Review: Star vs The Forces of Evil – “Interdimensional Field Trip” & “Marco Grows A Beard”

“Interdimensional Field Trip” begins just as it sounds. Marco, Star, and the rest of the class are on their way to their field trip destination. Unfortunately for them, it’s a paper clip museum. Star sees how bored her classmates are so she takes control. Miss Skullnick, thinking she is reaching the end of her years, doesn’t really want to teach the kids anymore. She, somewhat reluctantly, agrees to let Star take over the field trip.

Star uses her dimensional scissors to take the class to a museum dimension. She gives the kids free rein with absolutely no rules. Of course, they go crazy. They start jumping into random portals and trying to lick laser beams and riding flying sting rays. Star has completely lost control.

Meanwhile, Skullnick has found a history of trolls. The spider announcer tells her that trolls live for hundreds of years and can lift things four times their own weight. The teacher realizes that she is not an old lady anymore. She is more like a teenager now! This reinvigorates her love of teaching and she rushes out to join her students. However, all of the students are gone. Star has lost everyone except Marco.

It turns out that a yarn creature, who is supposedly the most dangerous creature ever, has escaped and kidnapped the kids. Jackie texts Marco a picture of where they are and the trio heads off to save them. They find all of the kids in stockings over a fireplace. Star and Marco climb up to pull the kids out while Skullnick catches them from below.

Just then, the yarn creature appears. Star steps up to fight it but Skullnick stops her. She orders Star to get the kids to safety while she fights the monster. The kids all rush back to the bus while Skullnick kicks the creature’s yarn butt. Finally, she ties a loose end to a pole. The yarn creature unravels as it tries to chase the escaping bus. Skullnick wins!

On the bus, Jackie asks Marco if anyone is sitting next to him. With Star’s permission, Marco allows Jackie to sit next to him. He began talking to her four episode ago. I guess Marco needs more time in order to hold an actual conversation with his crush.

First off, I’d like to say that I love that the writers are allowing Skullnick to embrace her trollness. Trolls aren’t always evil or awful. There are some good traits in there and she was allowed actually use them. I’m not sure how I feel about the Star side of things though. It was cool that the writers showed that Star isn’t emotionally ready for responsibility but it all seems rushed. I’m starting to think this show should be one 30-minute episode instead of two 15-minute episodes. So much more could be accomplished if they didn’t have to shove it all into such a short timeframe.

The second episode was “Marco Grows A Beard.” It begins with Marco showing off some peach fuzz on his upper lip. But then Jackie compliments another boy on his beard, which is much more lush. Marco is a little jealous so Star offers to magic him a beard. He refuses, saying that Star uses her powers too much. (I think he said that before, didn’t he?)

In the bathroom the next morning, Marco is happy with the new hairs growing on his face. But Star is a little too giggly about it. Of course, she did magic him a new beard. When Marco goes to shave it off, the hair goes wild and fills the entire house in a blink. Star gets thrown out of the house, losing her wand in the process. Realizing that her wand must still be in the bathroom, she grabs a pair of hedge clippers and starts cutting her way back into the house.

At the same time, Toffee tells Ludo that Star’s wand is unattended. Now is the perfect time to grab it. Ludo has a thing about hair, though. He insists that his minions carry him, not letting any of the hair touch him.

Star has a difficult time making her way through the hair. When she gets to the living room, she drops the clippers and a lock of hair whisks it away. Now she is left with no wand and no clippers. It is hopeless. Until one of the laser puppies finds her. The two fall asleep and the puppy reminds her, via dream, about how badass she was before she got her wand. She was fighting monsters with her bare hands! Star leaps into action, fighting through Marco’s hair with the help of the puppy’s laser eyes.

Eventually, both Ludo and Star make it to the bathroom. Ludo’s minions get tied up in the hair, leaving him to grab the wand by himself. He flashes back to a memory of him as a child, getting tickled by a very hairy tickle monster on his birthday. Now, whenever hair touches him, he bursts out in uncontrollable laughter. This, of course, leaves the wand open for Star to grab. But she doesn’t need her wand to beat the monsters. She does it with her two hands instead. And, since she doesn’t need her wand, she’ll save Marco from his beard with just a little razor.

When Ludo and his minions return to the castle, Toffee points out how ineffectual Ludo has been. Even though Ludo trusted him, now Toffee stabs him squarely in the back. With the minions on his side, they throw Ludo out of the castle.

This is one of the more interesting episodes of the season. Star was able to really learn that she doesn’t have to rely on magic so much. Toffee was shown to be the slimy backstabber we all thought he was going to be. And Ludo got thrown out of his own castle. I really hope that the writers are going to pick up these (and many of the previous) threads and bring them back into the story. It will be very disappointing if they just forgot about them