The Tide Mice (Hilda Season 1 Episode 8) - 'Toon Reviews 26

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The Tide Mice

Raising stakes is a great way to make an animated work an unforgettable experience.  It gives a variety of feels that use heavy and life-threatening moments to make happier moments meaningful.  To do it well, I believe that one must have it naturally build up through a character doing something seemingly innocent only to realize the truth of actions later.  Not to mention, it gives a major edge through showing what happens when morals aren’t followed.  It’s for these reasons why this episode is especially strong. 

Hilda, a well-known loyal friend to those she knows, innocently wants to help them achieve their dreams.  David is talented at singing, but every time he tries out for the Sparrow Scouts chorus group, the Warblers, something happens to embarrass himself and ruin his audition.  In addition, Hilda’s mother, Johana, can’t get a big break as a graphic designer in Trolberg and has to take up menial work at a hardware show.  Both cases feature believable goals that seem unattainable, so Hilda has a believable cause to take action. 

By chance, the local library has a vast reference section, and one of the books contains a section on what sounds like the perfect way for Hilda to help her friend and mother.  There’s a simple, yet creatively structured spell involving offering their items to a tide, saying a chant, and getting a mouse to bring them good luck.  Both David and Johana finding success in their respective goals thanks to the mice brings a suggestion that Hilda brought the right solution.  Subsequent montages of things going great because of their successes further suggest this. 

However, since all this happens in the first half of the episode and that Hilda getting that book was quick to get the attention of that mysterious librarian, you feel there’s a catch.  It’s soon discovered when Frida apparently notices something about David.  It seems Hilda was never around to see him, or her mother for that matter, acting weird with glowing eyes and other anomalies.  This is all an after effect of the tide mice spell where at the end of 30 days, Hilda will possess the souls of those she offered the mice to.  Hilda didn’t know this because she didn’t bother to check the suggested footnote in the book she read. 

It’s at this point where the stakes are raised, and the story is not so innocent.  Hilda, as an adventurer always keen to discover, was in too much of a rush to get all the facts.  Now she’s made herself a witch, and the lives of two good people are at stake.  It’s by far one of the biggest scopes her adventures have had.  There is an antidote to the spell that Hilda only has one night to enact.  During a Warblers concert where David steals the show, Hilda has to break the act and hurry to get him and Johana to the tide to lose their mice and reobtain their souls.  There’s a scramble to get the mice that cause a panic followed by a climactic drive as they head to the tide pool as Hilda starts absorbing the souls.  It’s very suspenseful that they all have to rush to a designated place while the victims are losing their life forces. 

They get to where they need to be, and all is well with the right steps, but the brink of death for those involved is seen as so major, it cannot be brushed off afterwards.  To balance things out, it’s nice that Hilda’s intentions are understood, and it feels like she’s learned not to overlook important details again.  I imagine anyone watching will see the good reasons of adhering to certain policies since this lesson has near-death involved. 

This episode is one of the works that defines this series as a modern animated achievement.  The bravery of the story through its willingness to get dark is a testament to its genuine sense of adventure and appeal to all ages.

A+

The Ranking

1. The Nightmare Spirit
2. The Tide Mice
3. The Bird Parade
4. The Midnight Giant
5. The Hidden People
6. The Troll Rock
7. The Lost Clan
8. The Sparrow Scouts

The next Hilda review tests Hilda's friendships with a messy room and the presence of a ghost.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the DuckTales episode, "Once Upon a Dime."

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

'Toon Reviews 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 36: Parents Day

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:

Parents Day (not to be confused with the Hey Arnold cartoon of the same name)

I’m always up for looking into backgrounds of interesting characters.  This includes exploring their families.  This cartoon on Parents Day at Lakewood Plaza Turbo, gives a good opportunity to look into many families though only one pair of parents truly stands out. 

When asked about her parents, Enid says that they’re ninjas who can’t come.  K.O. and Rad decide to go to her house to bring the fun of Parents Day to her.  Lots of cartoons have given believable reasons for Enid’s prominent apathy, and we continue the trend with a more personal reason. 

K.O. and Rad are surprised to learn that she lives in a haunted house.  Fitting for the setting, it turns out that Enid is a witch.  This explains a lot about her main powers of fire kicks and turning into a stump which can attribute to witch spells.  As for Enid’s parents, they add to the feel of the haunted house with a vampire mom and a werewolf dad, two monsters so different yet make a charming married couple.  They give a tour of their home, and as someone who sees haunted houses as a great setting for creative animated storytelling, exploring the house is a highlight for the cartoon. There’s a hall of paintings with moving eyes, legit answers to Rad’s questions of “bats in the belfry” and “skeletons in the closet”, and are aided by their goblin sons.  They may be typical for the setting, but I can’t imagine anything else to capture the feel of a spooky place.  Enid’s parents, despite being spooky themselves, add wholesomeness to make it stand out. 

However, their good qualities can get a little much when they embarrass Enid with an album of her youth.  Also, when word gets out that Enid calls herself a ninja, and her parents disapprove of that because ninjas aren’t spooky.  For how charming they are, it’s hard to buy that Enid’s parents would be this adherent to conformity. 

This attitude doesn’t last long though when two ghosts, who bring to mind old-school cartoons design and voice wise, have some fun of their own possessing K.O. and Rad.  Enid combines her witch self and ninja skills to summon a tornado creature and capture and stop the ghosts.  She impresses her parents so much that they grow more accepting of her being a ninja.  That said, their change of heart has less weight to it since they put more emphasis on how spooky they find her ninja skills to be.  Still, it’s nice that Enid is more willing to bring her parents to the next Parents Day even though they still embarrass her.  She shows that for all the problems she has with them, they’re still her family and nothing will ever change that. 

Adding to the heart of the ending is Rad actually having a nice moment with Enid after teasing her for the whole cartoon. He confides in her since he also has embarrassing parents as seen in the beginning and also says he likes Enid’s parents overall.  This tender moment means a lot coming from a usual egomaniac like Rad.  It presents the cartoon as a good display of heart as well as enjoyable atmosphere. It's not perfect, but it's still very interesting, creative, and fun to experience.

A-

The Ranking

1. Face Your Fears
2. You Have to Care
3. T.K.O.
4. No More Pow Cards
5. Glory Days
6. Legends of Mr. Gar
7. We’ve Got Pests
8. I Am Dendy
9. Let’s Have a Stakeout
10. You Get Me
11. Let’s Be Heroes
12. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
13. K.O.’s Video Channel
14. Jethro’s All Yours
15. Know Your Mom
16. Everybody Likes Rad?
17. A Hero’s Fate
18. Plaza Prom
19. We’re Captured
20. My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
21. Let’s Be Friends
22. We Messed Up
23. Parents Day
24. Plazalympics
25. Presenting Joe Cuppa
26. Sibling Rivalry
27. Second First Date
28. Stop Attacking the Plaza
29. Just Be a Pebble
30. The Power is Yours
31. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
32. You’re Level 100
33. You Are Rad
34. We’ve Got Fleas
35. Rad Likes Robots
36. One Last Score

The next OK K.O. continues the spooky trend when Lakewood Plaza Turbo is put through a hack straight out of a horror movie.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is Animaniacs Episode 32.

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

'Toon Reviews 5: DuckTales Vol 1 Part 6

Magica’s Shadow War

In this episode, we’re treated to more reasons as to why Magica de Spell is one of the most entertaining antagonists to come across.  Her plan to steal Scrooge’s Number One Dime this time around involves her bringing her own shadow to life, and command it to steal the dime behind everyone’s back.  The appeal in this plan lies within how creative it is, and the creativity is further enhanced by the mannerisms of the shadow.  They mostly involve her being able to pick things up by their shadow and how well she can easily blend into all the shadows she comes across.  Magica’s shadow also raises the tension by protesting how mistreated she has been as a follower, which you can’t help but realize how much sense these complaints make if you think about it, and actually uses magical spells to break away to hatch her own plan to get all the shadows to team up and take over the world.  From then on, the rest of the episode is an exciting series of attempts by Scrooge and his team to catch the shadow in an attempt to stop it as well as to keep Scrooge’s Number One Dime safe.  What goes on further displays how much of a threat Magica’s shadow is.  Specifically, because she’s a magic shadow, she gets a lot more shadows when a bunch of lights shine on her as opposed to destroying her which is what light would normally do to shadows. This only increases the tension, therefore further succeeding in drawing in the audience.  It could be pointed out that Scrooge’s greed could be going a little too far in this situation. I mean, it’s clear the mess could be solved if he just gives Magica the dime, but he just keeps on stubbornly refusing with the threat of her shadow constantly growing by the minute.  Still, I’m fine with this point because it makes sense for Scrooge’s character, and he does realize that there’s no other way to stop the shadow and comes to his senses near the end.  So, we close things off with an ending that gets the shadow defeated, and strong comedy from Huey, Dewey, and Louie using their classic wits to successfully get Scrooge’s dime back, supposedly further preventing Magica from using it to take over the world herself.  With fun character moments, a creative story premise, strong comedy, and stakes and tensions that just keep building, this is another great, fun episode to allow me and any newcomers to further get attached to this show. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1.      Robot Robbers

2.      Magica’s Shadow War

3.      Armstrong

4.      Sphinx for the Memories

5.      Send in the Clones

6.      Where No Duck Has Gone Before

 Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode which is Disney's take on Aladdin before the 1992 classic and even Treasure of the Lost Lamp called "Master of the Djinni."
If you would like to check out other reviews on this blog, click here for the guide to all the reviews posted so far.