Alright! Today I'm reviewing Star vs. the Forces of Evil, a Disney Channel show that aired from 2015 to 2019 and was about the titular Star Butterfly, a princess of a magical realm called Mewni, who is sent to live on Earth as a foreign exchange student once her magical powers become to unruly for the castle. Now living with the Dias family, Star becomes best friends with Marco Dias, attends high school, and learns to develop her magical powers while keeping her wand out of the villainous Ludo's hands.
Let it be said that Star vs. the Forces of Evil was not my favorite Disney Channel show by any means and that it pales quite severely when compared to the likes of Gravity Falls, Amphiiba, Phineas and Ferb, or The Owl House. The eleven-minute episodes are annoyingly short and often disconnected, the animation is flat and rounded, Star is an insufferable protagonist (It's mostly her sing-song voice), and Pony Head, a flying unicorn head who is Star's best friend, is the most insufferable character since Jar Jar Binks.
Even more annoying is that Star slips in some of the most genre-bending high-concept episodes to ever come out of an animated show in between generic duds. My favorite conceptual episodes were both found in season two - episode 16b "Running with Scissors" and episode 17a "Mathmagic" were both hilarious and epic premises, told excellent morals, were visually creative, and made you think the show is on a genuine upswing right before a Pony Head episode in 17b. There was often light at the end of the tunnel, but that light was Pony Head most of the time.
Additionally, some of the episodes feel random and inconsequential. While I love an episodic adventure as much as the next guy, 140 individual segments building to a finale can be really thrown off when Ludo's redemption weaves in and out of season four and has zero payoffs, the fantastic "Spider with a Top Hat" episode is given a lame sequel, and the general idea of the show's secondary villain (?) Eclipsa is handled with such a nebulous tone that it's hard to root for anyone during the fourth season.
Luckily, Star has two redeeming qualities that save it from otherwise mediocrity: One being the aforementioned mixed bag of conceptual episodes and visuals, and the other being Marco Diaz, the level-headed and responsible one of the comedic duo. Star is at its best when it's just Star and Marco hanging out and being friends, and the more it plays into the childhood nostalgia of friendship and adventures the better it is. Unfortunately, with eleven-minute episodes, most of them end the same way: Karate kick, spell, and bad guy defeat.
Luckily for everyone here, most of the time that's enough. While it doesn't reach the heights of other Disney shows or even the heights of its very best episodes, Star vs. the Forces of Evil is a likable enough show filled with silly jokes for kids and just enough showstopper moments to be... well, it's not bearable for adults. But it's enough to be engaging. It's fine, and while it wouldn't be my first, second, or even third pick, it's watchable and occasionally, if rarely, clever.
The likable cast, especially some of the funnier auxiliary characters such as Tom and Hekapoo, are what make the show bearable. They bring a balance to a show that's otherwise the same exact plot repeated a million times but each time with the tiniest bit more racial tension until season four is a full-blown race war between the Mewmans and the mythical creatures that ends with all of magic being destroyed and the Magical High Commission all killed... it kind of got off the rails at the end. Star was likable - but not great, with more negative traits as positive ones.
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