"Skip This Ad...olescence" is the ninth episode of the Disney Channel and Marvel Animation series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
Synopsis
Lunella creates a device that allows her to fast forward through mundane chores and tasks, but she struggles to handle the unexpected side effects.
Plot
Lunella awakens to Bill Withers' "Just the Two of Us" and realizes that today is the Lafayette Family Cleaning Day. Lunella is further annoyed when her family decides on cleaning Roll With It for the upcoming 70s Disco Night Father-Daughter Dance competition, much to Lunella's ire. Lunella confides in Devil that she wishes she could skip the boring parts in her life and gets the idea to design an app called Skipster that can move her past the boring parts with just a press of the button, though she warns herself that it could tear a hole in the space-time continuum. The app works and due to its A.I. interface is able to learn and change and takes on the voice of Dr. Mae Jemison.
Lunella enjoys Skipster and tells Casey about it, though she has some issues with it and warns her that it could be harmful. While fighting the villain Garko the Man-Frog, Lunella skips through his monologue and realizes that she may have missed important information about him. Later while with her family, she fails to catch on to some of their in-jokes as the app puts her brain on autopilot and thus is unable to comprehend anything. After talking to Casey, she resolves to cease using the app. Overnight, Skipster develops to the point that it can no longer leave or be deleted by Lunella and starts impede on her life, even when she does not need it. This causes her to miss out on disco night with her father.
Lunella, fed up with how Skipster is ruining her life, finally decides to hack into her phone's code to stop her. This causes her to be sent to various points in time like kindergarten as well as the future, hinting at later things to come. Lunella ends up in a void filled with all of her memories and times in her life and tells Skipster that she now values the little things in life. Skipster says that she has learned a lot and allows her to leave to the point before she built her. Using "Just the Two of Us", Lunella manages to find the right spot just before her battery dies. Lunella wakes up to her father announcing cleaning day and Lunella happily embraces her father and the tiny details of her future.
Cast
- Diamond White as Lunella Lafayette/Moon Girl
- Fred Tatasciore as Devil Dinosaur
- Libe Barer as Casey Calderon
- Sasheer Zamata as Adria Lafayette
- Jermaine Fowler as James Lafayette Jr.
- Alfre Woodard as Mimi Lafayette
- Gary Anthony Williams as Pops Lafayette, Garko the Man-Frog
- Dr. Mae Jemison as Skipster
- Michael Cimino as Eduardo (uncredited)
Songs
- "Just the Two of Us" by Raphael Saadiq and Briana Lee
- "No Way I'm Feelin' This" by Cleo Mac
- "Feelin' Me" by Cleo Mac
Trivia
- Moral: Even the mundane, everyday moments of life are just as important as the exciting parts.
- On March 8, 2023, the episode was released early on Disney+.
- The title is a play on the frequent internet command to "skip this ad".
- "Just the Two of Us" is prominently featured in this episode, covered by Raphael Saadiq and Briana Lee. The original artist, Bill Withers, is depicted on the card that Lunella had for the trivia game.
- This episode introduces Garko the Man-Frog. In the comics, he was a single issue character who briefly battled Howard the Duck, only to completely transform into a real frog that gets crushed by a police car.
- Lunella and James Jr. go to see Mission: Highly Unlikely 8 starring Tom Bruise, an obvious nod to the Mission: Impossible franchise starring Tom Cruise.
- During the time skip, several scenes and images are depicted:
- Lunella faces off against Torg the Abominable Snow-King in "Devil on Her Shoulder".
- Lunella's 16th birthday.
- Lunella is seen going to prom with Eduardo, foreshadowing the reveal of his crush on her in "Dancing With Myself".
- Lunella is confronted by someone, revealed to be Maris Morlak, in "OMG Issue #2".
- Another shot from "Devil on Her Shoulder" with Lunella interacting with a small Devil Dinosaur.
- Lunella battles Devil Girl in "The Great Beyond-er!".
- Lunella is singing with Tai and Brooklyn, possibly from the episode "Goodnight, Moon Girl".
- Lunella is captured by a large robotic arm.
- An homage to the X-Men storyline Days of Future Past is shown with Lunella standing in front of a poster depicting from top to bottom:
Future poster uncovered, art by Greg Baldwin - Michael Collins/Deathlok, Adam Brashear/Blue Marvel, Sleepwalker, Christopher Powell/Darkhawk
- Jacques Duquesne/Swordsman, Jocasta, Ava Ayala/White Tiger, Delroy Garrett Jr./Triathlon
- Heather Douglas/Moondragon, Trish Walker/Hellcat, Paladin, Walter Newell/Stingray
- Helen Takahama/Jolt, Kyle Richmond/Nighthawk, Dennis Dunphy/Demolition Man, Isabel Kane/Smasher
- Additionally, the concept of Lunella transferring her consciousness to her past and future bodies is similar to how Kitty Pride and Wolverine traveled back in time in the Days of the Future Past comic and its 2014 film adaptation.
- According to storyboard artist Samir Barrett, the scene was added by him during the storyboard process and was not part of the original script.[1]
- Lunella's future self heavily resembles Mimi, further foreshadowing the reveal in "OMG Issue #1" that Mimi was the original Moon Girl.
- Steve Loter revealed that not all the scenes depicted in the flashforward, most likely the 16th birthday, prom scene, and Days of Future Past reference, will happen.[2]
International premieres
- April 5, 2023 (United Kingdom, Ireland; Disney+)
- April 29, 2023 (Spain, Portugal)
References
External links
