S6E14: "The Cart Before the Ponies" · 8:04pm Aug 6th, 2016
As a real-life racing fan, I was hoping to have a lot of fun with this episode. Sadly, I didn't. I didn't hate it, and there were some nice touches, but too many things rubbed me up the wrong way. It didn't really seem to end properly, either. I enjoyed Ed Valentine's own "Flight to the Finish" way more than this. ★★
A little more, with spoilers, past the break.
First up: Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity were either incredibly dense or plain obnoxious towards their sisters for much of the episode. It felt at times as though their characters had barely progressed since Season One. And what's with AJ's obsession with being slow? She's going up against Rainbow Dash -- I don't remember her thinking like this in "Fall Weather Friends". Yes, I know they were going for different prizes, and I accept that AJ prioritises Apples over absolutely anything else on earth... but I reckon she'd still have been at least a little ticked that to win the trad prize, she'd have to accept letting her greatest rival cross the line first.
I wasn't at all keen on the carts themselves, in particular the complete lack of explanation regarding how they were powered. I'd have been on board with magic power (like Tank's copter) or pedals or some Heath Robinson contraption like the FlimFlamMobile. But this? It seemed like the thinking was:
"We should totally do an episode where the ponies race cars!"
"Um, but they don't have racing cars in Equestria."
"Oh yeah... hey, I know! We'll just call 'em 'carts' instead! It's the perfect plan!"
That track design was absurd, too. Yes, I get that it was a nod to arcade racing games, but there is no way that Cheerilee would okay something like that for her pupils to race on. It didn't help that Dash was apparently fine with barging other cars off the track at speed -- again, putting foals at risk.
Now, good things. Unlike some people, I rather liked the song -- it's no classic and maybe a little forgettable, but it seemed to fit. The Scootachicken joke was actually amusing for once. Derpy was predictably great, especially in the Rarity flashback scene. And I think I even saw a pony with Firefly's colouration near the end -- I could entirely believe her as a racing fan.
But on the whole, this was a bit of a let-down. Considering how much I like racing in real life, the fact that I'm not feeling much enthusiasm to watch this again says something.
Just had my first viewing.
Relating to spoilers:
I didn't notice the Scootachicken joke or Firefly, so I'll have to look out for those again on future viewings.
Thoughts on the episode; very mixed. Some good aspects, some terrible aspects.
4135585 I do wonder how much of my feelings of disappointment are because I loved last week's episode -- almost anything would have been a step down from that. I really do think the characterisation was flawed, though, and that's something that always bothers me in this show.
4135634 Last week was a tough act to follow, but even so; this wasn't great.
My full blog post's up now.