Review: Elena of Avalor”All Heated Up”

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about this series as a whole thus far.

Spoilers Below

Elena and Skylar are playfully flying around the kingdom when Elena sees that the local mountain is spewing fire. The flying jaguar tells Elena that a rock monster moved into the mountain while she was imprisoned. When the monster gets angry, the mountain erupts.

This time, the monster, Charoca, is angry because some local children are taunting him. He chases the children away and manages to calm himself before the mountain can erupt. However, this has scared one of the children and his family goes to the Council to complain about the monster. The Council agrees to let Elena go talk to the monster, as long as the Royal Guard goes with her. Of course, this means she only takes Gabe.

On the mountain, Elena has a difficult time trying to find Charoca at his house. She decides to wait for him to return and sits on a nearby chair. Only it isn’t a chair. It’s Charoca meditating. He gets very angry at her and chases her off the mountain as well.

Back at the castle, the Council votes to force Charoca to leave the kingdom. But Elena isn’t convinced that is the right answer. In the hallway, Isabel rushes up to Elena to show her a rock (called a monster rock) she got from the kids in the village. Elena is pretty sure she knows why Charoca is so angry.

Out on the castle balcony, Elena asks Skylar to take her back to the mountain. Naomi, overhearing Elena talking to Skylar, decides to come with her. The two girls go to the village to ask the children about the monster rocks. It turns out that the children did not have permission to take the rocks from the mountain. Elena and Naomi retrieve the rocks to return them to Charoca.

As they return the pretty stones, Elena and Naomi find out that Charoca isn’t a monster. He just has a bad temper. But before they can solidify their friendship with him, Esteban and the Royal Guard attacks. Charoca gets very angry, causing the mountain to erupt. Lava flows down the side of the mountain, threatening the village below.

First, the Royal Guard builds a wall to block the lava from the school. Then, seeing that Charoca’s house is also in danger, Elena and Naomi, with the help from Skylar and Luna, splash the lava with the water from the horse trough. Finally, the re-routed lava threatens another section of the village. This time, Charoca takes care of it. He keeps himself calm and stops the lava in its tracks. Seeing that the “monster” saved them, the villagers declare Charoca a hero.

Esteban brings Francisco and Louisa to reprimand Elena for disobeying the Council. However, Elena proves that she was right to help Charoca instead of fighting him. She gets her grandfather to promise to think with an open heart in the future. And, to solidify their friendship, Charoca gives Elena a flower that bloomed inside a rock from the mountain.

I am very confused by this show. It wants to be a show for older children but it has the production value of a Disney Junior show. Perhaps that is because it is spun off from another Disney Junior show. This episode could have been great if it wasn’t held back by the need to make this friendly for small children. If they want to interest older children, they have to take it up a notch. Stop making everyone talk down to Elena and Naomi so often. Stop making Gabe the stereotypical male. He’s the only male character that is a similar age to Elena. While I understand that it’s his job as a Royal Guard to protect her, he doesn’t have to be a blatant idiot about it. Either give the show a nudge to make it appealing to older children or put it in a time-slot after Sophia the First. You can’t have it both ways.