Apparently, the Caballeros need to
train with King Arthur. They JUST DO. He's a lion, predictably
enough, and he has four anthropomorphic-animal knights at his
command--including, maybe interestingly, a gender-swapped Kay--though
I guess her being an ostrich is a bigger change, really.
Unfortunately, it seems that Arthur
these days is more into corporate-team-building-type activities than
anything useful. But when April May and June use one of Owl Merlin's
spells to summon a dragon...well, okay, I guess the results are
fairly predictable.
This all makes for a pleasant enough
episode, if nothing mind-blowing. Owl Merlin is fun, becoming
obsessed with a game on one of the niece's phones (and also, on
seeing a picture: "is this where you put images that disobey the
king?"). Still, it is kind of anticlimactic how in the end, the
nieces just destroy a picture of a dragon and that's that. Whee?
Also, please explain to me why Merlin throwing the phone in the fire
causes the random guy in the Apple Store to die horribly.
To tell the truth, even though it
didn't take up as much screen time as I might've liked, my favorite
part was Ari and the Bear fending off Sheldgoose's incursion into
their house (turns out it's just Felldrake whom the barrier repels).
That was the kind of absurd, slapstick-y stuff that I appreciate.
I could keep watching this
indefinitely. Shame there are only two episodes left.
Ari is always fun. I also liked owl-Merlin, and the spells the girls find which are a call-out to "The Sword in the Stone." The motivational stuff was a bit boring. And of course it's not teamwork or heroism that defeats the dragon, unless you mean the teamwork of AM&J. The picture of a dragon they destroy--that's the scroll that bore the spell which created the dragon, so destroying the spell makes the dragon disappear. Not sure exactly what parallel we're supposed to draw to the disappearance of Apple Store Guy, but it was funny!
ReplyDeleteTwo things I can't make out: What is Panchito's response to Arthur's question about the most dangerous foe? And what's the end of Lancelot's line, "There may be no 'I' in Camelot, but there is one in _______"?
Like Pan, I wonder how the poor translators will deal with all the "me/I/you in X" lines, if this ever sees the light of day in any language other than English.
I think it's visualy one of best looking episodes (all the colors, backgrounds, that cool dragons etc.) but much like greek mythos in "Duck Tales - The Spear of Selene" it felt like they could bee doing so much more with the concept of Arthurian mythos and much like The Roman gods episode it had the whole "once great Hero who lost his way" thing so it felt a bit of a rehash in that respect. Still what was enjoyable, was enjoyable. And yhe Owl Merlin was fun, as well all the stuf with AM&J.
ReplyDeleteConcerning the Apple guy: the idea was that for some comedic reason, the same magical link existed between the created-dragon and its parchment, and an Apple guy and his phone. Possibly something to do with how you "summon" customer service through the phone.
ReplyDeleteI mean, I figured that was what they were going for, more or less, but it really makes zero sense.
Delete's funny though. In a Tex Avery kind of way.
DeleteIn case someone can hear what I can't make out: the most dangerous foe is at around 5.57, and Lancelot's comment is at 12.19 or so.
ReplyDeleteI re-watched the episode...
DeletePanchito say : Xandra when she's cranky. (I have to admit he say it super fast)
Lanchelot line : "There may be no 'I' in Camelot, but there is one in "ing".
"Arthur show me how to legaly change my name" line if super funny.
Also I'm still bother by "The Grail of Imortality" Did they seriously had problem to use the word "Holy"?
- This turns you into a fish...
- This turns yoi into a squirl... - HA! I just notice this refrence to Disney's "Sword in the Stone" (I think..)
AH! Sorry - I deledet a letter by mistake"
Delete"There may be no 'I' in Camelon but there is one in "King"
Thanks, Pan! Pan to the rescue, indeed! I was glad for Richie's response, too, though, because it shows that I'm not alone in having a problem making out those two lines.
DeleteYes, I'm sure the spell that turns you into a squirrel is a reference to Disney's "The Sword in the Stone".
And yes, probably they avoided the word "holy" because it's a more religious word than "immortality." Don't want to make fun of religious stuff, or in any way speak either for or against it! This shows that the grail has lost its Christian origin story in the public imagination, because the grail itself is fair game. Of course, the Christian origin story was presumably an overlay anyway, "christening" a pre-Christian mythical MacGuffin.
That's true, for example The Grail appears as a McGuffin in the "Heroes of Might and Magic III" game despite the fact it's set with in a Lord of the Rings like universe.
DeleteI just have tendency to roll my eyes when a cartoon will make change like this for the sake of being 100% netural... Not that I find it offencive. It's just feels like their being hypersensitive caution on the writers part... With so much folclor, myths and legends they put into this show it's not like It would stand out in any way.
BTW - yet, they had no problem of showing Donald praying when he was in peril at the begining of the third episode ;)
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ReplyDeleteThe episode repeats World Tree Caballeros' sin: too much spotlight on a group of heroes that aren't the titular ones nor do they make anywhere as compelling protagonists. It's however blessed with better jokes overall, including two of my favorite ones in the whole run; the aforementioned NotApple Guy's fate and Ari suddenly breaking into opera during the scream face-off. Both from its subplots, which were the strong cards here. Even then the main thread wasn't without its moments; it's a very Donald thing to demolish years of team loyalty by pointing out Camelot has a Me on it!
ReplyDeleteMatilda, can't make out Panchito's line myself, but I believe Lancelot goes "There may be no 'I' in Camelot, but there is one in team"...That's what I hear but I question the sense it makes. Funnily enough it'd work as a Spanglish gag, given the English E sounds just like our Spanish I.
Given the rumors of this series airing as a part of Disney's streaming service come next year, which I think its gonna go international, one could expect it to offer different languages a la Netflix from the getgo, so we may see how dub teams around the world handled this one.
...That said service is gonna have subtitles integrated could also explain why the show feels more confident about giving Donald more involved dialogue than your usual animated affairs, thinking of it (even though, for my money, Anselmo does an excellent job making the voice as easy to understand as you could hope for in this series).
Yes, I haven't had any problem understanding Donald in this series...though I have had problems understanding him in New DuckTales!
DeleteI'm glad to hear there are rumors of Disney making this series officially available to us non-Filipinos. I hope it eventually lands on DVD; I would buy three copies immediately!
Pan to the rescue! Hah, fun Panchito line.
ReplyDeleteJust doing my job! After all, you can't spell "Panchito" without a "Pan" ;)
Delete