The Owl House 2020

"I grew up thinking everything was an opportunity to justify existing, but there are people out there who won’t make you feel worthless. You just have to let yourself meet them.”

I've been watching animated content for over a decade now, and I have got to say in all honesty that no show has had its hooks in me like this one (except maybe Infinity Train, although that story went unfinished). The Owl House isn't perfect; most of its flaws being blamed on its production troubles. But that's not to say the impact of this show is incredibly significant, personally and for the medium as a whole.

When Amphibia had concluded its story last year, premiering shortly before The Owl House had, it was clear that the two were perfect contrasts to each other. While Amphibia was a fantastical comedy with dark undertones, The Owl House was continuously a dark drama with slivers of teenage comedy throughout. This show is much more heavy in its tone and nature, some of which have honestly never been seen in a Disney television original.

The Owl House shines in its balance with telling a suspenseful tale alongside various pieces of serious commentary. For kids and teenagers, it's simply an isekai-inspired story about a girl who wanders into a fantasy world filled with creatures of fun design and magic of cryptic nature. But underneath, it's a story about self-identity, finding your purpose when no one else sees your potential, loss of family and friends, and even guilt. The lessons are fit perfectly, the romance is relatable and natural, and no theme that is typically "shoehorned" into other media is felt that way here. This show also manages to keep the depression to a low when it can, with several moments of fun jokes and jabs to go around. And alongside all that, gorgeous background and character art, action-packed moments of animation, and a damn good soundtrack.

The pacing of everything here though is both the show's strength and weakness. While The Owl House's short length (similar to Gravity Falls) helps it be much more binge-worthy and less filler-heavy, it hurts the plot by rushing certain pieces of character building and forgetting about holes to be filled by its conclusion. Obviously this is more to blame on the executive decisions to cut the show shorter than anticipated, as the writers did do a great job working around most of these holes using time skips and the like.

The Owl House may not be a perfect show, but it is one hell of a send-off for serialized animated content on Disney Channel, and an important one that manages to push certain themes further than any I've seen in all of my years of watching cartoons, especially from Disney. I'm really glad that a story like this exists for kids and teens, one that teaches the complexity of humans and to embrace being a "weirdo". And with its short runtime and episodes that keep you wanting more, it is absolutely worth the watch.
If you're looking for one of the best animated shows to watch this generation, The Owl House is it.

9.75/10

The culmination of what Disney shows had been building to with serialization, characterization, and representation. What it achieved with the executive politics against it is astonishing. It could twist the heart as much as warm it, bust the gut, and be astonishingly creative and eye catching in both setting and visuals.

Belos is a perfect villain, serving the thematic thrust of the series and the character development of the leads flawlessly. And you can’t ask for a more endearing and rootable protagonist than Luz, who gets you on her side immediately and makes you feel her highs and lows. King and Eda carry their side of things just as well, highlighting the found family and the joy of being a weirdo. And all the secondary cast round things out nicely with quirks that immediately make them lovable and memorable.

Of course, the brightest part of Owl House’s legacy may be Luz’s relationship with Amity, and for good reason. They feed each other’s growth, and their love is sweet and heartwarming and never shied away from. It’s natural and organic, and so inspiring for the kids who need to see their love is right and good.

Owl House made a whole generation of weirdos feel seen and loved, and will do the same for future generations. It’ll stand as a landmark in children animation, and I can’t wait to see what it inspires the people who grew up on it to create themselves.

The Owl House is a story about a young human girl named Luz who accidentally wanders into a magical world known as The Boiling Isles, when she's actually supposed to be at summer camp. There she meets Eda the Owl Lady, an incredibly powerful witch, and her demon friend King, who own the portal that took her from earth in the first place. When Luz decides that she wants to stay and make the most of her summer away from home, Eda agrees to become her mentor and teach her magic. As her time on The Boiling Isles progresses, she meets and befriends two witches, Willow and Gus, sort of starts a rivalry with another witch, Amity, and learns that Eda's wild, covenless magic is the reason for why the Emperor's Coven is so determined to track the Owl Lady down.

This show is really incredible. I am genuinely surprised, not only by the quality of the story and plot, but by the interesting characters, unique and diverse world, and incredible mystery elements. I am almost surprised by how great the show is, considering it is coming from Disney, which is notorious for stunting the creative freedoms of it's writers and animators, but the recent trend of really great animation has me optimistic for the future. And while that's all well and good, for this show in particular, there is a lot to look forward to as well. For one thing, I am excited to see more of the characters, I genuinely like all of the characters that are intended to be likeable in this series, especially the core three of Luz, Eda, and King, and their interactions are just so wonderful and adorable. I also find the plot to be incredibly interesting, even though on certain occasions the plot seems to be stalling in order to meet an episode quota, however, a major criticism that I have of the story is the fact that it doesn't really have much to do with Luz at all, and considering she's the protagonist, the plot should be more wrapped up in her adventures. Aside from that, the animation is just incredible and the visuals never cease to amaze me with how beautiful and creative they are.

Obviously my synopsis was brief and spoiler free, so a lot of the most interesting things about the show are missing. For one thing, I didn't mention Hexside, the school for witches, mostly because it didn't really have much bearing on the overarching plot. Sure, it was definitely fun to watch Luz's antics within the school, but you'd think that with a whole sub-plot being centered around that school and the people in it, it would have a lot more screen time than it actually got. It was especially disappointing after Luz finally got admitted that we barely got to see anything about her new studies, or even her progress in magic when she's in class learning all day. The show runners treated the school as a sort of set dressing that could explain certain plot points instead of it being like... a school. Aside from the school, there was also Luz's relationship with the other witches, specifically Amity, who started out as the stereotypical mean girl character, but she did grow on me as the show went on. I especially loved how awkward Amity was with Luz after she realized that she had a crush on her, and even before then, and how oblivious Luz was to it all. Fortunately, they managed to make Amity's turn around seem very natural and realistic, as it became clear that her bitchy attitude was really just her trying to cope with the stress that everyone put on her. We also learn more about Eda's backstory and find out that she's been cursed to turn into an owl-like beast that can't use magic, which I frankly did not see coming and it explains why her laid-back, casual attitude always seemed so phony to me. But my favorite part of the series was the ending, so spoilers from here on out:

The rivalry between Eda and her sister, Lilith, was genuinely the most realistic depiction of siblings that I think I've ever seen in a series before. It was just so interesting to watch Lilith grow more and more frustrated over the course of the series, while Eda just seemed to be taking it as a joke, all of which amounted to Lilith taking the extreme measure of kidnapping Luz in order to draw Eda in and capture her. And because of Eda's curse and how it is beginning to worsen as she uses her magic, this is what puts her over the edge, turning her fully into the owl beast and stripping her of her magic, but the twist reveal that it was Lilith who put the curse of Eda was just... heartbreaking. They later try to redeem Lilith, when she finds out that the Emperor is going to execute Eda instead of curing her, but her petty and erratic rivalry with her sister throughout the show just soured me on that idea. I don't mind her having a redemption arc later on, but unfortunately I don't think she's earned it yet. However, the ending, where she split the curse between the both of them was a good start, and now with Luz having to be the one to teach them magic, I'm excited to see the role reversal in the upcoming season.

The Owl House has recently become one of my favorite shows, though that's not to say it's without its flaws. In spite of everything that it does wrong, though, I find the story to be so compelling, the characters to be so fun, and the world to be so interesting, that I simply don't care enough to let any of those criticisms hinder my enjoyment of this show.