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, we’re getting another fresh character pairing as Pinkie Pie and Applejack are the focus of this week’s episode. Could the two earth ponies be related, and what mishaps went down on their quest for the truth? Let’s find out with a review of “Pinkie Apple Pie”.
Pinkie Pie and Applejack... Cousins?
The episode opens at Twilight’s library, as Pinkie catches her studying up on genealogy. Pinkie takes up an interest in learning about family history, and is pleasantly surprised to learn that she’s a cousin to the Apple family. Applejack, Apple Bloom, Big Macintosh, and Granny Smith are easily accepting of Pinkie as a member of the family, however the evidence isn’t completely concrete as the part where the Pie family links to the Apples seems to have a smudge on it. The only way to get a correct answer to this is to go meet Goldie Delicious, who has the complete Apple family records.
So, it’s the Apples and Pinkie Pie on a road trip. However, Applejack wants her family to try to do their best to be as perfect as possible, so that Pinkie feels more welcomed. After a song about being “apples to the core”, the wagon breaks due to Big Macintosh over-packing it. Pinkie comes up with another idea, to go down the river to make it to Goldie’s. They manage to make a makeshift raft from the wagon, and seem to be doing fine, despite the family already starting to lose their tempers at one another. It’s made no better when Apple Bloom accidentally drops the map into the river.
Apple Family Fracas
After Granny Smith sends them into the scariest cave in Equestria, Applejack tries to take charge of the steering wheel. This just causes more friction in the family, and they eventually send the wheel into the river. Despite the family falling apart, Pinkie is still quite chipper, even happy about the waterfall they’re about to fall down. They survive, and manage to make it to Goldie Delicious, who is out running errands. Pinkie leaves the Apple Family, who feel bad that they showed Pinkie their worst sides. They all apologize, and Pinkie tells them that they’re the best family ever for being able to still stick together and love each other even when things got tough.
They finally meet crazy cat pony Goldie Delicious, who along with her many feline friends, is also an apparent hoarder, with her house being quite the mess. She eventually gets the family record book, but that gives no answer either, as the page is also smudged. Pinkie feels bad that she’ll never know for sure if she’s an Apple, but Applejack assures her that after all this, she’s definitely an apple to the core.
Pinkie's an apple to the core
The episode ends with the family returning home, and writing in the journal about what they learned. However, it appears they didn’t learn that well enough, as they argue once more, with Pinkie joining in for kicks.
So, there was a lot of frantic family fun in this episode, but was it a delicious experience? Let’s break some pros and cons.
PRO
Daniel Ingram does it again. And honestly, Apples to the Core may be the best song of the season to date. The song first debuted back in June at the San Diego Comic-Con as part of an animatic showcasing season 4. So it had a lot of time to earn its status as a classic. Now that it’s finally animated, it sounds and looks far better than expected. This season is getting great content in the song department, and there’s still plenty to go, including a certain villain song, and a guest appearance from a certain accordion-wielding parody king.
This is a classic road trip story, and those almost always work. This episode is proof to that as we get plenty of fun throughout with the family getting on each other’s nerves with their flaws throughout the trip. Makes for some great moments which this episode was in heavy supply of.
Goldie Delicious was a fun character to add to the Apple Family. A crazy cat lady hoarder voiced by Peter New. There’s really nothing to hate about it.
CON
I can’t honestly think of too many cons. If I was to give it one, I’d say the dialogue was clunky at times. Most notably Pinkie’s constant “Best (insert word) ever” lines. But other than that, it was paced well enough, and funny throughout. Pinkie wasn’t too annoying, and yeah. This was near flawless.
Pinkie Apple Pie is a great adventure/buddy/road trip episode. It was funny, never felt boring, and never felt rushed. Natasha Levinger comes into the series writing one of the show’s best episodes in a long time. But I do wonder if this is a continuing story this season. Will we get a concrete answer to if Pinkie is an Apple family member? Time will have to tell, but this episode was a fun way to start that journey.
RATING: 9.5 out of 10
Next week, it’s a test of loyalty at Rainbow Falls. When Rainbow Dash gets a chance to join the elite Cloudsdale relay team in the upcoming Equestria Games, will she turn her back on her ponyville team? Find out next Saturday just what Dash’s decision is.
Until next week everypony.
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