Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is a Disney Channel animated series based on the characters appearing in Marvel Comics. It is produced by Disney Television Animation (a first since Disney’s acquisition of Marvel), developed by Steve Loter (Kim Possible, The Ghost and Molly McGee), Jeffrey M. Howard, and Kate Kondell. Laurence Fishburne executive produces.

A Pragmatic Adaptation of the comic book series, with its premise true to the comics, the show follows young genius Lunella Lafayette (Diamond White) as she accidentally summons - and befriends - the T. rex Devil Dinosaur (Fred Tatasciore). Together, they set out to protect New York’s Lower East Side from villains while trying to keep her identity and Devil's existence a secret, with Lunella's best friend Casey being the only one in on it who acts as their manager.

Also in the voice cast are Sasheer Zamata, Jermaine Fowler, Libe Barer, Gary Anthony Williams, Alfre Woodard, and Wesley Snipes, with Fishburne voicing the Beyonder in a recurring capacity. The series premiered with a two-part episode on February 10, 2023, after several delays. A second season premiered on February 2, 2024. The show was cancelled due to Disney deciding not to move forward with the series.

Previews: Sneak Peak, Music Featurette, Comic Con Sneak Peak, Trailer 1, Extended Theme Song, 2023 New Year’s Sneak Peak, Trailer 2, Trailer 3, Season 2 Teaser, Season 2 Trailer

Tropes:

• A Boy and His X: Much like the original comics, this superhero tale chronicles the life of a girl and her dinosaur. Devil Dinosaur even acts like he's Lunella's dog!
• Adaptational Backstory Change:
  • In the comics, Devil Dinosaur was brought to the present by Kree technology. Here, he came to New York through a portal that Lunella built based on blueprints by the original Moon Girl, a human scientist who just so happens to be Lunella's grandmother.
  • In the original comics, the name of Moon Girl was based on a mockery made by some classmates in front of Lunella. Here, it is the codename of a scientist somehow aware of her identity in which Lunella serves it as an inspiration for her superhero alter-ego.
• Adaptational Nice Girl: Though Lunella can still be smug and ego driven sometimes, she's much more good natured compared to her original counterpart.
• Adapted Out: Moon Boy and the rival caveman tribe from the comics do not appear in the series.
• Adaptation Expansion: Lunella's extended family, namely her grandparents, (with Mimi taking the place of Jojo as Lunella's grandmother for some reason) as well as friends from her school, are introduced in the series.
• Age Lift: Lunella was nine years old in the comics, while here she's thirteen.
• All Animals Are Dogs: Devil Dinosaur shows these traits within the series, including licking Lunella like a dog. Casey even refers to him as Clifford in "Moon Girl Landing", who's also big and red but actually a canine.
• Ambiguous Situation: Devos the Destroyer appears in episode 2 and the Mad Thinker is mentioned in a "Moon Girl's Lab" short. Both being Fantastic Four enemies, their existence opens the possibility of the team also existing in this continuity, yet no mention is made of them.
• And the Adventure Continues: The series ends with the titular duo joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and moving on from New York to greater adventures.
• Animation Bump: Whenever Lunella plays music on her cassette, often during the action sequences at the climax of an episode, it's accompanied by a visually creative, colorful style change and buttery smooth animation. This happens in every single episode.
• Animesque: The series has a number of anime-like visuals, expressions and Manga Effects, such as the face Casey makes when her phone is knocked out of her hand.
• Artistic License – Animal Care:
  • Devil Dinosaur was seen eating chocolate ice cream in the second "Moon Girl's Lab" short, with Moon Girl's only concern is that it will act as a distraction for him as they battle Vincente. Given chocolate is poisonous to birds and other modern-day reptiles, there is no reason to believe it wouldn't affect non-avian dinosaurs. Plus there's the fact reptiles are lactose-intolerant.
  • Devil Dinosaur probably eats too many hot dog buns for a carnivore of his size.
• Art Shift:
  • The animated series depicts the characters and their settings a more simplistic, yet stylized manner compared to the comic-book.
  • The Mixtape Moments in the series itself shift the usual art style of the show into a more surrealistic and artsy rendering of it, with unique grapical designs and color palettes that heighten the reality of the narrative based on the themes and elements used for each episode, (including the lyrics of the song playing in the background) The characters are gaining a flat solid coloring around them to match with the abstract look of these musical sequences.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: This trope appears in pretty much every episode, with Moon Girl usually fighting villains while playing music from the cassette player her mother gave her. (She was given a 'Juiced-up' version of it made by Merle and Matsuye to match with her new suit in Season 2.)
• Bait-and-Switch: When Lunella grabs a ton of food from the fridge to feed Devil, Mimi stops her and tells Lunella that she can't be eating all that food... without some pie too. Mimi then puts a slice of pie on the stack that Lunella gives to Devil.
• Bear Hug: The graphic novel "Wreck And Roll" has Casey hug Lunella tightly as she expresses joy over her trying out for the Slay Train roller derby team.
• Benevolent Boss: The graphic novel "Wreck And Roll" shows how Jessica is a pretty good captain for the Slay Train roller derby team. When one of the members gets injured, she tells her not to push herself.
• Big Applesauce: The series is set in the Lower East Side. Naturally. This is Marvel, after all.
• Big Eater: Devil Dinosaur has an insatiable appetite (especially for hot dogs). His ability to eat large amounts of food actually comes in handy once or twice.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • In "Party Girl", Martin Li/Mr. Negative pretends to be a benevolent man that wants Moon Girl's party services, but he actually wants to steal from her.
  • The graphic novel "Wreck And Roll" writes The Collector this way. To the Slay Train roller derby team, he presents himself as Mr. Tivan, a benevolent man who wants to help them reopen the neighborhood skating rink. He just wants them to deliver some packages for him and pull off some jobs. As it turns out, he just wanted them to do his bidding so that he can collect precious artifacts from Earth.
• Bookends: Season 1 begins and ends with the Villain of the Week having a personal connection to Lunella and figuring out her identity as Moon Girl (Aftershock was Lunella's science teacher, Morlak was Mimi's lab partner). Both even suffer an Uncertain Doom by Irony (Aftershock was pulled into the LES power grid, which she used to charge her electricity powers; Morlak was pulled into Mimi's portal generator, which he wanted to use to summon an army of interdimensional monsters).
• Bottomless Magazines: Moon Girl always has way more boxing gloves than she should be able to carry. Yet, she keeps firing them repeatedly without ever running out of them. Lampshaded by Aftershock.
  Aftershock: How many gloves do you have?
  Lunella: It's gloves all the way down, baby!
• Brains and Brawn: Lunella names this trope when describing how she (the teen genius) and Devil Dinosaur (the giant dinosaur) could become superheroes.
• Breaking Old Trends: In contrast to Marvel Animation's shows from the 2010s, which heavily utilized the idea of shared universes and superhero team ups, this series is more restrained when it comes to showing other Marvel characters, and is very much in its own continuity. This is a consequence of the show being based at Disney Television Animation with only high-level oversight from Marvel.
• The Cameo:
  • Captain America appears as a mural on a building neighboring Lunella's apartment.
  • Silhouettes of Black Panther, Shuri, and M'Baku are glimpsed in Lunella's Imagine Spot during "The Beyonder".
  • When Lunella briefly travels decades into the future during "Skip This Ad...olescence", the "Wanted!" Poster behind her shows a bunch of lesser known Avengers-related characters like Blue Marvel, Hellcat, Deathlok, Jolt, Jocasta, Moondragon, Swordsman, D-Man, White Tiger, Nighthawk, Stingray, Darkhawk, Sleepwalker, Paladin, Triathlon and Smasher.
  • Captain America (Sam Wilson) appears at the very end of "Today, I Am a Woman" to apprehend Odessa Drake after she's defeated by Lunella.
• Canon Foreigner: The series includes many new characters who do not originate from the comics, such as Casey, Lunella's grandparents, and some of the supervillains that they fight throughout the series.
• Casting Gag: Devil Dinosaur is voiced by Fred Tatasciore. This isn't the only Disney show where he voiced the animal companion to a young black girl inventor. ^note Though it's worth mentioning that Eureka's animal companion is Murphy the mammoth. However, this still counts since he also voices Pepper's dinosaur friend Dipply, and Pepper, much like Casey in this show, has 2 same-sex parents.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Season 1 begins as mostly a comedic, lighthearted Monster of the Week kind of show with some overarching elements here and there. Beginning from "The Beyonder" however, the series becomes a lot more dramatic and serialized, putting more emphasis on emotions and action. Season 2 pushes this further as the pressure with Lunella and Mimi's secret identities boil over with their family, the former battling more personal foes, and her mental health deteriorates.
  • Cerebus Rollercoaster: The show switches between episodes that are pretty fun adventures (such as "Check Yourself", "Devil on Her Shoulder", and "Belly of the Beast") and more serious, personal stories (such as "The Beyonder", "Suit Up!", and "Make It, Don't Break It").
• Continuity Nod: After having a literal fight with her cut-off hair, Lunella always wears her sleeping cap at night to look after it properly.
• Counter Gag: "Dog Day Mid-Afternoon" has a bone shaped "dog pun counter" that ticks up every time someone makes a pun relating to dogs in some way. It even keeps track of the puns made through song lyrics. Final Tally: 22.
• Creative Closing Credits: Each episode (except for "The Molecular Level" and "Shoot for the Moon") contains a unique animated looping moment related to the episode.
• Create Your Own Hero: Aftershock is indirectly responsible for Lunella becoming Moon Girl, as Aftershock's constant draining of the Lower East Side spurs Lunella to create the temporal portal generator in an attempt to fix the power issue. This in turn brings Devil Dinosaur to the present and Casey subsequently convinces Lunella to become Moon Girl and investigate the constant blackouts.
• Create Your Own Villain: Literally, in the case of her own chemically-treated cut-off hair, a device she made to fast-forward real life, and a fake boyfriend.
• Cultural Exchange Is Good: The Lower East Side is presented as a melting pot of multiple cultures, including Black, Latino, and Jewish, and is much better for it. This is particularly highlighted in "Like Mother, Like Daughter", where a rich white couple moves in and offers to upgrade the neighborhood in exchange for more input into how it's run. Over time, their "improvements" start to suck the life out of the neighborhood, robbing it of its charm until Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur drive them out.
• Darker and Edgier: While the show still retains a good balance of action, comedy, and heartwarming moments, season 2 leans into more intense stories where Lunella really struggles to take on more challenging situations that nearly break her.
• Denser and Wackier: The show is more comedy-centric in its tone and visuals compared to the original Marvel comic books.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Almost all of the musical segments in the episodes are featured as background music in-universe. It's usually provided by Lunella's cassette player as a way for her to get serious, but it's also been provided by Adria's turntables, the entire LES grouping together, or the Beyonder and Rat King singing their own Villain Songs.
• Disney Acid Sequence: The mixtape segments in each episode will have the trippiness of the visuals kicked up a notch to match the energy of the music, depending on the fight.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Diamond White, who voices Lunella, also performs the show's theme song, "Moon Girl Magic".
• Dramatic Ammo Depletion: Well, gravity goo. Gravitas is overly reliant on his gravity fluid as a weapon against Moon Girl. So she calculates the volume of the cylinder used to supply the fluid and spends an extended sequence dodging until he runs out. Just when it looks like he has her cornered, he hears an empty click as he'd spent it all.
• Dream Sequence: The graphic novel "Wreck And Roll" has Lunella dreaming about winning the roller derby tournament, and impressing the team, her friends, and family. She's then woken up by Adria.
• Elaborate Underground Base:
  • Lunella's lab is accessed via a secret elevator in her closet that leads to an abandoned subway station. She keeps all of her experiments and equipment down there, including a fusion reactor and the portal generator that brought Devil to the present.
  • The Hot Tomatoes' home in the desert is small and cozy, but it contains a shuttle that leads underground to a sprawling and fantastic lab in a warehouse built into the side of a mountain. It's filled with metal forges, laser beams, synthetic tissue facilities, and much more.
• Electric Jellyfish: When Devil has an Imagine Spot of being stung by jellyfish, he's depicted as being shocked as if he were being electrocuted rather than hit with poison stingers.
• Entitled to Have You: In "Crushed", Lunella creates a fake boyfriend named Cory so that she doesn't have to tell Eduardo that she doesn't have a crush on him. Unfortunately, when Cory malfunctions, he's then reprogrammed to make sure that no one can have Lunella but him.
• Epic Fail: In her first outing as a superhero, the crooks Lunella comes across mock her over the fact that she doesn't even have a name yet. Plus, Devil Dinosaur leaves to go eat garbage. As Lunella attempts to get Devil under control, the crooks just pack up their car and leave. Lunella tries to fire a boxing glove at the crooks, which misses wide, ricochets off a light pole, and knocks Casey's phone out of her hand while the crooks just drive off. If not for Casey finding out the robbers with her phone, they would have gotten away scot-free.
• Episode Title Card: Each episode presents its title in the form of wall graffiti.
• Expressive Mask: Lunella’s goggles are shown to have slots designed to imitate her eyebrows and eyelids.
• Eye Awaken: Lunella does one at the very end of the Season 1 finale, shocked at where she ended up after passing through the portal.
• Eye Catch: Each episode contains special colored record covers with the series' logo, played against cool instrumentals from the soundtrack.
• Family Business: Lunella’s family runs the local rollerskating rink Roll With It, and have for several decades.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: A Season 1 teaser shows Maria Hill holding a boxy high-tech pistol instead of her usual semiautomatic.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Parent: The ending to "The Molecular Level" has Adria tell Lunella that she can't be Moon Girl anymore after they barely survive Molecule Man's rampage. This continues into "Moon Girl, Grounded" with how insistent she is on making sure she doesn't go back to being a superhero. She eventually relents, but at the cost of a rift forming between her and Lunella, but they repair it in "Full Moon".
• Fear Is Normal: Lunella is terrified of Coney Island after an accident there when she was only 5. Unfortunately for her, not only did her grandma buy tickets for a trip there, but she encounters The Beyonder who is fascinated by her fear. She's embarrassed by how afraid she is, but a pep talk from Mimi and a demonstration by Devil show her that she doesn't have to get over her fears, she just has to perservere through them.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Adria is giving Lunella her final words upon the family learning her identity as Moon Girl in the ending of "The Molecular Level", she isn't smiling once as she praises her for it; just after doing so, she bans her from being Moon Girl.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The series of clips from Lunella's time jump's during "Skip This Ad...olescence" contains multiple Continuity Nods, Shout-Outs, and Foreshadowing. while the most time is given to the scene of her at a dance with Eduardo and the Wanted Posters in what looks like a dystopian future, we also see clips of the Volley Ball Team singing karaoke from the earlier episode "Goodnight, Moon Girl", her standing over a tiny Devil Dinosaur and fighting Torg from the later episode "Devil on Her Shoulder", facing Maris Morlak in the season finale "OMG! Issue #2", and a scene of her being carried by her Alternate Universe counterpart Devil Girl in the Season 2 premiere "The Great Beyond-er!".
• Friend on the Force: Lunella sends Abyss and the Muzzlers into SHIELD custody.
• Gelatinous Encasement: When The Beyonder regains his powers, he defeats Molecule Man by turning him into a baby and trapping him in a gelatin mold.
• Hair as Cultural Identity:
  • In "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow", Lunella gets self-conscious about her curly natural hair and tries to chemically straighten it, accidentally causing it to become the sentient Mane and seek revenge against her for years of failing to care for it properly, which also leave her temporarily bald. When her mother and grandmother find out, they gently lecture her about how natural black curly hair may be harder to maintain, but chemical straighteners also require extra steps to be done safely. In the end, Lunella apologizes to Mane for hurting it and Mane agrees to peacefully re-merge with her. Thereafter, she takes much better care of her hair.
  • In the first-season finale, flashbacks show how Mimi used to straighten her hair to conform to white standards when she worked for the US government. After leaving the government, she stopped using straighteners and her hair gradually returned to its natural curliness.
• Heel–Face Turn: While this doesn't apply to all the characters, many of the villains that Lunella fights usually become good at the end of their first or second appearance.
• Homage:
  • Lunella has a hack pack that looks like a Super-Deformed version of her Moon Girl face. It looks like Lunella might have seen Radical Edward on video with her nerdy dad at some point.
  • In the "Mane" episode, the titular villain steals Lunella's wig and boils it, a la a certain bunny boiling madwoman from film.
  • Brooklyn's little brother has a resemblance to Mandark.
• "I Have a Boyfriend" Excuse: In "Crushed", Eduardo tries to ask Lunella out to an upcoming dance. Lunella has no romantic interest in Eduardo but doesn't want to hurt his feelings by rejecting him, and thus claims that she already has a date. She then goes and actually creates a fake boyfriend to try to sell the lie.
• In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: While this series notably has Disney Television Animation has a co-producer, it's still specifically marketed as Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
• I've Come Too Far: The graphic novel "Wreck And Roll" has Moon Girl tell Jessica that The Collector was just using Slay Train to steal for him. While Jessica isn't cool with this, she's not sure about going back on this since she feels they've gone too far and can't go back from this.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • For all the delight that The Beyonder has in messing with Lunella, he also genuinely cares for her.
  • Lunella's counterpart Devil Girl is very aggressive and confrontational, but nonetheless still tries doing the right thing.
• Joisey: "The Armpit of America" variety. In the first episode, Adria voices her concerns about the blacksouts' effects on the community, and declares that she refuses to raise her daughter in Jersey. She then immediately follows this with "No disrespect to Jersey!" Lunella says the same thing when she explains why she has to protect the neighborhood.
• Mental Health Recovery Arc: The bond within the Lafayette family has been tested in the aftermath of "The Molecular Level." In this story arc, Lunella reveals her identity as Moon Girl to her family, while Adria struggles with her concerns about the dangers that come with her daughter’s superhero lifestyle. At the same time, Mimi’s history as the Original Moon Girl comes to light, further complicating matters as the family faces a traumatic attack at the hands of the vengeful Molecule Man in their own home. Though it took time to heal, by the end of "Full Moon," Adria reconciles with Lunella, accepting Moon Girl as an essential part of her daughter’s identity. Through this journey, the family emerges with a restored, stronger, and more united bond than ever before.
• Monster of the Week: Many of the villains that Lunella faces usually only appear for an episode or two. The closest thing to a recurring threat would be Rockin Rudy.
• Mythology Gag:
  • One of the shops in Lunella’s neighborhood is a toy and game shop called Battleworld, as in the setting of the various Secret Wars miniseries.
  • One of Lunella's ideas for her superhero costume is basically Shatterstar with hockey sticks instead of swords.
  • There's also a girl who skates at the family's rink who strongly resembles Gwen Stacy.
  • At one point, Casey refers to Aftershock as "being like living lightning", referencing the superhero Living Lightning, probably best known as a West Coast Avenger.
  • The brief shot where Lunella is sent decades into the future during "Skip This Ad...olescence" is an homage to the legendary cover of Days of Future Past (1981), but with the members of the X-Men replaced by Avengers characters.
  • The Kree uniforms shown in the series are lifted straight from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• Ninja Prop:
  • In “Run The Rink” Moon Girl and Casey have a Split-Screen Phone Call with a split they can physically interact with. Casey reaches around it to stick her hand onto Moon Girl’s side, and Moon Girl ends the call by physically shoving it away.
  • In “Check Yourself” Lunella spawns a bunch of party emojis when ranting about being fun, and the noisemaker one startles Casey when it goes off.
  • In "Goodnight, Moon Girl", Lunella responds to the volleyball team's invitation to their slumber party with Visible Silence; Brooklyn, the team leader, sees the speech bubble and moves it aside.
• Not a Party Person: In "Goodnight Moon Girl", Lunella is so anxious about going to a slumber party that she tries to build a mind-reading device so that she can read everyone else's minds and thus know what to say. After Casey forbids her from bringing the device along, Casey has to physically drag her out of her lab.
• Overly Long Name: Casey's full name is Casey María Eva Duarte Goldberg-Calderon.
• Phoneaholic Teenager:
  • Casey always holds her phone with her to record her friend's superhero exploits on social media. In "Moon Girl Landing", she briefly shows more concern that her knocked-out phone is okay over Lunella's embarrassing first hero outing, for which she apologizes.
  • The alien symbiote Syphonator becomes a monstrous rare male example. He specifically has a second pair of arms to always be texting and trolling on the internet, while trying to pummel Lunella with his free arms.
  • Lunella herself becomes this in "Skip This Ad...olescence", when she invents a phone app that allows her to use Mental Time Travel to skip past all the boring parts of life. Unfortunately, using the app so many times causes it to start automatically skipping through life without her input, based on her prior actions.
• Pictorial Speech-Bubble: Shows up several times throughout the whole series to reflect characters' sayings, states of emotions or something going on at the moment like someone calling off-camera or a phone ringing, all decpited through a simple drawing inside a small colored bubble, in keeping with the hightened comic book style of the show.
• Red Boxing Gloves: Lunella has these in her arsenal. She can even launch them like rockets.
• Rewatch Bonus: After the season one finale, look closely at how Mimi interacts with Lunella when it's just the two of them, alone. This hints at how Mimi has known since the very beginning that Lunella was Moon Girl. She was even helping to keep her crime-fighting equipment in good condition. Also, in the episode "Devil On Her Shoulder", she clearly sees the shrunken Devil Dinosaur, and covers for Lunella by calling it the toy out of the cereal box.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: It's not uncommon for Lunella to fight villains associated with others heroes. A good example comes from fighting Silvermane, a Spider-Man villain, in "Family Matters".
• Rollerblade Good: One of Lunella's primary forms of movement, in and out of costume. Since her family owns a rollerskating ring in this iteration, she incorporates her skills fighting off Faceless Mooks, monsters, and tech-based villains on a pair of roller skates.
• Running Gag:
  • Pretty much every character born past the Millennial generation has no idea what a cassette player is. Most obvious with Lunella and kids her age. But even young adults like Odessa Drake fail to recognize one on sight.
  • If anyone compares something to or worry about going to New Jersey, they immediately follow up with "No disrespect to Jersey".
  • Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur just can't seem to catch Rockin' Rudy. It even get lampshaded at one point when Moon Girl points out that all he has to escape them with is a car.
  • On several occasions in the second season, Lunella and Casey inexplicably turn into Muppet-like puppets whenever they're obviously lying.
  • The second season also has a few episodes where a hero or villain are shown to have gotten their abilities from an item they found at a yard sale.
• Secret-Keeper: Casey is the only human (at first) who knows about Lunella's double life as Moon Girl. While she occasionally uses Moon Girl's fame to her advantage, she is very good with keeping her best friend's secret safe. By the end of "OMG", it's revealed that Mimi has been this from the start, as she was the first in Lunella's family to figure out Lunella's identity. Not only did she keep it from everyone else, but not even Lunella realized that she knew.
• Secret Identity: At the beginning of the show, only Casey knew of Lunella's hero identity, and they had to keep it a secret from everyone else including the Lafayettes. By the end of Season 1, it's revealed that Mimi knew about Lunella's secret from the start, but the latter didn't know. In "The Molecular Level", Lunella finally reveals it to the rest of her family with various results. Aside from a couple other characters, nobody else knows that Lunella is Moon Girl.
• Secret Pet Plot: Literally the entire series is. Because Lunella practically has treated and cared for Devil like a household pet, and like most pets, Devil has given his affection, care, and loyalty in return. However because Devil is a dinosaur, Lunella has had to keep his relationship with him, a total secret. Lunella mostly keeps Devil in her secret lab when they’re not fighting crime, and the only time Lunella and Devil are ever seen together by the general public, is when they’re Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. Aside from her best friend, Casey Calderon, along with Mimi Lafayette, who has been aware of Lunella’s secret superhero life from the very start, followed by the rest of her family during the middle of Season 2, no one in the entire LES knows that Lunella Lafayette has a secret pet dinosaur.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The show tends to lean more on the idealistic side of things. Granted, there are some episodes where things don't go everyone's way, but there's still usually enough of an emphasis about caring for others that makes the show pretty optimistic.
• The Social Expert: Casey is a skilled social media influencer who handles Moon Girl's PR and social media presence.
• Source Music: Once an Episode the third act climax has attention drawn to the background music with shots of Moon Girl inserting a tape and playing it on her cassette. Some episodes play with the formula by having other sources for the backing soundtrack, like an actual band being called on to play or someone else otherwise playing their own music.
• Sparkling Eyes of Excitement: The graphic novel "Wreck And Roll" has two examples of this:
  • When Lunella first tells her parents that she's trying out for the Slay Train roller derby team, James' eyes get sparkly because of how he likes the idea of Lunella joining a team and winning the competition.
  • When Lunella tells Devil how she has to go practice, she tells him how the nearby dumpster is full. His eyes get sparkly because of how he has something good to eat.
• Sportsmanship Aesop: In "Check Yourself", Lunella becomes obsessed with beating LOS-307, a highly-advanced computer programmed to place chess, to the point that she visits the school late at night to challenge LOS to a rematch. Lunella's competitive nature, and her refusal to acknowledge LOS' attempts to make conversation, eventually drives LOS berserk and causes them to kidnap Casey and make her the stakes for a new and deadlier game in order to teach Lunella that games aren't fun when one of the players takes them too seriously.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: The Avengers do exist in this continuity, but they tend to be busy with bigger threats and Mimi questions if "they even go below 14th Street". Moon Girl occasionally references calling S.H.I.E.L.D. to arrest defeated villains, but they're never seen. When Captain America (Sam Wilson) does make an appearance in Episode 12, he's seen only from the back. SHIELD and Agent Maria Hill even make an appearance in the season one finale to help capture the enemy agents.
• Surprisingly Shared Secret: In "Dancing With Myself", Lunella drags Marvin to the school dance with her because all of her friends have scored dates (with the exception of Casey, who's too busy organizing the dance) and she's worried that she'll look like a loser if she shows up alone. Towards the end of the episode (after a battle with invading space moths), Lunella confesses to her friends that she doesn't really feel comfortable with romance and has no idea what she's doing. The other girls tell her that they don't really feel comfortable, either, but they were all similarly afraid of being judged if they showed up alone.
• Teen Genius: Lunella is smart enough to modify a security system to blast intruders with blue goo. The trailer has her boast that she’s the world’s smartest thirteen-year-old. Moon Girl's also gained enough notoriety in the superhero/scientist community that people like Dr. Foster treat her with respect.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur follow this rule and it usually ends with the villains going Heel–Face Turn, getting arrested, or punished.
• Title-Only Opening: Season premieres and finales don't use the usual Title Sequence and instead use the show's logo.
  • "Moon Girl Landing" has a remixed version of the theme play as the logo forms, since it was the first episode after all. The intro proper plays before the end credits.
  • "OMG Issue #2" uses a shortened version of the aforementioned intro, but with background noise, following the events of the previous episode.
  • "The Great Beyond-er!" has the logo fade in over a back background after playing a slightly altered version of the previous episode's final scene.
  • "Shoot for the Moon" superimposes the logo over a sky background before panning down after the opening scene.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Lunella is a science genius superhero. Her best friend Casey is a makeup-loving social media influencer.
• Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: In the graphic novel "Wreck And Roll", Lunella spend so much time with the Slay Train roller derby team that she forgets to spend time with Casey and Devil. A notable moment from this is with how Devil is so sad over this that he doesn't eat a plate of hot dogs.
• Using You All Along: In the graphic novel "Wreck And Roll", Moon Girl tells Jessica, the captain of the Slay Train roller derby team, that The Collector was just using all of them in order to pull off heists and steal many of Earth's valuable artifacts.
• Very Special Episode: Certain episodes tackle more mature themes and ideas, such as "Hair Today Gone Tomorrow" (which deals with Lunella's self confidence issues when someone inadvertently makes fun of her hair) and "Make It Don't Break It" (where Lunella keeps pushing herself and eventually has a panic attack when she's told she's not like a diamond).
• What Are Records?: In "Moon Girl Landing", Casey spots an old tape recorder in Lunella's room and asks what it is. Lunella just responds that her mom gave it to her and she has no idea what it does. However, she eventually becomes acquainted with it and uses it as part of her superhero kit. Ironically she knows what actual records are because her mom is a turntable DJ. This trend continues in the second season, where Casey and Lunella get a rotary phone helpline and their unfamiliarity has them repeatedly hold the receiver wrong. Lunella also gets her tape recorder destroyed and has it replaced by an equally unfamiliar CD player.
• Wham Episode:
  • "OMG Issue #1" reveals that the original Moon Girl is none other than Lunella's grandma Mimi.
  • "The Molecular Level" has Lunella finally revealing that she's Moon Girl to her family (aside from Mimi, who already knew).
• Wham Episode Fallout: The bond among the Lafayette family is put to the test after the events of "The Molecular Level" in the first half of season 2B. In this storyline, Lunella courageously reveals her Moon Girl identity to her family, while Adria grapples with the worries that come with her daughter's superhero lifestyle. Complicating matters further, Mimi's past as the Original Moon Girl is unveiled, adding another layer of tension as the family endures a traumatic attack from the vengeful Molecule Man right in their own home. Although healing took time, by the conclusion of "Full Moon," Adria comes to terms with Lunella's superhero persona, embracing Moon Girl as a vital part of her daughter's identity. Ultimately, this journey brings the family closer together, resulting in a stronger and more united bond than ever before.
• Wingding Eyes: In addition to imitating her eye movements, Lunella's goggles also show different wacky designs depending on what she's feeling, like a loading circle when figuring something out or question marks when confused.