'Toon Reviews 15: Steven Unvierse Season 2 Episode 2: Joy Ride

Joy Ride

Even if not all the supporting characters of this show are all that interesting, they work because of the solid relationships they have with Steven. 

Take the Cool Kids, Sour Cream, Jenny Pizza, and Buck Dewey, for instance.  They’re a basic gang of teens who hang out and do things for fun.  However, there’s a hidden depth to them that make them worth your time.  You’d expect a gang of cool kids to think they’re the best and everyone else is beneath them, but they’re way more human.  Anyone can befriend them through being themselves, and that’s why they’re fond of Steven.  This cartoon here shows this off when they end up giving Steven what he needs. 

The effects of the Homeworld invasion are shown to be gradually resolving as Steven is spending all his time helping the Crystal Gems clear the beach of the remains of Peridot’s ship.  That’s when the Cool Kids come and take Steven out for fun late at night.  As they hang out together, we get a further taste of their endearing side as they talk about the problems they have with their families. Sour Cream’s dad wants him to be a fisherman instead of a DJ, Buck is always judged for all his actions because he’s the mayor’s son, and Jenny is constantly nagged by her sister Kiki.  While they’re more fleshed out with these factoids, they still feel like typical teens who want to do what they want. 

When Steven explains his family problems which include him thinking the Crystal Gems blame him for his mom, Rose Quartz, not being around, it’s great that they realize how petty their problems are compared to his.  They are understanding that some people have it worse, and since Steven honestly feels like his guardians think he’s the cause of their biggest grief, he deserves their compassion. 

As for how the Cool Kids help Steven deal with what he’s been through, their methods are questionable, mostly leaning towards their delinquent sides.  They find Peridot’s escape pod which the Crystal Gems are hard-pressed to find, and since Peridot herself isn’t inside it, the Cool Kids coax Steven into taking selfies by it and getting inside to operate it.  This is clearly irresponsible and hard to get behind, but this impact is lessened by Steven frequently saying the pod needs to be taken to the Gems and the Cool Kids’ good intents of helping Steven break from the pressure of his work.  So, there’s agreeable aspects to these actions, even if, like the last time the Cool Kids messed with magic stuff, it leads to serious danger of Steven getting stuck in the pod and almost getting beaten up by the Crystal Gems who sense its activation. 

After an intense end to the action when the Cool Kids stop the Gems from smashing the pod while Steven’s inside, they defend him saying that the whole thing was their fault because they were trying to get his mind off his heavy pressures.  This further sells the Cool Kids as great, albeit flawed, characters since their words get the Crystal Gems to realize that Steven does need some time for fun, especially after what he’s been through.  They even finally unground him from TV, which is good on account that 1,000 years to be grounded from it was way too long to begin with. 

We’re overall left with a solid relatable message that balancing work and fun is the best thing for a healthy lifestyle.  It’s true that life isn’t all fun and games, but it’s not all work and serious stuff either.  So even if it doesn’t come from the most interesting of characters, the way the story and their bond with Steven plays out makes them fine additions to the cast all the same. 9/10

The Ranking

1. Full Disclosure
2. Joy Ride

The next Steven Universe review will be on a crossover with, of all Cartoon Network shows, Uncle Grandpa.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the review of Episode 2 of Hey Arnold Season 3.


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

'Toon Reviews 13: The Loud House Season 2 Episode 9: Kick the Bucket List/Party Down

Kick the Bucket List

This is another cartoon about Lincoln and Clyde getting up to activities best suited for their age, so that’s a sign that it’s not going to be as exciting as something with more interesting characters like most of Lincoln’s sisters and the side characters.  Nevertheless, what’s present in this cartoon is still fun and even relatable to an extent, especially if you’re a student.  If you are one or were one, breaks from school are no doubt something special to look forward to such as spring break.  With many days off, there are so many opportunities for fun, which is precisely how Lincoln and Clyde approach their upcoming spring break.  They have a whole itinerary of the best things they could do in a week and intend to do everything on their list.  It is smart that they planned what to do ahead of time and that the very thing that gets in the way of their schedule is out of their control.  Clyde’s dads surprise him with a vacation to Hawaii which Clyde won’t be back from until the last day of the break.  This factor makes it easy to get behind their attempts to work a week’s worth of activities into one day.  However, even if what Lincoln and Clyde decide to do is easy to get behind, it’s still not that exciting especially since it’s easy to predict that rushing through the activities will backfire if you’re old enough to know that’s what happens when you do it in real life.  From watching recorded episodes of their favorite TV show as it fast-forwards, to attempting and failing to ride a new Dairyland ride by cutting the line, to ending up orange while trying to swim in a pool of gelatin, the fun activities that continually backfire just keep on coming and their pretty obvious.  They’re thankfully funny most of the time, but they happen so much you wish that Lincoln and Clyde would remember what they learned about how schedules shouldn’t get in the way of having fun back in “Overnight Success.” There’s even more backfiring fun when their rushing leads Lincoln and Clyde to split up to finish the list.  This is where the enjoyment picks up when some of Lincoln’s sisters are thrown into the mix at times as well as Clyde having a humorous running gag of posing random objects as Lincoln as he does his share of activities, and constantly loses them.  However, the most exciting part of the cartoon comes at the end when Lincoln and Clyde meet up and have a ride home filled with non-stop action which always has you question what will happen next.  Not only does the race home save the most amount of entertainment for last, but it also effectively gives Lincoln and Clyde the message of how having fun is more important than schedules, even though they should already know this.  It may be easy to predict that things will go wrong, but since this cartoon is still highly entertaining as it is, it’s easy to forgive all that and enjoy what we have. 9/10

Party Down

What’s so special about taking a lot of distinct characters and bringing them together for a party?  It’s that a cartoon featuring this scenario is bound to turn out to be an exciting gathering with various character interactions and various points of view.  That’s the case with this party-themed cartoon, and the way the party builds up to a big, fun gathering is effective through the story direction.  It’s about Lori being allowed to throw her own party, and she wants everything to be perfectly sophisticated based on what she reads in a magazine.  However, through Lori following the magazine closely, the party may be sophisticated, but it’s very boring for all the guests that attend, and you really get their boredom as they struggle to go along with the sophisticated mannerisms of the party without enjoying themselves.  It’s only when some of the Loud siblings show off their skills when the party gets more fun for the guests, unsophisticated as it is. They include Luna making music out of anything she could fine, Luan telling jokes with her dummy, Mr. Coconuts, to an audience more receptive than her family, and Lincoln performing party tricks he studied disguised as a Russian exchange student.  Since what they do doesn’t fit the guidelines of Lori’s magazine, Lori ultimately bans them from the party, though thankfully, she isn’t nearly as harsh or bossy when doing so as she was earlier in the series, so that’s another clear sign of development for her.  However, without Lori’s family around, the party suffers as more guests are driven to leave and Lori slowly realizes that her trying to be sophisticated isn’t making for a good party.  Even if she was in the wrong for relying too much on that magazine, Lori is still sympathetic in this case since her intentions were understandable and she was never too hostile towards anyone who was simply trying to liven up the party.  However, that long time of Lori’s boring party and brief scenes of her siblings wanting to make things fun is what builds up to an incredibly lively party big on fun and featuring one fun character moment after another.  It also builds into a more satisfying conclusion to show that Lori’s learned to lighten up and have fun when it comes to parties.  It starts off with a fun party with her family that even she adds onto, but then Leni, through her interest of posting things, informs the guests who left of a more exciting party, which leads to Lori being rewarded with the big party she wanted as well as enjoyable interactions between the guests and the Louds.  Then when Mom and Dad come home to the wildly fun party, it would be easy for them to ruin the mood and stop the party just when it was getting fun.  Thankfully, they willingly join in the harmless fun, sealing the deal to this ending party being the perfect conclusion to this story.  Basically, this is one of those cartoons where everything just works with Lori’s great portrayal, a relatable setup, and a sense of fun that builds up to a grand finale of memorable character moments. 10/10

The Ranking

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

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where the kids get "Fed Up" with Dad's making the same dinner every week and team up to do something about it, and Ronnie Anne returns to team up with Lincoln for an egg baby challenge in "Shell Shocked."
If you would like to check out other Loud House reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 9: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 1 Episode 9

Freeze Day

The main plot is yet another instance of fun and hijinks from Star’s magic, but it’s still a ton of fun with great moments from the characters involved.  Star’s wand spell here is freezing time which is cast when Marco panics about being late for school.  It’s not because of needing to be in time for class or to keep up a perfect attendance record.  It’s all about being there for something as simple as nodding at his crush, Jackie Lynn Thomas, who apparently passes by his locker at a specific time every day.  Even if what Marco wants to do is a relatively minor concern, it’s still great that Star reserves her spells to help him.  At the same time, she also allows Marco to take advantage of time being frozen as they spend a lot of time messing around with everything immobilized.  Personally, I wouldn’t call this too reckless because when it’s revealed that Star can’t unfreeze time, it’s made clear that this would’ve happened regardless of her and Marco’s lollygagging.  You see, they have to travel to a dimension called the Plains of Time to fix time, and they learn the reason time hasn’t gotten unfrozen is because Father Time was knocked off his wheel when the spell was cast and didn’t get back on it.  Now, Father Time himself is a pretty enjoyable character for finding pleasures in simple things like mud which is believable considering all the time he spends running on that wheel to keep time going.  Of course, he’d jump at the chance for a break from it even if time needs to keep going.  So, Star and Marco chase Father Time through the plains which provides the bulk of the episode’s creativity particularly with clocks that alter their ages.  It’s only when they track Father Time in a part of the plains that record all of the universe’s history which houses a one-eyed creature that shows the lives of anyone it looks at.  It’s a truly creative addition to the dimension and makes for cute looks at Star and Marco’s childhoods.  As for Father Time, Star and Marco see firsthand that he really hasn’t done anything besides running on the wheel, so they set something up for him to see everything while doing his job.  This is a more interesting and considerate direction for the story to take than the easy route of convincing Father Time that boredom from his job is something he has to deal with.  The adventure also proves beneficial for Marco when they get back with time working properly.  He not only nods at Jackie, like he’s done for years as shown by the creature, but even talks to her.  It’s just a simple “hi” but it really is a good first step in the progress of his relationship with her.  Ultimately, I can say that this spell-hijinks episode is made good by the character development woven into the mix. 9/10

Royal Pain

After seeing how Star and her father, King River, are more in common than they may seem in “Diaz Family Vacation,” an episode of them spending time together would be a pleasing one to look forward to.  Well, in this episode, he comes to stay with his daughter after getting kicked out of the castle in Mewni, and his presence becomes annoying to not just Star, but the audience as well.  At first, their interactions are pleasing with River approving of Star’s recklessness with her wand.  The two share a lot of nice scenes of exploring what Earth has to offer and putting their own spin on them such as throwing random things into the toilet as they watch the water go down and using their own powerful clubs while playing miniature golf.  However, as time goes on, River becomes too destructive for everyone around him, and Star’s growing annoyance is easy to see.  She may be reckless too, but even earlier in the season she’s had some restraint.  What her dad’s doing is going too far.  It just gets worse when he acts like a slob late into the night when Star isn’t even remotely up for messing around, and the next day, he throws a wild party with all his interdimensional friends without any notice to his daughter's feelings.  As frustrating as it is to see Star have to put up with this unruly behavior, she never seems to take the hint that the way her dad’s acting is similar to how she sometimes acts around Marco, especially since he’s constantly suffering in this episode by getting his socks wet.  Fortunately, Star goes on to see Marco’s point of view when she takes care of an uninvited party guest, a living sun called Helios, who harasses everyone at the party in his own way complete with a spell that nicely connects to Marco’s wet socks problem.  Plus, River realizes how inconsiderate and reckless he’s been too which is the best payoff to his grating antics we could get.  Ultimately, they both learn to give others a heads-up before acting, and that does wonders not just for Star and her father’s bond, but also for Star and Marco’s bond.  This episode can get tiresome with how much emphasis is on the recklessness of the central characters, but the payoff makes everything worth it. 8/10

The Ranking

1. Blood Moon Ball
2. Mewberty
3. Diaz Family Vacation
4. Fortune Cookies
5. Sleep Spells
6. School Spirit
7. Party with a Pony
8. Freeze Day
9. Quest Buy
10. Monster Arm
11. Cheer up Star
12. Star Comes to Earth
13. Brittney’s Party
14. Matchmaker
15. Lobster Claws
16. Pixtopia
17. Royal Pain
18. The Other Exchange Student

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where, after so many mentions and scared reactions from certain characters, we finally pay a visit to "St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses."

If you would like to check out other Star vs the Forces of Evil reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'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."