My Little Repeats 107: "Made in Manehattan"

This Peanuts homage was one of the episode's few truly good jokes

S5E16: "Made in Manehattan"

12 Sep 2015

My original rating: ★★
IMDb score: 7.4

The one with the Method Mares

Thoughts: Well, that happened. Noelle Benvenuti had previously given us the entertaining "Maud Pie" – but this, her second and last FiM episode, is much less successful. It's frankly dull, really struggling to hold the attention for 22 minutes. You can see that from the length of the really rather uninteresting gardening montage. There are good things here, notably the chance to catch up with Coco again. At the time it was also quite a big deal that Applejack in fact didn't treat her hat as a desperately valuable family heirloom. Plus we could note that this happens at the same time as the next episode, "Brotherhooves Social". But when you have AJ and Rarity in the same episode and there's such a lack of sparky, funny team-up chemistry then you have a problem. This really feels like a five-minute short stretched out to fill a full-length ep. Lots of talking, not enough action. I really can't think of much else to say about this episode, and that tells its own story. A two, and not especially high in that band either.

Choice quote: Coco Pommel: "Oh... I don't wear boots. I find they chafe my calves when I walk."

New rating: ★★

Next up will be a departure into that strange world where the ponies walk on two legs. That's right: it will be Friendship Games rewatch time! The third EqG movie isn't the most popular, but it has its moments. Or at least it did last time I watched it...

econd after Sassy's "Everypony loves royalty!"

S5E14: "Canterlot Boutique"

12 Sep 2015

My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 7.9

The one with strawberry cinnamon cilantro cupcakes

Thoughts: After the first of FiM's irritating mid-season hiatuses, we did at least have the stalwart Amy Keating Rogers in the writing saddle for the show's return. It's a good episode, too, albeit perhaps the least of the run from "Amending Fences" to "Rarity Investigates!" We see Rarity in her fashion designing mode more centrally than since "Suited for Success", and personally I prefer Canterlot as the big target for her than Manehattan as happened later in the series. Sassy Saddles (voiced by Kelly Sheridan, incidentally) is a decent sidekick, albeit not one with enough sass to be truly memorable. A hint of a troubled past career ("another failed boutique"?) but she was neither unpleasant enough to be a "love to hate" pony or sympathetic enough for the redemption to really click. I still don't like the very last joke, which is a bit too close to "let's make fun of the weird-looking pony" for comfort, though it wasn't AKR's fault. A couple of the other shop customers were fun, though, especially the gothy Moonlight Raven. One small criticism of Rarity: the customer who complained her Princess Dress wasn't what she ordered was correct, yet she was portrayed almost as the bad guy for saying so. Still, overall the episode's core plot of "creative job made into a chore" was fine and appropriate. It was executed pretty well, there's a nice song by Jona Lewie and even though it's not an outstandingly memorable episode it is good. I think it's perfectly worthy of a very solid three. No change to this ep's star rating!

Choice quote: Rarity to Twilight: "In every poll Sassy Saddles took, you were the most popular princess!"

New rating: ★★★

Next up is another Rarity-centric episode, "Rarity Investigates!" – it's widely seen as an excellent ep. Certainly in 2015 I agreed with that consensus. I hope I shall have at least as much fun with it this time around!

My Little Repeats 83: "Maud Pie"

The rabbit is doubtless Angel's worse-tempered cousin

S4E18: "Maud Pie"
Written by Noelle Benvenuti
15 Mar 2014

My original rating: 8.5/10 (=★★★★)
IMDb score: 8.8

The one with Granny Smith's apple spiced muffins

Thoughts: Noelle Benvenuti's writing debut was a big hit with fans on release, and it's still a lot of fun today. I was very positive about "Maud Pie" in my 2014 review, but I was concerned it might have lost its allure slightly now the element of surprise had been lost. Really, no. Maud is still great value (props to Ingrid Nilson) and here we see Pinkie on the upswing of her yo-yoing portrayal in S4. Why can't she be written like this more often this season? Rainbow Dash is particularly good value, too. And of course, rock poetry. Who could ever forget rock poetry? On the downside, what could have been an audacious and brave moral ("Your friends' friends/family won't necessarily become your friends") was slightly downgraded to a decent, quite satisfying but more kid-cartoon-expected moral. Maud's superequine powers were perhaps a little excessive, too. I really liked the sketch method used when Pinkie was explaining Maud's backstory. Rarity's absurd hat divides opinion, but I found it (mildly) amusing rather than annoying. Boulder is brilliant, but Maud steals this show. This episode will be keeping its four-star rating.

Choice quote: Rainbow Dash: "Is she even moving?"

New rating: ★★★★

Next up is "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils". I remember Sweetie's "dream" episode as being quite solid, though I wasn't quite as taken by it as some were.

Episode review: S5E16: "Made in Manehattan"

"At last you notice me again... and you let those humans take all the attention?"

I was a bit preoccupied last night watching Equestria Girls: Friendship Games – a review will follow at some point, but it looks as though it's going to get a cinema release in the UK next month. If so, I'd like to follow the pattern for the first two films and write my review only after that. Sneak peek: it was better than the first film but not as good as Rainbow Rocks. Mind you, the 287 ad breaks probably didn't help.

For that reason, this review will be a bit shorter than usual, and much of it will be simply a light reworking of the one I posted over on Fimfiction earlier.

Episode review: "Maud Pie" (S4E18)

Shall I compare thee to a summer's rock?

The new episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, "Maud Pie" (that's "Maud", not "Maude" as quite a few people rather oddly seem to think) was written by yet another new writer: Noelle Benvenuti. I can't find out anything about her online, so I'm actually wondering whether it might be a pseudonym. I'm not sure why someone would want to hide her involvement with a show as good as this, but perhaps she has her reasons. Should she be proud of her work? After the break, we'll see!