Animated Fantasy Television Series Episode Review: Steven Universe Pilot

This review was originally posted on the McMurray Internet Channel website on March 5, 2019.

The Steven Universe pilot was originally released on YouTube and the Cartoon Network website, however, it has since been removed from both websites. It can still be watched as it was included on the Gem Glow DVD and the Season One DVD and Blu-Ray releases.

Watching the pilot is interesting because, other than the dramatically different art styles, the show is actually amazingly quite similar to what we got in the finished product.

Garnet has two gemstones here, which became a major plot point in season one of the television series. She also appears to be the leader, as she directs the other Crystal Gems on what to do.

Amethyst has the carefree, childish persona she had in the early seasons of the show, as demonstrated here by bringing the crystal skull home and then giving Steven the hourglass even though she knows it is dangerous.

Pearl is depicted as cautious here as well, demonstrated by how she tells Steven that he can’t see the hourglass as it is extremely powerful. She’s a bit out of character when she says that Steven will look like a clown if he sings his song in battle, but the way she bashfully covers her mouth when she softly laughs afterward is pure Pearl. Plus, the way Amythyst laughs uproariously and Garnet admonishes them not to make fun of Steven is definitely true to the characters they have on the aired version of the show.

Then, there’s Steven. His song is absolutely the highlight of the episode. It’s an extended version of the song "We are the Crystal Gems", which would become the theme song of the show. Steven’s song in this episode is so great that it was later used, verbatim, in the official extended version of the song.

As for Steven’s personality, he is exactly the curious, immature boy that he was in season one of the show. I could definitely see him accidentally use the hourglass to use a comeback when Lars insults him, which is exactly how season one Lars would act. Season one Sadie would definitely admonish Lars when he teases Steven as well, even though she had a crush on Lars at that point.

Plus, Garnet using the hourglass to win the battle after she learns that it can only be used for comebacks is exactly how she would do it in the show as well. Honestly, I prefer this use of the hourglass to the one that we got in the show in season one. Steven forming a band with past versions of himself called Steven and the Stevens was fun, but it didn’t really fit into what the show became after season one. It’s one of those weird one-off episodes that really doesn’t fit into the mold of the rest of the show.

This episode, even though it is not canon to the series, actually does fit into the rest of the show quite nicely. Yes, the animation is more detailed and rough than the clean look the show got when it aired. However, if it was re-animated to fit in with what the show became, it would have been a great season one episode. Add a star zoom-in on Steven’s face at the end when he said “this clown is going to save your lives”, and it would fit into the show surprisingly perfectly.

Final Verdict:
4½ out of 5

Animated Fantasy Television Episode Review: The Owl House - For the Future

The second and penultimate episode of the final season of The Owl House, "For the Future", is now available to watch. As the episode that sees the gang, together with Luz the human's mother Camilla, return to the demon realm, it has a lot to handle. It manages to juggle everything surprisingly well and handles the two-month time skip in a manner much better than the season three premiere.

It is fun to see Camilla, or "tall Luz" as one of the kids at Hexside called her, finally getting to see the demon realm. Her reactions mirror those of Luz when she first traveled there, and they are greatly contrasted by how skilled her daughter has become at navigating the demon realm after all the time she lived and was educated there.

We finally get to see just how powerful the show's secondary antagonist, the Collector, really can be. As he's just a child, albeit one with phenomenal cosmic powers, every horrifying act that he performs is treated like a game. As he turns witches into dolls and controls their actions like puppets, it seems like he doesn't realize how much he is hurting them.

It seemed a little odd that the season premiere didn't spend too much time dealing with the kids being separated from their families. In "Thanks to Them", that story thread became merely pictures that the kids drew and hung up in the empty house that effectively became their clubhouse. Here, it is given a larger focus, even culminating in a magical power overload that acts as a metaphor for clinical depression.

Adding to the depression, another character is reeling from the loss of a loved one in the previous episode. They end up comforting each other through a literal breaking of the vines holding them down.

"For the Future" does itself a favor by finally dealing with the absence of family in the lives of the children in the usual nuanced way that The Owl House handles tough subjects. The danger of the antagonists plays in the background, which is where it should be at this point in the story. That said, the final scene ties the two villains together and teases a power-packed finale.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Animated Fantasy Television Episode Review: The Owl House - Thanks to Them

With the recent release of the second of three episodes that make up the third and final season of The Owl House, I thought it would be the opportune time to catch up on previous episodes. As the first episode of season three, "Thanks to Them", brings the mother of Luz the human fully into her daughter's secret life, it seems like an appropriate place to start.

The episode begins with Luz's witch girlfriend Amity, Willow the plant magic witch, Gus the illusionist witch, and Hunter the magicless grim walker, stuck in the human realm with Luz. The latter brings them to her home and introduces them to her mother, Camilla Noceda. She invites them to stay, with the two boys sleeping in the cellar and the three girls sleeping in Luz's room with Vee the shapeshifting basilisk, who has been living there since Luz went into the demon realm.

Because Disney only ordered three episodes for the final season of The Owl House instead of its usual twenty-one-episode season, the crew of the show had to stuff seven episodes worth of story-telling into one episode. They do so with a musical montage. The montage is fun, beginning with Luz revealing that she is bisexual and introducing her girlfriend to her mother. It also shows the three shopping for human clothing and Vee shapeshifting into a human form that is all her own rather than a copy of Luz.

The crew did well with what they were given, but, unfortunately, it feels like a condensed episode. Even with the montage, the revelation that the witches have been in the human realm for months threw me for a loop. The kids draw pictures of their family and mentioned that they want to go home, but the team was forced to condense their time in the human realm, leaving their anguish at wanting to go home falling a bit flat. This is something that could have been handled well in the usual seven out of twenty-one episodes that they would have been given to tell this part of the story. 

The episode is fun. occasionally heartwarming, and the ending fight with Belos the centuries-old witch hunter is awesome with the best animation ever put out by the show. It's a fun episode, however, the condensation of seven episodes into one really hurt the storytelling. The crew did their best with what they had, and it is still really good. However, if Disney gave the series the episode order it deserved, this really good story could have been great.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5