caught up in the energy and enthusiasm he brought to the proverbial table but that doesn t excuse this line from Rainbow Dash:

Transcription

1 Hello, everypony! I m L.T. Limelight and this is my second MLP review for the season 4 episode Pinkie Pride using the Six Senses System. Let s do this! All images from MLP Wiki. Smell The premise of this episode is a very familiar one: a rivalry episode. Pinkie prides herself on being the premiere party planning pony of Ponyville, but when a mysterious stranger, Cheese Sandwich, comes to town and challenges that title with his own enthusiasm and party planning expertise, Pinkie is determined to prove that when it comes to being a party pony, *deep, gravelly voice* there can be only one. When I first heard this premise, I was able to guess the story and resolution very easily. As I had mentioned before, it s a very familiar premise. That aside, it s not something to hold against the episode. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has done episodes with extremely familiar and predictable plotlines before and more often than not they ve turned out spectacular (ex. Sonic Rainboom, Hurricane Fluttershy ). And now we can add Pinkie Pride to that list. Despite it s predictable premise, watching the execution was a sheer delight and even managed to throw some surprises my way. The story has some of the best pacing I ve ever seen in this show and nearly every development builds on the next in a way that feels natural.nearly. Unfortunately, no story is perfect and although I m willing to overlook a few problems with the story that are more like petty complaints, there are a few problems I feel I must address. The sudden turn Ponyville made when a new party pony comes to town feels very jarring to me, especially after establishing her status as Ponyville s favorite party pony...through song. You could argue it away by saying that Cheese Sandwich was just oozing charisma and everyone got

2 caught up in the energy and enthusiasm he brought to the proverbial table but that doesn t excuse this line from Rainbow Dash: Rainbow Dash: I mean, Pinkie Pie's parties are fun and sweet and all, but now this party's gonna be Cheese Sandwich: Epic? Rainbow Dash: You said it! Oh, yeah! Uh, heh, no offense, Pinkie. Um.ouch? Seriously, Rainbow Dash? She s right there! And she s crying! Aren t you the fickle one? Also, Twilight? She came by to check on Pinkie and ask why she wasn t helping Cheese Sandwich plan Rainbow s party and Pinkie just brushed it off and said he could handle it himself. I was surprised Twilight didn t pry a little bit more, especially considering Party of One, but that can be dismissed as a petty complaint, even if it did bother me a bit. But then we get to an aspect of the episode that felt a bit confusing to me. We learn near the end of the episode that Cheese Sandwich was only trying to impress Pinkie Pie with his party planning skills, not replace her as Ponyville s party pony. And he even revealed that it was a party thrown by Pinkie Pie herself that inspired him to become a party pony in the first place. What I want to know is, if that was the case, why did Cheese seem perfectly fine with planning the party without her? He didn t seem to notice or care she wasn t there during the preparations and seemed all too ready to brush her off earlier in the episode. So...this is a plot hole. Uh-oh, how do we cover this one? I don t want to be too harsh on this episode; I really like it. Ok, how about this? My personal headcanon is that Cheese unintentionally became an attention seeker alongside his becoming a party pony. Seeing his

3 friendless background story seems to support this. And this vice of being attention hungry combined with the town s overwhelming approval of him, may have blinded Cheese Sandwich to what he had set out to do in terms of impressing Pinkie. In short, he got swept up in the attention until Pinkie began to antagonize him directly. Then, wanting to impress Pinkie really got lost in the shuffle. Overall though, these problems don t the hurt the episode too much for me. The premise, though predictable, is very stable and the execution exceeded my expectations. Sight I keep on seeing the visuals and animation in MLP improve across the seasons and season four is no exception. However, season four has also really been pushing the envelope in terms of eye candy. Like in the previous episode, this episode has some very creative and fast paced animation and gorgeous visuals, with the best ones appearing during the musical segments. My personal favorites were: -These shots during Pinkie s Lament

4 -The visuals, animation and visual gags during the Goof Off

5 -The design of colt Cheese Sandwich OMG, SO CUUUUUUUTE!!!!!!!!!!! D AWWWW!!!! -And Cheese Sandwich s The Man With No Name style get-up It s ponified Clint Eastwood Also.THIS face is scary as F**K

6 But you know? Something interesting happened with this episode for me. For the first time, the fact that the episode was animated in Flash was almost unnoticeable to me. This episode s smooth and fluid animation could rival some of the better traditionally animated cartoons around and I have to give props where props is due. Sound Sound certainly played a big role in this episode as this was the second musical episode MLP has ever given us. I felt the songs were much better utilized here than in MLP s last musical, Magical Mystery Cure. Unlike in that episode, each song in Pinkie Pride serves a solid, narrative purpose and helps to further it along at a flawless pace. Daniel Ingram and Amy Keating Rogers lyrics combined with William Anderson s score created a soundtrack that married with the plot perfectly. Not that the performers fell short. AT ALL. Andrea Libman s performance as Pinkie Pie was fantastic both in acting and her singing during the Goof Off and I feel that Pinkie s Lament was Shannon Chan-Kent s best

7 performance so far. Weird Al Yankovic as Cheese Sandwich was amazing. I love the switches he does between a gruff Clint Eastwood style voice to his bubbly, enthusiastic tone to the heartfelt tone when he comes to apologize to Pinkie. Who knew he was such a good actor? His singing in Cheese Confesses definitely stole the show in terms of auditory enjoyment for me. I could listen to his performance for days. Taste When I first heard the premise for this episode, I was prepared for a predictable, slightly enjoyable plot. BOY, was I off. Shame on me for thinking an episode starring Pinkie Pie and friggin Weird Al Yankovic would be boring. Shame. On. Me. I found myself smiling for nearly every second of this episode. I usually only revisit an episode more than four times if I absolutely love it. At this point, I have watched this episode about ten times. I find it extremely difficult to list my highlights of this episode because the entire episode was a highlight of the show for me. But I ll try to stick to things that are strictly entertaining in nature, namely comedy and continuity references I loved. -This is the same outfit Pinkie wore in Dragonshy. I realized it without anyone telling me. Yay, for me! -The entire Goof Off including the Goof Off Rule Book?!?!?!

8 -Cheese Sandwich s Smile Song Polka cover and Pinkie s reaction to it. I legitimately went, Oh, no, he didn t! at that. LIVE ACTION?! IN MLP?! Run everyone! Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich aren t breaking the fourth wall! The fourth wall has been BROKEN! IT S BEEN SHATTERED INTO A BILLION, IRREPARABLE PIECES!!!! The universe of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic couldn t take the combined powers of Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich and now fictional characters of all kinds are free to intermingle with our universe!!!!!! NO ONE IS SAFE!!!!!!!!!! RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -The auditory chocolate that is Weird Al s voice. -The idea of a rubber chicken somehow being a key to a magical macguffin box -And the songs Pinkie s Lament, Cheese Confesses and Make a Wish, even if it does sound like a sped-up of version of This is Our Big Night from Equestria Girls. Something I didn t like? The final joke of the episode. Yes, I am aware it is a reference but the only way to understand the

9 joke is to get the reference. If you don t, Pinkie Pie just winds up coming off as an absent-minded moron. And after being given an almost perfect Pinkie Pie episode, after being treated to some cringe-worthy behavior from Pinkie Pie in previous season four episodes, that last joke felt like a HUGE slap in the face. Thankfully, the awesome polka credits music made up for it. Yes, I loved this episode so much, I sat through the credits. Touch Not only did this episode excel with comedy and entertainment, it managed to completely reel me into being emotionally invested all the way through. Pinkie Pie s characterization was handled wonderfully here. Seeing her go through the motions of the possibility of her special talent being not only matched but possibly surpassed by another pony, really tugged at my heart strings. Even though Pinkie lost sight of what the goal of her party pony identity ultimately was, to make ponies happy not just being the best party pony, I was with Pinkie all the way through because her conflict just felt so relatable. I also adored the character development Pinkie had in this episode. When Pinkie just thought ponies didn t like her parties in Party of One, she suffered a complete mental breakdown. Here, when it legitimately seemed like she was being thrown by the wayside, Pinkie didn t go crazy, she decided that she wasn t going down without a fight and charged back into the fray. Even though her priorities had slanted in the more selfish direction of proving she is the best party pony, I could still side with her because having pride cloud your better judgement is something that is perfectly reasonable for anyone with a passion that they share with others. Pinkie wasn t the only fuel for emotions though. Cheese

10 Sandwich was an amazing one-shot and even though he seemed like a male version of Pinkie Pie in my eyes at first, he still managed to be a well-presented character and had many fun quirks that made him a perfect foil and antagonist to Pinkie Pie without being a jerk or a one-dimensional villain. And when Cheese s backstory was revealed in Cheese Confesses, I m not going to lie, I actually got choked up a little. And a filly Pinkie Pie being Cheese s initial inspiration to become a party pony was just the icing on the cake. It showed how just following our passions, regardless of whatever obstacles we face, can unintentionally inspire another to follow a similar and hopefully more constructive path, a concept that was in full swing during Rarity and Rainbow Dash s key episodes as well and was welcomed with open arms by me here. Proprioception This episode had perfect timing for me. I need a pickup when this episode aired and I silently prayed that this episode would at least be decent. It was AMAZING. Was it perfect? No. But the episode had so many outstanding elements that they were able to nearly eclipse any problems I had with it. The story was solid, the visuals were breathtaking, the comedy was hilarious for the most part, the music and acting from our leads was gold and my emotions were running high throughout the entire episode. One of the best episodes of the series and possibly the best episode of season four so far. Smell: 1.5 Sight: 2 Sound: 2 Taste: 1.5 Touch: 2 Proprioception: 9/10

11 Mouse on a pony s tongue with a tuba Your arguement is invalid