Star vs. The Forces of Evil Review: Match Maker / School Spirit

Hello fellow Stargazers. Welcome back to my review of Star vs. The Forces of Evil.
I hope you enjoyed the last review because from this point on, there will be more where that come from. Let’s get started with...

The episode begins at Echo Creek Academy. Star and Marco are walking down the hallway, with her being greeted by fellow students. Star is delighted in her being friends with many other students, finding herself cool. Marco disagrees and points to who he finds cool, his friends Alfonzo and Ferguson. They attempt to pick up chicks and fail, with Ferguson using a drawing on his stomach to do such. Star suggests matching Ferg with a girl, while Marco just says No.
--I’m just gonna put this out there: I really like Alfonzo and Ferguson.
--It’s nice to see the other students being nice and friendly to Star, as if her magic powers don’t mean a thing to them or see her as a freak. I guess this series is going in a good direction.
--About Alfonzo and Ferguson. They’re the kind of friends you really should have; they’re not snotty or jerks and they’ll always be there for you no matter what. Sure, they’re not very attractive, but they make up for it in humor, loyalty. And I definitely would find them cool any day.
--Also, if you’ve seen “Monster Arm” first before this episode (and I hope you didn't because it’s important...and you would’ve ended up confused), you wouldn’t have known the names of Marco’s friends, Alfonzo and Ferguson. Or have known they were Marco’s friends. Just people they know. Thank Goodness that it didn’t screw up anything or confuse people. Heh heh heh.

Man, I wish Monster Arm/Other Exchange Student aired before Match Maker/School Spirit. I have a review ready & everything! Thanks Disney XD!

— Maroon Mondays (@MaroonMondays) March 31, 2015

Heh.

In class, they receive the results of tests they originally taken from Ms. Skullnick. Star gets an F- (“for Fantastic”, as she claims), but Marco assures her it’s for Fail. Marc, meanwhile, gets an A+ (along with a smiley face). Star wants a grade like that, so she decides to take her “matchmaking skills” to Ms. Skullnick, who laments the last time she had a date (he had a boat, but left her at the dock; hmm, sounds like a good lyric for a rap song) and Star uses this to make a deal: If she can help Ms. Skullnick land the perfect date, Skullnick will give Star the perfect grade,, by using her magic to match her up. Unfortunately, because of the obvious and Ms. Skullnick telling her not to, she instead turns her into a troll (with a suspiciously-shaped and -placed thing on her belly button). Star and Marc are shocked, and Skullnick freaks out, while the other students are ecstatic at their teacher being turned into a troll. Marco tells Star to revert Skullnick back to her human self, and she complies, but that spell actually takes Starco and Skullnick to Star’s expansion pack bedroom at the Diaz Family Home.
--That spell can be very useful later on.
--Also, I didn't notice this the first time (although I did notice his hand covering it later), but after reading some comments on the the Wikia site, it is revealed on his test that Marco has a middle name of Waldo. I think that's a really cool middle name (not because I'm a Meatball, but because it just sounds great with the rest of his name. At least that's how I see in comparison to my middle name. Which is Duvall. Yeah, I don't mind it; it's just I don't care for it that much.

Meanwhile someone is peeping in at this excursion (again). It’s Buff Frog, who takes his reportings and heads over to Ludo’s Castle, revealing to him that Star has been distracted from her wand and is open for attack. Ludo is overjoyed at this news and thinks of what he would do had he have the wand: He make it match his skeleton hat, get super buff he’d destroy the kingdom, and become a lifeguard. He laughs in delight of this, and when a henchman asks if he’s doing CPR, Ludy coldly silences him...and agrees.
--I’m gonna be honest here: I was thinking about Ludo with those large muscles. It's really nice to see. I really wouldn’t mind seeing that in fanfiction art. I better get started on that!
--While Ludo was talking about Star is distracted, I couldn't help but think that he himself was a little distracted. Probably that’s the point, cause if so, that’s hilarious.
--Also, the ice cream part is both creepy and hilarious. That teensy part with one of his henchman picking up the glob and putting it back on the cone without Ludo noticing is hilarious.

Back at the house, Marco and Star are trying their best to stop Skulltroll from crying, which has flooded her room. Marc suggests Star calls her mom The Queen for help, which she doesn’t want to do, as doing such will send her to St. Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses, where she believes the students will be cut open and will never be the same. And she screams.
Marco suggests beating around the bush--telling her everything with being specific. Star goes to her Talking Mirror and has it call Mom; instead it calls Tom, who happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Tom wants to talk with Star, but she clearly ignores him and hangs up. She does get to her mom, and beats around, but the Queen clearly looks like she knows something’s up. Star tries to assure her that’s not the case, but Skulltroll finally escapes through the window.
--At the Wikia site, there’s a still of Starco visiting Tom in his fiery world. I assume he’ll appear more in an upcoming episode. And I hope he does; he seems so cool and nice, but he probably has a temper that you seriously can’t mess with. Also, he’s voiced by Rider Strong. Yep. Shawn freaking Hunter is the voice of Tom. It can’t get any cooler than that. Also, that teensy part where Tom raises...fire a half-second before Star hangs him up is funny and chilling at the same time.
--Seriously, does anyone notice the gem in Skullnick’s stomach? I mean you should have; it’s been four days after the episode (as of posting this).

Ms. Skulltroll tries to run away, but is tackled by Marco. Star jumps in to congratulate him, and is mocked by Ludo, who suddenly appears with his henchmen to attack Starco and swipe her wand. But first, a gag in which Star and Ludo go Crossfire about Star’s procrastination.

And now, it’s on! Starco vs. The Useless Minions--The Fight for the Magic Wand: Round 2.
--I don’t wanna get too specific, but this match was just as awesome as the first one back in “Star Comes to Earth”, if not more. Seeing two tennagers hold their own against a bunch of grown male monsters (with magic AND karate, mind you) is just majestic.

Emmitt (a minion who happens to have a name) lands in front of Miss Skulltroll, and the two gaze into their eyes (very longingly), and begin to fall in love. When Star notices this, she lets Marco take it solo (you know this won’t end up good), and foes to the two lovebirds (or love) and does her best to link them up.
--Okay. I admit. The part of the scene where Marc gets beat up by Ludo’s minions was hilarious. Especially when he got thrown to the ground.by Emmitt. Even the one when Emmitt slowly pulls out his sword, this close from being about to finish him. (I GUESS THERE’S A LIMIT.)

When Star finishes her job as temporary Patti Stanger (if you don’t know who that is, good, you’re better at life than I am), she stops the temporary beatdown and puts on what has to be her finishing move now. (Even Marco realizes it), Turbo Nuclear Butterfly Blast. Of course, Starco wins again and they and, Ludo, leave again like they just lost the Super Bowl.
--Seriously, I think there may be a running gag coming ahead with TNBB being used to end a Ludo fight. And I do hope this is lampshaded more because this is funny.

When all is good in the Creek, Star find Miss Skulltroll and Emmitt an item (to Marc’s disgust), and happily asks her if she finally has an A. Skulltroll say she does...if she was still a teacher. She announces to the kids that she putting teaching behind to be with Emmitt; Star is saddened that she has still failed her test, with Marco

The next day at the Academy, Star recaps all that happened to her and Marco’s fellow classmates. When they hear that she is out of Earth, they immediately run to her desk and congratulate, throwing Marco out of the way. Star then decides to Marco the credit for the adventure. This impresses all the students, including Jackie Lynn, who congrats a blushing Marco for his . Suddenly, Miss Skullnick returns through a portal and onto her desk. She reveals to her students (especially Star) that Emmitt broke with her (saying she assumed this because he couldn't understand what the heck he’s saying) and ends up broken hearted again. In consolation, she gives her students the worst pop quiz in their lives. Everyone goes back to their seats, and Marco’s seat is kicked back to where he usually is. Star apologizes to him for the embarrassment, but he's cool with it as the girl of his dreams just talked to him. Star is delighted that her matchmaking skills have worked more than her magic, and as what she done to Marc's face (turning it to a butterfly) is any indication, she's right.


Remember the students and teacher from Star Comes to Earth? The people who didn’t give a crud about Marco at that part? Well, this episode fully introduces them further and expands on their characters more. The buff blond boy in the orange shirt is the guy that cheers on Star twice, the girl in the blond hair with the blue streak is Jackie Lynn, Marco’s crush, and the cranky old teacher in the tacky outfit is Miss Skullnick, who is now known as someone who can’t keep a man...and is still cranky.
Oh and by the way, that form Miss Skullnick appears as? Yep, that’s the way she appear as from now on. From this episode on, she stay a troll forevermore. (Crud, it creeps me out.)


Oh and Jackie Lynn reminds me of someone similar: Jacqueline Voorhees from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Well, when she originally was a Native American teenager named Jackie...Lynn. They even look alike.

You know, as cranky and old-lady-ish as she is, you really can’t help but feel sorry for Miss Skullnick throughout the episode. Then when Star paired up with Emmitt, I got very happy for her, as now she has someone to settle down with, even though this was because of Star doing this to get a better grade. Then when she was dumped yet again, I couldn’t feel any more sorry for her.

Now that the painful day the students went through has gone out of the way, it time they cheer up with the next episode...

In it, Star, still unfamiliar with the lingo on Earth, misunderstands when she hears that the Echo Creek football team is going to “get slaughtered” and prepares a series of booby traps to protect them.

This episode, like the last, begins at ECA, where students and faculty are enjoying the pep tally for their school’s football team the Awesome Opossums’ upcoming game against their rivals, the Silver Hill Prep Warriors. Star and Alfonzo are eager to volley a ball, while Marco sits bored.
Principal Skeeves introduces the cheerleaders, including head cheerleader Brittney Wong, “who became head cheerleader on her own, and not because her dad made a generous donation to the school”. (Riiiight) The cheerleaders come in and gets the crowd fired up about the team (and gets Star burning like an inferno). Star thinks Brittney’s talking about the animal (which really is kinda cute how they hold their babies on their backs), but Marco assures her it’s the football team. When he tells her about the game and that the rivals about to “slaughter” them, she takes this to heart that the rivals are going to kill them (seriously, she has a lot to learn here), and runs home for supplies, beginning preparation for what will be known as a crazy night ahead. Brittney introduces their new mascot, the Awesome Opossum.
Marco realizes that the real Opossum, a real possum, is gone, and assumes the Warriors stole it. Alfonzo assures him that’s not the case, as the possum “wasn’t playing possum”.

(It died.)
The two later notice it’s Ferguson in the costume, as he’s the new mascot.Marco then realizes that the Warriors would steal him later on, but Alfonzo rebuss that.

--Can I say how awesome the Spirit Committee is? Their school cheer “Go Echo Creek! Let’s try not to get beat!” is both fun and funny. And the :”relentless” support for the team is unwavering. And should be, too, Since the Awesome Opossums are facing the Warriors later on. “It’s gonna be a bloodbath”, indeed.
--Also, Miss Skullnick eating those chicken wings like a savage is also funny.
--Another funny thing (in a sad way) is the quick shot of the funeral of the Awesome Opossum. The sad background music and the tiny feet standing up just make it for me.
--One last thing, I realized something about Alfonzo. He's like a human version of Animal from The Muppets. . The only difference here between them is that Fonzy speaks complete sentences, and that he doesn't seem to play drums. That's one thing out of a lot that I like about him.

Star is running through the hallway, when she stops and looks at the trophy case, where portraits of the players reside. She tears up and gives her respects to them before making an air drawing of a frowny face. Meanwhile, Marco is sneaking through the halls, on a mission to protect Mascot Ferguson from the Warriors. That is until he meets Star at the trophy case.
When Star asks him for advice on preventing another loss (to him--losing a game; to her, losing a life) for the team (It’s like he’s asking for her to destroy to Warriors), he suggests the element of surprise...and bombs. When Star has the advice she need, Marc finds the perimeter clear and call Alfonzo to take Fergy into safety, something the latter isn’t fond of, because of the potential disrespect.
--Here, I just loved how caring Marco is toward Ferguson as a friend in this situation, seeing as he doesn’t want Fergy to be stolen by the Warriors during the game. It really shows how Marco “puts friends first”.
--On the other hand, Really, Marco? Do you realize what Star is going to do now?
I mean, he really should know what he’s dealing with here. Either he wants Star to commit homicide on a rival football team (knowing that she knows NOTHING about American anything) to let his precious team win a friggin’ game or just doesn’t notice that fact the STAR BUTTERFLY is going to potentially commit homicide to keep their team, just not realizing that no one’s going to die in high school football! (sure, there will be injuries and concussions, but not death) He should know better than this. He got a friggin’ A-plus in the last episode. Where’s Waldo? Looking for his common sense.
(I’m sorry; I know it’s just a cartoon and that sometimes ignorance is bliss for a good laugh, but jeez.)

At the auditorium, the Spirit Committee are practicing for the game. Brittney signals Sabrina to do a flip and jump with the assurance that the Boys will catch her. Star comes in, distracting the boys and ruining the catch for Sabrina. She looks at the the accessories for bombs. And when she begins to make one with her magic, Brittney stops her and demands to know why she’s there. Star, still thinking the game is a battle to the death, asks Brittney “the plaaaan” to beat them. Brittney tells her they have the “secret weapon”...their booties. They’re gonna shake their butts in the direction of the other team to distract them from the game. Star tells them it’s not gonna work in combat (more explicitly Shantelle’s booty-shaking), and tells them she knows everything from her babysitters, The Royal Guards.
Brittney offends Star by calling her stupid and bans her from the Spirit Committee. Star then decides to carry the deed by herself...and is megaphone-d out of the room by Brittney.

--The part where Star tells the cheerleaders that Shantelle’s booty shaking wouldn’t work was hilarious, but the reaction from Shantelle herself had me dying (No pun intended. Seriously.)

--And if you didn’t find little Star extremely cute...you have no soul. None whatsoever.
--If I were Star, and Brittney offended me or Mewni, I’d kick this wench’s butt Love & Hip-Hop style from here to kingdom come. Literally, there’d be a dimension of that caliber.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be so nice.
--And this…

...also funny and genius playing with the shade-around-the-eyes effect.

Elsewhere, Marco and Alfonzo have kept Ferguson hidden, with the former wanting Fergy to blow on a whistle to warn of an impending kidnapping by the Warriors. Ferguson reveals the real reason why we put on the costume: to pick up chicks. Marc takes no excuses and tries to shove the whistle into Ferguson’s mouth. Fergy refuses while Fonzy’s standing there watching the weirdness unfold.
Star is in the garbage and asking a group of stray cats to help out with her “Kity-Cat Offense”. When they instead eat a bone, she decides to do it the hard way: dive in and turn them into something else.
--I don't have much to say here, but that Butterfly Dive (heh, pun) into the dumpster was really funny.

At the Diaz Family Home, Marco is interrogating Ferguson about the kidnapping. Fergy wants to go home, giving a sissy reason to leave, Marco shuts that down, saying the rival team would look there first and set off the kidnapping. When Ferguson says that it feels like he’s the one committing the kidnapping, Marc threatens him with never seeing his parents again if he continues talk that way. Star calls him and, while climbing the telephone transformer wire and grabbing a wayward squirrel, asks if he owns flammable liquids. He says check the garage and she leaves the wire, taking the squirrel along.
Ferguson laments that he could get some action with a real possum tail and then tries to grab a soda can with it, but knock it over and destroys Marco’s laptop with it. The three just stare at it.
...cut to next scene.

It’s finally here! Game Time! The Warriors are ready to rumble, and the Awesome Opossums are…

yeah.
Marco still has Ferguson under lock and key. Then Star comes in with a medieval flail.
Marc takes her to the stands to talk...and immediately the Warriors take Fergy away.
Marco asks Star what’s she’s up to, with her answering that she rigged the field with booby traps. Marco realizes what Princess Cuckoo-Pants really has planned, he tells her that the Warriors aren’t really going to kill the Opossums, and that Football is a Game. When Star realizes what she did was wrong, it’s too late to fix it. The game has started and already the traps been set off. Everyone’s running for their lives and game has turned into Survival of the Fittest (yet not even the fittest will survive unscathed). Starco run into the war zone to take care off the deranged animals and clearly kick butt like it’s nothing. Seriously, Marco beat the crap out of a magic squirrel three times his size! Add Star using her wand to turn all the animals back to their normal forms is just beautiful.
Ferguson and the two Warriors run out but he’s and runs to Marco, who wants him off the field but is struck by bomb. Marco tearfully runs to his fallen friend and . That is, until Ferguson wakes up and tells him he’s playing possum. Marco is delighted to hear of this, but angrily shakes Fergy and tells him “This is why you only have two friends!”
With the field now destroyed (as in The Avengers destroyed), Star realizes that she really messed up. But Marco corrects her saying that they really messed up and that he should’ve kept an eye out for what she’s doing before hand.
(Thank you!! That’s what I’ve been saying.
You know what, I just realized something. Sometimes when a story relies on ignorance and end up making viewers angry, that seriously messes up the episode entirely. But here, when a character realizes that what another character has done could’ve been prevented had he said something earlier, this could make the episode much better. Marco has only been with Star for not very long, and that he still hasn’t realized what she is and isn’t capable of just yet and that as her guide, he should be mindful of what she does while staying in Echo Creek. Sure, he messed up this time, but he and Star should realize that if you make a mistake, you should learn from it, and use it to make your . Like I said earlier, Star has a lot to learn while on Earth, but with Marco on her side, she doesn’t have much to worry about. She’s in good hands.)
Well, this ha been a very solid episo--wait. Oh yeah, it’s not over yet.
The Warriors, realizing what just happened has scarred them, run out of the field and back to where they came from. Buff Blond Boy realizes the forfeited, and that the Opossums won the game. The team and crowd cheer on and members pick up Star, Marco and Ferguson. Star mentions that she may have forgot something, the winged creature that just dragged Marco away.

So all in all, a very solid episode. I quite enjoyed all of both of them; there were some big laughs, the characters (besides Star and Marco) are fleshed out as much as you can expect, the dark parts were scary and unsettling and even the music was great and accentuates the mood perfectly. This is an episode I will watch more. There were parts I can do without, but those were few and far in-between. That's more than I can say for the next episode.

Well, that wraps the books on another review. Again, I'd like to thank the Star vs. The Forces of Evil page on Wikia for help me out on the review. There are so much I did know about the show or this episode that they did, so I can't thank them enough for every detail and information they archive at the site. And I'm forever grateful for them.
Thank you guys.

Tune in next week for my review of "Monster Arm" and "The Other Exchange Student". To be honest, I didn't like one of them. And I have a gut feeling not many people will like it and I may have gone into this reviewing thing for this show a little too much. But hey, this is what I'm ready for when doing reviews. And I'm ready for what happens.

So until then, I'm Andrew, reach for the Star and keep looking up!...at your TV screen.