Night Drivers / Return To Wartwood - (Amphibia Season 2 Episode 11) - 'Toon Reviews 49

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Night Drivers

Though development for the main underlying story is welcome, the tone of the series make it necessary to balance out the huge information with slice-of-life levity.  So, this cartoon is designed to transition from major Newtopia adventures to going back to the original status quo in the Plantars’ hometown of Wartwood.  Nothing too big happens for the characters involved, but it still builds effective atmosphere out of every encounter on the voyage home, which is said to not even be that long.  

Like most kids who have just gone on a vacation to a major city, Sprig and Polly have had their fun, but are looking forward to getting home, which there’s no place like you know.  However, getting home in good time is put on hold when Anne and Hop Pop, the only ones experienced with driving the family snail Bessie, are too tired to continue.  They proceed to get some much needed sleep, but for Sprig and Polly, this means they have to wait even longer to get back home.  Then they decide that they're capable of driving despite not having the experience, so even though Hop Pop won’t let them, they take Bessie’s reins and do it anyway.  

That’s all there is to the basic premise, and what follows isn’t particularly deep or thought-provoking.  Instead, its substance consists of atmospheric moments to highlight the journey which in turn make it exciting and creatively staged.  Anne and Hop Pop are shown to have elaborate dream sequences while asleep that go all out with visuals.  Hop Pop’s dream starts out dark and foreboding with him experiencing signs of death before the mood turns and he’s flying through the air like a god.  Anne’s dream is the opposite opening in a happy world of talking yogurt, only for it to get scary when, of all things, the only flavor they have is licorice.  

These dreams are aesthetically amusing, but of course, it’s what Sprig and Polly get up to by driving Bessie without the others knowing that really drives the cartoon.  All the way, compared to the last cartoon focusing on Sprig and Polly as siblings, they get along very well and work as a solid team.  In addition to pleasing interactions between them, they approach every obstacle in their own unique way.  Sometimes they’re all for the adrenaline rush of some extreme driving, but other times they hang on for their lives in places like a canyon of falling rocks.  

The most prominent sight of all is a mysterious hitchhiker with a hook for a hand and a demented smile.  He’s someone Sprig and Polly just can’t deny is frightening no matter what, so they try to avoid him.  Despite all efforts, he shows up anyway, especially at a fork in the road.  Hesitant to trust a strange hitchhiker, when he points to one path, they ignore him and take the other path.  This in turn lands everyone in thick mist, and there’s another scary encounter with the hitchhiker suddenly appearing on the wagon with them.  Because of his creepy appearance, Sprig and Polly fear for their lives as they keep driving through a dangerous rocky trench.  From the staging, understandable impressions of the hitchhiker, and the kids’ fitting reactions to him, this sequence works as a scary climax.  Then it suddenly ends with the sun coming up, the hitchhiker gone, and the group almost home.  It even turns out that the hitchhiker wasn’t dangerous, and was just trying to get the wagon on a safer path.  It’s an interesting twist for sure, but the explanation is a bit on the nose and over-explained.  The important thing though is that while the cartoon is another one mostly existing for fun, it’s still a solid show of character and atmosphere.

That said, it’s welcome to see that frog robot continuing to follow the Plantars after so long.

B+

Return to Wartwood

When shows set out to balance major underlying plots with slice-of-life, it’s certainly not easy.  Luckily, this show pulls this element off fairly well.  While the heavy plot aspect is more interesting, the one-off adventures have their merits too, serving as healthy breathers before the next big story beat.  Working in this favor is that the characters of this show are its biggest strength.  

This cartoon reintroduces long unseen characters as the Plantars finally come home to Wartwood.  It’s easy to tell how valuable the Plantars have become to this town as everyone gathers to greet them.  There are amusing quirks from the eccentric residents, reunions with love interests, and arrangements for a big town dinner to celebrate the return.  It’s all nice events, but then the cartoon’s conflict emerges.  The residents talk about gifts that the Plantars allegedly got everyone in Newtopia.  The problem is that even though Hop Pop and Polly were around to hear what everyone wanted, they forgot the gift list they made.  This especially stings knowing they spent a whole cartoon shopping in Newtopia.  Fearing letting everyone down, the Plantars feel the best thing to do is get empty gift boxes and call upon a monster to destroy them so no one finds out the truth.  

Actually, Anne looks at the situation moralistically, pointing out that they should know lying is not the right approach.  Of interesting note, she says this in response to Hop Pop spelling out that the best thing to do is to bury the issue so no one finds out.  Consider this clash of perspectives a major instance of foreshadowing.  Still, there are points to make the course of action understandable, namely how Sprig is an unfortunate victim of all this with one of the gifts meant for his girlfriend Ivy.  He’s worried he could lose her over something he wasn’t in on.  

The plan is put into action as the Plantars do a ritual to call their creature meant to only eat the shiny gift boxes and not hurt anyone unless provoked.  

Then they casually join the town for the dinner via an amusing tone shift. The dinner is a nice gathering of various personalities.  The ones that stand out are easily the moments between Sprig and Ivy, who for a pair of kids, offer a pleasing atmosphere as a child couple active while the show is still running.  Then comes the appointed creature, a chicka-lisk, a huge fire breathing chicken who, again, is only meant to eat the shiny gift boxes.  However, there’s one thing the Plantars didn’t count on, and that’s the Wartwood citizens sympathizing with their kind gesture.  They act aggressive towards the chicka-lisk which in turn provokes it.  Not only does it attack the town, but it also turns some of the citizens to stone like a cockatrice.  It now has to be beaten, which in turn makes for an exciting climax where just about all of Wartwood plays a part, an interesting turn of events.  In the end, the chicka-lisk is offended into being driven away, and local sorceress, Maddie Flour, frees everyone from stone.  

The Plantars come clean about forgetting to get everyone gifts, but the citizens don’t hold anything against them.  The fact that they’re fine with the Plantars’ wacky adventures that result in dangers easily shows that they know their good people at heart who always mean well.  There’s even a cute cheek kiss between Ivy and Sprig to really seal the deal and end the cartoon.  While this may not be the most interesting story and it’s questionable if the payoff was earned, it’s very rewarding to return to wholesome slice-of-life on familiar grounds.

A-

Fan Art

Series Ranking

1.      Hopping Mall

2.      Reunion

3.      Marcy at the Gates

4.      Toad Tax

5.      Anne vs Wild

6.      The Domino Effect

7.      Toadcatcher

8.      Prison Break

9.      A Day at the Aquarium

10.  Anne of the Year

11.  Contagi-Anne

12.  Best Fronds

13.  Family Shrub

14.  Hop-Popular

15.  Anne Hunter

16.  Wally and Anne

17.  Children of the Spore

18.  A Night at the Inn

19.  Handy Anne

20.  Scavenger Hunt

21.  Lily Pad Thai

22.  Dating Season

23.  Anne or Beast?

24.  Combat Camp

25.  Little Frogtown

26.  Cursed!

27.  Snow Day

28.  Civil Wart

29.  Stakeout

30.  Croak and Punishment

31.  Taking Charge

32.  Flood, Sweat, and Tears

33.  Bizarre Bazaar

34.  The Plantars Check In

35.  The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers

36.  Wax Museum

37.  Return to Wartwood

38.  Sprig Gets Schooled

39.  Swamp and Sensibility

40.  Trip to the Archives

41.  Anne Theft Auto

42.  Hop Luck

43.  Night Drivers

44.  Quarreler’s Pass

45.  Hop Pop and Lock

46.  Plantar’s Last Stand

47.  Fort in the Road

48.  A Caravan Named Desire

49.  The Big Bugball Game

50.  Fiddle Me This

51.  Truck Stop Polly

52.  Family Fishing Trip

53.  The Ballad of Hoppediah Plantar

54.  Girl Time

55.  Breakout Star

56.  Grubhog Day

57.  Cane Crazy

58.  Lost in Newtopia

59.  Sprig vs Hop Pop

60.  Cracking Mrs. Croaker

The next Amphibia review is a big Halloween special consisting of three unique spooky stories.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews, The Owl House takes us "Elsewhere and Elsewhen." 

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

Follies at the Coven Day Parade - (The Owl House Season 2 Episode 11) - 'Toon Reviews 48

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:

Follies at the Coven Day Parade

It’s one thing for a show to present heavy drama and emotions, but it’s also interesting to see where the story and characters will go after the heaviness unfolds.  As the previous episode was a big show of emotion that could potentially affect the happiness Luz has built for herself, the aftermath to that is what this episode is dedicated to.  The results turn out to be a solid companion piece as well as a strong show of character and build-up to future events.

Being put in a position where she could potentially leave the Demon Realm and never be able to see the friends she’s made there again, it’s easy to ponder what Luz will do about it.  As the episode makes things clear, her goal is to convince her mom that it is indeed a good place and that she should not have to cut it out of her life.  She wants to find a fair middle ground where she can have the best of both realms, which is honestly very reasonable.  It’s not an easy thing to do, as through making a video of her properly explaining matters, there’s always something disturbing and dangerous to counteract her claims.  The whole situation feels very hopeless for Luz, and she’s clearly too uncomfortable to talk about it with anyone.  It especially shows whenever her friends ask about what happened, and she hides the emotional after effects of her portal attempt with simple stretches of the truth.  Even as Luz avoids talking about the subject though, it’s clear that she can’t stop thinking about it, and is haunted by the idea of leaving the Demon Realm forever.

Other things going on in the episode ultimately inspire a potential solution to everything.  Preparations are made for the annual Coven Day parade, a grand event filled with common parade amenities like floats, balloons, fireworks, and more.  Eda, however, can see that this is nothing more than a way for Emperor Belos to spread propaganda of his controversial coven system.  Her main priorities are getting information on what happened to her former partner, Raine Whispers, ever since they were taken by two of the coven heads.  What she learns from an intelligence report though appears to contradict the encounter, learning that they’re still working for the emperor despite being branded a traitor.  

As for Luz, still dreading her own situation, she spots the emperor’s demon assistant, Kikimora, in her own unfortunate dilemma.  Facing divided loyalties, Kikimora has to lead the parade for the emperor or she’ll be punished severely, but must also see her family for a reunion or be banished from them forever.  She’s always been seen as a crazed, power mad, practically demented sort, but this moment does suggest solid humanity for Kikimora.  Luz notices this too, and in spite of all her past morally bad actions, she instead relates to her having divided loyalties and wanting to find a middle ground.  Ultimately, she comes up with a plan to help Kikimora out of her situation by staging a big rescue mission at the Coven Day parade.  She and the Owl House gang will intercept the parade, creating a diversion to allow them to save Raine and make it look like they’re taking Kikimora hostage.  This plan gives a good chance for Eda to see her love interest again and try to learn what happened after their capture.  For Luz, she hopes to use this plan as an exercise in how to approach her own problems with keeping both realms in her life.  She’s practically crazed about getting results, while also concealing the real reason why she’s desperate for everything to work.

During the actual parade, things slowly get complicated, mostly from other characters who get involved.  The rescue mission itself is pulled off well, but not so much what follows.  

Eda meets up with Raine and is set up to talk with them at last, but something is off about the former love interest.  Just after Eda expresses great relief that they’re ok, Raine is surprisingly shocked to see her again.  They claim that they’ve been sick in bed for months and haven’t spoken with Eda in years.  Of course, this is completely untrue considering how recent them leading a group of rebels against the emperor was, and Eda knows this.  Either way, Raine’s condition is very interesting as they didn’t exactly lose their memory, but it’s still warped to the point where they’re loyal to the emperor.  Said loyalty really shows when they’re pushed to fight Eda despite saying they don’t want too, and neither does Eda.  At the very least, it’s nice that even in the harshest of conditions, they both still love each other.  All the while, Eda still tries her best to get through to Raine, but when even a tape recording of the music piece they played a while back doesn’t snap them out of it, things seem hopeless.  In the end, Eda is told to part ways from Raine and not even try to go looking for them; the attempt at fixing true love turning out to be a total failure.  

The episode does give a reason for Raine suddenly appearing loyal to the emperor in the form of an official introduction to one of the coven heads.  

Prior to the parade starting, Kikimora finds Raine in an unusually calmer state than usual.  The reason for this is explained with an appearance of Terra Snapdragon, head of the plant coven.  Terra herself brings a very unsettling presence to all her scenes.  She comes off as a warm and caring grandmother-like figure, but is very seductive and mysterious, clearly harboring some dark ulterior motives.  She’s the one claiming that Raine was sick in bed, which is definitely a lie most.  She frequently gives them a special tea said to help cure Raine of their sickness, but it’s clear that it has some sort of dark effect.  It practically looks like it exacerbates Raine’s frequent headaches which are keeping them from remembering going against the emperor.  It should be noted though that a later episode reveals this matter as much more complex through the true nature and effects of the tea.  However, as far as Terra knows, her simple actions seem to have everything under control in favor of the major antagonistic force of the series, and it doesn’t stop there.  After Luz successfully captures Kikimora, being aware of Terra’s involvement in the parade, Kikimora fears that Terra will catch them and end them.  While they’re hiding, Terra does reveal the possibility of a promotion for Kikimora, which later on has an effect on what Luz had hoped to gain from this mission.

During said mission, there’s a surprising yet welcome involvement from someone so loyal to Luz, her girlfriend Amity.  In fact, her role for this episode brings great heart to balance out the underlying somberness.  Her first interactions with Luz here demonstrate the happiness of being around her as well as commitment to really connect with her, such as doing things like learning Spanish.  However, the appeal of Amity as a character and a partner to Luz shines and builds in intrigue when she notices that Luz left her phone behind, and it’s showing the video she made.  This is huge because just before Luz left, when asked about progress on her portal to the human realm, she told Amity and the rest of her school friends she didn’t finish it yet.  Therefore, she did not visit the human realm nor speak to her mom, something the audience knows is a lie.  With the discovery of this video, Amity gets the idea that Luz is hiding something.  Her expressing aggression and an immense loss of trust in Luz would be an easy way to respond to this.  However, with great care put into Amity’s characterization, she turns out to know better than that.  While she has her suspicions, she keeps herself from invading Luz’s privacy.  Even without their relationship, this is a good representation of an area of Amity’s personality.  She herself knows very well about respecting privacy since in the past, she’s frequently wanted for others to not invade hers, and had things she didn’t want to discuss. 

If anything, Amity exemplifies the best solution to the current situations, communication, just as she has in much of her past roles this season.  

Here, when she’s not sure of how to go about Luz keeping secrets about going to the human realm, Amity’s instinct has her ask for advice.  Who she asks brings very strong and welcome development for her as she goes to the home of her former best friend, Willow.  It would have been acceptable enough to see them being friendlier in little scenes in previous episodes to show them patching things up, but this scene goes an extra mile.  It’s telling of the genuineness of how much Amity has changed considering how long she’s gone along with cutting off Willow’s friendship, and progressing in repairing it.  All Amity has to do to get Willow’s advice is the simple friendly act of braiding hair.  They still have a ways to go to really say they’re friends, but legit progress like this really says a lot.

Anyway, while it’s unclear to the audience if Amity decides to watch the video or not, it is clear that it leads her to go to Luz directly.  In doing so, Amity easily spots her during the staged kidnapping of Kikimora at the parade, and joins in on the escapade with the intent of keeping her safe.  At this point, just about all the character roles for this episode come together as they prepare to let Kikimora go.  However, because she heard of that offer for a promotion, Kikimora instantly brushes her family obligations aside for sticking with the Emperor’s Coven.  

With Luz’s trust broken, she and Amity soon find themselves fighting Kikimora and her steed to beat her back and keep from being arrested.  All the while, both partners in this relationship demonstrate health that makes them endearing as a couple, putting their magical abilities together all the way.  Because of this, they hold out strong against this adversary, but Kikimora is already stopped by a sudden appearance of Terra who clears everything up.  She tells Kikimora that she’s already proven to be worthy of the promotion, but rather than actually getting something big from it, it simply means Kikimora gets to live.  Basically, fighting for the promotion was all for nothing, and maybe Kikimora’s intense pursuit for it wasn’t worth it, minus the life-or-death undertones.  Along with the fact that she was willing to go along with Luz’s plan BEFORE she heard about the promotion, Kikimora seems more complex in terms of personality.  This is still a good lesson on who to trust for Luz, but one can only imagine how things would have gone with Kikimora if it wasn’t for Terra.  Speaking of Terra, she’s also here for the kids.  While she doesn’t have them harmed or arrested, she does let Luz know that Emperor Belos is looking forward to meeting her...

Just before the end of the episode, there’s a dose of pure endearment from Luz and Amity which turns out to be the closest thing to a bright side.  Once the action has settled down, Amity finally confronts Luz about the message on her phone.  She ultimately stuck to her original morals and didn't watch it, but can tell Luz did see her mom in the human realm, and the encounter brought distressing results.  While Luz’s spirits are lowered even more by someone so close guessing the truth so well, there’s a stronger measure of heart from Amity.  Instead of being mad over the lies, she’s open and civil about her real feelings over this.  She can see that Luz’s situation is stressful, and she might not be open to talk all about it right away; again, Amity herself has kind of been there before. However, there’s a setback in not knowing all the details because then she can’t help Luz through her problems.  There’s a lot of relatable truth to this scenario, and is telling of how great a character Amity really is.  When all is said and done, she simply wants to understand the situations of her peers so she can offer them support. Luz is open too, explaining that the reasons she tried so hard to help Kikimora were to offer her hope with her own problem.  With a comforting hold of her hand, Amity offers all the reassurance Luz needs to tell her the whole story. It’s easy to tell that Luz now feels safe in revealing the truth to her, further presenting this romance as an incredibly healthy one worth supporting.  The amount of willingness to get each other’s feelings and making each other feel safe to talk about what they’re going through is simply that heartwarming.  While Luz’s problems aren’t exactly solved, it’s rewarding enough that being able to talk to Amity about them does make her feel a little better.  She knows that Amity is willing to help her however she can no matter how bad things are, and with this unconditional support, she has the hope she was striving to get.  When something can’t be solved so easily, this is the best thing anyone can ask for, if only for a limited time.

It must be reiterated though that the reassurance Luz gets is practically the only bright spot for the episode’s conclusion.  The rest of it brings very heavy emotions that depict a very depressing atmosphere.  Of course, it’s sad that Eda failed to get through to Raine, but then there are matters considering the emperor himself.  At the end of the parade, Belos appears to address the citizens of the Boiling Isles.  He finally reveals the set time for when his often discussed Day of Unity is to occur, in exactly one month.  On that day, officials from the Boiling Isles will journey to its head, and a tide will occur, thus enacting a plan of his to eliminate wild magic which he has an established disdain for.  Such a plan has several dark undertones for what it could mean for witches who don’t fall in line with his ideals, yet it’s still not clear exactly what he plans on doing.  

Then for good measure, Belos secures the loyalty of his people by removing his mask to present himself as a warm, caring figure.  It’s not a surprise to the audience as they have seen his face be casually revealed before, but it’s still striking that this act works in his favor.  The crowds of his subject cheer for him, suggesting their willingness to go along with his dark plans like they have nothing to fear.  The main protagonists, though, get a strong impression that Belos’ plans are not good news at all.  It brings to light the harsh point that there’s still a lot they don’t know about the plan.  There’s also a lot of uncertainty of him supposedly meeting Luz even though they allegedly already met.  It’s a personal element that makes things all the more worrisome, especially for Amity who just wants to help and support Luz.  Now there are things even Luz doesn’t know.  In the end, everyone decides that with this kind of setup, the best thing they can do right now is take things one day at a time.  For better or worse, this is very relatable for how most people can approach such uncertainty.

As both an episode by itself and an aftermath of major emotional drama, this stands as a very strong entry in the series.  The actual story events have a lot to take in, and come with very believable responses, but as usual, it’s executed in a pleasing manner thanks to the characters being followed.  Things might not be resolved, there’s still a lot of unknown truths, and some areas have little to no satisfaction at the moment, but it’s all right.  The characters’ relatable conflicts and strong chemistry with others add the heart needed to process everything.  It might be nerve-wracking to imagine what will happen next, but with a cast like this and how their arcs are executed, the audience is made ready to approach the future.

A+

Fan Art

Series Ranking

1.      Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door

2.      Enchanting Grom Fright

3.      Eda’s Requiem

4.      Follies at the Coven Day Parade

5.      Yesterday’s Lie

6.      Agony of a Witch

7.    Hunting Palismen  

8.      Echoes of the Past

9.      Escaping Expulsion

10.  Understanding Willow

11.  Lost in Language

12.  Adventures in the Elements

13.  The Intruder

14.  Covention

15.  Keeping Up A-Fear-Ances

16.  Eclipse Lake

17.  Through the Looking Glass Ruins

18.  Young Blood Old Souls

19.  Separate Tides

20.  Escape of the Palisman

21.  Wing it Like Witches

22.  The First Day

23.  I Was a Teenage Abomination

24.  Witches Before Wizards

25.  Something Ventured, Someone Framed

26.  A Lying Witch and a Warden

27.  Sense and Insensitivity

28.  Hooty’s Moving Hassle

29.  Really Small Problems

30.  Once Upon a Swap

The next Owl House review follows Luz and Lilith finding a way to the past in hopes of learning useful information from the old human, Philip Wittebane.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews, encounter "Night Drivers" and "Return to Wartwood" 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.