Swoop

Mm, Winnie the Pooh: My Hero, anyone? While I can't say the whole 'forever indebted' scenario was particularly original, on the whole, the episode came off as relatively enjoyable, with quirky character behaviour and animation (the scene with the Timberwolf choking and motioning "hold on a sec" while he hits his chest gave me a good chuckle) compensating for a rather pat and contrived plot. Admittedly, I'm a little iffy on the new three dimensional effects implemented for the Timberwolves, though that may just be the conservative side of me lashing out at the first sign of change. It should be interesting to see whether the use of 3D characters and settings are used further down the track.

Released four days early? That's gotta be an academy record. Oh shut up Swoop For someone who tends to watch the series rather passively these days, the episode didn't really strike me as particularly memorable, however that's not to say it wasn't enjoyable nonetheless - particularly for one written by Merriwether Williams. I was glad to see that Dash was able to come across as confident without the associated arrogant undertones we've been met with in previous episodes, and like others, I can't say I was a fan of the new Spitfire VA, though considering her role as a drill instructor, the voice seemed to fit her character well enough. Pinkie's typical comedic overreactions came across as a mix of both humorous asides, and filler that could have been better spent expanding upon Thunder Dust's character shift from congenial to reckless. Whether the episode could have done without them comes down to your opinion of Pinkie's character in general I suppose. As for the ending, It did seem to leave a few loose ends; whether or not rainbow continues her training, let's just hope that the academy doesn't suffer the same unacknowledged fate as her pet tortoise.