Review: The Owl House “A Lying Witch and a Warden”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Luz Noceda is a free and independent spirit who loves weird things and knows who she is!…a bit too much, to the point that her mother (who seems to be a nurse?) sends her to a boring summer camp to learn how to keep her weird side down. She reluctantly accepts, but while waiting for the bus, an owl steals her favorite book and runs into an abandoned house which, naturally, leads into a portal to a magical realm, The Boiling Isles. There, Luz finds strange monsters and creatures, among them Eda the Owl Lady, a witch who sells lost human items for cash, and her tiny demon sidekick King, who used to be a king himself. Eda is also wanted by the authorities for “magic misuse and demonic misdemeanors” with a TRILLION dollar bounty (or whatever money demons use), but manages to escape with Luz in tow, as she is pretty valuable.

Luz is thrilled to be in a world as weird as her but is ready to get home, though first she’ll have to help Eda get King’s crown back from Warden Wrath in his “Conformatorium” which is where those who don’t fit in with society are imprisoned. Humans can get through the force field protecting the treasure there, so they need her. During her quest, Luz meets three prisoners who each do weird things like she does, such as having conspiracies, eating ones own eyes, and writing fan fiction. Soon they meet the Warden himself, who is eager to find Eda…mostly because he wants to ask her out. When she very bluntly rejects him, he goes on the attack, but is easily beaten once Luz unlocks the cages and the prisoners unite against him. And King’s crown turns out to be…just a paper crown from Burger King.

Amazed by this experience, Luz decides to stay in this world in order for Eda to become a witch herself, lying to her mom through text that she went to summer camp instead. Good thing her mom can’t call or receive calls from the camp confirming whether or not she’s there!

OUR TAKE

It’s the first new ongoing animated series of the decade! And it’s from an alumni on Gravity Falls, Dana Terrace, who is also dating Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch!…which I only feel worth bringing up because everyone else I’ve seen talk about this feels it is an important detail. Probably the only notable thing about that is that, having worked under and being close to Hirsch, there are likely to be some influences in her own work now that she has her own show. Though that’s not exactly unique to this as many Disney animated shows since GF have taken notes from it on how to construct a compelling ongoing storyline while also making their own strides, so I look forward to seeing how Owl House does that as well.

The series does look to be starting on a promising note, introducing us to Luz’s vibrant and charismatic personality, this imaginative fantasy world, and how her willingness to color outside the lines will likely be a useful skill. Likewise, Eda and King look to be interesting characters in their own right, as Eda most definitely has her own storied past to explore throughout the season (which looks to be ten episodes at the moment), with King providing comic relief. There also looks to be room for some fun world-building and intense action as the climax of this episode seemed to demonstrate with some nicely animated moments throughout. These are all good things to show upfront in your pilot to hook kids and hopefully adults who are children at heart, which seems often to be what Disney productions as a whole go for in their audiences.

However, I feel like there’s a bit working against this series right out of the starting gate too. For one, the moral of being yourself even when the world tells you to conform is certainly a good message for kids, but seems delivered in a bit too blunt and on the nose to really be saying much that you couldn’t in the 90’s. In addition, there doesn’t seem to be much of a hook for people to talk about the show after its over like Gravity Falls and the newer Ducktales seemed to have with their respective first episodes, though maybe we’ll be getting that down the road soon? Plus the premise reminds me an awful lot of the show “Amphibia”, also a Disney show, even though I haven’t watched that yet for a proper comparison. Right now, Owl House seems to just be…okay, but I’m hoping it will get the chance to soar like its name suggests. With a second season already in the works, they’ve got plenty of time to get there.