Moon Girl Landing

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur
"Moon Girl Landing"

Season 1

Number 1

Episode information

Production code

515M-101

Written by

Jeffrey M. Howard
Kate Kondell

Storyboards by

Jules Bridgers
Alfred Coleman III
Chivaun Fitzpatrick
Morgan Hillebrand
Annie J. Li
Lidia Liu
Kalen Aris Whitfield

Directed by

Trey Buongiorno
Christine Liu

Original airdate

February 10, 2023 (Disney Channel)
February 15, 2023 (Disney+)

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"Moon Girl Landing" is the two-part premiere episode of the Disney Channel and Marvel Animation series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.

Synopsis[]

When brilliant, altruistic Lunella Lafayette accidentally brings a dinosaur to the Lower East Side, she finally has the brawn to match her brains and protect her community.

Plot[]

Part One[]

Lunella Lafayette is a hyper intelligent 13-year-old who hails from the Lower East Side of Manhattan where her family owns Roll With It, a roller skating hang out spot. In recent days, the LES keeps losing power to the point that businesses keep disappearing, much to Lunella's concern, though her family tells her to "just roll with it" to keep her spirits up. Unbeknownst to everyone, the power is being drained by an "Electrical Lady".

At school, Lunella's classmates are constantly observing and goading her to show off her puzzle solving skills as she works on building, what she believes to be, a generator built by a mysterious female scientist whom she has taken to calling "Moon Girl". Lunella also meets social media influencer Casey Calderon who she finds slightly distracting. After returning home, Lunella is shocked to find that Roll With It had been broken into, but thankfully her invention managed to save them from getting robbed, though their neighbors' things were taken.

Lunella heads down to her secret lab, accessed via a hidden elevator in her closet, that is located under her building. Lunella finishes the "generator" only to learn that it was actually an interdimensional portal maker that brings a giant red dinosaur into her lab. While the dinosaur is docile, it flees and runs into the streets of the LES as Lunella chases after him. She finds that he has a dog-like demeanor and likes hotdogs which she feeds him. They are caught by Casey and witness the Electrical Lady who nearly crushes Casey, only for the dinosaur, who had imprinted onto Lunella, to go and save her. Lunella and the dinosaur return home.

Realizing the great potential of having a dinosaur as a pet, Lunella decides that they can both be superheroes and catch the mysterious villainess, whom they deduce is responsible for the blackouts, and clean up the LES. Casey follows them home and Lunella lets her into her lab where she reveals her plan. Casey is supportive of it and makes herself her manager to handle her attention on social media. After designing a costume for herself, Lunella, Casey and the dinosaur head into the night where they encounter the burglars who had tried to rob Roll With It (as evidenced by the blue paint from Lunella's trap). The mission goes awry with the burglars escaping.

Lunella decides to devote herself to training the dinosaur while Casey improves Lunella's superhero social media image. Having translated "dinosaur-ian", Lunella finds out that the dinosaur's name is "Terrifying Fire Beast Who Will Bring About the End of All Things", which they shorten to Devil. Together they manage to capture the burglars this time and run into the villainess who identifies herself as Aftershock. Upon returning home, Lunella decides to call herself Moon Girl, becoming the duo of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.

Part Two[]

Lunella takes an old cassette player (which she has no idea is what it is) and converts it into a device to track Aftershock. As she and Devil clean up the streets of the LES, the device finally manages to track Aftershock in a power station. A fight breaks out that ends with Devil getting severely injured and Aftershock threatening Lunella's life. The heroes make it back home, but as Lunella and Casey head off to school, hear a report that suggests that Moon Girl is behind the blackouts.

In science class, Coach Hrbek announces that they will have a new teacher teaching them named Ms. Dillon, who Lunella immediately identifies as Aftershock. Ms. Dillon excuses everyone from class and calls out Lunella, threatening her once again and her friends and family should she attempt to stop her again. Frightened for her life, Lunella tells Casey that she is done being Moon Girl and tells her to leave and get rid of her costume and social media material. She jumpstarts the portal and forces Devil to leave, declaring that she hates him. Lunella learns afterwards that her family is selling Roll With It.

Lunella confides in her grandmother Mimi about all the things that have been happening and she tells her that even smart people need support from those that matter to them. Casey suddenly arrives to apologize and Lunella also admits that she was wrong for turning her and Devil away. Knowing that she has to stop Aftershock once and for all, Casey reveals that she kept the costume and website up for her.

Using everyone's false opinion of her, Lunella has all the neighbors chase her through the streets where she catches Ms. Dillon charging into Aftershock (she had previously revealed where she regenerates after work). Lunella battles Aftershock, but gets the sudden help from Devil who has opted to remain in the city with her. Lunella gets the idea to use a lightning rod to sap Aftershock's power and sends Devil to retrieve a flagpole. Meanwhile, the Lafayettes, and the citizens of the LES band together to help Lunella with her plan. Aftershock is sucked up by the lightning rod and all power is returned to the LES, hailing Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur heroes.

All the businesses reopen, including Roll With It, and Lunella and Devil continue helping the people of the LES as Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.

Cast[]

Main[]

Diamond White as Lunella Lafayette/Moon Girl
Fred Tatasciore as Devil Dinosaur, Coach Hrbek
Sasheer Zamata as Adria Lafayette
Jermaine Fowler as James Lafayette Jr.
Libe Barer as Casey Calderon
Alfre Woodard as Mimi Lafayette
Gary Anthony Williams as James "Pops" Lafayette Sr.
Alison Brie as Ms. Dillon/Aftershock
Utkarsh Ambudkar as Anand
Michael Cimino as Eduardo
Omid Abtahi as Ahmed

Additional voices[]

Kimberly Brooks as News Anchor, Female Bystanders, Female Teacher
Keith Ferguson as Jimmy, Male Bystanders, Male Teacher
Roger Craig Smith as Robber

Songs[]

"Moon Girl Magic" by Diamond White
"Where You Come From" by Diamond White

Trivia[]

This episode does not feature the intro.
The concept of blackouts occurring throughout the LES and some of the people having to sell their homes and businesses as a result might be a nod to the Broadway musical, In the Heights, as well as its 2021 film adaptation.
Casey refers to Devil as "Clifford", a reference to Clifford, the Big Red Dog. In the original comic, Ms. Marvel also referred to Devil as Clifford.
A hidden Mickey can be seen when Casey imagines a gadget Lunella could build to defeat Aftershock.
When Aftershock, as Ms. Dillon, messes with the electricity in the school, three students are shown dressed as Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno from the Naruto franchise.
Lunella namedrops the Avengers, establishing that they deal with larger threats.
A mural of Captain America can be seen above Lunella's apartment.
When Moon Girl tries to stop the burgulars from escaping, the ring sound effect from Sonic the Hedgehog was heard when Moon Girl's glove hit the lamppost. Rings are also seen flying alongside Moon Girl's glove before scattering around, a reference to Sonic the Hedgehog.
Lunella breaks the fourth wall by stating that if they are unable to defeat Aftershock, they will be cancelled after one episode.
There is a store called Battleworld that can be seen which is a reference to the fictional patchwork planet of the same name from the comics.
When Lunella sits atop Devil's head for the first time in the episode, the moon is roughly depicted at first quarter. At the end of the episode, when Lunella is fully donned in her costume, the moon is full, indicating her acceptance of being a superhero.

Comic book comparisons[]

While Lunella remains relatively the same, the comic establishes that she is an Inhuman, something that is removed from the series. Because of this, her ability to switch minds with Devil Dinosaur when she gets hungry is absent.
Devil Dinosaur is already established among the heroes in the comics and is paired up with Moon Boy. Before meeting Lunella, Moon Boy is murdered by the Killer Folk who were the first villains Lunella fought.
Devil Dinosaur was brought to earth by an alien orb that is accidentally activated by Coach Hrbek when he mistakes it for a ball Lunella was playing with.
Aftershock is loosely based on the MC2 version who is the daughter of Electro. While Steve Loter confirmed that she is Electro's daughter, this fact is not explicitly brought up within the series as of yet, though the episode does establish her surname as "Dillon".
After becoming Moon Girl, she meets the heroes Ms. Marvel and Amadeus Cho (who was going by Hulk at the time). Neither are depicted within the series with Casey loosely filling in for them.
Lunella's mom and dad were a prison psychiatrist and doctor, respectively, in the comics. Lunella's grandparents are in the comics, but her paternal grandmother is named Jojo and they do not live with her.
Lunella's secret lab was underneath the school in the comics, but is moved to under her house in the series.
The name of Lunella's school is changed from Public School 20 Anna Silver to Intermediate School 833.
Lunella returning Devil to his time is reminiscent of when she returned Devil to his dimension in the comics for a number of issues during the original comics.
While Lunella's classmate Eduardo appears, both Zoe and Ali are apparently replaced with Anand and Casey for the series.
Lunella's identity as Moon Girl was mostly public with her parents eventually forming into the idea of her fighting crime.