Ladies and gentlemen...it's back.
Star vs. The Forces of Evil has returned after a brief month-long hiatus, and has more stories, action, excitement and great Starco moments to tide us over for the rest of Season 1. And since it's the Summer, it's an even better time to watch. While having fun, soaking some rays, cookouts, water parks, the beach, ect., ect,; general spending time with family, AND NO SCHOOL!! Plus watching our favorite inter-dimensional best pals going on extra-awesome adventures.
And also, me doing my Reviews of the show, so this can't get even better from there.
So let's take a look at the first episode after the thing that Disney should stop using on its shows to our collective hatred...
In it, When Star starts sprouting hearts all over her body, the telltale sign of Mewberty, Marco searches for a way to keep her from losing control.
The halfer begins at ECA with Oskar Greason bangin’ and boomin’ with the sounds of his keytar. And Star enjoying the Heck out of it. Marco snaps her out to tell her about this purple heart (they were in art class, and he assumes it's paint) on her forehead. She immediately starts to worry, and tells Marc about it, as a random phase of life for Mewni-an girls called “Mewberty”. Marco tries to assure her that it could be similar to puberty on Earth, but Star shoots this down, saying
“This is going to get really weird”.
(And as this review continues, it’s going to get really wild, too.)
--Of course you remember Oskar from “
Cheer Up Star”. It’s good to see Star’s love-interest is getting some more face-time, especially in this episode. Which is smart because it’s about...well, I don’t want to spoil it before revealing it.
--Okay...from the moment she talked after suddenly talks, Star got creepy, and it actually freaked me out a little. And that’s a good thing. At least it gives this episode another level of suspense and thrill.
Marco tries to walk the newly (and-quickly)-diseased-ridden Star home, but she gets distracted by a guy drinking from the water fountain, and after Marc tries to pull her away, she suddenly has a gross purple arm that talks, gives a bad influence and feats on people’s poop makers.
Oh wait, wrong episode. Sorry. It actually just grows and adheres to places (specifically. a student’s locker) on intended impulse, causing B-Fly to stick around, despite Starco’s urges to bolt. They try their best to leave, but her arm refuses. Marco tries to pull it free, but Star stops him, as she says it makes it worse. She tells Marc to go get her Spell Book to solve this problem. Which is with Ferguson, as she lost it to him in a bet.
--In my mind, I found the plot starting and moving immediately to be awesome and refreshing. Instead of starting with the characters being somewhere else or with endless dialogue, the plot begins almost immediately and will continue on, and that was fantastic to watch so far. And as it continues, it’ll get more awesome and refreshing
Marco runs to Ferg who’s in his Spanish class, where he tells Marc that he gave the Book to someone else: a girl named Janna.
Meanwhile in the locker, Star tries to shed her new-and-won’t-disappear-until-the-end-of-this-episode phase, but fails (she does so successfully for a second, before it comes back in a drove), and it gets worse when the Boy’s Swimming team comes and does practice in front of the lockers....
“
Poop. It was poop. Somebody pooped in the pool.” -One player
“...Ew.” -Me
... to Star’s chagrin (or delight, thanks to increasingly-growing Mewberty).
Elsewhere, Janna shows her friends Star’s Spell Book, and is close to doing whatever they want (like getting one of their parents to stop fighting...Dag). Marco shows up and takes the book back, trying to finding a spell to stop (or at least calm down) Star’s growing Mewberty, and ends up finding a magic genie helper...person called Sir Glossaryck (
of Terms). Marc’s requests are turned down, however, when Glossaryck only wants to help out princesses. When Marc tells him about Star’s Mewberty problem, Glossy is then able to work out a deal (his services for...pudding. “High Schools have excellent pudding,” as he claims.)
--Janna is a character that has come out of nowhere for me (unless she has already appeared before in the background). She came in with the Magic Book, and leaves with Marco’s keys (with some look in her eyes)...which was...strangely forced. It really had me scratching my head.
I feel she will return in a later episode, but I don’t think it would matter to me. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure to point it out for you.
--On the other hand, I really like Glossaryck. He’s funny, charming, smarmy and (like Oskar’s one-liners here) made me laugh every time he appears. I want him to appear more in this series (and this
will matter to me).
Meanwhile, a boy goes to his locker...and finds Star inside...under full effects of Mewberty. She touches him (“
Boy...”), and he doesn’t notice, as he was listening to music. Yep, Star is ...(a word I cannot use, as I’m trying to keep this Review series as PC as possible. But it rhymes with “corny”.) for boys.
As students leave for home, a male pupil goes to the Danger Zone, a purple heart-shaped Mewberty cocoon, and finds this: a six-handed, heart-eyed, flying monster that is Star fully consumed under Mewberty. Star frees herself from the cocoon and begins her rampage.
Macro finally gets a pudding-addled Glossaryck to spill on how to stop Star’s very special boy problem, with the blue-skinned, six-fingered latter revealing that Star may (or may not) return to normal at exactly 3:57pm, as “Nature is like a garbage truck: it doesn’t stop”. (terrible analogy, but it works). Marc is understandably exasperated by this, but (after hearing) goes to stop Star with this new (rather weak) information.
Marco comes to her rescue, but has found other male students trapped in her clutches (literally; she has them thrown into lockers, and sprays some type of web to keep them trapped).
(And yes, that
is Jeremy Birnbaum in one of the lockers, at the end of line.
Creepy, I know)
Marc tries to stop her, but she immediately traps him too, and is close to doing worse...until she hears keytar music from Oskar. She flies to Oskar and is about to do even worse to him, but Marco stops her with the help of a volleyball net. But it’s not over, as B-Fly buzzes around ECA campus to get away from Marc’s trap until...(under Glossaryck’s guise) he lets her go, with Oskar finally under her clutches. Marco kneels on the ground, watching his best friend fly away forever.
Until it’s 3:57pm. Purple hearts fall all around Echo Creek Academy, and Oskar (and the car he sat on) fall back (literally) on campus unharmed, not noticing a thing.
And, to Marco’s , Star falls back to Earth, back to normal and finally free from Mewberty. Marc hugs her, and the two are back together again. That is until Marco is disgusted by this feeling
and has received a prize for her experience: Mewberty Wings! Starco tries them out for spin, but it doesn’t last long…(you know, like size of the wings).
--From this episode on, Star is now adorned with Butterfly-like wings. I’m curious to see where this development goes in this season, along with the rest of the series. Will they grow? When will Star officially fly with them? Will she brag on to her friends? Will this fulfill a "meaningful name" prophecy that makes her name
Star Butterfly make even more sense? We shall see...
Okay...I LOVE THIS EPISODE!
-The plot, which is a Mewni-an take on a teenage girl going through “puberty”, was awesome as Heck.
The execution was fantastic--it started off great, continued great, climaxed great and ended great.
-It was full of suspense, thrill, action and comedy that really held me over throughout the duration, and all of it was mixed in well.
-There was barely any music in this one, outside of Oskar’s keytar tunes and the terrifying BGM. And speaking of that terrifying BGM, which played when and after Star become Mewberty Star…My God, that was awesome (and scary to hear) and it added to the suspense perfectly. Great job to composer Brian H. Kim for creating these pieces in this episode, among the pieces he also created for other episodes. Dude is talented.
-And never for once have I felt bored throughout the episode--I was pulled in from start to finish and I couldn’t love it more.
-Also, it featured another reason why I enjoy Star and Marco as friends: Marco saving Star from Mewberty, while himself being at risk of being trapped under her uncontrollable wrath.
This episode featured some much greatness and then some. I couldn’t enjoy it more if I tried. Remember when I said that “Diaz Family Vacation” was my favorite episode? I take it back. THIS IS MY FAVORITE HALF-EPISODE. I love so much about it and I think this is be the best episode of Season 1 so far
Favorite Lines:
-Everything that Oskar said, including:
--“You go clean
your room, Mom.”
--“I don’t like your boyfriend, Mom.”
-Everything Glossaryck said
With all of this happiness coming from me, I would think this next episode would carry on the greatness. Well...
In it, Marco and his friends travel to a dimension of pixies and are forced to work off their debt in the Shard Mines after they run up Star's Magic Mirror bill with prank phone calls.
In Star's Expansion Pack Room at the Diaz Family Home, Marco, Alfonzo and Ferguson are playing around with Star’s Magic Mirror, making prank phone calls to people from other dimensions (
badly). Star comes in and wants to join in on the action, but their time with the Mirror has run out, as the it’s minutes have been used and the bill must be paid in Pixtopia (hee-hee-hee).
Marco fesses up to the prank calls (to Star’s strange delight, as she now relates to this “danger-hungry troublemaker” he has become, calling him and herself "Twinsies"), and wants to try paying the bill. As he uses the Dimensional Scissors to go to Pixtopia, Fonzy and Ferg clamor along, extremely eager to come on an adventure in another dimension.
--Seriously, Ferguson is terrible with prank calls.
--And another thing, I'm
still creeped out by Star. It's the events of "
Mewberty" that have this lasting effect. Is that a bad thing? If it is, I'm sorry.
--On the other hand, Star being aware that she's reckless, and is giddy about Marco being the same way (sorta) is kinda weird and cute at the same time.
--Marco saying "What? Man I ain't no twin. I'm.. I'm.. I'm Marco Diaz. Only child." made me laugh.
while Alfergzo (this is a thing now) saying "Going into portal land! Teenage boys are holding hands!" made me laugh like Heck!
--Lastly, here, it's nice to see that Starco's friends are well-aware of Star's life as a princess from another dimension, and that this isn't some secret they're hiding. It's obvious it's been this way a lot longer than I'm mentioning now, but it's a refreshingly good thing to just watch them (Fonzy and Fergy) go along with it, and that they're really cool with it. Now back to the story.
In Pixtopia, which is inhabited by happy, singing pixies, they arrive in at the Pixie Magic Mirror Office, where Marco tries to pay the bill using Earth’s American money. The Customer Services employee tells the four that they can only pay with gold and jewels, and banishes them to in the underground Shard Mines to work off the bill.
--I’m usually not a fan of toilet humor, but that bit with the female Pixie using a flower as a commode during the Pixtopia Pixies song was hilarious.
The quad-rio (meh)...fall into the Shard Mines, and are immediately thrown into work by the taskmaster. Star tries to fight him with her Wand, but its powers are strained, as they do not work in the Mines. Ferguson tries to intervene, but is taken away by the pixie guards, causing Starco and Alfonzo to work without him.
While Ferg is taken to the castle of the Pixie Empress, who is immediately smitten with him, Star, Marc and Fonzy are still doing their community service. When Alfonzo coughs up Pixie Dust (which does not make him fly, by the way), Marco has had enough and decides to run from his punishment to save Ferguson (Classic Marco right there), but a wizard (who, along with a minotaur, is also punished) tells him is won’t do any good, as there’s no way to es--Star points out a mine car and the five prisoners break out of the Mines. The pixie guards give chase, and it’s a race to find and save Ferguson...
...who is enjoying all his precious time being pampered by the Empress.
The chase through the mines has gotten more and more intense for a little while. Starco, Fonzy, the Wizard and the Minotaur are still followed by the guards...until they fall down a steep slope down (the guards), and the group finally reach Ferguson, through a hole that leads up to the throne...
--I found the mine chase scene to be rather meh, compared to other chase scenes from other episodes. Mostly because Ludo wasn't there. (A little more on that down the road.)
The five finally reach Ferguson, who is still being pampered and announces to them that he’s getting married to the Empress. Marco freaks out and snaps Ferg out of the , as he’s too young for the commitment. Fergy realizes what he’s doing is wrong and tells the Empress that he cannot tie the knot with her. The Empress then tells her guards to kill him and his friends. (Really; it was that quick. She doesn’t change her expression for a second.) The guards then fight Starco and Alfergzo once again, and this time, it gets more exciting.
Star finally gets to use her Wand’s powers and destroys the diminutive opposition with a little Freese and Rainbow.
When all's said and done, Star, Marco and Ferguson* leave Pixtopia and return home. A sad Marco confesses it’s his fault that Ferguson has no shot at love. That is until Star reveals that Pixie Empress never loved Fergy anyway, and that she wanted to
eat him. (That was out-of-nowhere dark) Fergy, hurt by his friends’ words, asks where Alfonzo is.
*He’s still in Pixtopia, and actually goes through with marrying the Empress. The episode ends with a curious Fonzy wondering of a life as a king...conflicting tyranny.
Favorite Lines:
"
What? Man I ain't no twin." -Marco
"
Going into portal land! Teenage boys are holding hands!" -Ferguson and Alfonzo
"
Even our bathrooms smell so sweet. [squeak]" -Female Pixie
This episode is the first to feature Alfonzo and Ferguson joining Starco on their inter-dimensional adventures. And in my opinion, this was pretty good. I wasn't expecting a huge adventure, so that made it better than fine in that regard. Although not as great as Mewberry, which is obviously the better halfer for me. I honestly didn't care much for the plot with Ferguson and the Pixie Princess, but luckily it didn't drag down the episode. Also, we didn't much about the Empress or why she would want to eat Ferguson until the end, which came out of nowhere (outside of the subtle hints that she was feeding him, implying she was fattening him up like she was a witch and he's Hansel. ?[
Hansel?]) and felt like it was rushed, especially after when they don't mention more more about it. Yes, it was the ending, but it still felt, that way. I did enjoy the chase to save him though, and the fight scene was really good. But I wasn't very fond of this episode. I don't hate it though; it had some funny moments I liked.
And as I said earlier, I enjoyed the chase and fight scenes (the latter more than the former), but they didn't have a certain charm to them; and that charm being Ludo and his minions. It's not to say I didn't enjoy this one; I love Star's finishers in freezing some pixies and trapping others in a rainbow wall. That's cool.
Overall, this was a great episode, and a great return to the show we all love to watch. I'd definitely watch this episode more and more, especially "
Mewberty".
Tune in next week, where I give an overly-extensive account into "Lobster Claws", an episode where Starco makes nice with one of Ludo's minions, a creature with...lobster claws. I originally thought this would be a sequel to "Monster Arm", but I'm sadly/happily mistaken. And also, "Sleep Spells", where Star begins to conjure up spells in her sleep. And if this pic
of her dressed up as Marco (with Marc in glasses looking on intently) is any indication, I'd better grab some popcorn. This is going to be a great night.
And now, a few more things I miss doing...
I want to think the Star vs. The Forces of Evil Wikia page for everything, of course.
Thank you for joining me for this review, and for checking out this review series in general.
And I'll see you next week for another review of Star vs. The Forces of Evil.
Until then, I'm Andrew saying, "Reach for the Star, and Keep Looking Up!...at your TV screen".
Fall Out Boy!
)
Tori Kelly (because her song "Nobody Love" is a hit in America. And me--I couldn't stop thinking about it.)
Kicking off this year's show,
