Hello & welcome back to Trotting Through Life. And we have finally reached the final review of Party With Pinkie. Join me as we look at Pinkie Pie and The Rockin' Ponypalooza Party!
Cover
Now, as I've mentioned in my other two reviews of these books, I've said that I'm not the biggest fan of the covers. I'm not expecting like the effort that IDW puts into the covers but just a picture of the pony and a plain background with something that relates to the pony that is the main character of the story. I get that these are eye popping to children and focusing on the ponies will attract the young children but I still find it rather boring.
Author
G.M. Berrow
Now, I've cover Berrow's work in the past and as I have stated in those reviews, she is the typical writer for the Pony chapter books and while I have only read 3 of her chapter books, I feel that she does a good job conveying the ponies in literary form and it shows that she loves the characters that she writes about. Now, even if you haven't read any of Berrow's books, you may be familiar with her writing as she became a writer for the show during season 5. And we actually looked at her debut episode as a writer for the show during this event as her first episode as a writer for the show was The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows.
And so far, that has been the only episode of the show written by Berrow. Shame, that she hasn't gotten a chance to truly show her talents on the show as Pinkie Pie Knows isn't one of the greatest episodes of the series and not a great debut either for someone who knows Berrow's writing talents are rather pretty good.
Oh, I should also mention that the events of this book were made canon during the opening of The Mane Attraction.
The Plot
I really really really want to defend G.M. Berrow as I liked the Twilight Sparkle book and the Rarity book that Berrow wrote but..... she doesn't make it easy. Now as I mentioned, this book is considered canon. And well, I'm hoping that only the events of the book are canon as this book is also the introduction of Pinkie's family and while, I had decent things to say about them in a previous review, I think this book gave them a bad first impression. This is what I said in my Hearthbreakers review.
Pinkie’s parents were portrayed in the show lines up with how they were in the book but as for Limestone and Marble, they didn’t get much page time from what I recall.
While their in-show debut was decent and actually gave you a good feel for them as characters, they didn't feel right. And well, you can't call it them being out of character of this book came out two years before Hearthbreakers aired, so before this book, they didn't have any character but what we know of them now from the show, their first appearance in this book doesn't line up with their future appearances. I'm spending a lot of time talking about the characters here and haven't actually gone into the plot, what is the plot.
Pinkie's family comes to Ponyville to see Princess Twilight as they are about to lose their rock farm because ever since The Crystal Empire had returned, ponies are only interested in shiny marble stones, which is foreshadowed with Pinkie as she goes to invite Cheerilee to her Spring-Sprang-Sproing Party and Pinkie's family shows up at the end of that party and Pinkie is devastated to learn that her parents are losing the farm and she wants to help and suggests a rock concert party but her father says that this is no time for any of Pinkie's silly ideas. Berrow really seemed to feel the need to exaggerate the difference between Pinkie's extroverted personality and Pinkie's family's subdued almost Amish like nature. Also weird aside, in the book, their last name is Rock. Odd but that is the least of my problems with this book as Pinkie's family just comes across as awful and they hurt Pinkie so bad that as Twilight observed it was reminiscent of when Pinkie thought her friends forgot about Gummy's After Birthday Party. And indeed, they made Pinkie decide that she needed to give up on parties and be a serious pony. Pinkie being a serious pony is not what Ponyville needs. And the other thing that grinds my gears is that while Pinkie suggested the party and her father said it was silly, he went along with it, when Twilight suggested because of her princess status.
I know that's the point but gah, I can't stand that attitude and neither could Twily. And her friends see this as well and try their best to get the old Pinkie back but I like with Berrow and her work, it is an uphill battle as Pinkie wants to remain Pinkamena Serious Pie as to not disappoint her family, even though it is driving her crazy that she can't be the party monster that she wants to be as she sees her friends setting up the Ponypalooza Party. It's finally during a Royal Tour of Ponyville that Pinkie's sisters are on with Spike, that they see what Pinkie has been going through and they want their old sister back and Cloudy even apologizes to his daughter. And the book ends with the Ponypalooza party going off without a hitch and everyone chanting Pinkie's name.
Again, let me make this clear. I like G.M. Berrow and from her Tweets, she seems like a very nice person but.... but... but... but... I don't like this book. This book is up there with Feeling Pinkie Keen as my least favorite Pinkie Pie story and like all bad Pinkie stories, Pinkie isn't the problem, it's the characters surrounding her and in this case being Pinkie's family. Thankfully, the show did a better job with bringing the Pie family into the show proper than this book did.
Characters
Main Character
Pinkie Pie
Pinkie is likable and enjoyable in the show and Berrow does do a good job of making you feel for Pinkie throughout the event but you wish that Pinkie's family was more supportive.
Supporting Characters
Twilight Sparkle
Twily felt like my surrogate in this book as the more, Pinkie's family dismissed Pinkie, the more she got mad without showing it and she never lost her cool but like me, you could feel how annoyed Twilight was getting with Pinkie's family.
Cloudy Quartz, Ingenious, Limestone, & Marble
Again, as I said before, it felt a bit weird to go back and read this book after seeing the Pie family make their animated debut. And well, I haven't been hiding my feelings all too well but they are the worst part of the story and makes you not want to see them again or at least not written by Berrow. I hate that I keep coming back to this but we know that someone such as Nick Confalone wrote them to be characters and while, I had my issues with how they were in Hearthbreakers, they never induced the anger that I felt reading this book.
My Final Thoughts
Skip this book. I'm sad to end this event on such a low note but this book is not worth your time. This was actually my second time reading this book as I read it when it was first released and I didn't like it then but I was hoping that my opinion would change over time but nope, I still don't like it. Ah well. So, we put a close to Party With Pinkie and for a while, I'm taking a rest from these character retrospectives because while I love doing them, they are time consuming and this one took me all year. Do not fret as I"ll return with a character retrospective in the summer with A Dash of Awesome. But for now, the holidays are coming and Trotting Through Life will become Trotting Through The Snow and that'll kick off with...
Top 6 Songs from It's A Pony Kind of Christmas
No comments:
Post a Comment