'Toon Reviews 4: The Loud House Season 1 Episode 26 + Final Thoughts

Study Muffin

 

 

 

 

 This cartoon takes a common trope and works in a lot of entertainment and character building.  The trope in this case involves kids developing crushes on hot-looking teachers.  We lead into the trope with a sympathetic premise on Lincoln’s part.  He’s usually a good student, but hasn’t been getting good grades lately, so he hires a British tutor named Hugh to help him.  Unfortunately for him, it’s impossible to make any progress because all of his sisters become infatuated by Hugh’s appearance and constantly pop out of nowhere and flirt with him.  These moments could be a big problem with the cartoon, but they all come off as hilarious in execution with the different ways the sisters manage to pop in on the different locations Lincoln and Hugh use to study.  The only issue with these moments is that Lori is one of the sisters crushing on Hugh even though she has a boyfriend, and we’re never given a reason as to why she’s cheating on him.  My best guess is that Bobby isn’t around during the flirting scenes, so Lori’s open to any present hot guy, but that’s just me.  Anyway, what also makes the flirting moments work is that the sisters are still respectful of Lincoln.  When he tells them he needs to study so not to fail 5^th grade, they back off.  If that’s not enough, they later go on to help him find out why he’s failing.  It’s a revelation that further proves that Lincoln isn’t much different from his many distinct sisters.  He too is guilty of crushing on a hot teacher which distracts him from doing well.  Finally, the sisters help him find a way around this problem, and their advice thankfully has Lincoln do well again.  Yes, these moments in the cartoon provide good proof that despite their quirks and habits, the Loud siblings truly do care for each other, which in turn gives the show some good heart.  The main plot may revolve around an all too familiar trope, but the humor and character-building moments it gets out of it make it work out for the better. 9/10

Homespun

 

 

 

 

 This is the final cartoon of this season, and I’m pleased to say that it’s one that brings together everything great about this show.  It’s a story that right off the bat displays how none of the Loud siblings are alone when it comes to dealing with the trials and tribulations of living in a big family.  They all have issues with the conditions of the house they live in and grow to dread their lifestyle.  The appeal of the cartoon grows even more when the threat of an impending tornado brings the siblings together in the basement.  For the rest of the cartoon, we’re treated to a big display of each of the siblings showing off what makes them great characters, as well as some enjoyable interactions between all of them.  We also get the best displays of the bonds between all 11 of the siblings as they all manage to find ways around the problems they have with their house by simply talking about them.  The more they do, the more they grow to be more appreciative of the life they have and the house they live in.  The changes in their mindsets are cleverly built up through a series of newly-created flashbacks of everyone living out their lives in the house.  Each one is highly humorous, features even more great moments and character interactions from the Loud siblings, and best of all a nice wholesome quality that really defines the joys of family life, which is especially true for a flashback of the kids painting the house for Mom and Dad’s anniversary weekend.  By the time the flashbacks wrap up and the kids have a change of heart about their house, the tone shifts to make you hope that the tornado doesn’t cause any harm to their house, and the desperation and sorrow of the characters sells the intensity.  Thankfully, things turn out all right for the house in the end, and that’s great to know for the sake of the characters.  This cartoon is really the best way to show off what has become the show’s strongest of themes revolving around how all the Loud siblings are different yet the same, and how appreciating what you have is a good thing to know to get around in life.  Add in some great performances from the characters involved, solid comedy, and a bunch of cute family moments, and this cartoon comes off as one big package of greatness.  It's truly an amazing one to end the first season with. 10/10

The Ranking

1.      Homespun

2.      For Bros About to Rock

3.      A Tattler’s Tale

4.      Undie Pressure

5.      Project Loud House

6.      One Flu Over the Loud House

7.      Funny Business

8.      Space Invader

9.      A Fair to Remember

10.  Driving Miss Hazy

11.  Left in the Dark

12.  Toads and Tiaras

13.  Picture Perfect

14.  Dance, Dance Resolution

15.  House Music

16.  Save the Date

17.  The Price of Admission

18.  Sleuth or Consequences

19.  Hand-Me-Downer

20.  No Guts No Glori

21.  Roughin’ It

22.  Attention Deficit

23.  Changing the Baby

24.  Along Came A Sister

25.  Snow Bored

26.  April Fools Rules

27.  Study Muffin

28.  A Novel Idea

29.  Sound of Silence

30.  Butterfly Effect

31.  A Tale of Two Tables

32.  Cereal Offender

33.  Cover Girls

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

35.  The Waiting Game

36.  Overnight Success

37.  Raw Deal

38.  In Tents Debate

39.  Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru

40.  Out on a Limo

41.  Linc or Swim

42.  The Sweet Spot

43.  Heavy Meddle

44.  Get the Message

45.  Come Sale Away

46.  Ties that Bind

47.  One of the Boys

48.  Making the Case

49.  Chore and Peace

50.  The Loudest Yard

51.  Two Boys and a Baby

52.  The Green House

 

Final Thoughts

After going through the entire first season of The Loud House, I can greatly say that this is the show that Nickelodeon needed.  It’s a series that prides itself on simple, relatable stories, while utilizing several little elements to make them entertaining enough to come back to, just like the Nicktoons from back in the day.  The biggest strengths of the show mostly involve how the characters are used, which is appropriate because the family the show is named after has a lot of them.  Each one has their own charming personality to help them liven up their scenes, and when you put two or more characters together, you get a lot of greatness from those distinct personalities working off of each other.  While some characters are more enjoyable than others, they’re all, on the whole, worth your time.  The characters also bring out a lot of heart behind the main themes addressed in the show such as how it’s best to appreciate what you have , or how the rest of the family knows how they feel.  Plus, the relationship between all 11 of the siblings does a great job of showing a believable look at family life.  Although there are many times throughout the cartoons where the characters annoy, tease, or fight with each other, that never stops them from showing some genuine moments of caring.  In other words, it lets us know that even though sibling life, especially when it’s part of a big family, is never perfect, love between others will always overpower any form of animosity.  In addition to the way the characters are utilized, the show also thrives on the simplistic tone of the cartoons.  With the life of a big family as the major focal point, the plots aren’t required to be big and spectacular, but rather small looks at the little moments in life like getting to the TV first, wanting to be treated like a grown-up, sharing a room, wanting undivided attention from Mom and Dad, doing a project for school, wanting to join a club, or just going about the house.  These moments may not seem like much, but this show takes them and makes what’s small feel like big grand experiences thriving on humor, heart, emotion, and creativity.  They make trying to turn the power on like an underground investigation, a search to find out who clogged the toilet like a crime investigation, dealing with a bratty sister like facing a monster, and avoiding getting sick like getting through a zombie apocalypse.  The portrayal of these little moments in life give the show a certain charm that most modern Nickelodeon shows seem to be lacking, and it’s one that entices you to keep on coming back.  There’s also much to enjoy about the simplicity of the art style which really fits the tone.  Everything is simply drawn and painted with solid colors with not much movement in the background.  Yet, that’s all it needs to draw you in artistically especially since the art style greatly captures the feeling of a comic strip, right down to the opening titles of each cartoon designed like just that (which also explains the frequent Peanuts references, which is fitting to notice given the previous series of reviews posted on this blog).

As you can see, on the inside and outside, this first season shows that The Loud House has much to admire.  However, at this point, I’m hesitant to call it one of the best animated TV series.  I’d say the show is top 20, maybe even top 15, material, but not exactly ready for the big leagues.  For every moment of greatness, there are also a few misfires.  Sometimes the characters get up to jerky moments that go too far, some moments, such as Clyde taking his crush on Lori too seriously when she’s obviously too old for him and a few of the gross-out jokes, are cringe-worthy, and quite a few cartoons have some major downer endings.  The latter point is perhaps the biggest detracting factor.  There are times when some cartoons end with the characters not getting a conclusion that completely satisfies the hardships they went through, the characters getting punished for doing nothing wrong or misdeeds that really weren’t that bad, characters not learning anything, and characters suffering even after they learned their lesson.  Stuff like that sours the experiences and makes for some of the weaker entries of the season which includes three outright bad cartoons.  That said, there are several times this season where the show proved how great it can be, with some cartoons even being worthy of a 10/10.  Because of that, I believe that these weak points can be ironed out somewhat in later seasons.  If we see signs of that in the second season, this animated TV show could go on to be worthy of being called one of the top ten greatest.  To me, it seems like we are seeing some signs of that, but that will be further explored when it comes time to review season 2.

Season 1 of The Loud House is far from perfect, but the strong points immensely outweigh the weak points.  It may not be top-tier material for all animated TV series at this time, but it has proven to be one of the best Nicktoons, which given what they’ve had for the past few years, is saying a lot.  For that, I advise you to catch the show as it currently airs on TV, select the highest ranked cartoons from this post to purchase on digital, and look out for DVD releases. 

Highly Recommended

That's it for The Loud House Season 1.  Expect reviews of Season 2 on this blog sometime after it's completely finished airing.  As for the next show to be reviewed here, we'll be covering the classic 80s Disney series, DuckTales, via its first DVD release.  Until then:

Stay Animated Folks!

-Mike Clemente

'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."

'Toon Reviews 4: The Loud House Season 1 Episode 24

Funny Business

 

 

 

As fun of a character Luan is for her love of comedy and ability to fit in a joke to any situation, I have to admit that she does it so much that throughout the season, she felt more like a joke machine than an actual character.  Then, this cartoon comes along to really flesh her out as someone that people who are passionate about certain things can relate to.  Luan needs an assistant to help her with clown duties at birthday parties, and following a hilarious montage of how many of the Loud siblings who took on the role before failed to live up to expectations, she appoints Lincoln.  We’re left with the impression that Lincoln might not be a good fit as Luan’s assistant either, but he surprisingly becomes a big hit at his first party after accidentally putting on a pratfall while trying to assist Luan.  If that’s not all, Lincoln feels so confident as a clowning assistant that he adds his own pratfall acts at all the birthday parties he and Luan attend, getting big laughs each time.  The biggest strength here is how one’s emotions are played with.  It’s easy to feel glad for Lincoln for knowing what he’s doing, as if he found something he’s good at, but you’re still able to feel for Luan.  As previously established, comedy is something she takes very seriously, almost down to treating it like an art.  For her own brother to treat it like it’s nothing by only needing to fall on your butt to generate laughs must be pretty hard for her.  She really comes off as a character with her own world view, and that really helps increase the appeal of this cartoon.  Since Lincoln doesn’t understand this when Luan first confronts him, he soon does when he takes on a birthday party on his own.  With the audience being a crowd of emo tweens, Lincoln’s pratfalls do nothing to entertain them.  It’s only after Luan comes in to help when everything works out, and it delivers a good message to anyone wanting to go into the entertainment business.  You have to know your audience.  Don’t just rely on gimmicks and standards.  To really make this cartoon a strong work, we end with both Lincoln and Luan getting something to learn.  We’ve already covered what Lincoln learned, but Luan also learns to be more patient with beginners since it’s not uncommon to find difficulty with getting your first laugh.  This cartoon really makes me feel good for naming Luan as one of my favorite Loud siblings and is aided by impactful messages and one of the show’s best portrayals of love between siblings.  It’s easily some great and, of course, funny material. 10/10

Snow Bored

 

 

 

 

If you like watching characters having fun in the snow, this is a cartoon for you.  Much of what we see here features the Loud siblings getting up to all kinds of snow day activities, and they all put their own appealing spin on what they do.  There are even some nice Peanuts references here and there, very fitting given the show’s comic-like aesthetic.  The plot that all these charming moments revolve around involves the Loud siblings trying to show Lisa how fun snow days can be so to convince her not to use special salt to ruin it.  Now, so far in the season, Lisa honestly hasn’t shown much to prove herself as one of the most entertaining Loud siblings.  In fact the most interesting thing about her is the type of character she is.  There’s a lot of uniqueness in a four-year-old girl being the smartest one in the family, and it’s great to see such a character come to life before our very eyes.  However, nothing else makes Lisa stand out .  This cartoon, however, does allow a lot more of Lisa's character to shine as well as fit in some decent entertainment.  Her siblings having fun in the snow greatly clashes with her intellect that deflates any potential fun she could be having and much of it is pretty funny.  Also, while we’re so accustomed to seeing Lisa act as a genius, we hardly ever see her literally act her age.  She finally gets a sense of how fun snow days can be when her siblings get her involved in a snowball fight.  In fact, she enjoys it so much that she has the snow day last for another day just so she can take part in more snowball fights which seems believable for a common 4-year-old, and when you add in her genius status which includes her ability to build highly functional snowball launchers, her snowball fights are another comedic highlight.  Plus, the rest of the siblings trying to hide from Lisa’s snowballs have a lot of humor to them which prevents their fear of getting pelted from being hard to watch.  The conclusion is a satisfying one where Lisa respects her siblings having enough of snow days which she now loves, and agrees to call them off while also cleverly stating to herself that this was all part of the plan, showing that she may be a genius, but like any child, there’s a trickster in her.  On the whole, this cartoon is a charming watch for its snow day atmosphere, and the ways it expands on Lisa’s character. 9/10

The Ranking

1.      For Bros About to Rock

2.      A Tattler’s Tale

3.      Undie Pressure

4.      Project Loud House

5.      Funny Business

6.      Space Invader

7.      A Fair to Remember

8.      Driving Miss Hazy

9.      Left in the Dark

10.  Toads and Tiaras

11.  Picture Perfect

12.  Dance, Dance Resolution

13.  House Music

14.  Save the Date

15.  Sleuth or Consequences

16.  Hand-Me-Downer

17.  No Guts No Glori

18.  Roughin’ It

19.  Attention Deficit

20.  Changing the Baby

21.  Along Came A Sister

22.  Snow Bored

23.  April Fools Rules

24.  A Novel Idea

25.  Sound of Silence

26.  Butterfly Effect

27.  A Tale of Two Tables

28.  Cereal Offender

29.  Cover Girls

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

31.  The Waiting Game

32.  Overnight Success

33.  Raw Deal

34.  In Tents Debate

35.  Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru

36.  Out on a Limo

37.  Linc or Swim

38.  The Sweet Spot

39.  Heavy Meddle

40.  Get the Message

41.  Come Sale Away

42.  Ties that Bind

43.  One of the Boys

44.  Making the Case

45.  Chore and Peace

46.  The Loudest Yard

47.  Two Boys and a Baby

48.  The Green House

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Lincoln becomes a nervous wreck after seeing a scary movie thus paying "The Price of Admission" and the flu causes a zombie apocalypse in the Loud House in "One Flu Over the Loud House."