Miss Koi Reviews "Spice Up Your Life"

Awww, the last episode before the Season 6 break hiatus:( Please tell me it isn't so?:( Aww, I hope this hiatus isn't too long:( I heard that the hiatus is suppose to last till Fall.

I mean, c'mon on Hasbro! It's summer time, I have more time to review the episodes! Why?!X0 Calm down Missy, it's alright, I'll just have to preoccupy my time with other things like Steven Universe (yes, I'm going to review the In Too Deep Episodes Special on DA), Star vs the Forces of Evil season 2 (yes, I've watched Season 1 and going to review this on DA as well), catching up my fanfiction for my poor readers that have been waiting for soooo long, and The Mare Who Became Queen Audio Drama:) Hooray Busy Missy:)

Anyway, did this episode leave me satisfy for the rest of this long hiatus? Welllll, unfortunately, no:( I'm afraid I have to give this episode 7 hearts out of 10<3 Don't get me wrong though, this episode wasn't bad but it's didn't wow me either. I felt like it could have done more and take advantage of certain opportunities. The pacing felt alittle off, and it wasn't as funny as it could have been. It doesn't have to be hilarious, but it could have a chuckle here and there. The story needed to be a little tighter and more. But it certainly isn't a complete frustration like the episode "Applejack's Day Off". Let's just start talking about the episode shall we?;)

We start off in Twilight's castle where Twilight and her pupil Starlight finally figured out a spell to basically turn the on switch for the big magical castle map:D

First of all, thank you writers for finally addressing the elephant in the room for Season 6. Wait, how did this elephant get here?

Alright, c'mon cutie go back with Fluttershy. Now where was I? Oh yeah, the cutie map!
I'm glad we know the reason why the map wasn't working untill now, and I look forward to some more map episodes in Season 6 (let's have a Discord join in the map quest episode please!:3) But this whole ordeal with the map raises more questions with me: What exactly caused the map to short circuit? I know the time traveling spell Starlight did had something to do with it, but I feel like there's more to this problem. I mean, it's entirely possible that map was drained alot of it's energy because it was trying to stay stable during the time traveling spell for Twilight. And it gains it's energy solely from the Tree of Harmony, but why does the Tree of Harmony have such a limit when it comes to Starlight's time traveling spell? When did Twilight and the gang realize that the map wasn't working? My fellow bronies, it's conspiracy time! So let's bring on the conspiracy videos!;)

Once again, the writers are all about the Rarity & Pinkie pair up like in "The Gift of Maud Pie". Our unusual pair strikes again, and I am always happy to see it my friends:D Their dynamic was working in the beginning half of the episode, but unfortunately, once Rarity began assisting The Tasty Treat by conforming it to the standards of the food critic, the dynamic for the Rarity & Pinkie Pie pair up lost it's zest and Rarity became out of character for me.

I feel like Rarity, being the unique fashionita she is, would embrace the unique fashion and style and color presented in The Tasty Treat. But instead, she conformed to what everypony in Canterlot likes. I know she's all about prim and proper, but based on her previous experiences with Canterlot society and it's snobs, I thought she would be more open to other things like the Indian style in The Tasty Treat.

But I digress, for me, the biggest highlight of this episode was Saffron Masala. <3!

(She's on the right, with her father on the left)
Not only is her design absolutely adorable and beautiful and just dang pretty:3 , but she also smart, driven, strong, independent, creative, daring, and has an overall wonderful personality. I love her because she is daring enough to do something that no pony in her family or no pony she has ever known done before: have a unique and exotic restaurant set up Canterlot. It's a great idea cause it's never been done before in Canterlot and she would make great business because she's the first unique restaurant to accomplish the task of being successful. Canterlot is a hot city, and she would be a success story if she made it in Canterlot. She thinks outside the box and sees what no pony else sees. However, it's still a risky idea because everypony in Canterlot is a snob, they don't like anything that is new and different. It will be alot of hard work to be recognized and have anypony give her delicious food a chance. But Saffron knows that and is willing to work hard to make it happen. She's a very driven and smart business pony like Rarity in my opinion, and I like how she is willing to stand up to her father to follow in her pursuits that she knows she can succeed in. Despite her own father not seeing this vision.

I also enjoyed how the sub-moral of this episode revolved around solving a family issue/relationship since it's following the family theme of the season as a whole:) I hope this theme continues for future episodes, especially for a certain episode involving a certain Lord:3

Anyway, in terms of this episode however, the family theme wasn't as successful as it could have been. I wasn't as invested into the relationship between Saffron and her father. I think the reason why I wasn't invested is because one the episode didn't put enough focus on these two in the first place, and second the episode didn't develop Saffron's father's personality & his reasons why he was against his daughter having this restaurant. However, I did appreciate the staff of MLP doing something different and providing us characters from other cultures like India. Now, I seriously wish we can see in future seasons the Mane Six visiting the Equestria's version of India!:D

While I appreciated the unique and different Bollywood like sound & vocal performance in the episode's song "It's Gonna Work",

I felt like the song could have had better, catchier lyrics and a faster tempo to make it almost a fun dance song. Not in my favorite songs list, but appreciated for what it was going for:)

I did enjoy the main moral of the episode: Embracing your own unique flare on your business, or creation, or anything and you will attract others who will appreciate this unique flare. You shouldn't care about the critiques or the usual standards, but appreciate your own uniqueness basically. And this moral was strengthened by other cooks in Canterlot feeling inspired by The Tasty Treat and deciding to embrace their own cooking skills, instead of the critic's expectations of them. It's funny, I was kinda expecting a Ratatouille route of redemption for the food critic character in this episode. Like InkQuill and Dr. Wolf said in their reviews;) Lol:P


Ah!:0 The cheekbones in this season, they're rising Captain!:0 RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!X0

Overall, my dear readers and followers, expect a fun little review tomorrow on the episode titles leaked on Equestria Daily. Yes, they were confirmed by the staff to be real titles. It's not all the titles for the rest of Season 6, but there's at least five of them and I have my own theories on what the synopsises will be;)

Comments

[Jesse Coffey]

While I appreciated the unique and different Bollywood like sound & vocal performance in the episode's song "It's Gonna Work",

I felt like the song could have had better, catchier lyrics and a faster tempo to make it almost a fun dance song. Not in my favorite songs list, but appreciated for what it was going for:)

Another interesting item I found in the song is the musical accompaniment; I heard shades of the theme from the movie NORTH DALLAS FORTY in the background within the song, specifically those of the bom-bom bass that was used in its ending instrumental.

[Grekoy]

I just remembered the title of this episode is the same as a song by the spice girls.

[Autistic Writer]

When i get time, i will sit down and rewatch Season 6. But, for now, i will just do other things.
BTW, my #50 on Favorite Disney Animated Movies is up.

[ponybird21]

Was I the only pony who saw this as a MLP spoof of The Hundred Foot Journey!?!? Omg!!!!
I am sorry but I have to disagree with the rating. For me, it was a 8.5 hearts out of 10.
This was great for a hiatus that we have to deal with.
Also, IS THAT SKULL ON THE CUTIE MAP A DRACONEQUSS SKUL!?!?