MLP FIM Season 3 Episode 3 Review "Too Many Pinkie Pies" · 4:33am Oct 14th, 2019
Another really solid and entertaining entry into Season 3, if not nearly as incredible as the last episode.
Scale of Ratings
1 - Disgustingly Bad (the worst of the worst; has absolutely nothing to make up for the huge flaws that riddle the section/episode)
2 - Awful (still really horrible, but maybe it’s not as bad as it could be, or there are 1 or 2 saving graces that bump the score up a tiny bit)
3 - Bad (just generally executed poorly. Not offensive or horrible, but bad enough that it stands out for how poor the execution is)
4 - Mediocre (Not particularly bad, but with more negatives than positives)
5 - Meh (Not exactly good or bad. It has some negatives and some positives that overall balance out)
6 - Decent (Generally positive. There’s more good than bad, but the good wasn’t good enough, or maybe the negatives are pretty notable and bring the section/episode down quite a bit.)
7 - Good (Solid overall. Satisfactory but not incredible. Perhaps there are some flaws that hold it back a bit, but the section/episode is fine overall)
8 - Great (Very well executed, with pros that far outweigh the cons)
9 - Amazing (Really exceptional, but perhaps it’s not as good as it could possibly be. Or maybe it’s near perfect with just a few flaws)
10 - Masterful (Basically perfect. Any problems that exist are negligible and don’t detract from the quality much at all. Only the best of the best get this rating)
Story
Twilight was just practicing her magic when Pinkie interrupted her, turning a bird into an orange. When Rarity passed by, talking about how she had fun making her dress, Pinkie suddenly realized that there’s a lot of fun things she could be missing out on in Ponyville. To solve this problem, she thought of a legend her nanny had told her about a long time ago. That was the legend of the mirror pool. She found it in the Everfree Forest, and successfully made a copy of herself. The two versions of herself split up and went to hang out with Rainbow and Applejack at the same time. Unfortunately, the clone found Fluttershy along the way, who was also doing something fun. In the end, she didn’t get to do anything fun at all. Original Pinkie decided what they needed was more copies, so they went back to the mirror pool. Even after more copies were made, the clones weren’t satisfied, so they made even more. In the end, there were about 20 Pinkies running around, and they wreaked chaos throughout town. Twilight found a spell to reverse this, but there was no guarantee that she wouldn’t send the real Pinkie back by mistake. They were stuck, until the real Pinkie came up with the idea to have them all perform a test. Only the Pinkie that passed would get to stay. Twilight agreed that this was a good idea, and so she had all the Pinkies rounded up and brought to the town hall. The test was to watch paint dry, and thankfully, after a lengthy and painful process, the real Pinkie passed. After this whole ordeal, Pinkie was obviously tired and so rejected her friends’ offer to do something fun.
As all Pinkie focused stories are, this was a pretty simple and silly one. But it was definitely entertaining. It was a good way of exploring Pinkie past her silliness, by contrasting her with her clones. Speaking of, the idea of the mirror pool was awesome, and really led to some funny hijinks.
One other thing that was really cool about this story was the existential crisis Pinkie faced. The way she wasn't sure who she was, and the way it had her more upset than she'd ever been before. It was definitely an interesting inner conflict, and seeing Pinkie realize she was the real one at the end was really satisfying.
You know, I really want to continue, but I honestly can’t think of much else to say. Obviously, there were other details I can discuss, but nothing that really seems all that necessary. The story was fairly interesting, but the humour was definitely the main selling point. And because of how great it was, this section’s score gets bumped up quite a bit. And I will elaborate more when I talk about the characters.
For now, though, I have to say that this was unexpected. I don’t think I’ve ever been this stuck when it came to discussing the story. That could be because I only recently started mostly talking about the comedy in the characters section, but still. I guess this episode is just a really simple one. Not bad. Just simple.
8.5/10 - Really Great
Characters
I love Pinkie Pie. She adds a lot of charm and fun to episodes she’s not the focus of, and without her the show would be less entertaining. Unfortunately, in episodes where she’s the main focus, she sometimes struggles to fit the role, because there’s not that much to her other than her comedy factor. Thankfully, this episode gave at least a little more to her character. Obviously, we already knew that she cared about her friends and didn’t want them to be distressed, but I just love the way it was shown with her being genuinely somber. Even then, when she started to question her identity, she still wanted to help her friends. It's really sweet. And she was still amazingly funny. There were so many great gags done with her and her clones, like making a G3 face, the way she talked with and about her clone (excuse me, me; tell me what; would I lie to me, etc.), falling into the pool slowly, the joke with the fourth walls closing in, the mistakes the first clone made when saying her friends’ names, and countless more. The visual gags Pinkie did were especially great.
It was nice seeing Twilight practice her magic again, something we hadn’t seen since Boast Busters, I believe. Though I’m not sure how I feel about the way she basically killed a bunch of ponies. They weren’t real, but they were, because they were alive, but because they just had the primal instincts of Pinkie, maybe they weren’t conscious, but they clearly were with the many little things they did in the third act, but they weren’t, but they were, but they weren’t, but they were-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0fLuJ9kHKA
Anyways, beyond that, I liked the way she yelled at every Pinkie to sit down, and that’s about it.
Rarity didn’t too much here, but her comment about a Pinkie hurricane was hilarious. Applejack rounding up the Pinkies was very fitting. Rainbow’s reactions to Pinkie at the pool were entertaining, especially when it came to Pinkie breaking the laws of physics. And Fluttershy basically didn’t do anything noteworthy.
Spike eating popcorn and then saying it wasn’t that exciting was great, and also didn’t do much otherwise.
I’m pretty split on this section. On one hand, Pinkie had one of her best appearances up to date, but other than her and Twilight, no one was that special. Thankfully, this episode was focused pretty much on just Twilight and Pinkie, so that’s not really an issue. And Pinkie sure was amazing.
9/10 - Amazing
Themes
The moral is basically that sometimes you have to make choices on who you spend your time with, and your friends won’t be upset about who you hang out with on a certain occasion if they’re true friends. I know that’s not really how it was worded, but that’s what I took away from the episode. And it’s a pretty good moral. It’s not great, as I don’t think that many people worry about this, especially not to the extent that Pinkie did, but there’s nothing wrong with it, and it can probably be useful in a select few situations.
Also, a moral you can get from the central conflict is that you shouldn’t make hasty decisions about important things, and this is also definitely a good moral. Especially for younger people. Thinking things through is one of the most vital things you can learn at a young age. Doing otherwise can lead to a multitude of really bad things happening.
While this last thing isn't exactly a moral, Pinkie having the desire to stick with her friends and help them by suggesting the test was amazing and, as I said, very sweet.
Another episode, another good batch of themes. The supporting one more so than the main lesson. But they were both handled well in the episode, and can both be helpful.
8.5/10 - Really Great
Misc.
The animation wasn’t particularly excellent on a technical level, but the animation was really good when it came to conveying visual gags with how extremely expressive it was. I can’t really explain it that well, so I’ll just show you.
The music was relatively decent. It was tense at times, gloomy, emotional, and even ominous and mysterious at the mirror pool. But mostly it was just fun and energetic. I particularly liked the BGM during the scene where the Pinkies were watching paint dry. It was quite fast paced and it was the scene that had a lot of tense bits of music. I also enjoyed the sound effects in this episode a lot.
I have to say, I feel bad for Andrea Libman. She must've had so much work to do for this episode. Because there was a lot of energetic Pinkie voice acting to do. And it was all entertaining. The others had good voices, which is par for the course. But the definite standout was Pinkie.
While it's the worst part of the episode, the production value of this episode was still really good, and especially served the comedy well.
8/10 - Great
Conclusion
Story - 8.5/10
Characters - 9/10
Themes - 8.5/10
Misc. - 8/10
Overall - 34/40 - Really Great
I know this isn't a low rating, but I honestly thought this episode would score higher. I guess the misc. section and the other features besides the comedy being great but not amazing held it back.
Personal Rating - 8.5/10 - Really Great[
The episode wasn't trying to be much else than funny (Pinkie's existential crisis aside), so I'm not gonna knock it for having little substance. Though the comedy wasn't quite strong enough for me to give it a 9 like the last comedy oriented Pinkie episode (MMMystery on the Friendship Express). Honestly, this episode is barely 8.5, because I already had the comedy as a factor in three of the sections. And this episode might drop down to 8 on another day. I’m not hating, because I did love this episode. I just don’t want to be too generous.
This was quite a drop from the last episode, and unfortunately, I think this season will be going down again before it goes up. Because next time I'll be covering One Bad Apple. Like with most controversial episodes, I don't hate it like a lot of people do, but it's most certainly Season 3's weakest episode. Hopefully it’s better than I think, but I doubt it. But until then, make sure to tell me what you thought of Too Many Pinkie Pies, and how well I "analyzed" it.
P.S. Update 4/21/2020 I just read a really great review of the episode from Mike Cartoon Pony that opened my eyes to some facets I hadn't thought about before, so I went through and started editing some stuff, then I realized there's too much I want to change, and I'll have to do a major edit later. So I just want to say that my comments on the episode having little substance are wrong.
this episodes in my top 10 list, resting comfortably at number 8
5138789
Is it because of the comedy? Cause I can understand that.
5138794
it's 100% the comedy
5138803
I don't know. I never really got why people thought this was one of the funniest episodes of the show. It's hilarious, but there are plenty of episodes I can think of that at least match this one in terms of comedic enjoyment, and have more to them than that.
5138808
I can't explain it, but I blame the Hoof to a hand and the Gen 1 face jokes
That's a G3 Pinkie Pie they are picking on there. Here's the artwork from her figure's packaging, which doesn't differ much from the animation you see on the DVDs:
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mylittleponyg3/images/e/eb/Pinkiepie_display.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20190325033254
Note the eye shape and the ears in the G4 episode and the artwork. G1 has simple ears and almond-shaped eyes. Here's her closest analogue, Cotton Candy, from G1:
mylittlewiki.org/w/images/1/14/Cotton_candy_pilot.PNG
It took a while for TMPP to grow on me, but ultimately it was the existential crisis that Pinkie Pie faces, what does it mean to be yourself, an individual that others care for and love rather than a commodity of "fun" that touched me; A surprise "like" in S3. Then again, I had unrealistic expectations at the time.
5138991
Oops. Fixed.
How I did not think about this when analyzing the story is honestly impressive. Also, you said surprise like? Does that mean you usually don't like season 3 episodes?
5139088
Let's just say it was a difficult time which may have unfairly tainted my enjoyment. And as for surprises, let me surprise you on a per review basis!
5139095
Did that also taint your opinion in hindsight?
That's cool. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say the next episode isn't one of those surprises.