'Toon Reviews 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Hereos Season 1 Episode 31: Rad Likes Robots

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Rad Likes Robots

Some of the weakest stories seem like they’re going to bring a big change, but reverts back to the status quo in the end as if it was never suggested at all.  It doesn’t leave room for growth and throws away any chance for solid development, opting to not stay relevant.  While this cartoon isn’t that bad of an example of this concept, it still brings down the quality significantly. 

During a more intense than average fight against the bodega employees and the Boxmore robots, Shannon gets struck by lightning and is reprogrammed to be more romantic.  She saves Rad from getting blasted, claiming she never knew how good he punches stuff, feeling infatuated with him, and that’s enough for Rad to love her back.  It’s a very shallow reason for a potential couple, not to mention it’s completely forced with Shannon getting reprogrammed.  Therefore, the love she and Rad share for each other simply doesn’t feel genuine.  In fact, it’s much easier to side with the opposing forces, Rad’s friends and Shannon’s robot siblings, who all have good reasons why this couple shouldn’t come to be.  It is at least funny to watch them get defensive at the opposition though. 

There is at least one moment to have the couple make sense when there’s acknowledgement that Shannon’s love for Rad is fake.  Darrell and Raymond point out that she got reprogrammed by that lightning.  Even when Shannon hears that she’s been reprogrammed, she claims to like being this way and refuses to change.  Just acknowledging this factor and both people being fond of each other fortunately works in the couple’s favor.  This is especially good since a great and passionate love ballad of how Rad and Shannon are star-crossed lovers follows this scene. 

It still isn't the most justifiable instance of love, mostly on Rad’s simple judgement than Shannon’s reprogramming.  However, there’s at least enough endearment to accept its existence.  The very idea of a hero and villain becoming a couple offers a good chance for character development and a shakeup in the dynamic of the protagonists and antagonists.  It’s a perfect opportunity to keep things fresh especially with Rad and Shannon clearly set on making themselves as a couple official.  

The next day though, genuinely concerned for their sister, Darrel and Raymond plot to destroy Rad to snap Shannon out of her crush when she’s about to run away with him.  This is where the cartoon becomes one to go back on a potential big change. Despite acting like she loved Rad above anything else for the whole cartoon, Shannon gives into her brothers’ demands, and reboots herself to lose her feelings for Rad.  She comes to this decision much too easily and not enough time is devoted to her expressing sorrow for stopping loving Rad.  Even with the reveal that she faked her reboot, she just does it for real after misinterpreting Rad mourning her. For this, why did she have to her fake her reboot at all? 

While it does make sense for the couple to not be a thing anymore, it going nowhere makes having to put up with this dead-end plot pretty frustrating.  In a way, it kind of works as a parody of romantic tragedies, but it’s hard to brush off thinking the cartoon was going to change things up only for it to go nowhere.

C-

The Ranking

1. Face Your Fears
2. You Have to Care
3. T.K.O.
4. No More Pow Cards
5. Legends of Mr. Gar
6. We’ve Got Pests
7. I Am Dendy
8. Let’s Have a Stakeout
9. You Get Me
10. Let’s Be Heroes
11. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
12. Jethro’s All Yours
13. Know Your Mom
14. Everybody Likes Rad?
15. A Hero’s Fate
16. Plaza Prom
17. We’re Captured
18. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
19. Let’s Be Friends
20. We Messed Up
21. Presenting Joe Cuppa
22. Sibling Rivalry
23. Second First Date
24. Stop Attacking the Plaza
25. Just Be a Pebble
26. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
27. You’re Level 100
28. You Are Rad
29. We’ve Got Fleas
30. Rad Likes Robots
31. One Last Score

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode whose subject is good old online videos.

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 18: We're Captured

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:

We’re Captured

In many cartoons I’ve covered so far, characterization has been one of the biggest factors to this show’s success.  This show's characters have appealing designs, and believable and interesting depth beyond their basic traits.  Now, the characterization reaches a new height by investing the audience in what the main villain gets up to. 

Lord Boxman may be a typical bully who loves sending his robot children for the petty task of attacking Lakewood Plaza Turbo and disowning them when they fail.  Still, he's fun and great for his comedic reactions and approaches to everything that happens.  This cartoon shows that he’s still human going about a normal daily routine, allowing the audience to enjoy what he offers as a lead.  It begins with him already capturing K.O., Rad, and Enid holding them over a pit of lava while they’re all tied up.  While Lord Boxman explains their torture process, he frequently leaves to check on certain things. 

In addition to simply doing evil deeds, Lord Boxman spends the cartoon setting up a dinner for an important client, Professor Venomous.  He comes off as a believable civilian working a job.  Even though everything is happening to the villain character, it’s not hard to feel for Lord Boxman trying to make the dinner go well.  Mishaps such as burning the food and having to stop Darrell and Shannon’s overblown entertainment attempts ring very true to how hard something seemingly simple can be. 

Dealing with our three main protagonists makes the night more difficult for Lord Boxman, making him come off as “double-booked”.  In fact, K.O. easily breaking free from the ropes and rescuing his friends sells not just Lord Boxman’s comedic setup as a villain, but also how rushed he feels at the moment.  The actual dinner continues to show how difficult moments common to life can be. Professor Venomous seems hard to please while his little assistant Fink acts all bratty about being dragged along akin to how most little kids would act in this case.  There’s also an incredibly boneheaded move on K.O., Rad, and Enid’s part.  They disguise themselves as chefs and deliberately sabotage the dinner when they have a perfect opportunity to escape.  It’s hard to believe they’d all go along with pointless reckless jokes instead of just getting to safety.  At least their various food server themed gags are hilarious. 

Even if the reasoning for the protagonists messing around isn’t strong, they do have appropriate consequences.  Lord Boxman fights back hard, making good use of Darrell in the process as he traps K.O. Rad and Enid in a big coconut cream pie.  This even impresses Professor Venomous enough to finish them off by shooting them out of Boxmore.  Basically, the cartoon ends with the heroes losing, though they still get shot back home.  On the other hand, Lord Boxman gets a happy ending with the dinner interruption convincing Professor Venomous to remain a client. 

For a villain, his satisfaction of still being needed and being successful for once is somewhat nice even if we’re not supposed to like him.  It all boils down to how well-written these characters are. No matter how simple they’re portrayed or what their morality is, they’re all likable enough to watch and identify with.

A

The Ranking

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

The next OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes review presents a creative, immersive, and character-developing way for the cast to face their fears.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews from Star vs the Forces of Evil is a review of "Into the Wand" and "Pizza Thing."

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 14: Presenting Joe Cuppa

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:

Presenting Joe Cuppa

It’s often said that comedy is subjective, and I hold that to heart.  Everyone has their tastes and shouldn’t be judged for them.  There can be different reactions to certain comedy forms, and this cartoon features three of them working off of each other. 

There’s an open mic show at the bodega, and one performer is a humanoid figure with a coffee cup head, Joe Cuppa.  His style of comedy is coffee puns, and right there, different reactions can result.  Some can find them mildly amusing, while others may think they’re too corny and don’t stand out as more than normal statements with coffee words replacing words they sound like.  There are scenes of the different believable reactions to Joe Cuppa’s comedy from K.O., Rad, and Enid.  Rad, being a fan of Joe Cuppa for all his life, finds him hilarious.  K.O., who doesn’t understand jokes, goes along with what Joe’s style is supposed to mean and tries to find it funny.  Enid isn’t a fan of Joe’s coffee puns at all and continuously insists they’re not funny. 

Joe Cuppa himself also has an interesting story.  Following the failed open mic show, he comes to the bodega incognito, with only a set of coffee puns to indicate that it’s him under the hoodie and fake beard.  He’s all washed up with no place to share his comedy styles because many people don’t find him funny.  The scenes of him living in poverty give a creative interpretation of what can happen to people doing certain trends no one is interested in anymore.  They may not end up in conditions as bad as Joe Cuppa, but what he’s put through sell how others may feel about the matter. 

Believable to entertainment people out of a job, the story puts Joe Cuppa into the field of menial work to get by.  He starts his search for a new career at the bodega.  Somehow, his incessant coffee puns prevent him from doing a good job, and in an interesting turn of events, it seems like he’s stuck making these types of puns as he tries to force himself to talk normal.  Although Joe’s puns hold him back, the conclusion he comes to is interesting. 

During an attack from Shannon who flamboyantly delights with destroying the plaza, all three perspectives on Joe Cuppa’s comedy come together with K.O. and Rad’s enjoyment combining with Enid’s statement that the jokes are painful.  Joe Cuppa fights Shannon with coffee puns, and the pain they leave for their corniness is humorously depicted by a punch coming out of his cup head.  The fight scene is capped off with Shannon so annoyed by the puns that she freaks out at the mere mention of coffee which I imagine is how most people putting up with too many bad puns. 

It also makes for a satisfying end for the protagonists with Joe finding his place in the comedy world as a result of his performance and Enid witnessing her preferred style of comedy via an elaborate physical comedy stunt Rad gets himself into.  Therefore, this ends up as a nice commentary on comedy’s subjectivity with likable characters and creative depictions to help make its point.  It all depends on how much you like coffee puns.

A-

The Ranking

1. I Am Dendy
2. You Get Me
3. Let’s Be Heroes
4. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
5. Jethro’s All Yours
6. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
7. Let’s Be Friends
8. We Messed Up
9. Presenting Joe Cuppa
10. Sibling Rivalry
11. Just Be a Pebble
12. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
13. You’re Level 100
14. You Are Rad

The next OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes review shows the extent of Enid's apathy when a trio of pests come to the plaza to party.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Star vs. the Forces of Evil episodes "Sleepover" and "Gift of the Card."

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 7: Sibling Rivalry

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:

Sibling Rivalry

Being a team doesn’t always mean that everyone who’s a part of it gets along all the time, sometimes for big legit reasons and other times for petty reasons.  This cartoon looks into both types of reasons for tension. 

The petty reasons come from the heroes’ side of the conflict with a lot of their scenes devoted to Rad and Enid fighting over who did the most work during the usual fight with the Boxmore robots.  Being fueled by a disagreement that doesn’t even matter much isn’t very engaging to the audience, and it can get concerning when they just brush off K.O.’s insistence that the most important thing is that they worked as a team.  It does gain appeal points for being hilariously over-the-top though. 

Regarding the villains, the tensions between them are much more legit, which is impressive since it becomes easier to feel sympathy for characters we’re not supposed to like, going for a great angle to flesh out all of the cast no matter what their morality is.  Darrell and Shannon have so far been portrayed as very charismatic and eccentric when it comes to attacking Lakewood Plaza Turbo, but they’re somewhat sympathetic when their father and creator, Lord Boxman, berates and disowns them whenever they're defeated.  He’s ashamed of their failures so much that he creates a new robot named Raymond, who’s charismatic like the other two robots, but also the most competent of the three as he does his assigned acts of villainy with a flair.  Even acts as small as stealing a letter from the Gar’s Bodega sign are ones he treats with utmost importance and enthusiasm, and it pays off because he turns out to be the robot the gang at Gar’s Bodega can’t easily defeat. 

Darrell and Shannon’s feelings on the matter go far beyond simple jealousy and blaming each other for Raymond’s existence.  It’s a really tough thing to deal with a parent flat-out disowning their children and not exaggerating when they love another one more just because the other children failed at something.  This makes their conflict more engaging than the other conflict, and develops Darrell and Shannon past more than just eccentric fighting characters.  The abuse they have to deal with becomes especially prominent when K.O. takes notice of it after they capture him.  He decides to help the regular plaza attackers sabotage Raymond’s success in hopes of making them realize that winning as a team makes everyone a winner. 

They have it look like they captured K.O. as a team, leading to even more Boxman abuse when this one victory leads him to disown Raymond like he did with his other robot children.  However, Darrell and Shannon’s typical robot tactics are still on display when they still won’t let K.O. get the bodega sign back and intend to actually hold him prisoner.  From here, the message on the importance of teamwork becomes botched a bit when K.O. makes Darrell and Shannon fight over who did the most work to escape and get the sign back. 

As for Rad and Enid’s conflict, their conflict stops unnaturally just because they see a beautiful sunset which makes them decide that who did the most work in the fights didn’t matter.  Maybe if we actually saw it happen this concluding point would be stronger.  The ending is still nice at least.  Even if it’s not perfect in execution message-wise, this cartoon is still an interesting comparison between petty conflicts and legit conflicts while also fleshing out the characters, especially the villains.

A-

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. Sibling Rivalry
7. You’re Level 100

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next OK K.O.! episode where we meet K.O.'s best friend Dendy for the first time.

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