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Grounded

Episode #04 (385-554) - Grounded
Original Airdate - October 14th, 2000

Static encounters a giant, Big Bang-created worm-like organism, which somehow worms its way inside Virgil’s school after hours, endangering many students, including Richie and Frieda, who’s writing an editorial protesting the school’s budget cuts.

Media by Bird Boy
Review by Matt Zimmer

Sketch: Static		 Credits:
Supervising Producer Alan Burnett
Producer Scott Jeralds
Associate Producer Shaun McLaughlin
Written by Len Uhley
Directed by James Tucker
Music by Stanley Clarke
Animation Production by Slightly Off Beat Productions, Top Draw Animation

Voices:
Phil LaMarr as Virgil Hawkins/Static
Jason Marsden as Richie Foley
Matt Ballard as Carmen Dillo
Danica McKellar as Frieda
Jonathan Floyd as Leon
Steve Franken as Mr. Janus
Karen Maruyama as Kim
Richard Tatum as Omar
 
Video

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Review

Static battles a giant mutant germ in this fast-paced and funny episode.

A giant mutant bacterium is terrorizing Dakota and Static and Richie surmise that it was mutated by the Big Bang gas. After a battle, Static clips off a piece of it to study and decides with Richie to break into the school lab to study it. Frieda and a group of kids have snuck in too to write an unauthorized edition of the school paper to complain about lack of funding for the journalism class. The germ tracks Virgil and Richie to the school in an effort to regain it's lost part which Virgil is currently chasing through the air ducts. He winds up in the room where Frieda and her friends were accidentally locked in by the janitor. Fortunately Richie knows exactly what is going on because of a new device called a Shock Box which are basically Walkie Talkies to keep him and Virgil in contact on missions. He steals the janitor’s keys after a narrow scrape with the germ and unlocks Virgil and the others. The others run off after seeing the germ and Static notices that the ammonia the janitor was using to mop the floor burns it so he leads it outside and crashes two giant tanks of the stuff killing it.

I'll admit it. This is NOT the best story of Static Shock. The only Bang Baby in it is a brief appearance by Carmen Dillo who fills a similar void in "Jimmy". The good news is that it is mad-funny. A lot of great reactions from Virgil and Richie in this one. I loved the students being told by Richie not to show fear to the creature and them running off screaming. I also loved the Groundskeeper Willie-esque janitor and the little blob attaching itself first to Richie then Virgil's face.

The animation was great this episode too. The creature a had weird green glow that I doubt was enhanced by CGI which is a crutch for this series in its last season (and Justice League for that matter). I also thought the expressions animated on the characters faces were wonderful. As I've said elsewhere I really miss the rubbery animation from the first season on this show.

There have definitely been better episodes but this was enjoyable none-the-less and definitely underrated in most circles.

Story: ***1/2
Animation: ****
Average: ***1/2
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