"Pinkie Pride" is the twelfth episode of the
fourth season of the
animated
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...
television series ''
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'', and the seventy-seventh episode of the series overall. It was directed by
Jayson Thiessen
Jayson Thiessen (born December 30, 1976) is a Canadian animator and voice actor, best known as the first supervising director of the animated television series ''My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic''. He also directed its spin-off films ''My Litt ...
, co-directed by Jim Miller, and its screenplay was written by
Amy Keating Rogers
Amy Keating Rogers (born June 17, 1969) is an American television writer who has contributed to several notable animated television series and films, including episodes of ''The Powerpuff Girls'' and '' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic''. She ...
from a story by Thiessen. It was produced by Sarah Wall and Devon Cody.
The episode centers on
Pinkie Pie
In the '' My Little Pony'' franchise, the Earth ponies are ponies without a horn or wings. They were the first ponies to come out in 1983. They lack the ability to cast magic spells like unicorns, or the ability to stand on clouds like the ''pega ...
(voiced by
Andrea Libman
Andrea Eva Libman (born July 19, 1984) is a Canadian actress whose most popular on-screen appearances are in ''Little Women'', '' Andre'', and a guest role on ''The X-Files''. She is also known for providing voice acting in various animated show ...
), whose plans to organize a birthday party for
Rainbow Dash
The ''My Little Pony'' franchise debuted in 1982, as the creation of American illustrator and designer Bonnie Zacherle. Together with sculptor Charles Muenchinger and manager Steve D'Aguanno, Zacherle submitted a design patent in August 1981 fo ...
(
Ashleigh Ball
Ashleigh Adele Ball (born March 31, 1983) is a Canadian voice actress and musician, known for performing with the rock band Hey Ocean!, as well as voicing characters in several toyetic movies and television series, notably the ''Barbie'' film ...
) are interrupted by a similarly energetic pony, Cheese Sandwich (
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...
), leading Pinkie Pie to defend her pride as a party planner in a "goof-off".
Yankovic's involvement in the episode was the result of interactions on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
between him and Jayson Thiessen. Aired on February 1, 2014, on the Hub Network, "Pinkie Pride" was viewed by 459,000 people and garnered acclaim from critics, who praised Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich's characterizations.
Plot
As he oversees an extravagant party he has thrown in Appleloosa, party planner Cheese Sandwich senses a "doozy" of a party being thrown in Ponyville, where
Pinkie Pie
In the '' My Little Pony'' franchise, the Earth ponies are ponies without a horn or wings. They were the first ponies to come out in 1983. They lack the ability to cast magic spells like unicorns, or the ability to stand on clouds like the ''pega ...
is organizing her friend
Rainbow Dash
The ''My Little Pony'' franchise debuted in 1982, as the creation of American illustrator and designer Bonnie Zacherle. Together with sculptor Charles Muenchinger and manager Steve D'Aguanno, Zacherle submitted a design patent in August 1981 fo ...
a party, celebrating both the latter's birthday and anniversary of her move to Ponyville. Pinkie promises to throw Rainbow Dash the best "birthiversary" party ever when Cheese appears and introduces himself as the premier party planner in Equestria. Though initially delighted to meet a party planner like herself, Pinkie is upset as Cheese enraptures the townsfolk with his party-throwing skills, causing her friends to desert her for Cheese's party.
Cheese begins building a massive set for Rainbow Dash's party, while almost all help him build it. Doubting her own partying skills, Pinkie attempts several odd-end jobs around Ponyville that fail. She returns home dejected and begins to put her party supplies away before looking through framed pictures showing various parties she has thrown in the past. With renewed confidence, Pinkie challenges Cheese to a goofing showdown ("goof-off"), declaring the winner will be dubbed the single best party planner and headline Rainbow Dash's party. Cheese accepts and Rainbow Dash becomes the judge of the competition. The two try to outdo each other with increasingly silly and elaborate performances until Pinkie accidentally drops a giant
piñata
A piñata (, ) is a container, often made of papier-mâché, pottery, or cloth, that is decorated, filled with candy, and then broken as part of a celebration. Piñatas are commonly associated with Mexico. The idea of breaking a container filled ...
on top of Rainbow Dash. Pinkie realizes her pride has gotten in the way of Rainbow Dash's party and forfeits the goof-off to Cheese.
Pinkie packs up her belongings and prepares to leave Ponyville, deciding to let Cheese take her place. She is stopped by Rainbow Dash and her other friends, who apologize for neglecting her, but Pinkie counters that it is her fault instead, apologizing for her destructive pride. However, her friends affirm that, while both are talented party planners, Cheese could never replace her as their friend. Cheese arrives and apologizes as well, assuring that he never meant any harm, but rather wanted to impress her with his partying; he confesses that, contrary to his previous claims of being a partier all his life, he was extremely shy as a colt until he stumbled upon a party thrown by Pinkie, which inspired him to become a party planner. Pinkie and Cheese make amends and work together to throw Rainbow Dash a party before Cheese departs, leaving Pinkie his valued
rubber chicken
A rubber chicken is a prop used in comedy. The phrase is also used as a description for food served at speeches, conventions, and other large meetings, and as a metaphor for speechmaking.
Description
A rubber chicken is an imitation plucked fowl ...
"Boneless" as a gift.
Production
![AlYankovicByKristineSlipson](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/AlYankovicByKristineSlipson.jpg)
The episode was first teased by Hasbro Vice President of Development Mike Vogel during a panel at
San Diego Comic Con International
San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...
in July 2013, where he hinted about a
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
season 4 episode where "somebody will give
inkie Piea run for her partying money."
The involvement of
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...
in the episode stemmed from a
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
post by the
parody music
Parody music, or musical parody, involves changing or copying existing (usually well known) musical ideas, and/or lyrics, or copying the particular style of a composer or performer, or even a general style of music.
In music, parody has been us ...
ian, where he had linked to a
user-created music video with scenes from ''Friendship Is Magic'' episodes set to "
Polkarama!", one of his polka medleys. The tweet was discovered by co-executive producer
Jayson Thiessen
Jayson Thiessen (born December 30, 1976) is a Canadian animator and voice actor, best known as the first supervising director of the animated television series ''My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic''. He also directed its spin-off films ''My Litt ...
, who posted a reply asking the musician if he would be interested in the idea of guest voicing a character on the show since "Weird Al and ''My Little Pony'' seem to go together really well."
After being met with a positive response from
fans of the series, Thiessen received a private message from Yankovic about a year later, expressing his interest in participating. In the episode, Yankovic voiced a character named Cheese Sandwich, who is portrayed as being a rival to
Pinkie Pie
In the '' My Little Pony'' franchise, the Earth ponies are ponies without a horn or wings. They were the first ponies to come out in 1983. They lack the ability to cast magic spells like unicorns, or the ability to stand on clouds like the ''pega ...
in the realm of party service.
In a
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
"Ask me Anything" on the release of his subsequent album, ''
Mandatory Fun
''Mandatory Fun'' is the fourteenth studio album by American musician "Weird Al" Yankovic. The self-produced album was released by RCA Records in the United States on July 15, 2014, and was the final album on Yankovic's recording contract. Yankovi ...
'', Yankovic stated that he "had a blast" performing as Cheese Sandwich and was "extremely happy" with the episode, and would be glad to reprise the role if the showrunners asked. Yankovic would later reprise the character in 2019 for the
season 9
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...
episode "The Last Laugh".
The episode was written by
Amy Keating Rogers
Amy Keating Rogers (born June 17, 1969) is an American television writer who has contributed to several notable animated television series and films, including episodes of ''The Powerpuff Girls'' and '' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic''. She ...
based on a story idea by Jayson Thiessen. In an interview with ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'', Thiessen went on to say that they had gone "all out" with the episode's animation, that it contained "a couple special things that we've never done before", and that the episode had "a lot of great songs" as well.
[ A short live-action cutaway with a dancing, live-action ]balloon animal
Balloon modelling or balloon twisting is the shaping of special modelling balloons into almost any given shape, often a balloon animal. People who create balloon animals and other twisted balloon decoration sculptures are called Twisters, Ballo ...
version of Cheese Sandwich's rubber chicken
A rubber chicken is a prop used in comedy. The phrase is also used as a description for food served at speeches, conventions, and other large meetings, and as a metaphor for speechmaking.
Description
A rubber chicken is an imitation plucked fowl ...
Boneless (made using balloons and rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima
''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
) was filmed in Thiessen's basement.
Featured songs
The episode is a musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
featuring six songs with music provided by Daniel Ingram. Lyrics for the songs were originally penned by Amy Keating Rogers
Amy Keating Rogers (born June 17, 1969) is an American television writer who has contributed to several notable animated television series and films, including episodes of ''The Powerpuff Girls'' and '' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic''. She ...
and reworked by Ingram. Rogers wrote the lyrics for the various songs with other melodies in mind: "Pinkie the Party Planner" was based on " Belle" from ''Beauty and the Beast
''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' ( ...
''; "The Super Duper Party Pony" on "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" ( ) is a song and single from the 1964 Disney musical film ''Mary Poppins''. It was written by the Sherman Brothers, and sung by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. It also appears in the 2004 stage show version ...
" from ''Mary Poppins It may refer to:
* ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fantasy novels that introduced the character.
* Mary Poppins (character), the nanny with magical powers.
* ''Mary Poppins'' (film), a 1964 Disney film sta ...
''; "Pinkie's Lament" on "Don't Cry for Me Argentina
"Don't Cry for Me Argentina" is a song recorded by Julie Covington for the 1976 concept album ''Evita'', later included in the 1978 musical of the same name. The song was written and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice while they were ...
" from ''Evita Evita may refer to:
Arts
* Evita (1996 film), ''Evita'' (1996 film), a 1996 American musical drama film based on the 1976 concept album of the same name
* Evita (2008 film), ''Evita'' (2008 film), a documentary about Eva Péron
* Evita (album), ''E ...
'', "The Goof Off" on "Together (Wherever We Go)
"Together (Wherever We Go)" is a song, now considered a standard, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, written for the musical play ''Gypsy'' in 1959. It was introduced by Ethel Merman, Jack Klugman, and Sandra Church.
Recor ...
" as performed on ''The Brady Bunch
''The Brady Bunch'' is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz that aired from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC. The series revolves around a large blended family with six children. The show aired for five seasons and, after ...
'', and "Make a Wish" on Pink
Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...
's "Raise Your Glass
"Raise Your Glass" is a song by American singer Pink from her first greatest hits compilation '' Greatest Hits... So Far!!!'' (2010). The song was written by Pink, Max Martin and Karl " Shellback" Schuster, and produced by the latter two, who ar ...
". While Shannon Chan-Kent
Shannon Chan-Kent (born September 23, 1988) is a Canadian voice and stage actress. She is known for her roles as Silver Spoon and Smolder and the singing voice of Pinkie Pie in '' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'', Misa Amane in the English ...
sang as Pinkie for most of the songs, the character's regular voice actress, Andrea Libman
Andrea Eva Libman (born July 19, 1984) is a Canadian actress whose most popular on-screen appearances are in ''Little Women'', '' Andre'', and a guest role on ''The X-Files''. She is also known for providing voice acting in various animated show ...
, performed the character during "The Goof Off". Ingram recorded the character Cheese Sandwich's songs with Yankovic in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. A full version of the song "Make a Wish" is included on the album ''Songs of Ponyville''.
# "Pinkie the Party Planner"
# "The Super Duper Party Pony"
# "Pinkie's Lament"
# "The Goof Off"
# "Cheese Confesses"
# "Make a Wish"
Steffan Andrews and David Corman helped with the orchestration and arrangements of every song except "Make a Wish".
Broadcast and reception
"Pinkie Pride" aired on February 1, 2014, on the Hub Network. According to the Nielsen household ratings, the episode was viewed by 459,000 people and watched by approximately 0.3 percent of households in the United States.
The episode received positive reviews from critics. Daniel Alvarez of ''Unleash the Fanboy'' gave the episode a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, calling it a "really good episode and a very nice look at Pinkie Pie as a character", and praising the characterization of Cheese Sandwich and his rivalry with Pinkie, while noting the "mean" portrayal of Pinkie's friends as a minor setback. Raymond Gallant from ''Freakin' Awesome Network'' awarded the episode a rating of 10 out of 10, considering it "one of the season's best". Noting Pinkie's "moronic" portrayal in other episodes, Gallant praised her "good heart", which he thought gave her more characterization. He also praised the episode's humor, Yankovic's role as "a male version of Pinkie Pie", and the episode's use of musical sequences compared to the earlier musical episode " Magical Mystery Cure", writing, "the story had a chance to breathe, and be built up far better with all the songs added." Ingram and Andrews were nominated for a 2014 Leo Award for "Best Musical Score in an Animation Program or Series".
Home media
The episode was part of the Season 4 DVD set from Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...
that was released on December 2, 2014, as well as the "Adventures of the Cutie Mark Crusaders" DVD, which was released on February 24, 2015. "The Super Duper Party Pony" is also part of Yankovic's ''Medium Rarities'' album which is part of Squeeze Box: The Complete Works of "Weird Al" Yankovic.
References
External links
*
{{My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episodes
2014 American television episodes
2014 Canadian television episodes
Musical television episodes