Ponies, colts, and fillies of all ages, welcome once again to another edition of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Recap/Review. While MLP has always had it’s fair share of random and wacky, rarely is it done as well as when it’s done by our favorite silly pink pony. It’s time for Pinkie Pie to return to the forefront, with her special brand of fourth wall shattering insanity. And will she be able to make “A Friend in Deed” by episode’s end? Let’s get down to the recap.
We open the episode at Sugar Cube Corner as Pinkie Pie preps herself with exercises for her daily friendly greetings. After that quite odd style of calisthenics, Pinkies heads off into Ponyville, and gives friendly greetings to all of the town’s citizens, including a donkey named Matilda who wonders how Pinkie is able to know so much about everyone. Pinkie informs her through what I can honestly say is the best song of the series so far that she will do anything to be able to everypony smile. And after the song, it seems like that is easily the case…
Until she meets him.
Pinkie introduces herself to the donkey, and discovers that his name is Cranky Doodle Donkey who has just moved to Ponyville. However, despite happily singing about him, Cranky snaps art her for calling him “Doodle”. Pinkie is left perplexed due to the fact that she has never had anyone ever reject her friendship invitation immediately. So, in order to ensure a change in that, she makes it her goal to make a friend in Cranky Doodle.
However, despite all of Pinkie’s attempts, she just manages to make Cranky angrier. From rummaging through his stuff, destroying his wig, and announcing his baldness to the entire town, Pinkie comes off as more of a hindrance than a friend. But she eventually manages to start making it up to him, with a trip to the spa, and a new blonde wig made by Rarity.
All of this still hasn’t made Cranky completely turn for Pinkie, but the persistent pink pony continues her attempt. However, while at Cranky’s new house, she accidentally sets fire to a scrapbook containing some important possessions. This finally becomes the last straw for Cranky, who throws Pinkie out of his house and tells her that he will never be his friend never ever, ever, ever, ever. That’s four evers. That’s like… forever!
Pinkie tries to get advice from Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash (who is still reading Daring Do by the way) on her woes with Cranky Doodle. But as Twilight tries to convince her that maybe a friendship with the donkey was just not meant to be, Pinkie decides that she should try and apologize to Cranky. But Cranky wants no part of any apology, as he runs away from her. But since this is Pinkie Pie we’re dealing with, that turns out to be impossible. After a rather humorous chase sequence, Pinkie is still unable to earn forgiveness, until she tries one last idea.
Pinkie reintroduces Cranky Doodle to Matilda, the donkey from earlier in the episode. It turns out that the two know each other, and that the scrapbook that Pinkie destroyed contained memories from the grand galloping gala where the two met. However, despite hitting it off at the gala, Cranky never saw her again, and spent the rest of his years trying to find her, eventually getting more and more, well, cranky as he went on. He finally retired to Ponyville, which just so happened to be where Matilda resides. Cranky is very thankful to Pinkie for finally reuniting him with her, and tells her that he is honored to be her friend. This of course makes Pinkie extremely overjoyed.
Pinkie writes a letter to Princess Celestia. The moral being that there are many ways to express friendship to those you consider friends. Some friends like to hang around all the time, while others prefer being left alone most of the time. Pinkie leaves the two lovestruck Donkeys alone as the episode ends.
Well, this episode was a silly one, but was it a good episode in deed? Let’s break down the pros and cons to find out.
PRO
First off, while this episode was filled with many songs from Pinkie Pie, the only one that matters is “Smile Smile Smile”. I have said in the past how amazing the music is in this show, and this one is no exception. In fact, I dare say it’s the best song of the series so far. A massive thank you to Daniel Ingram and all the people who continue to make some of the most amazing songs not just on a cartoon, but on television currently. Keep up the amazing work.
Pinkie Pie was on top form in this episode. Silly and fun, constantly breaking the fourth wall beyond repair, and just being the lovable pony that we all know and love. Like I said, it took a while for the season to really pick up for Pinkie, but it was certainly worth the wait.
It’s good to see other species in the show, and characters like Cranky Doodle and Matilda were great choices to make donkeys more established in the series. Hopefully this isn’t the end of seeing more major creatures in the series.
This episode was well paced. Even for a show with a near four minute song, nothing either dragged or went too short. Just a perfect balance that is missing in a lot of episodes.
An applause for some continuity for seeing Rainbow Dash read Daring Do. All I really asked for was some things to stick for Dash, and the fact that she’s still reading after “Read it and Weep” was a nice addition.
Finally Princess Celestia gets a letter. And one that actually focuses on a friendship lesson for once. Just like I had asked last week. Now the next step is to actually have the princess make an appearance some time again this season.
CON
Now, while I say that it was good to see Pinkie in top form, she could easily be a little too random at times, and sometimes bordered on annoying. Nothing that super hurt the show, but some things didn’t exactly shine her in the best light.
Another episode with a serious lack of the main cast. Something that seems to be a recurring problem with this season is that a lot of episodes this season focus more on singular plots for the ponies, instead of more than one. And while this episode again didn’t need some really big moments from the rest of the cast, and they were still seen, it kind of feels a bit wrong to not have them be focused more.
“A Friend In Deed” holds its own as one of the stronger episodes of this season, mainly for an amazing song, and some top notch Pinkie silliness. I wouldn’t say it’s top five material, but certainly top 10. So give this episode a watch, it’s sure to make you smile, smile, smile!
RATING: 8 out of 10
No MLP episode next week sadly, but tune in in two weeks as finally the focus goes to Fluttershy. After being tired of constantly being pushed around, Fluttershy seeks assertiveness training from a guru named Iron Will. But will this lesson in “Putting Your Hoof Down” make Fluttershy a better pony, or get her into serious trouble? Find out in 2 weeks.
Until then, we’ll see you next time bronies and pegasisters.