Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Marvel’s Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur’ On Disney Channel, Where A Young Genius And Her Pet Dino Protect The Lower East Side

Marvel’s recent attempts at animation have been spotty at best. They seem to be good at trying different styles and being a bit daring with the IP that they choose to release. The latest Marvel animated project, though, is a home run, and it’ll be available to both cable subscribers as well on Disney+.

MARVEL’S MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Scenes of the Lower East Side. A girl whose room has a definite science theme gets up when her alarm clock rings at 6:30 AM.

The Gist: Lunella Lafayette (Diamond White) is a confident 13-year-old genius, who roller skates through her Lower East Side neighborhood. She’s distressed, though, at neighborhood businesses closing due to the power outages that have been plaguing the LES lately, her family’s roller rink included.

Her family — mom Andria (Sasheer Zamata), dad James Jr. (Jermaine Fowler), grandmother Mimi (Alfre Woodard) and grandfather Pops (Gary Anthony Williams) — have a positive life outlook. If there’s any difficulty, they “roll with it,” which is also the name of their rink.

At lunch at her middle school, Lunella tries to figure out how to finish a complex physics project left behind by a mysterious woman who worked on the space program; she calls the woman “Moon Girl”. She even has a lab in an abandoned subway tunnel. She finally thinks she has it solved, and wants to use it to power the neighborhood. Instead, she creates a time portal, and out of it pops a big red T-rex (Fred Tatasciore).

He’s a friendly sort, and they soon bond; she thinks with her brains and his brawn, they can protect the LES. After the two of them save Lunella’s classmate Casey (Libe Barer), she visits Lunella’s lair; she thinks she can make the pair famous through her expert PR and social media skills. But they need clever names. The dino gets his first: Devil. Soon, though, Lunella takes inspiration from her mysterious role model and calls herself Moon Girl.

When they find out that the LES’s power outages are due to a woman named Aftershock (Alison Brie), who sucks up the neighborhood’s power to stay charged up, the trio knows where to focus their superhero (and publicity!) efforts. It becomes personal for Lunella when Aftershock’s activity forces the roller rink to close down.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The spirit and animation of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur are very reminiscent of Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse.

Our Take: It’s not a stretch to say that Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is the best of the recent efforts to create animated shows from Marvel’s characters. Even though the character of Devil Dinosaur has been around since the ’70s, this series is based on Marvel’s comic 2015-19 comic of the same name. It’s a visual feast with a dynamic lead character, with dialogue that’s at once goofy and sharp.

The show’s executive producers, Rodney Clouden, Pilar Flynn, Laurence Fishburne, Steve Loter and Helen Sugland, have taken the world of the comic and made it pop at every turn, from the murals and storefronts on the LES to the way they animate Devil into being a big red puppy despite his size and fierceness.

The writing is smart, giving references that may or may not go over the heads of the young kids watching but will definitely hit their parents (Casey calls Devil “Clifford” at some point, for instance). Part of what makes the writing smart is that they don’t make Lunella into some sad sack nerd who would chuck everything for friends or popularity. She’s perfectly content with her equations and experiments, and seems to be perfectly social with people around the neighborhood. She doesn’t even mind solving a Rubik’s Cube behind her back for the amusement of her classmates.

But her friendships with both Devil and Casey are welcome additions to her life, and we’re looking forward to seeing them both develop. It seems strange that Casey, who feels like a social butterfly, is in even more need of friendship than Lunella is, but it feels like her intensity complements Lunella’s intensity well.

What we also are looking forward to are all the guest voices who will be playing villains, starting with Brie and including Fishburne, Daveed Diggs, Pamela Adlon, Wilson Cruz, Maya Hawke, and many more.

But what is going to keep us coming back to this show is the smart writing, and a visual style that is never static, but also doesn’t paint lower Manhattan as something that it isn’t.

What Age Group Is This For?: We’re thinking that Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is good for the 8 and up crowd.

Parting Shot: As we see a montage of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur ingratiating themselves with people in the neighborhood, the two of them look at the moon together.

Sleeper Star: If you recognize any of the regular voices of the bat, it’s going to be Woodard’s voice. As you’d expect, grandma Mimi is a wise and calming influence for Lunella.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Lunella and Casey call each other “Lu” and “Case”, Casey goes, “O-M-G! Do we have nicknames now?”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Marvel’s Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur is a dynamic, smart, visually arresting series that has a unique girl at its center, a puppy-like dinosaur, and stories that will entertain both kids and their parents.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.