"What do you mean, not until season two?" |
The problem every new TV series has is that of how to introduce its characters without the first episode seeming dull and boring. MLP:FiM does quite well on this score: it's not quite the finished article, but the two-parter format does mean that there's space for both introductions and a proper story. And since it's the story that underpins the entire series, it's a good job that it is told well! "Mare in the Moon", as the first episode is sometimes unofficially known, gets us off to a decent start.
It's understandable that Faust chose to begin with an adventure story: it's well-known that her original preference was for the series to contain plenty of those, but it seems that Hasbro preferred more slice-of-life tales. I'm not sure either was wrong, but it does mean that this pilot is a little out of sync with the majority of what comes later in S1. In fact, there's a fair case for saying that the Mane Six don't come across a more dangerous enemy until Discord.
Luna and Celestia are about the same size here... |
The Mane Six, and indeed Spike, are all introduced well enough, though in a few cases (Applejack being one) their voices aren't quite fully developed yet. Twilight, it has to be said, is a bit of a pain at this early stage, and you can certainly see why Princess Celestia feels she needs the corners rubbed off her a bit by making some friends. Note that Spike's crush on Rarity began way back here: the oldest and most canonical piece of shipping in the entire show!
We also get what was to become the first fandom catchphrase: Rainbow Dash's "ten seconds flat". With the attention to detail we expect from MLP:FiM these days, her cloud-clearing does indeed take that long. One oddity comes near the end, when Nightmare Moon makes her appearance: is that the CMC cowering in a corner? It is, you know! That was a simple mistake, by all accounts, but it makes me smile. No songs yet: that's for next time!
Rarity, if you breathe a single word about this, I'll say "Cadance's head-dress" |
All in all, this is a solid start for the series, and although it does show some "piloty-ness" at times, especially in the way that all the main ponies have to get roughly the same amount of time devoted to them, that's a fairly minor issue. There are nods to the franchise's history, such as the mention of Moondancer, but it's clear that Faust has cleared the decks and is determined to make this new iteration of the Pony franchise just that.
Given that this is the first part of a two-episode story, it may seem slightly unfair to give it a rating. Nevertheless, my intention is to do so with every episode, while trying to avoid grade inflation: 5/10 would be an episode that was "meh", not one that was appalling. "Friendship is Magic, part 1" is by no means a great episode, but it did enough to keep me watching until we did reach the real gems. For that, I will always be grateful.
6/10
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