Saturday 1 February 2014

Episode review: Pinkie Pride

Weird Al!

Another amazing character episode. Should I even be surprised anymore? I don't think so. For some of the things that I liked here, you can just reread my reviews of Rarity Takes Manehattan and Rainbow Falls. Some of the same things I said there are true here as well. Pinkie Pie is shown at her best, with the core ideas of the character displayed, challenged, and then reinforced. There's recurring themes in that which I might actually want to analyze at some point, but I'll wait until the season is finished.

The main story has a lot less to it than Rarity Takes Manehattan or especially Rainbow Falls, but it's more than made up for with the sheer joy to be found in the chemistry between Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich, "Weird Al" Yankovic's character. Speaking of whom, Weird Al does a wonderful job, and clearly had a great time voicing the character.

The animation is fantastic, as always. This episode is more frantically paced than other ones, but it still keeps the incredible creativity-and, dare I say, complexity-shown in the visuals of other episodes. As has been seen earlier in the season, the faces are highly expressive, with detailed expressions being shown for different emotions. The songs are also excellent, including a hyper reprise of Smile, Smile, Smile. I recall a time when I wasn't as much a fan of the music, but Daniel Ingram knows what he's doing.

I haven't gotten to the humour yet, which is a large part of the episode. Given that there's a very talented comedian involved, you'd expect the episode to be nothing less than hilarious, and it doesn't disappoint. Like last week's episode, this is the show at its funniest. There is so much joy to be found here that it's hard not to feel at least a little excited, even after the episode is finished.

This season is perhaps the most tightly organized of the entire show. Sure, it doesn't have a story running through every episode, but there are common themes placed deliberately throughout, and it's clearly moving towards an end point. Judging by recent developments in the toyline, that end point is very badly designed, but that's a complaint for another day. Pinkie Pride is yet another celebration of everything that we like about the show. If you like something about this show, it can be found here. I don't know what else to say. It's just wonderful.

No comments:

Post a Comment