Aaron's Review: Star vs The Forces of Evil

Oh boy! We’ve got a fun show today! Normally, I would mean that sarcastically. Here, it’s genuine. My biggest issues in this review are going to be a pile of nitpicks. 

Guys, Gals, & Non-Binary Pals. This is Aaron’s Review of Star Vs The Forces Of Evil 

!Setup!

Star Butterfly is a fun loving princess whose been sent to Earth as part of her training. Mainly to learn restraint. There she’s paired with another teenager named Marco who tries to look out for her and keep her from getting into too much trouble. But, some monsters who can hop dimensions are after her magic wand. Thus, Star & Marco team up to fight them off every now and again.

!Story!

The show is about the day to day lives of both Marco & Star. The focus is of course mostly on Star, but by season 2 it’s honestly kind of 50/50. What happens in their lives exactly? Well, everything. Star goes through a transformation called ‘mewberty’ where she becomes boy obsessed. Marco wants his Karate Red Belt, but his teacher doesn’t have the proper video to help teach that step, so they go and find it. The two get stuck playing a demonic game of truth or dare where if they lie, horrible things happen to them or the room. Star accidently stops time, so they go to the dimension where ‘Father Time’ lives and they have to chase him down.

There has yet to be an episode with a set up that I didn’t like. Either they’re really clever, or the way Star tackles a common trope is entertaining regardless of repetition. Same goes for Marco. They don’t take a situation seriously because, well, they’ve beaten these monsters so many times that it’s a joke. The plot of one episode is how Ludo, the main villain in season 1, is trying to use Star’s latest infatuation with fortune cookies against her to get her magic wand. It backfires because a cookie says, ‘violence isn’t a good answer’. So when his henchmen attack, Star gives them hugs…and they stop fighting to hug her back! Honestly, it’s so surreal that’s its hilarious.

As the show goes into season 2, things get a little more serious with actual threats coming for Star and it’s handled as such. Star & Marco get the character development they need and as there’s less jokes told and more quiet moments to reflect on the fact that they almost died.

Marco gets sent into another dimension where he finds out Star’s dimension cutting scissors aren’t actually hers but a monster girl’s named ‘Hekapoo’. He spends the next 16 years in her dimension trying to get them back and eventually earning his own pair! In any other show, this episode would end with a joke. Here, he gets back home and is back in his teenage body but remembers everything from the 16 years spent there. There’s this somber feeling left when he tries to log onto his laptop but can’t remember the password. The line delivery and music playing really helps it along.    

!Characters!

Let’s talk about the characters before this gets too depressing.

Star Butterfly! Princess of Mewni. Peppy and optimistic, she’s always ready to tackle new things unless she knows it’s gonna end badly. She’ll fight a horde of monsters and dumpster dive for a cat, but you put her in front of her mother after breaking a rule, and she turns into a nervous wreck. This really works for her character since she never harms anyone intentionally. She does get others in trouble because of her gung-ho attitude and scatterbrained antics, but it dies down as the series goes on. As that quality goes down, she becomes a lot more patient but picks up a smart mouth to compensate for the comedy. She always had one, but it’s less ‘I don’t have time for this’ and more ‘I’m checking my imaginary watch’.

Marco Diaz, the boy Star moves in with and learns to take more risk because of her. He was never shy per say, but just anxious. Over planning things and worrying about little details. As expected of the opposites attract dynamic, he’s a neat freak who relies on scheduling. Where Star needs to learn how to follow orders, Marco starts to break some but never dabbles in the ‘chaotic good’ territory. He still follows rules, but learns to bend them a bit. He still gets nervous around his crush but eventually does get to a point where he can hold a casual conversation before asking her out. Usually the characters like this just hit the extreme of their polar opposite, but Marco was a steady climb to a middle ground. He’s my favorite character.

Ludo is the main villain for season 1. A short little brat who wants to have power and getting Star’s wand is the first step. But, he can’t direct his way out of a paper bag, let alone an army of monsters. He’s not meant to be taken seriously, as expected, and he’s just a funny guy to have on screen. That is…until season 2. He’s given more silent moments and backstory that I won’t spoil, but jeez. This is how you make a sympathetic villain.

There’s a lot more side characters, but I don’t want to be here all day talking about how much fun they all are. I think there’s only like two or three that I’m not fond of because they haven’t gotten that much screen time thus they’re still kind of 1-note.

!The Show!

The animation style works for the humor but isn’t perfectly fluid in season 1. Which is to be expected. It’s just, I can get distracted by the obvious loops they put in. Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching cartoons my entire life that I notice it quicker and I’m just complaining about nothing. Anyway, the show doesn’t let up with the creative visuals. There’s this mix of gothic monsters, magical fairies, medieval beasts, anthropomorphic animals, and stuff I’ve never seen before but looks like it could be from some mythology so I just assume it is. They go to a sort of underworld department store and the workers are all sloths that would rather be anywhere else. That’s pretty funny.

Kind of like ‘Gravity Falls’, this show finds a way to make phrases like ‘narwhal blasts’ and ‘I’m taking the invisible goat home’ to be funny and work in the context given without sounding forced or random.

It’s welcomingly surreal.

!Grade!

Star vs the forces of evil is a hit and I can see why. Abstract concepts and surreal images along with well-developed and fun characters equals a great time. There’s a few episodes that fell a little flat for me but I don’t have a single episode that I would classify as ‘bad’. A running joke may have gone on a bit to long for me or a little too heavy on the foreshadowing in another episode but that’s really it. Nothing more to say than, Star Rocks!

Grade: A

Final: You’re gonna have a good time!

What’s Your Opinion?