"Ono and the Egg" Season 2 Ep. 4

[Panpardus]

Figured I might as well start the thread for this week's episode, particularly since footage from it has actually been out for about a week or so and it hasn't really been mentioned on here yet. It's not that I'm tired of Ono but sheesh, the guy seems to get a lot of episodes centered around him and all clustered within the same couple month-span.

Anywho, here's the trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35ndhTMIANI) and here's a clip featuring part of an okay-sounding song sung by Mpishi ("cook"), a female African harrier hawk voiced by Carla Hall, a chef who is a host on one of ABC's daytime food/talk shows (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG7G_FfmEj8). (The 'wa-wa' guitar is admittedly a nice touch, and the color palette looks interesting, if overdone with the hyenas' numbers.)

[Kallo]

Well, I think it's just that it's especially notable with Ono since his name seems to always be in the title of his episodes. We haven't really had THAT many Ono episodes recently, even though they have been a bit clustered together. Take the last 11 episodes, and only 3 of them have been Ono-centered. Though, I could do with a Fuli episode or something, for a change. A Kion solo episode that digs deeper into his character would be nice, too. He is the main character, after all.

The episode itself doesn't look particularly interesting. Especially since we just had "Babysitter Bunga" and this one seems to basically follow the same basic concept, at least. It seems quite a few episodes in this series deal with a member of The Lion Guard looking over another new character like a "babysitter". Seriously, like 1/4th of the episodes. It's getting kind of an old thing by now.

For me, while waiting for The Rise of Scar, these first episodes of S2 have seemed super filler'ish to me. Which doesn't make them bad, just... not terribly interesting. Apart from Makuu's development, the first three episodes barely had any substance to them, and it seems this one won't have much to it either.

[Panpardus]

[quote="Kallo"]Though, I could do with a Fuli episode or something, for a change. A Kion solo episode that digs deeper into his character would be nice, too. He is the main character, after all.[/quote]

A Fuli- or Kion-based episode would certainly be more interesting, or at least break the trend. I don't really dislike the other guard members, but most of their potential arcs aren't really all that fruitful story-wise, so anything related to them just feels like a detour from the main story, which like you said isn't necessarily bad but it just feels kind of filler; plus they're kind of "just there" characters that don't seem all that dynamic. Fuli would be a bit of a departure character herself, but she seems like she could offer more interesting stories. (Maybe introducing some siblings of hers, or explaining why she's friends with these other animals (particularly Kion, since he's the one she seems to be closest with), or maybe addressing her grievances with lion rule, since she's really the only character - sans hyenas - in the entire franchise who has actually called out this monarchial system.)

Of course, actually giving Kion more attention wouldn't hurt at all. I honestly don't feel like we've really established his character in the first place - which I blame largely on Return of the Roar for being more focused on hastily assembling the team and making callbacks to previous material (and giving Bunga way too much attention) rather than actually fleshing out their main character at the beginning - so we're left to assume and infer a lot of things about him in order to have a point of reference for when he undergoes some "growth". When they do put the focus more on him it doesn't usually feel like a character-building story, rather we the audience just experience significant events from his perspective because of his proximity to the king and such. Given that it doesn't seem like he actually calls up Scar in the upcoming TV special, that's potentially another opportunity lost.

[quote="Kallo"]The episode itself doesn't look particularly interesting. Especially since we just had "Babysitter Bunga" and this one seems to basically follow the same basic concept, at least. It seems quite a few episodes in this series deal with a member of The Lion Guard looking over another new character like a "babysitter". Seriously, like 1/4th of the episodes. It's getting kind of an old thing by now.[/quote]

I think part of that is just because they're a bunch of adolescents/preteen animals of disparate species - some of whom are less physically capable than others when it comes to actually defending the territory - so you're kinda limiting the stories you can tell with that setup. (Plus the preschool/"educational" focus means you always has to have cute baby animals of a variety of species on hand.)

[zerodix]

I still didn't see this episode, is there a site/link to it? I saw the first 3 on kimcartoon, but now they didn't put it in there.

[AnonLion]

[quote="zerodix"]I still didn't see this episode, is there a site/link to it? I saw the first 3 on kimcartoon, but now they didn't put it in there.[/quote]
I just watched it at watchcartoononline if you're interested

[Solar]

I finally got to see the episode. It was so good. Ono was so adorable and great here. He's such an underrated character of the show and this episode really gave him a wonderful moment and I'm so happy.

Do any of you guys think Ono looks smaller? His wings and his feathers seem noticeably smaller this episode. I wonder if he got subtly shrunk

[djalmafreestyler]

I watched the episode yesterday. The episode was ok, some funny scenes but I don't know about you guys but I don't like the Ono's voice lol, I think it's a little boring sometimes his voice.
I really miss Jasiri in more episodes and maybe it's time to stop with Lion Guard saving the Pride Lands in every episode and bring more drama and lions battles

[Kallo]

I actually surprisingly really enjoyed this episode, despite my initial expectations. Perhaps I was a bit too excited for S2, to the point the first three episodes kinda let me down, but this was definitely my favourite episode of the season so far. The new villain was pretty nice, though her voicing seemed a bit stiff at times. Was good seeing Mwoga again, too. I liked all the tiny details of lore and character development we got, even if there wasn't anything huge being revealed. It was nice to see where Ono lives (at least at the moment. He might move his nest around). And I really loved that scene with Kion diving into the mud to save the hares, and how the scene got surprisingly intense seemingly out of nowhere. It was small, but an extremely important moment for Kion's development, to show how far he truly is willing to go as a hero character and the leader of The Lion Guard, to protect the Circle of Life. Speaking of which, all the Guard members had a really strong showing in this episode, either from a "being helpful" -standpoint, or from character development point of view. Beshte got a bit sidelined, but even he had his moments like catching Ona and slowing down the mudslide. Ono obviously had a great showing, as it was mostly his episode. I enjoyed when Fuli couldn't catch Ona in time when she fell. I like when they show that the main characters aren't perfect in their skills, and even Fuli isn't fast enough every time. And I love how for the next few scenes it was obvious how much it clearly shocked and bothered her when she wasn't fast enough. She seemed really disappointed in herself, even if it was only subtly shown. Great moment for her. Even Bunga had an awesome moment towards the end where he was actually shown to be a smart thinker, and his spontaneous plan and bravery came into play. Though, I could've done without yet another fart joke from him. That was pretty much the low-point of the episode. xD All in all, it was overall great character-writing for everyone. I'll be very much looking forward to any future episodes from Elise Allen.

My only complaint really is the song... again playing to the "one song per episode" flaw. It felt like the most pointless thing ever.

Btw, two more things: 1) I was a bit surprised when they put the rain scene in there when they've been mentioning the dry season so much the past two episodes. I think maybe they put it there for variety, cause we might not be getting a lot of weather changes for the rest of S2, when the dry season really hits. 2) The Roar is yet to make an appearance this season. I greatly enjoy this fact. In fact, the Roar hasn't been use since "Beshte and the Hippo Lanes", and "Never Roar Again" was the last episode where it was used to actually defeat an antagonist. That was like 10 episodes ago. I'm glad they're using it more sparingly now.

[Panpardus]

I was going to do my little episode review but Kallo basically said everything I was going to touch on and had more or less the same thoughts, so I won't go too in-depth on those points. Second to Makucha, Mpishi felt like a solid one-off antagonist and her presence provided a really good sense of danger given that she can fly, limiting anything the guard could really do to combat her aside from sending Ono. Her song was okay, though I didn't like the chorus (I had a different idea in my head for what it would sound like based on the short preview clip) and I thought it was generally unnecessary. Wasn't expecting to see a conga line of skeletons but I liked the visual; good on them for showing lions among the others. The birds' "dancing" was interesting to say the least and the lingering shot on the giant running hyrax felt some type of weird that I can't aptly describe right now. Apparently Cam Clarke is indeed voicing Mwoga, so I don't understand why they don't have him playing Simba, or at least doing his singing voice.

I really would like to see the guard (either as a whole or individually) actually fail a mission and have to deal with the ramifications of that in a more overarching manner, and while I doubt we'll really be getting that anytime soon, the guard's overall helplessness in this situation and Fuli's moment of failure and frustration was unexpected and made for a good action sequence and a really good character moment, respectively. As for Ono himself, while I don't dislike him I haven't really taken him seriously until this episode, especially when he's tried to sound 'tough', but I bought it this time; it was a good moment. He seems on track to being the most 'decorated' guard member what with his hero mudprint in "Ono's Idol" and now being an honorary member of the hamerkop family and having a child be named after him. Not to be outdone though, Kion's near-death moment was an unexpected tone shift that I appreciated seeing (especially after the Bunga fart gag) and would like to see more of; not necessarily a death fake-out every episode, but at least more of the characters themselves actually acknowledging that their job can sometimes be life-threateningly dangerous.

(Aa an aside, being a dinosaur fan, I like the diversity of bird species we see in the more Ono-centric episodes so it's fun to see species that aren't as recognizable to American audiences. I have a beautifully illustrated field guide to Southern African birds from my travels to the region, so every newly-introduced bird species in this series always gets a "Hey, I remember that one!" from me.)

Definitely one of the better episodes that actually didn't feel like just a filler, especially since the big one is this weekend...

[zerodix]

Well, finally I got myself the time to watch it.. it was 2 days later on kimcartoon.. I liked the episode and Mpishi's design. The song was in the style those hyena-songs were in season 1, I liked that there's a continuity in that in a certain way ^^
I disliked Bunga, during the 1st 2 episodes of this season he kinda grew on me, but now he's back in my do-not-want-sphere.
Fart jokes are long term overrated, as a kid Timon and Pumbaa weren't able to put even the littlest grin on my face, Bunga is the same. Please cut that character out or change his personality. Bad example for kids.

I adored little Ona, her noises were so cute and I loved that bonding ritual with her mom. It was nice to have another episode about Ono, but I hope this will be enough for season 2, though I like Ono and his personality.

I loved the return of the vulture (Mzingo's assistant or collegue?) and the song made sense.. that's my 3 cents on the matter. It was a nice episode, but viewing once was enough for me.