Review: Tigtone “Tigtone and the Princess Castle”

Overview:

Tigtone and Helpy have faced a lot of challenging hardships in the past, but this time they meet their ultimate quest as they’re forced to become prim, proper, and sophisticated. A reckless and sentient castle ensnares the duo into its clutches with the hopes of turning them into the model images of princesses. Tigtone wars with his new lush environment as he tries to understand the secrets of this evil castle and how he can win back his freedom and boorishness.

Our Take:

Tigtone excels when it really leans into the genres that it lampoons and showcases the love that it has for this kind of fantasy material. Tigtone has been able to apply a reflexive take on many different fantasy tropes across these two seasons, but “Tigtone and the Princess Castle” turns towards magical princesses and the more sanitized style of fairy tales for what’s easily one of their best episodes. The bright visuals and overwrought cheerfulness of princesses and Disney fodder feels like it runs in direct opposition to Tigtone’s style and tone, but this is why “Tigtone and the Princess Castle” makes for such an unusually entertaining installment. It’s able to take something that’s supposed to be sweet and calming and it morphs it into an aggressive hostage situation where fantasy becomes horror.

There’s a lot to enjoy in this episode, but perhaps the best thing about it is that Tigtone and company manage to actually teach this evil ghost skeleton castle king a lesson by rebuilding him as an embarrassing barn. It’s a ridiculous act that speaks to the vanity of a castle, which is such an absurd idea in itself. In doing so he learns a lesson about how it’s not right to force people to be something that they don’t want to be. It’s a very bizarre series of events that’s capped off by a playful coda, but it’s an incredibly fun conclusion. It’s the kind of resolution that feels only possible in Tigtone. There’s so much weirdness going on in these final minutes that it’s easy to forget that everyone speaks with this strange, exaggerated cadence.

“Tigtone and the Princess Castle” is a strong episode of Tigtone from this season that shows off a deeper level of storytelling and a careful balance between the show’s wilder sensibilities. It’s another installment that uses Tigtone’s firmly defined character as a catalyst for the episode’s conflict. It’s entertaining to have to see Tigtone more frequently go outside of his comfort zone to solve his problems and in this case he almost becomes secondary to the solution due to the help that Beconka provides. Tigtone still has some of the most surprising and satisfying resolutions to its stories and “Tigtone and the Princess Castle” is an impressive entry that highlights the show’s strengths.