DVD Review: OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes (T.K.O.)

DVD Reviews, Reviews, Top Story

Battling card games are serious business even if you’re not in elementary school. People go nuts trying to get the right fighter with a massive experience level so they clobber all the weak cards. If they can’t pull one from a foil pack, they’ll trade or even buy them online. Things can easily escalate as they’re always itching for a face off. OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes goes deep inside the world of the card characters. The Cartoon Network series allows them to be self-aware that they exist as part of the game. OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes: T.K.O. contains the first 19 episodes of brawling fun which lasts nearly 4 hours.

O.K. (Courtenay Taylor) is a kid with dreams of being a big time fighter, but right now his card doesn’t do much in the neighborhood. But he’s starting to work on his beatdown skills. While hanging out with his mother at a gym, he gets sent off to get supplies at the nearby strip mall. The big store is owned by Mr. Gar (Office Space‘s David Herman), a legendary fighter noted for his bushy mustache, bare chest and necktie. K.O. goes nuts buying weapons instead of his mother’s shopping list. He even thinks he’s ready to step up when a robot attacks the parking lot outside the shop. But the boy quickly learns that he’s not quite ready. This ultimately makes him realize that he needs to learn from Gar. So he takes a flunky job at the store with Enid (Ashly Burch) and Rad (creator of the series Ian Jones-Quartey). K.O. struggles with slowly learning to rushing off across the street to the factory run by the evil Lord Boxman (Darkwing Duck‘s Jim Cummings). Will he be able to clean up on aisle 14 when there’s villains so close.

OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes: T.K.O. is extremely addictive as a cartoon. There’s plenty of fighting on screen, but the violence isn’t too graphic. The characters understand the fictional nature of their life so it’s just a part of their life to showdown. What is enjoyable is how K.O. doesn’t build up his levels by battling a bunch of small fries like I’ve done in certain video games. He’s willing to sweep the floors now and then to get insight on how to be a winner.

Along with the DVD, there a special OK K.O.! micro player arcade machine that you’d find in Mr Gar’s store. It’s covered in stickers with characters from the show and features a greatest hits of Data East including “Burger Time,” “Caveman Ninja,” “Bad Dudes” and “Karate Champ.” It’s also extremely addicting especially if you grew up in the video arcade era. It’s from myarcadegaming.com.

Here’s Josie’s unboxing of the DVD and micro player:

and her review of T.K.O.:

The video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The animation has a fine rough feeling as if it designed to be a flipped in pages of a high school textbook. It suits the action. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0. The levels bring out the battle scenes. The episodes are subtitled.

No bonus features.

Cartoon Network presents OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes: T.K.O.. Starring: Courtenay Taylor, Ashly Burch, Ian Jones-Quartey and David Herman. Boxset Contents: 19 episodes on 1 DVD. Released: July 17, 2018.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.