I've written reviews of all the episodes of season 4 but I haven't posted very many. Well, here they are, in reverse order.
Part 1
Sad Twi. Somepony needs a hug.
Horse joke ("why the long face?")
Flash!
Persian ponies look cool
Book! Just like the first episode
So, was the Cerberus thing and the release of Tirek planned all the way in season 2 or did they just fit it in now?
I don't know. Looking at the time, I'm thinking the first song could have been cut. It was good, just not necessary.
92/100 for part 1
Part 2
That battle was intense! They just put so much coolness in everywhere.
Somehow they fit the rainbow power designs in without making me cringe. I think everything else was just so cool that I ignored it or something. Actually I think it would have been better if this was a surprise, instead of something that was spoiled months ago to sell toys. It could have been "hey, here's something new, buy it!" instead of "hey, here's something for you to buy so we have to work into the story!" I'm not at all bothered that they're trying to sell these things, I just think they could have marketed them a lot better.
And Twi's castle is a tree house
The ending was rushed just a little bit, but it didn't take any points away from the episode
This is probably my favourite episode
100/100 for part 2
Just a little overthinking My Little Pony Friendship is Magic.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Thursday, April 17, 2014
My Little Pony: Origins Review
You've seen the original My Little Pony/ Rescue at Midnight Castle special in the previous post. Now here's my review. Big spoilers.
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Pegasus Firefly, unicorn Twilight, and earth pony Applejack are playing with their friends outside when all of a sudden (literally in the first two or three minutes) all hell breaks loose. Scorpan, a bat-winged hairy guy, is riding a dragon and leading a group of other dragons and he captures one of the ponies. Back at the Midnight Castle his boss, Tirac, a giant centaur, is really pissed off that he didn't manage to get the necessary four ponies he asked for to complete his evil plan.
Firefly flies up into the sky to get help and apparently ends up at Earth where she crashes into a well. A girl named Megan, who has a normal non-talking pony, pulls her out. Megan is not the least bit surprised that the creature she pulled out of the well is a brash and impulsive pegasus who can talk. I think if that happened to just about anyone else one would be filled with shock and disbelief, but, apparently, Megan finds this completely normal. Firefly tells her that she is the only hope the ponies have of survival and Megan agrees to fly with her back to the horse world (I don't think they named it at this point).
Scorpan is back, catches three more ponies, and Megan, but Firefly knocks her out of the dragon's claws. She falls to the ground and Scorpan of all people (or beast men) saves her life, catching her, bringing her gently to the ground, and warning her that she should get to safety. And then she gets pissed at him after he just saved her from splatting on the ground!
They go off to the rescue their friends at the castle, crossing the most broken down bridge in the history of bridges (just who made it? Who made the castle the ponies live in anyway? They don't seem capable of doing humanoid activities like construction work.). Applejack falls into a river, Megan dives in after her, and they get trapped inside a giant clam.
Then come the sea ponies. And they sing. For no reason whatsoever. They push the pair up to the surface of the water.
Back at the Midnight Castle Tirac is pissed at Scorpan because one of the ponies, Ember, is too young. He threatens the life of Spike, Scorpan's baby dragon friend/pet? and then opens a bag that beats like the tell tale heart and magic dust turns the three ponies into horrible tusked monsters.
They find a gnome named Mr. Moochick who tells them all that Tirac needs the four ponies to bring about endless night. How he knows this is not explained. In fact, nothing is explained really. But he does sing. There's a lot of singing. The only thing that can stop Tirac is a rainbow of light. And his Bugs Bunny like friend had it hiding in his trousers the whole time.
The sea ponies ferry the group (which includes a blue pony I'm not sure they named) across yet another river so they can sneek into the Midnight Castle. Those things are so annoying.
Scorpan turns out to really be a good guy, or at least not evil enough to want to destroy the world, so he busts Spike and Ember out of prison and tries to save the other ponies from Tirac and his goons. He's not quick enough. Applejack becomes the fourth pony to be turned into a monster and Tirac leaves to bring about forever night. Scorpan nearly dies trying to stop him, and we find out that blue pony's name is Bow Tie, even though there is absolutley no way Spike could have known.
The rainbow blows Tirac to smithereens, turns the ponies back to normal, turns Tirac's goons into animals, and Scorpan turns back into the prince who rules the land that Tirac had conquered. In the closing credits Firefly brings Megan back to Earth.
One of my biggest complaints with the new series is something I call Rushed Ending Syndrome, where the setup is really good, everything flows nicely to the climax, and then an ending is shoehorned into two or three minutes when it could have taken ten to properly explain everything. Well, Rescue at Midnight Castle suffers from what I guess you could call Rushed Everything Syndrome. Nothing is explained at all. The whole first sea pony scene is forced in just to introduce the sea ponies so they make sense the second time they appear, but that sequence could have been cut and replaced with something that actually explains more of the story.
Where did Tirac come from? Why did he want to destroy the world? Why did he need four ponies to complete his evil plan? How did the gnome guy get the rainbow in the first place? How did he know anything at all about Tirac's evil plan? How did Firefly know how to get to Earth, and how did she know one little girl would be able to save everyone? How did any of this make sense?
This short film could have been three or four times longer. It would have greatly benefitted from a full 80 minute cinematic treatment. Unfortunately, it's far too short to explain anything that happened. I felt I had watched the highly abridged version.
The similarities between this and the first two episodes of Friendship is Magic are astonishing. They tell the same story in slightly different ways. That's cool.
The animation is good, the voices are good, there was huge potential to make this into something amazing if it was longer than 22 minutes, but rushing through absolutely everything and not giving one single bit of explanation for anything that happened is going to cost this some serious points.
73/100
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Pegasus Firefly, unicorn Twilight, and earth pony Applejack are playing with their friends outside when all of a sudden (literally in the first two or three minutes) all hell breaks loose. Scorpan, a bat-winged hairy guy, is riding a dragon and leading a group of other dragons and he captures one of the ponies. Back at the Midnight Castle his boss, Tirac, a giant centaur, is really pissed off that he didn't manage to get the necessary four ponies he asked for to complete his evil plan.
Firefly flies up into the sky to get help and apparently ends up at Earth where she crashes into a well. A girl named Megan, who has a normal non-talking pony, pulls her out. Megan is not the least bit surprised that the creature she pulled out of the well is a brash and impulsive pegasus who can talk. I think if that happened to just about anyone else one would be filled with shock and disbelief, but, apparently, Megan finds this completely normal. Firefly tells her that she is the only hope the ponies have of survival and Megan agrees to fly with her back to the horse world (I don't think they named it at this point).
Scorpan is back, catches three more ponies, and Megan, but Firefly knocks her out of the dragon's claws. She falls to the ground and Scorpan of all people (or beast men) saves her life, catching her, bringing her gently to the ground, and warning her that she should get to safety. And then she gets pissed at him after he just saved her from splatting on the ground!
They go off to the rescue their friends at the castle, crossing the most broken down bridge in the history of bridges (just who made it? Who made the castle the ponies live in anyway? They don't seem capable of doing humanoid activities like construction work.). Applejack falls into a river, Megan dives in after her, and they get trapped inside a giant clam.
Then come the sea ponies. And they sing. For no reason whatsoever. They push the pair up to the surface of the water.
Back at the Midnight Castle Tirac is pissed at Scorpan because one of the ponies, Ember, is too young. He threatens the life of Spike, Scorpan's baby dragon friend/pet? and then opens a bag that beats like the tell tale heart and magic dust turns the three ponies into horrible tusked monsters.
They find a gnome named Mr. Moochick who tells them all that Tirac needs the four ponies to bring about endless night. How he knows this is not explained. In fact, nothing is explained really. But he does sing. There's a lot of singing. The only thing that can stop Tirac is a rainbow of light. And his Bugs Bunny like friend had it hiding in his trousers the whole time.
The sea ponies ferry the group (which includes a blue pony I'm not sure they named) across yet another river so they can sneek into the Midnight Castle. Those things are so annoying.
Scorpan turns out to really be a good guy, or at least not evil enough to want to destroy the world, so he busts Spike and Ember out of prison and tries to save the other ponies from Tirac and his goons. He's not quick enough. Applejack becomes the fourth pony to be turned into a monster and Tirac leaves to bring about forever night. Scorpan nearly dies trying to stop him, and we find out that blue pony's name is Bow Tie, even though there is absolutley no way Spike could have known.
The rainbow blows Tirac to smithereens, turns the ponies back to normal, turns Tirac's goons into animals, and Scorpan turns back into the prince who rules the land that Tirac had conquered. In the closing credits Firefly brings Megan back to Earth.
One of my biggest complaints with the new series is something I call Rushed Ending Syndrome, where the setup is really good, everything flows nicely to the climax, and then an ending is shoehorned into two or three minutes when it could have taken ten to properly explain everything. Well, Rescue at Midnight Castle suffers from what I guess you could call Rushed Everything Syndrome. Nothing is explained at all. The whole first sea pony scene is forced in just to introduce the sea ponies so they make sense the second time they appear, but that sequence could have been cut and replaced with something that actually explains more of the story.
Where did Tirac come from? Why did he want to destroy the world? Why did he need four ponies to complete his evil plan? How did the gnome guy get the rainbow in the first place? How did he know anything at all about Tirac's evil plan? How did Firefly know how to get to Earth, and how did she know one little girl would be able to save everyone? How did any of this make sense?
This short film could have been three or four times longer. It would have greatly benefitted from a full 80 minute cinematic treatment. Unfortunately, it's far too short to explain anything that happened. I felt I had watched the highly abridged version.
The similarities between this and the first two episodes of Friendship is Magic are astonishing. They tell the same story in slightly different ways. That's cool.
The animation is good, the voices are good, there was huge potential to make this into something amazing if it was longer than 22 minutes, but rushing through absolutely everything and not giving one single bit of explanation for anything that happened is going to cost this some serious points.
73/100
My Little Pony: Origins
30 years ago the original My Little Pony TV special aired 16 April 1984. Watch below. Runs 22 minutes.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Filli Vanilli
That rabbit has some sort of weird growth. How does it get in and out of its warren?
I really like Toe-Tapper's eighth note star cutie mark.
Leave it to a real chatterbox like Big Mac to lose his voice.
Pinkie Pie took a level in JERK this episode. To whom was she nice? Nopony.
Zipporwhill is new cutest pony. It doesn't matter if Scootaloo is a sad, disabled orphan, she has lost the title of cutest pony that she has defended so vigorously since season one.
Fluttershy looks really cute in her green sweater, though I'm not sure how easy it would be to squeeze her wings through the holes.
This episode had one of the best songs of the season. At the very least a real Ponytones EP should be released. I'd buy it.
This was a very simple episode with a lot of callbacks to earlier episodes, which I really like. Everything (except Pinkie) was really sweet. I didn't even mind the season four lighting when Flutters was singing to the animals, and I'm not sure, but I don't think Derpy was their either, or at least she didn't appear right in front of the main action that I was trying to pay attention to! For its one flaw this falls just short of best episode of the season.
94/100.
I really like Toe-Tapper's eighth note star cutie mark.
Leave it to a real chatterbox like Big Mac to lose his voice.
Pinkie Pie took a level in JERK this episode. To whom was she nice? Nopony.
Zipporwhill is new cutest pony. It doesn't matter if Scootaloo is a sad, disabled orphan, she has lost the title of cutest pony that she has defended so vigorously since season one.
Fluttershy looks really cute in her green sweater, though I'm not sure how easy it would be to squeeze her wings through the holes.
This episode had one of the best songs of the season. At the very least a real Ponytones EP should be released. I'd buy it.
This was a very simple episode with a lot of callbacks to earlier episodes, which I really like. Everything (except Pinkie) was really sweet. I didn't even mind the season four lighting when Flutters was singing to the animals, and I'm not sure, but I don't think Derpy was their either, or at least she didn't appear right in front of the main action that I was trying to pay attention to! For its one flaw this falls just short of best episode of the season.
94/100.
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