'Toon Reviews 20: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 2 Episode 4: Star vs Echo Creek/Wand to Wand

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 vs Echo Creek

As most people can see, Star’s eccentric personality and reliance on her wand often gets her into trouble, but most of the time, there’s always a good laugh to get out of these situation.  Here, there’s a lot of memorable fun encounters and moments from the havoc she causes, but exactly what she does makes the story a little concerning. 

When she gives herself a sugar high after eating a burrito with sugar, she goes crazy with casting spells and ends up crushing a police car.  Marco explains the unbelievable magnitude of what Star just did will get her sent to jail prompting Star to run away.  It’s understandable that Star is afraid of going to jail, but of all the misdeeds she committed, damage to a police vehicle is the biggest one of all, yet she actively chooses to do nothing about it.  She even ignores Marco when he tries to talk her out of it despite him having a good track record when it comes to advice.  As a result, Star is somewhat irrational and irresponsible for ignoring her own felonies.  This may be in line with her character, but it also goes to show how underdeveloped she is.  For all the trouble her magic got her into and all the times Marco’s advice saved her, you’d think she’d learn to be less reckless. by now 

While this is a prevalent feeling, there’s still some mild entertainment from who Star runs into while on the run.  For one of them, while she’s on the Echo Creek riverfront, she meets an woman who specializes in making pancakes and has a particular fondness for hair.  There’s suspense when her fondness of hair leads you to believe she’s going to take it from Star before the truth is revealed that she uses used hair to craft things.  However, even when this place is confirmed safe, Star becomes irrational again when the idea of letting her loved ones know she’s safe is brought up. You have to wonder why she wouldn’t want to do that since this doesn’t even involve the police. 

As for another encounter, it’s far more insightful since it’s clearly in Star’s imagination.  She passes out after hiding in the river and gets a vision of a happy pink sea serpent inviting her to live in an underwater hideout where she can do “anything [she wants] to,” which even comes with a lively musical number.  However, Star frequently suggests letting Marco know she’s ok, but the serpent keeps talking her out of it, eventually saying he’s just a visualization of her mind trying to convince her she’s doing the right thing laying low.  In other words, Star is thinking of doing the right thing, but keeps holding herself back, and this portrayal of her is the most relatable she’s been this whole time.  The encounter is basically a creative interpretation of an internal conflict which is always great to see in animation.  It’s also the one to finally convince her to do the right thing and confess her felony to the cops who then take her to Marco. 

As for the police car, it’s a bit of a cop-out from real consequences that the car was going to be smashed anyway and all Star has to do is wash the car, despite still opting to use magic to get it done.  The episode is still charming and likable with character moments and creative scenarios, but Star’s questionable morality at the forefront holds back the appeal.  It doesn’t ruin the experience at all, but this big a display of her flaws is hard to ignore. 

C

Wand to Wand

We see more of Ludo trying to make it on his own in the wild in this episode, which is great to see after what “Ludo in the Wild” showed how well he braved the elements before reaching a suitable position of well-being right down to finding the missing piece of Star’s wand. 

The start of the episode features him attempt to use it to get some decent food at a bar run by rats, but there’s a major challenge in using it to keep up with survival and his boost in power because he can’t get the wand to work.  Out of his attempts to get it to work, there’s an interesting look at how well he works with his bird and spider comrades when they both do something to make him mad which in turn powers the wand. 

Of course, Ludo actually working the wand turns out to be more complicated than that when he tries to purposefully make the bar rats mad enough to beat him up to power it.  He does eventually produce the same magic beam as before which knocks all the rats away, but it takes a long while and a big beating from rodents to make it happen, and he quickly loses control when the beam is shot.  Ludo may not be a master of the wand by any means, but the power he unlocks with it is still really effective even with only half of its power. 

As for the other half, the episode also focuses on Star’s problems with her own wand when she attempts to use it to do a task as simple, yet boring as taking out the garbage.  I have to say that for how much of a big deal it was that the wand lost its power in the Season 1 finale, it’s kind of inconsistent that the wand goes from being faulty to as functional as ever from episode to episode.  This episode highlights its newly established weaknesses when Star creates a talking cloud to take out the garbage for her, and the cloud doesn’t listen instead making a bigger mess in Marco’s house being completely condescending all the way. 

Things only get worse when Star becomes so fed up with the cloud that she tries blasting at it, and it gets filled with so much rage that it creates a huge violent storm.  The following literal battle through the storm is a particular highlight for the episode where Star feels the only way to stop the cloud is to keep blasting at it, but that only makes the cloud want to suck up even more things including Marco.  However, during the battle, Star realizes the only way to quell the green and enraged cloud is to give it a friendlier spell instead of a destructive one, so she casts a friendlier spell which makes the cloud pink and happy.  This indicates that even with her wand in a cleaved state, Star can still learn to find a way to control it as well as be more mindful of what she casts.  There’s even some believable growth to her character when she decides to clean up the mess the cloud made without magic, though I have to admit that it would’ve been more impactful if it came before the events of “Red Belt” then there’d be a more believable reason for her opting to not use magic there. 

Ultimately though, this episode offers a nice look at how both the main protagonist and antagonist unlock control of their cleaved weapons leaving one to wonder who has the better control.  

A-

The Ranking

1. Ludo in the Wild
2. Mr. Candle Cares
3. Wand to Wand
4. Star on Wheels
5. My New Wand
6. Red Belt
7. Star vs Echo Creek
8. Fetch

The next Star vs the Forces of Evil review introduces the completely crazy Mina Loveberry, and features a camping trip with King River.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a Rocko's Modern Life review on "Cabin Fever" and "Rinse and Spit."

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 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 6: You're Level 100

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:

You’re Level 100

Some of the most compelling stories have the main character work very hard to achieve greatness making for a rewarding journey.  It would be a pretty weak move for characters to achieve great strength and status early on or through doing nothing.  It’s for these reasons that this cartoon isn’t all that compelling. 

The main plot develops a main object of the series, Pow cards.  On the surface, they seem just like typical trading cards, but there’s a lot more to them.  They’re like specialized computers that calculate information on every hero in existence based on how much they advance through heroic acts.  The deepest thing about Pow cards is that their legit measuring tools for how much heroes grow through changing in level over time.  It’s a visual metaphor of developing a sense of worth, which is why it’s huge when characters get one. 

In K.O.’s case, getting a Pow card of his own is a huge deal for him with his desire to become a great hero made so apparent, and it is monumental when the bodega’s Pow card machine has one of him.  However, it’s a little too monumental when K.O.’s Pow card level is 100.  Right there, it’s clear that something is not right for many reasons.  First, it’s very early in the show’s run, so it’s a cheap move for K.O. to have that big a level at this point.  Second, K.O. has not done anything huge at this point to warrant such a high level, so it’s really unbelievable for him to get the status.  This leads to the next point where everyone is way too accepting of this through congratulating him and giving him celebrity treatment, never getting suspicious.  It’s a bit discomforting that K.O. is hailed so much despite it being so unbelievable for him to be a level 100 hero. 

His celebrity status lasts for so long that when he’s put to the test with Lord Boxman unleashing his latest robot, Big Darrell, specifically designed for level 100 heroes to face, you’re waiting for the truth to be revealed.  I mean, the unbelievability of the Pow card information and K.O. clearly being too weak stature makes it clear that he’s no match on his own and makes his overconfidence pretty stupid.  The ensuing battle does provide a good display of K.O.’s power fists though not seen since the second cartoon. 

Unsurprisingly, during a huge thrashing from Big Darrell, it’s revealed that K.O. isn’t a level 100 hero at all.  In fact he’s a level 0 which makes more sense, even if it’s still an issue that his disillusion went on for so long.  That said, the story does end up showing that K.O. does have to take his time to build up to a hero overall, and while most of the heroes who praised him are annoyed that he’s not who they thought he was at first, they still help K.O. beat Big Darrell.  This results in a highly creative solution to the battle with all the heroes becoming a literal big fist combining their Pow card levels that K.O. uses to punch Big Darrell to pieces.  Plus, even though it was technically all the heroes in the plaza who saved the day, K.O. is rewarded with a slight upgrade to a level .1 hero, showing that while he has a ways to go, he’s still making progress. 

While the cartoon is held back for focusing on the unbelievable for too long, the universal message of how true success is what you work towards and some creative moments help it stand strong enough.

B

The Ranking

1. Let’s Be Heroes
2. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
3. Jethro’s All Yours
4. Let’s Be Friends
5. We Messed Up
6. You’re Level 100

The next OK K.O.! review follows K.O. strive to teach the importance of teamwork, even if it means helping the villainous Boxmore robots with their sibling rivalry.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a Star vs the Forces of Evil review on "Star vs Echo Creek" and "Wand to Wand."

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 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 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 5: Jethro's All Yours

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:

Jethro’s All Yours

A good character has more elements to their personality than just one trait so to be relatable and interesting, but if they do have just one trait, they can still work as long as they’re entertaining.  That’s the interesting thing about this cartoon centering on another main element of the series which is K.O. and his co-workers exercising their powers by taking on Boxmore robots that are randomly sent to attack Lakewood Plaza Turbo.  The premiere cartoon had the first instance of this, but this cartoon is devoted to such an attack. 

The attack here does not seem like much with the robot being a very small one named Jethro, who simply rolls over to the plaza repeating “I am Jethro”.  While the more experienced heroes don’t feel the need to waste their time with a small opposing force, K.O., always up for a chance to become a hero, stays to take him on.  In spite of Jethro’s small unthreatening stature, seeing K.O. put a lot of effort into destroying him is nice for his devotion to reach the heroic greatness he dreams of. 

Then the robot attack turns out to be more of a serious threat as bigger Jethros appear for K.O. to defeat.  While taking the Jethros out, things get deeper for K.O. when Rad’s earlier words about Jethro being as simple as K.O. get to him.  The moment has a lot of power because it brings to mind what makes a character weak through a lack of interesting traits as Jethro exhibits through simply rolling along, saying his name, and doing nothing to defend himself, as well as a sense of doubt in K.O. believing that no one sees him as anyone special.  Granted, the show hasn’t provided a lot of defining moments for K.O. at this point to make his anxieties valid, but him acknowledging them and how they add to his already strong relatability still give the cartoon value. 

It’s this issue on character complexities that get K.O. to sympathize with Jethro instead of destroying him like he would with any other robot, although Jethro does seem more complex when a really big Mega-Jethro comes to attack the plaza.  Because this Jethro is the biggest, K.O. believes he’s much more complex, so he tries to defeat it through reasoning. When that doesn’t work, he and Rad actually go inside Jethro’s inner workings to find the robot’s complexities, resulting in an interesting commentary about how even the biggest and strongest characters can be simple regarding personality.  All there is to Jethro is a lever commanding him to move forwards or backwards and nothing else.  Pulling it stops it from attacking the plaza and destroy Boxmore instead, but it leaves K.O. disappointed that there truly is nothing of substance to Jethro. 

Fortunately, we end with a heartwarming scene from a cool jerk like Rad who, in his own way, shows that K.O. has much more to him than Jethro will ever have.  Considering how clear his dreams of being a hero, bravery, friendliness, and confidence issues have been from the start, Rad really isn’t kidding when saying how K.O. isn’t actually simple, selling this cartoon as a guide for characterization, and this is only an early example of a cartoon shining for its creative interpretations of deep subjects.

A

The Ranking

1. Let’s Be Heroes
2. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
3. Jethro’s All Yours
4. Let’s Be Friends
5. We Messed Up

The next OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes review covers the unbelievable plot point of K.O. apparently hitting Level 100 in such a short time.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews, it's another Star vs. the Forces of Evil review on "Star on Wheels" and "Fetch."

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 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 4: We Messed Up

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:

We Messed Up

It’s interesting that this show gets K.O. closer to becoming a hero through every little thing he does in almost every cartoon, even when he’s just messing around at work with Rad and Enid.  This cartoon features this instance while also providing some interesting background on their boss, Mr. Gar, setting up an ongoing arc. 

The beginning is just a typical day at the bodega where the employees are assigned at random to test their powers in a simple drill of helping an old lady buy something and get to her car, the humor coming from Mr. Gar not even trying to act like an old lady.  Even as heroes in training, the main story reminds that these guys are still youths who are prone to messing around with potentially harmless rule-breaking as they proceed to sneak into Mr. Gar’s office while he’s away and attempt to not do anything to “disappoint” him.  In addition to cameras he uses to keep an eye on everything in the bodega, which is almost excessive since it’s so small, and photos of his heroic accomplishment, the employees discover that Mr. Gar also has a picture of K.O.’s mom, Carol when she was young and hot.  This is only the first part of the arc fueled by the legit sense of mystery of why Mr. Gar even has a picture of Carol in the first place. 

However, when Rad’s super-powered fingers accidentally destroy the picture, instead of finding the meaning of the photo, the focus is on the gang trying to hide what they did so Mr. Gar won’t be disappointed with Rad and Enid feebly distracting him from going into his office and K.O. getting Carol to pose for a new photo.  Honestly, their fantasies of their boss screaming at them to death don’t feel too far off considering his drill sergeant mannerisms, so their actions are understandable. 

In the process, K.O. takes initiative to find out about Carol’s past with Mr. Gar, helping the cartoon to stand out more than characters simply hiding the problem they caused from their authority normally would.  The past is illustrated by a single scene of an explosion at a donut shop while a sandwich is dropped in the rain while two figures run toward the crime scene.  It’s purposefully left vague and written off as “grown-up stuff” to K.O. leaving an even bigger mystery to the featured relationship, or as K.O. puts it, “just gives [him] further questions.” 

Apart from that though, the cartoon mostly stands as a simple gag fest from everyone’s attempts for Mr. Gar to not find out what happened to the picture of Carol from silly stunts Rad and Enid pull, Mr. Gar handling their petty problems, and K.O. ending up wearing Carol’s old jumpsuit when it doesn’t fit her anymore.  It’s funny, but also par for the course when it comes to plots like this.  However, when Mr. Gar does find out what his employees did, their fears turn out justified when he is just as mad and “disappointed” as they imagined.  It’s only an appearance of Carol with another copy of the original photo that eliminates the tenseness.  While some could argue that the resolution is anti-climactic, it does show how much Mr. Gar values Carol since it’s her appearance that calmed him down, and it helps that many more cartoons explore the relationship. 

This is ultimately a pretty basically structured cartoon, but the interesting ways it develops the characters' backgrounds and powers and its strong entertainment help it to stand as its own thing.

A-

The Ranking

1. Let’s Be Heroes
2. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
3. Let’s Be Friends
4. We Messed Up

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where K.O. wonders if at least one of the Boxmore robots really is just like him.

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