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Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur - Season 1

If I had been on top of my shit, I would have had this out during Black History Month. But I don't, so I didn't. Don't let my tardiness take away from what I'm about to say about this show. For those that want to know what they're getting into, this will be a glowing review. 

Before I get there, I feel it is important to mention how this show differs from the comic book series of the same name, which I also read avidly.

In the book, Lunella Lafayette (Moon Girl) is borderline unlikeable with no redeeming qualities. She's a super genius, with all the personality quirks that comes with someone that is genius level. Egotistical, prickly, feeling no need to have any friendships. Throughout her series, she gets by without truly making friends and doesn't seem to have an arc where she improves. As much as I wanted to always recommend it, that made it a tough read.

Thankfully, the show does away with that. Lunella is still a super genius, but she is trying to fit into a world that she is smarter than. They rightfully root her in her family and she has a best friend that also serves an important role in her crime fighting with her double life. Not to mention, Devil Dinosaur is more of a character here and you have the makings of a very fun kids show.

Going deeper into what I love about this show is the animation style which has a graffiti look and is gorgeous to look at. Everything pops and they make stylistic choices throughout the show during action scenes or to convey different moods to match what is happening on screen. The consistency of the animation and specific look of this show makes it the best looking Marvel animated show in easily the last decade. I tried to watch their Avengers, Hulk, Guardians of the Galaxy shows the past few years and they were all bad and looked cheap as hell. This is why DC consistently kicks their ass on the animation front. This show is the only one I would add to an argument of "Hey, Marvel has good animated shows! There's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur..." and then stop right there.

The other thing that is great about this show is the soundtrack. After the first episode, I went out and bought the soundtrack and I was not sorry. It is amazing. Raphael Saadiq was in his bag. There's even a track with Laurence Fishburne singing, which is fantastic.

The voice talent assembled on this show is top notch. The aforementioned Laurence Fishburne was an executive producer on the show and lent his voice to the Beyonder character that shows up. Alfre Woodard also has a role here as the grandmother and she is also a steadying voice within the cast. I don't know who Diamond White is, but she's perfect as Lunella and is also instantly likeable. Hell, they got Wesley Snipes as a guest voice. Clearly everyone enjoyed taking part in this project on the voice cast side and it shows.

I loved how this series is based around life in the Bronx and the Lafayette family owning a skate rink, so there's a lot of skate rink stuff sprinkled throughout the series. Like a kids show, there are little lessons taught in each episode and it pays off on a big mystery that had driven the story. The cliffhanger is also very good!

Everyone is extremely likeable and a lot of fun. The villains are throwaways, but that is beside the point. HIGHLY recommend watching this and now that season two has dropped, go watch that too. If you got Disney+, you have something new to binge to hold you over until X-Men '97.

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