Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Mucha Lucha!"

NOTE: Please do not take any of the little nitpicks in this review (or any of my other reviews, for that matter) seriously. I write these reviews in the hopes of making people laugh. Those nitpicks are really just dumb little observations that I'm attempting to make jokes out of, not complaints that add to whether or not I like something.

This is one of those cartoons that I've probably taken waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long to do a review of. Like, really? I got to Super Duper Sumos before this one?

Mucha Lucha! is the creation of Eddie Mort and Lili Chin for Warner Bros. Animation. It aired on The WB's Kids WB block from August 17th, 2002 to February 26th, 2005, receiving three seasons and fifty-two episodes in all. There was also a direct-to-video film made in-between the second and third seasons. Perhaps the show's biggest claim to fame is that it was one of the first cartoons to be made using Flash.

The show takes place in Luchaville, a town in California (not an actual place, obviously) where everyone is obsessed with the sport... at least I think it's a sport... known as lucha libre. For those unaware, lucha libre is basically the Mexican version of professional wrestling, the main difference being that everybody wears a colorful costume. Our main characters - Rikochet (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui for the first two seasons, with Jason Marsden taking over in Season 3 because Carlos was too busy working on Reno 911), Buena Girl (voiced by Kimberly Brooks), and The Flea (voiced by Candi Milo) - attend the Foremost World-Renowned International School of Lucha, where they study to become Luchadores.

I remember hearing about Mucha Lucha!, I'm pretty sure I saw a few ads for it, but I never actually watched the show. I never watched much Kids' WB in general, I can only remember watching it ONCE and that was at my cousins' beach house. It does have a cult following, though, so who knows? Maybe I'll like it.

We're going to watch the show's sixteenth episode (the third episode of the second season). This is Mucha Lucha!.

The first segment, "Nightmare on Lucha Street", begins on a dark, spooky night. Rikochet has found himself in a strange neighborhood where the sky is crimson, the sidewalk has a mind of its own, and a bizarre genie-like monster won't leave him alone.

There are even pop-up ads for Camp Lazlo appearing at random!

The green-skinned being desperately in need of a manicure introduces himself as Misterioso Grande, lucha lord of the dream world. He wants Rikochet's mask for his collection. I hope the indication here is that he just STEALS other lucha wrestlers' masks instead of, like, EATING them and just having the masks as a trophy. Rikochet won't hand his mask over without a fight, but someone who can shapeshift into anything like Misterioso makes for a very difficult foe.

"Perhaps you'd like to see how ssssssssssssssssssssSNAKE-LIKE I CAN BEEEEEEEEEE!"

Only one thing can defeat Misterioso - an alarm clock! Rikochet wakes up and is relieved that the whole experience was just a dream. His sentient action figure El Rey (Michael Donovan)... yes, there's a toy that's alive in this world, just go with it... tells him to get up so he can use his bed to test out his new wrestling move, the Flaming Garbage Toss.

He sleeps with his mask on? I know lucha is a way of life in this show, but that seems
kind of strange...

At the Foremost World-Renowned International School of Lucha, Rikochet learns from the Headmistress (also Candi Milo) that another student, Penny Plutonium (Tabitha St. Germain), has not been in school for two days. So she sends Rikochet, Buena Girl, and The Flea to see why that is.

The Headmistress is disturbing to look at. I'll be honest, I don't like when cartoon characters have exposed brains. There's a reason why Mojo Jojo always wears a helmet.

I know in this case it's not actually her brain showing, it's just a mask... at
least I think it's just a mask, I could be wrong... but it still grosses me out.

So, why has Penny been absent? It's not because her Uncle Gadget needs her help, but rather, because she had a nightmare about Misterioso Grande, and when she woke up, her mask was missing. The Flea has also heard of Misterioso - "He rules the Realm of Dreams! Which is next to the Land of Napping, and Slumberland-adjacient," he explains. If Misterioso Grande takes your mask in the dream world, you don't have it in the real world.

Fortunately, Penny's dad has been working on a dream machine that can send someone into the Realm of Dreams. Rikochet declares that he will use it to save Penny's mask. How does the machine work? Well, you sit in it, and it gives you a stuffed animal, a nightcap, a mobile, and a glass of warm milk. Then it hypnotizes you with a wheel of spinning sheep. So, really, Rikochet could've just waited until he fell asleep that night to get Penny's mask back, but eh...

"Repeat after me: you will not buy a Serta mattress. You will not put us sheep out of
a job..."

Penny's father also has a monitor that allows them to see and speak to Rikochet in the Realm of Dreams. Rikochet runs into Misterioso Grande rather quickly and demands that he return Penny's mask or face his wrath. But Misterioso, again, is a shapeshifter, and defeating a shapeshifter isn't easy. As I recall, Puss in Boots managed to defeat that shapeshifting ogre by getting him to turn into a mouse and then eating him. Perhaps Rikochet just has to trick Misterioso into turning into a taco or something.

In hindsight, maybe somebody else should've entered the Dream Realm WITH Rikochet?

"You're in a dream! You can do anything you want!" Buena Girl points out to Rikochet. "Let your imagination run free, and your subconsious will find a way to defeat Misterioso Grande!" So Rikochet dreams himself some Plastic Man powers...

"Hammer time!"

Using his imagination, Rikochet battles Misterioso, eventually defeating him by turning into a giant tidal wave (everybody knows that water is a dream-controlling monster's only weakness). Penny gets her mask back, and Misterioso is banished to the Netheregions. Upon leaving the Dream Realm, Rikochet gives a speech about how he defeated Misterioso by turning the nightmare into a sweet dream, and there's nothing as sweet as victory. Penny gives him a smooch on the forehead...

Do we ever see Rikochet without his mask on? I'm imagining that his forehead is
incredibly large. Like, as big as Megamind's.

The segment ends with The Flea being scared off by Penny's dog, who has either been possessed by Misterioso or decided to dress like him for the fun of it. Next segment!

It's the first day of school... just ignore the fact that the characters were shown in school in the previous episode... and unlike every other student on the planet, Buena Girl is very happy. She LOVES the first day of school because everything is so clean and shiny and new. I don't recall everything being clean and shiny on any of MY first days of school. Maybe I was too annoyed by summer vacation being over to notice?

And what is The Flea doing on the first day of school? Eating garbage. As one does.

Ew, has somebody been using the garbage can as a toilet? What else could that brown
glop be?

The garbage doesn't agree with The Flea's digestive system, and he quickly has to go to the bathroom. Problem is, ever since he fought a character called the Masked Toilet in a previous episode, The Flea has been afraid of bathrooms. Have you ever been in a school bathroom? I really don't blame him. I mean, they're not port-a-potty levels of disgusting, but they can be pretty gross.

But while he's in the bathroom, before he can take a dump, The Flea is suddenly ambushed by the Masked Toilet! Of course, as soon as Rikochet and Buena Girl run in, the Masked Toilet has vanished, so they don't believe The Flea when he tells them. Oh boy, it's one of THOSE episodes. Y'know, where one character keeps seeing something spooky but nobody else sees it whenever they try to show them, so the other characters just think the one character who does see it is crazy? Every cartoon needs to do an episode like that at SOME point, I guess...

I gotta say, it was very bold of that kid on the right to base his lucha persona off of
Keo from Yakkity Yak.

But then another student, this one dressed as a scarecrow, encounters the Masked Toilet in the bathroom as well! The Flea ISN'T crazy after all!

Well, maybe he still is. But he was right about the Masked Toilet!

All the other students in the school try to fight the Masked Toilet, but get their clocks cleaned. Wow, these kids must really suck at being lucha fighters if they're getting clobbered by a sentient urinal. What on Earth is this school teaching them? Eventually, the Masked Toilet gives The Flea a message challenging him to a "Full Flush Elimination Match". How does the toilet write without hands? The world may never know.

"P.S.: Your costume makes you look more like a bunny rabbit than a flea."

"A true luchador never runs from a challenge!" Buena Girl tells The Flea. "So LET US GET TRAINING!" First, she shows The Flea and Rikochet a new move she's created allowing her to turn into a plunger. So she has shapeshifting powers now too? And so does Rikochet, it seems, because he turns into a spring. What sort of witchcraft IS this?

"Noooooooooooooo springs! Hee hee hee hee hee!"

Training doesn't go so well (among other things, The Flea winds up with his head stuck in the training dummy toilet!), so I'm not filled with confidence regarding The Flea's ability to fight the Masked Toilet. Maybe he should call a plumber. Are the Mario Brothers avaliable?

And, sure enough...

So, just a recap, everybody: scissors cuts paper, paper covers rock, rock smashes scissors, toilet pummels flea, and tidal wave clobbers green-skinned shapeshifter.

Eventually, however, The Flea finds the key to victory: his bowel movements! He... well, it's not shown what he does, but whatever it is, it's pretty disgusting. He wins the fight, but the episode ends with him making another enemy: the Masked Pencil Sharpener!

What's the Verdict?

Mucha Lucha! is kind of like El Tigre in that the fun mostly comes from how over-the-top it is. Sure, the characters aren't super-interesting, but they're likeable enough. The animation is... well, typical 2000s Flash, but I've seen far worse. The jokes... every so often there's a chuckle-worthy moment, but a lot of them fall flat. I think my biggest complaint is that we don't get enough time in the first segment to watch Rikochet deal with the dream realm, so his fight with Misterioso feels rushed. By contrast, the second segment with the Masked Toilet seems longer than it should be - you could've trimmed the training stuff, at least. Still, it's a show where a recurring villain is a SENTIENT TOILET WEARING A LUCHADORE MASK. It's just so out there that it's hard not to be charmed by it.

So all in all, it's not a GREAT show, but I found it fine for what it was. You don't even have to be a fan of lucha libre to enjoy it.

Rating: Three and a half masks out of five. Mucha entertaining.

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