Star vs. the Forces of Evil is an American animated comedy-adventure television series created by Daron Nefcy and developed by Jordana Arkin and Dave Wasson, which airs on Disney XD. The first Disney XD series created by a woman, and second overall for Disney Television Animation (following Pepper Ann), it follows the adventures of Star Butterfly (voiced by Eden Sher), the young turbulent heir to the royal throne in the dimension of Mewni, who is sent to Earth so she can complete her education and learn to be a worthy princess, and Marco Diaz (Adam McArthur), a human teenager who becomes her roommate and best friend, as they live their daily lives, go on adventures in other dimensions, and try to prevent the evil Ludo (Alan Tudyk) and his minions from stealing Star's magic wand.
Star vs. the Forces of Evil typically follows a format of two 11-minutes long independent "segments" per episode, with individual writing and directing credits for each, although it occasionally opts for a single, 22-minutes long story instead. The first episode aired on January 18, 2015 on Disney Channel as a special preview, becoming the most-watched animated series debut in Disney XD's history; the first season subsequently officially premiered on Disney XD on March 30, 2015. The third and current season started on July 15, 2017. On February 28, 2017, the series was officially renewed for a fourth season.
Video Star vs. the Forces of Evil
Plot
Star Butterfly is a magical princess from the dimension of Mewni, and the heir to the royal throne of the Butterfly Kingdom. As per tradition, she is given her family's family heirloom wand on her 14th birthday, but after she accidentally sets fire to the family castle, her parents decide that a safer option is to send her to Earth as a foreign exchange student, so she can continue her magic training there. She befriends Marco Diaz and lives with his family while attending Echo Creek Academy. Star and Marco must deal with everyday school life while protecting Star's wand from falling into the hands of Ludo, a villain from Mewni who commands a group of monsters. Star and the folks from Mewni are able to travel across dimensions using "dimensional scissors" that can open portals.
Maps Star vs. the Forces of Evil
Background and production
Nefcy said she originally created Star as a girl who wanted to be a magical girl like Sailor Moon, and Marco as a boy who was obsessed with Dragon Ball Z and karate; they would be enemies instead of friends. In this earlier version, Star did not have any actual magical powers; she instead would approach and solve problems primarily through the force of her determination alone. Nefcy began pitching the show when she was in her third year of college, when Cartoon Network was actively soliciting the creation of pilots for prospective new shows. Nefcy originally placed Star in the fourth grade, reflecting on a time in her own childhood when she held a self-described obsession with the animated series Sailor Moon. However, Nefcy later adjusted the character's age to fourteen during the time she made her series proposition to Disney. An executive at that time made the suggestion for Star to have actual magical powers. Nefcy worked this concept into the show's current iteration, along with the idea of different dimensions as show locations, the framing device of Star being a foreign exchange student, and the plot aspects relating to Star being a princess and the subsequent consequences of her royal birthright. Nefcy said that the overall concept has evolved over about six years.
In addition to Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, Nefcy has said that she had heavy influence in her youth from the animated Japanese shows Magic Knight Rayearth, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Unico, the last of which featured a pink unicorn. She also cited shows unrelated to Japanese animation such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and was influenced by independent comic series such as Scott Pilgrim and The Dungeon. With regards to the development of more strong female characters, Nefcy said that she "looked at TV over the years and I have had to go to Japan when I was younger to find the cartoons that had the characters that I wanted to see. It was always a question of 'Well, why isn't that on TV in the U.S.?'"
One of the concepts she likes about the show is that it doesn't make high school the most important experience for teenagers. She also likes that Star does her own thing instead of being concerned about fitting in. Nefcy did not want the gimmick about keeping the magic powers a secret from others as typical of magical girl shows, so she had the students already know about it and Marco's parents as well. She also portrays Star as not really a superhero as she does not specifically go after super-villains except when they attack her, and that she doesn't really save people. Nefcy said that the episodes balance comedy and drama: "we really want our characters to feel like teenagers and have them going through the normal emotions that teenagers go through, but in this magical setting."
Storyboarding and design are done in Los Angeles. In describing the process, Nefcy said that the show is storyboard-driven, with each episode mapped out by the storyboard artists. The storyboarders also do the writing, taking a two-page outline and turning it into a full script. A storyboard for 11 minutes would require about 2000 drawings to be done in a six-week period. After pre-production in the US, the first season animation was done at Mercury Filmworks in Ottawa, Canada. Mercury had also done Wander Over Yonder and the Mickey Mouse series. For the rest of first season, the animation was done in the Philippines. The second season was animated by Sugarcube and Rough Draft Studios, both located in South Korea.
The theme song was done by Brad Breeck, who also did Gravity Falls' opening theme; Nefcy said: "when we were listening to it we didn't know, because we just listened blind". Brian Kim was chosen among a group of about ten people as the show's composer. Kim describes the music for each dimension as having a different sound and relating it to indie rock in Los Angeles.
The show was initially scheduled to premiere on Disney Channel after being greenlighted in March 2013, for a premiere in the Fall of 2014, before being switched over to Disney XD.
Promotion and release
The show's title sequence was promoted at Comic-Con 2014 six months prior to its scheduled broadcast premiere. As a result, the footage was uploaded by fans to YouTube who then started generating fan art and fan fiction. The first episode premiered on Disney Channel in January 2015. The positive reaction on social media has prompted Disney XD to order a second season of the series in February 2015, six weeks ahead of its launch of the series on Disney XD in March. Disney sitcom actors Olivia Holt and Kelli Berglund participated in promoting the series the weeks before its Disney XD premiere, with Holt dressing up as Star.
The second season premiered on July 11, 2016, The show's third season was ordered ahead in March 2016. It premiered on July 15, 2017 with a two-hour long television movie entitled "The Battle for Mewni" and consisted of the first four episodes. A live chat featuring Star and Marco was aired on Disney XD on July 17. The remaining third-season episodes are scheduled to run starting November 6, 2017. A fourth season was also ordered ahead of the third season premiere.
International
Star vs. the Forces of Evil premiered in Canada on the DHX-owned Disney XD on April 6, 2015, and was later moved to the Corus-owned Disney XD on December 1. The series premiered on Disney XD channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland on April 16, 2015, in Australia on August 3, and in the Middle East and Africa on October 5. It also premiered on November 8 on Disney Channel in Southeast Asia. The series premiered on March 6, 2016, as Star Butterfly in French on Disney La Chaîne in Canada. The show premiered on November 2 on Disney XD in Italy, and on Disney Channel on November 2, 2016.
Episodes
Reception
Star vs. the Forces of Evil has received positive reviews by critics.
Kevin Johnson of The A.V. Club gave the pilot episode a B+, saying that the show was something children could have a lot of fun with, noting how the show follows current trends in western animation "towards large-eyed characters and quirky visual trends". Johnson stated that Star vs. the Forces of Evil "excels on wild, silly, and clever set-pieces to bring the laughs and action", but expected that adult viewers won't get much out of it. Furthermore, the premiere of Star vs. the Forces of Evil became the most-watched animated series debut in Disney XD's history. Following the end of the second season, Disney XD announced it had ordered a fourth season of the show, and that in 2016, Star and another animated show Milo Murphy's Law had reached over 100 million consumer views combined across its media platforms.
In reviewing episodes from the first season, Marcy Cook of The Mary Sue described the show as a blend of others such as Invader Zim and a sanitized Ren & Stimpy, with great appeal to tween and teen girls as well some laugh out loud moments for adults. She said, "[I]t's really cool to see a girl who is into cuteness and rainbows also kick-ass and enjoy it". Cook was bothered by the short episodes that made the plot seem rushed or underdeveloped. Cook was bugged by Marco's retconned personality from the pilot episode where he was a safety conscious kid to the series where he was a martial arts fight seeker. Caitlin Donovan of entertainment website Epicstream listed it among her top 10 animated series of 2015. She found the first few episodes to be "a little rough for me, like the show was trying too hard to be funny and weird", but that the show got better with character development and relationship building, with "a really dramatic, high-tension finale to the first season".
Awards and nominations
The episode "Party with a Pony" was showcased in the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in June 2015.
Other media
A comic book series titled Deep Trouble was written by storyboarder Zach Marcus and illustrated by character designer Devin Taylor, both of whom are part of the Star crew. They have been released monthly by Joe Books starting in September 2016. A Cinestory comic was also developed and released.
The book Star and Marco's Guide to Mastering Every Dimension, authored by Amber Benson and supervising producer Dominic Bisignano, was released on March 7, 2017.
References
External links
- Official website
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil Disney Press website
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil on IMDb
- Star and the Forces of Evil at the Big Cartoon DataBase
Source of article : Wikipedia
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