Review: Pinkie Pride (My Little Pony, Season 4, Episode 12)
My thoughts way before this episode aired--
"So wait--Weird Al might be on the show? That's pretty cool!"
My thoughts a little later before the episode aired--
"People are shipping Pinkie Pie with WEIRD AL YANKOVIC? That is just --that is SO WRONG."
My thoughts when I started seeing the teasers--
"Oh, man, this is going to be the best thing ever."
My thoughts when I actually SAW the episode?
[Spoilers, fillies and gentlecolts!]
I SHIP IT LIKE FEDEX
CheesePie by Carmalicious on deviantART
I HAVE NO REGRETS
Seriously, whoa, I was NOT expecting that. For one thing, I don't ship ponies. For another, if I *did* ship ponies, they'd be minor characters, and it would be strictly offstage. I might do an entry on this and maybe not. For another, my only extremely guilty pleasure is FlutterDash. No, I do not see it as canon, and I don't even want it to be canon. It's just sort of cute. At the very bottom of my shippable Mane Six list is Pinkie Pie. She seems so childlike that it was just impossible for me to wrap my mind around it. She's younger than Fluttershy, and she comes off as younger than any of the others except maybe for Rainbow Dash. She's the only one who still lives with "adults," and her graduation to babysitter was a huge step forward. However, she's grown a lot since her earlier episodes, and this was just adorable.
And optional, so I'm moving on from there. Dammit, Pinkie, quit trying to steal Best Pony from Dash.
I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that this was the musical episode they were talking about. Maybe it's not the only one.
The opening song, "Pinkie the Party Planner," is like a bookend to the Smile Song. One of the things the Smile Song does so well is break the fourth wall in a way that really brings the viewer in. Pinkie breaking the fourth wall is a character trait that's sometimes played as a throwaway gag, but in the Smile Song, the "you" in "I love to make you smile, smile, smile/ Yes, I do," is the viewer. She wants to make YOU smile. The same is true of "Pinkie the Party Planner": "Today I planned a party/ And I planned it just for YOU," pointing out of the frame. This is why Amy Keating Rogers is so good at writing Pinkie. She's the one who most convincingly set up the idea that Pinkie is what keeps Ponyville happy. I think this is the first time we've seen Pinkie actually *plan* a party. We've seen her throw them, and we've seen that she was asked to plan Shining Armor and Cadance's wedding, which Chrysalis dismissed as like a six year old's birthday party (i.e., pretty awesome, actually.) Here she has a checklist as long as Twilight's, and we see her jumping around creating a banner for Rainbow Dash. How does she manage to get a rainbow set of paints after they were already mixed up to be brown? Pinkie magic, I guess.
I think it's important that Pinkie's first reaction on meeting Cheese Sandwich is "yay! another friend!" Nobody comes to Ponyville without becoming Pinkie's friend. Another party planner! With some kind of ESP? And, evidently, a prehensile tail? AWESOME. She only becomes upset when it becomes clear that Cheese's thing is planning the party and stealing the spotlight: "look how awesome I am!" This song, "Super Duper Party Pony," is completely amazing.
It kinda defies analysis or description. I've watched this episode six or seven times. Yes, I did. And it didn't occur to me until it was pointed out that like Tara Strong, Weird Al recorded his bit separately. When you think about it, it makes sense, because Pinkie Pie's "like me!" and "you know it!" are overlaid on the song. Like Pinkie Pie, Cheese Sandwich directly breaks the fourth wall constantly. I think I like the bits with him just dancing and playing the accordion best, although it escalates into things like the accordion opening and becoming a rainbow. Everything Pinkie does, Cheese Sandwich does bigger, louder, and crazier.
Now we already got a glimpse of Cheese earlier, on the outskirts of Appleoosa, and he's a loner. He watches the parties he's planned, but he leaves in the middle (thus avoiding the cleanup--PRETTY SLICK.) Pinkie's thing isn't really parties, though she forgets this and makes us forget it, too. It's making her friends smile.
I'd never felt joy like that before! It felt so good I just wanted to keep smiling forever! And I wanted everyone I knew to smile too, but rainbows don't come along that often. I wondered, how else could I create some smiles?
The parties are a means to an end. The song "Pinkie's Lament," in addition to being sad (Pinkie putting away her party cannon? Oh, my God, the universe cannot contain the sadness) demonstrates how far she's come since "Party of One." She tries to deal, and she tries some other jobs. She sucks at them, but this is not her fault. What snaps her out of it is looking at the pictures of her family and friends smiling at the parties she's thrown. Right there, she teeters on the edge of understanding herself and what's going on.
Sidebar: Goddam it, Twilight. I thought you were supposed to be genius at friendship? I'm not all that surprised that Dash gets carried away, although making your friend cry until she actually licks her tears away is jerky. Incidentally, if you ever start to say something that includes "no offense," you are about to say something offensive, and you should stop it right now. Still, between her conversation with Pinkie and her conversation with Dash two episodes ago, Twilight's got a loooong way to go.
The Goof Off brings back the Western theme of the opening by creating a shootout duel between Pinkie and Cheese. Once again, the escalation is brilliant. The live action cutaways were a bit weird. I still don't know what those were about. Cheese stealing Pinkie's song should be a hint of what was actually happening that we won't get until later on. Yes, he is copying her. Exactly.
Dash already wasn't enjoying herself. "Intense competition on my birthaversary. What could be better, heh-heh." Dash likes competition, but not like this. What's she going to do--pick one and hurt somepony's feelings? Besides, it's actually unpleasant to have two people trying to grab your attention and entertain you at the same time. Dash barely has a moment to enjoy something, like her smile at Pinkie's Dash balloon, before she's grabbed away to something different.
It takes the pinata squash for Pinkie to realize that
1) Dash is not, in fact, enjoying herself, and
2) This is not who she, Pinkie, is. She's actually not about throwing the best party. She is about making her friends happy. Rainbow eye flash. (I think we've established by now that this is a Thing.)
I guess Pinkie could always go home to the rock farm. "Stop! We don't want you to leave!" has been done many times before, but not (usually) the antagonist chiming in. We've seen antagonists apologize before, but nothing quite like this.
Then. Oh, ZOMG, then. Cheese Sandwich's Woobie past. I mean, Good Lord. He's a party planner BECAUSE of Pinkie. She made him happy. And while there may have been shots as adorbs as Colt!Cheese pushing up Pinkie's jester hat over his eyes, there is certainly nothing *more* adorbs than that.
Oh, OK, you don't HAVE to see this bit as shippy, but it's about as close as we've ever gotten, I think, and I have a maybe sorta off the wall theory about this. As far I'm concerned, this is underlined by the similarity of "Make A Wish, It's Your Birthday," and "This Is Our Big Night" from Equestria Girls.
Clearly, this is Pinkie's Key episode, and if I called nothing else, I *knew* that the rubber chicken would be Pinkie's key. Why? Did she teach him about friendship or something?
Well, maybe. He does wander off into the sunset, but maybe he's learned something about the connection between throwing parties and making friends. But he's still got a lot to learn, grasshopper.
I SHIP IT LIKE FEDEX
OH, OK, YOU CAN FRIENDSHIP IT LIKE FEDEX
Generations of Laughter by questionthemajority on deviantART
THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT YOU SHIP IT
Um, were there other episodes I wanted to say something about?
Th-tht-that's all, folks!
"So wait--Weird Al might be on the show? That's pretty cool!"
My thoughts a little later before the episode aired--
"People are shipping Pinkie Pie with WEIRD AL YANKOVIC? That is just --that is SO WRONG."
My thoughts when I started seeing the teasers--
"Oh, man, this is going to be the best thing ever."
My thoughts when I actually SAW the episode?
[Spoilers, fillies and gentlecolts!]
I SHIP IT LIKE FEDEX
CheesePie by Carmalicious on deviantART
I HAVE NO REGRETS
Seriously, whoa, I was NOT expecting that. For one thing, I don't ship ponies. For another, if I *did* ship ponies, they'd be minor characters, and it would be strictly offstage. I might do an entry on this and maybe not. For another, my only extremely guilty pleasure is FlutterDash. No, I do not see it as canon, and I don't even want it to be canon. It's just sort of cute. At the very bottom of my shippable Mane Six list is Pinkie Pie. She seems so childlike that it was just impossible for me to wrap my mind around it. She's younger than Fluttershy, and she comes off as younger than any of the others except maybe for Rainbow Dash. She's the only one who still lives with "adults," and her graduation to babysitter was a huge step forward. However, she's grown a lot since her earlier episodes, and this was just adorable.
And optional, so I'm moving on from there. Dammit, Pinkie, quit trying to steal Best Pony from Dash.
I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that this was the musical episode they were talking about. Maybe it's not the only one.
The opening song, "Pinkie the Party Planner," is like a bookend to the Smile Song. One of the things the Smile Song does so well is break the fourth wall in a way that really brings the viewer in. Pinkie breaking the fourth wall is a character trait that's sometimes played as a throwaway gag, but in the Smile Song, the "you" in "I love to make you smile, smile, smile/ Yes, I do," is the viewer. She wants to make YOU smile. The same is true of "Pinkie the Party Planner": "Today I planned a party/ And I planned it just for YOU," pointing out of the frame. This is why Amy Keating Rogers is so good at writing Pinkie. She's the one who most convincingly set up the idea that Pinkie is what keeps Ponyville happy. I think this is the first time we've seen Pinkie actually *plan* a party. We've seen her throw them, and we've seen that she was asked to plan Shining Armor and Cadance's wedding, which Chrysalis dismissed as like a six year old's birthday party (i.e., pretty awesome, actually.) Here she has a checklist as long as Twilight's, and we see her jumping around creating a banner for Rainbow Dash. How does she manage to get a rainbow set of paints after they were already mixed up to be brown? Pinkie magic, I guess.
I think it's important that Pinkie's first reaction on meeting Cheese Sandwich is "yay! another friend!" Nobody comes to Ponyville without becoming Pinkie's friend. Another party planner! With some kind of ESP? And, evidently, a prehensile tail? AWESOME. She only becomes upset when it becomes clear that Cheese's thing is planning the party and stealing the spotlight: "look how awesome I am!" This song, "Super Duper Party Pony," is completely amazing.
Click to viewIt kinda defies analysis or description. I've watched this episode six or seven times. Yes, I did. And it didn't occur to me until it was pointed out that like Tara Strong, Weird Al recorded his bit separately. When you think about it, it makes sense, because Pinkie Pie's "like me!" and "you know it!" are overlaid on the song. Like Pinkie Pie, Cheese Sandwich directly breaks the fourth wall constantly. I think I like the bits with him just dancing and playing the accordion best, although it escalates into things like the accordion opening and becoming a rainbow. Everything Pinkie does, Cheese Sandwich does bigger, louder, and crazier.
Now we already got a glimpse of Cheese earlier, on the outskirts of Appleoosa, and he's a loner. He watches the parties he's planned, but he leaves in the middle (thus avoiding the cleanup--PRETTY SLICK.) Pinkie's thing isn't really parties, though she forgets this and makes us forget it, too. It's making her friends smile.
I'd never felt joy like that before! It felt so good I just wanted to keep smiling forever! And I wanted everyone I knew to smile too, but rainbows don't come along that often. I wondered, how else could I create some smiles?
The parties are a means to an end. The song "Pinkie's Lament," in addition to being sad (Pinkie putting away her party cannon? Oh, my God, the universe cannot contain the sadness) demonstrates how far she's come since "Party of One." She tries to deal, and she tries some other jobs. She sucks at them, but this is not her fault. What snaps her out of it is looking at the pictures of her family and friends smiling at the parties she's thrown. Right there, she teeters on the edge of understanding herself and what's going on.
Sidebar: Goddam it, Twilight. I thought you were supposed to be genius at friendship? I'm not all that surprised that Dash gets carried away, although making your friend cry until she actually licks her tears away is jerky. Incidentally, if you ever start to say something that includes "no offense," you are about to say something offensive, and you should stop it right now. Still, between her conversation with Pinkie and her conversation with Dash two episodes ago, Twilight's got a loooong way to go.
The Goof Off brings back the Western theme of the opening by creating a shootout duel between Pinkie and Cheese. Once again, the escalation is brilliant. The live action cutaways were a bit weird. I still don't know what those were about. Cheese stealing Pinkie's song should be a hint of what was actually happening that we won't get until later on. Yes, he is copying her. Exactly.
Dash already wasn't enjoying herself. "Intense competition on my birthaversary. What could be better, heh-heh." Dash likes competition, but not like this. What's she going to do--pick one and hurt somepony's feelings? Besides, it's actually unpleasant to have two people trying to grab your attention and entertain you at the same time. Dash barely has a moment to enjoy something, like her smile at Pinkie's Dash balloon, before she's grabbed away to something different.
It takes the pinata squash for Pinkie to realize that
1) Dash is not, in fact, enjoying herself, and
2) This is not who she, Pinkie, is. She's actually not about throwing the best party. She is about making her friends happy. Rainbow eye flash. (I think we've established by now that this is a Thing.)
I guess Pinkie could always go home to the rock farm. "Stop! We don't want you to leave!" has been done many times before, but not (usually) the antagonist chiming in. We've seen antagonists apologize before, but nothing quite like this.
Then. Oh, ZOMG, then. Cheese Sandwich's Woobie past. I mean, Good Lord. He's a party planner BECAUSE of Pinkie. She made him happy. And while there may have been shots as adorbs as Colt!Cheese pushing up Pinkie's jester hat over his eyes, there is certainly nothing *more* adorbs than that.
Oh, OK, you don't HAVE to see this bit as shippy, but it's about as close as we've ever gotten, I think, and I have a maybe sorta off the wall theory about this. As far I'm concerned, this is underlined by the similarity of "Make A Wish, It's Your Birthday," and "This Is Our Big Night" from Equestria Girls.
Clearly, this is Pinkie's Key episode, and if I called nothing else, I *knew* that the rubber chicken would be Pinkie's key. Why? Did she teach him about friendship or something?
Well, maybe. He does wander off into the sunset, but maybe he's learned something about the connection between throwing parties and making friends. But he's still got a lot to learn, grasshopper.
I SHIP IT LIKE FEDEX
OH, OK, YOU CAN FRIENDSHIP IT LIKE FEDEX
Generations of Laughter by questionthemajority on deviantART
THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT YOU SHIP IT
Um, were there other episodes I wanted to say something about?
Th-tht-that's all, folks!