So this is what Mentally Advanced series is, huh? They always say to never judge a book by its cover, what about judging a book by its cover BUT also its first few pages? Fine fine… I won’t judge the entire series on this one, introductory episode. As we have seen, FiW had the same shoddy beginning to the abridged series, I just hope this one improves more dramatically.
The voice acting in this series is understandably sub-par (even compared to FiW’s), but understandably so, when there is only one person voice acting all six characters. However, I must say that he does his job well with Spike (the seventh character) and Pinkie, who are definitely the more diverse and funny of the bunch (thus far).
The issue lies not with the voice acting, but with the whole product in general. It was done in a slightly unprofessional manner that detracted from the viewing experience greatly. It had issues with the sound effects, the background music at times was way too loud for the dialogue, and there was some visible lip-sync issues. Now I know the lip-sync is usually expected to be off in abridged series’ (even in the best ones), but here it was noticeably and unforgivably off.
Negatives aside, this episode still had a fairly good amount of laughs, particularly derived from the revised Rarity character, and Rainbow Dashes honesty about how petty and attention-whore-ish she is. Apart from that, however, we had Pinkie and spike speaking in funky accents, and fluttershy being rape-y, what more is there to ask of?
Oh I know… how about something that isn’t so shoddily edited and produced? If I had some advice to give, it is that the creator should have practiced more with editing. I know it was his first time, and for a first time it is good work, but still, practice practice practice!
I can forgive this episode for most of its flaws, mostly because it was only done by one person, and that by itself is impressive. Now it’s no .MOV… in fact, it’s a few gigaparsecs away from being even near .MOV in its hay day, but it’s still nice to see someone doing more MLP fan content! Stay tuned for more upcoming reviews!
Grade: C-
awkwardreviews 
Ehhh I give you that it’s not MAS finest work but where it really shines is the next one imo, Boast Busters and Bridle Gossip parodies
Personally I don’t really like this series but a lot of other people like it and you might like the res of it too
Yeah, the Bridle Gossip parody is really good. Each episode gets progressively better, but Friendship is Witchcraft is streets ahead.
I dunno, i find myself enjoying MAS a LOT more than FiW. More memorable/clever characters and dialogue, and the charm of not being over-polished.
I also agree with Awkward when he says FiW’s humor is too ‘safe’.
Whereas in MAS, the very first few lines of dialogue introduce racism between pony classes.
I’m not sure I’d say the voice acting improves much as this series goes on, but the pacing definitely gets better (fewer uncomfortably long pauses, snappier dialogue timing).
This website is a really neat way to communicate further about mlp and other things. But if it ever becomes too expensive to keep this site running, you could accomplish the same thing by creating 5-second title cards, uploading those as videos to YouTube or DailyMotion, and putting the blogs/reviews in the video description.
Interesting idea! But it should be alright for the time being!
The voice acting and production values gradually improve as the series continues, especially once it spins off into Rainbow Dash Presents, but I do mean *gradually*. The writing really starts to shine once it gets to episode 3. You mention that he “should have practiced more” but these videos ARE him practicing so I don’t really think that’s a fair statement (it is however still fair to dock points for the low quality). It is otherwise a fair review.
I wonder why you still haven’t watched Ponies the Anthology, I’d love to see your reaction
VA work was a bit subpar, but Pinkie and Spike’s accents were hilarious. Rainbow Dash’s voice I could tell was a bit more distinct, but Applejack, Twilight, and Fluttershy’s were too similar. While all the FiW characters had the same pitch, sans Pinkie and Spike, they could at least emote. But it is impressive how he made it all on his own.
With MAS I was laughing despite the bad VAing, while with FiW I was scratching my head at their dialogue and wondering why things kept happening over and over again, which I found out later was supposed to be their jokes. FiW only “redeeming” quality IMO was Sweetie Bell as a robot. I look forward to seeing the rest of your reactions, next episode is a funny one.
Rough start, and more rough to be had, but reaching RDash Presents will be worth it.
A note to remember is that with only a few exceptions (such as Spike), males will be voiced by females and females will be male voices in this universe.
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