Trivia Tropes For Star vs. the Forces of Evil
Trivia With Their Own Pages
- Acting for Two:
- Alan Tudyk voices King Butterfly and Ludo.
- Grey DeLisle voices Queen Butterfly and Jackie.
- Adam McArthur voices Marco Diaz and the Big Chicken in Season 1.
- Pamela Adlon, Laura Silverman, and Bresha Webb voice all of Pony Head's sisters.
- Jeff Bennett voices Gemini and King Shastacan and is more noticed by their speech and accent making it ironic that Meteora killed someone with the same voice as the king who striped her birthright. He also voices Principal Skeeves.
- Actor-Shared Background:
- Adam McArthur is an avid martial artist who occasionally competes in tournaments, much like Marco, though he specializes in Judo and wushu, not karate.
- Ruberiot the songstrel is voiced by Fall Out Boy lead vocalist Patrick Stump. In the Japanese dub, the same character is voiced by Kenichi Suzumura, who is a professional singer as well.
- Adored by the Network:
- Disney ordered a second season of the series before the first season began to air. Then they did the same thing with the third season. And the fourth one. As such, it's one of the rare non-preschool Disney series in the 2010s to receive a fourth season.
- The series received a weekday strip after five episodes.
- After Gravity Falls ended, the Disney XD social media set all its efforts to turn Star into the new flagship show. That is, until the love for the show began to diminish and ratings went downhill and the show was pulled from Disney for good after the final episode.
- The first four episodes of Season 3 aired as a 2 hour TV movie called Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The Battle for Mewni.
- Author's Saving Throw: In "Running with Scissors" Marco enters another universe where time flows differently, living 30 years before being returned to 14. However, the episode strongly implies that he remained 30 years old mentally, which many fans saw as giving some...disconcerting implications to his many love triangles with the teenage cast. In the live streams, they clarify that while he's aware of his time in Hekapoo's dimension, the memories are blurry and dreamlike rather then personal, confirming he is indeed still mentally 14 rather then a 30 year old in a 14 year old's body.
- Banned Episode:
- "The Banagic Incident" is the only episode of Star vs. the Forces of Evil that is not allowed to air in the UK. It's not known why, but speculation is that the Banagic Wand was said to look like a sex toy.
- This episode (alongside "Mewnipendence Day", which it is paired with) is also completely unavailable on Disney+ in various European countries.
- Subverted with the Season 2 episode "Just Friends", which was briefly pulled from both broadcast rotation and the website for unknown reasons. It was strongly believed to be because of the four same-sex couples kissing onscreen in a Freeze-Frame Bonus, but there was no official statement from Disney or evidence to support this, and it was quickly returned to rotation unchanged after fan backlash.
- "The Banagic Incident" is the only episode of Star vs. the Forces of Evil that is not allowed to air in the UK. It's not known why, but speculation is that the Banagic Wand was said to look like a sex toy.
- Banned in China: The entire show got banned in Kenya
during its first season for allegedly promoting homosexuality. This led to Seasons 2 and later being an outright No Export for You in all of Africa, due to Disney Channel operating a single network for the continent. - Billing Displacement: In "Crystal Clear"/"The Hard Way", Kevin Michael Richardson, who voices Rhombulus in the first segment, is merely credited under "additional voices" despite his character playing a major role. On the flip side, Michael C. Hall is given top billing as Toffee in the latter segment despite not appearing until the end.
- Celebrity Voice Actor:
- Eden Sher makes her voice acting debut as Star Butterfly.
- Patrick Stump voices Ruberiot.
- Michael C. Hall voices Toffee.
- Jessica Walter voices Miss Heinous.
- Jenny Slate as Pony Head.
- Eclipsa is voiced by British actress Esmé Bianco.
- Zosia Mamet as Hekapoo.
- Channel Hop:
- The sneak preview aired on Disney Channel, but the series officially premiered on its sister network Disney XD.
- The Season 4 episodes premiered on Disney Channel before they reran on Disney XD.
- Completely Different Title:
- In Japan, the show is titled 悪魔バスター★スター・バタフライ (Demon Buster ★ Star Butterfly).
- The French dub simply calls the show Star Butterfly.
- The Korean dub renames the series 프린세스 스타의 모험일기 (Princess Star's Adventure Diary).
- The Italian dub adds Marco to the show's title, becoming Marco e Star contro le forze del male (Marco and Star against the forces of evil).
- Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: Some fans were irritated by the review by Marcy Cook of The Mary Sue, in which she complained about Marco's "retconned" personality from the pilot, claiming that he "goes from overly safety conscious to martial arts expert looking for adventure." In actuality, Marco was already a martial arts expert and excited at the idea of adventure even in the pilot. Although his "safety conscious" aspect is somewhat downplayed later on, he's still shown to be a rather cautious and careful character. Both of these aspects are present in the pilot:Marco: Are there gonna be monsters attacking us all the time?
Star: Yeah, probably.
Marco: All right! Sounds so dangerous! Whoa! Let's cross at the light. - Creator Backlash: Tom's voice actor, Rider Strong, wasn't very happy with how his character was handled in the latter half of Season 4, mainly the fact that he broke up with Star with a poor excuse just so she could get together with Marco in the end.
- Creator's Favorite: Daron Nefcy has stated that Flying Princess Pony Head is one of the characters she likes and enjoys the most in the show.
- Creator's Pest: Alfonzo and Ferguson were created by the request of executives who wanted Marco to have male friends. Daron Nefcy admits she had no idea what to do with the characters, and thus ignored them after Season 1.
- Cross-Dressing Voices: The Greek dub oddly plays this trope straight with Tom of all characters, with him somehow voiced by a woman.
- Descended Creator:
- Daron Nefcy voices Sabrina and StarFan13.
- Writer and producer Dominic Bisignano voices the "Bearded Hipster" character in one episode.
- Dueling Shows: With the move to Disney Channel for Season 4, the show competed against Tangled: The Series, another Disney show about a plucky, blonde-haired princess. This was especially true since the first half of Season 4 aired on the same day as the rest of Season 2 of Tangled.
- Executive Meddling:
- A positive example. The original pitch for the series had Star as a grade school girl who believed she had magical powers due to an overactive imagination. A Disney Animation executive suggested to Daron Nefcy that she should give Star real magical powers, something which both Nefcy and the Disney execs ended up loving.
- Alfonzo and Ferguson were added because Disney requested Marco have male friends. Daron Nefcy resented this and used them as little as possible.
- Fake Brit:
- American Grey DeLisle gives Queen Moon a British accent.
- Alan Tudyk, an American, also voices King River with a British accent.
- Fake Nationality:
- Fred Tatasciore, an American, voices Buff Frog with a Russian accent.
- Rob Paulsen, an American, uses a Scandinavian accent when voicing Gustav. Though it becomes subverted when it's revealed that Gustav is actually an American kid, with Rob Paulsen using his natural voice. It's then played straight again when he pretends to be a French kid, with Rob still doing the accent.
- Fake Mixed Race: Marco is biracial but is voiced by a Caucasian actor.
- Fan Community Nicknames: Marco's fans are called "Meatballs" by Adam McArthur, Marco's voice actor, on his Twitter account.
- Fandom Life Cycle: Started at Stage 4 but the mediocre receptions for Seasons 3 and especially 4 caused it to enter Stage 6a, if not 6b. Although the show continues to attract new fans, there's no denying that Star vs. isn't as popular as it used to be.
- Fandom Nod:
- "Starco" is the Portmanteau Couple Name for Star/Marco in the fandom, and it's intensely popular. Then comes Season 2's "Mr. Candle Cares", in which Mr. Candle and Marco explicitly say it.
- While not mentioned in the show itself, the first piece in the musical suite for the climax of "Bon Bon the Birthday Clown" is titled "Jarco Interrupted", named after the Portmanteau Couple Name for Jackie/Marco.
- He Also Did:
- Marco's bouncy, happy "Space Unicorn" ringtone? It's by Parry Gripp, the frontman of Nerf Herder, who wrote and performed the theme song to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Star Butterfly is the first animated voice acting credit of Eden Sher, best known as Sue Heck in The Middle.
- Storyboard artist Sage Cotugno is also the creator of a webcomic called The Glass Scientists.
- In Memoriam: Hazel Hammersley, daughter of series director Aaron Hammersley, died during Easter weekend 2018. The Season 4 premiere was dedicated to her memory.
- No Budget: The Marco Live Chat videos which were animated in real-time using Stock Footage from the show and were overall limited in terms of actual animation.
- No Export for You: Because Kenya banned the show, and Disney Channel operating a single network for the continent, Seasons 2 to 4 were never officially released in the entirety of Africa.
- The Other Darrin:
- Keith David replaces Jeffrey Tambor as Glossaryck due to the sexual harassment allegations facing the latter, starting in the Season 3 finale. This is lampshaded by Star after Glossaryck reveals he's been perfectly fine all along:
Star: Is his voice different?- Scott Menville voices Manfred in "Rest in Pudding" instead of his usual voice actor Greg Ellis.
- Dominic Catrambone replaces Nick Swardson as Sensei Brantley in seasons 3-4.
- Out of Order:
- Technically, the only episodes to fall victim to this is "Hungry Larry"/"Spider with a Top Hat", but not only were they written with this in mind, as "Hungry Larry" is the Halloween special, and thus would be premiered around Halloween regardless of how far along the rest of the season was, but they don't make chronological sense where they do fall.note
- There's "Stump Day/Holiday Spellcial", which aired two weeks after "Monster Bash", but was produced before it. This was to coincide with Christmas.
- Pop-Culture Urban Legends: It's often believed by people online that the series was abruptly cancelled midway through Season 4, resulting in its controversial series finale as the crew rushed to wrap up the story they had. However, Daron Nefcy has stated that Season 4 was always intended to be the final season, and that if it hadn't been greenlit, she would have argued for a final half-hour episode to conclude the series.
- Production Posse: Due to Kelly Ward being the voice director of all four shows, several voice actors from The 7D, The Lion Guard, and Mickey and the Roadster Racers are reunited here such as Kevin Michael Richardson, Tress MacNeille, Corey Burton, Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche, Dee Bradley Baker, Jeff Bennett, Leigh Allyn Baker, Nika Futterman, April Winchell, Billy West, Scott Menville, Kari Wahlgren, Phil LaMarr, Lyons Luke Mathias, Eric Bauza, Tania Gunadi, and Russi Taylor.
- Quietly Cancelled: Despite being billed as an eight issue series, the Deep Trouble tie-in comic vanished after issue 4, with its cancelation only becoming known over a year later in 2018, after artist Devin Taylor uploaded covers for the remaining four issues onto his Twitter.
- Recycled Script:
- "St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses" is similar to the Phineas and Ferb episode "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted". It helps that they share one of the same writers, Piero Piluso.
- The 2 part season 3 finale borrows heavily from "Secret Of The Sundrop" from Tangled: The Series.
- "Monster Bash" is very similar to the Elena of Avalor episode "Masks of Magic" in that they both focus on throwing an important social gathering to unite various groups/species. The only difference is that Elena's ends happily while Star's doesn't.
- Referenced by...: The moon in Amphibia is an almost-perpetual red crescent, similarly to the Blood Moon.
- Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Jeffrey Tambor lost his job voicing Glossaryk before the Season 3 finale following sexual harassment allegations. Keith David took over the role from the Season 3 finale onwards.
- Rule 34 – Creator Reactions: Sage Cotugno has expressed discomfort with the existence of NSFW fan art of the underage characters and the excitement some older fans have over said fan art:Cotugno: It's just weird when people make disturbingly on-model sex scenes of children's cartoon characters and talk about how hot it is.
- Schedule Slip: "Is Another Mystery" and "Marco Jr." were originally slated to air on January 22, 2018, but were delayed until March 17 for unknown reasons.
- Screwed by the Network:
- The show fell into this in late 2018. Reruns were greatly reduced as it kept going.
- Moving from Disney XD to Disney Channel didn't mean anything since new episodes aired on Sunday mornings at 8:00 before moving to 7:00, with only Disney XD airing reruns. Also, despite being seen as one of network's best shows, after the final episode of the series aired on May 19th, 2019, the show was pulled from Disney Channel for good. But it can still be found on Disney+.
- Shipper on Set: Adam McArthur is the biggest Starco shipper in the world, and has been vocal about that fact since long before the Ship Tease between Star & Marco became blatant.
- Teasing Creator:
- Throw It In!: Originally the episode "Ludo in the Wild" was to be completely silent, until Alan Tudyk started ad-libbing dialogue for Ludo as noted here.
- Trolling Creator: Trolling network in this case; someone in the social media/promotional department at Disney really knows how to mess with the fandom's head. The trailer for the Season 2 premiere had the "smooch buddies" line, while the trailer for the second half of said season had this◊ shot of briefly mixed in at the end. This was done again with the San Diego Comic-Con 2017 sneak peek for Season 3, which showed Star and Tom's dance from "Club Snubbed" out of context. Though this did turn out to signal the rekindling of the duo's relationship a few episodes later.
- Unspecified Role Credit: The show only gives specific credits for who voices the main characters and some of the major supporting players while pushing all the voices for minor characters and various supporting characters to additional voices only which creates a bit of confusion on who voices who with people initially assuming Grey Griffin had voiced Janna during the first season (as Abby Elliot was pushed to the additional voices credit only at the time) before season 2 revealed Abby Elliot to be Janna's voice actress in the credits for "Girls' Day Out".
- Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: At the Star vs. the Forces of Evil panel during the Gallery Nucleus art show, a sneak peak of the new opening sequence for Season 3 was shown. The show's staff warned the audience that they probably wouldn't be able to give sneak peaks like that ever again if any of them recorded it and leaked it to the Internet. Unfortunately, someone did it anyway, albeit in extremely low quality, much to the disappointment of the trustworthy fans and Adam McArthur.
- Word of Gay: Sage Cotugno has said that Rhombulus and Lekmet of the Magic High Commission "are totally live-in boyfriends with some communication issues to address." Cotugno also declared (probably jokingly) that Everyone Is Bi in response to another storyboard artist pulling a Shrug of God/God Does Not Own This World answer to a fan asking if Marco is bisexual.
- Working Title: The series’ original title was Star and the Forces of Evil.
- Write Who You Know:
- According to Daron Nefcy, Star’s personality was based on hers, while Marco’s personality was based at least in part on her husband's.
- Marco getting his high school equivalence to skip his junior and senior years was based on Nefcy doing the same thing as a teenager.
