steps, but the brink of death for those involved is seen as so major, it cannot be brushed off afterwards.  To balance things out, it’s nice that Hilda’s intentions are understood, and it feels like she’s learned not to overlook important details again.  I imagine anyone watching will see the good reasons of adhering to certain policies since this lesson has near-death involved. 

This episode is one of the works that defines this series as a modern animated achievement.  The bravery of the story through its willingness to get dark is a testament to its genuine sense of adventure and appeal to all ages.

A+

The Ranking

1. The Nightmare Spirit
2. The Tide Mice
3. The Bird Parade
4. The Midnight Giant
5. The Hidden People
6. The Troll Rock
7. The Lost Clan
8. The Sparrow Scouts

The next Hilda review tests Hilda's friendships with a messy room and the presence of a ghost.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the DuckTales episode, "Once Upon a Dime."

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

The Lost Clan (Hilda Season 1 Episode 7) - 'Toon Reviews 26

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 Lost Clan

The concept of elves is interesting, but also a tad overly complex.  It’s creative that people have to sign paperwork to see them. However, they often bring up the details of paperwork so much it doesn’t fit the optimistic fantasy tone of the series.  At least the details are explained through a cute supporting character like Alfur.  This adventure develops elf culture, and by extension the lore of the series, but the aforementioned complexities and other issues don’t make it the most investing watch. 

It all begins with Hilda, Frida, and David going for a Sparrow Scout badge on picking plants.  Initially picking up weeds, David recalls a rare flower near a place where he heard ghosts.  Hilda recognizes these “ghosts” as elves which neither Frida nor David can see without signing the proper contracts.  Like the clan of elves in the series premiere, this clan attacks the larger people for intruding and stepping on their houses.  It’s somewhat humorous that they do so with small weapons that are more of a nuisance than an immediate threat, and charge in on rabbits.  Still, they show they mean business when they capture David. 

Their friend in trouble, Hilda and Frida learn about the situation from Alfur.  While the backstory of the clan he shares has some complex details, the point is still easy to get.  His own clan and the hidden clan formed a real estate contract about what to do about a plot of land that would become the present elf village.  The hidden clan isn’t a part of it because they enraged the king by not showing enough signatures.  The section of the plot they would have gotten was later named “no elf’s land” just to mark their shame.  This is very harsh, but Alfur charmingly states that the rules are much fairer now.  This issue can be easily fixed since the lost clan is found and someone from there can sign the needed signature.  However, the hidden clan is too enraged by the past to do anything with paperwork.  Their feelings are a bit justified, but with things improving and promise for a better life in front of them, there’s no real reason to not play along. 

To be fair, if not for this direction, we wouldn’t get creative additions to this world as Hilda, Frida, and Alfur set off to find a loophole in the contract.  Hilda finds one saying that contracts will be null and void if burned by a lindworm.  It’s said that lindworms are too rare, but it’s hard to believe because they find out where one lives with a quick trip to the library and get there with an easily summoned water spirit.  Nevertheless, it’s a nice creative occurrence when they do meet the spirit, as well as the lindworm itself. 

Its debut appearance is handled cleverly looking like part of a garden before catching the audience by surprise.  Also, while Hilda and the others plan to have it unknowingly burn the contract, it backfires when she wakes up enraged of being used in her sleep. However, they make good use of the weeds by exchanging them for the burn.  The lindworm itself is also an entertaining character with an understandable frustration of people using her services and being easily swayed by plants. 

Thanks to this creature, the hidden elf clan is now free to own its section. However, in a believable turn of events, they’re so comfortable in where they settled that they don’t want no elf's land anymore.  This can make their problems with the elf culture unwarranted, but they do let David go and seem to be on better terms with Alfur’s clan anyway, so it’s all good.  This episode isn’t perfect with a few complexities, irrational moments, and confusing lore. Ultimately though, it’s successful through the undeniably strong creativity and character moments.

A-

The Ranking

1. The Nightmare Spirit
2. The Bird Parade
3. The Midnight Giant
4. The Hidden People
5. The Troll Rock
6. The Lost Clan
7. The Sparrow Scouts

The next Hilda review covers a supernatural endeavor where Hilda makes her friends dreams come true with a frightening cost.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews, you'll meet "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. McDuck" in DuckTales.

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

The Nightmare Spirit (Hilda Season 1 Episode 6) - 'Toon Reviews 26

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 Nightmare Spirit

To me, animation, a medium where anything can be drawn out, goes well with dreams or pictures in one’s head where anything goes.  This concept works in this episode’s favor, and through developing characters in the process, it all works well. 

By now, it’s clear that Hilda’s relationships are the heart of the show, and bond with David and Frida is at its most endearing here.  David, who’s easily frightened, has a problem of dealing with nightmares every single night.  The opening features one of a crazy adventure of getting lost in a sewer and attacked by rats.  This is a big reasons he blame Hilda for his nightmares.  This may be harsh judgement, but given how much of an outlier Hilda is to the group, it makes sense that her adventurousness can be problematic. 

Still, that part of Hilda helps her plan to cure David’s nightmares.  She leads David and Frida to where an all-knowing being called the rat king is spotted.  Following an eerily familiar incident with sewer tunnels, the rat king is revealed to be made of innumerable rats talking in unison.  This imaginative being is productive in Hilda’s cause as she exchanges one of her secrets for a reveal of who’s been giving David nightmares.  The answer validates Hilda’s constant concerns about a teenage girl she was suspicious of.  When she and Frida catch her near David’s while he has another nightmare, they follow her to a campsite. There, she tells other girls about his nightmares, giving a strange green glow in the process. 

The next day, with the help of a mysterious caped librarian who somehow knows what book they need, the kids learn that girl is a marra.  That is, a creature who haunts rooms every night to continuously give people bad dreams.  All the pieces picked up in the episode build up to a huge climax where Hilda sets out to stop the marra’s torment over David.  Through switching bedrooms with him behind the adults’ backs and applying what she knows about marras, Hilda successfully catches the main one.  A deal is made to have the marra try to give Hilda, a usually brave child, a nightmare, and if Hilda doesn’t wake up, David will be spared. 

The ensuing nightmare brings an interesting idea to light.  Hilda’s nightmares start out frightening with spiders, giants, and other supernatural creatures, but given her knack for adventures, she’s unmoved by all this.  Then you consider earlier scenes like being quick to brush off bike-riding, and her uneasiness while riding Frida’s bike as well as what the secret she gave the rat king was.  Not to mention the marra knows the rat king. 

Hilda’s biggest fear turns out to be something as simple as being unable to ride a bike. She suffers through a nightmare where she loses her friends and the earth crumbles because of this.  It says a lot that her biggest fear is something so seemingly insignificant.  That’s so true to life.  Eventually when the room switch is discovered, David returns and feels bad for Hilda’s cries of agony over the nightmare.  Deciding it’s not fair for her to suffer for him, David wakes Hilda out of her horrors, claiming he can deal with his own nightmares if she can.  With this bold move from a timid character, we get closure with David is no longer affected by the marra, and he and Frida better accept Hilda as she is. 

It goes without saying that the episode really makes the bond of these friends feel like something special.  Through unfolding in a story of impressive growth, imaginative plot points, and going all out with dreams, it’s easily one of the series’ grandest experiences.

A+

The Ranking

1. The Nightmare Spirit
2. The Bird Parade
3. The Midnight Giant
4. The Hidden People
5. The Troll Rock
6. The Sparrow Scouts

The next Hilda review centers around the elves' business with legal paperwork-related matters as Hilda and Frida have to settle a land matter with a lost clan of them to save David.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Season 3 premiere of Star vs the Forces of Evil.

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

The Troll Rock (Hilda Season 1 Episode 5) - 'Toon Reviews 26

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 Troll Rock

A strong sign that a show has a lot of effort to it is how its seemingly small scenes have bigger meaning later.  The last episode featured David show fondness of a small interesting looking rock, and its last scene revealed it to move around.  It was staged as a cute sight gag to show David getting easily distracted.  With this episode, there’s much more weight to that little scene as shown at the start with a troll frantically looking for something in the area where David found that rock.  Tensions grow when that troll gets into Trolberg. 

Then there’s the main plot as Hilda attends parent-teacher night at her new school.  While she and her mother think she’s adjusted well to school, there’s an all-too believable counterargument to that belief.  Although Hilda hasn’t noticed this, she’s been disruptive in class asking off-topic questions, pointing out flaws in teachings, and giving rambles about subjects even after class.  According to her friends, the teacher, Ms. Hallgrim, is seriously considering transferring her to a special needs class due to this.  Such a drastic move makes Hilda seem challenged, when in reality, her behavior should be expected from her upbringing.  With Ms. Hallgrim being overly strict and closed-minded, what Hilda’s faced with feels right at home with any kid with a disability like autism regarding school.  There’s nothing really wrong with their approach; they just do things differently.  That said, Ms. Hallgrim immediately blaming Hilda for problems during parent-teacher night is pretty harsh. 

Speaking of problems, Hilda’s unique approach makes itself known when she notices something off about one of the rocks in David’s rock collection.  In addition to looking peculiar, it’s also grown somewhat since David found it and has come alive.  Hilda’s knowledge of such creatures leads her to see that the rock is actually a baby troll who stays dormant in daylight and grows in the dark.  However, only she, David, Frida, and Alfur are aware of it and try to keep it secret from everyone.  I understand it’s to not make Hilda look bad in front of Ms. Hallgrim, but there’s so much awkwardness that doesn’t help Hilda anyway.  She especially doesn’t help herself as she chases the troll through the classroom and the hallways making everyone really think she’s crazy.  It’s clear they probably would have been better off telling the truth of what’s going on.  At least in the gang’s pursuit of the troll, there’s nice compatibility from everyone and occasional nice sight gags. 

Eventually, Hilda is caught, and she and her mother are called in for a private talk with Ms. Hallgrim.  In a pleasing turn of events, instead of immediately buying into the teacher’s claims, Johana vouches in favor of her daughter.  Not only does this show she greatly understands Hilda and how she benefits from her new friends, but it’s a nice implication that even those in the spectrum deserve a chance.  Hilda also shows the benefits of her mannerisms when the baby troll is discovered and the larger troll from earlier breaks into the school.  She realizes the large troll was just looking for her baby, she returns him, and they leave the school in peace.  The greatest thing about this is that after all her strictness, Ms. Hallgrim does see merit in Hilda from this event, and they both seem to be on good terms in the end.  It would have been nice if other episodes after this one showed more of Hilda’s school life to prove this though. 

In spite of some potentially discomforting plot points, this episode is a great one making the most of little moments and strong character bonds.

A-

The Ranking

1. The Bird Parade
2. The Midnight Giant
3. The Hidden People
4. The Troll Rock
5. The Sparrow Scouts

The next Hilda review is an interesting one of how people can get nightmares of the most unlikely things.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews there's noting to fear from a review of "Nothing to Fear" from DuckTales.

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