by Panpardus » July 8th, 2017, 11:15 am
I have to say, color me impressed; I actually found a lot in this episode that I liked.
[spoiler]The beginning sequence with the jackal pack's (now missing most of the kids and adding an out-of-nowhere sister for Dogo and two older individuals we haven't seen before; wonder who they are and what happened to the other pups...) zebra hunt was the best action scene I've yet seen from this entire series, and pretty much on par with the level of stuff I've been yearning to see for this entire show's run. Sure, words over fists (or teeth and claws, as it may) but I feel like most of the fights in the first season were severely toned down because Disney was worried how it would be received showing their characters tussling and actually biting each other, but in doing so they cheapened the conflict, lowered the tension beyond what they should've been for a given situation, and just overall made the sequences less exciting to watch. Sometimes, when it's time to throw down, you've just gotta throw down, and I'm glad they finally delivered on that with a good, realistic, well-choreographed, hunt/fight scene, with everyone getting physical in a manner that more or less makes sense for their respective species. The whole thing just worked out really well, and if this is the level of action we can hopefully expect for the rest of the season (and series), I am officially excited for what's in store later on, particularly if we get to see more of the jackals, who I can now buy as tangible threats - I never saw them as such before, in part because there were initially only two adults and whenever we saw them they were either in the Outlands or attacking prey that was too big for them to tackle anyway, so it carried no weight - especially since the dry season is coming and it looks like Dogo and his sister are being trained for their first actual kill. See, this is what happens when you use your antagonists properly; I actually want to see the jackals again! (Also, they got rid of Goigoi's sleeping gag; I don't mind him being the dumb husband character, but that gag never made any sense to me and I'm glad they seem to have gotten rid of it.)
Bunga's plot was actually quite enjoyable and not as middling as I thought it would be, especially since I feel like they wrote the story around "Teke Ruka Teleza", though it might've just been happy coincidence that the song proved itself to be usable outside of the context of the episode as just some random "let's get active!" Disney Jr. commercial. The song itself is catchy and I actually find it okay from a musical perspective. It's no "My Own Way" (still the standard bearer to me for what a good African-influenced song should sound like from this series), but it's definitely not the worst. Seeing Bunga actually being responsible in his own way was nice; I definitely find him a lot more likeable now than I did early in Season 1, and they seem to have figured out how to write him better. Pride Lands herbivores though... "You taught my children how to defend themselves?" Isn't that your job? But I digress. I'm glad they didn't really stretch the rest of the guard's "what will we do without x member" side story into a full piece; there really aren't a lot of antics you can pull from that, and it tends to bring the story to a halt.[/spoiler]
Overall I thought it was a pretty good debut episode, especially for a "day in the life" story with no real moral lesson or overarching major plot points. Let's see what happens when we get some meatier story elements involved!