Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Let the Good Times Roll!

Lunella Lafayette (Diamond White) is a super smart 13-year-old who resides in the Lower East Side (LES) of New York which is being plagued by a series of power outages giving criminals the upper hand. While trying to solve the power issues, Lunella accidentally opens a portal from which a red Tyrannosaurus Rex steps through.  The giant lizard is sort of like a dog and bonds with Lunella, who gets the idea to combine her brain and his brawn into a superhero team to defend her neighborhood.  She shares her plan with Casey Calderon (Libe Barer), a schoolmate who becomes Lunella’s best friend. Together the trio use their gifts to fight crime.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is not your normal animated Marvel show.  The style is much more simplistic and the story reminiscent of the animated Teen Titans Go!. This is clearly aimed at a younger audience, but with enough humor to keep adults entertained as well.  Although the stories are whimsical, this show also holds some deeper meaning, covering topics like bullying, loneliness and gentrification.  Lunella doesn’t just try to fix things because she is bored or because she can, she does it to support the people around her.  The first episode finds power outages, created by Aftershock (Alison Brie) financially impacting the stores in the Lower East Side causing them to close, including her family’s roller-skating rink.  The Avengers are out there fighting the good fight, but they never show up in the LES, so Lunella feels she is the only one that can help her friends and neighbors.

The episodes can feel like a music video, and for some people that may be a little hard to handle, but I felt it complimented the stylistic aspects of the production and added some great dynamics to the show also creating the artistic atmosphere of the LES .  The voice actors are all well chosen and diverse with Diamond White being especially great at playing Lunella, she adds a type of vibrant manic energy that I imagine a kid genius would have. Libe Barer is also great as best friend Casey, who self admits can be “a bit much”.  The great Alfre Woodard plays the small part of Mimi, Lunella’s grandmother, who guides Lunella with sage advice and wisdom. This is a fun, colorful and energetic show with wit and wisdom and a lot of heart and soul!