Star vs. the Forces of Evil is a new show from Disney about a magical princess from another dimension who fights evil with her human sidekick, Marco. The series debuted January 18 on the Disney Channel with a special preview episode, a couple months before the official premiere, as quite a few Disney shows do these days. The debut episode was pretty funny, and showed a lot of potential.
Episode 1a: “Star Comes to Earth”
The episode “Star Comes to Earth” opens with Star Butterfly, princess of Mewni, on her fourteenth birthday, being bestowed with a gift passed down through the generations–a powerful magic wand. Star immediately sets everything on fire with it and is banished to Earth. Well, her parents say they’re sending her there to train, but they just leave her with the principal of the school and are never seen again, so, banished. Apparently this is better than Saint Olga’s Reform School for Wayward Princesses, where Star is afraid she’ll be sent.
On Earth, Star is paired with a teenage boy named Marco Diaz. He is freaked out by her ability to conjure giant mutant butterflies and set rainbows on fire, so leaves school terrified at the thought of being her guide from now on. When he gets home, he is horrified to discover that Star is now living with his family who seem completely enchanted with her. Marco remarks that he’d rather have a litter of puppies, which Star then conjures up with her magic wand. The puppies begin running around the house shooting lasers out of their eyes, which doesn’t appear to phase Marco’s parents at all.
While Star has been getting accustomed to life on Earth, she has been followed by a giant frog from another dimension. And here we find the biggest shortcoming of the show, the bad guys. They really just seem like your average cartoon baddies. On Disney’s Gravity Falls, the bad guys are all extremely unique, each with their own well defined storyline, and each rather dangerous in their own way. In Star vs. the Forces of Evil, all the bad guys are very generic. They all look like humanoid animals, none of them are very threatening, and they really don’t have any more motivation than wanting Star’s magic wand.
As the show continues, hijinks ensue, Star conjures a tower for her room, a black hole for Marco’s, and the puppies continue lazering everything. After putting up with this as long as he can, Marco gets fed up and runs away from home. Star goes after him and as they are reconciling, the bad guys attack. There’s a big fight scene, that’s over very quickly, as the bad guys are pretty easily defeated. They go back to their own dimension, and Star and Marco go home as friends.
Episode 1b: “Party With a Pony”
Like a lot of animated shows these days, one episode contains two cartoons, and here the second–“Party With a Pony”–is the better of the two. This one introduces Flying Princess Poneyhead, Star’s best friend from Mewni. Poneyhead is a disembodied unicorn head with attitude. She has come to earth to party with Star and takes her and Marco to various clubs in other dimensions.
It quickly becomes apparent that Ponyhead is up to no good, as three government agents are pursuing her through the dimensions. Ponyhead makes it abundantly clear to Marco that she hates him, and ditches him in an arcade, taking Star to a concert. Marco is then captured and interrogated by the agents.
After talking with Star, Ponyhead has a crisis of conscience, and gives herself up to the agents and her father, a giant disembodied unicorn head, who then sends her to Saint Olga’s, where Star had feared she’d be sent in the first cartoon. Before she leaves, Ponyhead gives Star her pair of dimensional scissors, which they used to travel between the dimensions, ensuring that Star will be able to have plenty of dimension hopping fun in future episodes.
Overall, Star vs. the Forces of Evil is a fun show. I don’t think it’s quite on par with Disney Channel’s recent offerings, but this is just the first episode. The show has a lot of potential, and I’m sure it will get better. Time will tell if it can reach Gravity Falls’ heights, but for now the show is entertaining enough, and if you are a cartoon fan, it’s well worth your time.
Star vs. the Forces of Evil will officially premiere this spring on Disney XD.
What did you think of this first episode of Star vs. the Forces of Evil? Will you be tuning in in March?
Edited by: Morgan Stradling
