Review: Wild Grinders “Great Wheels of Fire”

I never thought something called “Sword of Density” could be anything formidable, same for Skate-Fu. What is going on here?

“Great Wheels of Fire” really confused me. No, it wasn’t because it was an obvious spoof of a Kung-Fu movie, straight down to a style of Skate-Fu named after an animal. We also had a terribly named Sensei named Master Sensei, and Fong Say Yuck. And when you thought the satirical tropes were over, in comes Bruce Lee, I mean Dragon Master Paul.

The best part of this episode was, in fact, Paul. The dragon motif was on the cheesy side, but he had the coolest “skate” move, when he did the Dragon’s Double Breath. The dude breathed in the fire, and made a blazing inferno in his trail. The writers didn’t put a whole lot of effort this week, but the story worked anyway. If the writers just concentrate on spoofs more, I think we may have a bit of a show on our hands.

Now, I thought Fong Say Yuck was going to be a terribly written character, but he was as campy as the rest of the episode. That is, until Yuck’s motives were unveiled. I almost want to say I would rather get a tropy reason why a villain is using an all powerful relic, but when I get something as hokey as his electric bill, even I have to take a step back. I mean, if it was for something that expects more plot, I would be flipping shit. But for Wild Grinders, it fit the spoof pretty well.

Now, let’s take a second to talk about the wonderful mentor known as Master Sensei. This guy has to be the worst mentor figure I have ever seen. That ranks right up there with Raiden in Mortal Kombat. “Hey, I’m going to strongarm you into doing this tournament filled with demons, killers, and otherworldly beings. While you’re going to go do that, I’m going to chill back on Earth. Have fun on vacation!” With Master Sensei, we get “You’re going to have to track some wolf looking dude to teach you Wolf Style Skate-Fu, then a guy obsessed with dragons, just so you can fight a dude with a lightning sword. Have fun!” These mentors are terrible!

On the good side, the story itself was thought out well enough to be entertaining, just as long as you don’t dig too deep into the characters. The characters that were there just for this episode were rather weak, and there were nothing to take away going forward. Maybe that was by design, maybe not. If it were designed like this, it’s weak design. If you’re looking for a good, campy Kung-Fu movie spoof, this is for you. Even with shallow characters and all.