"Dog Day Mid-Afternoon" is the twenty-sixth episode of the Disney Channel and Marvel Animation series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
Synopsis[]
When Pops fosters a mysterious stray dog and enters him into a dog show, a paranoid Lunella is convinced the creature is an evil alien who intends to sabotage the event.
Plot[]
Lunella, Casey, and Pops are preparing to attend the annual dog show. As they look over the dogs, Pops hears a canine in distress and they find an odd looking blue dog digging through the trash. The group immediately fall in love with him and name him Franklin. As the Lafayettes prepare to make him feel comfortable, Lunella catches him standing on his hind legs. Lunella becomes suspicious and tries examine Franklin, finding more and more things that are off about him. Eventually, she manages to acquire some of his fur and runs a DNA test, learning that Franklin is, in fact, an extraterrestrial and has no Earth DNA.
Lunella follows Franklin in the night and finds all the dogs in the neighborhood acting up. In the morning, the dogs have gone missing and their owners' belongings stolen. Lunella accuses Franklin of being the culprit, but Pops tells her that she probably doesn't have all the answers. Pops enters Franklin into the dog show while Lunella and Casey shrink Devil down and disguise him as a dog to enter as well. Lunella once again believes that Franklin is up to something and follows him. Franklin proceeds to go after the dog show head Kat Swan and a big chase ensues, ending with Lunella, Casey, Pops, Devil, and Franklin getting kicked out. At this moment, Franklin reveals that he can talk.
Franklin confirms Lunella's suspicions that he is an alien, but explains that he is part of a team called the Guard Dogs and is trying to protect the dogs of Earth from Kat who had acquired a dog whistle that can make dogs do her bidding. Together, the group go back to the dog show and fight Kat before she takes control of all dogs. They get the whistle back and Pops frees all the dogs from mind control. Franklin solemnly says goodbye to Pops, though he promises to come and visit him, and takes Kat back to his planet. Pops tells Lunella that he was happy that Franklin was honest with him, something that starts to resonate with Lunella.
Cast[]
- Diamond White as Lunella Lafayette/Moon Girl
- Fred Tatasciore as Devil Dinosaur
- Libe Barer as Casey Calderon
- David Tennant as Franklin
- Parker Posey as Kat Swan
- Gary Anthony Williams as Pops Lafayette
- Sasheer Zamata as Adria Lafayette
- Jermaine Fowler as James Lafayette Jr.
- Alfre Woodard as Mimi Lafayette
- Carol Kane as Bubbe Bina
Songs[]
- "On the Move" by Loly Bea
- "Don't Judge a Dog" by Raphael Saadiq
Trivia[]
- This episode is listed as episode ten with "In The Heist" listed as episode nine. However, when they aired on Disney Channel, their numbers were swapped.
- The episode features a dog pun counter, which ultimately counts up to 22.
- Franklin's spaceship, a tall blue box resembling a doghouse, is a reference to the TARDIS from Doctor Who, the show that David Tennant starred in.
- Kat Swan shares some similarities to the villain Melissa Morbeck, a woman obsessed with controlling animals and the arch-enemy of Squirrel Girl.
