Okay, this one is going to take a bit of explanation.
After I posted my original review for this series, my friend, who requested the review in the first place, kept going on and on about it, much to my continued annoyance. Only recently have I truly understood how much of a Brony this guy is. This went on for a while until he just came out and said to me.
"Why not review every episode of the show?"
As you might imagine, this prompted a long awkward silence between us, broken only by my angry initial refusal at the request. But this guy did not give up. Lines like "come on everyone's doing it" and "but you'll be really good at it" came up often. Eventually, I gave in and just flat out told him the following:
"You know what? Fine! If you want me to do this so badly then I'll make you a deal. I'll review the first episode of the show and if people like it, I'll do the rest. But if they don't, I don't want to hear anymore about this."
He agreed and the deal was made.
So now here's the bargain. This review you're reading now is a trial review. My friend and I agreed that the view count would be the means by which we measure people's interest in this. As most of the reviews I put on the escapist tend to gain about 500 views on average, that's the target. If this review has met or surpassed that target view count seven days after it's posted, I'll be doing reviews of all the other episodes of the show, in order. If not, I get this guy off my back about the whole thing and you lot never hear another pony-related thing from me ever again.
Now you know the score, onto the review itself.
If you want to know about the premise or characters, go to my original review. This review (and others if I have to go on) are acting under the assumption that you've already read it.
Since I covered the story of the show's two-part series pilot in my overall review of the series, I decided to skip that and start this possible line of reviews with the first "regular" episode, episode 3, "The Ticket Master".
Like before, this review will contain spoilers. If you haven't watched the show yet, you have been warned.
So the episode starts with Twilight and her companion, Spike the dragon, helping Applejack collect apples on her family's apple orchard. Whilst thanking Twilight for her help, Spike receives a message from princess Celestia for Twilight. I should probably mention this as I skipped over it in my other review. Spike can send messages to the Princess by burning them with his fire, which essentially teleports the messages to her. To receive messages, he burps them out, again with fire. Nothing but the best for our heroes it seems.
Today the message is the Princess inviting Twilight to an upcoming party at the Equestrian capital of Canterlot later that year, known as the "Grand Galloping Gala". The invitation comes along with two tickets, one for Twilight and one for a guest of her choosing. Naturally both Twilight and Applejack are excited at this, the latter especially so as she might have the opportunity to be the one to go with her. She explains that going to a high-end function like that would be great business for her family, being able to sell their apple-based product to all the richest citizens of the kingdom.
Before Twilight can offer however, Rainbow Dash crashes down, apparently having just woken up from a nap on a nearby tree branch (don't ask). She also tells Twilight that she wants to go to this celebration. Her reason is that her idols, a group of pegasus ponies known as the Wonderbolts who are famous for their aerial acrobatics, go there every year.
Applejack is understandably upset that Rainbow Dash would ask this as she was doing so not one minute ago. The two argue about it but Twilight breaks things up, declaring that the tickets are hers and she'll decide who gets them later.
Walking back into the village of Ponyville, Twilight and Spike get intercepted by Pinkie Pie who comes crashing out of the village cake shop (for some reason). She then notices Twilight's tickets and declares her own desire to go to the Gala, declaring it to be the best party in the land, which leads her into this episodes song "The Grand Galloping Gala", which I'll discuss later.
Soon, Rarity also arrives and Pinkie tells her about Twilight's tickets. Rarity, as you probably guessed by now, also want to go. Her reason is that she want the chance to meet with the Princesses nephew, whom she apparently has a crush on.
As Twilight is explaining to them that she hasn't chosen who she'll take yet, Fluttershy comes up and (you guessed it) also want to go to the party. Apparently there are large gardens outside the royal palace containing some of the most exotic animals and plants in the country, which Fluttershy would love given her affection for animals.
But soon everyone in the main group arrives and soon there's an argument between them regarding who Twilight will bring with her. Twilight breaks the whole thing up and tells everyone to leave while she thinks about it.
Later that day, she and Spike are ordering their lunch at a restaurant, with Twilight more concerned about who she'll take to the Gala. She soon notices that everyone else has left, leading her to realize that it's raining everywhere around her except for the small area where she and Spike are. It turn out that Rainbow Dash has, despite the Pegasus ponies job to control and regulate the weather left a small patch of sunny sky just for Twilight out of the goodness of her heart (uh huh).
Twilight sees through the blatant attempt to gain favour and asks Rainbow Dash to shut the cloud up, promptly leaving her soaking in the rain. Rarity comes along and brings her to her house to keep dry. Like with Rainbow Dash, she attempts to convince Twilight to take her to the Gala by offering up a new dress she made. Twilight refuses of course but runs into Applejack outside (where it's apparently stopped raining). Applejack offers her a number of delicious-looking apple-based foods, but Twilight refuses this also.
Returning to her home, Twilight comes across Fluttershy, who's cleaning the place with her animal friends ala Snow White. Getting pretty peeved at this point, Twilight asks her to leave, but not before Pinkie comes along with a procession of other local ponies to throw a party in Twilight's honour.
Twilight's pretty much had it at this point but soon things get worse as Pinkie blurts out to pretty much the whole town about the extra ticket. Now everyone wants in on the action, offering her food and services.
Spike asks her what they should do. And of course in times of trial and adversity such as this, there's always one solution that never fails. Run away and hope they can't catch you.
What follows is a chase sequence styled in the manner of the old "Benny Hill" show, complete with what I think it a remix of his classic theme song.
Soon though, the two are cornered, leading to Twilight discovering that she has the power to teleport. Arriving back in her home, she orders Spike to lock all the doors and windows. However, the other five main ponies were already there, prompting Twilight to just give up and lament out loud how she just can't choose between them.
The others understand and, realizing what stress they've been putting on her, each choose to not pursue the ticket further, with the exception of Rainbow Dash who cheers at the prospect of getting the ticket before essentially being guilted into following suit.
Twilight, now relieved, asks Spike to send a message to the Princess. The message informs her that she thanks her for the invitation but since she cannot choose between her friends, she declines her own ticket as well as the extra, much to the shock of the others.
Soon afterwards however, a message arrives from the Princess informing Twilight that if choosing between them was so difficult she should have just asked. The message comes with seven tickets, one for each of them, Spike included.
The episode ends with everyone excited about their going to the Gala, and it'll only take over twenty more episodes for them to do so.
So then, that's episode three, the first "regular" episode of the show. So how does it hold up?
Now I've never done an episode-by-episode review series before so I'm going to deviate from my usual review style here. What I'll be doing is going over what I though about various parts of the episode, the story, humour, main song, moral of the day etc.
So then, the story itself. It's a fairly simple one that's probably been done many times before in a lot of kid's shows. But I confess it's a well-executed version of that story. While watching, I asked myself, "If I was Twilight, who would I want to go with me?" I suppose it's a credit to the writing team of the show that, much like Twilight herself, I was unable to choose, as I liked these characters equally, for my own reasons. However, some parts did leave me somewhat disappointed. Like, for instance, how convenient it was that Pinkie Pie just turned up like she did. It really did feel like the writers just needs to have these characters turn up at convenient times to drive the plot forward.
Humour now and, much like the series pilot, there were some genuine laughs here. Lines like "I was busy......napping" succeeded in bringing a smile to my face so kudos on that one. As I mentioned earlier there was a chase sequence which heavily reminded me of those used in old-school Benny Hill episodes, complete with similar music. Sure many kid's shows used this type of sequence before but I think this was a particularly good one.
The song now and I'm just going to come out and say it, I'm not a big fan of Pinkie Pie's singing voice. It's not the worst I've ever heard (beleive me, I've heard far worse), but it just has that feel of someone who hasn't done a lot of singing before and is just getting used to it. I suppose that's natural as this is only the second song of the series but still, it bothers me. As for the song itself it's a bit too "bubbly for my liking" which may be an issue for when I have to do future Pinkie Pie songs. There was also a second song here, used when Pinkie was trying to coerce Twilight towards the end, but it was under 30 seconds long and was interrupted halfway through so I don't really count it.
Finally, we have the moral of the episode. Now I have my own moral code as do many others reading this. I'm no expert on morality so I'm just going to say what I thought of the intended message. This episode seems to want to teach that choosing between your friedns is never a good thing and that it's better to do things with them than without them. A fairly basic lesson to teach kds but still, it's a good lesson.
Overall this was a good start to the more episodic episodes of the series, with some good humour and interaction between the lead heroines, as well as a fairly feel-good ending, not to mention setting up the plot point of the Gala which will be built up on and resolved by the end of the season. A worthy entry into the series.
And that's all I have to say about that episode.
Although I always hope people enjoy reading and enjoying what I've written, please keep in mind that this may well be the last of these reviews depending on how well this one does over the following week.
If they do continue, I'll see you all next week for a review of the next episode, "Applebuck Season".
After I posted my original review for this series, my friend, who requested the review in the first place, kept going on and on about it, much to my continued annoyance. Only recently have I truly understood how much of a Brony this guy is. This went on for a while until he just came out and said to me.
"Why not review every episode of the show?"
As you might imagine, this prompted a long awkward silence between us, broken only by my angry initial refusal at the request. But this guy did not give up. Lines like "come on everyone's doing it" and "but you'll be really good at it" came up often. Eventually, I gave in and just flat out told him the following:
"You know what? Fine! If you want me to do this so badly then I'll make you a deal. I'll review the first episode of the show and if people like it, I'll do the rest. But if they don't, I don't want to hear anymore about this."
He agreed and the deal was made.
So now here's the bargain. This review you're reading now is a trial review. My friend and I agreed that the view count would be the means by which we measure people's interest in this. As most of the reviews I put on the escapist tend to gain about 500 views on average, that's the target. If this review has met or surpassed that target view count seven days after it's posted, I'll be doing reviews of all the other episodes of the show, in order. If not, I get this guy off my back about the whole thing and you lot never hear another pony-related thing from me ever again.
Now you know the score, onto the review itself.
If you want to know about the premise or characters, go to my original review. This review (and others if I have to go on) are acting under the assumption that you've already read it.
Since I covered the story of the show's two-part series pilot in my overall review of the series, I decided to skip that and start this possible line of reviews with the first "regular" episode, episode 3, "The Ticket Master".
Like before, this review will contain spoilers. If you haven't watched the show yet, you have been warned.
So the episode starts with Twilight and her companion, Spike the dragon, helping Applejack collect apples on her family's apple orchard. Whilst thanking Twilight for her help, Spike receives a message from princess Celestia for Twilight. I should probably mention this as I skipped over it in my other review. Spike can send messages to the Princess by burning them with his fire, which essentially teleports the messages to her. To receive messages, he burps them out, again with fire. Nothing but the best for our heroes it seems.
Today the message is the Princess inviting Twilight to an upcoming party at the Equestrian capital of Canterlot later that year, known as the "Grand Galloping Gala". The invitation comes along with two tickets, one for Twilight and one for a guest of her choosing. Naturally both Twilight and Applejack are excited at this, the latter especially so as she might have the opportunity to be the one to go with her. She explains that going to a high-end function like that would be great business for her family, being able to sell their apple-based product to all the richest citizens of the kingdom.
Before Twilight can offer however, Rainbow Dash crashes down, apparently having just woken up from a nap on a nearby tree branch (don't ask). She also tells Twilight that she wants to go to this celebration. Her reason is that her idols, a group of pegasus ponies known as the Wonderbolts who are famous for their aerial acrobatics, go there every year.
Applejack is understandably upset that Rainbow Dash would ask this as she was doing so not one minute ago. The two argue about it but Twilight breaks things up, declaring that the tickets are hers and she'll decide who gets them later.
Walking back into the village of Ponyville, Twilight and Spike get intercepted by Pinkie Pie who comes crashing out of the village cake shop (for some reason). She then notices Twilight's tickets and declares her own desire to go to the Gala, declaring it to be the best party in the land, which leads her into this episodes song "The Grand Galloping Gala", which I'll discuss later.
Soon, Rarity also arrives and Pinkie tells her about Twilight's tickets. Rarity, as you probably guessed by now, also want to go. Her reason is that she want the chance to meet with the Princesses nephew, whom she apparently has a crush on.
As Twilight is explaining to them that she hasn't chosen who she'll take yet, Fluttershy comes up and (you guessed it) also want to go to the party. Apparently there are large gardens outside the royal palace containing some of the most exotic animals and plants in the country, which Fluttershy would love given her affection for animals.
But soon everyone in the main group arrives and soon there's an argument between them regarding who Twilight will bring with her. Twilight breaks the whole thing up and tells everyone to leave while she thinks about it.
Later that day, she and Spike are ordering their lunch at a restaurant, with Twilight more concerned about who she'll take to the Gala. She soon notices that everyone else has left, leading her to realize that it's raining everywhere around her except for the small area where she and Spike are. It turn out that Rainbow Dash has, despite the Pegasus ponies job to control and regulate the weather left a small patch of sunny sky just for Twilight out of the goodness of her heart (uh huh).
Twilight sees through the blatant attempt to gain favour and asks Rainbow Dash to shut the cloud up, promptly leaving her soaking in the rain. Rarity comes along and brings her to her house to keep dry. Like with Rainbow Dash, she attempts to convince Twilight to take her to the Gala by offering up a new dress she made. Twilight refuses of course but runs into Applejack outside (where it's apparently stopped raining). Applejack offers her a number of delicious-looking apple-based foods, but Twilight refuses this also.
Returning to her home, Twilight comes across Fluttershy, who's cleaning the place with her animal friends ala Snow White. Getting pretty peeved at this point, Twilight asks her to leave, but not before Pinkie comes along with a procession of other local ponies to throw a party in Twilight's honour.
Twilight's pretty much had it at this point but soon things get worse as Pinkie blurts out to pretty much the whole town about the extra ticket. Now everyone wants in on the action, offering her food and services.
Spike asks her what they should do. And of course in times of trial and adversity such as this, there's always one solution that never fails. Run away and hope they can't catch you.
What follows is a chase sequence styled in the manner of the old "Benny Hill" show, complete with what I think it a remix of his classic theme song.
Soon though, the two are cornered, leading to Twilight discovering that she has the power to teleport. Arriving back in her home, she orders Spike to lock all the doors and windows. However, the other five main ponies were already there, prompting Twilight to just give up and lament out loud how she just can't choose between them.
The others understand and, realizing what stress they've been putting on her, each choose to not pursue the ticket further, with the exception of Rainbow Dash who cheers at the prospect of getting the ticket before essentially being guilted into following suit.
Twilight, now relieved, asks Spike to send a message to the Princess. The message informs her that she thanks her for the invitation but since she cannot choose between her friends, she declines her own ticket as well as the extra, much to the shock of the others.
Soon afterwards however, a message arrives from the Princess informing Twilight that if choosing between them was so difficult she should have just asked. The message comes with seven tickets, one for each of them, Spike included.
The episode ends with everyone excited about their going to the Gala, and it'll only take over twenty more episodes for them to do so.
So then, that's episode three, the first "regular" episode of the show. So how does it hold up?
Now I've never done an episode-by-episode review series before so I'm going to deviate from my usual review style here. What I'll be doing is going over what I though about various parts of the episode, the story, humour, main song, moral of the day etc.
So then, the story itself. It's a fairly simple one that's probably been done many times before in a lot of kid's shows. But I confess it's a well-executed version of that story. While watching, I asked myself, "If I was Twilight, who would I want to go with me?" I suppose it's a credit to the writing team of the show that, much like Twilight herself, I was unable to choose, as I liked these characters equally, for my own reasons. However, some parts did leave me somewhat disappointed. Like, for instance, how convenient it was that Pinkie Pie just turned up like she did. It really did feel like the writers just needs to have these characters turn up at convenient times to drive the plot forward.
Humour now and, much like the series pilot, there were some genuine laughs here. Lines like "I was busy......napping" succeeded in bringing a smile to my face so kudos on that one. As I mentioned earlier there was a chase sequence which heavily reminded me of those used in old-school Benny Hill episodes, complete with similar music. Sure many kid's shows used this type of sequence before but I think this was a particularly good one.
The song now and I'm just going to come out and say it, I'm not a big fan of Pinkie Pie's singing voice. It's not the worst I've ever heard (beleive me, I've heard far worse), but it just has that feel of someone who hasn't done a lot of singing before and is just getting used to it. I suppose that's natural as this is only the second song of the series but still, it bothers me. As for the song itself it's a bit too "bubbly for my liking" which may be an issue for when I have to do future Pinkie Pie songs. There was also a second song here, used when Pinkie was trying to coerce Twilight towards the end, but it was under 30 seconds long and was interrupted halfway through so I don't really count it.
Finally, we have the moral of the episode. Now I have my own moral code as do many others reading this. I'm no expert on morality so I'm just going to say what I thought of the intended message. This episode seems to want to teach that choosing between your friedns is never a good thing and that it's better to do things with them than without them. A fairly basic lesson to teach kds but still, it's a good lesson.
Overall this was a good start to the more episodic episodes of the series, with some good humour and interaction between the lead heroines, as well as a fairly feel-good ending, not to mention setting up the plot point of the Gala which will be built up on and resolved by the end of the season. A worthy entry into the series.
And that's all I have to say about that episode.
Although I always hope people enjoy reading and enjoying what I've written, please keep in mind that this may well be the last of these reviews depending on how well this one does over the following week.
If they do continue, I'll see you all next week for a review of the next episode, "Applebuck Season".
