W.I.T.C.H. Review: Return of the Tracker

Episode Review of W.I.T.C.H. Season 1 Episode 09: Return of the Tracker



Rating:

Summary

Cedric is looking for a way to track down the Rebel's leader by sending in some monsters to scout through an unknown Portal. Meanwhile, Will's grounded after her mom saw her latest report card. No movie premiere this weekend! The movie that she and her friends are planning to go to? It's pretty much a spoof of The Lord of the Rings fantasy film, starring hearttrob actor, Vance Michael Justin. Seriously, this guy has like three first names or something? If this animated series was produced later than 2004, I would have made fun of this being similar to the craze for Edward and Jacob from that boring Twilight series. Sure, enough, Cornelia is obsessed with him to the point that there is this hilarious scene where she's talking to the actor on the movie poster before Caleb walked by and said, "I didn't you that the two of you [Cornelia and VMJ from the poster] were dating."

Hay Lin is having a hard time convincing her strict Chinese parents to go since they're very overprotective. (I remember how overprotective my parents were...heck, they still are even though my brother and I are adults.) Will doesn't have the guts to tell her friends the truth about her punishment. As for Irma, she's forced to change her evening plan and has to baby-sit her bratty little brother when her parents are going out to a gala. Geez, apparently all little siblings in this show are brats, especially when it comes to both Lilian and Christopher. Time to find some sucker to replace her, so Irma thought. Luckily for her, Caleb and Blunk arrived on time. They're being chased by the Tracker and his radioactive bloodhound. This puts Irma on alert, but Caleb assured her that he took every evasive trick and there's no way for the Tracker to "track" him. Yeah, you do realize that the Tracker has a bloodhound that can smell Blunk's scent for miles, right? Nice...

Irma dumped her responsibility on Caleb and Blunk as the two latters are forced to endure Christopher's desire to mess around the house. God, kids in this show are so bratty. Will decided to sneak out of the house and go to hte movie anyway as soon as she hears her mom looking the other way. Suuuuure...like that's going to work soooo well later on. There's a long line for the movie premiere at the cinema and Hay Lin's parents finally let her go so long that they could keep in contact with her via cell phone. Practically all the other kids cosplayed, including Cornelia as a princess. But when the Tracker walked by, Will's Heart of Kandrakar gave them a warning. Luckily, the Tracker and his bloodhound is too preoccupied trying to look for Caleb to be bothered with them. And luckily for them all, everyone thought that he was just another VMJ fantasy movie fan in an awesome costume.

Not wanting to lose their places in lines, Cornelia volunteered to stay behind why the other four transformed and took on the Tracker. They are forced to switch Guardians when they're plans to deter their opponents kept failing. They Guardians followed his trail of destruction and tried washing away Blunk's scent with a flash flood. But the Tracker's dog picked up the scent again. Hay Lin switched with Cornelia and the Earth Guardian blocked his trail with a barrier of vegetation and stuffing the Tracker's nose with flowers. Woah...but the Tracker's too strong as he used his green radioactive chain on Will. Luckily, Taranee electrocuted him by touching the metal chain...wait, Taranee can bend lightning?! Is this Avatar or W.I.T.C.H.?

Meanwhile, Caleb is having a hard time controlling a wild child. Irma better pay him good for his trouble. Luckily for him, Yan Lin arrived and bribed the boy with cookies if he cleans up his mess. Irma switched with Hay Lin and managed to convinced Chen and Joan Lin that the kid in the dragon costume ahead of her is Hay Lin in disguise. At Irma's house, Caleb and Blunk ditched, trying to lead the Tracker away towards a portal. What follows is a pretty fun and awesome scene as the Tracker chased his prey across town, all the while Cornelia is using her earth power to give Caleb a lift on his skateboard. The Portal is somewhere near the theater and Irma discovered its on the silver screen! Time to tell Caleb where it is...wait...how did Irma knew that Caleb was already out there with the Tracker behind?

Caleb lured the Tracker and his bloodhound into the cinema and into the Portal all three of them went. Luckily for the Guardians, everyone thought that the fight and the magic is nothing more than a live pre-screen entertainment with special effects. Once Caleb got back to Earth through the Portal, Will closed it quickly before the Tracker could come back, too. And with that, all five Guardians de-transformed and fell into their seats. A few hours later, Susan Vandom and Anna Lair discussed how much trouble their daughters are in for sneaking out and/or dumping baby-sitting responsibility on Yan Lin. It's revealed that the four Guardians were too exhausted after their battle and fell asleep through the film and missed it! Only Hay Lin was awake enough to enjoy it. She was completely oblivious to the fact that her friends fell asleep through it all. Poetic justice on Will and Irma's part. That's what you get for trying to disobey your parents.

Overall Thoughts

There's not much to analyze about this episode since it's pretty much a filler. My problem with this episode is the pacing and the constant transition between scenes. There were still some animation and audio recording mix-up. For example, Will was supposed to be the one who said, "*gasp* They picked up the scent again!" Intead, we hear Irma's voice. Geez, get your quality control under control, people! I'm a little bit disappointed that they decided to give the Tracker the ability to speak here. He first appeared in the episode, "The Labyrinth" and he doesn't speak, but merely growl like a beast. That makes him mysterious and terrifying! Sure there's nothing wrong with his voice in this episode, but it does feel cheapened now that he can talk. Still, he's a pretty cool character, one of my favorites when it comes to "only in the animated series" version of W.I.T.C.H. The fighting scene was decent and fun to watch, but gosh darn it, this really felt like a filler, even though I watched it before reading the original comics! Also, note that this is the episode where Hay Lin's father received his name. In the original comics, we don't know Hay Lin's parents' first names. Here, he's named Chen and his wife is named Joan in a later episode. Eventually, the comic series decided to use these names as well.

Stray Observation

Say it with me people, The Lord of the Rings parody!

If this show was made after 2004, I would have made a joke about Cornelia's obsession with Vance Michael Jackson with some people's obsession with Edward and Jacob from twilight

Caleb, why are you talking to a rat in an alley?

Cornelia: "Aha, you just haven't tried broccoli the way I make it, Vance Michael!"
Caleb: "I didn't know that you and the poster were dating." LOL

Give us a new meaning to the phrase, "Take a taxi!"

Don't worry Hay Lin, my parents were just as strict as yours when I was younger.

Life is unfair, Will. Live with it.

Irma, if your little brother ran over your feet and Caleb's feet with his tricycle, I'm pretty sure that means that Caleb doesn't have "baby-sitter" on his resume of fighting.

Can you guys say Comic-Con?!

Geez, are all little kids in this show a bunch of annoying brats? ("A Service to the Community") Apparently, so.

HA! When the Tracker was holding that smiley-face air freshiner that Blunk touched a while ago, it looked like he was holding a blue cookie.

Will: "You left your little brother with them?!"
Taranee: "Now that's just cruel!"
Hay Lin: "To Caleb and Blunk! Ha ha ha!" LOL

Afraid of losing your place in line: Glad to see that you have your priorities straight, Cornelia.

Apparently being the greatest hunter on Merdian doesn't mean that he's capable of finding people on Earth...

Wow, Cornelia can be scary! Seriously, she stuffed some flowers down the Tracker's mouth and make it grow through his nose!

The glowing green metal ball on a chain is awesome!

Wait, Taranee can bend lightning?

Caleb can is just as awesome on a skateboard as he is on a snowboard.

Wait...how did Irma knew that Caleb already left her house and is currently outside the theater in the alley?!

Poetic justice here! That's what you get for trying to sneak out of the of house while being grounded and dumping your responsibility on someone elses!

I just realized that this episode is where Hay Lin's father received his official name as Chen Lin.