'Toon Reviews 13: The Loud House Season 2 Episode 16: Fool's Paradise/Job Insecurity

Fool’s Paradise

With this cartoon, it seems to suggest that every season is going to include a cartoon about April Fool’s Day considering that Season 1 gave us “April Fool’s Rules.”  That raises a lot of questions about the timeline of this show.  Will the kids continually age with every new April Fool’s Day cartoon?  Won’t Lori have to go to college during one in the following seasons?  Do these cartoons even have a way to logically fit in the timeline?  Questions aside, the appeal of this cartoon is that it takes all the interpretations of April Fool’s Day to the apocalypse from last season and further expands on them creating an unforgettable atmospheric experience filled with hilariously imagined pranks with the perfect Loud for the day, Luan, as the mastermind.  The rest of the family believes they’re finally able to catch a break from the annual prank onslaught this year when they find a magazine ad for a clown camp they send Luan to.  However, just when they think they’re safe, those thoughts are dashed when their car breaks down and they have to spend the night at a crummy motel.  Once at the motel, a series of antics lead them to evidence that Luan set up pranks all over the facility, and it’s only a matter of time before one gets set off for each of the siblings.  The whole family is forced to make a run for it without any knowledge of when the next prank will strike and their fright is creatively staged as running from a strange monstrous force.  It also helps that what they get up to is set against a dark and threatening setting like an old motel at night.  When the pranks do get set off, they really up the creativity in execution from the last time.  There’s collapsing balconies into a big gelatin mold, trap doors that launch people up to a fly paper-laden sign, fake rooms filled with nasty obstacles like a skunk and rhubarb pies (which Lana’s allergic to), Lily getting replaced with a monkey that attacks Lynn, and a ton of bleach covering a certain sister who loves darkness.  Through it all, there’s a huge revealing twist to this prank barrage that Lincoln is quick to discover.  It turns out that Dad was in on Luan’s plans the whole time to get out of her April Fool’s Day pranks for a decade, and the explanations for how everything from the pranks to the clown camp ad that started it all are highly clever.  The best part about this reveal is that Dad feels genuine regret for helping Luan with her prankish tortures on his family, right down to questioning what kind of father he is.  Fortunately, he gets a big moment of redemption when he and Lincoln form a special prank to get back at Luan, and it’s a huge success as Luan gets flung into the air, stuck on that fly paper sign, lands in dirty laundry, and gets stuck in the sky.  This is sure to satisfy anyone who felt that her simply getting a pie in the face last April Fool’s Day wasn’t enough for her.  However, in fitting with the horror genre of the cartoon, the ending isn’t completely happy as the whole family is left running scared of the prospect of next April Fool’s Day which Luan promises to be even worse.  What she does then actually turns out to be a pretty nasty set of pranks, but that will be discussed in my eventual reviews of Season 3.  For this April Fool’s Day cartoon though, it’s easily one of the show’s most creatively structured cartoons aided by the genuine suspense, fun and insightful character moments, imaginative pranks, and some sense of victory from the victims. 10/10

Job Insecurity

If all the Loud siblings working as a team more often than in the first season wasn’t enough to prove how mature they’re becoming, perhaps this cartoon where they’re led to question how their actions impact their dad’s life can help.  With so many cartoons where the kids frequently run wild for their own amusement without much concern for others, it’s great that they turn out so thoughtful here.  They find out that Dad no longer works at his old IT job and has instead taken a dishwasher position, a job he doesn’t like, at a local fusion restaurant.  It’s here where the kids become more considerate of their actions to others, getting the idea that they got him fired from his IT job, namely for their hyperactive antics at the latest Take Your Kids to Work Day (nice to know that his old job at least became more inclusive since Season 1).  Anyway, they take a generous route of finding Dad a new job and making sure he gets it.  There’s plenty of heart in how seriously the kids take finding a new job for sure, but there’s also some humorous bits like imagination spots of Dad doing random jobs and, after they find a new IT job and get someone to pose as Dad to make sure he gets it, teaching Mr. Grouse, someone with an old world mindset, what certain computer terms mean.  Speaking of Mr. Grouse, he’s fast becoming one of the best supporting characters.  He’s still a grump and typically does things for Dad’s famous lasagna, but this is where it starts feeling like he’s putting in some effort in a bargain through actively trying to understand computer terms and getting better as time goes on, and showing happiness for the kids when he gets the job in Dad’s place.  With the job secured, the kids let Dad know what they got for him, and it’s at this point that even if the kids meant well, there’s no shaking off that this is another misunderstanding plot.  They didn’t know that Dad lost his old job for three weeks and he never told them, then when they found him washing dishes, they went with the idea that it was their fault.  However, Dad tells them that he actively quit his IT job and became a dishwasher to train to be a chef at the same restaurant which is his dream job, tying into his frequently seen talent for cooking.  Anyway, since Dad shows no hesitation in telling the kids this despite having a reason not to tell them, that means nothing was stopping the kids from just asking him why he has the new job. Granted, their beliefs seemed believable from what they saw, at the time it looked like Dad didn’t want to talk about it, and we weren’t given a scene of the truth the kids didn’t know, so the plot could’ve been executed worse.  Plus, what the kids learn leads to a very impactful ending when they push for Dad to get his restaurant job back, regretting their actions again, Dad kindly makes them feel better, and circumstances lead to him not just being allowed to work at the restaurant again, but also become a chef right then and there.  It’s all one of the most pleasing and satisfying conclusions the show has turned out.  Overall, this cartoon stands as one of this season’s strongest.  It’s not just humorous in parts, but it’s also got legitimate heart through the character bonds, opening new chapters for characters’ lives, and especially presenting the Loud siblings at their most thoughtful and mature.  9.5/10

The Ranking

1. 11 Louds a Leapin’
2. L is for Love
3. Pulp Friction
4. Frog Wild
5. Party Down
6. Room with a Feud
7. Lock n Loud
8. Fool’s Paradise
9. Fed Up
10. Out of the Picture
11. Job Insecurity
12. Potty Mouth
13. The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos
14. Spell it Out
15. Baby Steps
16. Shell Shock
17. Suite and Sour
18. Back in Black
19. Patching Things Up
20. The Whole Picture
21. Back Out There
22. The Old and the Restless
23. Kick the Bucket List
24. Intern for the Worse
25. Cheater by the Dozen
26. Pets Peeved
27. Making the Grade
28. Vantastic Voyage
29. No Such Luck
30. Brawl in the Family

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode with "ARRGH! You For Real?" misunderstanding the appeal of fictional media, and Lori discovering what having your own place is really like in "Garage Banned."

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

'Toon Reviews 13: The Loud House Season 2 Episode 1: 11 Louds a Leapin'

Attention Loud Crowd! Starting today, we’re going to pay another visit to the house of the biggest family on Nickelodeon for another full season of reviews:

The Loud House (Season 2)

Basic Premise

Not long ago, Nickelodeon released what turned out to be their best show in a very long time, The Loud House.  The general idea of a show about the lives of a big family with one boy, Lincoln, and his 10 sisters, Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lucy, Lana, Lola, Lisa, and Lily, sounded appealing enough for an animated series. Their dynamic personalities working off each other, the relatable and down-to-earth stories, and the comic strip feel in the visuals made it something great.  After years of weak series that felt too gross, mean, and stupid, Nickelodeon finally had a show where the effort showed.  From quoting characters to staying up to date with when new cartoons would air, there’s something I found enticing to this show.

However, as the first season showed, despite being so well-made, The Loud House seemed to falter too much to be named as one of the best animated TV series ever.  While most of the cartoons had a lot of heart and good sense of character, others fell into the trap of the prior weaker Nickelodeon shows. There were more than a few cartoons fueled by mean moments, stupid moments, and characters acting like they were trying to make life for others difficult. Worst of all, some cartoons ended on a bad note despite all the hardships the characters were put through throughout the cartoon.  Given that things like these happened so frequently and weren’t once in a while deals, it just didn’t feel right to give it top 10 status.  The fact that it still had great material though gave a sign that the reason certain cartoons didn’t turn out right was because the show was trying to figure out what works. Any weak point could be brought under control with later seasons.  Speaking of other seasons, I’ve been waiting for just the right time to discuss the second season of this show. Now that it’s completely finished airing, the time to look into it has arrived.  So, will Season 2 really improve over Season 1, or is this show doomed to remain in the shadow of stronger animated works?  We’ll soon find out as we spend the next several blog posts looking into the cartoons and half-hour specials that compose the season.  Let’s enter the house of the Louds and off we go!

Now on with the reviews:

11 Louds a Leapin’

With a show like this that focuses on a big family, it’s only fitting for it to get a Christmas special sooner or later.  Not only is that the case for the season premiere, but it’s one of the best works this show has turned out. 
One of the biggest things there is to Christmas is how it brings family together to share in its spirit of generosity and goodwill to people. In the Loud family, there’s a lot of family members to get into the spirit.  Lola forces herself to be the sweetest little girl ever to appease Santa Clause while Lisa uses logic to shoot down all her beliefs in him. Lana happily tests reindeer traps. Luan frequently pops up to share one of her “12 Puns of Christmas.” Leni has a humorous running gag of making a dress out of random decorations Mom’s using. Luna struggles to write the perfect Christmas song which is constantly brought down by materialistic lyrics. Lori, in an interesting turn for the oldest Loud sibling, has a hard time keeping herself in check from opening presents, including a really big one, before the 25^th.  As to be expected from these characters, they all have their special entertaining quirks to reflect the diverse and versatile lifestyle of the Loud family. Working in the Christmas special makes it even better.  All these characters’ ways of celebrating the holiday are entertaining enough, but it’s great that the main plot brings them all together. 
It starts off simple with Lincoln losing his sled in crabby neighbor, Mr. Grouse’s yard, and he claims everything that lands on his property. This is especially bad because Christmas is when he shows the most disdain towards the Louds.  Of course, we get some comedic antics as Lincoln tries to retrieve his sled, but during that time, we uncover interesting information about Mr. Grouse.  He’s from a big family like the Louds, but can’t afford to be with them at Christmas, and being alone at that time of year is one of the saddest things ever (to me anyway). 
When Lincoln tells everyone what he found, what follows is one of the show’s biggest displays of family love.  His sisters pity Mr. Grouse and the whole family sets up a wondrous display of Christmas cheer for him.  It’s complete with a festive feast and décor set up in his house, a bus ticket as a gift to unite him with his family, and Luna’s song finally coming together to heartwarming effect. There's even something that reshapes the status quo of the series…

Mom and Dad’s faces are finally shown, and with a few exceptions, they remain shown.  As someone who liked their faces being hidden to keep the show from Lincoln and his sisters’ perspective, I consider this a welcome change of pace.  It overall felt pointless to keep hiding the faces since the faces of all the other adults were shown. Not to mention there were several times in Season 1 where they constantly teased us by showing their eyes and mouths but never both at the same time.  Plus, with Mr. Grouse getting a lot of focus and development here, Mom and Dad showing their faces opens up other characters the chance for story ideas centered on them. 
As for the special, what the Louds do for Mr. Grouse has enough Christmas spirit and family love to really make what we see a true modern holiday tradition in the spirit of the show.  Yes, the ending establishes that Mr. Grouse is still going to be cranky, but it’s not enough to dispel the genuine happiness and joy of the season from his moment with the Loud family. 
In the end, what’s here is successful Christmas material and one of the most amazing pieces of Loud House material. 10/10

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where things take an "Intern for the Worse" when an internship at Flip's Food and Fuel threatens to get in the way of Lincoln and Clyde's friendship and Pop-Pop gets some nice development for his character in "The Old and the Restless."

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

'Toon Reviews 4: The Loud House Season 1 Episode 25

The Price of Admission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s my personal belief that the scariest things in life exist in one’s imagination and they can’t help but see them as they go about their lives.  This concept is nicely personified in this cartoon where Lincoln sees a scary movie his parents didn’t want him to see, and he ends up seeing scary parts of the movie everywhere he goes afterwards.  All the moments of Lincoln’s paranoia work because they’re all self-inflicted meaning that Lincoln brought them on himself by seeing that movie.  Because of that, it’s easy to see the humorous side of all the little things around the Loud House that pose as something scary for Lincoln to see.  They include stepping on a doll with a damaged voice box that makes him think that someone’s out to get him, or seeing a bunch of whoopee cushions as his sisters’ colons, or misinterpreting what his neighbor, Mr. Grouse, is gardening.  There’s also a lot of nice scenes of Lincoln trying to keep himself awake at night which involve some nice interactions with his sisters, a humorous moment centering around Leni’s lack of intelligence in response to getting up to start the day when it’s late at night, and even a continuity nod of Lincoln and Bobby being friends.  It’s a very nice collection of scenes that uniquely demonstrate not just what we commonly experience when we’re afraid, but also how much strong relationships Lincoln has in life.  What’s more, everything’s tied together by a satisfying conclusion when, after Mom and Dad decide that he is ready to see that scary movie, and Lincoln confesses what he did and how seeing the movie got him so frightened.  The best part about it is that instead of getting mad and harshly punishing Lincoln for his actions, his parents understand how traumatized he is by the experience and respect his feelings.  This is then followed up with a moment that gives a rare message that sometimes, watching things meant for young children can give you relief from so much stress as interpreted with Lincoln and his parents instead going to see a movie starring a Barney parody, just what Lincoln really needs after what he went through.   On the whole, this is a fine and entertaining cartoon that shows us what it’s like to be afraid as well as prominently displaying the good side of Lincoln’s relationships with the people in his life. 9/10

One Flu Over the Loud House

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting sick is something no one enjoys, and while it’s always good to try and take care of those who are sick, most of the time, there’s no way to do that without getting sick ourselves.  Considering that the family in this show is so big, you can imagine how big of a deal someone getting sick is.  This cartoon takes that concept and really has fun with how it portrays it.  The moment one member of the Loud family gets sick, everyone else is doomed to catch the illness too.  This little moment is made a lot bigger in scale with everyone portraying it as a zombie apocalypse.  Those who are still healthy strive to escape to some place safe, with only water guns loaded with chicken soup to protect them.  In keeping true to the nature of spreading viruses, more family members end up catching it, and if you look at it as a zombie apocalypse, it’s clever and amusing to look at it like the survivors are dwindling.  Through it all though, one character stands out in this unique way of looking at the situation, and that is Leni.  As Lincoln and some of the other sisters treat the sick family members as zombies they should avoid at all costs, Leni shows off some immense levels of heart by wanting to help the sick.  While it is true that she’s not looking at the big picture that there’s really no way to help them without getting sick herself, it’s still incredibly sweet that she wants to show kindness to her family amidst the big escape out of the virus-infested house.  The cartoon then ends in a typical zombie apocalypse fashion where, despite the efforts of the remaining healthy family members and Leni’s kindness, the whole family ends up sick, though it’s great that they’re later nursed by Clyde who does have means to care for the sick without getting infected.  This cartoon’s biggest strength is how it makes a small part of life feel bigger than it is by offering a unique perspective of it.  As a result, it ends up being one of this show’s best displays of character moments, situational humor, and atmosphere crafting. 10/10

The Ranking

1.      For Bros About to Rock

2.      A Tattler’s Tale

3.      Undie Pressure

4.      Project Loud House

5.      One Flu Over the Loud House

6.      Funny Business

7.      Space Invader

8.      A Fair to Remember

9.      Driving Miss Hazy

10.  Left in the Dark

11.  Toads and Tiaras

12.  Picture Perfect

13.  Dance, Dance Resolution

14.  House Music

15.  Save the Date

16.  The Price of Admission

17.  Sleuth or Consequences

18.  Hand-Me-Downer

19.  No Guts No Glori

20.  Roughin’ It

21.  Attention Deficit

22.  Changing the Baby

23.  Along Came A Sister

24.  Snow Bored

25.  April Fools Rules

26.  A Novel Idea

27.  Sound of Silence

28.  Butterfly Effect

29.  A Tale of Two Tables

30.  Cereal Offender

31.  Cover Girls

32.  It’s A Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud House

33.  The Waiting Game

34.  Overnight Success

35.  Raw Deal

36.  In Tents Debate

37.  Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru

38.  Out on a Limo

39.  Linc or Swim

40.  The Sweet Spot

41.  Heavy Meddle

42.  Get the Message

43.  Come Sale Away

44.  Ties that Bind

45.  One of the Boys

46.  Making the Case

47.  Chore and Peace

48.  The Loudest Yard

49.  Two Boys and a Baby

50.  The Green House

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the season finale where Lincoln and his sisters crush on teacher figures in "Study Muffin," and the show's famed use of family love hits its peak in "Homespun."