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Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Party with Pinkie: Party Pooped





Hello & welcome back to Trotting Through Life and today, we continue our Party with Pinkie as we look at Pinkie's second episode of season  5, and the one that introduced us to perhaps the most annoying characters from any MLP episode.















I will have a bit more to say about them later on in the review.


The Plot


This plot is a common one that we've seen in many  children's cartoons, where a person from another country comes to visit and our main characters want to make a good impression by showing that they understand the culture of said guest that is visiting. Take for example,  Disney Channel's newest show, Elena of Avalor, which also had this plot in the episode, Model Sister as Crown Princess Elena tried to juggle time between he little sister and showing a visiting emperor, a good time on Avalor.
















The difference between these two episodes is that the visiting royals in Elena of Avalor were portrayed as likable while  Elena's cousin, Esteban is portrayed as a buffoon and the royals never get mad at his attempts to understand their culture and go along with it.  Until Elena realizes that the most important thing is family (the episode also deals with Elena having to balance her duties between Crown Princess and a big sister)  and how to show them a good time on Avalor, whereas with this episode, we understand that Twilight wishes to build a good friendship between the Yaks and the Ponies,  the viewer starts to not want to see that because every time, the ponies attempt to foster a good relationship with the Yaks by attempting to recreate something from their home to make them feel welcome, they act violent and start destroying because it isn't Yak insert anything from this episode here.






This is pretty much why I'm not going into more detail of the episode as it becomes repetitive and annoying each time, the Yaks destroy something.  It's not funny,  I find it rather disrespectful to the Ponies that are acting as the guests of Princess Twilight.  So, is there anything good that comes out of the episode?  Well, we get to see nervous Twily and nervous Pinkie. Which are always fun to see and Pinkie deciding to go to Yak Yakinstan to get a better understanding of the Yaks' culture was a great idea as was the reveal of Pinkie's party lair.  Pinkie's journey had some funny moments such as The Beatles reference, Curse You Sheep, and of course, I loved the cameo from Cadance but I do wish that Cadie had travelled with the Pink Party Pony.  And Pinkie's party lair gave birth to Twilight's fear of quesadillas




 












But everything that Pinkie went through was undone by the final joke of her on the sled as it sliding all the way back to Sugarcube Corner, from where she was. Making her journey null & void.












Yes, Pinkie figured out how to show the Yaks, a good time by showing them what made Ponyville  special in the end but let's keep in mind that too long before this, the Yaks were willing to declare war on the Ponies.  Those  are the kind that the ponies would really want to harbor a relationship with.  I'd think not.  Sad to say but once again, we have another Pinkie episode that isn't that great but I've been noticing a trend of the bad Pinkie Pie episodes that I've reviewed.  Pinkie herself is never the problem, she is usually the bright spot and what makes the episode work and that is once again true of this episode.  My problem with this episode is similar to that of the problem that I have with Maud Pie in that just as how I felt Maud brought that episode down and made it a chore to get through,  every scene with the Yaks in this episode was unbearable and have made it to where I hope to never see these characters again.  Now from what I understand, they appear in the 26th issue of Friends Forever, where Shining Armor along with Blueblood feeling in for Cadie go to see the Yaks to establish a trade between the Yaks and The Crystal Empire.


Sorry to say that the way, the Yaks acted here have turned me off from reading that comic.  I don't think this is the worst Pinkie Pie episode that I've reviewed as that title still belongs to Feeling Pinkie Keen but like the other bad Pinkie episodes that I have reviewed, the problem is never Pinkie but everything else surrounding the Party Pony.  And heck, that's not even true of the other ponies as they too try to make the best of  a bad situation.  It's the Yaks that bring this whole episode down and make it such a drag.




Characters



I'll only be focusing on Pinkie and Twilight here.


Pinkie Pie voiced by Andrea Libman











Again, I want to stress that Pinkie isn't the problem as she attempts to make the best of a situation that seems unwinnable with how hard to please, the Yaks are but dangit, if she doesn't put her all in trying to learn more about their culture. Only for the episode to undermine her journey with a cheap gag at the end.  I truly felt bad for Pinkie here as she really did try but it seemed to be all for naught. Thankfully, things worked out in the end for Pinkie and they were able to establish a friendship with The Yaks but after the way, they disrespected everypony, I can't understand why they wanted to.


Twilight Sparkle voiced by Tara Strong













Again, I thought Twilight was perfectly fine in the episode and also made the best of an unwinnable situation.  She really wanted to foster this friendship with the Yaks and as a princess, she tried her hardest but I feel like after the second time that they destroyed something,  Twily should have kicked them out of Ponyville.


Antagonist


Prince Rutherford voiced by Gary Chalk














Yeah I know, there were two other Yaks with Rutherford.  But they barely had a personality beyond destroy and that's all Rutherford's personality was as well.  There was nothing to him except destroying everything because again it's not yak insert anything from this episode here.  And it was never funny, only aggravating and annoying.  It made me loathe these characters and thinking that they would have been better off in Tartarus.


My Final Thoughts


Again, I want to stress that Pinkie isn't the problem with this episode.  She is actually one of the bright spots.  And the same is true for the rest of the Ponies but with the way, the Yaks acted, you have to wonder why, they would ever want to foster a friendship with these jerks.  Every single time, they were onscreen, I was just waiting for the episode to cut away to something else.  I do not know, who thought that having the Yaks destroy every attempt of the Ponies showing them hospitality was funny because it really wasn't.  It just came off a cruel and mean-spirited towards the mane characters. Ah well, join me next for Pinkie's last episode of season 5 as we look at...


The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows


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