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Star vs
Echo Creek
As
most people can see, Star’s eccentric personality and reliance on her wand
often gets her into trouble, but most of the time, there’s always a good laugh
to get out of these situation. Here,
there’s a lot of memorable fun encounters and moments from the havoc she
causes, but exactly what she does makes the story a little concerning.
When she gives herself a sugar high after
eating a burrito with sugar, she goes crazy with casting spells and ends up
crushing a police car. Marco explains
the unbelievable magnitude of what Star just did will get her sent to jail
prompting Star to run away. It’s
understandable that Star is afraid of going to jail, but of all the misdeeds
she committed, damage to a police vehicle is the biggest one of all, yet she
actively chooses to do nothing about it. She even
ignores Marco when he tries to talk her out of it despite him having a good
track record when it comes to advice. As
a result, Star is somewhat irrational and irresponsible for ignoring her own
felonies. This may be in line with her
character, but it also goes to show how underdeveloped she is. For all the trouble her magic got her into
and all the times Marco’s advice saved her, you’d think she’d learn to be less
reckless. by now
While this is a prevalent
feeling, there’s still some mild entertainment from who Star runs into while on
the run. For one of them, while she’s on
the Echo Creek riverfront, she meets an woman who specializes in
making pancakes and has a particular fondness for hair. There’s suspense when her fondness of hair
leads you to believe she’s going to take it from Star before the truth is
revealed that she uses used hair to craft things. However, even when this place is confirmed
safe, Star becomes irrational again when the idea of letting her loved ones
know she’s safe is brought up. You have to wonder why she wouldn’t want to do
that since this doesn’t even involve the police.
As for another encounter, it’s far more
insightful since it’s clearly in Star’s imagination. She passes out after hiding in the river and
gets a vision of a happy pink sea serpent inviting her to live in an underwater
hideout where she can do “anything [she wants] to,” which even comes with a lively musical number. However, Star
frequently suggests letting Marco know she’s ok, but the serpent keeps talking
her out of it, eventually saying he’s just a visualization of her mind trying
to convince her she’s doing the right thing laying low. In other words, Star is thinking of doing the
right thing, but keeps holding herself back, and this portrayal of her is the
most relatable she’s been this whole time.
The encounter is basically a creative interpretation of an internal
conflict which is always great to see in animation. It’s also the one to finally convince her to
do the right thing and confess her felony to the cops who then take her to
Marco.
As for the police car, it’s a bit
of a cop-out from real consequences that the car was going to be smashed anyway
and all Star has to do is wash the car, despite still opting to use magic to
get it done. The episode is still
charming and likable with character moments and creative scenarios, but Star’s
questionable morality at the forefront holds back the appeal. It doesn’t ruin the experience at all, but
this big a display of her flaws is hard to ignore.
C
Wand to
Wand
We
see more of Ludo trying to make it on his own in the wild in this episode,
which is great to see after what “Ludo in the Wild” showed how well he braved
the elements before reaching a suitable position of well-being right down to
finding the missing piece of Star’s wand.
The start of the episode features him attempt to use it to get some
decent food at a bar run by rats, but there’s a major challenge in using it to
keep up with survival and his boost in power because he can’t get the wand to
work. Out of his attempts to get it to
work, there’s an interesting look at how well he works with his bird and spider
comrades when they both do something to make him mad which in turn powers the
wand.
Of course, Ludo actually working
the wand turns out to be more complicated than that when he tries to
purposefully make the bar rats mad enough to beat him up to power it. He does eventually produce the same magic
beam as before which knocks all the rats away, but it takes a long while and a
big beating from rodents to make it happen, and he quickly loses control when
the beam is shot. Ludo may not be a
master of the wand by any means, but the power he unlocks with it is still
really effective even with only half of its power.
As for the other half, the episode also
focuses on Star’s problems with her own wand when she attempts to use it to do
a task as simple, yet boring as taking out the garbage. I have to say that for how much of a big deal
it was that the wand lost its power in the Season 1 finale, it’s kind of
inconsistent that the wand goes from being faulty to as functional as ever from
episode to episode. This episode
highlights its newly established weaknesses when Star creates a talking cloud
to take out the garbage for her, and the cloud doesn’t listen instead making a
bigger mess in Marco’s house being completely condescending all the way.
Things only get worse when Star becomes so
fed up with the cloud that she tries blasting at it, and it gets filled with so
much rage that it creates a huge violent storm.
The following literal battle through the storm is a particular highlight
for the episode where Star feels the only way to stop the cloud is to keep
blasting at it, but that only makes the cloud want to suck up even more things
including Marco. However, during the
battle, Star realizes the only way to quell the green and enraged cloud is to
give it a friendlier spell instead of a destructive one, so she casts a
friendlier spell which makes the cloud pink and happy. This indicates that even with her wand in a
cleaved state, Star can still learn to find a way to control it as well as be
more mindful of what she casts. There’s
even some believable growth to her character when she decides to clean up the
mess the cloud made without magic, though I have to admit that it would’ve been
more impactful if it came before the events of “Red Belt” then there’d be a
more believable reason for her opting to not use magic there.
Ultimately though, this episode offers a nice
look at how both the main protagonist and antagonist unlock control of their
cleaved weapons leaving one to wonder who has the better control.
A-
The Ranking
- Ludo in the Wild
- Mr. Candle Cares
- Wand to Wand
- Star on Wheels
- My New Wand
- Red Belt
- Star vs Echo Creek
- Fetch
The next Star vs the Forces of Evil review introduces the completely crazy Mina Loveberry, and features a camping trip with King River.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a Rocko's Modern Life review on "Cabin Fever" and "Rinse and Spit."
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.
