The Perfect Meal (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 50) - 'Toon Reviews 19

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The Perfect Meal

This cartoon is nice and wholesome, but also basic and nothing special in premise. One thing’s for sure though, the cartoon is instantly likable with the heart coming from K.O. and his mom Carol’s love and devotion to each other. 

The subject is preparing meals and the way K.O. rushes to what his mom prepared for him, spaghetti, is just adorable.  That said, it is naïve of him that he only just realizes that Carol is the one who makes him his meals since at least one previous cartoon shows he already knew that. 

Still, it’s equally thoughtful, and fitting that K.O. tries to prepare something for Carol.  Her favorite meal is called Galaxy Truffle Pasta, but it’s very rare.  The little thing may be posed as a challenge, but for someone who wants to be a great hero and son, K.O. is up for it.  With the aid of Beardo the burrito salesman, and the scent of the bodega’s pet dinosaur Baby Teeth, K.O. goes on an adventure with the sole name of proving to be a great son. 

The adventure itself through the local Mystical Forest where galaxy truffles dwell makes for enjoyable moments.  In terms of the side characters, their development isn’t the most interesting, but what we get from them is still charming since we don’t see them much.  Baby Teeth may be a dinosaur acting like a dog, but she’s still cute to watch.  As for Beardo, he’s the passionate artistic type when it comes to cooking.  At a campfire he prepares an exquisite meal of little things he finds in the forest, teaching that good meals come from working with what you have and cooking with love.  It’s a typical message to learn from a cook like him, but it’s still a good thing to learn and suits the story well. 

There are some creative elements though regarding the galaxy truffles.  What they are subverts expectations a bit when instead of just being fungi, the truffles are live creatures that may be small, but fight back hard.  There are laughs in the pursuit for them though when K.O. and the others are put through various instances of slapstick as they chase the truffles.  There’s also interesting world building to the galaxy truffles with a whole cave of them run by a queen galaxy truffle.  It’s certainly an interesting way to show what they’re like, but it’s a bit nonsensical that the queen can talk English, but her children can’t. 

Anyway, it’s during a confrontation with the galaxy truffles planning to eat everyone when Beardo gets his most shining moment.  He finds being eaten alive to be a fitting demise being a chef, but backs out when he finds the broth unappetizing. It’s made of bath water from the queen truffle which is an appropriate interpretation of what things cooked in boiling water are like.  However, Beardo adds variety in ingredients and plenty of love which happens to produce Galaxy Truffle Pasta. Everyone, including the galaxy truffles who transform from the flavor, notice the appeal in the cooking, making for a heroic display of his culinary talents.  Interestingly, there’s not enough for K.O. to take home with him, meaning his plan failed.  However, the message of how meals can be made of anything and taste good as long as there’s love sticks with him. The cartoon ends with him preparing a simple sandwich for Carol and her acceptance of it with a hug is as adorable as you’d expect. 

The story and message are basic, but for how endearing the characters and the heart are along with creative world building, the cartoon is enjoyable in its own right.

B+

Cartoon Ranking

1. Face Your Fears
2. Let’s Take a Moment
3. Mystery Science Fair 201X
4. You Have to Care
5. T.K.O.
6. Back in Red Action
7. No More Pow Cards
8. Action News
9. Glory Days
10. Legends of Mr. Gar
11. We’ve Got Pests
12. I Am Dendy
13. Let’s Have a Stakeout
14. You Get Me
15. Let’s Be Heroes
16. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
17. We Got Hacked
18. K.O.’s Video Channel
19. Jethro’s All Yours
20. Know Your Mom
21. Everybody Likes Rad?
22. OK Dendy! Let’s Be K.O.
23. Villains Night In
24. Lad & Logic
25. A Hero’s Fate
26. Plaza Prom
27. We’re Captured
28. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
29. Let’s Be Friends
30. We Messed Up
31. Parents Day
32. Plazalympics
33. Presenting Joe Cuppa
34. Sibling Rivalry
35. Plaza Shorts
36. RMS and Brandon’s First Episode
37. Second First Date
38. Stop Attacking the Plaza
39. The Perfect Meal
40. Just Be a Pebble
41. The Power is Yours
42. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
43. Let’s Watch the Pilot
44. Villains Night Out
45. You’re Level 100
46. We’ve Got Fleas
47. You Are Rad
48. Rad Likes Robots
49. One Last Score
50. Let’s Not Be Skeletons

Plaza Shorts Ranking

1. Life of Darrel
2. Action News
3. K.O.’s Inner Monologue
4. Where in the World is Mr. Gar?
5. Rad vs Enid

The next OK K.O. review is a fun play on Mario Kart as Rad sets out to prove he has the best van around in a race against Red Action.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Episode 50 of Animaniacs, the last episode on the Vol 2 DVD.

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 13: The Loud House Season 2 Episode 10: Fed Up/Shell Shock

Fed Up

Back in my Season 1 reviews of this show, I’ve mentioned that one of its biggest themes was that even though siblings are usually very different, you can still easily relate to them which can let you know that you’re not alone when dealing with a particular issue in the family.  With this season starting to frequently feature all the kids work as a team as opposed to mostly Lincoln or a sister working separately from the rest of the siblings, this theme is stronger than ever before.  This cartoon here is proof of this.  The Loud kids all share the concern that Dad makes the same meals for dinner every week.  While this seems hard to believe at first since this was never an issue before, as well as the fact that Lincoln mentions that Friday’s meal is fried fish, but for the rest of the cartoon franks and beans are said to be for Friday, the entertainment and portrayal of the kids’ dynamics allow me to overlook those points.  The teamwork aspect of the kids makes itself apparent the moment Lincoln decides that something should be done about their monotonous dinners and forms a plan to sabotage Dad’s planned dinner so they can get pizza instead.  We’re so used to seeing the kids fight with each other or shutting down someone’s idea when there’s an issue, so the following sequence where every kid plays a part in sabotaging Dad’s planned goulash for the night is especially pleasing.  Even when Dad comes up with ways to improvise on a bad situation, the kids never give up and always find new ways to prevent the same meals from being made again.  That said, it’s still impressive how Dad finds ways to work around the lack of food or proper cooking equipment.  It’s a good display of his prominent character trait of his talent for cooking.  The kids ultimately win with their sabotage and get their pizza, but given how hard Dad was shown to be working to try and make his dinner under the circumstances, he still earns the audience’s sympathy.  This is why it’s good that the time remaining in the cartoon is spent on a forming a compromise between him and the kids when Leni’s lack of intelligence leads him to find out about the sabotage.  Dad’s ways of making the same meals every week are explained to exist due to the pressures of making something good for a lot of people on a budget.  This is a solid, believable reason for the methods, but since the kids feelings are also understandable, it’s worth watching them try to prove the menu can be mixed up by cooking dinner themselves.  However, since they lack cooking skills and common favorite foods, they simply can’t make something edible.  That’s when the compromise is reached when Dad turns out a new tasty dinner out of the kids’ mess.  In other words, the conclusion satisfies both sides of the issue instead of one proving right which is really the best way conflicts between characters should be settled.  Thanks to its strong use of conflict staging and resolution along with pleasing moments from the characters involved, this cartoon amounts to another strong entry of this season. 9.5/10

Shell Shock

Whether you want them to get together as a couple or you like them just fine as friends, there’s something fascinating to the relationship between Lincoln and Ronnie Anne.  Considering that they started getting on each other’s nerves through Ronnie Anne’s constant pranking on Lincoln and Lincoln calling her out at the worst times, it’s astounding that they’re still able to bond over some shared interests and slowly develop a respect for each other.  Even with the pleasing moments we’ve seen between them, the fact that we’ve only gotten so few of them and that Ronnie Anne is shown to be one of the school’s tough kids, it makes sense that not everything would be perfect between the two.  This is shown when this cartoon’s plot has them assigned to look after an egg for the week as if it’s their baby.  Since Ronnie Anne is, as I just stated, one of the tough kids, Lincoln is extremely hesitant to let her have the egg, so he plots to keep it all to himself all day.  To illustrate Lincoln’s fear of Ronnie Anne potentially handling the egg we get a comedic highlight for the cartoon which is a series of quick scenes of Lincoln imagining Ronnie Anne comically and monstrously breaking the egg.  They’re cool to see, but after a lot of them happen, you’d probably be left wondering why Lincoln is this mistrusting of Ronnie Anne after all the genuinely nice moments they’ve had together.  I mean, if Clyde can be trusting of a girl he hardly knows named Penelope while they look after their egg baby, surely Lincoln can do the same for a girl he has some knowledge of.  She may be rough, but she’s not dumb enough to act that way during a school project.  Thankfully, this is just what Lincoln discovers when after making a rubber cement twin of his and Ronnie Anne’s egg and accidentally giving her the real egg, he winds up at her house where he discovers what she’s really like.  Through some nice moments of helping Bobby get ready for work and helping her mom with chores, it’s revealed that Ronnie Anne can be careful and trustworthy.  It’s a sweet eye-opening moment for Lincoln, but since he should’ve been more trusting of her in the first place after all this time, when Ronnie Anne discovers his egg swap trick, her anger is understandable, though it does result in the real egg baby breaking.  Fortunately, rather than letting the cartoon end on a downer note for both Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, we close with Lincoln getting them both another chance at caring for an egg baby, now more trusting of Ronnie Anne and knowing what she’s really like.  She may prank him and can be rough with her friends at school, but when it comes to serious matters like family and school projects, she’s one of the most reliable friends he could ask for.  With newly revealed layers to flesh out Ronnie Anne’s character, strong comedy, and a relatable message on the importance of getting to know someone, this cartoon effectively continues this season’s trend of expanding the show’s world by developing side characters and being a strong cartoon in general. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1. 11 Louds a Leapin’
2. Frog Wild
3. Party Down
4. Lock n Loud
5. Fed Up
6. Baby Steps
7. Shell Shock
8. Suite and Sour
9. Back in Black
10. Patching Things Up
11. The Whole Picture
12. The Old and the Restless
13. Kick the Bucket List
14. Intern for the Worse
15. Cheater by the Dozen
16. Making the Grade
17. Vantastic Voyage
18. No Such Luck
19. Brawl in the Family

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Lincoln's day gets a superhero edge to it in "Pulp Friction" and the Loud Pets take the spotlight in "Pets Peeved."

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