'Toon Reviews 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 19: Face Your Fears

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:

Face Your Fears

One of the best ways to utilize animation is to give creative interpretations of common virtues.  A big virtue explored in media is facing fears, and this cartoon has a very interesting way of showing it.  In the process it further develops characters and brings an imaginative environment. 

There’s an arcade game where heroes see how good they are at facing their fears. It reflects their status by adjusting the fear resistance on their Pow cards.  The game is a catalyst to the plot which reveals that for all his impressive heroics, Mr. Gar’s fear resistance is not very high. K.O., Rad, and Enid convince him to try the game out to update.  Hooking up to a virtual reality helmet and setting the level to Super Extra Hard, Mr. Gar ends up trapped within his biggest fears.  If that's not enough, the game can’t just be unplugged or he’ll go into a coma.  The best chance K.O. and the others have to help is to go into their boss’ psyche and face his fear for him.  This instance also gives Dendy a chance to shine through making a surprise entrance through the console, and hooking up extra helmets to make it happen. 

The creative aspect to the cartoon comes into full force from here when Rad and Enid get stuck while helping Mr. Gar face his fear. K.O. must help them all, with the challenges he has to face creatively staged as a video game map.  Going into the minds of his friends, there’s lots of potential for imaginative occurrences, for the mind is where literally anything can happen.  Also, everyone’s fears reveal a lot about the characters and their presentations shine with creativity.  Enid’s fear is a shrine of portraits from her “dorky” phases, showing that she’s self-conscious about her appearance as they proceed to attack K.O. when he calls them dorky.  The fear is conquered when K.O. says what’s good about all the phases, which feels like a logical thing for people who go through this fear in real life to do.  Rad’s fear is confusing at first as it leads K.O. and Enid into an enclosed area of Rad faces acting cool.  They have to point out what they already know about Rad, which makes the area an interesting way of showing that he’s acting cool to hide that he’s vulnerable and nice.  It takes getting emotional to get the Rad faces to break and cry K.O. and Enid to the exit.

 

Then comes the big challenge of facing Mr. Gar’s fear.  At first, it feels very standard, appearing to be a single person, a former hero named Laserblast.  It gives an opportunity for K.O. to show his biggest fear, by unleashing a terror from within to face Laserblast. It’s amazing that this kid is so resistant of such a fear.  As for Mr. Gar, his fear turns out to be more complicated than this.  He really cowers over the sight of Carol in her Silver Spark getup, berating him and attacking him with sandwich content.  It brings a lot of references to what we’ve learned so far, indicating that Mr. Gar went to P.O.I.N.T. with Carol and has something to do with that vague sandwich flashback.  These reveals bring bigger reasons why Mr. Gar is so nervous around Carol, as well as mystery about what she was so mad at him for.  K.O. faces the fear by showing the vision of Carol that he loves her, but Mr. Gar still shows growth from the experience through saying a normal sentence to her for once. This gesture means a lot more for happening outside the game. 

This leaves the cartoon as one of the most creatively staged with an interesting atmosphere and world’s to get through, and intriguing ways to conquer fears and develop characters.


A+

The Ranking

1. Face Your Fears
2. Legends of Mr. Gar
3. We’ve Got Pests
4. I Am Dendy
5. You Get Me
6. Let’s Be Heroes
7. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
8. Jethro’s All Yours
9. Know Your Mom
10. We’re Captured
11. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
12. Let’s Be Friends
13. We Messed Up
14. Presenting Joe Cuppa
15. Sibling Rivalry
16. Just Be a Pebble
17. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
18. You’re Level 100
19. You Are Rad

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Rad teaches about the importance of living for your art while experiencing the burden of typecasting.

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 8: I Am Dendy

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:

I Am Dendy

A character getting a best friend has potential to add endearment and bring about a new interesting dynamic.  This cartoon introduces us to a potential best friend for K.O., and a whole cartoon spent on them hanging out already feels great and interesting. 

Her name is Dendy, and while K.O. hasn’t known her prior to this cartoon, she falls into a surprisingly relatable category.  She’s not very social and mostly focuses on researching others behind their backs.  Even if not many kids know her personally, she’s still present and it’s always possible to learn about her if they get to know her.  That’s what happens with K.O. when Dendy plays to his desire to help people by asking him to help repair her special backpack she uses to put code on devices called a hackpack. 

Their search for the required parts takes them all around Lakewood Plaza Turbo.  In the process, K.O. and Dendy take part in various activities that strengthen their bond, from getting haircuts from Mr. Logic that give them brief stylized anime appearances, to going to the arcade, to simply playing tag in an ally where all the remains of robots are tossed.  There’s a range of feels from K.O. and Dendy’s time together.  K.O.’s innocence, friendliness, and sense of fun is expected, and Dendy has a lot of likability too.  Her technological knowhow has her point out where all the parts she needs are, and even when she ends up breaking things, she fixes them easily.  Also, while she speaks in a monotone, intellectual tone, Dendy comes off as very charming as it slowly becomes clear that she enjoys K.O.’s company, especially as they play tag.  That’s a nice thing to see from an intellectual who could easily just explain scientific information and nothing more. 

Then when K.O. and Dendy finally get to the alley to retrieve a glowing power orb called a glorb, the final component to fix Dendy’s hackpack, her true feelings for K.O. as a friend are put to the test when he’s eaten by a robot fish.  While K.O. goes about with fruitless attempts to punch his way out, Dendy sits on the sidelines adding to an extensive research file on K.O. showing how interested she is in one common kid who up until now she’s only watched but never gotten to know.  It does get concerning that K.O. remains trapped in the fish when it gets dark, and not only does Dendy become too engrossed in her research to help, but K.O.’s other known allies, including his loving mom, don’t come looking for him.  While the latter characters have little excuse, Dendy’s fixation on research is made better when she’s snapped back into her bonding with K.O. who mentions his Pow card collection while discussing his will. 

Akin to most budding friendships, this turns out to be a common interest that officially brings Dendy and K.O. together as friends.  As a result of their shared interest, Dendy reveals that her hackpack was never broken and uses it to rescue K.O.  This means that for all her interest in research, coding, and being technical, Dendy is fully established as a cute relatable kid just looking for a friend, and her adding her name to K.O.’s list of allies at the end brings great satisfaction that she found one. 

This cartoon is just a fun-loving boy, and a lonely intellectual girl hanging out together as they grow closer, but that’s all it needs to be great.

A

The Ranking

1. I Am Dendy
2. Let’s Be Heroes
3. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
4. Jethro’s All Yours
5. Let’s Be Friends
6. We Messed Up
7. Sibling Rivalry
8. You’re Level 100

The next OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes review is about Rad striving to prove that he knows everything about everything when the bodega employees are assigned to get something from a labyrinth of a storage room.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews from Star vs. the Forces of Evil is a review of "Starstruck" and "Camping Trip."

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 6: You're Level 100

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:

You’re Level 100

Some of the most compelling stories have the main character work very hard to achieve greatness making for a rewarding journey.  It would be a pretty weak move for characters to achieve great strength and status early on or through doing nothing.  It’s for these reasons that this cartoon isn’t all that compelling. 

The main plot develops a main object of the series, Pow cards.  On the surface, they seem just like typical trading cards, but there’s a lot more to them.  They’re like specialized computers that calculate information on every hero in existence based on how much they advance through heroic acts.  The deepest thing about Pow cards is that their legit measuring tools for how much heroes grow through changing in level over time.  It’s a visual metaphor of developing a sense of worth, which is why it’s huge when characters get one. 

In K.O.’s case, getting a Pow card of his own is a huge deal for him with his desire to become a great hero made so apparent, and it is monumental when the bodega’s Pow card machine has one of him.  However, it’s a little too monumental when K.O.’s Pow card level is 100.  Right there, it’s clear that something is not right for many reasons.  First, it’s very early in the show’s run, so it’s a cheap move for K.O. to have that big a level at this point.  Second, K.O. has not done anything huge at this point to warrant such a high level, so it’s really unbelievable for him to get the status.  This leads to the next point where everyone is way too accepting of this through congratulating him and giving him celebrity treatment, never getting suspicious.  It’s a bit discomforting that K.O. is hailed so much despite it being so unbelievable for him to be a level 100 hero. 

His celebrity status lasts for so long that when he’s put to the test with Lord Boxman unleashing his latest robot, Big Darrell, specifically designed for level 100 heroes to face, you’re waiting for the truth to be revealed.  I mean, the unbelievability of the Pow card information and K.O. clearly being too weak stature makes it clear that he’s no match on his own and makes his overconfidence pretty stupid.  The ensuing battle does provide a good display of K.O.’s power fists though not seen since the second cartoon. 

Unsurprisingly, during a huge thrashing from Big Darrell, it’s revealed that K.O. isn’t a level 100 hero at all.  In fact he’s a level 0 which makes more sense, even if it’s still an issue that his disillusion went on for so long.  That said, the story does end up showing that K.O. does have to take his time to build up to a hero overall, and while most of the heroes who praised him are annoyed that he’s not who they thought he was at first, they still help K.O. beat Big Darrell.  This results in a highly creative solution to the battle with all the heroes becoming a literal big fist combining their Pow card levels that K.O. uses to punch Big Darrell to pieces.  Plus, even though it was technically all the heroes in the plaza who saved the day, K.O. is rewarded with a slight upgrade to a level .1 hero, showing that while he has a ways to go, he’s still making progress. 

While the cartoon is held back for focusing on the unbelievable for too long, the universal message of how true success is what you work towards and some creative moments help it stand strong enough.

B

The Ranking

1. Let’s Be Heroes
2. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
3. Jethro’s All Yours
4. Let’s Be Friends
5. We Messed Up
6. You’re Level 100

The next OK K.O.! review follows K.O. strive to teach the importance of teamwork, even if it means helping the villainous Boxmore robots with their sibling rivalry.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a Star vs the Forces of Evil review on "Star vs Echo Creek" and "Wand to Wand."

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 1: Let's Be Heroes

Today, this blog is starting reviews on one of the more recent Cartoon Network shows offering a creative art style, charming childlike endearment to the normally action-oriented superhero genre, and a tone that’s hysterical as well as inspirational:

OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes (Season 1)

Basic Premise

I’m always looking for new animated TV shows to broaden my outlook on my favorite medium, and Cartoon Network has some of the most appealing, creative, entertaining, and even charming shows of this era.  Most of their acclaimed shows may not air a lot on TV, but there are other viable ways to watch them these days, particularly on their app.  That way, people can still get a good idea of how much respect the network has for animation, allowing talented and imaginative creators to open up and express their creative ideas in a medium where literally anything is possible.  If my frequent praise of its first two seasons wasn’t a clear indication, I feel that the show that best represents Cartoon Network’s current creative spirits is Steven Universe, so you can imagine that I’d be interested in whatever alumni from that show have to offer.  This set of reviews is on the first season of a show from such an alumnus, who happens to be Ian Jones-Quartey, the former co-executive producer of Steven Universe and boyfriend to its creator.  His show is called OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes.

Just from watching a clip, there’s genuine appeal to this show.  For one thing, it’s a big example of stretching animation’s endless possibilities through taking place in a world populated by uniquely designed characters with superpowers to call their own, mostly hanging out at a huge shopping center called Lakewood Plaza Turbo.  At the center of this show about a world of heroes learning to control their powers is genuine charm from the main protagonist.  K.O. is a young impressionable kid with big dreams of becoming the greatest hero of all.  Through cartoons of working at a bodega run by the plaza’s owner, Mr. Gar, with his co-workers, Rad and Enid, fighting opposing robots from the neighboring evil factory, Boxmore, or simply doing a fun activity, K.O. grows from each experience which gets him closer to becoming a hero, bringing a cute sense of childlike innocence along the way.  This makes for quite a setup for a show that not only is sure to give a healthy dose of action, but also astound with creativity and be emotionally pleasing to watch all at once.  So, just as K.O. is continuously eager to become a hero, I’m eager to look into Season 1 of one of the best shows Cartoon Network has currently created.  As the theme song says, “let’s start the show!”

Now on with the reviews:

Let’s Be Heroes

Some of the most impressionable premiere cartoons set the main events of the series into motion.  This premiere cartoon introduces all the prominent elements of the series as well as the overall tone and theme. 

From the first moment of studying his collection of Pow cards, trading cards that describe the hero levels of nearly everyone in existence, K.O. is instantly relatable through his interests and wanting to follow in the footsteps of his heroic idols like the highest rated hero of all, Mr. Gar.  It also helps that these relatable traits mesh well with his adorable eagerness and friendly attitude.  K.O.’s undeniable charm is present through all the cartoon’s introductions to the key components of what’s to come. 

He gets endless support from his mom, Carol, who is instantly one of the greatest mother figures in TV animation.  She has her own strengths while running the Fitness Dojo at Lakewood Plaza Turbo and is completely devoted to her son, especially when it comes to supporting him with advice on becoming a hero.  In fact, Carol sets K.O.’s path to becoming a hero in motion by deliberately giving him a reason to go to Gar’s Bodega, where he hopes the heroic qualities of the owner will rub off on him. 

All the way, K.O.’s heroic determination is given a nice depiction with an inner monologue describing what he’s doing as a step in his quest, and how he views the main players of the bodega, Mr. Gar, and his employees, Rad and Enid.  They’re all introduced with texts describing their strengths and weaknesses common on trading cards placed over a scene depicting their main personalities.  Mr. Gar is godly with amazing powers as he appears while also being a tough man in charge, though he’s bashful when Carol is around.  Rad is an egotistical alien with super powered fingers in charge of stocking while Enid is much more sarcastic and unsociable with the customers at the counter.  It’s through K.O.’s charm and cheerfulness however when they both show hints of having much more friendly aesthetics to them which grow a lot more throughout the series. 

As for K.O., his time at the bodega is also charming as he purchases various items to become a hero, though they really make him look the part instead of actually being the part.  It’s here where the story presents the downsides of his childlike mindset when he tries being a hero by fighting a Boxmore robot called Darrell.  There’s a lot of time on it seeming like K.O.’s powerful enough to defeat him which is hard to believe, not just because of his size, but also because it’s near impossible for people to be this heroic through not doing anything.  However, that’s the message the cartoon is trying to teach, and it shows when during K.O.’s fight with Darrell, we cut to him knocked out against a wall, and is told that he didn’t have a chance against him at all.  The reveal is unfortunate, but it is believable, and what follows is a nice way for K.O. to realize that becoming a hero means hard work and patience. Him deciding to work at Gar’s Bodega to do that and the last scene of Rad and Enid liking the idea of having him around set up this path for the series. 

K.O. might not have left a strong impression as a hero, but this cartoon leaves a great one by introducing a charming and creative world with relatable characters.

A

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where K.O. tries to apply for the job at Gar's Bodega and befriend Rad and Enid while we also meet the head of Boxmore, Lord Boxman.


If you want to stay updated for more reviews, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter.

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