Counting Spaghetti (Lu & the Bally Bunch)

Counting Spaghetti
Mama Mia! We'd rather count how many plates of spaghetti we'll be eating than watch this childish feud of a preschool episode!
Series: Lu & the Bally Bunch Part of Season: 1 Episode Number: 12 Air Date: March 17th, 2023 (NZ; TVNZ) April 2023 (Cartoonito U.K.) April 3rd, 2023 (CAN; CBC Gem) April 17th, 2023 (CAN; CBC Kids) May 8th, 2023 (HBO MAX LATAM) July 4th, 2023 (AUS; ABC Kids and ABC iView) October 22, 2024 (US; Cartoonito) Writer: Denise Cassar Director: Cat Little Previous episode: Down in the Grumps Next episode: Lu's New Shows

Counting Spaghetti is the twelfth episode of the first season of Lu & the Bally Bunch and the twelfth episode overall.

Plot

Lu and Barnaby have a disagreement during Art Time at Shell School.

Why It Can't Count Spaghetti

1. This episode has one of the most immature and childish writing and directing of the whole show by Denise Cassar and Cat Little due to how Lu and Barnaby behaved in this episode. This episodes writing and directing makes Ray DeLaurentis' work look amazing.
   • This episode uses the cliche "character accidentally ruins another's work of art and the latter gets mad at him/her for it" plot that has been done on many preschool episodes before (especially Nick Jr.'s), except it's taken very mean-spiritedly.
   • It also uses the "calm down" plot cliche, which too has also been overused in many other preschool episodes before.
2. Almost none of the characters here are rootable here:
   • This episode puts Lu's unlikability on full blast (in other words, she's at her worst) as she overreacted at Barnaby just for accidentally getting a pinch of his paint on her Tara painting, and even went as far as to to attempt to do the same to HIS PAINTING! Normally, when Lu gets into arguments with her friends, particularly Declan and Barnaby, she would usually jump to conclusions but never has there been a moment where she would try to get revenge on others just because of a single tiny drop of paint that was only an accident (heck, not even other unlikable preschool protagonists like Peppa Pig would go that far, but some like Caillou would). This is without a doubt, Lu's most unlikable appearances of the whole show.
     • Hypocrisy: When Barnaby tells her to stop yelling at him, she's still yelling that she isn't.
     • Karma Houdini: After Lu and Barnaby make up after Elodie's so called "Counting Spaghetti" worked, they apologized to each other even though the former tried to ruin Barnaby's painting. And worse, nobody else even calls her out for her behavior and this type of action could've had Shella send Lu home so her parents would teach her a lesson.
   • Barnaby, after accidentally ruining her painting instead of just telling her sorry and ask her to make another one, he just rubbed the paint on Tara's tail, making it, and Lu's anger worse. We're supposed to feel bad for him here, but he's no better than Lu. He could've just told her to not be friends with him anymore. He also doesn't get called out for arguing with her either, making him an idiot houdini.
   • Elodie, when she saw Lu and Barnaby's argument, just acted like as if it's nothing to worry about, when seeing your friend attempting disproportionate retribution to another actually IS. Lu is your FRIEND, Elodie! When your best friend is doing something really, really mean-spirited to other people, you go up and tell them to snap out of it, not ignore them!
   • Shella, upon seeing what's happened, doesn't even call Lu and Barnaby out for arguing with each other over the latter's accident and the middle for freaking out over a tiny splat of paint. She just says "I see you're pretty annoyed." It's a mystery how she got hired as a teacher in the first place...
   • Gus, Declan and Biba did not even look a little uncomfortable seeing Lu and Barnaby's fight. They just looked at them and not say anything about it when they could've just told Shella about this. Why are they still friends with Lu after what she did, we'll never know.
3. The voice acting from Freya Mclaughlin and Leo Tobin are extremely annoying to listen to due to how their characters yelled at each other over a "big deal". Especially the former.
4. The music that plays when Lu tries to ruin Barnaby's painting back is too cartoonishly intense to listen to.
5. This episode felt like a failed attempt to teach viewers how to calm down when they get angry.
6. While it worked, Elodie's idea to "count spaghetti" as a way to get Lu and Barnaby to stop fighting is a dumb idea. Using this way to calm down doesn't ALWAYS work in real life preschools, so when younger students start fights with others, you're suppose to tell the teacher so he/she will either separate them, put them in time out, or call both of their parents over to take them home early and scold them so that way by the next day, they'll calm down. Using calming down techniques are really generic in cartoons nowadays, so punishment and discipline is the best way to go.
7. Because of all these awful pointers, this makes it one of the worst episodes of the whole show.
   • And to add insult to injury, this wouldn't be the only time Denise and Cat worked on an episode involving Lu and Barnaby....
8. Bad Moral: If somebody accidentally ruins something you were working on, get mad at that person, accuse him/her for doing it on purpose and ruin his/her's back.
9. "No! You mess up mine, IT'S ONLY FAIR!"

The Only Redeeming Quality

1. The first couple of minutes were tolerable until Barnaby spills paint on Lu's Tara painting.

Gallery

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  Lu, we get you're angry at Barnaby, so, getting mad at someone over accidentally getting a splat of paint on your artwork? Okay. But trying to ruin THEIR'S as payback?! That's just messed up. And as for you, Elodie. How would you feel if Lu tried to ruin your painting?

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