'Toon Reviews 20: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 2 Episode 3: Star on Wheels/Fetch

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:

Star on Wheels

We may be in a whole new season now, but it’s still fascinating that there are still some Earth customs that Star is learning about.  This episode is about her learning the common skill of riding a bike which is funny and exciting given what happens while also featuring some heart from her friendship with Marco which is always nice to see. 

The first moments of her bike-riding lessons have a charm that wouldn’t be out of place coming from an actual child learning to ride a bike for the first time with Star nervous about riding and only feeling safe while Marco holds the seat, though her Mewni upbringing offers a unique edge with her believing that invisible goats are involved.  With this in mind, you might be wondering how this episode is exciting since it sounds like bike-riding lessons and nothing more.  Well, the excitement comes when Marco, believing Star is ready for it, lets go of the seat even though Star insists that he doesn’t.  The real problem of this is that Marco never taught Star how to stop, and she doesn’t believe him when he says the way to do that is to pedal backwards, so Star is trapped riding the bike through Echo Creek without stopping. 

From there, the rest of the episode becomes much more lively and fast-paced with Star running into a variety of hazards and close-calls while trapped on the bike eventually running into more dangerous obstacles like nearly falling into a sinkhole (which makes for nice use of her mewberty wings to save herself) and making it all the way to the freeway.  I’m always in the mood for a good runaway or chase scene for a nice dose of action and adrenaline, and this one greatly provides those things all stemming from Star’s believable inexperience. 

While that goes on, Marco has to chase after her to bring her wand hoping it can help her stop.  His role in this scenario has some distinction through its humor from who Marco has to travel with in order to pursue Star.  There’s Oskar Greason who lives in his car and just happens to be in Marco’s driveway acting all lax throughout the whole chase, focusing on his jam sessions, and Glossaryk who for some reason appears in Oskar’s math book when he lives in the spell book who also has no urgency in rescuing Star.  In fact, Glossaryk flat out refuses to help since this isn’t a magic problem which is a little jerky.  Their pursue of Star also comes with its fair share of exciting moments such as Oskar and Glossaryk performing an funny impromptu jam session from Marco saying that Star is in trouble with Oskar’s keytar, and Oskar’s car doing some insane jumps and having to drive without gas or a steering wheel. 

However, there are some highly improbable moments that are hard to ignore when Glossaryk finally decides to be helpful by telling Marco to use the invisible goats to save Star, and even though there weren’t any before, there happens to be one right at the moment.  It’s really hard to believe because it’s already established that’s not how things work on Earth and there was no way the goat could’ve possibly shown up.  I know the message is to believe in others, but this occurrence really does not make any sense.  In fact the message is much stronger when Marco finally loses the wand and gets Star to stop by believing in his claim to stop the bike by peddling backwards which, as any Earthling would respect, ends the runaway. 

Even if this episode mainly exists for the purposes of fun, from the thrill of the chase to the heart of character relationships, it’s thoroughly entertaining one worth checking out.

A-

Fetch

While the first segment of this episode was a fun magical-hijinks story, this one about hijinks isn’t nearly as fun.  It’s not bad, but its premise is not very interesting and makes you wonder what the point of all this was by the end. 

The whole episode is all about Star struggling to get her wand back from a dog who holds it in her mouth after Star threw it.  The problem is that the dog won’t drop the wand, and that’s basically all the episode is about.  As long as the dog has Star’s wand, nothing exciting can happen, and it gets frustrating seeing Star’s failed attempts to retrieve it coming one after another. 

When Star tries to grab it, the dog growls at her, and the dog doesn’t even drop the wand when she’s eating or using human bathrooms.  It’s a gag that overstays its welcome by lasting for the episode’s entirety making what we get unentertaining.  One way this scenario goes on longer than it should is that Star brings it wherever she goes including school, which she’s banned from until she gets rid of the dog.  Why does she even need to bring the dog with her?  She can just leave it home and try to get her wand back later, and her having the dog get her kicked out of school makes her situation worse than it needs to be since it could’ve been avoided. 

Even when Star is close to getting rid of the dog and getting her wand back, frustrations abound when despite having logical solutions, there’s a catch.  An example of this is when Star finds a lost dog poster, and it would appear that this would be the end of her problem. However, when she calls the number, she meets a weird character called Lydia who’s clearly faking having a lost dog, yet never stops insisting the contrary.  What’s more, the dog still won’t let go of the wand. 

Even though this uninteresting conflict goes on too long, we do at least get a nice twist out of it.  When it uses the human bathroom again, Star has enough and storms in on the dog and finds she has taken the wand out of her mouth and is trying to use it, later revealing she can talk as she finally returns it to Star.  She even explains her reasons for holding onto the wand.  She’s from another dimension which has a bunch of problems, despite the fact that we never hear exactly what the problems are, and wants to be loved and treated like actual dogs such as Star’s own laser puppies.  It’s a very creative reveal and the dog’s reasons are believable, but think of how stronger and more interesting things would’ve been if she told Star her problems earlier and not when the episode is nearly over.  At least the ending is a very nice one when Star gives the dog all the basic guidance to being an average dog and she gets adopted by Lydia.  Even Lydia’s reactions to getting a dog are incredibly sweet, in a somewhat creepy way though. 

Still, the episode is mostly one dull escapade stretched out to fit a whole episode which fails to bring about anything truly interesting or entertaining.  Maybe it would be better if Lydia and the dog come back, but they never do in any episode after this.  It’s still decent since it doesn’t do anything too bad despite its dullness and the ending is heartwarming, but there simply isn’t anything to convince you that you MUST watch this.

C-

The Ranking

1. Ludo in the Wild
2. Mr. Candle Cares
3. Star on Wheels
4. My New Wand
5. Red Belt
6. Fetch

The next Star vs the Forces of Evil review covers Star on the run when she finally goes too far with magic, and Star and Ludo learn to get a better hold of their halves of the special wand.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is another OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes review on "You're Level 100."

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 10

Steven’s Lion

Here, we have another cartoon that introduces us to what becomes one of the most prominent elements.  As he’s just a young kid, it’s only natural that Steven would want to have a pet and that we’d get a cartoon where he finds one.  Factoring in the magic element of this show, the pet Steven ends up with is a rather interesting one.  While the Crystal Gems set off to retrieve a Gem called the Desert Glass, Steven is left behind, and this is where he comes across a large pink lion who he names Lion.  The big thing to take from their first meeting is that even though Lion is a predator, he sees Steven as a friend and they both hit it off well with meaningful interactions.  They at first seem like a good pair, but it soon becomes clear that Lion is one mysterious pet, not just attributing that he’s pink or has glowing eyes.  After Steven leaves the desert with the Gems, Lion follows Steven all the way home, making him believe that Lion wants to be his pet.  However, every time Steven tries to get Lion to hang out with him, Lion just doesn’t seem interested, particularly during a scene where he tries to introduce many Beach City residents to him at the local pizza shop, Fish Stew Pizza, which does include some funny reactions from them when they believe that Steven was “lyin’” (get it?).  The moments are certainly enjoyable in a comedic sense, but they also get you to wonder if Lion really does want to be Steven’s pet.  A major straw is broken when Lion shows all his interests in the Desert Glass that Amethyst left lying about, sending Steven into a fit of rage where throws it on the beach.  Steven’s understandable hurt feelings aside, this action really gets the resolution going as the Desert Glass uses the beach sand to build the same column structure it built in the desert.  As Steven struggles to get it off the sand, Lion rushes in, and with powerful roars, helps Steven reach the Desert Glass, eliminating the structure.  While you do have to question why the Gems didn’t bubble, that is contain within a bubble and send to the temple, the Desert Glass right away, or better yet let Amethyst hold onto it as opposed to a more responsible Gem, this moment does show that Lion truly does consider Steven a friend which establishes him becoming his pet.  This is appropriate after what seemed like a moment of betrayal.  Plus, if you think Lion’s powerful roars are impressive, we learn so much more creative aspects to Lion’s character for the rest of the show, enticing his status as a mysterious beast.  His first moments and potential for the future here, along with the sense of fun boy and pet shenanigans from Steven, and the Gem lore from the moments with the Desert Glass make this a strong entry from this part of the season. 9/10

The Ranking

1. Bubble Buddies
2. Laser Light Cannon
3. Steven’s Lion
4. Gem Glow
5. Cheeseburger Backpack
6. Serious Steven
7. Cat Fingers
8. Tiger Millionaire
9. Together Breakfast
10. Frybo

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where we learn that arcade games can be addicting to even someone as serious as Garnet in "Arcade Mania."

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 1: Hey Arnold Season 1 Episode 16

Abner Come Home

 

 

 

 

One of Arnold’s many unique aspects is that he has a pet pig.  However, as this cartoon shows, it’s one thing to have a certain animal for a pet that most people don’t, but it’s another to do something different with the animal from ones commonly kept as pets.  The thing about Arnold’s pet pig, Abner, is that he doesn’t seem to behave differently from other pets, namely dogs.  He begs and pants like a dog, enjoys playing fetch, and even has his own doggie door set up for him.  Basically, Abner may be a pig, but at heart, he’s no different from your average pet.  Still, the opening sequence of him and Arnold enjoying being together is very nice and it really demonstrates their strong bond which in turn gets you to feel for Arnold when Abner gets lost.  Then again, the way Abner gets lost is based around a pretty stupid move on the pig’s part.  Given that Abner behaves like a dog, he gets the urge to chase a cat in the middle of the night, resulting in him getting out of the boarding house and into the real world where he could easily be caught and made into food or a football.  All this because he felt that getting a cat was more important than his family.  This not only gives dogs a bad name, but it also builds the cartoon’s entire conflict on a dumb decision lowering the appeal.  Still, it’s got a lot of strong heartfelt parts throughout the duration.  Since the bond between Arnold and Abner has been established to be a strong one, there’s a genuine feel of despair and sympathy when Arnold realizes Abner is gone and is nowhere to be seen.  As more time is spent focusing on Arnold trying everything he can to find him akin to ways anyone would try to find a lost pet, it’s easy to get invested and hope he finds him.  There’s even a nice moment between Arnold and Grandpa where Arnold is given some nice strong advice on getting over his loss by remembering all the good times he had with Abner which inspires an admittedly clever idea to get Abner home involving creating a scent of his favorite things to follow.  Plus, Abner himself gets a nice moment of heart when he’s reminded of home after catching sight of one of Arnold’s “lost pig” signs.  These moments lead to a joyous conclusion where Abner finally follows the garbage scent back home and he and Arnold reunite while rolling around in garbage, which is an appropriate way of showing the happiness of them being back together with a touch of funny pig mannerisms.  This cartoon is pretty standard when it comes to lost pet plots, but it’s worth a watch for being told well and showing off why Abner coming home is worth hoping for. 8/10

The Sewer King

Here’s another cartoon that explores the out-of-the-ordinary yet highly creative and imaginative lives of the strange inhabitants of Arnold’s city, major emphasis on creative which is just what I like to see in an animated product.  The story gets off to a nice and simple start with Arnold being tasked by Grandpa to get a special pocket watch for him, which is a task he hardly entrusts to anyone.  After Arnold purchases the watch, the creative angle really starts to take effect.  It starts when Arnold and the kids come across a demolition team blowing a hole in the road, resulting in a long way down to the sewers of the city, which is something you certainly don’t come across every day.  Anyway, the watch falls down the hole into the depths of the sewer prompting Arnold and Gerald to venture down to try and retrieve it no matter what happens.  We’re treated to some impressive designs of the sewer which consists of pipe formations, waterfalls, and rats crawling throughout the darkness, all the makings of an adventure that takes you to places you could only imagine going to, in this case the sewers.  Then, we meet the titular Sewer King.  He has a rather interesting way of life, living in the sewers, having only rats for friends, and considers anything from the surface world his rats find to be a “royal icon.”  It’s because of these ways of life that the Sewer King doesn’t just give up the watch to Arnold and Gerald.  Then, of all things, the boys find that the only way to get the watch back is to beat the Sewer King in a game of chess.  Arnold does win every time, but the catch is that the Sewer King keeps making them play until he wins.  Eventually, Arnold catches on to the act and just up and grabs the watch from the Sewer King, resulting in an entertaining chase through the sewers culminating in an escape that reveals another interesting trait about the Sewer King.  He fears the light of the surface world, which could possibly be the reason why he lives the way he does.  So, our heroes escape with the watch that’s rightfully theirs.  Unfortunately, the story ends on way too strong of a downer note.  After all that trouble Arnold went through to get the watch, Grandpa accidentally drops it down the drain and it ends up back with the Sewer King making the plot of getting the watch back from him completely pointless.  Even more pointless is the plot of this cartoon in general as Grandpa later reveals a bunch of backup watches meaning there was really no reason for Arnold to do what he spent the entire cartoon doing.  Then, for his troubles, Grandpa gives him another task to do which really doesn’t seem appropriate.  Still, as much as a major downer the ending is, this is still a highly enjoyable cartoon for its creativity and likable characters. 9/10

The Rankings

1.      Pigeon Man

2.      Haunted Train

3.      Stoop Kid

4.      Arnold’s Hat

5.      Wheezin’ Ed

6.      Spelling Bee

7.      Helga’s Makeover

8.      Mugged

9.      Tutoring Torvald

10.  The Baseball

11.  Olga Comes Home

12.  The List

13.  Das Subway

14.  The Vacant Lot

15.  Downtown as Fruits

16.  The Old Building

17.  Field Trip

18.  The Sewer King

19.  Sally’s Comet

20.  Roughin’ It

21.  Gerald Comes Over

22.  6^th Grade Girls

23.  The Little Pink Book

24.  Abner Come Home

25.  Arnold as Cupid

26.  Snow

27.  Eugene’s Bike

28.  Door #16

29.  Heat

30.  Benchwarmer

31.  Operation Ruthless

32.  Cool Jerk

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the 17th episode of this season: "False Alarm/World Records."