"Run the Rink" is the third episode of the first season of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and the third episode overall.
It premiered early on February 15, 2023 on Disney+, and had its official premiere on February 18, 2023, alongside "Check Yourself".[1]
Synopsis[]
When Lunella runs the rink for a night, she agrees to Casey's get-rich-quick scheme, which threatens Moon Girl's reputation and her family's beloved business.[1]
Plot[]
On the streets of the Lower East Side in New York City, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur are running around doing some patrolling. Devil Dinosaur thinks they are searching for some perpetrators, but it turns out that Moon Girl tricked him. Instead, they are at Arty’s Car Wash, where she is trying to have Devil take a bath, since he hasn’t had one for quite some time. After some coaxing, Lunella finally gets Devil clean, only for him to get dirty again shortly thereafter.
At Roll With It, Lunella is enjoying her drink, while roller skating, until her mom mentions that the grown-ups are hitting Roller-Jam in New Jersey tonight. However, Saul from the Hasty Mart is going to watch the rink. Lunella gets impatient, asking Mimi if it is done yet. However, Mimi mentions it will be about twenty more minutes. Lunella remarks that it will feel like practically a torturous year. Mimi however states that when it comes to making her famous popcorn, she tells her granddaughter that patience is the most important ingredient. Pops suddenly gets a call from their friend Saul telling them that he cannot look after the rink for them due to getting gout. Lunella then offers to look after the rink while they are away as "Tuesdays are slow" and her parents reluctantly agree.
Lunella quickly ends up getting bored and uses an engine she built to speed up her workload, but instead ends up filling the rink with popcorn. Luckily, she gets Devil to come and eat it all, but he knocks over the DJ booth and breaks Adria's turntables.
Desperate, Lunella calls Casey, who rushes over to access the situation. She finds turntables similar to Adria's, but they are expensive. She comes up with the idea to use her status as Moon Girl to invite people to Roll With It for one night only event to see her. Lunella agrees to the plan and everyone in the LES arrives to hang out with her.
Just as things are getting good, the night is interrupted by Instantanegirl, a woman with powered legs, and Man Baby, a giant mutated baby, but both are swiftly, and humiliatingly, defeated. Casey is excited about the prospect that Moon Girl is building up her own Rogue’s gallery, which she says is year two type of stuff, and that means they are ahead of schedule.
Moon Girl is less enthusiastic, seeing multiple villains attacking her and going on to say that bad things tend to happen in threes. Shortly thereafter, another villain named Gravitas shows up. He subsequently reveals that his robbery was foiled due to Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur car wash run earlier that day, and now has come for revenge. He uses his gravity backpack mechanism to raise Roll With It.
As Lunella tries to recover, she remembers Mimi's words and leads Gravitas on so that he uses up all his juice. Lunella beats him up, takes his arm cannon and attaches it to her engine to save the rink and everyone inside it.
As Gravitas is taken away, all the residents believe that the event was an elaborate stage performance and thank Lunella. She uses the money to buy new turntables which Adria, upon returning, does not notice the difference. Lunella then thanks Mimi for teaching her patience as Ahmed, who was also at the party, falls from the ceiling.
Cast[]
- Diamond White as Lunella Lafayette
- Fred Tatasciore as Devil Dinosaur
- Libe Barer as Casey
- Alfre Woodard as Mimi Lafayette
- Sasheer Zamata as Adria Lafayette
- Jermaine Fowler as James Lafayette Jr.
- Gary Anthony Williams as Pops Lafayette
- Laurence Fishburne as Backstory Man
- Ace Gibson as Gravitas[2]
- Omid Abtahi as Ahmed
- Aaron Drown as Man Baby
- Carlee Baker as Instantanegirl
- Andy Cohen as Isaac Calderon
Songs[]
- "Sweatpants" (Clean Version) by Childish Gambino
Trivia[]
- The sequence where Moon Girl fights Gravitas to "Sweatpants" by Childish Gambino is a reference to a roller-skater sequence featuring the song used by the crew to pitch the series.[3]
- The episode features a censored version of "Sweatpants" by Childish Gambino, real name Donald Glover, who previously voiced Miles Morales in Ultimate Spider-Man in 2012.
- While there is a character who goes by the name Gravitas in the comics, the version depicted in the series is virtually a different original character and shares nothing in common with their namesake.
- The voice of Man Baby, Aaron Drown, is a casting director who has worked on several Disney Television Animation shows, including Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, Motorcity, Tron: Uprising, Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, Billy Dilley's Super-Duper Subterranean Summer, Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero, Pickle and Peanut, Star Wars Rebels, Future-Worm!, DuckTales (2017 series), Monsters at Work, The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, Amphibia, Big City Greens, The Owl House, and Hamster & Gretel (where Michael Cimino is also a voice actor for).
- This is his first voice acting role.
Production Notes[]
- Although this episode premiered in 2023, it was actually produced in 2022 according to the credits, like the rest of season 1.
Videos[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 February 2023 Programming Highlights Disney General Entertainment. (January 20, 2023). Archived from the original on January 21, 2023. Retrieved on January 20, 2023.
- ↑ "Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Clip Teaches the Marvel Hero the Value of Patience (Exclusive)". ComicBook. (January 2, 2023).
- ↑ "New York Comic-Con 2022 Roundtable Interview". YouTube. (October 10, 2022).
| v • e Episodes | |
| Season 1 | "Moon Girl Landing" • "The Borough Bully" • "Run the Rink" • "Check Yourself" • "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow" • "The Beyonder" • "Goodnight, Moon Girl" • "Teacher's Pet" • "Skip This Ad...olescence" • "Moon Girl's Day Off" • "Like Mother, Like Moon Girl" • "Today, I Am a Woman" • "Devil on Her Shoulder" • "Coney Island, Baby!" • "O.M.G.! Issue #1" • "O.M.G.! Issue #2" |
|---|---|
| Season 2 | "The Great Beyond-er!" • "Suit Up!" • "Belly of the Beast" • "Ride or Die" • "Kid Kree" • "Wish-Tar" • "Make It, Don't Break It!" • "The Devil You Know" • "In The Heist" • "Dog Day Mid-Afternoon" • "Roller Jam!" • "Dancing With Myself" • "Family Matters" • "The Molecular Level" • "Moon Girl, Grounded" • "Ride Along" • "Lava Actually" • "Full Moon" • "To Intervention and Beyond-er" • "Crushed" • "A Devil-ish Birthday" • "Party Girl" • "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" • "Shoot for the Moon" • "The Gatekeeper" |