In 2009, when Disney bought Marvel, one of my first thoughts is “When will they collaborate with Disney Television Animation?”. I feel that DTVA is great at showing established Disney franchises to all sorts of audiences. Sure, there’s the “Mission Marvel” crossover on Phineas And Ferb, but it took until 2023 with the release of Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur for Marvel Animation and Disney Television Animation to finally collaborate on a show. With the show having wrapped up recently, it’s time to give it the review that it deserves. Spoilers are ahead.
Let’s start with what the show is about, and my general thoughts on it. Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur is a Disney Channel cartoon based on the 2015 Marvel comic of the same name that first came out on television on February 10, 2023. The series is developed by Steve Loter (who previously worked on shows like Kim Possible, American Dragon: Jake Long, and The Ghost And Molly McGee), Jeffrey M. Howard, and Kate Kondell (who have combined credits that include the Tinkerbell movies, Elena Of Avalor, and Phineas And Ferb: The Movie: Candace Against The Universe), and is produced by Marvel Animation, Disney Television Animation, Cinema Gypsy Productions, and Flying Bark Productions. The show focuses on a 13 year old girl named Lunella Lafayette (voiced by Diamond White), who accidentally brings a dinosaur named Devil Dinosaur (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) into modern day New York. Together, she teams up with him as the new superhero Moon Girl in order to protect the Lower East Side community (or LES) of New York. At the start of the series, the only one who knows her secret identity is her new friend Casey María Eva Duarte Goldberg Calderon (voiced by Libe Barer). I’m going to be blunt. This is my favorite Marvel show of all time. I’m being completely serious. So, why do I love the show a lot? Sure, there’s plenty of action shows that involve kid and teenage characters trying to balance their superheroic lives with their personal lives. Look at just about anything related to Spiderman. What I think gives this show the edge is the focus on community. You usually don’t see action shows, at least non-preschool action shows, put such a heavy focus on saving the community as its driving point. I feel that this helps give the show the edge as it shows how, while the hero’s story is important, the people they’re able to inspire makes real magic, Moon Girl magic if you will. Before I lose track of things, let me get into what I love about the show.
Let’s start by talking about the animation and music, though this section won’t be too long. The animation on this show is phenomenal. It’s animated by Flying Bark Productions, who previously worked on Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Glitch Techs, and the first four seasons of Lego Monkie Kid. The high energy action from those shows translates really well here with really slick, dynamic fight scenes. What also helps is the comic book art style that’s not afraid to go for something more stylized, particularly during exaggerated comedy. The animation particularly shines during what’s called the mixtape moments, where songs play as Lunella fights the episode’s featured villains during the climax. It’s a mix between licensed music I don’t recognize and original songs. Either way, it’s all really good to watch and listen to.
Now I’m going to talk about the first episode as it helps set up the general writing style for the show. There’s quite a lot to talk about “Moon Girl Landing” since it’s 44 minutes long. This episode covers Lunella’s origins as she takes up the mantle of Moon Girl in order to protect her neighborhood from an electric threat. You’re immediately able to sympathize with Lunella and find her quite likable. She’s shown to be a great inventor who wants to help people out. Most notably, for her family’s roller skating rink, Roll With It, she created a special security system that’s meant to take down burglars that keep stealing from them. There’s also the matter of electric blackouts in the neighborhood and everyone else experiencing thefts or business shutdowns. The fact that she still wants to help everyone is quite admirable. We see in school how she’s treated by other students, which is quite interesting. On the one hand, they are quite impressed with her intelligence given how she handled a rubix cube like it’s nothing. On the other hand, they find her a bit weird and socially awkward with how she talks about wanting to study the mystery behind someone she calls Moon Girl, and this special portal that she’s looking at in her lab. This kind of behavior drives her character.
Devil Dinosaur himself, though less a co-protagonist and more a major supporting player, is pretty well written too. Despite his ferocious size and ability to crush people like a bug, he’s basically like a lovable dog who’s very sweet and loyal. He’s a bit mischievous, but things get better when Lunella manages to connect with him. The buildup of their friendship feels natural. Casey is another character that I’m quite impressed with. She’s someone who takes great pride in her online status and her appearance. There is some vanity in her, but she still comes across as genuinely nice. She’s first introduced vlogging about how strange the food at school is, much like a reporter. She’s initially a bit weirded out by Lunella acting a bit awkward, but keeps it to herself. Once she sees how she’s actually a good person who will do what she can to help others (notably, saving her when she nearly died during one of the blackouts), she’s endlessly supportive of her, and encourages her to step up and help others as superhero. They do get into a fight later on when things go wrong, but they make up, showing how their bond is strong despite any problems. As for Lunella’s family, I’ll quickly go over them since they mainly show up at Roll With It and her apartment. We have her grandmother nicknamed Mimi (voiced by Alfre Woodard), who’s pretty strong willed and friendly, and as shown in the climax, great with giving advice. We have her mother Adria (voiced by Sasheer Zamata), who has the behavior of an activist with how she’s very open about the issues in the neighborhood, but she also has motherly warmth to ground her. We have her grandfather James Sr nicknamed Pops (voiced by Gary Anthony Williams), who’s got a bit of that cool grandpa energy with how active he is, but he’s also quite genuinely supportive. We then have her father James Jr (voiced by Jermaine Fowler), who’s a bit on the goofy and energetic side, but also quite supportive. The villain of this special is Aftershock/Allison Dillon (voiced by Allison Brie). She’s the one causing the blackouts and bankrupting everyone, all to satisfy her constant need for electricity. She’s shown to be quite smug and manipulative with how she pretends to be Lunella’s science teacher with a fake friendly facade. The moment she threatens to hurt Lunella’s family if she tries to stop her is quite chilling. The themes of community really shine through as everyone in the neighborhood helps Moon Girl team up to stop Aftershock. This episode does a lot, and it all comes together well.
I want to talk about some standout episodes of season 1, since they’re either episodes that go for more mature subject matter, or take typical concepts, and elevates them quite a bit. There’s the episode “Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow”, where Lunella attempts to straighten her hair. Why is that? Well, there’s a girl that inadvertently made fun of her hair and thought she made it bad on purpose. She’s being discriminated for her hair, which is not cool. This results in her mane of hair coming to life (and voiced by Jennifer Hudson) as she exacts revenge on Lunella. Yeah, that’s pretty weird, but the show just owns it. The highlight definitely comes near the end, when Adria and Mimi talk to Lunella about the discriminating experiences black girls go through when it comes to hair, and how they messed up when trying to change their hair. It’s powerful stuff. Another standout is the episode “Like Mother, Like Moon Girl”. It’s an episode that mainly focuses on Lunella’s relationship with her mother Adria when she’s not pleased with how inventors Marty Muzzler and Marcy Muzzler (voiced by Paul Scheer and June Diane Raphael) want to gentrify the LES. Yeah, it’s not often you have an episode of an animated show covering the idea of people that want to strip down a neighborhood of its identity. We see the struggle Lunella has as Moon Girl in keeping things together given how she’s tasked with helping the neighborhood but still wants to be seen as a good role model. We get to see Adria’s more hardened side mix well with her compassion given how she chews out Moon Girl for supposedly supporting this and not being a good role model, yet she’s also gentle in telling Lunella (not knowing her identity or her situation) that she should do what’s right and use her voice to speak out. The ending is quite epic as everyone comes together to take them down.
I suppose now is a good time to talk about the show’s Marvel connections, as well as villains and antagonists. Even though this show is based on a Marvel comic, the series is actually quite restrained when it comes to refereeing Marvel properties. Sure, you get references to the Avengers, and characters like Bill Foster and Maria Hill appear (played by their MCU actors Laurence Fishburne, who’s an executive producer on the show, and Cobie Smolders). However, on the whole, the show doesn’t lean too heavily into established Marvel characters, usually going for something original or something obscure. For example, “The Borough Bully” opens with Lunella taking down the obscure villain Devos (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) while later taking down the symbiote, who possessed a kid named Angelo (voiced by Spectacular Spiderman himself, Josh Keaton). At the same time, “Run The Rink” has Lunella taken on three show created villains (Sophia Bush/Instantanegirl, Manbaby, and Gravitas, voiced respectively by Caree Baker, Aaron Drown, and Ace Gibson). Some of this is due to Marvel executives saying what characters can and can’t be used (like how Amadeus Cho couldn’t be used in the show), but other times, it’s from the showrunners and Marvel themselves wanting to do something different.
I’m actually glad that the show doesn’t lean too heavily into being a Marvel project. It allows the world and the characters to really stand strong in their own way without feeling like it has to follow a specific mold. It’s best shown in the show’s take on The Beyonder (voiced by Laurence Fishburne). He technically first showed up in “The Borough Bully” as the narrator guy that talks about villains’ backstories, which he keeps up later on. He later physically appeared in “The Beyonder”, where he tells Lunella how he was sent to Earth to judge humanity. The best way to describe him is if you took Discord from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and plopped him into a Marvel show. He’s shown to basically be like a trickster of sorts given how he loves messing with Lunella. I mean, when he first physically appears, he pretends that her family disapprove of her finding out her identity by shapeshifting into them. He’s capable of altering reality given how he basically turns her life into a black void during the episode’s climax. He has a bit of a flair for the theatrics with how he basically tries to make everything into a show. This makes every time he does something simultaneously hilarious yet also scary even if I wouldn’t really call him an antagonist. Of course, we see that, in his own twisted way, he does see Lunella as a friend. Notably, he turns everything back to normal when he sees Lunella being willing to work with Eduardo (voiced by Michael Cimino) despite chewing him out earlier for seemingly not being smart enough to help her with the science fair. This behavior carries over into other episodes like “Coney Island Baby” and “Wishtar” (which we’ll get to), where he has fun messing with Lunella, but also takes her feelings more seriously than before. The show is definitely going for a “villain of the week” format with how most villains usually only show up for an episode, with the few that recur either not being that serious (such as Rockin Rudy, voiced by Gary Anthony Williams) or pulling some kind of heel face turn. I can see some people taking issue with this, but I don’t mind it. The villain and antagonist storytelling here kind of reminds me of The Ghost And Molly McGee, which Steve Loter also worked on. They’re also entertaining and have enough of a presence, but the show is more focused on promoting good messages and tying them into interesting stories and worlds. It’s just that the more high stakes conflicts that are there are more internal and less external.
Now it’s time to talk about the season 1 finale, the two-parter “OMG Issue #1”, which premiered April 29 and May 6, 2023. It’s quite a lot. So, the episode involves someone named Maris Morlak (voiced by Wesley Snipes), leader of The Enclave, kidnapping Mimi and planning to open a portal to another dimension. Now Lunella faces her greatest challenge yet as she has to save her. So this episode has a lot going for it. The villain is definitely pretty cool with his sleek design, and calculating personality in how he can manipulate anything to his advantage. To get some of the juicy stuff out of the way, Mimi is the original Moon Girl. That’s quite the revelation. She also knew that Lunella is the current Moon Girl, and just kept this a secret. Given how she easily believed her in episodes like “Moon Girl’s Day Off”, it’s pretty believable. We dwell more into her character here as we find out that she and Maris used to be friends that worked together as scientists on some kind of portal. When someone higher up stole their work and claimed it as his own, he became furious and wanted revenge. She did not, and this was the catalyst to the start of their friendship breaking up. The contrast between them in present day is clear in how she didn’t let a grudge get to her, and she has a loving family to show for it. Contrast with Maris, where he became consumed with revenge for not being recognized for his work. Even if you know his actions are bad, you do feel bad for him since he wanted to be respected for his work.
Lunella of course is the star here, and you definitely feel for her here. Her intelligence is on display like always with how she’s able to come up with a great rescue plan to get back Mimi. We see how she’s trying to do what she can to make things right, even willing to sacrifice herself by being with Mimi when they’re both captured. Things then get even worse when Maris makes her lab blow up, and doesn’t have access to her suit or gadgets. This is definitely a sad moment, especially because of how much she’s done for the city thanks to her underground lab. Things get really intense during the end. When Mimi talks about the worth Maris has, he actually seems somewhat regretful of his actions. All he wanted was recognition. Things then get intense when the portal activates, and things go haywire as he gets sucked into it. That would already be enough, but that’s not it. In order to close the portal, Lunella says how she has to close the portal from the other side. Yes, she has to go inside it in order to save everyone. It’s particularly fitting with how she’s someone who’s not afraid to go above and beyond to help others. The good news is that Lunella managed to close the portal. The bad news is that she’s now trapped on the other side, and seemingly has no way to get out. Yeah, talk about quite the intense way to end the season.
Now it’s time to finally get into season 2. Unlike season 1, which had 16 episodes, this season has 24 episodes, though it was originally going to have 14 episodes. As such, there will be more to go over due to the season airing in halves. Let’s start with the season 2 premiere, “The Great Beyonder”, which came out on February 2, 2024. Continuing from the season 1 finale, this episode has Lunella and The Beyonder being stranded on a deserted planet. They have to work together to get to a black hole that could possibly get them back home. There are two problems though. The first is that The Beyonder doesn’t have his powers. You actually feel for him with how he can’t seem to defend himself since he’s usually only relied on his powers to help him out. He’s really sad over this. The second is because of how the duo have to escape the wrath of The Molecule Man (voiced by Edward James Olmos). This episode is definitely quite intense, and that’s saying something considering how intense the season 1 finale is. While Lunella has faced all sorts of threats before, and she’s dealt with The Beyonder’s reality altering antics, she’s never really had to deal with anything like this before. She shows her usual resourcefulness, particularly with how she’s able to help The Beyonder clean himself up with whatever she has, and say how he’s more than his powers. However, we see how she’s out of her depth given how she’s dealing with an alien that could kill her. I mean, there’s moments where she deals with alternate versions of herself and Devil (Devil Girl And Moon Dinosaur) that aren’t the nicest, but this stands out more. There’s also moments where she feels helpless, which really get you to feel for her.
Molecule Man is another highlight here. His imposing stature and feats of destruction (mainly through his wand) make him quite the intimidating threat. He also has a solid enough motivation to attack them given how The Beyonder destroyed his home planet. Again, destroying them is not good, but you understand why he’s doing this. Things get really intense during the end. While Lunella does get back home, it’s not because of her usual smarts. It’s from The Beyonder getting his powers back, and him sending her home. She nearly died on this adventure, and basically only got back home because of luck. This event really traumatized her, especially when you consider how she’s only 13 years old. You never really see Marvel heroes this young going through this kind of trauma, not on a regular basis anyway. She’s definitely developed post traumatic stress disorder given how, when she comes out, she pretends how it was no big deal. That’s pretty sad. The look of fear on her face as she’s brought back home really sells it.
The effects of this adventure carry through into the next two episodes, “Suit Up” and “Belly Of The Beast” (albeit to a lesser extent for the latter). “Suit Up” shows the extent of the trauma that Lunella goes through, mainly in how she gets flashbacks to her adventure during movie night, and visibly freaks out. She and Mimi talk things out in the kitchen (though Lunella still doesn’t mention Molecule Man), and she’s shown to be understanding of Lunella’s decision to not tell her family about her secret identity yet. She’s definitely Lunella’s grandmother with how she’s shown to be strong and compassionate. Seeing how she still needs help, she brings her and Devil to the desert to meet her old friends that she knew before Enclave (though Casey is the only one who knows since Lunella’s family thinks she’s going to science camp). Said friends are Merle and Matsuye (voiced by Jackee Harry and Ann Harada), who are part of the Hot Tomatoes, and know her identity.
The episode goes into great detail with Lunella is traumatized given how the women volunteer to make a new suit for her, but she’s still afraid of things going wrong. As such, she keeps asking for upgrades to her suit, even some that aren’t needed. She thinks that she needs these upgrades in order to completely avoid any risk in her life. This is definitely pretty sad to say, but it’s in a way that works because of they lean more into how she wants to protect others. She cares deeply about those in need. Through a speech from Mimi involving birds and branches, she then comes to see that she can’t completely avoid everything bad in life, but it’s alright since she can doesn’t have to push herself this far in order to be great. Her new suit has some self healing material even if it won’t fix everything. When moving over to “Belly Of The Beast”, it’s again downplayed, but the heart is still there. The plot is about Lunella and Casey shrinking themselves in order to get inside Devil’s body when he accidentally swallows an experimental weapon that could explode. Of course, the main conflict of the episode is about a friendship dilemma between Lunella and Casey. The start of the episode is about Casey showing off Lunella’s newly renovated lab that she did during “Suit Up”. Though she does appreciate it, things get a bit tense when they have trouble working with each other, which carries over throughout the episode. They then make up at the end, with Casey saying how she doesn’t want to lose Lunella again because of what happened. It really shows how much the girls care for each other even when things get intense, which is great.
Most of the rest of part 1 doesn’t show much of the trauma from the events of the premiere, but still manages to make engaging conflicts for Lunella as well as other characters. I’m going to need a few paragraphs for this. Let’s start with “Ride Or Die”, where she’s asked by SHIELD to escort Zakiya/Quickwhip (voiced by Robin Thede) to headquarters. However, she starts having second thoughts when seeing how she’s actually a good person with dreams of becoming a baker, and only became a villain because she was helping Lady Bullseye (voiced by Miki Yamashita). This is particularly good at testing Lunella given how, while she’s dealt with villains with sympathetic backstories, she’s never really dealt with someone she apparently knows being coerced like this. She then gets her a job with Bubbe Bina (voiced by Carol Kane) while getting approval from Maria Hill to start a program, The Good Word Program, that helps reformed villains that want to integrate into society. It’s definitely quite nice to see. Episodes like “Kid Kree” and “Wish-tar” are good at showcasing more of Lunella’s flaws while still keeping her pretty likable. “Kid Kree” focuses Lunella befriending a kid named Mel-Varr/Marvin Ellis/Kid Kree (voiced by Xolo Maridueña). He’s shown to be just as nice and socially awkward as Lunella due to their shared love of science and inventing. It’s no wonder they get along pretty well. The only snag is with how his father Pad-Varr (voiced by Andy Garcia) wants him to capture Moon Girl for the Kree Empire. One would think “Oh, well Marvin is supervillain material.”, but that’s not the case. He flunked out of his special academy three times, and was sent by his father against his will to capture her in order to redeem him. You feel bad for him. However, Lunella thinks that he’s maliciously intent on doing this, and becomes more hostile to him. It’s not good, but you at least see her perspective given how it seemed like someone she bonded with was just using her. Fortunately, things get better at the end when, during a fight, she apologizes to him for her behavior, and he returns the favor by taking down his father and showing how he managed to make almost all his tech by himself. This actually impresses him enough to leave him alone. It’s kind of honorable of him, even if he’s still strict. At least the two remain friends.
Now as for “Wishtar”, it’s pretty good at showing the dynamic that Lunella has with The Beyonder. The episode focuses on her wanting to follow the newest trends at school, most notably involving new shoes from Bobby The Myth (voiced by Ephraim Sykes). The Beyonder then takes over a broken fortune teller machine called Wishtar as a way to grant Lunella’s wishes. Things seem to go well at first, but when things go wrong because of The Beyonder accidentally conjuring up a demon piano that causes chaos at the rink, Lunella says out of frustration that she doesn’t want to be his friend anymore. He’s genuinely shocked by this, and goes off. This episode is quite interesting in how it shows the dangers of trying to give into trends. You never know what you’re going to lose if you focus too much on being popular now. You really feel bad for The Beyonder since he seemed like he genuinely saw Lunella as a friend. For all the times he tricks her and messes with her, he also cares for her. While Lunella does learn her lesson from this and everything goes back to normal, you can tell she messed up given how bad she feels for trying to conform herself to be like others. She lost a special connection she had with someone who, while annoying to her, also did want to help her.
Since I don’t want to make an overly long paragraph, I’ll talk about these four episodes here before devoting another paragraph to some really big episodes. My favorite Moon Girl episode from 2024 was “Make It Don’t Break It”, which still holds up to this day. The episode has Lunella getting rest for a robotics competition, and wanting to impress a professor from Wakanda named Dr. Ojo (voiced by Cynthia Erivo). She goes too far in trying to impress her, loses the competition, and eventually has a panic attack. Yeah, that scene being executed well helped elevate the episode into my good graces. It’s fitting for something like this to happen to Lunella with how she’s someone who often tries to push and challenge herself in order to please others and do what’s right. You really feel for her since it seems like she thinks she’s not good enough. The episode does a good job showing Dr. Ojo as being overly strict, but not an outright villain. She keeps saying how Lunella has potential to be a diamond, but goes too far in tapping into that potential. Things at least get better at the end when Lunella gets encouragement from Mimi and Casey about how she’s already great as is. Even Dr. Ojo sees she went too far, and comes to see that being this tough was fine for her, but it’s not good for everyone. It’s definitely nice to see. Moving over to “The Devil You Know”, it’s another episode that more directly explores his relationship with Lunella. In this case, he feels that he isn’t really a part of the Lafayette family because of how she has to do activities without him due to her secret identity. It’s similar to “Devil On Her Shoulder”, but with a bit more of an anger. It works because of how he wants to be seen as an equal and she just wants to make sure nothing bad happens. He then comes across a group of ex-animal sidekicks called Animal Buddies Confidential, made up of Redwing (a red falcon with psychic powers voiced by Sam Wilson himself, Bumper Robinson), Aragorn (a female pegasus voiced by Cree Summer), Toothgnasher (a goat voiced by Fred Stoller) and their leader Pebble (a dog voiced by Alex Newell). They’re all really fun and exciting to watch.
This also provides an interesting conflict for Devil given how he seems to be amongst animals just like them, yet they explicitly want to leave their people and do whatever they want regardless of how others are affected. It’s particularly shown through Pebble. He acts every manipulative in getting Devil to stay because he thinks all heroes don’t care for their owners since his owner supposedly doesn’t. This greatly contrasts Devil, who only wanted companionship, not vengeance. The episode also gives a few scenes to Lunella, and show how she does care for him even if she can’t always show it. Things get better at the end when Pebble’s owner Granite (voiced by Giancarlo Esposito) comes by, and clears things up. We then end on a nice note with all the pets going back to their humans, Granite telling Pebble how he was sending his mother to Florida and not him, and Lunella and Devil making up. When it comes to the episodes that came out on March 9, both “Roller Jam” and “Dancing With Myself” surprised me quite a bit. The former episode deals with James Sr running into his roller derby rival/former friend Vernell (voiced by Arsenio Hall) during a special roller derby event to save while the Moon Girl action involves taking down the villain Brian Glory/Blue Streak (voiced by Manny Jacinto).
The latter episode involves feeling the pressure to take a date to the dance, and she convinces Marvin to come with her, which eventually results in some villains crashing the dance. Both are particularly good at showing character flaws while keeping everyone likable. It usually stems from either the desire to do good but going about it the wrong way, or trying to conform to some kind of impossible standard due to societal expectations. They’re really fun and sweet episodes with solid messages to them about working together and not falling for societal pressure. Also, the latter episode has one of my favorite jokes in the show involving puppet versions of the characters. It’s either a Muppet reference (due to this being a Disney show) or it’s a Sesame Street reference (due to it being written by Liz Hara, a Sesame Street writer). Either way, it’s fun, especially when this becomes a running gag.
Now we reach the mid-season finale with the episodes “Family Matters” and “The Molecular Level”, both of which revolve around the idea of Lunella revealing her identity. They’re definitely quite intense, especially the second one. “Family Matters” revolves around Lunella trying to split time between spending time with her family doing activities (like making teddy bears with USB drives in them) and helping the superhero Michiko Musashi/Turbo (voiced by Erika Ishii) capture the villain Silver Mane (voiced by Jonathan Banks) since he escaped. He’s trying to find a body to call his own by stealing her suit. “The Molecular Level” involves Lunella revealing her identity to the rest of her family just as Molecule Man returns to exact his revenge. Yes, he’s back. Anyway, both episodes do a great job showing the struggle Lunella has in keeping her identity a secret. It’s particularly shown during Family Matters, where she becomes continually stressed over trying to flip flop between family time and hero time, and making up excuses as to why she’s late. It’s of course fitting for her character given how she can often overextend herself because of how she wants to make everyone happy, but doesn’t always think straight. Eventually, again due to not thinking straight, she then yells about how she doesn’t want to spend time with them.
Even though this is a heat of the moment thing, and she doesn’t actually mean it, you can tell this is really getting to her because of how she’s become more confrontational in keeping her identity a secret. This all makes her a great contrast to Michiko. Much like Lunella, she also wants to keep her hero life a secret to protect the ones she loves. In this case, it’s because of how she doesn’t want to put her mother Erma Musashi (voiced by Hiromi Dames) in danger. Unlike with Lunella though, the dynamic with her mother is more broken given how she left her family for years, and hasn’t said anything about it. She’s a great foil to Lunella because of how she represents who she could be if she completely cut out other people in her life. Eventually, we see how Lunella’s family can help her, even if indirectly, given how she uploads Silvermane’s consciousness into her new teddy bear, and frees Erma. Wait what? That’s definitely a bit unconventional, but Lunella is an unconventional person. She would do something unusual like this. Plus, considering an earlier scene in the episode has Casey questioning Silvermane’s finger so she can find out where he is, the show isn’t afraid to do weird things like this. We then see how, unlike Michiko, who still doesn’t tell Erma her secret identity despite the opportunity, Lunella comes to see that keeping secrets like this for this long isn’t good. As such, we get “The Molecular Level” to focus on her revealing her identity to her family. The reactions that everyone has are interesting. Since Mimi already knows her identity, she shows some relief. For Pops, he’s actually more accepting of this.
Given how he helped Moon Girl out with an alien dog mission in “Dog Day Mid-afternoon”, this makes sense. Of course, since Mimi didn’t say that she knew, it’s not a surprise he’d be hurt by this given how it seems like she’s not being honest. He prides honesty and integrity in a healthy relationship. As for James Jr, he shows a mix of being terrified yet also impressed. Given how he can often act somewhat goofy, but is usually comfortable showing it, this is fitting. Adria is in a similar boat since she’s proud of Lunella doing good, but also thinks she’s a bad parent because of how she inadvertently put her into danger. Given her behavior at the end of “Like Mother Like Moon Girl”, where she humorously criticizes Moon Girl for being allowed by her mother to get into dangerous adventures, not knowing she and Lunella are the same, this works here. This keeps up during the entire adventure with Molecule Man, who proceeds to basically destroy the apartment. You have everyone who just found out today either panicking or trying to get Lunella to stop facing this head on because of the danger. The reactions are at least understandable. There’s actually quite the intense scene where Lunella gets trapped in a room, and she keeps crying for help. It’s really intense because of how much they show how she feels she’s let everyone down and couldn’t help them. Fortunately, Devil comes to help her. After some intense action, and Molecule Man is down, Lunella actually decides to use some of her suit to heal him. Some would say she’s forgiving him for basically acting like a monster, but given how he wants to help his people out, and she’s not one to attack enemies when finding out how sympathetic they are, she will at least try to help them. Plus, at least he fixed the apartment, and plans to use his powers in rebuilding his home planet. Now things get interesting.
After everything is fixed, while James and Pops are accepting of Lunella being Moon Girl, that’s not the case with Adria. She says that while she likes what Lunella does for others, she says how she can’t be Moon Girl anymore. Given her behavior at the end of “Like Mother Like Moon Girl”, which again shows up here, you can at least understand her motivation in wanting to protect Lunella even if you know she’s wrong to be this extreme. And that’s how we end the first half of the season. That’s quite intense. The crack in Lunella’s family photo, definitely show how her family dynamic are broken. After this, the show would go on a hiatus of almost a year, with various chibi shorts, the Moon Girl lab shorts, and the graphic novel “Wreck And Roll” coming out in the meantime. By the way, I totally recommend that graphic novel. It perfectly captures what makes the show great.
The second half of season 2 would come out on February 6, 2025 with the episode “Moon Girl, Grounded”. This is definitely quite the emotional episode. Continuing from the previous episode, this episode has Adria forbidding Lunella from being Moon Girl. This of course causes problems when the crime rate increases, such as The Felonious Four striking the neighborhood. This consists of villains from previous episodes, such as The Rat King (voiced by Daveed Diggs, who first debuted in “Teacher’s Pet”), Stiletto (a shoe obsessed, long legged woman voiced by Kari Wahlgren who debuted in “The Beyonder”), Instantanegirl, and Blue Streak. This episode is quite interesting in how it portrays the frosty dynamic between Lunella and Adria. You have Lunella trying to figure out how she can be Moon Girl with her mother constantly looking over her. It’s particularly shown in how Adria goes full helicopter parent, and basically follows her around school while doing various jobs. It’s fitting for her given how she’s someone who prioritizes the safety of other people first, but also isn’t above doing sneaky things in order to do so. It’s best shown in how she makes a robot duplicate called Schmoon Girl to do her job for her. She also disables a lot of TV and Internet connection at home so that she doesn’t see any news of her return. Given how she’s basically being forced to do this, you can see why she’d do this.
As for Adria, the episode does lean more into her being incredibly stubborn in trying to stop Lunella from being Moon Girl, yet I think it works because of how she’s not sure how to process this, and just doesn’t want her hurt. There’s a part during the middle of the episode where she takes Lunella out for a day of a fun. She’s at least trying to meet her halfway. Things don’t get easy from here. When she sees news about Moon Girl being back in one of the stores, she then goes to confront her in front of a large crowd. I should point out that it’s pretty stupid of her to do this given how she would basically be exposing her daughter’s identity even if she’s not saying anything. At least this leads to a funny moment where she accidentally tears off her arm, and everyone thinks she seriously hurt her. The over the top reactions really sell this. While all of this is going on, there’s a subplot where Pops is still mad at Mimi for keeping her other life a secret. He shows this in a more passive aggressive manner given how he makes sarcastic comments, and goes out of his way to not spend time with her. As nice as he is, this does show how he’s someone who wants to make sure that he’s with someone who’s committed to a relationship. At least things end well when he fully comes to see that Mimi was just trying to protect him and the family. The same cannot be said for Lunella and Adria given how they butt heads over whether the former should be Moon Girl again. It’s particularly shown in how Lunella does go out to be a superhero again. While Lunella defeats the villains, and comes home safe and sound, Adria just shuts her out. She asks how Lunella is doing, not Moon Girl, showing how she’s not forbidding her from being Moon Girl, but doesn’t accept it. This is quite intense, as it shows that Adria is so focused on keeping her family safe that she’s not seeing the big picture, that doing good comes with risk.
The effects of this event carry over into the next three episodes, albeit in more subtle ways for the first two. “Ride Along” mainly focuses on Lunella bringing James along for some superhero fun when she sees that he hasn’t had an adventure with her. While he does mess up, he does manage to help Lunella defeat The Beetle (voiced by Chuck D) with help from old action movies. It fits with how he’s able to be goofy, but still pretty cool under the right circumstances. There’s a running theme of Lunella thinking that he’ll end up agreeing with Adria given the nightmares she has when both her parents are in an empty field. It says something with how her presence is felt even when she doesn’t speak. “Lava Actually” sees the return of the Hot Tomatoes, with Pops thinking that he needs to be smart like them in order to make sure that Mimi stays in love with him. He uses a special serum that Lunella made so that he’ll get a temporary boost in intelligence. This does make him smarter, but also minimizes his other motor functions. He also becomes more egotistical, rubbing his intellect in other people’s faces. He even takes smug pride in dunking Dr. Stern (voiced by Peter Weller) in a dunk tank, which Mimi is notably surprised about. I’m surprised too given how, unlike his appearance in “In The Heist”, where he was a smart, but snooty guy who really showed his hatred for kids and tried stopping them, he’s just trying to make ends meet here. That’s not too different from him trying to make ends meet. Fortunately, things get better for Pops, particularly during the climax. Even though he loses his increased intelligence at this point, he helps stop the lava flow with some duct tape that closes the machine.
He became a hero with a big heart, which is especially prominent during the music video that recreates their first meeting. It also says something when an episode without an antagonist is still great. Then again, considering how “The Gatekeeper” did a great job showing the conflict that volleyball captain Brooklyn (voiced by Indiya Moore) had with being a transgender girl and did not have Lunella even becoming Moon Girl, I shouldn’t be surprised. Things then really come full circle in “Full Moon”, which starts out by Adria leaning even harder into how she doesn’t like Lunella being Moon Girl. Things then change when Lunella has her first period, and Adria decides to take her out for a girls day out with help from her period pack (which is basically a fanny pack with things needed for a period). Throughout the episode, Lunella keeps trying to hide any and all signs of Moon Girl. It’s first shown during the scene at the ice cream shop. They run into Abyss (voiced by Maya Hawke), who’s shown to have gotten better since she gave up villainy during her previous appearance in “Moon Girl’s Day Off”. Through the Good Word Program, she managed to get a job making ice cream with her powers. That’s actually pretty cool.
Of course, since Lunella is trying to hide Moon Girl so that she doesn’t make Adria upset, she ends up eating all signs of her. Yeah, it’s a weird moment. Just roll with it. Things then really kick into overdrive during the scene at the salon. Due to the results of a villain fight from earlier (which we’ll talk about later, but not for this episode), a giant monster plant ends up being unleashed into the salon. Lunella keeps trying to make it look like things are okay as she sneaks out to fix things. Adria can obviously tell that something is wrong. This keeps up even when the plant gets inside the salon, with Lunella still trying to hide things. Yeah, she’s actively trying to hide this side of her to the point of irrationality. It’s definitely not good to hide your feelings like this, but it’s not surprising that Lunella is resorting to this given how she’s someone who doesn’t always think straight when her emotions aren’t kept in check. Things do get better when Lunella’s scanner gets crushed, and she apologizes for making things worse as Moon Girl. This actually gets to Adria, and she sees that she shouldn’t have forced Lunella to behave like this. I think this works because of how, even if still afraid for her safety, she also wants her to be happy, and be her true self. It’s really nice. It’s further cemented in how everyone sees Moon Girl win the fight, and she’s the first to cheer for her. It’s pretty cool.
The next episode after this is “To Intervention and Beyond-er”. The episode has Devil Girl, Moon Dinosaur, and Casey try to reconcile the issues between Lunella and The Beyonder. This episode is definitely quite interesting in how it shows the friendship between Lunella and The Beyonder, and how it’s rocky, but isn’t beyond repair. It’s particularly shown in how both characters act rather immature in not wanting to admit that they care about the other. It’s pretty hilarious. It’s also fitting for the characters given how Lunella is someone who often acts prideful, and usually has a hard time admitting when she’s at fault for something, while The Beyonder usually does what he wants without thinking of the consequences, and doesn’t think about when he could be wrong. We then get to see more of the animosity between them, particularly when Lunella brings up how he often does what he wants, and didn’t help her during her moments of need, while The Beyonder brings up a bit of hypocrisy in how she said he’s worth more than his magic, yet usually only comes to him when she needs something. It’s actually quite interesting to see them duke it out like this, but it actually works. Devil Girl makes for a great foil to both of them. Performance wise, Diamond White does a great job playing her, particularly in how she goes a bit of a gruff and lower voice registration. It really helps sell how she’s basically a more aggressive version of Lunella, still willing to help others, but doesn’t really think about morality as much. Things get particularly interesting during the second half when the characters have to deal with an alien bug invasion, but The Beyonder still can’t use his powers. He then decides that he has to erase all memory of Lunella in order to properly use them. Wait what? That’s certainly quite extreme but he is an all powerful being all about extremes. Plus, he does have a sympathetic motivation, where he thinks that he has to cut out all memories of Lunella, both good and bad, in order to use his powers. Fortunately, both characters come around and see that both the good and the bad should be embraces, even when it’s not easy. Also, I want to point out a funny joke involving the characters becoming nothing more than storyboard drawings. I was laughing my butt off here.
While the next three episodes (Crushed, A Devil-ish Birthday, and Party Girl) don’t do anything to set up some kind of overarching plot, I still want to talk about them because of how they’re quite interesting. Backtracking a bit to “Dancing With Myself”, that episode fully confirmed how Eduardo has a crush on Lunella. We then cut to “Crushed”, where Lunella finds out about said crush. Although she likes him as a friend, she doesn’t like him that way. As such, rather than admit to it, she decides to use her Bobby The Myth blob, and make him into a robot boyfriend named Corey (voiced by Donald Faison). Yeah, that’s pretty weird, but she is someone who resorts to technology as a first resort for just about everything. Plus, there’s strong emphasis on how she feels she won’t be a nice person if she says she doesn’t like him like that. This episode is particularly good at showing how no one should feel entitled to date you if you’re not ready for it. This is also helped by how Eduardo is written pretty well. Yeah, he’s a bit of a goofy romantic, but he does also genuinely try to give Lunella the benefit of the doubt. He just shows confusion at worst. Corey is interesting in how he’s literally programmed to be the perfect boyfriend, but doesn’t have any real heart to being one. He mainly knows how to be one through a bunch of 1980s movies, but he goes from unintentionally following an idealized version of them to absorbing all their negative stereotypes. The climax is particularly good, not just because of how it feels like something right out of an 1980s movie, but also with how Lunella and Eduardo are pretty mature in addressing their relationship as good friends. It’s just nice to see. Even with the ending, where Eduardo crushes on Moon Girl, and thus technically still Lunella, at least he looks up to someone who’s a good person. “A Devil-ish Birthday” is about everyone finding out that Devil doesn’t have a birthday. As such, the Lafayette family and Casey decide to throw him a birthday party in the apartment, and even give him the shrinking potion in order to do so. Unfortunately, the Animal Buddies also throw a birthday party for him. As such, he has to go back and forth between two places thanks to a cloning patch that Lunella made. It’s classic sitcom hijinks, but it works because of how this leans a lot more into his loyalty and desire to be part of the family, and not disappoint anyone. It’s really sweet. The episode then takes a 180 turn and becomes a Gremlins parody when the clone eats sugary cake, and multiplies. It’s pretty unexpected, but still fun. Plus, there’s a nice ending where he saves the day, and gets a group hug.
“Party Girl” is about Lunella as Moon Girl taking some gigs as a party entertainer so that she can make some money, and upgrade her technology with vibranium. She’s shown to be quite willing to go the extra mile for this even after Casey and Devil say no. This seems to take similar cues from “WishTar” (with Lunella going for something flashy) and “Suit Up” (where she thinks that she needs to go above and beyond with what she uses rather than how she uses it). While I think those two episodes are stronger, I think this works because of how they at least lean enough into how she wants to give her friends things they want. This episode shows more of why being this greedy doesn’t work. She accepts an offer to guest star at a private party. This was actually a trap done by Martin Li/Mr. Negative (voiced by Bowen Yang). The way he pretends to be a suave, well meaning businessman only to reveal his corrupt nature is pretty well done. Also, seeing The Beyonder return to narrate villain backstories, even announcing his return, is hilarious. Plus, things get better for Lunella when she improvises some weapons from nearby utility supplies. I call this a win.
Now we move onto “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” and “Shoot For The Moon”, the final two episodes of the show. They’re quite interesting, though this will be solely about “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”. The episode involves Adria inviting The Beyonder to a dinner party at home in order to find out what Lunella is hiding from the family. This episode is quite interesting in how much it plays into the idea of keeping secrets. While the whole family wants to know why Lunella is being secretive, it’s best shown through Adria given how she acts rather sneaky in trying to get the information. Some would say she’s unlikable, but I think it works. Since she spent a long time being against Lunella being Moon Girl, she’s now going in the opposite direction, and trying too hard to be there for her. I think this works because of how they do emphasize how everyone wants to find out why, and she at least doesn’t shoot anyone down. As for Lunella, while keeping secrets isn’t always a good thing, she does deserve her right to privacy. She’s sympathetic here given how she still plans to do so, but at her own pace. Plus, at least she isn’t acting confrontational about it. She’s just being extra awkward.
The Beyonder is also well written here given how he wants to find out what it means to be family. His solution, upon finding out why he’s here, is to use his powers in a way that forces them to tell the truth, and then send them to another dimension that they have to navigate. He’s still the same trickster we know and love, but much more well meaning since he’s never vindictive. He’s just trying to assess what it means to be family, and do so the best way he can. The family then comes to respect Lunella’s decision, and have her tell them when she’s ready. It’s nice to see. Things then get even better at the end of the episode. Lunella tells Casey how she was offered by Maria Hill a chance to join SHIELD for a special mission. She’s definitely earned this given how much she’s helped SHIELD. The catch is that she’ll be away for an undetermined amount of time, but at least it’s not forever. That’s definitely quite the juicy story for a conflict. It’s also fitting that she would be called on a mission like this given how much crime has gone down because of her, whether she took down bad guys or helped them reform. She could do more here.
So, now let’s cut to “Shoot For The Moon”, the series finale. The episode is about Lunella still trying to think about if she should go with SHIELD for the mission or stay in the LES. Things get complicated when she has to take down the villain named Decoy (voiced by Angela Bassett, who previously was in “Full Moon”). This episode really gets what makes the show as great as it is. It’s an episode all about the influence you have on others by being a great hero who stands for others. It’s best shown in the beginning, which shows a bunch of former villains graduating from the Good Word Program. We see with how Quickwhip is there, but also Odessa Drake, Instantanegirl, and Bluestreak. Yeah, the latter three pulled a HeelFaceTurn off screen. It’s slightly disappointing that we didn’t get episodes dedicated to this, but it’s not a deal breaker for me. Plus, we at least get to see some of how they’re influenced positively, such as Casey helping Odessa or Instantanegirl opening a gym. It does at least still show the power Lunella has on others with how she’s able to get people to do something better with their lives. This episode also goes into more detail about Lunella’s conflict. Should she stay on the LES, and help people who cant help themselves? Should she go and spread her wings by leaving the nest so that she can help even more people? Either way, she still gets to do what she loves, helping others, but can’t decide if it should be at home or elsewhere.
Now let’s talk about Decoy. She was mainly played as a joke in her debut, mostly because of glitter shenanigans. In this episode, she’s shown to be more of a big threat with how she sends SHIELD on a wild goose chase, can clone herself, and basically lays destruction to the LES. She’s not the most complex villain, but she still proves to be fun to watch. Still, the climax shows how great Lunella is with how she tries her hardest to be there for everyone, yet struggles to do everything on her own. Given how she usually doesn’t want other people to suffer under her watch, it’s fitting. Things then get really great during the climax, where Lunella is down, and the LES is in shambles. Fortunately, everyone from the Good Word Program comes by to help her out. This leads to the best action scene of the show, where we basically have everyone fighting in what feels like an alternate dimension while a remixed version of the theme song plays. It’s so epic. And then things get even better. Nick Fury (voiced by his MCU actor, Samuel L. Jackson) comes by to help, but sees that things are kept under control. He then tells Lunella about how her real superpower is being able to inspire others to be heroes. He’s not wrong there given how often she works to help anyone she can however she can, whether hero or villain. I also like that he doesn’t make an offer for Lunella to join SHIELD. He’s just there to help out, and she chooses to take the offer. Why is she taking up the offer? She sees that the LES will be safe with other people looking after it. This is pretty mature of her. She wants to rise to the next level, but also makes sure that there will be someone to help those in need while she’s gone. She’s got all her bases covered. The next few minutes are really heartwarming.
Lunella’s family says goodbye to her, with Adria giving her a special mix tape to remember then by. Given how she was initially the most vocal about her dislike of Lunella being Moon Girl, it says something when she’s ready to let her go and do what she needs. We then cut to the airport with everyone saying goodbye to Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur, and Lunella telling Devil how this is a new adventure. The Beyonder has the final line of the series, and it’s quite appropriate: “You go Moon Girl!”. We then get a special end credits sequence showing all the characters in the series, and the final shot is of Lunella hugging her family, Devil, and Casey. Yeah, I cried tears of joy after this. I won’t lie.
And that is my review of Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur. This show is everything I could ask for out of a great series, likable characters, great animation, strong writing and messages, and a well done ending. Thank you to everyone for making the show as great as it is. You deserve nothing but the best.
And that’s all I have. What do you think?
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