MLP:FIM Rock Soild Friendship

This episode was written by Nick Confalone, who wrote what is my favorite episode of last season, The Saddle Row Review. This is his sixth episode, his previous ones were Party Pooped, Hearthbreakers, No Second Prances, The Saddle Row Review and Dudgeons and Discords. He is currently one of my favorite writers on the show. The storyboard artists are Sherann Johnson (who has been working on the show since the first episode) and Ward Jenkins (who started on the show last season).

This is an excellent episode that brings together my two favorite ponies besides the mane six or the CMC. This is Starlight Glimmer and Maud Pie. Luckily these two characters have great chemistry. You really believe their friendship and it feels so natural. It is just a joy watching these two work together.

There is much more than this to recommend the episode though. Pinkie, while she annoys the characters, never comes off as annoying to the audience. This is something that is done all together wrong too often in cinema and TV, and it is great to see it done so well here. She is actually funny and gets some good laughs and we can always see her heart is in the right place. On top of all this the humor in this episode is fantastic, Maud's delivery of comic lines has lost none of what makes it so great. A flashback scene (which I will not give away here) gets very huge laughs.

In other words this is just a great episode.

-Michael J. Ruhland   

MLP:FIM Flurry of Emotions

This episode introduces us to two new writers for the show, Sammie Crawley and Whitney Wetta, who do a fantastic job on their first episode. This episode is storyboarded by Elise Stevens (who as far as I can tell is another newcomer) and Tim Maltby (who started boarding for the show last season).

This is an excellent episode that manages to be adorable without ever feeling forced. Much of this is achieved through Flurry Heart. I know there have been many baby characters in many shows over the years, but this one works better than so many others I have seen. This is because so many of those characters are either trying too hard to be cute or can be more annoying to the audience than to the characters. Flurry works so well because she just seems so natural. She is cute and the episode lets us get into her mind enough (without the use of dialogue I may add) that when she does misbehave we understand and aren't annoyed by her doing so. As well as Flurry all the other characters are great. Twilight seems to be back to her worried freaking out adorkable self and the episode is all the better for it, Pinkie only gets a brief appearance but it is delightful and Spike is proving that he is a truly great straight man to Twilight's freak-outs, and on top of this is given time to shine as a comic at the episode's end and does a great job.

-Michael J. Ruhland

MLP:FIM All Bottled Up

This episode was written by Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco (who have been writing for the show since season five). The episode was storyboarded by Steve Lecoulliard and Kelli Bort.

This episode is not as good as the season premiere and definitely has its share of problems but it is not a bad episode just below par for the show.

The problem with this episode is simply that Trixie is not that well written here, and she feels out of character. While Trixie did first appear in my least favorite episode of the show (Boast Busters), I have grown to like her a lot. So it is disappointing how not well she is written here. She seems more like a plot device to make Starlight angry than really a real character. Also her obliviousness to doing anything wrong simply isn't believable, because it doesn't quite mesh with her previously set personality. However there is enough good humor in this story to keep this from being too distracting, and the idea of Trixie trying to learn real magic is a very good one that I hope they expand on in a more fulfilling episode in the future. Also Starlight remains very likable through this whole episode and also keeps a poorly written Trixie from ruining the episode.

The subplot however is near perfect. It is such a small story and doesn't need much time devoted to it. Therefore it works great as a subplot as it is given exactly as much time as the plot needs. It also has the best humor of the episode and the joke about the song number is fantastic. All the Mane Six are perfectly within character and joy to watch even if this is only a very brief subplot.

-Michael J. Ruhland

MLP:FIM Celestial Advice

Here we are and yes I am glad to be back talking about more episodes of this great show. Of course right now I will be talking about the season premiere Celestial Advice. We got two new episodes this morning and this is the best of the two. In fact it is a fantastic episode.

This episode was not only written by Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco (who joined the show in season five), but was the very first episode in which the two were the story editors. From the look of this episode they will do a great job at it. This episode was storyboarded by Kaylea Chard (who has been boarding for the show since the third season) and Mike Myhre (who started boarding for the show in the fourth season).

This is a very interesting episode and definitely different from previous season premieres. What separates it from those other episodes is the fact that there is no real villain, or much action like other season premieres. Rather it focuses on an internal conflict. It does this very well and the episode is not only fascinating but a lot of fun to watch as well. Twilight's conflict seems very real as does Starlight's reaction to it. They both love each other and never want to leave the other, but they are unsure of where to go from here. How to deal with being so unsure is an amazingly complex thing for the show to deal with and it doesn't sugarcoat it and it doesn't say there is a real right or wrong answer as often times there isn't. This is kind of profound really. On top of this seeing Celestia deal with anxiety over her decisions makes her real and in many ways more human in a way the character isn't always presented as. I find this refreshing and a very nice touch.

This does not mean the episode is just a character study as it is also quite funny. Twilight's fantasies and the ways they go horribly wrong in the most absurd ways possible is really funny. Also like last season's finale proved Trixe and Discord have great chemistry and it was a joy to watch they work off each other here to.

Also I am a huge Starlight fan so seeing her in the spotlight is always a joy for me.

-Michael J. Ruhland

MLP:EG Legend of Everfree

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Legend of Everfree is the fourth and second best of the Equestia girls films (the best is Rainbow Rocks).


This movie was directed by Ishi Rudell. Rudell was an animation director for the TV show's first three seasons, as well as for the first Equestria Girls movie. With the second Equestria Girls film (Rainbow Rocks), he became co-director, and with the third movie (Friendship Games), he became the only director of the film. Also now he works strictly on the movies (as far as I know) and not on the show. This episode was written by the team of Kristine Songco and Joanna Lewis, who have written five episodes of the show (Castle Sweet Castle, Rarity Investigates, The Hooffeilds and McColts, Gauntlet of Fire and Top Bolt). This is their first time writing a feature film (My Little Pony or otherwise). This film was storyboarded by Jason Armstrong, Jeff Bittle, Jennifer Davreux, and Gloria Jenkins. None of them have worked on the TV show or the previous features.

The story is fairly simple, and even though there is a villain, this is far from the focus of the film. The movie rather revolves around the characters. This works so well because these are such great characters. One thing I love about these films is that the human characters are not just carbon copies of their pony counterparts. Instead they are similar, but fully fleshed out and different characters. This is most obvious with Twilight, but is true of all of them. Speaking of Twilight, this character couldn't be written better here. She is a fully relatable and far from two dimensional character here. She has what makes her pony counterpart such a great character, but still has much of her own personality separate from the TV series. Her problem in this movie is something I think many of us can relate too. Also although we have not seen Sunset on the show, she has proved a great part of these movies. She is a fascinating and very enjoyable character, something she remains here. The only big problem with this movie is the villain (who is kind of bland), but again this plays too small of a role to hurt the movie much.

The songs here are quite good as well. I have stated before that I think, Daniel Ingram can write great country music melodies and that is shown to fully effect in this film. Also Kristine Songco and Joanna Lewis' lyrics don't hurt at all.

This is a fantastic movie, and the second best of the series. If the quality can maintain like this I would not object to many more Equestria Girls films in the future.

-Michael J. Ruhland

MLP:FIM To Where and Back Again Parts 1 & 2

We have reached the season finale of season 6. It has been great writing and sharing some background information as well as my thoughts on these episodes with everypony, and I look forward to doing the same for Season 7. However right now I have 2 episodes to write about.

These episodes were written by Josh Haber (who has been writing for the show since season 4) and Michael Vogel (who started writing this season, but had been working the production department since season 2), These episodes were storyboarded by Megan Willis (Who started boarding for the show this season) , Jeffery Amey (who started boarding for the show this season), Thalia Tomlinson (Who started boarding for the show since season 5) and Karine Charlebois (Who started boarding for the show this season). The Changling hive was designed by Tanya Lehoux. The new Changling designs were by Kora Kosicka, Charmaine Verhagen and Fe Ribeiro.

This is a fantastic episode. While it is a big villain vs. heroes episode, the main focus is Starlight stress about being a leader and whether she is really reformed. This is very relatable as we all (or at least me), have stresses of weather or not people will forgive you when you have don e something wrong. This is so real and understandable, it makes this very fantasy based story more personal and real. However the big fight with the villain, and the element of fantasy are still quite exciting.

It is also great to see the show trying out new things like they do here. While the big villain episodes have been done before, this is the first time one didn't center around one of the main six. It doesn't hurt that Starlight is one of my new favorite ponies, and she is handled so well here. However Trixie, Discord and Thorax are all delightful here.

See you for season 7 everypony, and remember friendship is magic.

-Michael J. Ruhland

MLP:FIM Top Bolt

This episode is 5th episode written by the team of Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco. They had previously written Castle Sweet Castle, Rarity Investigates, The Hoffields and the McColts and Gauntlet of Fire. This episode was storyboarded by Mincheul Park (who started boarding for the show last season) and Cat Tang (who started boarding for the show this season).

This episode introduces two new characters, Vapor Trail and Sky Stinger. Vapor Trail was voiced by Ronda Ress, and Sky Stinger was voiced by storyboard artist Emmett Hall. These character were designed by Kora Kosicka, Fe Riberio and Charmaine Verhagen.

These new characters are quite good and fit the story perfectly. However what really makes this episode is Twilight and Rainbow Dash. They are extremely well written here. Twilight seemed to be getting less nerdy in seasons 4 & 5, but here she is the same adorable nerd she was in seasons 1 &2. Rainbow Dash is very likable here as her attachment to her friends and her dedication to the Wonderbolts are very charming.

This is a fantastic episode it is very well written, the animation is great, the story is good, and everything just works.

-Michael J. Ruhland