My Episode Review on Sunset’s Backstage Pass · 11:14pm Nov 24th, 2019

Yo, what's up, my friends?

This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.

And today, for my 9th episode review, I'm gonna give you guys an analysis on "Sunset's Backstage Pass".

Here's the summary of it:

Taking another break from school, the Equestria girls go to the Starswirled Music Festival, a two-day event showcasing the most popular music acts.

Sunset Shimmer and Pinkie Pie are particularly excited, because on the first night, a favorite band of theirs called PostCrush is making a comeback.

However, their chance to see their favorite band perform goes kablooey because of Pinkie's hyperly large shenanigans. When Equestrian magic comes into play, though, Sunset finds herself stuck in a time loop, reliving the same day over and over again. And while this does give Sunset a chance to make the day better than before, she doesn't want to be repeating the same day forever.

Will Sunset break the time loop and find out what's causing it before it's too late? Or will she be stuck on the first day of the music festival forever?

Having seen this episode twice for reviewing it, I really must say that this special is what I believe to be the very best since "Forgotten Friendship"! And that's coming from the fact that the other two EG specials were neutral ventures for me.

Everything about "Sunset's Backstage Pass" proved to be absolutely enjoyable.

Taking over for Nick Confalone, Whitney Ralls's writing was among the reasons why I found this to be an enjoyable installment.

The story may not be the most original of the series, mainly because of the concept being partly borrowed from Bill Murray's "Groundhog Day" and because of some certain plot elements. But, Ralls brought with her a touch that gave the script a sense of uniqueness, as well as energy, life, and heart. The humor and comedic-timings she incorporated were all hilarious, especially because they didn't feel forced or flat. The amount of dramatic and emotional tension throughout was executed perfectly, might I add.

The animation also proved to be great. Yes, it is at the kind of level any installment of MLP's fourth generation would often be at, but it was still impressive. My favorite parts of it were that of the visual gags used in the episode, as well as the colorful screen lights that came on whenever PostCrush was playing their song.

The music that was composed by William Anderson was quite fun as well. As the episode progressed, I couldn't help but note how emotionally invested Anderson was with making the music for it. The songs "Find the Magic" and "True Original" were melodiously marvelous to listen to, and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing them become available to buy from iTunes.

Finally, the voice acting, characters, and character development were all as awesome as ever.

I'm not sure if many have ever thought about whether Sunset and Pinkie would make a great duo or not, but in this episode...they rocked the house! Their chemistry was spontaneously fun, and their developments, particularly Sunset's, were fantastic. The performances of Rebecca Shoichet and Andrea Libman were also some of their best yet, with tons of perfect comedic-timings to boot.

As a plus, it was nice to see the Dazzlings again. Even though their roles were relatively minor and that they weren't up to anything malicious, it was just so great to see that they didn't just disappear after the events of "Rainbow Rocks".

PostCrush duo Kiwi Lollipop (K-Lo) and Supernova Zap (Su-Z) are certainly not the most original antagonists, the main reasons being because they're the usual "Getting corrupted by Equestrian magic and getting reformed in the end" villains. But, they were definite improvements over that of Vignette Valencia.

Among the many things that helped the two characters click so well was their desire to make their comeback perfect. There's a part in all of us that deeply strives to make sure everything we do goes as planned, and while there certainly isn't anything completely wrong with that, it can have a terrible effect on us if we're not too careful. The more important things are having fun and being with your friends, and I was proud that the two popstars realized that when the ending was near.

In the end, "Sunset's Backstage Pass" was an enjoyable episode to watch, and whatever flaws it may have can easily be overcome by Whitney Ralls's sense of fun, heart, and passion. Changing writers from Confalone to Ralls for this special was a deeply beneficial move, that's for sure.

So, I rate "Sunset's Backstage Pass" five out of five stars.

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