The Owl House Review

So, last year, a new cartoon came out on Disney Channel by the name of The Owl House. When I first heard about this show, I was a little skeptical at first. I initially thought it would be just another fantasy series that would eventually prioritize lore and sympathetic villains over telling a good story. So far, I’ve been proven wrong. The Owl House is actually a fantasy series that serves as a funny slice-of-life comedy.

Created by Dana Terrace from Gravity Falls and DuckTales, The Owl House centers on 14-year-old Luz Noceda, a human who finds herself in the magical world of the Boiling Isles, where witches and demons reside. Here, Luz meets rebellious witch Eda Clawthorne and (alleged) former King of Demons, who both take her in at the titular Owl House. During her time on the Boiling Isles, Luz makes new friends and learns magic. The subplot, meanwhile, focuses on Eda’s curse and the mysterious figure who inflicted this curse on her. From beginning to end, I enjoyed the story.

Despite taking place in a fantasy world, The Owl House primarily focuses on its characters. Luz in particular starts to learn early on that a lot of her behavior can often be destructive and that life isn’t a fantasy (ironic, given that she learns this lesson in a literal fantasy world of all places). Back in the human world, Luz was often seen as weird by her classmates because of her aforementioned destructive behavior. While it was easy for the writers to try and paint her as in the right in spite of this, the writers instead opt to have Luz learn that she just can’t “quirk” her way out of every problem and into friendship. In the very second episode of the show, in fact, she learns that she needs to forge her own path instead of waiting around for some predetermined quest to designate her as “The Chosen One”.

Look kid, everyone wants to believe they’re “chosen”. But if we all waited around for some prophecy to make us special, we’d die waiting. And that’s why you need to choose yourself.
– Eda Clawthorne, The Owl House - (S01E02) “Witches Before Wizard”

I really enjoy that the show is teaching lessons like this to its target audience of children. Instead of having other characters encourage Luz’s often destructive behavior, the writers have her learn to reign this kind of behavior in.

And it’s not just “Witches Before Wizards” that teaches lessons like that. This theme is also apparent in “Wing It Like Witches” when Luz impulsively challenges school bully Boscha to a Grudgby match against her and her friends. Here, she learns not to act so impulsively, even though her heart was in the right place.

And it’s not just Luz who shines throughout the season. Characters like Eda and King are also fan favorites.

As for the main story itself, I was actually satisfied that the writers didn’t try to drag out the main mystery of who cursed Eda for longer than necessary. As a matter of fact, a lot of the plot threads that were introduced this season were tied up in a satisfactory way. If this were any other show, the writers likely would’ve strung the audience along needlessly until the series finale.

In fact, The Owl House really seems to move at a brisk pace with a lot of its plot threads. One plot thread they particularly seem to be going through is the relationship between Luz and fellow classmate Amity Blight. The two characters start out as rivals, but as the season progresses, they become friends, and Amity even develops a crush on Luz. Understandably, a lot of people find this to be a bit rushed. They seemingly go from enemies/rivals to friends just like that, and while it’s not too jarring (at least not for me, anyway), I still feel like there were ways for that plot thread to work out better, such as having Luz develop a crush on Amity as time went on since she seemed more open to a friendship even when they were on bad terms. Either way, it’s still cute seeing them interact with each other, especially in “Wing It Like Witches” where Amity is just flustered every time she’s around Luz.

Overall, The Owl House is certainly a fun show that I’d recommend.