awkwardreviews

Rainbow DAAAAASH!

So this episode did a whole lot to develop the outside world more! Just like on the map of Equestria you can probably see somewhere… Rainbow Falls is a place we visited before (or atleast a place that’s very similar) within the episode “Sleepless in Ponyville”. So I thought that was a neat little snapshot of what the show can do with its continuity in the world of Equestria.

Apart from that, we got a highly entertaining episode that expands on the world of the more background characters. For example, we got voices for various characters we never heard before. Such as the famed “Steroid Pony” named appropriately “Bulk Biceps”, as well as the third member of the wonderbolts team and various other characters. We also got to see gryphons in the competition! Cool!

This episode revolved around Rainbow Dash trying to get into the Equestria Games… which is an understandable device, as well as continuation on the more background story behind season five. I’m guessing the actual Equestria Games will be held later on? Yes… definitely.

Every character was resoundingly IN character, as well as the writers wanton to include everyone in every episode… which is either good or bad for some. For me, it really doesn’t matter, as long as it doesn’t intrude on the more character developing scenes.

Thankfully, the one scene with emotional significance in this episode was played out near perfectly. As Dash found out (once again) how much her friends truly love her, and how much she truly loves her friends. Which is actually really true, since the heat of competition can sometimes cloud such thoughts.

Overall, it was a success in terms of an episode… as I’ve said, I really can’t scream and shout at this show. Because for how much the fandom around it is trying to make it out to be more than it is, in the end, it’s just a very good cartoon show that does what it does much better than other cartoon shows. I watch this show like I watch a good children’s entertainment, with my mind half shut, and laughing at the simplistic humor and the shockingly well-developed characters. G’day.

Grade: A-

They’re cousins!!!Right…?

Splendid, just splendid. I was never really sure this show would really DO a road trip episode… really, I thought that was a trope they’d never stray to! And if they did, then it’d involve the entire cast, not just two of the main characters. Well… they went there! And it was a lot of fun!

An episode like this, one rife with physical humor and gags, as well as pop culture references with a slight hint of world development was definitely something I always love to see. A show like this is truly on a different spectrum, it’s a cartoon, and it’s supposed to be light hearted. Even for a comedy show, I find it hard to put this show down, as it has such a breezy and fast-paced attitude towards itself I can’t help but join in on the fun.

This episode is the definition of light hearted, it has a few glimpses of emotion that resonate from either Pinkie’s character, or the rest of the cast involved with the episode, but mostly it’s light-hearted fun that MAY or may not have a payoff come season wrap up (last five or six episodes).

However, until then, I’m willing to accept it for what it is. Pinkie was as she always was in this season, very excitable, energetic, and extremely random, and that formula alone provided most of the laughs in this episode. Also the dynamic between the Apple family was something that the episode as a whole benefited from. The episode also experienced with a slightly skewered and more slapstick comedic style that was a refreshing take to the somewhat similar show formula. This season is definitely spending a lot of it’s time deviating from the standard show structure we got accustomed to in the first three seasons, and that’s great news in my opinion.

I was a bit nervous, with Community’s absolutely splendid episode this week, that this episode may fall short of my expectations, but I really can’t say it did. It’s just… it’s a fun episode, with material that I can’t say resonated all that well, but it did its job in the process.

As I’ve said, a show like this is graded on a different scale. While I take shows such as Community more seriously, spending hours analyzing their in-depth and meaningful content, it’s sometimes nice to sit down and watch a show, have a great time, and then not think much of it. In a way, this show is exactly what I need after a strenuous activity, or after I’ve had a rough day. A healthy dose of colorful ponies, on a road trip together, having a blast.

There isn’t much more I can properly ask of this show!

Grade: A-

Power ponies HOOOO!

In this week’s installment of MLP: FIM, we see what is thought to be the very first concept episode of the show, and in a sense, it is. However, it does have a few flaws that sets it back from being amazing.

Let me just say, like it or not, this episode will definitely be remembered as it is a massive departure from the norm of the show. We have the characters being transported into a comic universe to pretty much “finish” the story, and defeat the Mane-iac… yes… yes… two “mane” puns this season so far!

The episode is pretty much surrounded around Spike, whom is Twilight sparkles little baby dragon assistant. And he, as hinted at in the beginning of the episode, gets turned into the “comic relief” sidekick whom is fairly incompetent. Half of me felt that the show was poking fun of the way they have been treating spike these past few episodes… and I guess this is sort of their “hey look, we are fixing it!” episode.

That’s a bit disappointing in the sense that they should not have an episode like this focus on one specific character, but instead on the fun aspects. I couldn’t care less whether spike is feeling down when the entire city is at risk!

But, nevertheless, they focus on spike trying to be competent. I’m just glad they didn’t completely make him dominate the episode, and act as sort of the “hound master” releasing the superheroes from their cages and letting them beat up the villians.

The best moment in this episode stemmed from the pure physical gag that is Fluttershy turning into a hulk, and beating up the giant hairdryer weapon of mass destruction. This made me cry from laughter, and was most definitely the highlight.

Apart from that, most of the humor was physical, instead of referential or anything… which is and understandable and silly place to take a show which need not stray from its target demographic. I’d of still loved to see some more superhero references, but who knows, maybe I’m just missing a lot!

Let me just say that this episode was not bad, it wasn’t even mediocre, it was actually very good! It did not have squandered potential like last week’s episode, so it was automatically a step ahead for me, entertainment wise.

Sure it was somewhat rushed, and not as well told… but it was simply more fun. I still find a “fun only” episode like ‘Daring Don’t’ to be better, but this one still held its ground. We some nice action, great dialogue, splendid voice acting from the psychotic villain, and the unexpected use of the word “dementia” in a children’s show! (I was actually REALLY surprised by this!)

Overall, it was a worthy and solid installment of this TV-Show, only hindered by a few pacing flaws and an unnecessary focus on a character that majorly detracted from the “epic” feel this episode tried to provide. I can’t complain though, we had ponies dressed up as superheroes!

Grade: B

Welcome to the Equestria gaaaaames!

So I’ve heard rumors about this episode, how it is supposed to be controversial or whatever… and I just don’t see it. The big flaw in this episode can of course be scrutinized to no end, as it’s not just a writing error, it’s a full blown moral and ethical disgrace. I do plan to address it, however, to a lesser extent than what I originally wanted.

This episode revolved around the lovable cutie mark crusaders, who are just as adorable as always. However, when compared to the previous fantastic installments of the show, this episode falls flat. However, it did have sparks of ingenuity and hilarity sprinkled throughout.

This episode was fairly high on the humor, so that is what it excelled at, however, it did have a small not-so-impactful emotional moment at the very end. We got to see the return of a small character from the previous seasons “Games Ponies Play” episode, Ms.Harshwhinney, which was… alright? I mean, she is not a memorable character by any stretch of the imagination, and has just as small of a role as her debut, so I really don’t have much to say about her.

We did have some great gags involving Rainbow Dash, with her trying to be calm. However, the entire episode was very predictable, almost as if it was hilariously meant to be predictable. This show was pretty adept at surprising me, it usually has a few non-cliché tricks up its sleeve. But this episode seemed to ditch those in favor of… nothing in particular.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, arguably the most frustratingly terribly written characters in the show, make another appearance just to bully a child whom seems to be disabled. And to top off the cherry on this crap-cake, they didn’t even get punished! It’s arguable that the CMC just didn’t tell any adults of the bullying… but this is a cartoon show, it’s supposed to teach action and consequence, and this was a god-awful way of teaching children not too bully.

But… thankfully the rest of the episode was very enjoyable, it had me laughing and “aww”-ing at the adorable CMC doing their adorable things.

In general, the pacing was pretty good in this episode, it was consistently moving forward, never stalling for too long. However, the final five minutes seemed to be totally rushed, as if the show runners needed to cut it just to fit the timeframe this series needs to have (twenty two minutes about).

Overall, this was seemingly a filler episode. Which was slightly disappointing because it could have been so much more, because Scootaloo is my favorite CMC and they could have taken her to new heights with the character development they SHOULD have added. Apart from that flawed bullying aspect, this episode was majorly entertaining, providing many laughs. Next week we have “Power Ponies”… uh oh, I sense something special!

P.S- So… IS Scootaloo disabled? They really should have addressed this…

-ALSO, can’t they just get their cutie marks already?!

Grade: B-

Well, well, well! From good, to amazing! This has to be yet another classic for this cartoon show! Just like “Lesson zero”, “Party of one”, and “Sleepless in Ponyville”, the recent episode Castle Mane-ia treads in new waters, and just like the episodes above, it succeeds in almost every way. Let me just say, right off the bat, this has to be my favorite episode since “Sleepless in Ponyville”.

So let’s get started. Twilight Sparkle is trying to find the keys needed for the secret locked box (WHAT’S IN THE BOX?!) that was revealed in the season premier, Celestia sends her to her old palace and… hijinks comes! One of the only nitpicky thing I can mention about this episode, is that the ONE cliché that they did not succeed in, is providing a convincing reason for the mane 6 to find their way to the same exact castle that Twilight is searching with Spike.

However, all of them are in there, each one in understandable pairs (Dash with Applejack), and the place seems sort of odd and scary. Applejack explains some sort of ghost story, and soon enough so many odd things are happening that it is hard to follow. Hard to follow, mostly due to the brilliant laugh-fits you are sure to be experiencing.

Every cliché that is utilized in this episode is used for comedic effect, everything from scoobie-do episodes, to more modern clichés, we see them all. I was having a ball noticing all of them, and laughing at them as the colorful, cute ponies of Equestria trek around this dangerous place. Of course, in the typical cartoon-horror fashion, they all find each other and they realize that the haunting was just Pinkie playing a rigged pipe organ. And in typical (and hilarious) fashion, they all shake their heads and yell out “Pinkie!” as if it’s a recurring thing.

I don’t think it’s hard to tell that I absolutely loved this episode, everything from its unexpected and less-childish nature, to its wall-to-wall action and comedic timing. Subtle things like the unknown interacting Rarity gets to have with dash (through a glory hole in the wall, it seems), make this all the better. And the fact that it is revealed that there IS something haunting/living inside the castle, is even more unexplored and fascinating.

For a show like this, of course it would be Pinkie Pie causing all the drama. Maybe it’s the fact that I was loving this entire episode so much that I didn’t even bother guessing. All I know is, every single bit of comedy (From angel to fluttershy to rarity to everypony) was gold or at least silver. The pacing was fast and in your face, but not to the point where you couldn’t follow the plot either. Each character was utilized very well, receiving multiple lines of dialogue jam-packed with both references and well-timed deliveries.

All I did at the end was giggle and clap, because this was something I always want to see this show do. An episode that places the characters in a unique location, with unique dialogue and a unique story, only to end with them being even close to each other than before. Brava Castle Mane-ia, welcome to my Top 10 list!

Pros:

–          Extremely well-paced

–          A comedic use of clichés!

–          Pinkie pie being ADORABLE

–          Wall-to-wall humor!

–          Great character pairings that succeeded without a doubt

–          A unique and pretty setting to explore

–          Lest not forget brilliant voice acting!

Cons:

–          Twilight acting more like a “mother” than a character experiencing this fantastic story

–          The “Dear diary” Thing was a little forced…

Grade: A

Hello and welcome to season 4 everyone! I’m thrilled to be here and doing these reviews of a show I’ve come to enjoy over the past few months. But, I don’t plan to keep the introduction long, let’s jump right into the review!

Season 4 starts with a hectic two parter that does more good than bad, in fact, I don’t have TO much to say about this episode that isn’t generally praising it for its robust and continues quality. Everything was sleek and animated wonderfully, voice acted believably, and was delightfully light-hearted in some areas, and grim in others.

The episode starts out with Twilight (seemingly both forgetting and remembering how to fly simultaneously) “learning” how to fly from her friend Rainbow Dash. It doesn’t take long for her to air her complaints about being Princess and how difficult it must be. Although the entire “we can’t spend time with you because we must help ponyville” excuse the other five friends tell Twilight is decently believable, I can’t help but groan at the forced lesson I’m sure to be treated to by the end of the episode.

The highlight of the first episode comes shortly after, however, when Celestia visits Twilight in her room and describes that the summer sun celebration is somewhat of a fresh slate for Celestia. How she wants to remember this ceremony as the return of her sister, and not the banishment of nightmare moon. The entirety of this scene was surprisingly heartwarming and felt natural. This is of course until a letter from Twilight’s friends arrives and Twilight (stupidly) ignores it for whatever reason.

Queue chaos! The everfree forest begins invading Ponyville and we soon find out that it won’t stop until the entirety of Equestria is under its leafy tentacle-ey grasp! The five other ponies try to help but it’s pretty useless, and after Twilight finds out from the hilariously voice-acted Canterlot guards that the other two princesses are missing, she fail-tastically flies over to her friends in Ponyville.

They of course bring in the seasonal guest star “Discord”, whom is brilliantly voice acted by John Delancie, and from then on the hilarity ensues. We see Zecora bring some random (seemingly out of no where) potion that conveniently needs an Alicorn to activate. Twilight drinks it, and then we get my favorite bits of the episode in sequential order.

We get a whole dollop of Princess and Equestrian lore that I just ate up. Needless to say, I loved every moment of it. We saw Luna’s transformation into nightmare moon (animated to perfection), the stunning battle between her and Celestia (surprisingly intense for a show like this), and then we saw discord stealing Celestia’s tail.

Twilight finds the special tree of harmony from where the elements came, and we get on a less-than-epic mini adventure. Here is where I can pick a serious gripe with the show. The five characters all tell Twilight to bugger off back to Ponyville, while they find the tree. And when she unwillingly accepts, they find that they are quite literally screwed without her. The five ponies are literally hopeless without their “savior” Princess Twilight Sparkle. Something I find absurd and silly as she was just as easily cornered by those perfume-spewing plants.

However, I suppose one could argue that without each other they are less-than-capable on such an adventure… but there could have been much better ways of showing that. Then the gang re-unites, and they easily stop the infestation of the black-scary-plant-tentacles.

As I said in my reaction, I believe that the third act is where the episode began slipping down and down, and it ended up with a hackneyed and downright dumb ending. The defeat of the infestation was underwhelming at best, and the entire idea of Discord “teaching her a lesson” was forced and stupid. Of course unless he has some ulterior motives, which should be interesting. May I just add that I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed his presence as sort of the “Anti-hero” of the show, it’s refreshing and fun.

We did get left off on what seemed to be a “seasonal arc” involving some random tulip-like flower sprouting from the ground and blooming in front of the ponies (and rescued princesses). A chest appears with six keys, and an obvious mystery pops up. In my opinion, we’ll be seeing an episode of each pony from where they gain one of these keys, and for the season finale we will have them open it and I’m sure something big will occur (Hopefully all of them DON’T turn into alicorns).

Overall, this episode succeeded in where it needed to. It needed to be an entertaining forty minutes of light-hearted pony goodness. It succeeded in providing the (unexpected) intensity and drama with flying colors. And the only honest missteps involve the third act being downright lazy compared to the rest. This is most definitely a good start to the season, one that I was very worried about. And I was pleasantly surprised to see the entire gang get enough screen time, and not having Twilight completely dominate the show. Make sure you stick around for more reviews to come, everyone, because if this is any indication for the rest of the season, we are still in the same good and comfortable hands that we were in previously!

Pros:

–          Princess Sparkle wasn’t as infuriatingly boring as I thought it was.

–          Discord makes a welcome return as the lovable anti-hero we see him as now.

–          Pinkie pie is present… that should be enough to warrant a “pro”

–          Each one of the characters got a decent amount of screentime.

–          An interesting concept for a villain in the episode.

–          Awesome princess/Equestrian lore

–          Great intensity and even sadness mixed in with decent humor

Cons:

–          Too much backtracking

–          The pacing was decent at best.

–          Unnecessary scenes that did more harm than good

–          The gang being useless without Twilight

–          The third act fumbled too much to be considered a success

–          Sonic Twi-boom? What the…?

Grade:

Episode 1: B+

Episode 2: B+