'Toon Reviews 20: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 2 Episode 10: Friendenemies/Is Mystery

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Friendenemies

It was surprising to see Star’s best friend Marco and her ex-boyfriend Tom get along as well as they did in “Mr. Candle Cares.”  Granted it all stemmed from Tom using Marco to get Star back, but the conversation they had about Star had a lot of proof that they could be good friends. Not to mention, it showed that Tom could break from his attitude issues. 

This episode builds upon these suggestions when Tom shows up and coaxes Marco into hanging out with him with tickets to a sold-out movie marathon.  He even references the ping-pong game from that previously-mentioned episode to back up his claim that they’ve bonded a lot recently.  Because of his desire to see the movie, Marco goes along with Tom spends time in his demon carriage.  Since there was only one good moment between them prior, Marco is appropriately suspicious that Tom’s acting like they’re best friends now.  Adding onto the suspicions, when Marco questions Tom about the movies in the franchise, he hesitates at first.  Eventually, he does give a clear answer, and from there, it feels appropriate to let suspicions down.  The moments of Tom and Marco enjoying hanging out together proves this. 

In spite of the chemistry, you have to wonder how Tom is able to be so adamant about being friends with Marco when he was rarely that way before.  As it turns out, Tom is nowhere near past his anger issues.  Marco realizes they’re late for the movie and tries to leave, but Tom stops him and goes into a demonic rage when Marco objects.  All at once this moment is both in line with expectations. It's still very disappointing considering how genuine and calm Tom was while being friends with Marco.  The reveal that a white tiger hanging out in the carriage was Tom’s life coach the whole time has everything that’s happened to fall into place.  Tom was hanging out with Marco as part of a test to be calm around the person he hates the most.  That’s pretty despicable after how convincing their new friendship was especially when Tom tears up the tickets Marco was so bent on getting.  Because of this, it’s hard to sympathize with Tom when he tries to reason with Marco. That said, the attempt to do so over a song from his favorite artist is a pretty charming gesture. 

The one thing that fixes their bond is Tom reciting an incantation to bring the actor of Marco’s movie marathon back from the dead as a zombie who gives him his autograph.  It’s a bit of a mixed bag though.  It's nice that Tom went this far to win back Marco’s friendship, but also brings an unfortunate implication that encourages materialistic bribing to fix problems. 

Still, the final scene of Marco and Tom watching the zombie actor fighting cops is a nice concluding point for them. It shows their complicated nature where they enjoy what they watch together but still don’t like each other.  As it stands, it’s an interesting follow-up to their earlier civil moment, with lots of potential. 

A-

Is Mystery

Previous episodes made a point of there being a hole in the Mewni's force field, Ludo using an army of rats to fetch him food, and Buff Frog getting a new job of investigating strange activity.  Now we have this episode to bring these plot points together. 

It features Buff Frog looking into how that hole came to be with lots of thought into what easy access to corn means for monsters.  However, like with his first day on the job, he lets his attachments to his kids get him into trouble when he’s captured by a creature working with Ludo’s rats.  He still continues his investigation of what the rats do with all the corn they steal even as he’s shackled to grind it with other monsters forced into slave labor.  Right there, you get a sense of the mission's scope. It starts with looking into a simple hole and then gets heavier with intruders forced to work against their will for a mysterious force. 

Buff Frog eventually proves he’s effective as he escapes grinding corn, and uses a hole in the ceiling to see how the rats get the corn from the field.  It’s during this investigation where falling down another hole in the cornfield answers another longstanding question of where the grinded corn goes.  Buff Frog comes across another cavern filled with cornmeal, even though this still doesn’t tell who’s in charge of this operation.  He even uses his strength and intimidation to get the creature who forced the monsters into relentless labor on his side, further impressing with his capabilities.

He finally finds the being behind the mystery, Ludo.  It’s interesting that Ludo has his own wand to create violent energy blasts ,and an entire corn-stealing and harvesting work force.  However, he still admits that he needs a spell book like what Star has.  Along with his wand apparently talking to him, it’s a big mix of the expected bumbling Ludo and the competent evil dictator he’s strived to be.  It’s through this dictatorship-persona where he tries to get Buff Frog, his original assistant, on his side by making him in charge of the corn grinders.  This is where Buff Frog’s greatest change in morality shows itself as he completely refuses the offer and escapes. 

In the end, he leaves the chance to rekindle his old life behind for the greater good, but is left to ponder if the decision is what’s best for his kids. This question isn’t answered but he does come up with a big idea to get the wand-possessed Ludo under control.  The first step is to send Star a warning, even though she already knows about Ludo.  The gentle piano music in the background perfectly captures the moment's tone.  From having children, to going against slavery, to refusing to go back to working with Ludo, Buff Frog has changed for the greater good.  It’s really quite beautiful. 

That leaves us with an episode with lots of strengths like huge plot advancements, gradual growth in stakes, and especially clear character development from both villains and former villains.

A

The Ranking

1. Ludo in the Wild
2. Game of Flags
3. On the Job
4. Sleepover
5. Is Mystery
6. Mr. Candle Cares
7. Wand to Wand
8. Starstruck
9. Girls’ Day Out
10. By the Book
11. Friendenemies
12. Gift of the Card
13. Starsitting
14. Star on Wheels
15. Camping Trip
16. My New Wand
17. Red Belt
18. Star vs Echo Creek
19. Fetch
20. Goblin Dogs

The next Star vs the Forces of Evil review covers a Halloween episode with a being called Hungry Larry, and we get an interesting look inside Star's wand.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the second Xiaolin Showdown episode, "Like a Rock."

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 12: DuckTales Vol. 2 Part 23: Duckworth's Revolt

Duckworth’s Revolt

Aside from a few little appearances as an obedient, high-class servant, Duckworth has yet to have a chance to shine as a fully fleshed-out character.  That all changes with this episode where we get to know exactly how he feels about serving Scrooge.  Although it seems like he’s harshly put through work that never ends, he doesn’t mind it at all, and feels that it doesn’t matter if he could make as much money as Scrooge with his skills.  As insightful to Duckworth’s character as this reveal is, Huey, Dewey, and Louie see what Duckworth does as slave work resulting in a conversation with him that results in Scrooge overhearing it, taking things the wrong way, and firing Duckworth.  The boys’ mindset continues to be in effect when they and Duckworth are abducted by the creative anomalies of alien vegetables who, in a shocking twist, freely abduct random beings from other planets to force them to work in their garden which is pretty dark considering that this could happen to any being minding their own business.  Anyway, whenever the boys try to rebel against the vegetable overlords keeping them and the other beings against their will, Duckworth instead insists that they obey the orders of the captives, further getting the boys to see his willingness to be a servant as a negative.  While it may seem that they have a point with Duckworth not seeming to want to put up a fight with aliens who really are enslaving him, it’s after that where their butler finally makes a point of devoting his life to serving.  He encourages all the other imprisoned gardeners to fight for their rights since they’re working for aliens forever when they don’t want to, whereas when he usually does his butler thing, it’s his own choice.  Duckworth really makes himself clear with the prisoners and the rest of the episode is them fighting for their rights.  Not only that, but he even gets himself an audience with one of the vegetable overlords in charge, Brigadier Broccoli, where it’s revealed that these aliens aren’t just heartless kidnappers who love enforcing slave labor.  Their home planet was destroyed and they’re trying to start over and recruit beings from other planets for help.  Even if the aliens are in the wrong, it’s good to know that they have believable reasons for their actions, preventing them from being one-dimensional.  The aliens’ motives also help make the conclusion work.  After an exciting climax where Huey, Dewey, and Louie take control of one of the aliens’ vehicles and get Duckworth out of his audience, Duckworth signals the other gardener slaves to start fighting back and the opposing forces are taken out, Duckworth actually trusts Brigadier enough for him to take control of the ship when they’re about to hit an oncoming planet.  Instead of double-crossing Duckworth like you’d expect antagonists to do, Brigadier actually lands the ship safely on the planet and sends the slaves home.  The reveal of the planet is pretty convenient and you have to wonder if it’s okay for the vegetables to inhabit the planet since the possibility of life existing there exists, but those just feel like little, meaningless blips compared to the episode’s many strengths.  Then, everything wraps up as you’d expect with Duckworth willingly going back to work for Scrooge, with everyone aware of the slave vs. servant mentality.  That’s a relatable theme to get across here, and coupled with Duckworth’s character development, other great character moments, and creativity from the concept of the opposing forces, everything comes together to form a great episode. 9.5/10

The Ranking:

1. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 5: Too Much of a Gold Thing
2. Catch as Cash Can Part 2: A Whale of a Bad Time
3. Catch as Cash Can Part 1: A Drain on the Economy
4. Back to the Klondike
5. Double-O-Duck
6. Raiders of the Lost Harp
7. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay
8. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 4: Cold Duck
9. Time Teasers
10. Duckworth’s Revolt
11. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 1: Don’t Give up the Ship
12. Catch as Cash Can Part 4: Working for Scales
13. Ducks of the West
14. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 3: Three Ducks of the Condor
15. Merit-Time Adventure
16. Back Out in the Outback
17. Scroogerello
18. Catch as Cash Can Part 3: Aqua Ducks
19. Luck O’ the Ducks
20. Scrooge’s Pet
21. Horse Scents
22. The Golden Fleecing
23. The Right Duck

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the last episode on the Volume 2 DVD which is the only time an episode is composed of two short cartoons.  The first one is about the antics of "Magica's Magic Mirror," and the second one features Duckworth coaching baseball in "Take Us Out of the Ballgame."

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