'Toon Reviews 11: Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 1 Episode 7: Return to the Balmera

Return to the Balmera

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we’ve learned about Balmeras and have gotten to know the creatures who inhabit them, we’re set up to root for the Voltron team to save them from the rule of Galra by breaking them out of prison, particularly Shay and her family.  The whole rescue mission features several exciting moments as the team makes its way around the Balmera with the knowledge that it’s an actual living creature they shouldn’t hurt.  Right at the start, the excitement of the mission is effective through a fast-paced sequence of the team taking out the Galra defense devices along the Balmera.  Things get even more exciting and tense when a lack of Galra soldiers lead the team down to a hanger full of them.  Throughout the underground jailbreak sequence, while there isn’t a lot of time for character growth or interactions apart from some amusing banter between Lance and Keith as they deduce how to close the hanger to weaken Galra defenses, it’s still a good continuation of the excitement of the mission.  It all leads to a big reveal that even with the weakened defenses, Galra, specifically a commander named Prorok, knew the team was headed to the Balmera, and the Paladins end up trapped in its core with Shay who was used as bait while their floating castle ship is put at the mercy of a mob of Galra ships.  It’s this moment though that reveals another creative element of the Balmerans.  Their devotion to their literal beast of a planet allows them to send messages to each other as Shay sends a distress call to her imprisoned family.  Sure, her family’s eventual reveal to use the same power to open the doors to the core, as well as Rax regretting his actions without a moment between this episode and him getting Shay imprisoned in “Tears of the Balmera” are a little too convenient for the moment, but it’s still easy to get an impressed response to the reveal.  The excitement of the mission reaches its high point when the Paladins escape the Balmera core in time to get to their Voltron lions and help their advisors fend off the Galra attackers featuring yet another great formation sequence of the titular robot.  In an interesting turn of events, the final blow doesn’t come from Voltron who simply sets it up.  It actually comes from their usual associates, Allura and Coran, and with their already weakened castle ship too.  Even at that, the excitement doesn’t end, for in the last moments of the episode, the Paladins are led to fight another Robeast, immediately sent by Zarkon due to Prorok’s failure of a plan, which will take them into the next episode.  As for this episode, it works very well as a follow-up to our introduction to the Balmerans with an exciting adventure that’s engaging to the end, even if it lacks in meaningful character moments. 9/10

The Ranking

1.      The Rise of Voltron

2.      The Fall of the Castle of Lions

3.      Return of the Gladiator

4.      Return to the Balmera

5.      Tears of the Balmera

6.      Some Assembly Required

7.      Taking Flight

 

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where we're treated to the Robeast fight this episode teased and one of Princess Allura's best moments in "Rebirth."

If you would like to check out other Voltron: Legendary Defender reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Review 9: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 1 Episode 10

St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses

St. Olga’s Reform School has been built up as a place no one would want to end up in for several instances this season.  Now we’re finally seeing it, and what the episode consists of really delivers.  Everything unfolds when Star calls her friend who was sent to the reform school, Princess Pony Head, for her birthday, and notices how close she is to losing her individuality.  Feeling sorry that her friend has to suffer like this, Star and Marco decide to give Pony Head the best birthday gift they can by busting her out.  The whole episode is an exciting jailbreak plot with many things to make it a season highlight.  Some of them include the many designs of the characters, not just of the unruly and rebellious princesses whose appearances clash with the traditional princess look the school pushes for, but also Star and Marco’s disguises, particularly Marco wearing a dress.  The biggest aspect of the school is how it works.  The headmistress, Ms. Heinous, and her robot guards are strictly against princesses who doesn’t comply with the traditional princesses standards, so they proceed to put them in never-ending classes on etiquette, singing with animals, and dressing nice to strip them of their individuality.  Really, this is one of the cruelest things anyone could be put through.  Even if some traits can cause problems for others, they should be given better control, not stripped entirely.  It prevents people from being who they really are which is never a good thing.  With this dark setup in place, Star and Marco go through their jailbreak their own way.  Star is overwhelmed with fear of the place and what it does, but pushes on with great devotion to her friend.  Marco is the strongest and most confident of the duo, knowledgable on jailbreak movies and even helps the school’s wayward princesses rebel with the memorable chant, “It’s not criminal to be an individual!”  Even then, it’s clear that some princesses like Pony Head have some individuality in them.  You see, Pony Head has slowly lost the fun and wild traits that defined her the more she stayed at the school, much to Star’s distress.  There are some times when she reflects her true self, but they’re not strong enough for her to snap out of what was forced on her.  Fortunately, she pulls through when Marco needs rescuing from solitary conformant where he’s forced to watch slides of proper behavior and helps Star rescue Marco.  This scene is then capped off with a grand finale of all the princess breaking down the gates as well as a tower preventing the use of interdimensional scissors making the school’s entrance a wild party area which is really rewarding for Pony Head and everyone stripped of their true selves.  Still, Pony Head makes the noble decision to stay at the school so what happened to her doesn’t happen to anyone else, yet is grateful for Star and Marco getting her back to normal, leaving her in a mature, yet wayward state.  We also end with some tension with Ms. Heinous finding out that one of the rebel princesses is from Earth, showing that this isn’t the last we’ll see of this school.  The buildup to the reform school really paid off here with a dark environment, huge stakes, and some of the absolute best moments from the characters involved. 10/10

The Ranking

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

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Star realizes that monsters have feelings too on "Mewnipendence  Day" and her literal-mindedness is put to hilarious effect during "The Banagic Incident."

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 6: Steven Universe Season 1 Episode 52 + Final Thoughts

Jailbreak

Continuing the trend of “The Return”, this last cartoon explodes with excitement all the way through, making this a truly epic finish.  It all happens when Steven recovers from Jasper’s blow to his head and easily gets out of his cell which apparently wasn’t equipped to hold in humans as opposed to Gems.  While searching for everyone else as the ship holding them as prisoner heads for Homeworld, he comes across two completely new Gems.  One is the fiery and temperamental Ruby and the other is the calm and collected Sapphire.  They’re both likable and appealing characters by themselves, but during the escape, they both appear desperate to find each other.  Once Ruby and Sapphire finally find each other, we see the reason for their desperation.

They’re a romantic couple, and given that all the Gems we’ve seen take on the form of females, this makes this reveal a solid form of LGBT representation.  What’s more, it’s proven to be a big piece of representation for the group when we see that Ruby and Sapphire fused together equals Garnet explaining her three eyes, two Gem powers opposed to one, and her regularly balanced demeanor; she’s a fusion.  This means that even though we’ve never seen Ruby and Sapphire themselves before, them forming one of the main characters means we’ve seen them be a couple since the beginning.  This newly revealed information of Garnet and the Gems who form her leads to a fight with Jasper.  Like most fights, this one has a lot of action with punches, fast movements, and even a few explosions, but it also comes with an awesome song entitled, “Stronger Than You.”  It has a catchy tune that matches the pace of the fight and never feels out of place, and works as an anthem for Garnet’s status as a fusion.  As Jasper shows disdain towards fusion, the song greatly illustrates her pride in who she is and how she benefits as a Gem made of love.  It’s thanks to Garnet that the jailbreak is a success, but things remain intense even when the cartoon’s nearly finished.  For one thing, Peridot escapes in a pod as the ship crashes down to Earth, leading to a major plot thread for the next season, and Jasper survives the crash, as does Lapis.  Jasper convinces Lapis to fuse with her to finish off the Crystal Gems, and when Lapis accepts, it seems like a nasty betrayal to everyone, especially Steven.  Then, at the last moment, it’s revealed that Lapis’ acceptance was a ploy to trap her and Jasper, both of whom fused as the more powerful Malachite, at the bottom the ocean which is both brave, and further painting Lapis as a tragic character.  She spent so long trapped in a mirror, and now under her own power, she’s trapped again.  She really can’t get a break.  I think the final moment of Steven and the Crystal Gems starring blankly at what happened with only the sound of Connie calling Steven who had left her a message earlier is a perfect reaction.  The whole cartoon closes the season with one exciting moment after another that it’s hard to take it all in, with Garnet’s reveal as a fusion, the awesome song set to a battle, and intense moments full of things to expect in the future.  It really shows the evolution of the story and cements the series’ status as a major experience. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Rose’s Scabbard
2. Jailbreak
3. Ocean Gem
4. The Return
5. Lion 3: Straight to Video
6. Alone Together
7. Coach Steven
8. On the Run
9. Story for Steven
10. Maximum Capacity
11. Mirror Gem
12. An Indirect Kiss
13. Space Race
14. So Many Birthdays
15. Steven the Sword Fighter
16. Lion 2: The Movie
17. Bubble Buddies
18. Monster Buddies
19. Laser Light Cannon
20. Winter Forecast
21. Giant Woman
22. Lars and the Cool Kids
23. The Test
24. The Message
25. Steven’s Lion
26. Horror Club
27. Watermelon Steven
28. Gem Glow
29. Steven and the Stevens
30. Marble Madness
31. Warp Tour
32. Open Book
33. Island Adventure
34. Rose’s Room
35. Cheeseburger Backpack
36. Future Vision
37. Political Power
38. Secret Team
39. House Guest
40. Serious Steven
41. Joking Victim
42. Beach Party
43. Cat Fingers
44. Tiger Millionaire
45. Together Breakfast
46. Fusion Cuisine
47. Frybo
48. Shirt Club
49. Onion Trade
50. Arcade Mania
51. Garnet’s Universe
52. Keep Beach City Weird

Final Thoughts

People often say that life is like a box of chocolates which means that you never know what you’ll get.  From this first season, this concept is easily true for Steven Universe, though in that case, I should be saying that life is like a bunch of gems.  Every cartoon that makes up the season is not only different from each other, but they also manage to come off as good and appealing like a gem would.  Even the weakest cartoons have something good to take from them which further demonstrates the show’s status as something special.  We have simple slice-of-life cartoons that stand out with top-notch humor and character interactions, character-building cartoons that are big on heart and interesting information, and dark and serious cartoons that bring about major new directions for the main story to take.  Even when the cartoons aren’t the best, they’re all enjoyable in their own way, and that’s a rare thing for any series.  There’s always something good to take away.

One major thing to praise the show for is its creative premise in how much there is to the alien race of Gems.  In just about any cartoon, including those that feature Steven doing a fun activity, we see some aspect of Gem lore that adds to their engagement.  We see how they summon weapons, how they access rooms, their main goal on Earth, how they handle the monsters they fight, how they go through life and death, how they get their certain appearances, and many more.  In addition to all the insightful and creative elements of Gems, we also get a lot of emotional points to them such as how badly their forms and minds are altered when their gemstones are broken or corrupted.  Knowing that this is the reason why many Gems turned into monsters really adds a tragic tone to how they work.  Also, considering that there was a war between Gems that resulted in many corruptions and casualties makes the lore all the more enticing, so it’s always great to learn more information about the war, and we’re still learning more about it right into its current season.  True, the first half of the season doesn’t have many cartoons big on Gem information this deep and the big stuff doesn’t come through until the second half which makes this season less interesting than what’s to come, but even when it’s not dealing with heavy stuff, the Gem information we do get is still a true testament to this show’s vast creativity.

This great lore really works because of the characters we follow all throughout.  Our three main Gems, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl each have their own personalities that make them distinctive from one another allowing them to work off each other very well.  At first, they may seem like your average super hero group through always taking on anything harming Earth, but as we see more of the show, we see how their role is deeper than it seems.  Aside from their past of breaking from their rulers and starting a war, their characters have heavy reasons behind them that explain their reason to fight.  Amethyst’s creation being part of Homeworld’s destruction of Earth allows her to make herself be of good use to where she was made, Pearl’s past with Rose Quartz brings about something for her to get over as she fights for what Rose believed in, and Garnet being a fusion explains so much of what we see of her through the season namely her pride in being who she is in a world that accepts it.  All these Gems are great characters to follow, and what we learn about them and their past is effectively shown through Steven himself.  He’s literally present for everything in the cartoons allowing him to observe everything there is to know about Gems in his own childlike way.  In the beginning though, he really can be somewhat of a nuisance by focusing more on frivolous matters, doing boneheaded things with dangerous artifacts, and getting in the way when others are doing something important.  Thankfully, very early on, he actually starts learning from his escapades and matures little by little through starting to take things like Gems and their powers, living up to the things his late mother did, and his status as a member of the team, seriously, up to the point of dealing with Gem monsters without his guardians’ help.  It’s also great to note that this development really sticks for the rest of the series.  We also have interesting characters in the other Gems we meet this season like the tragically sympathetic Lapis Lazuli, the mysterious Peridot, and the ever-threatening and seemingly unstoppable Jasper, with each one we meet demonstrating the mystery and menace of Homeworld.  As for everyone else, while we see a lot of great ones with interesting depths and strong relationships with Steven like his dad Greg and best friend Connie, everyone else isn’t nearly as interesting, making the cartoons focusing on them noticeably weaker than others.  However, what makes them work regardless is Steven’s connections with them in which we see that even the least pleasing people have a lot of good in them so they’re all worth watching, even the likes of Lars or Ronaldo.  Ultimately, no matter how strong they are, it’s possible to get something to like through this whole cast who add their own appeal to the creative lore and storytelling.  Plus, through enhancing the enchanting environments of Beach City, the many Gem-specific locations on Earth, and even space, soothing synthesized jazz piano and guitar music that fit every scene, including the intense ones, and the occasional well-constructed song numbers, it makes for a truly unique feel you can’t get from any other show.

Although this is only the beginning of the greatness that comes with it, Steven Universe really proves to be one of a kind in its first season.  I’m really glad that I decided to check it out since its story, characters, creativity, and atmosphere successfully all leave a strong impact that leads me to name it as one of the top-tier animated shows off all time.  Check it out if you haven’t already via online streaming, digital download purchasing, and the occasional reruns.  It’s truly a gem you won’t regret watching.

Highly Recommended

This concludes our look at Steven Universe Season 1.  Next time, we'll be returning to reviewing Hey Arnold, this time focusing on episodes of the 2nd Season.  Until then:

Stay Animated Folks!

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

'Toon Reviews 5: DuckTales Vol 1 Part 10

Duckman of Aquatraz

Any story that threatens to strip Scrooge of his millionaire status has a lot of potential to turn out great, and the one in this episode fits that bill.  It’s about him being framed for stealing a valuable piece of artwork from Flintheart Glomgold’s art gallery and being sentenced to 15 years in the intensely guarded prison of Aquatraz.  On Scrooge’s end of the story, we’re given a believable look at how one might adjust to prison life.  At first, Scrooge dreads this lifestyle and finds himself getting into conflicts with all the other prisoners.  Through it all, he’s really sympathetic, especially since he never committed the crime in question.  However, as the story goes on, Scrooge slowly adapts to his surroundings, and even befriends his cellmate Mad Dog McGurk.  Actually, their friendship is the strongest part of the episode mostly for how gradually it builds up into something nice.  At first, they don’t get along, but then they bond through the equally admired activity of wrist-wrestling. Then Scrooge does something nice for Mad Dog by not ratting him out for causing a fight even though he had the chance to do so, and then their friendship reaches its strongest point when he arranges Mad Dog’s mother to come to the prison to see her son during visiting hours.  It’s not only a great payoff to everything Scrooge had to put up with at first, but it’s also the makings of a great duo.  It’s a duo so great, it’s easy to root for them when Mad Dog arranges an escape from Aquatraz for him and Scrooge out of respect, and even gets Scrooge to understand his actions when he reveals that he too was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit another reason to get behind this pair of friends.  In addition to the main plot, the subplot involving Huey, Dewey, and Louie trying to prove Scrooge’s innocence really shows off how despite being young and mischievous, they’re really skilled when it comes to solving problems.  They know right away that Scrooge would have no reason to steal a painting since he’s the richest duck in the world, and they confirm this by successfully eavesdropping on a conversation between Flintheart and a henchman that the family portrait Scrooge said he was trying to pick up must not be found.  Also, when that portrait ends up ruined, the boys find another way to solve the problem by closely examining the tape, thus discovering that Flintheart set Scrooge up the whole time.  It leads to a well-deserved pardon for Scrooge and Mad Dog and a humorous sentence for Flintheart, but I really can’t believe that no one else besides the boys thought to closely examine the tape.  Aside from that little bit of head-scratching, I say that this episode represents the show once again showing off some true storytelling greatness. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1. Hotel Strangeduck
2. Robot Robbers
3. Magica’s Shadow War
4. Duckman of Aquatraz
5. Armstrong
6. Master of the Djinni
7. Sphinx for the Memories
8. Send in the Clones
9. The Lost Crown of Genghis Kahn
10. Where No Duck Has Gone Before

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where the Beagle Boys cause more hijinks when they get a hold of Gyro Gearloose's newest invention and "The Money Vanishes."

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