Category Archives: Animation

Reviews of Cartoons.

Tales from the Panda: “So Interesting” review

Posted by BlackWidower on

Writing is hard. Writing prose is even harder. Anyone who says otherwise has never written a goddamn word in their fucking life.

Coalescing ideas into words to put on paper is not easy. First you have to find the right words, then you have to structure them so they make sense, then you have to double-check to make sure it sounds right, then you have to ensure the whole thing doesn’t contradict itself. It requires a special skill that takes years to develop. And it’s one I still haven’t mastered.

And writing fiction gets harder. Does the scene make sense? Does the tone match the events? Is it well paced? Is it well phrased? Are the characters consistent? Are the events consistent? And the whole thing can get quite overwhelming.

This is why most writers have editors.

So what does this have to do with the latest episode of Littlest Pet Shop? Absolutely nothing! What are you talking about? Penny really is from the land of faeries and goblins. Continue reading →

The Human Chameleon: “Commercial Success” review

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Littlest Pet Shop, as a show, has always been a bit lop-sided.

For all intents and purposes, it seems as if we only have one character on this show; Blythe Baxter. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Most shows feature one central character that we continuously follow, and it tends to work. My Little Pony did this for the entire first season, having Twilight Sparkle be a central figure in every episode. On occasion, when the episode featured a different character, her role would end up being a bit shoehorned in, but you didn’t really care since it still worked.

On Littlest Pet Shop, however, Blythe’s central role comes at the expense of proper characterization for everyone else.

Yes, the pets have gotten plenty of screen time, I’m not arguing that. We’ve had plenty of episodes about them, as one would expect. But even then, Blythe seems to overshadow all of them. Even the one episode that had plenty of reason to let her take a back seat (after all, she was out-of-town at the time), focused on her almost entirely. They could have opened the season with a single episode featuring the pets having a grand adventure without their human friend. Wouldn’t that have been nice? Instead, we got an episode focusing on how much they missed her, and how miserable they were without the main character.

Then we have the human characters. Last time I called Blythe’s friends the three stereotypes, and I wasn’t kidding. They’ve gotten nothing in the way of characterization, just enhancement of prior stereotypes, or in Sue’s case, establishment of her creepy-stalker side.

I’m still not sure what to make of that. And I even remember early episodes hinting at Youngmee’s love of exotic foods; but since then, it hasn’t really been utilized in any way, or even brought up.

Then there’s Jasper, an empty shell of blandness. I try to think of anything he’s done, any key moments, and all I can think of are his attempts to open Blythe’s locker during the première, him screaming ‘that sucks!’ in the season one finale, and the time he turned a photo of Sunil into a meme.

Not much to work with. But thankfully, I think this character is on the verge of a turnaround. Especially since last week, when we got an episode establishing him as being halfway interesting, when he turns into a douche.

This is gonna be fuuuuun! Continue reading →

Trading Scooters: “Blythe’s Big Idea” review

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You can’t let opportunities pass you by. I know it seems cliché, but it’s true. When a great opportunity comes, you can’t just say, ‘oh, I’m too busy, maybe next time.’ Because ‘next time’ may not happen! There may not be a next time!

You gotta grab life by the metaphorical balls, and not waste it. You don’t want the world to leave you behind. For instance, if you see a chance to do what you love on a large-scale, for money, why in the hell would you pass it up?

Maybe you don’t think you’re ready. Get ready!

Maybe you don’t have the money. Sell some shit!

Maybe you don’t have the time. Quit your day job!

Life doesn’t give you second chances. You were lucky enough to get the opportunity the first time, why in the hell would you throw that away!?

And that’s sums up a recent episode of Littlest Pet Shop, where Blythe refuses to let the International Pet Fashion Expo pass her by! Wait, how is that a thing!? Continue reading →

Disclaiming Disability: “Flight to the Finish” review

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I’ll be honest, my favourite characters on My Little Pony have to be the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The primary reason for this is their potential. Like every other member of the main cast, they are extremely well-developed as characters. But they’ve gotten so little screen time, that the directions they can be taken haven’t been fully utilized yet. So many potential stories here. Plus, they’re young, so they still have much to learn, and much to develop.

The same goes with Spike, one of my other favourite characters. But I’m not talking about him, today.

And the directions these characters have gone in already show great potential. We’ve explored the relationship Sweetie Belle has with her sister, we’ve explored Apple Bloom’s personal insecurities, we’ve also explored the tenacity and terrible priorities of these characters. But the one character that has gotten virtually no exposure, is Scootaloo. We’ve never met her family, and we’ve never seen her personal life away from the Crusaders. Which is probably why the fans have assumed she’s an orphan.

Last season, we got close. An episode devoted to Scootaloo’s relationship with Rainbow Dash, and her own insecurities. But it didn’t really go very far, and she ended up being overshadowed by Princess Dom Cobb there. So that was underwhelming.

And one thing they seem to avoid during the episode was the issue of Scootaloo’s wings. So far, the fact that Scootaloo can’t fly has become more of a running gag than anything.

Why haven’t they dealt with this yet? Why can’t Scootaloo fly? We know it’s not because of her age, because Rumble, who appeared to be around the same age as her, could fly. Would she ever be able to fly?

If not, it would be an interesting topic to address. Not only to deal with the how and why, but the emotional consequences of learning that the one thing that defines a pegasus, is the one thing she can’t do. It’s like being an Asian who sucks at math, or an Irish bloke who can’t hold his liquor, or another racist joke.

Thankfully it seem as if the writers were at least trying to deal with this in a recent episode. Too bad it was completely half-assed. Continue reading →

All Growl and No Teeth: “Alligators and Handbags” review

Posted by BlackWidower on

There are a lot of jerks in the world. Which is something I’ve mentioned before.

Often times, determining why this is can be difficult. And sadly, during the past four months, it wasn’t covered in my Intro to Psychology class. There was never a week during which we did a psychological analysis on an asshole. Which makes me feel a bit disappointed.

The best explanation I can come up with utilizes Maslow’s Hierarchy of Motivation. It starts with basic physiological needs (water, food, sex); then moves onto the need for a safe environment; before social needs; then personal self-worth; and finally, ‘self-actualization,’ which basically means being Buddha or something.

Basically, these needs fuel a given individual’s actions, and are ranked according to priority. You need to have food and water, before you’ll start worrying about personal safety; and you need to have personal safety, before you concern yourself with human companionship.

And since being an asshole does not generally have a positive impact on one’s social life, the only possible reasoning I can think of to explain assholish behavior is out of physical necessity, or outright fear. Fear that they’ll lose, fear that they’ll get hurt, possibly even fear that people will find out how fearful they really are.

Not that this excuses them. They’re still jerks. But it does help you do one thing: combat them. With a bit of knowledge, it can be quite easy to take these asshats down a few pegs.

Which brings us to a recent episode of Littlest Pet Shop, featuring two different breeds of the same kind of asshole. The arrogant bully, and the scared bully. See if you can figure out which is which. Continue reading →

Lost in Reality: “A Day at the Museum” review

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Alright, this blog is getting heavy. For the past month I’ve talked about pointless superstitions, fraudulent con artists, illogical plot development, racism, spoiler-culture, and IP theft, while doing nothing more than writing about my favourite cartoon shows.

I find that a bit bizarre. These shows are directed toward children. Can’t we just have one light-hearted episode that was just a pointless adventure where the characters get lost in a museum or something?

… So, this week, on Littlest Pet Shop, that happens… Continue reading →

Frauds of a Feather: “The Big, Feathered Parade” review

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I’m starting to get mixed feelings about Littlest Pet Shop. On one hand, we have recent episodes about skepticism, and social commentary. On the other, these same episodes can be summed up by saying: “People are shit.” Which isn’t a very positive message.

I kinda wish they didn’t need to give this message, but they kinda do. Kids grow up with this idea that everything in the world is sunshine and rainbows, and that just isn’t true. The world is very much imperfect, and there are a lot of assholes out there. But the good news is, they are in the minority. Most people are good people, with intelligence, and integrity. But it’s too easy to focus on the negative. On the con artists, the idiots, and the straight-up liars. But it’s important to know these people exist, so you can avoid them, and combat them.

Which is why I’m glad they recently covered another type of asshole on Littlest Pet Shop: The thieves and the fraudsters. Continue reading →

The Memetastic Mr. Mongoose: “What, Meme Worry?” review

Posted by BlackWidower on

The thing about the internet is that it’s stupid. The stupid things get popular, and the really interesting or fantastic things don’t.

What do you think is most likely to go viral? A video of a science lecture on the origins of the universe? A news story about a man saving a child from a burning building? Or a picture of a cat with a misspelled caption on it?

I got news for you, it won’t be the first two. And that makes me sad.

But it’s the nature of humanity, we find the dumbest things funny, so we keep coming back to them. So what do you do? Well, you exploit it of course.

That’s how most websites operate. They exploit some lowest common denominator, and earn millions off it. Whether it be funny top ten lists, videos of idiots talking about bullshit to no one or stories about people being stupid. And the fact is, they’re all pointless. They’re just wastes of time that produce no economic, political, or artistic value. Except for the Business Cat thing, that’s just adorable.

Heehee! He thinks he’s people!

Which brings me to the concept of memes, which is from the Greek meaning ‘joke overused to the point of meaninglessness.’

Memes are nice in small doses, but I find all too often they get thrown into internet conversations while missing the original context. So it’s just shitty pencil drawing someone threw in for no reason. Which is why I hate memes. They’re not funny, they’re just annoying.

But when a new one pops up, it can be halfway amusing for a few minutes. Then the point comes crashing down. It’s the 15 minutes of fame scenario. Unfortunately, for some people, those 15 minutes can be the scariest 15 minutes of their lives.

Which brings me to a recent episode of Littlest Pet Shop. See how everything ties together? Continue reading →