I know what’s going through your head right now; you’re asking, is there a cartoon that combines the pop art of Andy Warhol…
… the fine art of Jean-Michel Basquiat…
… some slappin’ tunes…
… and, the single most important element of any Marvel comic, the Kirby Krackle?
My friend, I have got you covered! (That was what you were thinking, right? I don’t wanna make this weird.)
I’m going to plant my flag at the top of this hill right now and say that Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023) is the best Marvel series since the creation of the MCU.
Loki (2021) was fascinating, WandaVision (2021) was delightful, Ms. Marvel (2022) left me laughing with glee while pondering the meaning of “family” and don’t get me started on how intense the first season of Jessica Jones (2015) was; but the freewheeling, exuberant, musical story of Lunella Lafayette and her hot-dog obsessed Tyrannosaurus is something more than all of these. It seems to be beholden to no one and nothing. It has a visual style like no other cartoon, an internal logic that works in its own context (and would no where else). It also delights in an almost compulsive desire to jump from genre to genre — it’s a teen drama, a superhero story with supervillains, and it’s a musical! — without any sense of awkwardness or self-consciousness.
Compared to the MCU-proper, with its war of escalation in terms of grit and severity, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur feels like liberation itself.
It’s with considerable glee that I welcome its return for a second season.
It all started with Marvel Studios President Louis D’Esposito (the OTHER president), handing a copy of the Moon Girl comic to actor/producer/comic book fan Laurence Fishburne which planted a seed that would, by 2018, grow to having Marvel Animation announcing the development of a series to be Executive Produced by Fishburne. The collaboration between Disney Television Animation, Cinema Gypsy, and Flying Bark Productions (who would do the bulk of the animation) got slowed significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic but was ready to launch by February of 2023.
With its unusual sketchy animation style, the first episode, Moon Girl Landing, exploded onto the Disney Channel in early 2023 with Lunella Lafayette accidentally transporting the classic Jack Kirby comic character, Devil Dinosaur, to New York’s Lower East Side. The combination of her scientific genius and adorable Jurassic buddy transformed them into the city’s newest superhero team, albeit not the most high-profile one.
Skittering over, around and sometimes barreling directly through traditional superhero tropes, Lunella does things her own way. The show’s deep dive of Marvel supervillains — AfterShock, The Beyonder, Molecule Man, etc. — have never run into as janky and DIY of a squad as Moon Girl; Devil; Casey, her friend and social media manager; and, most importantly, her seemingly endless collection of cassettes for her boom box — all songs by composer Raphael Saadiq — each perfectly suited to the particular individual butt stomping that our heroes are about to have to give.
Centered around the community hub that is her family’s roller rink, the show gives us something rarely seen in Marvel movies or television — with Ms. Marvel being a notable exception — a vision of a strong, deeply interdependent, thriving community. It feels… healthy. And even though the second season has started by introducing a new sense of psychological vulnerability in Lunella herself, it is rapidly becoming more about how we use our support structures — friends, community, family — than any sort of individual heroism; and the usefulness of that message, in this polarized world, is tremendous.
Along the way the show’s writers — the writing room and directing staff are entirely populated by women of color — take on gentrification, teen angst, gender identity, social media addiction, racism, bad hair days, and the dangers of the multiverse. It’s all relatable, smart, never preachy; somehow this stylized, outrageous, version of New York’s LES feels like a neighborhood we can see ourselves living in.
It’s a remarkable feat.
As the icing on the cake, the voice cast, led by Diamond White as Moon Girl and Fred Tatasciore as Devil Dinosaur, is one of the sharpest, most engaged groups of voice actors working; the comradery resembles Star Trek: Lower Decks’ playfulness (and that’s saying a lot) and the star power is second to none: Alfre Woodard, Laurence Fishburne, Edward James Olmos, Daveed Diggs, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, David Tennant.
The show has already won five Children’s and Family Emmys and is nominated for four Annies (industry animation awards) this year. (Star Wars: Visions (2021), entirely animated by outside studios, is the only Disney production of any kind that garnered more.)
With the MCU at a crossroads, looking for a direction to carry it into its second decade, Marvel and Disney could do a lot worse than looking at its MCU-adjacent cartoon, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. They might find a tone, a vibrancy, worth exploring.
And hey, who wouldn’t be there for a Moon Girl/Squirrel Girl team-up?!
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Season Two is now airing on The Disney Channel and Disney+
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Kelly McCubbin is a columnist for Boardwalk Times
