S8E19: "Road to Friendship"
This is what I mean about the visuals. So many little details for a short scene.
My original rating: ★★★★
IMDb score: 7.9
Thoughts: With Pinkie's yovidaphone disaster behind us, here's a far more fondly remembered episode, and perhaps one of my favourites from Josh Haber's. Yes, it's StarTrix time! Well, not officially, but even Cadance in an admittedly slightly disconnected early scene openly notes Starlight and Trixie's chemistry together. They really are great together, even when they're bickering for days on end about carrots and juice. I enjoyed the snarkiness of their grumbling. The song is wonderful, and it's nice to see something inspired by a classic musical – reminiscent of the Sondheim homages of the early seasons. We now know "nine [seasons] at least" was indeed foreshadowing! Hoo'far was okay as a guest character, but his not being named in the episode seems bizarre: he's even "that pony from Saddle Arabia" after StarTrix have known him for ages. The pacing didn't quite keep up the snappiness that this kind of plot demands. Buuuuut I still had a lot of fun. Was some of that because I'd come off a short run of poor episodes? Well, yes. I won't deny that. Still, it both looked and sounded superb – all the little details in the inns we saw for only a second each, for example. We didn't see Saddle Arabia (the new animation would have been too expensive, according to Jim Miller) but still. Objectively "Road to Friendship" is probably a high three, but the happiness of really enjoying an episode again pushes it over the line. It can keep its four.
Choice quote: Trixie: "The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn't chant."
New rating:★★★★
That's a bit more like it! If anything this ep has become more popular as the years have passed, perhaps partly since it's one of the last examples in FiM of the successful cementing of a team-up. Of course Starlight and Trixie had worked together before, but this was the ep that truly underlined how good their chemistry was. Anyway, next up is "The Washouts", which being a Scootaloo-heavy episode I naturally liked last time – although not without reservations.
It doesn't take a lot to improve upon Yakity Sax, does it?
ReplyDeleteRoad to Friendship is one's not my most favorite from Josh Haber, but it's still a decent watch, and the moral is a useful one for kids to learn. Not a whole lot else to say, really.
oh wow, I had completely forgotten this episode too :O but yes, it was really good! anything for ship fuel! :D
ReplyDeleteyeah it's a great one, this :) Sheridan / Barr pwn
ReplyDeleteAll I really ask from an MLP episode is that I have fun while watching it, and this one really delivers.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was fine enough, but I remember very little about it. I tend to like Starlight episodes anyway and enjoyed her hanging out with Trixie, and yet this one barely sticks in my head aside from the cute meme picture of Trixie that went around everywhere. I don't remember disliking it, so it's probably fine in my book, but I'd have to watch it again to refresh my memory. Like a lot of the last 2 seasons, I haven't watched it since it first aired.
ReplyDelete