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Just Be a Pebble
This is a more standard cartoon seen in most family shows, especially those where the main character is
short in size. Typical as the overall
plot may be, it can still be entertaining through the strengths of the
characters and basic aesthetics of this show’s world. That’s the case with this cartoon where K.O.
feels down for being short.
The thing
that really makes him lament his size is that many heroes he knows are much
bigger. He can’t really live up to those
standards like he wants to as long as he’s small which is understandable for
his emotional state. That said, small
heroes have been seen in the background frequently. They may not be as great heroes as the ones
K.O. is looking up to, but their existence shouldn’t make him feel this bad
about being small. For cheering himself
up, all K.O. has is his mom’s sage advice that a pebble can only travel as a
pebble and not a rock. While it clearly
comes from a place of love like everything Carol does for her son, it doesn’t
make sense for K.O. forcing him to go through the motions of the cartoon to
find it out. Then again, this is the
more relatable route to finding meaning in philosophical statements.
K.O. later becomes big with the aid of a
special candy Rad gives him, but then he goes too far and eats so much of the
special candy that he becomes a giant.
This is the part where
K.O. being this big starts causing problems when he destroys Gar’s Bodega due
to his size. However, he remains
positive through it all by focusing on what’s good about being a giant, such as
performing the impressive task of going around the world in a few seconds. The positives, however mean nothing when K.O.
is unable to do his work properly at the bodega and everyone around him says he
was always better working his job when he was small.
While this moment does bring to mind how
valuable K.O. is as a helper as himself, it begs the question if this problem
would exist if he only had enough candy to make him bigger than his real size
but smaller than a giant. There’s no
reason why he had to be gigantic and simply being taller would’ve resolved his
anxieties. It goes to show how
commonplace these plots are and how certain things have to play out for them to
work, even if they don’t always make for more sensible approaches.
While this tactic for the plot to be avoided
is persistent, the way the cartoon plays out makes it work with K.O. realizing
he never needed to change at all when his big size causes him to lose Mr. Gar’s
keys down the sewer and he can only get down the sewer if he was the size of a
pebble, but he’s the size of a rock. In
other words, he finally understands his mom’s sage advice. He does become a pebble with the aid of
specially enhanced burritos that shrink him down small enough to fit in the
sewer. As a result, there’s a fun climax
where K.O. braves the sewage and larger debris and even takes out a rat to get
Mr. Gar’s keys back. It’s impressive
that K.O. turns out to be useful and awesome as a hero in training at such a
miniscule size that it hardly matters that the cartoon ends before he returns
to normal, although it’s clear that he will be back to normal by the next
cartoon.
Thanks to its use of characters
and clever takes on sage advice, this cartoon is able to stand out more than
its standard plot setup normally would.
B
The Ranking
- I Am Dendy
- You Get Me
- Let’s Be Heroes
- You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
- Jethro’s All Yours
- My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
- Let’s Be Friends
- We Messed Up
- Sibling Rivalry
- Just Be a Pebble
- Do You Have Any More in the Back?
- You’re Level 100
- You Are Rad
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where everyone's thoughts on a coffee mug-headed comedian shows that everyone has different tastes in comedy.
If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
