Fillies, gentlecolts, and foals of all ages, welcome once again to another edition of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic recap/review. This week is an interesting episode for certain as it’s not just a musical episode, but it actually has a guest star. Weird Al Yankovic joins the show for this episode. But does the accordion-wielding legend pull a great performance? Let’s find out with a healthy dose of “Pinkie Pride”.
Pinkie meets Cheese Sandwich
We open the episode in a partying Appleloosa, as a mysterious pony named Cheese Sandwich (voiced by Yankovic), is talking to his rubber chicken friend named Boneless about how well he did with this party. He then gets a sensation similar to that of Pinkie Pie’s “Pinkie sense” which tells him that the next party he has to plan will be in ponyville. We then cut to Ponyville as Pinkie Pie is excited about being able to throw a party. This is done in song format, as this episode is a musical after all.
It turns out the party is for Rainbow Dash. It’s not only her birthday, but the anniversary of when she first came to Ponyville. It’s her Birthaversary. Pinkie, being the serious party planner she is, gives Rainbow Dash a promise that she’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that Dash has a good time. That’s when Cheese Sandwich arrives, offering to host the party himself. This leads to another song as we learn that this super duper party pony is just as wacky and off the wall as Weird Al himself. All of the ponies in Ponyville get swept up in the insanity of Cheese Sandwich, that they instantly forget all about Pinkie Pie’s offer to host the party, which makes Pinkie sad.
Roll out the party cannon!
In fact, it makes her so sad that we get a third song that is something I wasn’t expecting to ever see in this show: A sad Pinkie song. Pinkie begins to contemplate quitting hosting parties completely, until she begins to remember the great ones she’s done before, and how it made her friends happy. This gives Pinkie a newly found sense of confidence, and she decides to confront Cheese Sandwich. Pinkie challenges him to a goof-off, with the winner having the right to host Rainbow Dash’s party.
With Dash as the judge, we get another song as both Pinkie and Cheese Sandwich put Rainbow Dash through a series of wacky situations in hopes of winning her favor. However, Pinkie soon realizes that nothing she’s doing is making Dash happy, and forfeits the goof off. She plans to leave Ponyville, but her friends stop her from leaving, telling her that while Cheese Sandwich is a nice guest party planner, she will always be Ponyville’s permanent party planner.
Double the party pony planners
This leads Cheese Sandwich to confess to Pinkie that he never intended to take her place, but instead show her how good a party pony he is. We learn through yet another song, that Cheese Sandwich wasn’t such a beloved party pony as a young colt, and instead was very shy. After leaving Manehattan and stumbling into Ponyville, he ended up in the middle of a huge party. Seeing the smiles on the faces of all the ponies there gave him a new calling in life, and Cheese Sandwich would become a super duper party pony known throughout Equestria. However, none of that wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the fact that the one hosting the party was Pinkie Pie.
So, the two decide to team up to host Dash’s birthaversary bash, which turns out to be a huge success. Feeling accomplished in his goal, Cheese Sandwich heads back on the road. But not before giving Pinkie Pie his rubber chicken, which turns out to be one of the rainbow keys.
So, this was a wacky, and weird episode. How does it stack up? Let’s give some pros and cons this week.
PRO
Pinkie Pie finally gets written competently. Not just being relegated to comic relief, we finally get a Pinkie that’s funny, wacky, fourth wall breaking, and actually has a good heart to her. We see a wide range of emotions on her, and actually manage to cheer her on when she begins to build herself back up.
Weird Al was awesome in this episode, as expected. Cheese Sandwich is a great character, who I’m thankful they didn’t just make the episode’s villain, but instead made him almost like a male version of Pinkie Pie. The show is starting to gain some really strong guest stars, and with the show already confirmed for a fifth season, who knows who else may show up?
The songs were a great mix of happy, sad, and just plain wacky. Compared to the last time the show tried a musical episode in “Magical Mystery Cure”, this one handled it much better. Mainly because it meant the story had a chance to breathe, and be built up far better with all the songs added.
And finally, just this.
CON
I know it’s sounding like I’m starting to get rusty at this, since this will be the 2nd week in a row of this situation, but I have no cons to this episode. It felt well paced, nobody was way too out of character. You could argue Rainbow Dash’s douchery was in full form, but it made sense in context to the story being told. I’ve watched this episode quite a few times following the early leak, and I’ve yet to find anything that really made me annoyed. It was fun watch from start to finish.
Pinkie Pride was easily one of the season’s best. Weird Al was a great guest star, the songs were all excellent, and the story was entertaining. Hopefully this is a sign of Pinkie being written more competently from here on in. Sigh, we’ll see you next week when Pinkie’s back to moronic.
RATING: 10 out of 10
Next week, Rarity takes the spotlight once more. When a famous travel writer named Tenderhoof gains Rarity’s affection, she tries to get him to notice her and her ideas for the Pony Days festival. However, when he turns out to be more infatuated with Applejack, it’s time for her to don the cowboy hat and act a little bit too country. Will Rarity succeed in her “Simple Ways”? Find out next week.
Until next time, everypony.