'Toon Reviews 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 24: One Last Score

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One Last Score

To broaden the appeal of the series, there are cartoons that develop side characters.  This one gives such development to one of the students at the Fitness Dojo. They usually work out and going nuts over how cute K.O., the son of their instructor, is.  However, while what we see is enjoyable, it’s hard to figure out how to feel about the direction that’s taken with the featured characters. 

The elderly student at the Fitness Dojo, Ginger, reveals to K.O. that she was once a candy thief. This came with committing obvious theft whose magnitude went far beyond the usual snagging of treats from purses and cupboards.  Heck, her sidekick ended up getting arrested because of her.  Now in the present, Ginger wants to relive her glory days by performing a heist at a literal candy museum holding a special candy, the Ponce.  The Ponce can temporarily make her young again with just one lick. 

It’s believable that she’d want to do this since reliving youth is a common thing for the elderly to do. The fact that she’s going so far as to rob a candy being used as a museum piece is going too far.  Because of this, it’s disturbing that she guilt-trips the ever moral K.O. into doing this despite him clearly being uncomfortable about the prospect of stealing.  It’s at least nice that he’s willing to comply with his morals through it all though.  Also, when you take out the moral compass of the whole ordeal, the heist is legitimately fun to watch. There are enjoyable interactions between K.O. and Ginger and the fact that they’re going through so much trouble in the name of a candy is something to laugh at. 

Still, there’s something unsettling about Ginger’s motives, especially when she brings up how there’s always a double-cross at the end of a heist.  Even though she says that she won’t do that to K.O., it’s not entirely convincing, though K.O. is far too innocent and trusting to consider that.  From here, we get more enjoyable teamwork from K.O. and Ginger. They disarm to the Ponce’s alarm system, work in candy themed gags to take out the guards, and the attempted getaway makes for a fun climax. 

However, it takes a slight miscalculation on Ginger’s part to get that gets them caught.  After which, her shady move is revealed when she does double-cross K.O. after all.  She claims that he was the mastermind behind the heist when he really wanted nothing to do with it.  This leads into a very confusing ending when K.O. reveals to have double-crossed.  He switched the candies, and he and Ginger somehow were disguised as each other the whole time.  The disguises are especially confusing since there were never any earlier scenes to suggest such a thing or an exclamation of how they figure this out.  Then there’s the fact that other members of the Fitness Dojo were in on the heist. This is disturbing that all these moral people, even K.O.’s moralistic mommy, were in on this crime.  There is some endearment to this reveal that K.O. arranged all this to help Ginger, but it’s hard to shake off that no one considers that this move is going too far.  The payoff isn’t even worth it all that much since all the Ponce does is make Ginger’s hair red. 

While a couple moments are very off-putting and at times confusing, the cartoon is still a harmless one about the relatable desire of reliving one’s youth.

C-

The Ranking

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

The next OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode introduces us to K.O.'s alter ego built on negative emotions and turbo power, T.K.O.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Star vs the Forces of Evil episode featuring "Baby" and "Running with Scissors."

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 5: DuckTales Vol 1 Part 23

Sweet Duck of Youth

One thing I believe is a normal thing to go through at a certain point in anyone’s life is that people would feel too old to do things the way they did when they were younger.  With that in mind, I think it’s believable for people to relate to Scrooge in this episode.  At the start, he starts to feel old and believes he’s not as fit and full of energy as he used to be through backing out of a mission which he claims to have never done before, and getting a rocking chair for his birthday.  That’s essentially an embodiment of that relatable scenario.  The plot gets going when Scrooge learns about the Fountain of Youth, a magical fountain designed to bring eternal youth to anyone who drinks from it discovered by Ponce de Loon, and sets out to find it with Launchpad and the boys in tow.  The search for the Fountain of Youth is mainly constructed from scenes of the characters trying to get around the Okeefedokee Swamp with run ins with quicksand, getting around the swamp by converting Launchpad’s helicopter into a riverboat via the Junior Woodchucks guidebook, the group getting separated, and what appears to be a ghost shooting arrows and catching intruders in nets.  These scenes are enhanced by the quirks of the characters involved as they show off their resourcefulness, and light-hearted humor.  We also witness a lot of Scrooge surviving in and navigating the swamp well on his own amidst him lamenting his old age, set to lead to the eventual message, but still showing off the appeal of his character.  Plus, there are some nice twists to the adventure.  They include the supposed ghost turning out to be a random guy living in the swamp for half his life who’s also set on finding the Fountain of Youth while wearing Ponce de Loon’s old armor, the location of the fountain cleverly hidden in the armor which the boys creatively uncover, and the biggest twist of all, what the Fountain of Youth really does.  As it turns out, when everyone eventually does find the Fountain of Youth, all it does is show reflections of people’s youth, not physically make them younger.  It’s a nice subversion of what we’d expect from a depiction of the fountain, but this disappointment is benefitted from by Scrooge.  He realizes that you’re only as old as you feel, and that he survived the whole adventure, including the moments I highlighted earlier, despite his age.  With that, the episode is capped off nicely with a scene of Scrooge energetically getting back to civilization while everyone else tiredly lags behind.  At its core, this is a pretty basic mid-life crisis story, but the character moments, clever twists, and strong sense of adventure help the episode make a name of itself. 9/10

The Ranking

1. The Curse of Castle McDuck
2. Hotel Strangeduck
3. Maid of the Myth
4. Hero for Hire
5. Top Duck
6. Robot Robbers
7. Much Ado About Scrooge
8. Magica’s Shadow War
9. Duckman of Aquatraz
10. Launchpad’s Civil War
11. Armstrong
12. Sir Gyro de Gearloose
13. Master of the Djinni
14. Sphinx for the Memories
15. Send in the Clones
16. Sweet Duck of Youth
17. Down and Out in Duckburg
18. The Lost Crown of Genghis Kahn
19. The Money Vanishes
20. Where No Duck Has Gone Before
21. Dinosaur Ducks
22. Pearl of Wisdom
23. Superdoo!
    

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where the show gives a creative reason behind earthquakes in "Earth Quack."

If you would like to check out other reviews on this blog, click here for the guide to all the reviews posted so far.