Rating:
There are so many ways Castle Mane-ia could
have gone wrong, and in previous seasons it probably would have. Yes, the episode is technically harmless
fluff filler that could have been a good Halloween offering, but this new
season is finally seeing My Little Pony
approach the feel of a good series. Even
though the plot is unlikely and requires a bit of a stretch to happen, all of
it unwinds very naturally. For the first
time, our pony friends just seem to be living their lives in a normal fashion
as opposed to being slaves to whatever the plot of the week is. Having introduced an arc in the season opener
greatly enhances this, even if those events weren’t really necessary for this
episode to happen. Castle Mane-ia is designed
like older scary movies or thrillers, and several came to mind while watching (Scooby
Doo was the main inspiration, although I also thought of Abbott & Costello,
Don Knotts movies, and Murder By Death). These consist of the characters being
confined and wandering around some sort of scary mansion, and are often
accompanied by unexplained disappearances and an unknown person lurking in the
shadows. That might mean Castle Mane-ia is
a genre exercise, but the style of the fourth season makes it so much more
enjoyable.
Having heard at least some of my call, new
blood has been poured onto the writers’ staff this season, and for now it is a
success. Josh Haber might have a word or
two out of place, but like Corey Powell last season, he has seamlessly
integrated himself despite the series’ backlog of history. His characterization feels very accurate, and
he finds a number of funny moments despite the absurdity. Unfortunately, Castle Mane-ia doesn’t end up
amounting to much, which is about the only negative I can truly find. The episode isn’t substantial, and the
scariness goes on a bit too long, but otherwise the show’s creators made it as
well as could possibly be expected.
Instead of having the mane six arrive at a spooky
place together and get separated later, Castle Mane-ia is structured like three
different episodes that happen at the same time. Twilight is attempting to figure out the
mystery of the lockbox that was unearthed during the season opener, and
Celestia suggests via letter that she should check out the old castle’s
library. With a number of books still
intact despite the 1000 years of existence, Twilight goes positively squee and
might not ever leave with all the new things to read. Spike totally shares her enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Applejack and Rainbow Dash are
having a reprise of Fall Weather Friends with another meaningless contest to
find out who’s the bravest or whatever.
Thankfully, not being tied to sporting events and better interaction
between the two finds this thread being much more tolerable. With their staring contest while covered in a
swarm of bees idea squashed, the two decide to head into the Everfree Forest
and later the old castle in an attempt to tough out the most frightening place
they can find. And of course at the same
time, Rarity and Fluttershy are going that way as well. Rarity wants to yoink salvage some of
the old tapestries found in the castle for both a good deed and possible
inspiration for her fashion, and she requires Fluttershy’s flying ability to
help remove them. While probably a
stretch given that Rarity must brave both the Everfree Forest and loads of dirt
for this strange whim, it’s presented very logically and feels a quirk of Rarity’s
personality. Instead of the stereotype
she can be, Rarity approaches being a real character just by acknowledging that
this task might not be as important as she originally makes it sound. Like Spike, Fluttershy is completely on board
with this plan, although she has to keep track of Angel as well.
Once at the castle, the mane six run into a
host of secret passages and rooms to go along with the creepy atmosphere, but
they somehow never meet despite numerous close calls. The story is actually expertly woven as the
three threads alternate, and we might pan through two of the characters on the
way to two others. It’s unlikely that
they wouldn’t have heard or recognized each other’s voices until the end, but
otherwise the interaction between the dispersed characters is enthralling even
if their conversations turn out to be insignificant.
Every event that happens just panics each
character more, except for Twilight who calmly reads a journal Celestia and
Luna kept all those years ago. Finally,
Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy do run into each other, but all
from their behinds. This makes the four
of them go crazy in terror, and so much so that they don’t realize their
friends are the other ponies screaming.
Despite the sounds of an ominous organ wafting through the castle
earlier, it takes this display to rouse Twilight from her reading to see what
is going on. She calms things down by
immobilizing the scared ponies via magic, and they quickly sort out everything
that happened. But not quite, since who
was the mysterious pony playing the organ?
I did realize after the second act that one character had been missing
throughout all of this, and sure enough the mane six sneak into the organ room
and uncloak Pinkie Pie, who learned how to play thanks to her godlike
powers. Pinkie apparently thought the
whole thing was a party and had no malevolent intentions. Twilight decides the six of them should start
keeping a journal, since that apparently helped Celestia and Luna ward off the
fears of living in the castle. This
experience will hopefully keep the mane six from being unnecessarily afraid in
the future, although another mysterious pony squints just before the final cut
to black.
The premise alone is oddly what keeps Castle
Mane-ia from being one of the series’ better episodes, since the show’s entire
staff was otherwise at the top of their game.
The animation is again at a noticeably higher quality than the previous
seasons, and retains a movie-like feel as opposed to a bubbly kids’ show. The detail of the castle is excellent,
especially with everything that occurs during each scene. And the voice acting probably doesn’t need to
be praised again, but everyone was top notch here. Tabitha St. Germain especially eased my
concerns from the opener by turning in high quality readings that are
astoundingly impossible to duplicate (“she’s with me!” shows the right balance
of annoyance and embarrassment, and is on par with her incredible line near the
end of Secret Of My Excess). Rarity has
honestly never seemed more real than she does here, and a large part of that is
St Germain’s doing. But the credit must
also go to Haber, who took a cartoony premise that Merriwether Williams usually
finds herself destroying and kept everyone grounded despite all the
shrieking. Fluttershy’s motherly nature
toward Angel, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack’s competitive bickering were never
too much, and the annoyance Spike and Fluttershy felt for being dragged into
the story was exactly how someone would react to a situation where they didn’t
want to hurt the other person’s feelings.
Keeping this kind of story from feeling like too too much is an
achievement in itself.
While it would have been nice if the third
season made similar strides, the fourth season is already showing strong intensity
from everyone involved with the show.
Even though My Little Pony includes
the same characters that have been established during the first three years, it’s
practically a different series even at this early point. The mane six have graduated from the
stereotypes they sort of started as, and Twilight’s nobility and race change
just seem like a part of who she is now (the wing-boners she gets from finding
old books in the library couldn’t have been expressed better in previous
seasons). A throwaway episode like this
would have been a forgettable two stars before, but now feels entertaining and
exciting. If Castle Mane-ia is going to
be one of the lesser episodes in the season (and with Williams still on the
writing staff, it probably won’t be), then I am extremely excited to see what
the good ones will be. Sadly the plot
wasn’t strong or meaningful enough and gets wearing at times, but a bad episode
has never looked or felt so good.
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