MLP FIM Season 1 Episode 1 and 2 Review "Friendship is Magic"

So, I’m about to start the biggest project of my life. Remember that short series of blogs I posted several months ago about me potentially making reviews? Well, I’m finally starting. That’s right,  I’m going to be reviewing every single episode of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, and everything else part of the official animated FIM “franchise.” (EQG, specials, etc.), except for the shorts that are less than 5 minutes long, because there are just too many to keep track of. Though I might do massive reviews of each set of shorts in huge posts.

Now, this is how my reviews are gonna work. I’m going to be doing a score out of 40, with 10 points each for the story, characters, themes, and a section for absolutely everything else. And then, at the very end of each review, I’ll give a subjective rating out of 10, and explain why I’d rate it that. But a rating out of 10 isn’t that specific, so here’s a list of what each rating means, for each section and my subjective rating.

Also, as a disclaimer, it’s possible I will reveal some spoilers for much later in the show during my reviews, so if you haven’t watched the show up to season 9, and you want to avoid spoilers at all costs, you should avoid my reviews (or ask me about spoilers in specific reviews I guess).

 1 - Absolutely Terrible; so disgustingly bad it made me want to stop watching the show
 2 - Really Horrible
 3 - Awful
 4 - Very Bad
 5 - Bad
 6 - Below Average
 7 - Average/OK
 8 - Good
 9 - Great
10 - Amazing

Getting to the actual review…

Story

I have to admit, a while ago, a long time after I’d last watched the premier, I thought that the story of this episode kinda sucked. I thought of it as completely cliche and not very interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omM-DaTYMe4&t=176s (4:17) I still think it’s pretty cliche and the plot isn’t incredibly engaging, but I’d say it’s actually pretty strong for a pilot episode. It begins with a brief but adequate introduction to Equestria and the conflict of the episode. Everything in the episode flows very nicely from scene to scene, with few logical problems. I also like that Friendship is Magic starts off with an adventure episode. A clever choice by the writers. A bit misleading perhaps, but clever nonetheless.

After the introduction scene, Twilight is shown ignoring all her friends as she races to her home. Spike’s introduced, more info about Nightmare Moon is discovered, which is sent to Princess Celestia via Spike. The Princess seems to wave it off and sends Twilight to Ponyville to check on preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, an annual event to celebrate the longest day of the year. For the next 10 minutes, the rest of the Mane 6 meet Twilight and get their own opening scene. I won’t go into detail now, but I will say I mostly liked the Mane 6’s introductions.

So after Twilight met all of the Mane 6, she went up to her room, and we get some funny Twilight moments here, before she goes down to attend the celebration and sees the stars aid Nightmare Moon in her escape. After analyzing this a bit more, I’m wondering why Twilight didn’t try to alert anyone of her escape. It’s a nitpick, but it is still kinda a problem.

The first part ends on a cliffhanger, with the villain introducing herself to all the ponies present.

As soon as the next part starts, Nightmare Moon flies away in a cloud of purplish magic. Twilight looks through some books to find info on the elements of harmony, but is interrupted by Rainbow flying up to her and accusing her of being a spy. A small problem I found with this is that Rainbow accused her after probably hearing Twilight say she wants to stop Nightmare Moon. You may think she just didn’t hear, but if she heard about the elements, she should've heard about the stopping Nightmare Moon part too. Again, a nitpick, but a problem nonetheless.

Pinkie finds the book on the EoH, Twilight basically reveals who all the elements are, and the heroes enter the Everfree Forest.

Once again, I have a nitpick. Twilight says she wants to go in alone, but apparently she only tells them that right at the forest entrance. I realize the immediate transition was for dramatic effect though, so it’s pretty much not a problem. I’m not trying to be a fun police after all.

After a bit of talking amongst the group, the cliff everyone was standing on suddenly collapsed from Nightmare Moon’s power...wait, is that really...yes! I think I’ve actually found a problem that isn’t a nitpick! Nightmare Moon set up all these problems that were basically made for The Mane 6, when she could’ve just popped up in her real form and zapped everyone, immediately ending it. It’s especially stupid because she knows what the elements are. Even if she didn’t know the Mane 6 were the spirits of the elements, she didn’t need to literally make some of the problems obviously needing Element treatment. Sure, there’d be no story if she just ended it, but I’m sure the story could be written in a way that allows Nightmare to attack The Mane 6 and still have her be defeated. Maybe the writers didn’t want such an out there story for the first episode of a little kids show, but it would’ve been so cool. But I didn’t notice it the first few times I watched it, so it’s not such a big problem that it ruins the episode or anything. It’s just a logical problem that’s sorta hard to notice.

Similar to the first part, we get “introduced” to each of the Mane 6’s elements. I really liked the character introduction scenes from the first part, but I don’t think it worked as well here, because it’s kinda like a repeat, and it felt more cliche than some of the introductions in the first part. And that’s saying a lot. Also, one thing I found to be a noticeable issue is with Applejack’s element scene. She told Twilight she was being honest and Twilight would be safe if she let go, which very clearly demonstrated her honesty for the viewers, but in-universe, it doesn’t make much sense. She could’ve just told Twilight that Fluttershy and Rainbow would catch her. This is an issue I actually noticed before analysis, and I’m not sure why, but it kinda bothers me. It feels like a really “little girls show” moment. All the other ones felt pretty natural though. And the song didn’t even feel that shoehorned. It fits Pinkie’s season 1 character very well to randomly burst into song. The only element scene other than Applejack’s that felt slightly artificial was Rainbow’s. The Shadowbolts were so suspicious and said Rainbow could only join if she abandoned the Mane 6 (or should I say Mane 5?). I don’t think many people would choose to join a suspicious group of dark ponies (not racist; it’s an in-universe rule that all ponies with a dark look are evil) who literally speak like a Saturday morning cartoon villain over saving the world.

After all of that, The Mane 6 arrive at the Castle of The Two Sisters, and find the elements. All of the Mane 6 except Twilight leave to let her concentrate on creating the spark earlier mentioned which would create the sixth element of harmony (which I personally found unnecessary and just a plot contrivance to have Twilight be alone, but it’s not a big deal).

This leads into the climax, with Nightmare Moon finally shows herself in her true form, and when Twilight charges at her with magic, she gets exactly the reaction she should get. But it turns out she tricked the Evil Princess. She actually teleported to the elements Nightmare Moon had taken from Twilight. She again tries to create a spark, but fails and the elements get destroyed by Nightmare Moon. Well, I guess the episode’s over. Time to retire for the night...or not. Just then, the rest of the Mane 6 arrive, and Twilight realizes the elements weren’t really broken, because the spirits of the elements caused the elements to fix themselves. Then there’s an awesome rainbow beam that engulfs Nightmare Moon, and she turns back into Princess Luna. Just after that, Princess Celestia finally shows up. I’m still confused about why it looked like she came out of the sun. It was cool, but weird, because nothing like that ever happened again in the series. Anyway, she congratulates Twilight on defeating her sister, and then confronts Luna. Naturally, since this is Friendship is Magic we’re talking about, Celestia forgives Luna, and everybody’s happy.

So that’s the story of the first episode of Friendship is Magic. And I have to say, I liked it. Yeah, there are a lot of little problems, but it doesn’t detract from the episode in any meaningful way. The dialogue is well written and humorous at times, and overall, the story is well constructed. But it didn’t really take any chances and was therefore quite predictable. Predictable isn’t necessarily bad, but the episode also didn’t do something great with the simple and predictable premise. So even though the plot is generally strong with no big problems, I can’t give it that high a rating due to the lack of anything outstanding.

8/10 - Good

Characters

I may love a lot of things about this show, but one of the things I’d definitely say is among the strongest aspects of the show are the characters. So let’s see how well Friendship is Magic introduced us to the beloved Mane 6.

Before anything else, I’ll be covering the first scenes of all of the Mane 6. My favourite introduction is probably Fluttershy’s. She’s so adorable here, and I really like how awkward Twilight was feeling in that moment. It was hilarious. Other than that, my favourites are a toss up between Rainbow’s and Pinkie’s. Rainbow’s section had some of the lower quality dialogue and voice acting, but the poofy hair part made up for that. Call it immature all you want. It was pretty darn funny. As for Pinkie, I liked that her actual first scene was gasping and running away. It was nice foreshadowing to how crazy and weird she would be. And it certainly doesn't hurt that her next scene with her quick talking was really effective in showing us a glimpse of that too. Again, Twilight’s reactions elevate the scene a lot. That’s a recurring theme in this episode. In places where Twilight’s acting the most realistic and relatable is when it’s most entertaining usually.

Speaking of Twilight, her first few scenes were good too, and I think the first impression I got from her was the 4th best one. It was certainly effective in showing us how much of a recluse she is. Being relatable isn’t always a good trait for a character, but in Twilight’s case, it is. She’s relatable in a way that quickly attaches you to her, especially because the ways in which she acts relatable in this episode are some of the most entertaining bits. Applejack’s introduction was fine, and the hoofshake gag is pretty amusing, depending on how I’m feeling when I’m watching it. But other than that, the scene just gives the impression that Applejack’s a really stereotypical farmgirl. She is my least favourite of the Mane 6, but she’s definitely a lot more than her introduction shows. I mean, that’s obvious, but I mean she could’ve been portrayed a lot better here. For example, she could’ve been shown helping Applebloom with something she was having trouble with, so we get to see more of her adult side. I guess it makes sense that Lauren Faust wanted to show what archetype each character was first, before introducing the nuances of their characters, but it still could’ve been a little better. Not to mention, Applejack’s voice was a bit too over the top here. I know I’m not covering sound in this section, but I just wanted to bring it up. So I’m kinda lukewarm about how Applejack was handled at first, but at least I didn’t actively dislike it. Unlike with a certain fashionista. Yeah, what a surprise! Rarity’s opening scene was my least favourite out of all of them! I’m sure no one saw that coming. Really though, if you liked it, that’s fine, but I just don’t find anything redeeming about it, and from what I’ve seen, that’s basically the universal opinion. I’m pretty sure it made you all think she was gonna be the worst character of the show and would make it painful to watch it at times. Some of you may still think that, but I believe the majority of us have gotten past that. The first impression we got though was just so bad! She was shown as a typical high society girl who obsesses over fashion and this scene pretty much shows no potential for Rarity’s character. Luckily, a few episodes in season 1 really saved her, but I’ll be getting into that at a later date.

Other than what I’ve just described, basically the only things about the characters we learn are their elements. But there’s not much to explain there. Applejack is honest, Pinkie Pie is silly (we already knew that), Rainbow Dash is loyal, Fluttershy is kind, Rarity is generous, and Twilight is...magical? All the other elements relate to personality traits, but Twilight’s element really doesn’t have anything to do with that. Though I guess since she’s the main element, that means she’s kinda the leader. So she’s a good leader. These traits were demonstrated pretty well, I suppose. It’s a bit weird that they were introduced so suddenly, though. Pinkie was shown demonstrating her element to an extent in the first part, but everyone else’s element just came out of nowhere. I don’t know how to feel about that. I mean, it makes sense because it immediately shows that the characters have more to them than their element, but it leads to a bit of a disconnected feeling. I’m not asking for a full display of their element for all of the Mane 6. That would most likely be bad. But maybe just a hint of it sprinkled here and there. It doesn’t really matter though, it would just be a nice touch.

As for the villain, Nightmare Moon...to be honest, I don’t have too many thoughts about her appearance in the series premier. I guess she’s fine, and there’s nothing too bad about her character, she’s just a bit...bland, I guess. Especially compared to her successors. She’s hammy enough, and I think she would be entertaining on first watch, but it’s been so long that I honestly don’t remember. But she’s more of a force than a character for most of the episode, and not even a force you can feel for most of the episode (like with King Sombra), so she doesn’t detract from the quality of the characters much overall.

You know, I’m gonna tell the truth. About what, you ask? Well, I kinda forgot about Spike while I was writing this initially...yeah. Sorry Spike, I guess I was just focused on the main characters. Anyway, I think Spike worked well as a sort of quippy sidekick to Twilight. He was a good foil to let us see some of Twilight’s personality, but he didn’t have much going for him as a character on his own. Other than the one who would get undeservedly “pummeled” by the Mane 6. Or at least, that’s how it seemed. Thankfully, that wasn’t exactly his role in later episodes (most of the time), but here, he didn’t really do anything suggesting otherwise.

So this episode mostly just introduced us to the general archetypes of each character, so I can really only talk about how much I like those (with the exception of Twilight, who we got to see more of). I really like Twilight in this episode. She actually has sort of a mini character arc in this episode alone. She goes from completely indifferent about friendship to telling Nightmare Moon how much her friends mean to her, and she was generally the most entertaining character here with her quippy lines and reactions to how “crazy” everyone was acting. Everyone else also had some good moments, even Rarity (kicking the manticore), and I think that this episode characterized the Mane 6 pretty well. It didn’t develop them that much or show any intricate nuances of their characters, but considering it’s just the first episode, Friendship is Magic (the episode, not the show) displayed all the characters pretty well...except Nightmare Moon, obviously, who isn’t the best. And Spike, because he was just Twilight’s sidekick for this one.

8.5/10 - Really Good

Themes

This is the section I expect to screw up with for the longest. Analyzing themes isn’t easy, and due to the nature of them, it’s quite hard to understand them completely in certain episodes, and different people interpret themes in a variety of ways. But I will certainly try, and I’ll hopefully improve overtime. Just wanted to get that out of the way, as a sort of excuse for why this section might be poorly written in some reviews for the foreseeable future.

Anyway, Friendship is Magic has pretty strong, if cliche themes. It’s about the importance of friendship, and each of the Mane 6 teaches kids about the importance of the element they represent. Applejack’s wasn’t that good of an example of honesty, though. It was handled kinda awkwardly. She promised Twilight would be safe if she let go. I mean, that’s technically honesty, but it’s not really the kind of thing someone thinks of when they think of honesty. People are usually honest unless there’s a reason for them not to be. Applejack episodes cover this topic in many ways, but her first display of honesty felt shoehorned in for the sake of having a moment for all of the elements to shine. At least it tells kids to be honest, though. It’s better than nothing I suppose. All the other sections did show the elements pretty well. Even Rainbow’s. Sure, like I said in the story section, it wasn’t realistic, but at least it showed loyalty in a way that was a slight moral dilemma. And little kids won’t think that the choice is obvious. Even if this episode has some examples that don’t really exemplify a trait particularly well, Friendship literally meaning magic in this universe encourages kids to act like the Mane 6 do anyway.

There are some subtler themes too. Like the importance of self-sacrifice with Rarity cutting off her beautiful tail, and Rainbow not taking the “job offer” to become a Shadowbolt, to a lesser extent. Rarity’s scene was about generosity, but generosity doesn’t always mean sacrificing something. Same with loyalty. And there was a strong theme of courage throughout the episode with everyone adventuring through a dangerous forest to save the world. Like most themes in this episode, it’s cliche, but it is important to learn, and for kids who haven’t seen many other shows, these themes could be new to them and therefore could benefit them a lot. None of the themes in this episode negatively influence children, and some of them are really good. So I’d say the themes are actually the strongest part of this episode (I mean in terms of important aspects; so not including misc.).

8.5/10 - Really Good

Misc.

Let’s start with animation, which is the thing everyone was so crazy about when the show first aired. Was it really that good at the start? Well, yes and no (mostly yes, though). Compared to other little kids shows, and considering it’s using Flash, the animation is really impressive. But sometimes, it’s pretty noticeable that the show is using computer animation, like when a part of the body looks stiff or wrongly placed. It’s not just a problem with this episode, it’s a constant throughout almost all of season 1 and part of all the seasons. It improves as the show goes on though. Compared to the rest of Season 1, Friendship is Magic has really good animation. Of course, like all of the show, the animation is very fluid, there are great backgrounds, the characters look really good, there’s constant movement with almost all the characters (it’s especially impressive with the mane movement), and the colors used are beautiful and well implemented. What puts the animation in this episode a step above most of the season is the many small details that add up to make a big difference. Like the hourglass foreshadowing that showed Nightmare Moon. There are so many more extra details than most of the season’s animation. Especially the shading in some parts of the episode. Here are a few examples of the beauty of this episode.

The music in this episode was also pretty impressive. It’s hard to explain why I liked the Background Music, other than that it sounds good and it fits the tone of each scene really well. I’ve always loved the background music in this show, and the first episode is no exception. The music throughout is usually energetic and bouncy, like you’d expect from a little girls show, but it doesn’t feel that girly at the same time. It’s just good music with a slightly kiddish tone at times. Where the music shines the most is when it gets intense. It really helps the tension of the scenes. It was probably at its best during the confrontation with Nightmare Moon. That music wouldn’t be too out of place in an anime battle. The song wasn’t quite as excellent as the rest of the soundtrack though. It was fun, but it didn’t sound that good, and the lyrics aren’t very creative. I mean, there’s nothing offensively bad about it, it’s just lacklustre compared to the BGM.

Speaking of sound, that brings me to voice acting, another thing immediately praised by the fandom. The voice acting was good, but, as should be expected from a first episode, the voice actors (or rather actresses; I don’t think there’s a single voice actor in this episode) haven’t quite gotten used to their characters yet. With the exception of maybe Pinkie Pie. Even with her, she sounds like herself, but her speaking doesn’t completely fit her character. She’s crazy and weird, but she’s usually not that kind of crazy and weird (you know, talking super fast and randomly). Everyone else is pretty close to how they would sound for the rest of the show. Only Twilight and Applejack are sometimes completely different from their usual voice. Twilight occasionally sounds too stiff (hopefully that makes sense), and don’t say that’s a part of her character, cause even at the end of the episode, she sounds a bit stiff. As for Applejack, I already mentioned the problem with her voice acting. Ashleigh Ball is being too over the top country, even for Applejack. This is mostly a problem in her first scene, but it’s still worth pointing out. It's still not bad, though. All of the voice actors in the main cast are great, and a slight contrast to their later voice won’t change that.

Before I get into the final 2 parts of this section, I just wanted to talk about how I feel this episode introduced the world and basic lore of MLP.

I think this two-parter introduced the world and lore somewhat well. It established Nightmare Moon’s backstory, obviously. But beyond that, it also gave us a glimpse of what the three basic pony races are like and what they normally do. It wasn’t particularly in-depth, as the episode was more about the story and the characters, and the basics of the world and lore was slowly expanded upon throughout the series, but it shows enough for us to understand the biggest ways this world is different from ours (other than the fact that ponies are the dominant race).

Everything that makes up this episode is important in determining how good it is, but how well does it hold up entertainmentwise on repeated viewings? I’d say pretty well. It’s not so good it leaves me mind blown everytime, but everything about this episode is strong enough to keep it fairly entertaining no matter how many times I watch it. It doesn’t get better on multiple viewings, but it doesn’t really get worse either.

At the same time, first impression is just as important, if not moreso, because it’s the main factor in whether or not you would want to continue watching the show. I don’t remember it all too well, because I watched it a long time ago, but I definitely remember liking it, so it’s a thumbs up from me for this. I’m sure some people would find it too girly for them, but it’s really not that girly...wow, I thought I’d have more thoughts on the first episode of arguably my favourite show. But I guess it just doesn’t leave that strong an impression, which I’ll be getting into later.

9/10 - Great

Conclusion

So, how did the first episode of My Little Friendship is Magic kick G4 off? Let’s see.

Story - 8/10
Characters - 8.5/10
Themes - 8.5/10
Misc. - 9/10
Overall - 34/40 - Really Good

So the first episode was really good, from a technical standpoint. But how do I personally feel about it?

Personal Rating - 8/10 - Good
My thoughts on the episode are pretty similar to my actual rating, but it is still lower, and the reason is that it doesn’t leave that strong of an impression. Everything is well constructed in this episode, but it’s not super entertaining, and it’s not that memorable. The most memorable part of the episode is that it’s an adventure episode, but that on its own isn’t a positive. The episode really doesn’t stand out at all compared to the rest of the series. Good is actually kinda below average for this show. I don’t have any major problems with it. But I don’t need to have a problem with it. It’s just there. It’s not too special, and not too bad. I really wish the show had started off with an episode more like The Return of Harmony, which I’m sure would’ve drawn in a lot more fans initially. That’s actually the first episode I watched (I’m pretty sure), but that’s not what this review is about.

So anyway, that was my review of the first episode of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. I’d like to hear your thoughts on the episode too, and what you thought of my first review. Thanks for reading (it’s hard to believe you got this far), and I hope you enjoyed this review as much as I enjoyed writing it.

P.S. I’ve decided to not write detailed descriptions of the stories anymore, cause that’s honestly pretty boring, and has really left me uninspired to write for a long time. So it’s just basic summary and talking about the episode from now on. Except in special cases when I really feel like talking about the plot in-depth.