Review: SuperMansion Earth Day Special: World War Tree

Treebeard makes an appearance.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

It’s Arbor Day and tyrannical tree scientists fasten a laser with the ability to mutate trees more or less into the Ents from Lord of the Rings. It doesn’t take long, but the trees begin raising hell all over town in the name of protecting their species and are hell-bent into making sure people are eliminated so they can thrive. Weirdly enough, Cooch gets herself chained up to one of the trees who actually like the feline company because she’s good at eating bark beetles and is also a fan of protecting trees from harm.

Rex and Lex decide to re-team with some throwback heroes so that Saturn, Ranger, and the others can protect the pipeline from exploding. The father-daughter duo actually meets up with Mother Earth who puts in a good referral for them with Fathertree who contemplates joining his brethren for world domination or helping the heroes save the human race. Turns out, Fathertree’s a big fan of Rex’s past musical forays and this gives Rex and Lex the sauce to turn the trees back into trees. That is until the rest of the team decides to burn down the forest and stop any pipeline projects from commencing.

Our Take

Unlike the other holiday specials, this very special “Earth Day” episode has less to do with the holiday and more to do with the overall message the producers are trying to get across. Commercialization of our environment and an important message for those thinking global warming isn’t accelerated as a result of the human condition are front and center and the message is made loud and clear.

In terms of dialogue, our “Earth Day” special is probably a tad more serious in the tone which doesn’t leave a lot of room for jokes and the ones that are written aren’t very good. The talking trees are boring and the funniest character in SuperMansion, Robobot, is seldom used in the episode. Moreover, the song used at the centerpiece of the episode features Bryan Cranston on lead vocals which come across like nails on a chalkboard.

Even with the silly dialogue, the climactic fight scene is enough to make you want to sit through the whole deal. Director Zeb Wells is the best in the biz at producing stop-motion fight scenes and his skillset is on full display here. And while Earth Day isn’t until April 22nd, you should consider celebrating with SuperMansion a few days early on Crackle.