Review: Star vs The Forces of Evil – “Mewberty” & “Pixtopia”

 

 

Mewberty

First up? “Mewberty.” Star has always had her little crushes on boys. OK, maybe it’s just one boy. Maybe it’s one boy named Oskar who plays music in the school parking lot. As Star watches his musical mastery from a nearby classroom, Marco notices she has some paint or something on her forehead. It turns out to be a purple heart sticker thing. That is when Star realizes she is going through mewberty, which is much worse than puberty because she is from Mewni.

Every time Star looks at a boy, more purple hearts sprout on her face. She tries her hardest to avoid looking at boys but there are so many of them! Frustrated, Marco grabs her hand to drag her home. This is even worse. Her arm turns into a sticky tentacle-type thing that latches onto the closest locker. Star locks herself inside the locker in order to avoid more boys. Marco suggests that there may be a solution in her book of spells. Unfortunately, Star gave her book of spells to Ferguson as a result of losing a bet.

So Marco rushes off to find Ferguson. He finds out that Ferguson, who is in Spanish class and only speaking Spanish, gave the book to Janna. So Marco rushes off to find Janna.

Meanwhile, Star stays trapped in some random locker. Just as she finishes plucking off all the purple heart stickers, the bell rings and students fill the hallway. Star’s face once more fills with hearts from hearing the boys’ voices as they walk past. The bell rings again and Star thinks she is in the clear. Buuuuut….the swim team ends up warming up half nakedly in front of her self-imposed jail because someone pooped in the pool. This pushes Star well past her self control.

Jumping back to Marco – he found Janna, who still has Star’s spell book. He takes back the book and tries to find a cure for Star’s ailment but he can’t read the thing! Frustrated again, Marco wonders aloud if the book has a glossary. A blue genie-type being leaps out of the book. He is Sir Glossaryck of Terms. But he refuses to help Marco until he gets some delicious high school pudding.

As Marco goes to get the pudding, Star has morphed into a large ball of purple hearted fuzz. She bursts out of the locker and starts hoarding boys with her new webbing into various lockers. Marco feeds the pudding to Glossaryck, who tells him that Star will be OK at 3:57. However, Star is scaring all of the other students. Suddenly, she notices Oskar still singing in the parking lot. She grabs him and his car and lifts them high into the sky. At exactly 3:57, purple hearts begin to fall like rain. Oskar and his car plummet back to Earth and Star crashes back into the the earlier locker. Thankfully, she has returned to normal. Well, with tiny little butterfly wings on her back. Something old, something new.

I thought this was a really cute way to handle a boy-crazy time in a girl’s life. Sure, it was strange because it was Star but it wasn’t all that different from what most girls experience. We just can’t physically morph into a new being at the end of the cycle. Now if it only lasted a few hours…..

Score

8/10

 

 

Pixtopia

The second episode is “Pixtopia.” Marco and the boys are making prank calls on Star’s mirror phone. Much to Star’s horror, they used up all of her minutes. So the gang heads off to Pixtopia to pay the bill. The only money they have is Marco’s emergency fund money. Well, pixies only take gold and jewels so off to the shard mines with them to work off the debt.

In the shard mines, the gang digs for what looks like shards of glass. Mean pixie guards whip them if they get out of line. Star tries to fight back but her magic doesn’t work here. Ferguson, still in his prank calling king costume, tells the guard that he is a king and they drag him off to the empress, who quickly falls in love with Ferguson and asks him to marry her.

Back in the mines, Alfonzo is getting a mean case of pixie lung, coughing up pink pixie dust. A couple of other prisoners express sadness at the situation and Marco asks them if there is a way out. When they say they haven’t noticed any, Star points out the mine cart right next to a huge exit sign. The prisoners thought it was the bathroom. So the whole gang jumps into the cart and dashes out of the mine. A group of pixie guards jumps into another cart and follows them on a typical mine cart chase.

Eventually, the mine cart ends up in the throne room of the empress’ castle. The gang arrived just in time to see Ferguson get married. Marco points out that Ferguson is only 14 years old and still paints faces on his stomach. Ferguson realizes the error of his way and calls off the wedding. This angers the empress and she orders all of the guards to kill everyone. Fighting ensues!

While Star and the gang don’t really win the fight, they do manage to escape back into the earth dimension. Marco wonders aloud if he ruined Ferguson’s one chance to be happy. But Star points out that the empress didn’t love Ferguson, she just wanted to eat him. That is when they notice that Alfonzo is missing. They left him in Pixtopia, where is is marrying the empress.

I didn’t like this episode nearly as much as “Mewberty.” Sure, there were some fun parts but it all felt like they were things I had seen before in other shows or movies. As a result, the whole thing just kinda fell flat. I hope they stick to more original ideas and stop with the tropes.

Score

4/10