New Episode "Ono's Idol"

[zerodix]

today this should air!

[SimbaPrescott]

One of the facebook groups (the DisneyTheLionGuard one) just posted a link to the full song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIW8sNbEG7w

I kinda like it. But I'm also a tiny bit disappointed for a certain reason...

[Panpardus]

There's actually not a lot I have to say about this one. It wasn't bad in any way, but it didn't exactly stand out in any way either, save for the art and animation which looked particularly nice given the amount of colorful birds they had to animate for scenes of the large multi-species flock.

The song was as I predicted (Hadithi sings it) and was alright, though it sounds like Beau Black and the musical crew are more or less just recycling motifs at this point; the songs are really starting to sound samey and relatively uninspired. I don't necessarily fault them for it, given they have to put out at least one song per episode, but it does get a little grating -- or at least dull -- after a while. The last couple of songs now, pretty much since "Lions of the Outlands", have all sounded almost exactly the same with minimal variation, and they generally sound the same as most of the other songs in this series. (The animation is the only reason I've had "Hadithi the Hero" on replay for a couple minutes now.) It might help if the score (which was nice, as per usual; I'm liking the new 'heroic' theme they used this time) and the musical numbers were a bit more integrated, as they were in previous Lion King projects; you'd at least get a bit more instrumental variation.

The idea of the mud print ceremony had me wondering why they didn't do something similar for the Lion Guard, granted, I still can't get over the magical paw print thing. But that's just a side thought. (Also a side thought: I noticed there's an ostrich footprint. That sounds like a story I'd be more interested in than this one, actually.) As for whether or not this was a season ender, I thought the previous episode was a more appropriate end point, unless you consider Ono's mud print honor a notable thing. At this point I don't think distinguishing between seasons really matters all that much outside of marketing-related purposes.

[gothprincesskiara]

ugh that voice, doesnt go well for that song, waaaay to deep for but that just me! does anyone else agree?

[Panpardus]

He kinda talks through most of it to me; would be nice if he actually sang.

[gothprincesskiara]

ok 2 things that bothered me the mud prints ceremony, since it was just mud those prints are not going to stay there forever with the rain washing up the mud, and the other problem I have was what are the odd of the teaming finding that bolder to just drop perfectly enough to let little gizels across, what ever they were called.
and what kind of African eagal would he be? I didn't see any eagals that wee close to what he looked like

[Panpardus]

^Good point about the mud. The rock falling certainly isn't the only convenient break the Guard has had...

As for Hadithi's species, I'm pretty sure he's a martial eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus), Africa's largest raptor. Here's a picture of one being not so heroic towards a fellow bird (helmeted guineafowl):

[Ninclow]

Spoiler: show

So Hadithi is basically Gilderoy Lockhart with a conscience if he were a non-magical bird... How original, the title of the episode didn't make that obvious AT ALL... -.-'

[Kallo]

Yeah.... not much standing out about this episode, but I thought it was a pretty good one nonetheless. Nothing unique about the story (it's been and will continue to be used in every kids' show ever), but it was still executed well, with an interesting new character and its own twists brought on by the setting. The only downsides I can think were that the dialogue was kinda weak at points, and that the song wasn't the best. Though, it wasn't the worst song so far either, and at least it served a purpose in this episode (as in introducing what kinda character Hadithi was gonna be). I do hope we'll get to explore some more of Hadithi's character later, with added layers to him, cause he is awfully one-dimensional, and there just for the sake of this one story, at the moment.

The big positive I really picked up from this episode is how much the animation's improved. Like, that's the main thing I paid attention to. It seems like they've introduced a completely new walking animation for every character. It looks so much better now. The characters actually look like they have weight now and their legs "twist" in the accurate position when they walk, whereas before they always looked like they were "sliding" on the ground when they moved. It could still be improved, and I hope and think it will as S2 rolls on, but even this is a big improvement from how it used to look.

[PridelandsPhantom]

I got to watch it today and it wasn't so bad. It's funny someone mentioned Lockhart from Harry Potter because that's exactly what I was thinking watching Hadithi Since Hadithi admitted he didn't invent the spin, who did all the real work and let him take the credit? How did he get away with fooling everyone including Simba and Nala? Speaking of that, where was Kiara in this episode? Considering they were going to do a royal ceremony shouldn't she be there? My favorite part of the episode was the little elephant telling Beshte he was still his favorite hero awww The flock of birds was pretty impressive and you're right the animation has improved a lot, but that tends to happen when shows gain more popularity and have more funding for better animation. If you watch anime, you usually see animation improvement towards the middle of the anime. I like Ono and it's nice seeing him getting his own story, although as others said it could have been fleshed out a lot better.

I especially thought of Lockhart when Hadithi said "Tell them what they want to hear." The way the eagle was obsessed with his good looks only added to that.