Friday, February 10, 2023

Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, “Moon Girl Landing”, Review!

 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is a frantic cartoon with a fun super-teen and her dinosaur that has a touch of heart and smarts! Devil Dinosaur, a red Tyrannosaurus rex, was created by Jack Kirby in Devil Dinosaur #1 (1978). Devil was linked with the monkey boy, Moon Boy, “Laugh-a while you can, monkey boy!” Lunella Lafayette, aka Moon Girl, first appeared in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1 (2015). Lunella is a brilliant, thirteen year old girl. The show is co-created by Lawrence Fishburne who voices The Beyonder in the show and played Bill Foster in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). His co-creator is Helen Sugland who was a producer for his show Black-ish. The animation is by Flying Bark Productions who worked on Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show. It is blocky, fast paced, with characters and actions popping up word balloons. The show has a two part premiere on Disney Channel that will later stream on Disney+. New York, Lunella (Diamond White) walks up, puts on her skates, jumps over fire hydrant. 

She meets people, throws a few punches at Jimmy’s Gym, and sings the title song, “Moon Girl Magic.” White voiced Fuli the cheetah in The Lion Guard and performed the song “My Own Way” in the show. Lunella sees a closed shop and then goes to the Roll With it skating rink run by her father, James, Jr. (Jermaine Fowler). The lost son, Lavelle, in the comedy, Coming 2 America (2021), was played by Fowler. Sasheer Zamata plays Adria, Lunella’s mother, Zamata known for Saturday Night Live and she is now on the sitcom, Home Economics. Later, Mimi, her grandmother is voiced by Alfre Woodard. The actress also voiced Sarabi in the 2019 Lion King. Pops (Gary Anthony Williams), Lunella’s grandfather, is in the rink. Williams voiced Kragan Gorr in Star Wars: Resistance. Lunella dances with him. Then, the power goes out and the skaters leave. James, Jr. returns the money to his customers. Lunella wonders about the blackouts. The family keeps going and says their motto, “We roll with it!” 


The city’s electricity drained by energy woman whom we later find out calls herself Aftershock (Alison Brie). The actress voiced Em in the “Twins” (2021) episode of Star Wars: Visions. Her design looks similar to the electrical villain, Livewire, who appeared in Superman: The Animated Series. Lunella is working on some papers when her classmate, Eduardo (Michael Cimino), gives her a Rubik’s cube. Cimino voices Kevin in the Disney animated series , Hamster & Gretel. Lunella tells the school crowd about her work on an incomplete blueprint. She says she is hoping the “Lower East Side have its own power grid.” The part of the city is identified as L.E.S. Lunella gives Eduardo the finished cube. She is seen by another classmate, Casey (Lile Barer), who has a podcast. Barer voiced Violet Sabrewing in DuckTales (2019-2021). Lunella returns to the skating rink to find out that there was an attempted robbery. James, Jr. says they were stopped by Lunella’s invention, a battery powered security system. 


In Lunella’s room, Adria gives Lunella a bowl of food while she works on the blueprints, and gives her a tape player. When she leaves, Lunella opens her closet and takes an elevator down to her secret lair which is an abandoned subway station. The elevator to secret room is right out of the classic Batman show. Lunella sees her family on a monitor. James, Jr. discusses selling roller rink. She acivates her power generator, but it overloads! Lunella finds out that the device is a portal generator. The portal is a swirling, blue disc and out of it, Devil Dinosaur (Fred Tatasciore) appears. Tatasciore also voiced several voices on What If…? including Drax and Volstagg. He roars and then runs off. Casey is using her cellphone to show the neighborhood in blackout. Devil Dinosaur runs through night streest, licks water hydrant, chasing after something it smells. Lunella chases after him and finds that he is looking at hot dogs. She tosses them into his mouth, his vision turns her to green, and becomes a puppy. 



They see at the roofttop of a building the energy woman whose electrical bolts throw down a dumpster. It is about to fall on Casey and Lunella tells Devil Dinosaur, “Help her!” Devil Dinosaur chomps on the dumpster. The next day, the family talks about the dino appearance which seems to confirm James Jr.’s “Lizards in the sewers.” Lunella gets a pile of food on a plate from the refrigerator. She brings up the “electrical vampire.” Mimi doesn’t want her to leave until she takes some pie. The pie is the last part of Devil Dinosaur's meal. Lunella thinks the portal generator may not have enough power to return him home. She sees them as superheroes, “My brain, your brawn, we can really help people.” They team up and he claps. Casey stops by and sees Adria and James, Jr., Luella doesn’t remember name, but suspects she knows her secret identity. Casey thanks Lunella for saving her. Lunella shows Casey the secret lair. She is stunned and speechless. Casey wants Lunella to have a costume and appoints herself as her agent. Lunella agrees to the agreement, “I will do this thing.” She starts putting together outfits and inventions. 


Casey turns them down until Lunella gets her classic unifor; yellow outfit with helmet that has pink goggles. They move thorugh the streets at night. She sees the robbers, two big guys, her trap sprayed them when they tried to rob the skating rink. This makes the robbers easy to detect for Lunella. She goes to see Devil Dinosaur and he shakes her around on his tail. Her flying boxing glove knocks away Casey’s phone and the robbers drive away. Lunella trains Devil Dinosaur with hot dogs, tests her glove shooting canes, and ends up with an ice cream cone on a rooftop. His name is a series of growls. Lunella translates it as “Terrifying Fire Monster Who Will Bring About the End of All Things.” She adds that it means literally Devil which Casey agrees will be his name. Casey has found the robbers selling goods on the web. A robber puts blue eye makeup in a mirror, Lunella calls for Devil, who makes them run. The duo is able to be helpful to the neighborhood and has to defeat Aftershock who has managed to enter Lunella’s life! She takes the name Moon Girl from an inspirational scientist and driven by her grandmother's saying, "One girl can make a difference." A fun cartoon superhero show geared for young ones! 


Four Hot Dogs out of Five! 


#Marvel, #MoonGirlAndDevilDinosaur, #MoonGirlLanding, #DiamondWhite, #FredTatasciore, #LileBarer, #JermaineFowler, #SasheerZamata, #GaryAnthonyWilliams, #AlfreWoodard, #AlisonBrie, #MichaelCimino 

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