Review: Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja “Ball’s Well That Friends Well Part 1 / Ball’s Well That Friends Well Part 2″

 

Spoilers Below

Evil Julien has opened a portal in an attempt to summon an army to help him destroy Norrisville. Randy can’t fight him all by himself, so the Nomicon suggests he gets an unlikely ally. Now a ninja, Randy believes Howard to be the ally the book is referring to, but instead of fighting with him, Howard grabs him and travels through Evil Julien’s portal. The portal closes behind the guys because Evil Julien needs more power which is now being handed to him by the Sorceror. Once inside the alternate realm, Randy and Howard come across Nice Julien.

Our Take

Clearly the first half was just to setup the Part 2. To be quite honest, I don’t even know why the producers bothered to label both halves, but they did. But, picture Part 1 has just a longer version of the setups we normally get in the series, though the battle between Randy and Evil Julien was pretty damn good featuring artfully crafted backgrounds and choreography that should make the Marvel shows blush. Unfortunately, the plot just didn’t settle right, and both McFist and Howard really served no purposes.

Score

7/10

Part 2

Nice Julien leads Randy and Howard through an obstacle course that leads to the tunnel back home. The tunnel, is in a monster’s mouth, and only Randy is brave enough to go in. He does just that, and ends up at Norrisville High where he bumps into Evil Julien and discovers that he needs to team up with The Sorceror to win the battle. Unfortunately, The Sorceror tries to turn on Randy, but when a long-lost friend shows up, The Sorceror is freed and the entire town goes back to normal. Howard returns, and Nice Julien merges with his evil doppleganger to recreate just one Julien. Randy moves in next door to Howard, and we are greeted with another potential foe.

Our Take

Waaay better than the first half. Again, it was the epic battles that won this out due to the fact that they are so filled with epic amounts of bad-assery. The Sorceror fighting is always boss, both when he uses his magic spells and when he takes part in a wicket sword-fight with Randy. That said, with the destruction of two main villains, it will be interesting what this new villain brings to the table for Randy, and I can’t wait to find out. Give me more fights like this, and I’ll tune in every week.

Score

9/10