Summer of Steven - Drop Beat Dad Review

Drop Beat Dad is the first episode of the Summer of Steven event and begins with Steven helping out Sour Cream for his show until Yellowtail comes in, and an argument ensues. Yellowtail doesn't approve Sour Cream being a DJ and prefers he becomes a fisherman instead. It's either I don't know or I forget that Yellowtail speaks gibberish, yet anyone can somehow understand what he's saying.

Later, we see Greg's old manager Marty returning to Beach City for some unfinished business with Mr. Universe until Sour Cream shows up. Turns out the two do know each other as their biological kin, to my surprise. After learning that Sour Cream is performing as a DJ, Marty decides to help out as his promoter, and as a means of family bonding after not seeing each other for 9 years. Steven remains suspicious of Marty's actions, but Marty assures it's to help Sour Cream with his career, and throws a bone by being an official roadie.

On that note, Steven apparently has a wee bit of superhuman strength, being able to lift a case of heavy equipment all on his own. I guess it's another one of gem powers, or he's really that motivated on being a roadie.

We then see Marty's true intentions and that he's at Beach City to heavily promote a guacamole-flavored soda called "Guacola", with Sour Cream only providing music for the promotion.

Ok, to be fair, there are a bunch of incredibly weird Soda flavors out there. Japan in particular has a bunch of them. Just look at this photo of the various flavors from the Ramune drink line from left to right:

Curry, Octopus, Salted Watermelon, Corn Soup, Kimchi, Sesame-Oil and Chili, and Shin-chan Bubblegum flavor. So I wouldn't be surprised if there is such a thing as an Avocado-flavored Soda.

APPARENTLY, THERE IS! This one actually exists in Brazil!

Back to the episode, Guacola turns out to be pretty awful and it's causing panic among the crowd, except Onion who appears to be the ONLY person who likes it. Sour Cream confronts Marty as he's upset that it's not about him and his show, but about a soda. Marty then leaves, but not before handing Greg a sealed envelope.

Yellowtail then arrives with Sour Cream's DJ Gear and he and Steven help set-up again for Sour Cream's show. Sour Cream restarts the show and everyone joins in. The envelope that Marty handed out to Greg was apparently a check for $10 million, and the episode ends here.

While I am familiar with the character designs from co-storyboarder Lamar Adams in this episode, I still find it a bit odd that Steven looks a whole lot smaller in this episode, almost as small as Shin-chan, so you'd almost mistook him for a 5-6 year old rather than someone who's at least 12 (or 14 in the show). Plot-wise, this can be seen as a stand-alone episode, but it does tie-in to Greg's backstory as a wannabe musician, as well as the Yellowtail family with Marty's return.

 

As for Marty, he's pretty much the guy you'd love to hate and wished for his comeuppance. However, we see Marty instead become a very successful, and extremely wealthy businessman, which is evidenced with the check he gave to Greg. Somehow, this coincidentally refers to a famous person, but let's not delve into that territory.

You know, thinking about it, Onion and Marty may do very well together, considering how incredibly freaky and evil Onion is. Plus, he likes that Guacola.

Speaking of the check, it does lead up to the musical episode "Mr. Greg" where the Universes lead a glamorous life as millionaires with Pearl in tow. $10 says it's not gonna last very long and everything returns to the status quo, just like comic books. All-in-all, not a bad start for Steven Universe and I like it, and I'm looking forward to the next one.