|
Star vs. the Forces of Evil is an American animated television comedy series produced by Disney Television Animation for Disney XD.
The show was created by Daron Nefcy, who served as a storyboard revisionist for Wander Over Yonder. She is the first woman to create an animated TV series for Disney XD. Dave Wasson serves as director and Jordana Arkin as story editor, while both co-executive produce the series.
The series' sneak preview premiered on January 18, 2015 on Disney Channel before premiering on its original network Disney XD which premiered on March 30, 2015. The series officially premiered on May 29, 2015 on the "Disney XD on Disney Channel" block, and came to an end on May 19, 2019.
Plot[]
Star Butterfly is a magical princess from the dimension of Mewni. On her 14th birthday, she receives the family heirloom wand. However, after she accidentally sets her castle on fire, her parents decide that a safer option is to send her to Earth as a foreign exchange student. There, she befriends Marco Diaz and lives with his family while attending Echo Creek Academy. Star and Marco must deal with everyday school life, while protecting Star's heirloom wand from falling into the hands of Ludo, a villain from Mewni who commands an army of monsters.
In the third season, Star returns to Mewni after she discovers that magic is disappearing throughout the kingdom. When Star discovers that her family’s history is linked to the use of dark magic and may be responsible for the monster mayhem in Mewni, she must dig deep and confront Ludo to save Marco, her family, and the kingdom.
The fourth season follows Star and Marco as they continue their adventures in Mewni and explore new dimensions. However, as things change in the royal palace, Star soon learns that running the kingdom is far more complicated than she thought.
Cast and characters[]
- Eden Sher as Star Butterfly
- Adam McArthur as Marco Diaz
- Jenny Slate as Pony Head
- Artt Butler as Rafael Diaz
- Nia Vardalos as Angie Diaz
- Alan Tudyk as River Butterfly, Ludo
- Grey Griffin as Moon Butterfly, Jackie-Lynn Thomas
- Abby Elliott as Janna Ordonia
- Fred Tatasciore as Buff Frog
- Michael C. Hall as Toffee
- Jeffrey Tambor, Keith David as Glossaryck
- Rider Strong as Tom Lucitor
- Dana Davis as Kelly
- Nate Torrence as Ferguson O'Durguson
- Matt Chapman as Alfonso Dolittle
- Daron Nefcy as Starfan13
- Jeff Bennett as Principal Skeeves
- Dee Dee Rescher as Margaret Skullnick
- Jon Heder as Oskar Greason
- Jessica Walter, Bryana Salaz, Tress MacNeille, Kari Wahlgren as Meteora Butterfly/Miss Heinous
- Esmé Bianco as Eclipsa Butterfly
- Jaime Camil as Globgor
- Amy Sedaris as Mina Loveberry
- Zosia Mamet as Hekapoo
- Carl Weathers as Omnitraxus Prime
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Rhombulus
Books[]
- Main article: Star vs. the Forces of Evil (Joe Books)
Joe Books released a comic book mini-series called, "Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Deep Trouble". It was intended to run for 8 issues, but 4 issues were ever released. The series is written by one of the show's board artists, Zach Marcus, and illustrated by character designer, Devin Taylor.
Home video releases[]
While the show has not had any physical home video releases, Star vs. the Forces of Evil has been mostly available for purchase on digital platforms such as Amazon Prime.[1]
Despite not being present at launch, all 4 seasons of Star vs. the Forces of Evil were added to Disney+ on December 1, 2019, less than a month after the debut of the streaming service in the United States and Australia. The show was, however, part of the launch line-up for the Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese Japanese, and first wave of the European French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese versions of Disney+, but only the first two seasons are available in Europe.
On October 1, 2020, Seasons 3 and 4 were added to Disney+ in the UK, following the closure of Disney Channel and Disney XD in the UK. Seasons 1, 2, and 3 were added to Disney+ in Portugal on August 18, 2021, with Season 4 being added later on November 10, 2021.
Reception[]
Star vs. the Forces of Evil was very well received with both critics and audiences, with some calling it, at the time, the best Disney animated TV show since Gravity Falls. Many critics have praised the show for its originality, unique art style, and memorable characters as well as its rich and deep lore and its writing of the relationships between characters, particularly between Star and Marco. The first few episodes of the show were a little criticized for its lack of focus, but many agreed that the show got better as it went on.
However, reception towards the last few seasons, particularly the final episode, Cleaved, was much less positive, with many fans agreeing that the final episode of the show felt extremely abrupt.
One of the most discussed and praised elements from show, among fans, is the relationship between Star and Marco with many fans considering it the main focus of the show and pairing them romantically in a similar way to how Kim Possible fans paired Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable while the show was airing.
Videos[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The show was originally under the title name "Star and the Forces of Evil".
- The show was originally scheduled to premiere in Fall 2014 before it was pushed back to January 2015.
- The show was originally going to be a Disney Channel original series, but it was announced in Fall 2014 that the show would be a Disney XD series. However, the series began airing in re-runs on Disney Channel in September 2016. It currently airs on that network as part of the Disney Channel Weekend Mornings programming block.
- Daron Nefcy's influences for Star vs. the Forces of Evil are primarily Japanese TV shows, such as Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Magic Knight Rayearth, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Unico (which features a pink unicorn). Her Japanese influences mainly come from widely intense shows with female leads.[2]
- Daron Nefcy also based Star Butterfly on Anime heroines she admired.[2]
- Daron also based the show on her love of indie comics and fantasy novels, such as Scott Pilgrim and the Dungeon series.[3]
- Originally, Star Butterfly was going to be a 4th grader, but the executives wanted the character to be a little bit older. While it was different than what Daron Nefcy wanted, it did allow the show to play around with concepts that fall more in line with the teenage audience of Disney XD.[2]
- This is also likely what lead the show to have a higher focus on the lore of the Butterfly Family and the romantic relationship between Star and Marco, as none of these concepts are referenced in Daron Nefcy's earlier versions of the show.
- Daron Nefcy has expressed interest in a continuation in the form of a film adaptation and/or a spin-off series.[4]
- This is currently the only non-live action, non-preschool animated show of the 2010s to reach its fourth season, as all subsequent series have ended at two or three seasons.
- This is known as the last program to air on Disney Channel in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong before shutting down on October 1, 2021 at exactly 1:00 am (or 12:00 am through Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand).[5]
- Technically speaking, in a way, this show speaks Disney Channel Asia's very last words: "I'm really thinking I could call this place home!"
- This is the only Disney XD cartoon to have a female main protagonist (Amphibia, Kim Possible, and The Owl House don't count, as those are Disney Channel original series). Almost every Disney XD cartoon has male main protagonists.
- Keith David replaced Jeffrey Tambor as the voice of Glossaryck during season 3.
- The fourth season of the show never aired in Italy, most likely as a consequence of Disney Channel and Disney XD in Italy permanently shutdown before the season could properly air on Italian television, and it has yet to be added to Disney+ in Italy. Despite this, an Italian dub of the fourth season exists, and it's available on Disney+ in regions outside of Italy.
- This was the third series by Disney Television Animation to be serialized/story-driven, after Gargoyles and Gravity Falls.
References[]
External links[]
v - e - d | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|