Alright, good morning everypony and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews"! This week we've got a pretty standard episode, quality-wise at least, with a pretty unique approach to its execution. "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point Of View)" is actually a send-up to Akira Kurosawa's film "Rashomon" (a film I've never seen but read enough up on to know that this is definitely a send up to it), and in that regard it's a pretty clever episode. That said, it's not exactly mindblowing, but it didn't commit any unforgivable errors either, so it was a decent episode all around. Without further ado, let's begin, this is "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point Of View)".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the basic idea of this episode, same as with "Rashomon," is that we receive multiple points of view from the main characters, each one of them self-serving and putting themselves in the best light, and obviously not showing the whole picture either/retelling events that happened in a completely accurate light. The idea is that eventually all the different retellings will be cleared up and tied together, and what really happened will come through. Overall the episode does this quite well, although I will admit that, given that they have three different POVs to get through, the episode doesn't have much time to dwell on anything else besides the main events. Don't get me wrong, overall the pacing is fine, but it still felt at times like they were trying very hard to fit a lot into one episode, and I almost would have preferred if they'd limited it to two points of view. But all in all this story device worked, especially since it wasn't a terribly serious episode.

 

 

 

 

 

The funnest part of the episode, obviously, was seeing what all the different points of view were, as well as Twilight figuring out what really happened at the end. Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie's distorted recollections were quite entertaining (though it was bizarre in Pinkie's to see herself thinking of herself as the "normal" one of the bunch) and had some very funny references as well (Applejack in Rarity's POV was DEFINITELY a reference to Quint from "Jaws" and I'm pretty sure that Rarity's dress in Applejack's POV was a direct reference to Rose Dewitt-Bukater's dress in her introduction scene in "Titanic"). It was also lots of fun trying to figure out as a viewer what really did happen (there were definitely some things the characters told which seemed like they probably did happen, like Applejack accidentally knocking the cucumber sandwiches into the ocean), and what definitely didn't. That said, besides some of the pacing, the one other issue with this episode was the believability of the conflict. The episode itself tried to confront this by admitting at the end that "even long-time friends can have problems," but that's not the issue. The issue is that this conflict apparently, if this episode is to be believed, almost ENDED Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie's friendship! Now, I know that long-time friendships can deteriorate. However, I have a hard time believing that this particular conflict could have done such a thing! It was just a bad boat trip, nothing more, so yeah, the conflict felt a tad forced. Their reconciliation at the end was nice and all, seeing them all realizing that they all had just wanted to help their friends try something new together, but still, I found myself hard-pressed to buy that this could have actually ended their friendships this far into the show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still, despite pacing and conflict issues, this was an enjoyable enough of an episode. Like I said, it was very entertaining, and the resolution at the end was very nice. It was fun getting to see Twilight exercising her intellect in order to help resolve things (and I don't just mean looking into some books for research, I mean she had to have Spike take notes and then review said notes, and THEN work out how all three POVs fit together), and that sea creature that showed up at the end was ADORABLE!!! The episode was certainly colorful, and it was cool getting to see most of the episode primarily set on the ocean (surprisingly, sea/ocean environments are quite rare to see in this show). Hopefully we'll get the chance to see such a setting even more later on in the show, either this season or, more likely, next season (if the show is renewed for a new season, of course). Overall, this was a good episode. It was not perfect, but it was perfectly likable and didn't have anything really horrible about it, plus it was cool how many movie references and send-ups it made in so many different ways. That's all I've got for ya'll this week everypony, until next time this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*