Review: The Casagrandes “Alpaca Lies/Rocket Plan”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Alpaca Lies

Ronnie Anne and Bobby have to deal with an old friend of Arturo’s, Beto the alpaca, but Beto has it out for the kids.

Rocket Plan

Abuelo helps CJ build a rocket, but when things aren’t going well, Abuelo tells a little fib to preserve CJ’s feelings.

Our Take:

The plot in the first episode consists of Ronnie Anne and Bobby confronting their father’s alpaca, Beto. While Beto is extremely friendly towards Arturo, he’s not very nice towards his kids, which is where the humor comes in. Most of the episode has Beto making Ronnie Anne and Bobby’s lives unbearable whenever Arturo’s not around. After being blamed for Beto’s incidents too many times, the kids attempt to catch Beto in the act. They tried getting Arturo to see him pushing Ronnie Anne into the fountain and getting video evidence of Beto kicking Bobby. They eventually succeeded when a television broadcast recorded Beto kicking them into the water, forcing Arturo to send him back to Peru. Seeing how saddened Arturo is, Ronnie Anne, Bobby, and Beto call a truce to make him happy.

The episode has the usual formula centering on characters getting falsely accused for their mischievous adversary’s incidents for reasons, whether it’s jealousy, obsession, or no reason at all. These storylines can be annoying depending on the execution of the scenario and the mischievous character. While it’s nowhere near as bad as the infamous episode from Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends involving Bendy, “Alpaca Lies” is a formulaic yet comical scenario featuring the world’s most trouble-making alpaca.  

The second episode sees CJ building a rocket to send into space, with Hector showing up to assist him. After several failed attempts, CJ quickly gives up, resulting in Hector secretly replacing his homemade rocket with a functional one to boost CJ’s confidence. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned, as Hector accidentally got his pants stuck in the rocket during liftoff. This resulted in CJ gaining the confidence needed to build another rocket with the townspeople to rescue him.

The episode’s humor consists of CJ and Hector trying numerous ways to launch their rocket. They used bottles of soda, Lalo’s gas, and Mr. Inflatable to get the rocket flying, but it kept crashing down. The running gags include Sergio making a documentary of the attempts and Hector hiding his fried chicken in his secret stashes until Rosa catches him in the act. 

Overall, both episodes are suitable enough to close off another round of misadventures with the Casagrande family. “Alpaca Lies” is a formulaic but tolerable episode that pits Ronnie Anne and Bobby against a jealous alpaca. “Rocket Plan” is a successful launch that has CJ learning not to give up on his space dream when things get complicated for him.