“The Owl House is an animated fantasy-comedy series that follows Luz, a self-assured teenage girl who accidentally stumbles upon a portal to a magical world where she befriends a rebellious witch, Eda, and an adorably tiny warrior, King.”

Between Brittany and myself, we have reviewed a few movies and TV shows on this blog, and looking back, I realize that a lot of them are cartoons with the target audience children. My first thought: I don’t know what this says about us. It could be a sign of the times; in difficult situations, we turn to what is most comfortable, most familiar, or what harkens back to a time when things seemed alright.

But if we’re being honest here, I enjoy cartoons all the time. They’re fun, often lighthearted, have cute characters, and never seem to say anything too radical. It’s a breath of fresh air in the midst of…well, everything in life.

Which brings me to the latest and greatest of the animated shows I enjoy: The Owl House. Fans of Gravity Falls will find a lot to like about this series, from the familiar art style to the fact that several of the voice actors are the same. The series (which just finished up its first season on Disney and will be coming to Disney+ on October 30th) follows Luz Noceda as she finds herself in a brand new world filled with witches and monsters.

I find myself connecting with Luz a lot, and I feel like many kids will as well. She’s incredibly creative, but is often misjudged and labelled as a “problem child” because of her imaginative and non-mainstream ideas. She loves fantasy and magic, and dreams about being a hero and fulfilling some kind of a fantastic destiny. What kid doesn’t? Upon arriving in a world filled with magic, though, she finds that it is nothing like what she expected. And isn’t that true of real life?

She doesn’t let that stop her. She adapts to her new environment, and uses her bravery, kindness, and spunky attitude to get her through even the most gruesome of situations. These are great lessons for kids. Also, highlighting differences as strengths instead of personality flaws that need to be “fixed” is so important, not only for kids, but for all ages.

But Luz isn’t on this journey alone. She is joined by a cast of other fun and dynamic characters from her mentor Eda the Owl Lady or her frenemy Amity. I can’t tell you how much I love all of these characters.

And the cast (both the characters and the voice actors) is diverse! I’ve loved seeing more cartoons with female leads (thinking of Amphibia and Miraculous), and it’s even better that a lot of them are people of color. Luz is Dominican-American, and Anne from Amphibia is Thai-American. To a white audience, this may simply be a matter of interesting background information and cultural perspective, but to people, especially kids, with similar background? I cannot speak for them, but I imagine it’s nice to have a character that looks like them. I would love to see this trend continue, it needs to continue, but I appreciate this start. (Tangent over)

I don’t want to give away too much about Luz’s journey navigating her new world and abilities, but let me assure you, the ride is worth it. This show is hilarious, it’s spooky, it’s surprising, and it’s incredible. Try it out for yourself, if you can (hopefully it comes to DVD soon so we can get it for our library, I do apologize for reviewing something that may not be available to everyone). Happy watching!

~~Lindsey, Library Aide