Clones versus Clankers
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.7 “Make It Don’t Break It”
The school has a new science teacher…all the way from Wakanda! Lunella begs her to mentor her in Robo Wars.
She turns out not to be evil, but…well…she actually abuses Lunella. At the end she apologizes and all is good, but I’ve seen what that kind of abuse and pressure does to kids.
It can make them turn away from everything that makes them them. Poor Lu just has a full blown panic attack (which apparently runs in the family).
I suspect without the teacher’s “mentoring” she would have won the robo wars, too…although her opposition was really good and had been doing it for longer.
Loved the roller skating musical number.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.8 “The Devil You Know”
Lunella goes on a family vacation. Devil gets FOMO. (Boy can Devil get some serious FOMO).
He ends up joining a support group for abandoned animal sidekicks. All of whom weren’t really abandoned…it was all a massive misunderstanding.
Fortunately, he stops short of helping them destroy somebody’s lair and everyone gets back with their supers in the end.
And somehow Lunella finds “Lunella” and “Devil” keyrings. That’s the least likely part of this episode!
(My name is always on those things, but I feel for the people who are never represented).
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.9 “Dog Day Mid-Afternoon”
Pops finds a dog in a dumpster and enters him in the dog show. Psst, the dog’s an alien. Which I worked out in, oh, five seconds.
Moon Girl works it out too but is, of course, convinced he’s an evil dognapper. I worked out in slightly more seconds that he wasn’t and who it really was.
But even with the predictable plot, there were lots of cute cartoon dogs…and the end credits contained photos of dogs. The cast and crew’s? I’m assuming so!
This entire episode is nothing more than a love letter to our fuzzy friends.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.10 “In The Heist”
So, now we’re up to “Putting things in your museum that aren’t really yours.” A heady topic, but the artifact appropriated from India actually…well…it’s Kree. Presumably it fell off the back of a starship.
The STEM kids are at the museum and one of them recognizes that it legit can’t be from where they claim. Now the kids have to steal it…no Moon Girl tech. Thankfully, Devil Dinosaur likes art galleries and bought an annual pass! For the galleries he fits in, anyway.
Yeah, it’s a little heist movie, very nicely done, complete with the “this is how we did it” reveal. Kind of fun!
Retro Review: Quantum Leap 2.15 “Her Charm”
The guest star in this is absolutely a The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Innocent down to the hair. And the situation she’s in…a witness who failed to put away her evil boss, who now wants revenge. And clearly has somebody on the inside.
Psst. It’s Sam’s host.
This was a lot of fun except that apparently the leap scrambled Sam’s brains a bit because he fails to notice or think of several really obvious things. Sam can be dumb, but he’s not normally this dumb. The fun guest star made up for it. I checked, and she was played by Canadian actor Teri Austin, a professional guest star, but any sense of familiarity was the character…she was in a lot of things but I think the only thing I ever saw her in May have been Murder, She Wrote.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.11 “Roller Jam!”
This episode touches on segregation and racism…Black people not being allowed in roller rinks. I dunno if that happened, but I have to assume it did.
White people suck, speaking as a white person.
Casey helps Pops do the invites for the Roller Jam…and accidentally invites an ex friend/skating partner he’s been feuding with for years. Moon Girl has to knock their heads together, figuratively, before their negative enrgy ruins the entire party.
And right as she does so, a hypercompetitive skater shows up and tries to kick her butt.
Basically just fun on skates (and a reminder not to be so competitive you forget to have fun).
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.12 “Dancing With Myself”
It’s the school dance…and everyone has a date but Lunella. Psst…you could ask Kid Kree. I mean, none of us are stupid.
He turns up hiding from giant space moths right as she’s about to just go home and she suggests that he pretend to date her.
And gets very pushy. Dear Lunella, not cool. But everyone ELSE had a date.
He admits he likes her likes her but isn’t ready to date yet. For now, they’re just friends.
Psst…none of us are stupid.
It’s about peer pressure and dating and, yeah, peer pressure in general. But we all know Lu needs somebody who can keep up with her, and who else can?
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.13 “Family Matters”
Moon Girl teams up with a superhero named Turbo to help her deal with a persistent nemesis who wants to steal her gear.
She finds out that Turbo is permanently estranged from her mom because she never told her her secret identity…and she just had a fight with her family about how she’s never around.
It’s time for the big reveal…and yes, 2.13 and 2.14 are a two-parter…but not labeled as such. Please, please label your two-parters.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.14 “The Molecular Level”
…and Moon Girl comes clean, to mixed reactions. Unfortunately, she’s immediately attacked by the alien from “The Great Beyond-er” who can’t find the Beyonder, so he’s going to attack Lunella instead.
He destroys the apartment, but then she talks him down and he puts everything back before heading off to fix his very broken resort planet with the new powers he’s picked up.
Lunella’s dad thinks everything is great and is half in love with Devil.
But her mom just forbade her from superheroing again…proving that, despite Turbo’s example, not telling her parents was the only choice she could make.
…and that’s how the end the season. Hopefully there will be a season three to resolve all of this.
Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Movie
Somehow I have never watched The Clone Wars. This is a major oversight. I also want to cosplay Ahsoka now. I don’t have the skill for it.
Ahsoka is the best thing here, utterly adorable, and makes up for having to put up with so much Anakin (Although he’s written much better than in the live action movies.
Also…do Hutts have gender? Jabba has a child, but no mention of a mate, and his “uncle” is coded feminine. I’m thinking Hutts, like a lot of invertebrates, may be functionally bisexual…and perhaps don’t have long term mates? I can’t imagine they’re asexual, with the problems that causes…or perhaps they are. There don’t seem to be very many of them, either.
The “hutlet” was adorable too. Alternating set piece battles with complete cuteness…I’ll take it!
Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars: 1.1 “Ambush”
Something else I will take…Yoda being badass. And this episode was pure, unadulterated Yoda being badass. He goes to negotiate with the king of a neutral moon (Star Wars does like its royalty). Count Dooku tries to demonstrate his superiority by kicking Yoda’s ass, with the help of his apprentice.
Which results in Yoda plus a handful of clone troopers against wave after wave of battle droids.
One thing I’ve noticed right away…and believe it or not this is my first watch…is that both the clones and the droids are humanized. This doesn’t make the Yedi look great, and it’s not supposed to. War results in desperate measures and war dehumanizes.
Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars: 1.2 “Rising Malevolence”
The separatists have a new mystery weapon against which the Republic fleet has no defenses. Attacks from it leave no survivors…or witnesses. A Jedi Master goes to find it, gets his butt kicked.
Anakin and Ahsoka break orders (again) to rescue him…and get the data needed to identify the weapon and develop countermeasures.
It’s an “ion cannon” which appears to basically be a space EMP. At one point they turn poor R2 off to protect him. He’s not happy about it…and who can blame him! Nobody likes a forced nap, right?
I am detecting the first hints of a rift between the Jedi and the clone factories. They know it’s wrong. They also don’t feel they have much in the way of choice.