My Episode Review on WordGirl: The Rise of Miss Power

Bueno dias, my friends.

This is your friendly-as-ever film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.

Today, I’d like to give you all my 4th episode analysis, which is also the first I’m making that doesn't relate to My Little Pony. The critique in question is on this television special of “WordGirl”: "The Rise of Miss Power".

Here's the summary of it:

After WordGirl manages to win another battle against a villain, a new visitor from outer space named Miss Power suddenly arrives on Earth. She offers WordGirl a helping hand against the planet's villains, as well as to teach her new ways to conquer them.

However, Miss Power's methods of combat to teach WordGirl come from these different things: Bullying, using mean words, and threats. Each of which are a vast contrast to WordGirl's usually kind and respectful demeanor.

So, here are the riddles that only this episode can provide the answers for:

Is being a bully really what WordGirl should be doing? And is it something that she’d want to do?

And what about Miss Power? Is helping Wordgirl really what her intentions are? Or does she actually have alternate motives?

After I completed my review of “WordGirl”, I decided to make an individual analysis on “The Rise of Miss Power” next since it was the show’s first one-hour special/four-parter of the series. And the only one, if I may add. The only thing I felt concerned over was simply the fact that its quality was generally like that of a regular “WordGirl” episode, but I was willing to take a chance regardless.

Now that I have…

I’m proud to say that “The Rise of Miss Power” is absolutely terrific. In fact, while it is primarily like regular episodes of “WordGirl”, there are tons of things regarding this special that helped it stand out as something huge!

For instance, the performances of the cast, characters, and character development were all top-notch. 

Like other episodes, “The Rise of Miss Power” continued to showcase excellent vocal talent at its finest, and the characters were as awesome as ever. However, the performances that stood out to me the most in this special were Dannah Phirman as Becky/WordGirl and Jane Lynch as Miss Power, and their characters were the ones whom I believed stood above the rest.

From my perspective, Dannah Phirman gave perhaps her best performance as WordGirl to date. With “The Rise of Miss Power” obviously presenting a concept that wasn’t like what she usually worked with in the show, I was amazed to find that Phirman threw herself into the role while going deeper than ever before. The emotions she imbued were strong enough to make one’s heart take a pause, and her abilities to further translate WordGirl’s depths while maintaining her sense of humor were amazing. WordGirl herself had powerful development. All that she was going through & her changes throughout this special further testify why I consider her to be an incredibly three-dimensional individual, and the production team certainly wasn’t afraid to take risks.

Likewise, Jane Lynch was fantastic in the role of Miss Power. Being the guest star of this special, I could tell that Lynch wanted to go all-in with making an excellent impression. She gave Miss Power an excellent personality & sense of humor that helped the character brim with life, all the while mixing it in with a maliciousness that was perfect for translating her as a villainous character. The amount of emotion Lynch incorporated was another thing I took note of, because it helped emphasize Miss Power’s character traits. As a matter of fact, Miss Power herself is perhaps the show's most evil villain yet. Her manipulative nature and willingness to hurt others in every way possible show that she’s an incredibly dangerous individual, especially when you take into account that she negatively affected everyone around her without a care. Plus, Miss Power had marvelous character development throughout the episode.

All this being said, there’s another thing that I think Phirman, Lynch, and the production team did an outstanding job depicting with both WordGirl & Miss Power:

If you really think about it, Miss Power is an alternate reflection of WordGirl. WordGirl believed that it’s better to treat others with respect & care, while Miss Power liked to treat others with cruelty & oppression. WordGirl also has a greater sense of humility, whereas Miss Power considered herself to be better than everyone else. Miss Power had even managed to manipulate WordGirl into becoming more like her for a time, which made the parallels between them all-the-more noticeable. Basically, WordGirl & Miss Power are two sides of the same coin, and I enjoyed seeing how personalized this aspect was. 

In addition to this, the story by Jack D. Ferrailo, and the direction by Steve Young, were absolutely splendid.

From the get-go, it was clear that Ferrailo & Young put a great deal of thought into this episode. In fact, they were apparently putting their hearts & souls into it enough to make “The Rise of Miss Power” more impactful than anyone could've expected, which is definitely the kind of thing a person would want in a show’s one-hour special. 

In terms of the comedy, Ferrailo & Young pretty much incorporated the kind of humor any WordGirl episode would have, and it was on the same level as the rest of the series too. But, as a longtime fan of the series, I’m personally alright with the comedy-aspect remaining the same, and I still enjoyed the gags regardless. Also, when it came to providing the episode with heart & emotion, Ferrailo & Young didn’t hold back, and my soul was constantly getting tugged in the best way. They did a great job at ensuring that the plot kept itself together as well. The final part did diverge from the story’s focus on WordGirl for a bit by switching to Sally Botsford & the villains as they try to take a stand against Miss Power, but it makes sense considering WordGirl had to study the “Super Advanced Secret Battle Moves of The Planet Lexicon” book in the meantime for combatting her again.

The themes & morals of this episode were equally well-done.

Stories that tackle topics regarding bullying certainly aren’t new, but the way Ferrailo & Young were delving into the subject made “The Rise of Miss Power” one of the very best in this regard. Everything about how they were addressing the dangers of bullying and the effects it can have on everyone was incredibly powerful, and they did an excellent job showing how much better it is to treat others with kindness and respect.

Plus, the animation was terrific. 

Looking back, I noted that the animators kept the visuals at the same level every WordGirl episode would be at, so they never changed a thing or departed from the overall style. But, I also saw that they upped the ante by incorporating a cinematic feel, so the team didn’t restrain themselves from trying to go bigger and deeper either. In every way, they basically found the perfect balance of keeping everything the same while still doing something different, which is something that most television specials of animated TV shows are rarely able to accomplish.

Finally, the music that was composed for this special was stupendous. 

Once again, I really wish that the credits of WordGirl had revealed who made the music for this series. Because in my opinion, whoever made the score for “The Rise of Miss Power” seriously didn’t mess around with making a new kind of impression with it. The music for this special had an even greater amount of emotional feeling, and it complemented the story perfectly since it featured the characters going through something that wasn’t like any of their usual ventures. In every way, I thought that the music was worthy of an award.

Now if there is one thing I’d like to admit, it’d be that I wasn’t a fan of the “Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour” segments that came between each part of the episode. I didn’t think that they caused any significant problems, especially considering they were likely supposed to help “The Rise of Miss Power” completely qualify as a one-hour experience & give WordGirl’s all-time favorite show some spotlight. But, I found them to be relatively annoying & unnecessary, and I felt that it wouldn’t make any difference if they were excluded entirely. 

The good news is that people can easily skip past the “Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour” segments if they want, so it’s not like the experience of watching the actual WordGirl episode would be completely lost. Also, all four parts of the special were later released under a format where it’d look like they were split into a couple of two-part episodes, with “May I Have a Word?” segments coming on in place of the PPaMPPH segments, so that should provide a great alternative for people to go with.

In conclusion, though, "The Rise of Miss Power" is not only what I consider to be one of the best episodes of "WordGirl", it's one of the best television specials I ever watched. The voice acting and characters were awesome, the storytelling was spectacular, everything!

So, I rate “The Rise of Miss Power" five out of five stars.