"Pinkie Pride"... so this episode was fun. Welp that's it, review over...

Oh calm your shorts, I kid, I kid (and I also communicate with Internet gifs, so what does that say about me? Can't be anything good). Whatever, let's get this review going proper.

Do I even need to start by mentioning that the ungodly streak of hits DHX has been throwing our way ever since "Rarity Takes Manehattan" (and yes, I still consider "Rainbow Falls" to be among that group of elites despite the fact that it seems to have left a sour taste in the mouth of the majority of bronydom) continued yet again this week? Honestly, it's getting tiring seeing this much awesome. OK, not really, but you get my point that the amount of awesome we've had lately in the show is kinda overwhelming, and that was true yet again here. It's getting to the point where I can't speak about every little thing that was right because there's just too much to count, it's true, there's just too much, both the big and little. Well, let's try to do this episode justice anyways; as with previous recent reviews of mine, this review will largely cover characters in the episode, then conclude with more aesthetic elements.

So let's start with our main character, Pinkie Pie, in her second starring role of the season (and first solo starring role seeing as she was more of a co-star with AJ in "Pinkie Apple Pie"). I'll just come out and say it, I thought this was Pinkie's best starring role since "A Friend in Deed". I still consider that episode to be the quintessential Pinkie Pie episode (for more details on why, you can read my review of "A Friend in Deed" here: http://mlpforums.com/blog/1009/entry-8131-batbrony-reviews-s02e18-a-friend-in-deed/), but this episode was definitely its spiritual successor, for a number of reasons, some of which I'll get to later. Perhaps the most obvious reason, however, is that, more than any Pinkie episode since "A Friend in Deed", this episode revolved around that which makes Pinkie tick, her unconditional, never-ending, sugar-and-joy-fueled mission to spread joy and happiness to as many ponies as possible through her talents for making ponies laugh and throwing parties. This makes perfect sense seeing as it seems that each member of the Mane 6 is revisiting the elements they embody this season whenever they receive the "keys" (or whatever the buck those special items will be, kinda hard to imagine a rubber chicken being used as a key ) in an episode and bolstering the fact that they embody those elements. In Pinkie's case, it's laughter of course. This episode would've been retread ground for Pinkie if not for the fact that it was executed in a far more original manner than any of the "key episodes" so far this season, namely in the way the lesson was delivered. Pinkie, when her status as town party pony was threatened, fell victim to pride (a vice we'd normally see Rainbow Dash succumb to), and in her zeal to defend her title ended up threatening to ruin one of her best friend's birth-iversary party. As soon as Pinkie realized this, she was immediately ashamed; it's not like she's a prideful pony, she just let her raw emotions get the better of her, but in doing so she compromised everything that she stands for. She's a super-duper-party-pony not because she yearns for glory, nor because it brings her pride and satisfaction (not first and foremost at least), but ultimately because she just wants to make other ponies as happy as can be without getting anything in return. Once she was reminded of that, that it's not the scale or size of the party, but really the selflessness of the act itself that spreads the joy to other ponies, Pinkie's head was set straight and she went about righting everything as best she could, in the process both making a new friend as well as throwing RD about the most epic party she could. Pinkie done good, and she received both a good lesson as well as a rubber chicken for her efforts.

Besides the lesson learned, Pinkie Pie was just about as Pinkielicious as one could hope for here. She went through a wide range of emotions, showed just how serious she can be even while remaining the silliest of ponies, sang, dance, spread the laughs, all that good Pinkie stuff. Might've been her funniest episode since "Party of One", although in many ways I hesitate declaring it her funniest episode ever seeing as so much of the episode's humor relied off of Cheese Sandwich, and not solely Pinkie. Still, all the same this was most definitely one of Pinkie's finest starring roles to date!

Next up, let's talk about the newest character of the show, Cheese Sandwich, voiced by none other than the most legendary parodist/musician/accordionist (yes that's actually a real word)/funny man of them all, Weird Al Yankovic. This character was definitely one of the best supporting characters we've gotten in a LONG time, I'm talking dating all the way back to Season 2 even. He's basically the closest we'll ever get to a Rule 63 Pinkie Pie, and it's very uncanny how a character who really does reflect his VA's typical humor so well is so very similar to Pinkie Pie herself. Makes me almost wonder if Lauren Faust was partially inspired by Weird Al and possibly other similar nonsensical, absurdist comedians when she came up with Pinkie Pie's character? Anyways, he was a blast; just as random, zany, whacky, and goofy as Pinkie Pie herself, and the first pony we've ever seen who loves throwing parties and making ponies laugh as much as she does. Hearing him get to sing was probably what I appreciated the most about his appearance just because Weird Al really is an extremely talented singer and it was a joy getting to hear his vocals about as much as one could hope to in an episode. But really, the best thing about his character was how sincere he felt; I honestly felt like I was watching Al himself here. The guy strikes me as one of the most genuine celebrities out there, possibly the closest real-world equivalent to a Pinkie Pie even, a man who sincerely loves what he does and spreading as much laughter and joy as he can to others. So this turned out to be what every person always hopes a celebrity guest appearance will be on a TV show, but more often than not they never turn out to be; instead of some cringe-inducing or pointless cameo, this was just legend, absolutely fantastic in every sense of the word. Weird Al, from the bottom of my heart on behalf of every one of your fellow brony-brethren, thank you, thank you, thank you for this! You're awesome, just plain awesome.

Next, let's talk the Mane 6. Besides Rainbow Dash, none of them really stood out here seeing as the episode was so heavily dominated by Pinkie and Cheese. Rainbow was quite cute on her birth-iversary, and never felt obnoxious at all. I mean yeah, she was excited about it, but if you had her personality and you were celebrating a birth-iversary, wouldn't you be that excited as well? But she had more to her character here than just excitement. Heck, you could practically feel the sinking feeling of disappointment and anxiousness that she felt when she said "Heh... big, tense competition on my birth-iversary. What could be better?", I mean really, I felt for her there, that and her look of sadness after the giant pinata fell on her (wow, that was weird to write) showed more than anything else just how wrong Pinkie's pride was. It also showed once again just how patient she's gotten since the show began, seeing as the old Rainbow would've probably gotten angry almost immediately at Pinkie over something like this; but here, she didn't even get mad, in fact she was actually apologizing to Pinkie immediately after Pinkie apologized to her. Our favorite cyan pegasus sure has grown up a lot since the show began, and I love it, not to mention that she definitely got the best party ever at the end there! It was, wait for it... SO AWESOME!

As for the rest, they all had bits here and there. Rarity and AJ had a few one-liners together (and AJ even broke the fourth wall at one point), Twilight was her fun, bookish self, and Fluttershy actually had the funniest line of the episode ("Oh no, not a goof-off!" "What's a goof-off?" "I have no idea", my gosh, the delivery on that line was fantastic and seriously the funniest single line in the episode! Props Andrea, props!!!). I'm not mad at any of them for embracing Cheese as quickly as they did (even if RD's line about Pinkie's parties not being epic was kind of unnecessarily cruel, especially when she knew Pinkie was right there), and I'm not just excusing it on account of plot convenience. I think it's perfectly believable that anyone would take up someone's offer to throw a party for them if that someone was an insanely talented party planner who was offering to throw the most epic party possible for free. They just got caught up in the excitement is all and they admitted as much to Pinkie at the end. Heck, even Cheese got caught up in trying to impress his fillyhood idol; my guess is that he actually wanted to repay Pinkie more than anything by taking the load off her shoulders. He certainly wasn't mean-spirited in his agenda, though he may have let pride blind him a bit just as it blinded Pinkie Pie. But whatever, back to the Mane 6, long story short they were perfectly fine here, especially RD with her RDness and Fluttershy with her hilarious line delivery, not to mention AJ, Rarity, and Twi rocked their groove-things in "Make a Wish" along with Pinkie Pie.

Now to cover the final character of this episode: Ponyville. What do I mean by that? Well, for me, the best episodes are those in which the town of Ponyville itself is practically a character, the seventh member of the Mane 6 even if you will. Highlights of this sort include "Lesson Zero", "Hurricane Fluttershy", and "A Friend in Deed", among many others. For this to happen, you need a lot of background ponies to show up, you need them to show up consistently, and you need there to be at least a few memorable cameos. Did we have that here? Oh me oh my we most certainly did! This is another big reason that I consider this episode to be the spiritual successor to "A Friend in Deed"; at least in the "Smile" song, the entire town of Ponyville was simply alive, a character in its own right alongside Pinkie Pie, and the same can be said here. Just about every major background pony resident of Ponyville showed up, including Cloud Kicker, Lyra, Bon Bon, Carrot Top, Berry Punch, Cherry Berry, Colgate, Caramel, Raindrops, Dinky Doo, Roseluck, Daisy, Lily, Amethyst Star/Sparkler, Mr. and Mrs. Cake along with Pound and Pumpkin Cake (yes I know they're more supporting characters than background), Diamond Tiara in a singing role of all things (which was even more strangely actually enjoyable, seriously, what the buck, a Diamond Tiara appearance that I actually liked?!), Cheerilee, Doctor Whooves, Filly Cloudchaser and Flitter (seriously, I don't think they were there in the present but they definitely showed up as fillies in Cheese's flashback), Twinkleshine, Sea Swirl, Lemon Hearts, Rainbowshine, Sassaflash, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and basically every resident of Ponyville you could imagine. Oh yeah, and Derpy was back in yet another cameo role, I loved it very, very much (duh); it wasn't quite as epic as the supporting role she got in "Rainbow Falls", much more similar to her Season 1 and Season 2 cameos, but she was still there plenty and had some awesome, adorable bits (most notably her munching on that chocolate-fondue fountain (come on, you all know you'd do that to if it was right there in front of you ) and Filly Derpy's first official canon appearance (and no, her appearance in "The Cutie Pox" doesn't count, that was in the present and, ergo, not actually Derpy, even if it was still awesome).

Anyways, like I said, the town of Ponyville, as it has often been in the past, was here again practically a character in and of itself, and the episodes in which that happens generally turn out to be some of my favorite of the series, and "Pinkie Pride" was no exception. Love it when these characters get to be characters, and I wish it happened in the show more often (though it does make the rare times that it does even more special, to be honest).

Alright, onto the aesthetic elements of the episode, starting with music. This was the first "musical" episode we've had in the show since "Magical Mystery Cure" last season, and in my opinion the musical format worked even better here than it did in that episode. I can't possibly go into great depth on each song, so I'll start with a quick summary of each one and then share my thoughts on the music as a whole. We had "Pinkie the Party Planner" (based quite obviously off of "Belle" from "Beauty and the Beast", and a lovely tune to start the episode off), "The Super Duper Party Pony" (based off of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from "Mary Poppins" and Weird Al's MLP musical debut, complete with accordion instrumentals and everything, though strangely enough not the first polka piece we've gotten in this show despite it's extensive use of the accordion, that honor goes to Pinkie's parasprite song from way back in Season 1), "Pinkie's Lament" (based off of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from "Evita", and Pinkie's most somber musical solo to date), "The Goof Off" (based off of "Together (Wherever We Go)" from "The Brady Bunch", a zany compilation of original pieces, polka songs (including the Beer Barrel Polka, otherwise known as Roll Out the Barrel, which I myself had the pleasure to sing with the entire crowd at Lambeau Field just this past December, as is tradition at Green Bay Packers games in the 4th quarter ), a Spanish piece of all things, and even a brief "Smile" song rendition as sung by Weird Al himself, definitely the craziest song of the bunch in this episode), "Cheese Confesses" (a slowed down reprise of "The Super Duper Party Pony" that was honestly genuinely touching in a number of parts, especially in just how sincere and heartfelt Cheese's admission of the effect Pinkie had on his life felt), and "Make a Wish" (based off of P!nk's "Raise Your Glass", and in many ways a spiritual successor, I felt, to "Love is in Bloom" from Season 2, even if it sounded a bit more like "This is Our Big Night" from "Equestria Girls", I'm not counting that one just because that entire movie had a feel of its own very much removed in many aspects from that of MLP).

I don't have a single favorite out of all of these songs, unlike "A True, True Friend" in "Magical Mystery Cure", for one big reason: this episode was even more of a musical than that one was. The music in "Magical Mystery Cure" is wonderful, but it is also quite obviously a device utilized to move the episode along quicker. Here, that was not the case; each song felt natural, a logical successor to the previous number. The polka strung the middle pieces together very nicely, and even the pieces that most deviated from the others (i.e. "Make a Wish") musically still felt like they belonged with the group as a whole. Basically, I can't imagine this episode without any of these songs; they did each other justice so well, and the greater whole that they made was far more impressive than any effect left by any individual piece alone. Definitely one of Daniel Ingram's most impressive accomplishments yet, only further amplified by the legendary Weird Al's vocals where he contributed them, and by far the musical highlight of the season thus far for an episode as a whole (even if "Apples to the Core" is still my favorite individual piece of the season so far).

Oh, and if you don't believe me about that "Roll Out the Barrel" thing, take a gander at this then listen to Pinkie's bit right after Cheese sings "Smile" in "The Goof Off". Besides, what's not to love about a little polka? :comeatus:

The animation here was stupendous as usual, probably the most gorgeous we've ever seen in any Pinkie episode. The variety in the faces that both Pinkie and Cheese made was simply unreal at times (definitely one of the animation highlights of this whole season so far), the scale that some of the ludicrous stunts that Pinkie and Cheese pulled was appropriately enormous, it was great getting to see an entire episode centered around Ponyville (the first we've actually had set entirely in Ponyville this season if I'm not mistaken), and everything just looked stunning from beginning to end. Major props to Sibsy and the animation team as usual.

Finally, the comedy was, to say the least, through the roof. I didn't think it'd be possible for one to make an episode funnier than "Three's a Crowd" after last week, especially in the very next episode, but by gosh DHX bucking did it! Pinkie was hilarious, Cheese was hilarious, the sight gags, the lines, and the music were all hilarious. A couple highlights for me include Boneless the chicken, the cheesehead that Cheese stuck on RD during "The Goof Off" (c'mon, I'm a Packer backer and bonified cheesehead, how could I not love that?), and, as I mentioned earlier, Fluttershy's "I have no idea" line. But perhaps my favorite running gag in this entire episode would have to be the Western references. Some were obvious, others not so much, but they were there all right, and seeing as I spent my entire final semester of college just last spring studying Western films for my senior thesis, and falling in love with the genre in the process, I was delighted by them. We had (1) a Clint Eastwood reference to his Man With No Name character from Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy" in the hat and poncho donned by Cheese throughout the episode, not to mention his serious demeanor which he assumed when doing so, (2) a reference to "High Noon", legendary Western starring Gary Cooper, when Pinkie announced that they would hold their goof off at high noon originally, (3) the reference to the classic "3:10 to Yuma" when Pinkie declared that the goof off would be at "3:10 to goof off" instead (which I have not actually seen, the 1950s original I mean, not the 2000s remake), and finally, (4) the start of the goof off itself, which basically referenced every single Western stand off ever. For this guy, those Western references were an unexpected delight, and I really have to wonder who came up with them seeing as so many involved Cheese; while I could easily see the writers coming up with them on their own, I can't help but wonder if Weird Al is a big Western fan and if he might've had some creative input into not only his character but also comedic bits throughout the episode. Hard to say, hard to say, but definitely plausible. In any case, the humor was on here and absolutely a delight.

Just a few more notes before I wrap this review up. It was fun getting to briefly see Appleloosa at the start of the episode. The Equestrian map that comes up when you look it up on Google images is apparently canon now seeing as it was displayed during one of Cheese's songs, so that's cool. I was admittedly a bit disappointed that Cranky Doodle Donkey didn't show up yet again even though his special somedonkey Matilda did (seriously, I miss that guy, he was awesome!). Overall, however, this episode was everything that I could've hoped it would be and so much more. It is legend, it really, truly is, and it will forever hold a special place in the annals of MLP's canon as one of the finest episodes I've ever seen on this show.