What parents should know
Star vs The Forces of Evil was created by writer and artist Darin Nefcy. Nefecy is the second woman ever in Disney Channels thirty-three-year history to create and produce an animated TV series. The show now airs on Disney XD, the company's second TV channel for content aimed at pre-teens.
Creator
What's it all about?
Star Butterfly, is a magical princess from another dimension called Mewni. Star may be a princess but she has a love for dangerous adventures and is never afraid to do things her own way, much to her prim & proper mother’s (Queen Butterfly) chagrin.
When Star is given her mom's magic wand, a powerful heirloom that has been passed down from each matriarch of Star’s family, for her fourteenth birthday. Her parents send her to live in a safer dimension to study her magic: Earth.
There she meets fourteen-year-old karate enthusiast Marco Diaz, who is known for his overly cautious behavior.
Originally upset over Star’s presence in his life, Marco quickly warms up to Star upon learning that her life is one fantastic adventure after the next--and that he can now tag along on.
The two quickly become best friends and go on daring quests as Star learns more about her magic abilities
Nefcy and the writing staff of Star vs the forces of evil intentionally write the show to go against harmful tropes and cliches that occur in socially outdated "magic princess narratives".
Parents should know that Star diverges from her fellow Disney princesses. Star is head strong and the leader of her own narrative. She likes glitter and rainbows as much as she likes swords, hand to hand combat, and taming wild unicorns. While Star does have a male counter part, Marco, her character is not reduced by him. In the end, it is always Star saving Marco from the bad guys, not the other way around. Star is also given a wide cast of female friends who support each other. Such as Princess Poney head, a fully confident floating unicorn head, and Janna, a feminist who's crush is 18th-century poet John Keats.
Parents should also know that Star vs The Forces of Evil is full of diverse characters. Marco's full name is Marco Ubaldo Diaz, and the show does an excellent job at representing as well as exploring his Mexican-American identity. Marco's heritage is not something that is mentioned once and moved on from but is an ever present element of the show. The background characters of the kid's high school reflect the diversity that would be found in a real southern Californian high school, where the show takes place.
