CJF's MLP Reviews: Party Pooped

A Pinkie Pie episode? Yaks? Pony versions of the Beatles? Funny faces this side of Star vs. the Forces of Evil? I think I'm down with that.

The episode starts with Twilight looking nervous and showing hints of her "Lesson Zero" self with Funny Face number 1:

I'm scared now.

The Mane Six are looking forward to meeting the delegates from... Yakyakistan? As if the cities full of horse puns weren't so phoned in. Twilight's main goal is to befriend the yaks, hoping to impress Princess Celestia in doing this task. Then comes Prince Rutherford and two other yaks, who look like Vikings, except Vikings never wore horned helmets. They reveal that if nothing is even remotely close to what it's like in their home, they get angry. Oh, boy.

Twilight provides traditional yak foods for them. Predictably so, it's not perfect, so the yaks go all...

In the aftermath, Twilight and friends try their best to make the yaks feel at home, only to bring out their destructive behavior every time, which get chuckles out of me once in a while. There is only one option left in order to befriend the yaks: Pinkie Pie's party. Pinkie is under a bit of pressure, resulting in Funny Face number 4:

Oh, gosh, anything but that smile!

Pinkie Pie speaks with Gummy at Sugar Cube Corner, nervous about not doing anything correct for the yaks. Then Gummy gives her an idea on how to win them over just by licking her face. You know, ever since "Slice of Life," Gummy has become this sort of strange character, though maybe that's to complement Pinkie Pie's zaniness.

Twilight arrives at Sugar Cube corner to pick up the Yaks' cake and finds out that Pinkie is missing. Gummy arrives and gives her a note, saying that she will be back soon. Twilight becomes even more stressed, resulting in Funny Face number 7:

Honestly, these facial expressions are getting more and more creative as the show goes on. So far, this face is the funniest. I even love Tara Strong's over-the-top performance in that moment alone.

We cut to Pinkie as she makes her way to Yakyakistan by train. She wants to bring something from their home in order to befriend them. Appropriate, since earlier on, she said she studied the Yakyakistan culture as Twilight requested. That properly foreshadows what is to come next.

This starts a running gag of her narrating out loud. Unfortunately, the train stops because of sheep. Thankfully Pinkie runs into Cherry Jubilee from "The Last Roundup." It's nice to see a minor character make another appearance. She offers Pinkie a ride by carriage. The problem, though, is that horses pulling the carriage are exhausted from counting cherries. This can only end badly.

Guess what? It does. The carriage goes off course due to the sleepy horses and is about to fall off a ravine. There is a funny moment where Cherry Jubilee wakes up claiming she was dreaming about a ravine, only to be right on top of it. The edge cracks and the ponies plummet to their doom.

We then cut to Spike playing a piano for the Yaks, who are touched by his performance. Unfortunately, this is where the Yaks draw the line and leave, even declaring war. Why? Because Spike was playing a player piano the whole time. Man, these guys get really disproportionate.

Just as Twilight laments her failure, she accidentally activates a secret lever that drops her and the other ponies to a secret room. It turns out that Pinkie Pie keeps files on every pony in town, knowing what kind of party they want, making her more organized than Twilight. Wow, Pinkie has a lot of hidden depths that make up more than just her zaniness.

On the other side, Pinkie finally arrives at the Crystal Empire and is climbing the snowy mountain leading to Yakyakistan.

Apparently, the Wonderbolts came out of nowhere to rescue the group and dropped them off at Manehattan. She then joined a traveling band that resembles the Beatles and they split up due to creative differences. This all happened in less than a day? You're really stretching my suspension of disbelief, episode.

She finally arrives at the gates of Yaktakistan, but an accident has her sled all the way home. That's disappointing. She hears her friends in the file room complimenting her organization and enters. She expresses her doubt, but after some words of encouragement from her friends, she creates an idea guaranteed to win over the Yaks, by showing how kind ponies can be.

Needless to say, it worked. The yaks notice how hard Pinkie worked in making them feel at home and no longer declares war. Prince Rutherford gives Pinkie a hug, and very strong one.

I quite enjoyed this episode. The yaks are fun to watch, though their destructive behavior can get a little repetitive at times. However, their introduction provides even more world-building for the show. It's a shame that we do not get to see what Yakyakistan looked like. Pinkie Pie was given a little more to do, and a little more depth was added to her character, revealing how organized she is in party planning.

Special mention goes to the hilarious facial expressions. Throughout this season so far, each episode has given us some creative facial expressions, from Rainbow Dash's rage face in "Tanks for the Memories" (which Prince Rutherford imitated earlier in the episode) to Discord's Rodney Dangerfield imitation in "Make New Friends But Keep Discord." It's right up there with some of funniest faces shown in that new Disney XD show, Star vs. the Forces of Evil. If you haven't seen that show, do check it out.

While I don't think it's anything that special and not among my favorite episodes, I do think it's a worthy entry to the show. "Party Pooped" gets a smashing...

4/5

And Twilight is afraid of quesadillas because they're too cheesy? Give me a break.