"The Borough Bully" is the second episode of the first season of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and the second episode overall.
It premiered on February 11, 2023.[1]
Synopsis
When Lunella finds a nasty comment on her Moon Girl social media page, her fixation on the troll threatens to take over her life.[1]
Plot
Somewhere in a park within New York City, Angelo is going on about how possums are constantly at risk of getting hit by cars, which he says is the reason that possums need their own sidewalks. Unfortunately, the woman he was talking to stops listening to the young boy, and instead gushes about Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur making an appearance in the park as they are fighting Devos. Ultimately, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur are victorious against their latest villain, but not before wrecking all of Angelo’s stuff in the process.
Later that day, Casey informs Lunella that Moon Girl’s latest video is blowing up the fan page all the way up. She gets many positive comments, but her good spirit is crushed when she reads a comment from #SYPHØN8TR, who said that that “the only thing bigger than that robot is, Moon Girl’s forehead”. Eventually after talking to Casey, Lunella decides that there’s no way she is going to let one dumb little comment bother her.
That is easier said than done, as she is unable to fall asleep because she can’t help but be thinking of that mean comment that was thrown at her online. As a result, she tries to use science to explain to her troll that she does not in fact have a big forehead. Therefore, Moon Girl, with Devil Dinosaur behind the camera, films a video and posts it, without running it by Casey. Her friend shows Lunella how Syphøn8tr has remixed her video into a song. As the two girls get to school, they realize that the video has now gone viral. Casey blocks the troll from the page, and tells Lunella that this will all blow over soon. But to Lunella, this means war.
She lets this fight with her troll consume all parts of her life. So much so that she doesn’t play with Devil like she had initially promised, is absent-minded in school, and distant at home with her family. Leaving her with no other option, Casey boots out Lunella out of the Moon Girl page by changing the password, and revoking Lunella’s credentials.
Lunella becomes depressed when her mother plays the remix at Run the Rink. However, a talk with Mimi convinces Lunella to confront the internet troll face to face, which eventually leads her to the Williamsburg Bridge. To her surprise, her online troll appears to be a real troll, who wastes no time by telling her that “for someone with such a huge brain, it sure takes a long time" to find him.
Elsewhere, Casey’s favorite show is interrupted at the most inconvenient moment, by a breaking news announcement stating that Moon Girl was fighting a literal troll.
Back at the bridge, a tired Moon Girl decides to use her goggles to analyze her troll, and find out that said troll is actually a symbiote. Which, according to the superhero, “have a natural weakness to sonic based attacks”. The troll only continues to get stronger, and he tells Moon Girl how beating her was easier than he thought it would be.
Sometime later, and with Casey’s help, Moon Girl realizes that the key to beating her troll is by not feeding it. Thus, she goes back to the Williamsburg bridge and puts this new plan into motion. As a result, by not letting Syphøn8tr get to her, the symbiote begins to quickly lose energy.
Weaker than ever, but still determined, Syphøn8tr tries to climb up the bridge to destroy. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the same strength as before, and falls. However, Moon Girl saves him in the nick of time, which causes the symbiote to separate from his host and escapes into the bay, laughing at Moon Girl and Casey as it leaves.
The two girls find out her troll is Angelo, whom they both refer to as "possum kid". Angelo explains to them how he was upset over getting ignored and fused with the symbiote due to his jealousy. He apologizes for how he treated her, and admits that things just spiraled out of control. Initially he just wanted to make her feel as small as he did, but he didn’t even think he could hurt Moon Girl’s feelings. The two make peace, and Lunella offers to help him out with his activism, this time about bullying. The new campaign is a success as Lunella and Casey teach Mimi the new dance after she gets fed up with her own troll online.
Cast
- Diamond White as Lunella Lafayette
- Fred Tatasciore as Devil Dinosaur, Devos (uncredited)[2]
- Libe Barer as Casey
- Sasheer Zamata as Adria Lafayette
- Alfre Woodard as Mimi Lafayette
- Michael Cimino as Eduardo
- Josh Keaton as Angelo[1]
- Omid Abtahi as Ahmed
- Laurence Fishburne as Backstory Man
Additional voices
- Kimberly Brooks as News Anchor, Bystander
Non-speaking
Videos
Song
- "Borough Bully Rap" by Moon Girl, Angelo and Devil Dinosaur (Diamond White, Josh Keaton, Fred Tatasciore)
Trivia
- The episode features Angelo, who is voiced by Josh Keaton, being possessed by a symbiote. This is a possible reference to Keaton's tenure voicing Spider-Man, particularly in The Spectacular Spider-Man.
- Upon seeing Syphon8r in giant form, Lunella exclaims "Oh. My. Gamma rays", this being the energy that turned Bruce Banner into the Hulk. This could also be a nod to Devil's voice actor, Fred Tatasciore, who is known for providing the Hulk's voice in most animated Marvel projects.
- Lunella already knew sound vibrations being a symbiote's weakness when she found out Syphon8r is one, implying there had been symbiotes on Earth before. Whether this means characters such as Venom and Carnage exist in this universe, however, is unknown.
- Devos the Devastator is a villain who originated in Fantastic Four and has a connections with the Inhumans, a possible nod to the fact that Moon Girl is an Inhuman in the comics.
- The character's voice is uncredited, but Steve Loter confirmed that he is voiced by Fred Tatasciore.[3]
- Casey calls Devil Dinosaur Barney, in reference to the famous children's character and its series.
- Syphøn8r also makes a reference to Fandom or Wikipedia when he is excited at the prospect of becoming so famous he gets a wiki page.
- It is likely that Josh Keaton voiced Syphøn8r as it had possessed Angelo, a role that Keaton is credited for.
- In the scene where Lunella finishes her video, it is shown that she used Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing Vitruvian Man.
- In the scene where Lunella checks on a sleeping Devil to see if he finished filming her video, she referenced former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Production notes
- Although this episode premiered in 2023, it was actually produced in 2022 according to the credits, like the rest of season 1.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 February 2023 Programming Highlights Disney General Entertainment. (January 20, 2023). Archived from the original on January 21, 2023. Retrieved on January 20, 2023.
- ↑ https://twitter.com/steveloter/status/1624522994067570688
- ↑ https://twitter.com/steveloter/status/1624522994067570688
| 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" |