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popculturebuffet · 1 year

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OK KO Let's Be Heroes Halloween Review: Parents Day and Monster Party (Patreon Review by Emma Fici)

Happy halloween all you happy people! It's finally the crux of spooky season as we finish things off with a spooktacular at one of the many, many, manny, mannny, MANNNY, Mannnny, mannnnnyY, mAnNnNnNnNnY, man hey nony nony and a fuck you zaslov shows removed from HBO Max this year, courtesy of my pal Emma Fici. Is WBD and the regime before it being awful to this show the reason she commissioned this? No, I simply suggested it since she had me cover Ghoul School earlier this month and the timing couldn't be more perfect and threw in a surprise bonus episode entirley of my own volition. Is it a nice bonus that I both get to spotlight a show I genuinely love with a lot of my heart that got a raw deal and get to throw more shade at a company i've gone from genuinely loving and respecting to hoping badly gets taken out asap.

So let's watch the show under the cut shall we and see what spooky fun we can have as we both meet Enid's parents.. and in the sequel to that ep some old Ghoulfriends Drop by.

I"ve covered OK KO here before, but since this review is aimed at fans of the show, fans of Ghoul School who might not have seen it, and Emma who definitely hasn't seen it, a small intro is in order. Those of you who are familiar can go wait patiently in the pup tent. I have sent a concierge ahead for you

So in short: OK KO Let's Be Heroes! Was a late 2010's Cartoon Network show by Ian Jones Quarterly. Ian is a modern staple in the industry, having worked on venture bros for several years before moving on to Steven Universe, being one of the main creative forces behind the show alongside the show's creator, his friend, creative partner and eventually romantic partner Rebecca Sugar. He also voice acts both in his own show and in Bravest Warriors, another show on the ever escalating pile of shows I need to talk about.

While his other work is excellent, again the guy was the story editor for steven unvierse that should say enough on it's own, OK KO is really his magnum opus. It's a clear labor of love that naturally got shit on by cartoon network for the crime of having to premire earlier because HBO Max hadn't happened yet and being an action show on a network trying to stamp those out at the time, though given what we've seen with the reign of he who sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms, that woudl've been MARGINALLY better at best. My point is the show had a lot of love put into it, a passionate fanbase, vibrant animation and a wonderful premise we'll get to in a moment.. and got shat on for it. I try to be a forgiving person, but this is one thing I haven't quite let go for damn good reason.

So what's this show about anyway? Well it's simple and it's not: the world of OK KO is a world of heroes and villians, of any and all kinds, with most trying to be the best like no one ever does.. and many running buisnesses out of a strip mall, Lakewood Plaza Turbo. It's here we enter our title character: K.O., a small child of 6-10, which is how this show does ages, and it's every bit as hilarious and stupid as it sounds. He's the son of Carol, formerly Silver Spark of, the local Avengers/JLA/ JSA/Justice Pals/New Justice Team Equilvent, P.O.I.N.T. who now runs a ladies fitness dojo.

Wanting to be the best like no one ever was, KO seeks a job at Gars Bodega, ran by Carols old friend who still nurses an embarassing crush on her Mr. Gar, basically if Mike Haggar had cool shades and used to be a luchador instead of a WWF style wrassler. After some trials, trivales and Carol asking nicely, KO joins the Bodegamen becoming friends with the other far less motivated workers: Egotistical, buff, hannah barbera style alien with teleknesis that makes the old sound effect rad and Naruto style emo ninja enid.

In addition to the normal stuff: running the counter, mopping the deck which is navy for floor, and stocking boxes, they also reguarly have to fight the evil Lord Boxman, played by my dad and yours Jim Cummings who sadly isn't in these episodes, who regularly sends his stupid robot children to fight our heroes and wants to destroy the plaza because it's there. No really he can't stand the fact there's a hero place next door and has an entire episode going into withdrawls becaues he can't attack them for a day lest his investors drop him. Yes he has investors. Yes this show is wonderful

So now you know the plot there's plenty inbetween there and plenty of depth that really makes the show shine: Sure there's silly shenanigans from taking a genie in a soda bottle to court, to KO impersonating Rad for an episode simply by putting on alien antenna and Rad's nametag.. and Rad forgetting he asked for this leading to a Rad off, to a health week with tons of psas and the bots nursing KO back to health before he punches them while they all smile> This show can be utterly goofy and I love it… but there's also a deep backstory involving why Mr. Gar left point , a mysterious shadowy villian in the background and ongoing arcs.

The characters also undergo noticable and engaging character development: KO starts off fairly naive and while he remains optimstic learns from his mistake and slowly grows as a hero while grappling with his inner darkness.. aka an evil emo tweenager split personality what lives in his head, Rad grows from an obnoxious bro to the genuinelyc arring and kind person he is underneath and Enid slowly thaws her icy heart and lets others in. IT's a show with lots of warmth, character, and worldbuilding and I highly recommend it.

So with all that out of the way we can get to the actual episodes.. which are mostly self contained but I can't help ranting about what I love. They still contribute to Enid's character though, both focusing on who she is and her past and helping shade her in a bit. This first one wasn't requested, but I feel since their the only two episodes set at Enid's house and featuring her spooky family, they belong together. This also has a high possibility of being my last singular episode. Possibly. I might do the other crossovers, more on those later, at some point, but as a whole this series deserves it's own full on review which I intend to do I just have to finish venture bros and take care of a few patreon unlocked retrospectives first. But with how little time I have this may come before the amphibia review. Anyways onto the episodes!

Family Day

It's Family Day at the Plaza and Ko is so excited he had to be put in his car seat

Like even for 6 that's a lot.. though that's also the joke so touche Ian. Touche. Basically everyone in the Plaza Brings their parents to visit. The subtle joke that we see Drupe and Ms Mummy's mom, a sentient strawberry and a sentient mummy whose mom's somehow human because this universe found some way to make Tanis parentage even more confusing, despite neither working here at this point. Drupe just loiters outside for now and Ms Mummy lives in the back rooms. And of course as Carol points out she's here every day.

Still K.O.'s excited to meet his best friends parents and we do indeed quickly meet Rad's awkward parents, Ofrang and Theodosia. As I found out looking into Ian, Theodosia is named after his grandmother, Theodosia Okoh, who to my shock lived quite the life. She was a ghanian school teacher who designed the Ghana flag, became the first chair of the Ghana Hockey association and had a stadium named after her, and if I rmemeber right was the basis for Nana Fua, with both the Pizzas and Rad's family being based on Ian's experience as a first generation son of immigrants. As such Ofrang and Theodosia use blorp a lot and frequently embarass their son (and only rad everyone else knows their dope) with their talk of ray guys…

NO really they refrence this joke exactly. .. why did this show only run three seasons? This is a nice moment for Rad though. While he is frequently embarassed by his parents and grumbles with introducing them…. he still told them Parents day was happening, brought them and introduces them to KO. Keep in mind Rad at this point is in the politiest term possible "a fuckboy" who hangs out with a giant teenage baby and a walking armpit, which both sums up wht they are and their personalites. While KO's shown he has a heart beneath the air of obnoxious douche he puts on, it usually has to be dragged out of him. But here he brings his dorky awkard parents without any reservation, at most is exasperated in that sterotypical teen boy way. For him that's a lot. There's no ego or boasting, no Recess style attempt to replace his parents with cooler parents. Bringing his parents to the event is a low bar, sure, but the fact he cleared it without needing an entire episode to says a LOT.

No the one who didn't bring her parents is Enid, which does make sense: Enid is intensely private, with her pasts with Elodie (her best friend/possible giflriend who abandoned her for a shot at the big times and insulted her) and Rad himself (Who she had a crush on.. and who totally fucked it up by being an obnoxious cloud of axe bodyspray on the advice of aformentiond armpit and genetically modified baby), only coming out thanks to Elodie visting (Enid kicked her ass all over the plaza, though tthe two later properly reconcile next season. More on that when I get there some day), and Cupid forcing the issue respectively. Cupid in this universe is buff and dope as fuck by the way. I didn't NEED to mention that.. but I wanted to so here we are.

Enid claims their on a mission, nopes out of her shift (with Rad hilariously going "We have shifts?", as the show is not afraid of poking fun at itself), and thus KO and Rad decide to do the responsible thing.. and stalk their friend to her house to find out what she's hiding.

That would be unsettling.. if it wasn't so hilariously done with KO casually telling his mom "We're gonna go spy on enid" with a simple Kay from carol and Rad's dad giving him a ray gun.

Our heroes tail her in Rad's sweet van. Dendy, KO's stoic best friend his age and presumed future wife isn't in it this time which is weird. Maybe she had a piano recital. What they find shocks them as Enid's house is a mad monster mansion, enid dresses as a witch, and in his EXACT words, Rad tells us her parents are "A Hot Vampire and a Hot Werewolf". Which tells us Rad is bi.. as did the intensely homerotic dance battle that the crew entirely knew what they were doing with earlier in the season. This show is gay as fuck and I love it for that and about 100 other reasons

Naturally the trained ninja catches them spying on her.. but so do Enid's parents, so they get inside and Rad, being rad, naturally asks a bunch of questions about general spooky stuff such as skeletons in the closest to Wil ("We do but we don't like to talk about them") and bats in the belfry ("I do hang up there sometimes" ). Rad is back to being the shitlord we know and love and Enid can't stand it for understandable reasons. The boys even get invited to dinner, but not before meeting Enid's brothers boris and Icky, a frankenstien and a pumpkinhead respectively. Now you may be asking how the hell any of this works given Bernard's a Wolf, Wil's a Vampire, and their children are none of those things. And that's kind of the point. Sometimes the show has iron tight canon.. and other times it's world runs entirley on nonsense with little to no explination. It's part of it's charm: it knows when to properly explain shit and when to just have things be delightful cartoon nonsense, like the sun being a sentient being with sunglasses you can surivive being thrown into.

So the dinner is naturally our adorable monster couple showing off Enid's baby pictures.. and her dancing in a pizza for no reason while she prays for death btu death won't come. Meanwhile some ghosts hide bellow and decide they aren't getting enough attention so they plot to attack.

Naturally KO being a baby boy baby lets slip Enid's a ninja and her parents are again it, as "Ninjas aren't scary". And it's.. honestly hard to watch despite you know… it being two monsters complaning about their daughter being an anime ninja. While this is more hiding your career than say a sexuality or something, it comes off that way, with Enid being utterly terrified her parents know. Granted the most the two do is not be happy with it, but it's still sad to see two people who were perfectly happy turn on their daughter in an instant.. not too harshly but just enough.

Thankfully the ghosts posses her friends.. which usually isn't a godo thing but having to fight these two idiots not only shows off JUST how powerful B and Wil are… but allows Enid to say screw it, go into ninja mode and summon jutsu a giant shadow monster that whollops their asses in the most terrifying way possible, while Wil finishes the job by swallowing their souls.. and spitting them out. I mean the ghosts are their guests. Can't kill them and the most they did was run arround and do shenanigans. Their fine. They know not to fuck with Wil now.

What's nice though is that while , naturally Enid's parents now see Ninjas can be scary, the real nice line is them bemonaing how they coudl've been so "ignorant". I often forget tha tline but it's the thing that makes this episode work. Without it it just comes off as "oh well your talent is like us we like it now" and more them realizing they were wrong to not only not see it could be.. but to not let their daughter live their life. Totally cool with her being bi though. I mean it's been on her bike for ages, they know. Also she brought her girlfriend home so it's kind of a big sign. They hug, Enid decides to invite them and we ge ta suprisingly nice moment from Rad, who admits he was laughing sure, as he puts it "you know I express myself in the most obnoxious way possible" but he related, also being embarassed by his parents. It was in good fun. And Enid invites the two to visit some time.. you know when their invited and not following her home. That's creepy. Stop it. Happy end for all.

Monster Party

So we've come to the series halloween episode , one of two but the other I may save for th efuture, the full series review or just whenever. And with this we need to talk about the shows crossovers.

See crossovers don't happen a ton these days and when they do their with shows that are both on at the time or are in the same universe, like Steven Unvierse's classic crossover with uncle grandpa that should not have worked but is one of the series funniest episodes, or Milo Murphy's Law season 2 opening crossover with Phenias and Ferb… which hopefully will get it's own with hamster and gretel. Please.. I fucking need this please.

So it makes OK KO's crossovers stand out: Ian didn't entirely avoid contemperary crossovers, as Rad showed up on the shortly lived and underated Mighty Magiswords (ANOTHER victim of the Zaslav curse) for what ended up being it's finale, and Season 2 had the epic and worth it's own review Crossover Nexus, with KO teaming up with Garnet, Reboot!Ben Tennyson and GO!Raven to stop a generic villian and save CN City.. yes from those old promos.

But that last bit is what really defines Ian's crossovers: Ian goes for what he WANTS to crossover with no matter how weird it is often going back to the very begingings of cartoon network. As such KO met captain planet and WOULD have met Space Ghost had it not been for the tragic passing of George Lowe and Martin C Crocker, and later met Sonic the Hedgehog, a crossover that took until season 3 to get through Sega but thankfully happened. Maybe sonic MOnth next yeah hmmm? He even provided a finale to his early webcomic RPG World despite now resenting the thing, finding a healthy way to end it and give his main character Hero closure.

So while this crossover was a nice suprise, in the context of the show it's not. The real shock is that he pulled this off: that despite being in an era of Scooby Doo where they constantly tried to act like real monsters didn't exist, they let Ian do a whole episode on characters who surely did. Granted part of it was likely that Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy are absent. The former two get mentioned offhand, and the latter is naturally persona non grata, but at least gets a spirtual mention as Rad does his own version of the scrappy rap. It's still amazing though as unlike the other crossovers which are just "our heroes happen to end up in a crossover and it's fun and stuff", this one, while having some small elements of that, weaves the girls into Enid's backstory. Had the show continued they could've shown up AGAIN based on this ep alone. It's one thing to have a crossover it's another to weld them to your universe but Ian got away with it and made it look flawless. Well almost. The episode has issues but makign the Grimwood Girls a part of Enid's backstory and old friends of hers isn't remotely one of them.

As for how our old friends get in here, it's fairly simple: Enid's enjoying a day off when her parents announce her old Ghoul School friends are visiting. They told her but well.. she was on her phone which i'd call a stupid teen sterotype.. but as a grown ass man I also often miss important stuff being on my phone or tablet, so fair play.

Enid is actually happy about it, only put out because she's in her day off clothes, and talks to Rad about it as she was already facetiming him. KO is also there hiding in Enid's pot, although given he's with Boris and Icky I theorize he was hanging out iwth them as he's everyone's friend, and just so happened to hear about Enid's old friends.

The show also does a good job explaning why despite being a friend of the girls Enid wasn't in the movie without her feeling forced into the backstory.. by simply using Enid's own backstory: Enid was at Grimwood before the film, but not being happy bein ga witch, she transfered to Lakewood where she could be her ninja self, and as Ashly Burch so brilliantly delivers it "Met the people who ruined my life, including your stinky butt". A mixed bag.

Rad HAS evolved to the poitn he's not fucking shit up intentionally.. but he still fucks shit up, bringing up how it'll be a shock Enid isn't a witch and get sin her head so we naturally get a "character pretends to be what their not episode".. which is EASILY the weakest part of this whole thing. Like even if they call her their witch, anyone whose seen Ghoul Schools knows these girls: Their acceptable, loving and kind. They'd be fine if she was a Ninja as it ends up bearing out. They accepted a 20 something jughead clone, a great dane and a smaller great dane who raps. They can accept a Naruto Ninja. So there's no real supsense or anything. Not only that as KO says

Enid has grown past needing to hide from people or being open with people, so this plot really dosen't work and feels like it was plotted out a season ago before the POINT Prep arc crystalized how far she came as a character.

Yet the episode works for the same reason the film did despite it's own flaws: The Girls. The Grimmwood Girls are every bit as kind, lovely and welcoming as they were int heir own movie and we get the same amount of spooky fun. Their older now which fits and also gives us ages for the older girls: mid-middle school, probably 7th or 8th grades as their slightly taller than enid in a flashback, which is done in the style of ghoul school, so likely when Enid was in 6th grade since most of her drama happened in 8th, so Enid either transfered mid-year or during 6th and as we saw the school takes most ages, though given the girls have left it they've either graduated or went on to ghoul high school. Either way I think it's neat. It's still vauge, the show loves vauge ages as we've established, but in a way that's easy to figure out. The Girls designs aren't touched much though, still looking like their iconic outfits just teenage versions, except for Tanis and Winnie who are still childrens since they were only 4 or 5 in the original. Elsa gets the biggest change having a longer flowier dress and more normal sandals instead of the platform ones from the movie, but their all great and they adapt to the OK KO art style easily.

One thing that's also barely changed.. is the voice actresses. Incredibly all but TWO Va's returned for this. This is shocking both because only one of them was all that active these days, and because Cartoon Network gladly paid the money for all of them. Not only that the only two that don't return are due to circumstances beyond th eteam's control: Marilyn Scheffler sadly died, so Natalie Palimedes steps up as winnie while Patty Maloney was retired due to injuries discussed last time, and thus Kristin Li stepped in as Tanis. BOth do a great, job and I could only SLIGHTLY tell with Tanis and still had to look up who was replaced. Susan Blu, Pat Musick and Russi Taylor all return, all stepping back into their old rolls like the 80's were yesterday. Russi in paticular was INCREDIBLY lucky as she sadly passed on the year after this episode aired. It shows her talent that much like Teen Donald that same year, you coudln't tell how bad her health was and her delivery was as good as ever. I truly miss her and i'm greatful she got to play Phanty one last time.

The five characters feel like they never left us, being just as joyful, full of puns and happy. The episode works so well because while Enid was rectonnced into the group, she serves as as stand in for us: someone who hasn't seen these girls for a very long time and are utterly happy to see their old friends again, vibrant as ever with all their old quirks, sibella's hair cape and winnie using all fours in tact

We also get to see the girls be badass, as clearly like many of us Ian wasn't really happy with how the whole last act went down, and shows just what the girls are capable of after years of extra honing of their powers with the episodes best scene: the monster showcase, with the girls deciding to show off all their powers. Their funny, charming and entirely badass: Winnie makes a replica of Michealangelos david in seconds with her claws tazzmanian devil style, Tanis casually reads while lifting up Enid's Parents Doom buggy WITH Ko and Iggy inside with ONE strand of her hair, phanty posses Ko for a sec and makes him do a jig, and Elsa shocks herself with a kite

Sibella easily wins the show though, revealing that in addition to her old bat form she can now create a SWARM of bats, usese them to create a stage mid air and dances with a gentleman also madeo ut of bats.. before going all red eyed and fangy and eating his head whole

Like she was always the strongest of the group, but god damn. Also Phanty is just.. so fucking enamored the whole time. I didn't think i'd be shipping these two but here we are.

While KO chastises Rad for hecking up… though he's in Jail so he's thankfully been punished for his hubris, it's a whole runner, Enid tries doing a spell but it's been so long since she tried magic, she can't remember them and brings a tree to life.. that eats the children.

Enid is forced to admit her shame.. and while against his plot dosen't work for me the resolution is as obvious.. as it is Grimwood. The girls are not only utterly HAPPY for enid being a nInja.. but always knew, her having dropped her manga in said flashback which we go back to and all it getting out of Phanty is a "oh that makes sense" before they all smiled. THey love enid for Enid not being a witch just as they love scrappy for scrappy and not being a dope ass rapper. They all hug.. then kick a tree's ass as a team. Seriously give these girls a spinoff I beg of you. i get Warner isn't making good decisions but come the fuck on. Phanty posseses it, elsa pries the kids out, and enid uses her shadow possesion jutsu to stop the tree while Sibella rescues the girls and swallows the tree's soul, all cuimlating in rad arriving from the moon in time to lay out rhymes. All in all a fantgastic episode> is it perfect. No but can it entirely coast on reuniting all these amazing characters and having a ton of heart and charm just like the original film? Hell yeah. Consider joining my patreon, follow for more reviews, thanks for reading.. and Happy Halloween!

#halloween #scooby doo #ok ko let's be heroes #ghoul school #grimwood girls #phantasma #sibella #tanis #winnie #elsa frankenteen #enid #radicles #KO

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