by Ed Fortune
Marvel has always been good at doing short, fun cartoons that introduce an audience to their quirky superhero world. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur are the latest in this long legacy, a delightful kids’ TV show about a young girl fighting crime with the help of some wacky gadgets and a bright red Tyrannosaurus Rex. Inspired by both Jack Kirby’s 1970s Moon-Boy comics and the more recent 2015 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur comic book, the show is charming whimsy from beginning to end.
The show introduces us to Luna Lafayette, a 13-year-old super genius who accidentally creates a portal to the past in her secret basement lab. Luna has a loving yet utterly clueless family and lives in the thriving and diverse New York City’s Lower East Side (the LES) community. Luna lives in a world full of colourful characters, interesting shops, and a loving family.
Unfortunately, it’s not long before a series of villains arrive, each one with an agenda to ruin the LES in one way or another, and it’s up to Luna to stop them, aided in all things by her unfeasibly large dinosaur buddy. Also on her side is Casey, her media-savvy best friend whose sunny personality and winning smile balance out Luna’s tendency to overthink simple problems.
The animated style is breezy and fun, and every element of this show is welcoming and engaging, from the colourful titles to the brilliant soundtrack. The humour is mostly action-based slapstick, in a style reminiscent of Samurai Jack or The Fairly Odd Parents.
The plots cover everything from growing pains (often literally) to gentrification (with robots), never getting too serious and yet treating everything in a thoughtful yet fun way. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is a rare blend of Disney’s trademark universal story-telling style and Marvel’s unstoppable sense of whimsy. Completely charming and deeply daft, this show has a lot of heart.
