Lightning City of the Clouds

Filmation pays homage to the science of Meteorology in this episode that would have us all believe the Sagarese seasons are kept in a box that is--get this--entrusted to the Trobbits. If that isn't a definite disaster waiting to happen, we don't know what is. Of course, the Overlord, being the ultimate cool dude that he is, doesn't want spring to come, so he sends one of his minions to capture the woman who bears the key to the box. Now you may argue that this is all an allegory and we're not supposed to take it seriously, but I'm writing the review here, so deal with it. This episode gets * for some shining examples of the Idiot Plot Syndrome, which are as follows:

1. When the good guys need somebody to fill in for Blackstar, who's already off doing his usual heroic schtick, what do they do? Do they listen to common sense and ask the resident shapeshifter to fill in? No! Mara gets the brilliant idea to animate a life-sized ice-sculpture centerpiece Poulo whipped out in a spare ten seconds; Klone's contract apparently doesn't cover Heroic Imitation. Sad to say, the Ice Capades version of Blackstar doesn't come with the lively, tacky one-liners (though Filmation uses the same stock poses for him), but the Ice Warlock has a cool breath weapon and the pair are actually effective against the ice king Crios until a blast from an ice cannon puts them out of action. Excuse me? Aren't the pair frozen already?

2. When the all-important key to the Box of Seasons is lost, the rest of the cast practically has to knock Our Hero over the head with the answer. In this case, however, you can't really blame him. Lelanna's verbal skills are pretty limited ("You have the power. Open the box."), and Blackstar isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. This particular damsel in distress also likes to sleep on the job and is prone to premature aging. Quite a boring date, if you ask me. There's a terrible slow-motion shot with Blackstar throwing the key to the Trobbits, and once again we see that in this series you should never try to throw anything of importance to your allies, whether it be the Powersword or a key, because your enemies will always intercept. In this case, the animation is incredibly choppy, and they should have just left it out. Also, the animation used for the falling stalagmites is exactly the same used in "Kingdom of Neptul."

3. Did we really need that subplot about Rif's head cold? That shot of all that flying snot is almost as bad as the flying key.

Act One makes much of the fact that it's really, really cold, so why don't the Trobbits go inside and turn on some heat before they freeze to death? Oh, yeah, they live in a giant treehouse. They might end up torching the neighborhood. And somebody needs to tell Blackstar to put on some clothes before he gets frostbite.

There's a nice bit with Balkar's stumbling speech to the stand-in Blackstar; the Trobbit leader can't quite decide how to address this walking ice sculpture. It would have been great to see Blackstar come face to face with his doppelganger, but I suppose since the writers already did that with "Tree of Evil," twice would have been too much.

As episode titles go, this one doesn't quite do it. Sure, the action takes place in a pair of cloud-camoflauged floating cities, but where's the lightning?

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