MC 'Toon Reviews

Sunday, October 11, 2020

Gar Trains Punching Judy - (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 2 Episode 32) - 'Toon Reviews 40

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Gar Trains Punching Judy

It’s often surprising when it comes to finding side heroes to make a cartoon out of, but the results are almost always exceptional. This is the case with this cartoon that not only helps Mr. Gar make peace with his past, but also benefit an interesting hero called Punching Judy.

She’s often referred to as K.O.’s babysitter, and was even the first hero outside of the main cast seen on the show. Only here is where her looking after K.O. is seen at the forefront of a cartoon as well as where there’s true insight into her background and personality. There’s a fighting tournament coming up, and she feels she needs the proper training to really be ready for it in spite of being apparently skilled a lot already.

As she insists on getting someone more experienced, K.O. decides to call upon Mr. Gar for that. An interesting layer to this is that Punching Judy recognizes Mr. Gar as his original hero persona, El-Bow. She doesn’t hesitate to bring up all his accomplishments, but Mr. Gar is visibly disturbed of being reminded of that name. After all, it was just one cartoon ago that showcases how he’s come to dread being El-Bow. However, it’s Punching Judy’s background depth that gets him to look past all that. She’s desperate to win this tournament because of family drama with her sister, Punching Trudy, who’s literally overpowered her in everything, even the most mundane things. It can easily get bothersome as she never stops saying that Judy can’t get the best of Trudy.

Now, Mr. Gar’s idea of training is very standard only relating to physical work. Acts of punching, push-ups, weight-lifting and, poses in front of a sunset help Punching Judy for sure, but what she really wants is a pep talk. It seems, though, that Mr. Gar is deliberately trying to avoid that, thus leaving her visibly nervous when the tournament does come. That said, anxiety doesn’t hold Punching Judy back enough to keep her from advancing when fighting everyone else. Only the presence of Punching Trudy is truly intimidating, down to the point where the tournament is stopped so they can work it out.

Here, Mr. Gar finally admits that he too is in a lot of anxiety to give Punching Judy the pep talk she needs. However, K.O. is given a chance to shine through with his strengths. Through his childlike innocence, he performs his own montage for a special kind of training, emotional training. It’s interestingly amusing to see things like talks on the couch, holding hands, and especially crying things out be set to such powerful music. This small suggestion proves effective as Mr. Gar opens up to Punching Judy better than ever. I will say though that out of all the failures that have held him back, it’s kind of shallow that he doesn’t mention his biggest drawback involving Laserblast. Maybe it’s because it’s too morbid for Punching Judy to hear about, but it’s still not opening up as much as he can. What is stated is extremely helpful to Punching Judy though. She’s open to play true to her strengths based on her character design. Being bigger with her legs than her fists, Judy uses that to her advantage against Trudy, and finally wins after being mercilessly upstaged so many times.

Ultimately, Punching Judy gets her satisfying conclusion, and Mr. Gar has a stronger connection with his fellow heroes. I wish him helping other heroes like this was seen more than this one cartoon because the results here are really worth checking out.

Season 2 Rankings

1. Your World is an Illusion

2. T.K.O.’s House

3. Final Exams

4. CarolQuest

5. All in the Villainy

6. GarQuest

7. Dendy’s Power

8. Crossover Nexus

9. Lord Cowboy Darrell

10. Bittersweet Rivals

11. Red Action to the Future

12. My Fair Carol

13. Are You Ready for Some Megafootball?!

14. Boxman Crashes

15. Wisdom Strength and Charisma

16. Gar Trains Punching Judy

17. I Am Jethro

18. Mystery Sleepover

19. Super Black Friday

20. Point to the Plaza

21. Project Ray Way

22. Special Delivery

23. Seasons Change

24. The So-Bad-Ical

25. Monster Party

26. Sidekick Scouts

27. Whacky Jaxxyz

28. Plaza Film Festival

29. Let’s Watch the Boxmore Show

30. Be a Team

31. Plaza Alone

32. Soda Genie

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode, a beach episode.

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

Saturday, October 10, 2020

Cane Crazy / Flood, Sweat, and Tears (Amphibia Season 1 Episode 2) - 'Toon Reviews 43

Cane Crazy

With the apparent fact that Anne getting home is not going to be easy, her only option is to just settle down with the Plantars like she’s one of the family. As a result, a majority of these cartoons are going to be very episodic and driven by standalone events or antics. However, with such a strong dynamic between Anne and the Plantars, times like these are sure to be entertaining.

As this cartoon shows, the center of whatever happens is Anne still trying to get adjusted to such an extraordinary new environment. The biggest example is how she doesn’t react well to what Hop Pop has prepared for chow time. When her apparent disgust sparks a snippy remark from Hop Pop, Anne delights in joking around by mocking his mannerisms and customs. Getting legit laughs from Sprig and Polly fuels this behavior, but also supports the idea that this is mostly in good fun and not too malicious.

Then after Hop Pop goes to his study in disgust, conflict comes from Anne going too far with her messing around when it leads her to breaking a cane that belongs to Hop Pop. She already notices the effects of her brashness, but then learns that this matter is more serious than normal. Sprig tells her that the cane is very special to Hop Pop, being passed down from his ancestors and all that sort of thing. With that, Hop Pop’s earlier threat of throwing Anne out for not respecting him taking her in has a lot of weight to it. Plus, it’s clearer than ever with the dire possibility of Anne needing to go back to dwelling in the elements.

Now Anne, Sprig, and Polly have to act fast to fix the cane before Hop Pop finds out, and all throughout, their dynamic keeps this simple setup very enjoyable. Anne is very anxious to find a quick fix to the mess she caused. Sprig is willing to help Anne, but is also capable of being friendly and pleasant to whoever they come across. While she’s mostly comic relief here, Polly stands out the most with aside comments like only helping Anne for candy, and gleefully commenting on morbid sights. There are also interactions from another one of Wartwood's various citizens, Loggle the woodman. His gimmick is saying something suggesting he can help Anne with long emphases on affirmative words before ending with something negative, all because of a voice box injury. He does give an idea of how to replace the cane though by showing the tree where it came from.

When getting a branch from the tree, there’s a touch of creative staging when the tree turns out to be a giant insect with a wooden exterior. As it doesn’t take kindly to getting its branches pulled off, it gives chase to Anne and the others. It’s a fine way to kick up the action in the climax, and comes with a fitting end of Anne taking it out with a jar of termites she throws like a grenade. However, she can’t keep the cane because of the damage caused to Loggle’s shop from the attack. This could mean she’s kicked out, and that prospect does lead to Sprig and Polly emotionally parting ways with her in their own unique ways. However, Hop Pop was actually never going to throw Anne out, claiming she reminds him of himself at her age, so the dynamic sticks. Since there wouldn’t be a show without Anne with the Plantars though, you can kind of tell things would turn out like this. Not to mention, the cane doesn’t have much weight to it, only being brought up in this cartoon, so it’s not as engaging as other parts of this season.

Ultimately, this isn’t the best of the series, but it’s still got the makings of solid entertainment.

B-

Flood, Sweat, and Tears

Episodic stories commonly have plots you can’t help but find very familiar, like setups that are easy to guess from the moment they start. Nevertheless, they’re only an issue if they don’t stand out with their own charm, be it from the characters going through the motions or slight twists to the formula. Thankfully, this cartoon specializes in both things to make the use of familiar plots work.

The character charm is practically a given as this show has just about proven to be good at crafting its cast immediately. The short opening scene of Anne and Sprig hanging out together and saying what a great team they are is huge on appeal; “Spranne against the world!” indeed. Then the bulk of the story is soon set into motion when Anne’s makeshift room in the Plantars’ basement becomes flooded with river water. Needing a new room while her old one is flooded, Sprig immediately allows Anne to bunk in with him, although Hop Pop warns that this isn’t such a good idea. After all, there is some truth that you really don’t know someone until you’re sharing a space, and from his words, it sounds like he knows from personal experience. From then on, he mostly spends the cartoon giving the same suggestion for Anne to just take the living room couch and get ignored.

As for Anne and Sprig, with them sharing a room, they're all set up to start getting on each other’s nerves despite their great friendship. Sure enough, they get along fine at first, but as the nights pass, their usual habits get really bothersome. Sprig’s room is constantly a mess and his sleep-croaking keeps Anne up, while Anne is constantly keeping Sprig up with never-ending teen gossip and snack-munching. Plus, the room is either too cold for Sprig or too hot for Anne. No doubt these arrangements are too difficult for either of them, admittedly predictably, but there are the things that make it stand out from normal. While Anne and Sprig are clearly annoyed by each other’s habits, they always try to accept them no matter how hard it is, all in the name of maintaining their friendship. I mean, right at the start of the series, it was shown how much they desperately depend on having friends.

The biggest example of this is when Sprig starts getting fed up with sharing his room, but Anne sees photos of them enjoying each other’s company on her phone. She genuinely tries to invoke those same happy feelings in the name of remaining friends, adding good heart. However, when her actions accidentally break one of Sprig’s prized action figures, tensions finally come to a head. They both go down to Anne’s room to fix the leak to be done with all this, and they both aggressively point out that they’re trying to break their bond. Thankfully, harsh words and mad tones only last for a few seconds when they’re interrupted by an attack from a giant river creature in the flood waters. They take it out with their game skills from the start of the cartoon which demonstrates their good dynamic. Afterwards, because they talked about the problems they had with sharing a room, they easily maintain their friendship as Anne moves to the couch after all. Supporting each other’s needs from a distance makes for a good heartfelt ending between friends, but I do wish the cartoon ended here instead of the flood reaching the couch. Seriously, what was up with that?

Despite that and the familiar story, this cartoon is a good example of how fun and endearing the familiar can be through exactly what’s done with it.

The Ranking

1. Best Fronds

2. Anne or Beast?

3. Flood, Sweat, and Tears

4. Cane Crazy

The next Amphibia review shows Anne go through great lengths to introduce the Plantars to pizza, and is caught in a conflict of the ages when forced into a stakeout with Hop Pop.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Gar Trains Punching Judy" in OK K.O.

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

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Witches Before Wizards - (The Owl House Season 1 Episode 2) - 'Toon Reviews 42

Witches Before Wizards

While the last episode supported Luz’s passions for fantasy, this episode is the start of her learning necessary facts of life. The first of these lessons is probably among the most personal.

Remember that the main reason she chose to stay on the Boiling Isles and learn to become a witch is because she doesn’t fit in at home. Living here is a good chance to blend in with what she loves, but as Luz her expectations of fantasy worlds, things turn out to be complicated. She approaches her first lesson from Eda wearing a standard witch uniform, but she turns out to be wearing rags. She’s excited to learn spells, but Eda acts disinterested and gives her mundane delivery errands instead. She thinks she can fit in with the menagerie of demons, but they treat her like the outsider she really is. Basically, these experiences are a reality check Luz needs where even if she's getting what she wants, expectations are not always going to be met.

Still determined to fit in, Luz holds onto hope in things playing out like the fantasy world of her dreams and Azura novels. The biggest hope is being a chosen one for a bigger goal. In most cases, chosen one stories would be inherently flawed for pressuring an average person who’s never done anything. Given what Luz wants in life, those pressures are alleviated as the supposedly preceding events are expected to follow normal procedures.

She appears to get her wish from one of Eda’s potion customers, a wizard named Adegast. He seems warm and inviting as he gives Luz map to a celestial staff he apparently lost and that only she can retrieve. When showing it to Eda and King though, she’s only greeted with mockery, which comes off as mean and inconsiderate of her goals, even for them. This disdain, as well as a hidden message supporting her as a chosen one, motivates Luz set off anyhow.

Armed with a plastic sword and upbeat attitude, Luz’s quest has an ideal magical tone. She meets a variety of characters, is given several treasures, and appears to make it to the staff without trouble. At the same time, Eda shows fascinating layers as a mentor. Despite her disinterest in teaching and laughing at Luz’s goals, when she hears of who she got the quest from, she’s legitimately worried for her safety. She knows something dark about Adegast, and destruction in the place of his lavish house and where Luz met her quest comrades support this.

The truth turns out to be that the celestial staff was a ruse, Luz’s treasures were shackles, and she is now bait used to capture Eda. Also Adegast is really a monster with tentacles holding puppets of figures like the wizard and Luz’s fake partners, which to me is a creatively executed twist. Luckily, Eda is ready to face him, but then he gives Luz a chance to live in an entirely fantasy world. Creatively staged within a dark void surrounded by her companions, it nicely gets across the idea of Luz wanting to live away from reality. Of course, this is not a healthy course of action for anyone to take, even if some may really want to. Ultimately though, it isn't long before Luz shows that she knows living in reality is the right way to go. That’s a major first step to true character growth the first episode lacked as well as a rewarding way to lead to Adegast's defeat.

Afterwards, her disappointment is comforted as Eda shows her a beautiful view of the Boiling Isles, a fitting place for Luz’s first big lesson. It’s about how it’s better to go off and find one’s own destiny instead of waiting for someone else to come and offer it. That nicely dispels the faults in being a chosen one, shows the Boiling Isles as highly immersive, and effectively brings fantasy-obsessed Luz down to Earth, even if she's not on Earth.

In the long run though, this second episode of the series may not be the most interesting story and doesn’t have much elements that come back later. However, it’s a commendable entry in deconstructing familiar tropes, and taking first steps in really balancing what our main protagonist loves and what she needs to learn.

A-

The Ranking

1. Witches Before Wizards

2. A Lying Witch and a Warden

The next Owl House review introduces a main setting of an actual magic school, and three students that become big parts of Luz's life in this fantasy world.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Cane Crazy" and "Flood, Sweat, and Tears" in Amphibia.

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