There has been an enjoyable, welcome rise in girl-led animated kids shows over the past few years: Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil, She-Ra, Hilda, Amphibia, Home: Adventures With Tip & Oh, Harvey Girls Forever, Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventures, Hotel Transylvania: The Series, Lost In Oz, Costume Quest, to name a few. Some have been questionable (Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil’s final season has been quite… divisive), while others have been underrated gems (Hilda is an absolute delight). But the fact that there are now plentiful options signifies progress, with Netflix and Disney leading the way. The latter now is debuting The Owl House, from the mind of Dana Terrace, a former storyboard artist for Gravity Falls and Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventures and director for DuckTales. And while The Owl House is brimming with rich storytelling potential and imaginative creativity, the pilot, “A Lying Witch And A Warden,” feels undercooked and weirdly hesitant about what may unfold in the future.
Gravity Falls fans, of which there are many, will be pleased to hear that Alex Hirsch is lending his vocal talents, here to a character named King, an adorable wolf/dragon-like creature with illusions of grandeur and high stature. Wendie Malick plays the role of Eda, a grifter witch, slightly snarky but clearly quite confidently powerful; Malick provides a soft, sad edge to a majority of her line-readings suggesting something more tragic about the character than what she lets out on the surface. Leading the cast is Luz Noceda (voiced by Sarah Nicole Robles), a charming, “weird” teenage girl who prefers fantasy novels, fan-fiction, and anime over status quo, “average girl” hobbies and interests.
But about that: aren’t fantasy novels and anime pretty much status quo these days? The narrative lessons about atypical characters embracing their weirdness and quirks, their “nontraditional” preference for all things abnormal and off-kilter, particularly among girls, is very important, but in 2020 it feels less dire and meaningful. There’s some specificity to Luz’s behavior that causes concerns; letting loose snakes or spiders all over the school in a bid for a book report is concerning. But would flipping one’s eyelids cause entire gym to freak out? I feel like every class had at least one kid that could do that. There’s a difference between the broad acceptance of unconventional proclivities and causing a mass panic; The Owl House muddles that distinction. Luz is a fun, charismatic, adventurous sort, although she seems to lack that clear sense of specificity or depth–but of course that can be clarified in a few episodes. Thematically, I’m reminded of Netflix’s Twelve Forever, another girl-led show about overactive, imaginative young women pressured to drop all those silly ideas and be “normal.” Twelve Forever has its issues, both on the show and off it, but there’s at least a sense of its Midwest, small town setting as the backdrop of conformist pressure. Not much is revealed here that pushes down on Luz except the typical tsk-tsking of parents and adult figures, but you can’t help but believe at some level it’s warranted.
But chasing an errant owl that snatches up Luz’s YA fantasy book has her stumbling into the magical, mythical world of the Boiling Isles (a peculiar name that hints at something heated and dangerous beneath the surface), and the show comes alive–at first. It’s a world full of vibrant backdrops and marvelous creatures, with monsters-as-normal-people scattered about. Here, Luz meets Eda, hawking the stolen human wares as specialized, rare goods, and her wondrous feats of magic entices the young girl, even as she realizes the witch is the most wanted person in the land. Luz escapes with her back to their home, where she then meets King, and crushes on him like a plush doll. The setting, and set-up, maintains a fun vibe if not particularly novel, but as Luz, Eda, and King start to interact, their unique and strong rapport becomes more evident, even though there’s a hint of peril here, since neither Eda nor King are in any position to teach or care for Luz. (Eda mostly wants to use Luz for her human knowledge and stuff, so Luz isn’t exactly safe, especially with her mind all caught up in the fantastical elements.) But still, you can tell this is a strong, strong group of weirdos, bonded together by a sense of isolation and longing–even if some of it in their heads.
Because the truth is, it isn’t exactly clear what makes Luz, Eda, and King so particularly weird that they are the targets of The Warden, a beast of a character wearing a plague-doctor mask with some particular odd powers of his own. His prison is filled with characters who express their own unique habits at their own peril (a creature that loves to eat his own eyes; a tiny, bratty socialist creature with a oversized nose; an older girl who also, coincidently, loves writing fan-fiction) but it isn’t evident what makes their specific quirks crimes, but other monsters safe from persecution. The Owl House may be building up to that–how what is deemed “normal” by society is arbitrary and enforced by the whims of those with power and influence (especially in regards to our socialist friend)–but it’s hard to make that claim in the pilot. In fact, its third act is kind of baffling, when the Warden, after having finally Eda in his clutches, shifts suddenly to admitting to having a creepy, overzealous crush on her. It’s not as amusing as I think the creators may think it is, mainly because it feels like a fakeout, as if there ought to be a deeper purpose for the Warden’s overall behavior than some deeply uncomfortable obsession with Eda. After all, this creature has every “weirdo” jailed up and a vault of every “unique” item he could steal. The Warden ought to be motivated by something other than a perverse desire for one person. What else makes him tick?
But of course, shows like this often bask and revel in inscrutability, keeping its bigger questions and revelations about its characters and its setting in the shadows until it’s time to best expose them (the very last shot, in which the window of the house actually blinks, may have you rubbing your chin). But there’s an equally acceptable chance that The Owl House is comfortable letting its weird inscrutability be the very point. After all, the show wants its characters and viewers to embrace their own layers of unique oddities and preferences, and thrive within them. Luz finds her calling, learning how to be a witch, among these two potential friends, and even if that journey is fraught with danger, uncertainty, and rules beyond all comprehension, she is determined to answer that call, consequences be damned. The fact that Luz, at the end, lies to her mom about being in normal camp is telling; being truly yourself is freeing, but at what cost?
Stray observations
- I hope we get more of Luz’ home life. I think a more detailed look at what she has to live through will give provide a better sense of what being “normal” means and what her forays into fantasy and silliness means to her.
- What was it about the force field that only humans could pass through? The Warden himself pulls his mask off and reveals to be a terrifying mouth monster, but does that means he can’t pass through it either? Obviously he probably can turn it off and on, but it seems such a particularly arbitrary thing that it can’t be a coincidence. Right?
- Hirsch as King is a delight, although at times he has Bill Cipher’s cadence a bit and his quips aren’t quite as funny as you’d like. That’ll should get better with time.
- We won’t be doing regular coverage, but will drop in as the season warrants.
36 Comments
I’ll give it a shot. Gravity Falls was good – but not excellent – when it debuted, as well.This one also gives me Amphibia vibes (which in of itself gave me Gravity Falls vibes). Also a great show.
I consider Hilda to be a bigger spiritual successor to Gravity Falls (esp. with ex-GF animators working on Hilda) but I’d also check out Owl House while waiting for Hilda S2.
I’ve tried watching Hilda twice. It’s charming as hell, but for some reason it just can’t hold my attention for more than a couple episodes.
Probably the pace. It rides a frozen glacier to get anywhere most of the time.
The creator of Amphibia also worked on Gravity Falls. It’s interesting that Disney kept a lot of talent from that show despite treating the actual show and its creator poorly.Hilda is in my queue! It looks great.
I don’t remember hearing anything about them treating it poorly, beyond the ridiculous scheduling, but that’s kind of the standard these days. Is there other stuff?
Alex has talked about how the Standards department arbitrarily micromanaged the living hell out of Gravity Falls. In particular, they blocked him from including a lesbian couple on the show (via phone, so there would be no email trail) and would force him to reshape puddles and mountains and other outlines in his animation because the department felt that they resembled penises or vaginas. The notes were so excessive that they ended up limiting his output, which is one of the reasons he went over to Netflix. He said that working with Disney as a whole was a good experience, though; it was just the Standards department that was rubbish.
I’m fairly “meh” on Amphibia; it’s fine, but not great (it’s weird that there hasn’t been a single hint as to where the third friend is, but season two, I guess?).
Yeah i really wanted a hint to friend 3. I do like Amphibia – all the Star v Forces of Evil vibes + Disneu Channel alum Brenda Song as the title character .
Amphibia is such a likable show, but I find that there’s a weird push-and-pull between its basic, silly/casual, episodic nature and the intense, serious, dark take it took in the finale. It’s like a Spongebob-esque show forced into a Game of Thrones template.
Star vs the Forces of Evil was one of my favorite kid-toons, but I am surprised to hear the last season was “divisive”. I thought the last season was a clever buildup to the finale. Its a Disney toon, so of course I expected everyone to live happily ever after (well, almost everyone), but I thought destroying the magic, instead of keeping the status quo, was a great ending.
The trope of ‘not like the other girls’ is tedious and reactionary and really should stay in the 90s. Can we not have a girl main character without shitting on what other girls like?
This was fine enough, I guess. I think the stuff that didn’t click for me the most was Luz and the prisoners.I do really like Alex Hirsch’s little skulldog character though.
Cubone?
I think Wendie Malick as Eda is brilliant so far, I feel the opposite towards Hirsch’s voice acting, but I felt that apart from Stan and Bill in Gravity Falls, I’ve never liked his performances despite loving his series.Great to see that Dana now has her own original series, also loved her imprisoned character in the pilot.
I like the casting choice, and Eda’s look, although it’s 90% Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo.
It was fine, but unless the shows gives us some actual stakes or an interesting antagonist I don’t know how much it will hold my interest.for now it’s just ‘human girl hangs around in fantasy world and kinda wants to learn magic’.
Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil’s final season has been quite… divisive)I liked it ( exploring how things can go wrong after a traditional stories end is pretty cool) , but was there a backlash ?? I honestly dont know as it got no coverage here or on io9 ( where the only 2 animated shows allowed to be talked about are She Ra and S.U.)
Star Vs the Forces of Evil was so good and should have got more love. I liked the last season and thought it all resolved in a really fun way.
Was curious about this too.Binged Star on Hulu and found it really good.Might be the new Avatar for Anime made by Americans. There’s a lot of Sailor Moon in its blood.Digresilsion aside, I found the final season to be pretty good if some of their political message a little less Hard hitting as if they didn’t want to go too far to one side.
Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil’s final season has been quite… divisive – confused me too. Unless they’re referring to replacing Tambour with the excellent Keith David as Glossaryk’s voice because of real world going-on’s i cant think of anything potentially divisive.
One word: ships
Airships? Like Zepplins?
I don’t watch the show, but looking around TV Tropes, I found a few things: – Tom reacting to Star & Marco’s kiss and talking to his mom about it rather than Star, plus his neglect to mention the magical reason they were attracted to each other, caused a lot of people to claim Tom was holding the Idiot Ball.- Everything relating to Moon helping Mina.- The Grand Finale merging the worlds and destroying magic pissed off a LOT of people, especially since it apparently resulted in the complete destruction of the Magic Realm.
Yeah, it’s difficult to really get into it unless you engage in animated circles or follow animation Twitter, but it definitely had a lot of backlash. For what it’s worth, I found it profoundly disappointing too, but I found season three and four disappointing overall.
The ending of Gravity Falls left the show open for a third season..what’s the problem, Disney? Make it so.
Miraculous
I liked the episode and I will keep watching. I’ve felt the Warden becoming a realistic villain (a man who does not accept a “no”) instead of the generic fantasy was a great idea, but not because of the fun but because of the creepiness. This monster is scarier than it looks!. But as I am old enough to be a grandma I also understood the adults point of view in the show. Luz seems a little deranged and her mom trying her to live a little in the real world is understandable. At least, I am glad the show makes clear that her mom is just worried for her and that Luz loves her.
Yeah I actually think the Warden has a lot of potential if they make his obsession and intensity to get what he wants “NO MATTER WHAT” a specific part of his villainous character. At this point in the pilot though it feels like a sudden heel-turn joke bit so they can have a bunch of “Eda’s bad at boyfriends” jokes at her expense for some reason.
Feels like a missed chance
It certainly was very “Disney”. They’ve really cornered the market on teenagers in magical dimensions at this point. Nothing that really makes it stand out yet, but I see the potential. Thought Star Vs was just okay when it started too, and that show turned out great. It’s a little bit too polished looking, if that makes any sense, but I like that the character designs at least have more character than the usual bean mouth with bug eyes. It was weird watching this basically back-to-back with Infinity Train, though. Total whiplash.
Infinity Train season 2 was fantastic.
Hilda is awesome!
I definitely heard a bit too much Bill Cipher in King’s voice at times.
It may not have been the best choice to have Luz go to a sleep-away summer camp, from a story perspective. As far as I can tell, going back and forth between the Boiling Isles and the human world is easy enough via Eda’s magic, Eda probably wants more human stuff to sell, and seeing more of Luz’s home life would be nice.
Hey, all. The last kids’ cartoon shows I got super into were Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, and Steven Universe. What’s come out since the SU premier that I really, really should get around to?