PL1E1-2: Princess Probz/The Best of the Worst

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PL1E1-2: Princess Probz/The Best of the Worst

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Fri May 29, 2020 5:28 pm

What is planned to be Gen 4.5, "Pony Life", is premiering on Discovery Family on June 13!
Princess Probz
The ponies help Pinkie Pie audition for a televised cooking competition called the Royal Jelly Juggernaut. When the rest of the Mane 6 are caught in a sticky situation, Pinkie Pie has to audition for the Royal Jelly Juggernaut all on her own.

The Best of the Worst
Rainbow Dash's competitive spirit is put to the test when a new pony challenges her to a contest unlike any other. Rainbow Dash faces off against Dishwater Slog in loser-take-all race to finally prove which pony is truly the worst.

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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by Skipper (?) » Sat May 30, 2020 12:10 am

I'm actually looking forward to this, sounds like it could be a lot of fun!

Could turn out the other way and be very bad ofc, only one way to find out I guess. :-I

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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by Octavia (?) » Sat May 30, 2020 5:38 am

I feel like it'd be hard for this show to catch the lightning in the bottle that was G4, but I'll check it out. Looking forward to some new pony! :yay:
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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by SigmasonicX (?) » Wed Jun 03, 2020 3:08 am

Hoping it's fun.
Also hoping for a promo or official announcement soon.

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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by Adiwan (?) » Wed Jun 03, 2020 3:16 am

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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Wed Jun 03, 2020 8:40 am

It hasn't even gotten advertised at all on Discovery Family? Usually the network would make all sorts of ads about new FiM episodes and even keep running them well after the relevant episodes had aired. I've heard rumors that Hasbro was contractually obligated to keep all MLP animated shows originally broadcast on DF until 2021, so even if this was only made so that DF couldn't possibly get upset if Hasbro did nothing until next year, I'd still expect DF to be flogging it like usual.
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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by SlateSlabrock (?) » Thu Jun 04, 2020 3:06 pm

DF has been pretty lackluster in advertising pony ever since The Hub died, so it's not too surprising.

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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun Jun 21, 2020 10:08 am

This is airing in Canada today. Why not hop on Discord and talk about it in #ponyday?
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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun Jun 21, 2020 11:33 am

Well.

That was very bizarre, like if you took FiM's wackiest moments from across the whole series and made that the baseline tone of the show. It feels like there's hardly any room to breathe, but I'm not sure if that was a requirement of the rapid pace of the show (each episode part is only about 6-7 minutes long; all "four" episodes here fit into a 30-minute block on Treehouse) or if it was designed from the start to be so rapid-fire. Still, at least there's room for all of the Mane Six to have some aspect of their personality come through, even if it's turned up to 11 from their FiM incarnations.

With this we can already say that Rainbow Dash has spent two whole episodes being the complete worst.
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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by PonyHag714 (?) » Sun Jun 21, 2020 11:33 am

I didn't think it was too bad, but then again I have a pretty offbeat sense of humor. Image

It's nice that the old voice actors are back.
Last edited by PonyHag714 on Sun Jun 21, 2020 1:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by Skipper (?) » Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:11 pm

I liked it. Silly ponies doing dumb things, that was all I expected and that’s what I got.

Very glad to see Rainbow Dash still on top of her game.

7/10, will watch again.

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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by SigmasonicX (?) » Mon Jun 22, 2020 1:12 am

Well, it's finally here. There are a lot of things to say about this. I'll start out by saying I thought it was pretty alright, and it grew on me with a second viewing. The first episode felt like the better of the two, but the second wasn't nearly as bad as I heard, and I've seen some people say they even prefer that.

It's weird that this isn't actually 10 minute episodes, but rather 5 minute episodes, each with its own title card, and two-part stories. About the title cards, I think it's neat that they exist. Each Equestria Girls short had its own title card, so I imagine that's what led to this.

They're really chugging down these potions in these episodes, huh? Really gives the impression that Pinkie is a dealer and they're all getting together for casual drug use. It's also odd because I expected the potions to be ways to start plots, but they're pretty incidental instead.

There's more continuity than I expected, with Pinkie participating in the Royal Jelly Juggernaut being brought up in the second story.

It's still too early to note consistent characterization changes, but it looks like Applejack has been recast as the fourth wall breaker. Pinkie doesn't do any of that, to my recollection, but AJ talks to the audience in both stories. Twilight has a bit more of a season one flavor, with her having a "I'm done with this shit" attitude regarding Pinkie in the first story. Rarity has great moments, particularly one I'll post below, but they used the gag of her freaking out and summoning a fainting couch in both episodes. We see very little of Celestia, but she comes off as more capricious than usually shown in FiM. Teen Titans Go made all the characters jerks, and I was concerned that would be the case here, but thankfully Pony Life has avoided that so far. Everyone's legitimately trying to help each other out, and Rainbow even comes off as far less of a jerk in the second story than in most of her FiM focus episodes.

About the writers, confirming what was revealed on Twitter back during the original announcement, they're both women who have worked mostly on Equestria Girls. Credits from FiM Wiki.

First episode was by Katie Chilson, who in MLP worked entirely on shorts before.
FiM writing credits: Teacher of the Month.
EG writing credits: Game Stream, Best in Show: The Victory Lap, Five Stars, FOMO, Camping Must-Haves, Festival Filters, How to Backstage, Festival Looks, Five Lines You Need to Stand In, and Tip Toppings.

Second episode was by Whitney Ralls, who in MLP worked on shorts and one special.
EG writing credits: Best Trends Forever, Happily Ever After Party, The Salty Sails, Outtakes, Find the Magic, The Last Drop, and Sunset's Backstage Pass.

First episode was pretty alright, and had this fantastic moment.


I've seen people bring up the pacing being too fast, but really, FiM was always an oddly slow paced show for the 2010s. Even this is pretty slow paced compared to its contemporaries. Biggest problem with this episode was Fluttershy barely saying anything. There's also unexplained mentions of modern tech, but they haven't really come into play yet.

Second episode had a really really contrived premise, but Rainbow was surprisingly not a jerk in it. If any episode was going to have fart jokes and gross out moments, it was "The Best of the Worst", yet there were none. I suppose that means we won't get any in the rest of the series, so that's good. Also Fluttershy can change her size, unless that's just meant to be a visualization of her meekness vs. assertiveness. Or maybe she had a potion off screen. Dishwater Slog is an inspired name. I like that the ending was Rainbow realizing she doesn't have to play by his rules at all, though really, she shouldn't have in the first place.

Overall, not nearly as, say, fanfic inspiring as normal FiM quite yet, but not a bad series. I found the episodes better on a second viewing.

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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by Adiwan (?) » Mon Jun 22, 2020 10:39 am

I went into this trying to like it and look past initial setbacks and expectations.
The small annoyances on their own are not much of an issue but as a whole package they sour the whole thing.
I have no problem with condensed story telling that takes part in 10 minutes or less. Regular Show and Adventure Time did it rather well.
The arbitrary splitting the stories even more hurts the flow. The hyperactivity and over-exaggeration of all of the characters hurt that even more.
I'm not a huge fan of the art style, especially the character designs. The backgrounds are fine and reminisce somewhat those of Pink Panther and co with more detail. I can appreciate that. However the characters do not "pop" enough from the background, making all a visual mess in my visual recognition system.
The plots of the both stories were half-baked in my opinion. The first one obviously is setting up consequent episodes, so I give leeway to that one. Best of the Worst was the worst with its unapologetic asshole character. It was pointed out at the end but at no point of the competition I felt any excitement, like in the episode Fall Weather Friends. I've seen many asshole characters that worked but this level of mediocrity and bland smugness was not fun. This could have worked so much better if the antagonist was equivalent ridiculous and full of energy as the show wants to be.
I REALLY hope the show creators find their stride and get more comfortable with this format. It can end up really fast being hated and forgotten when it has more episodes like Best of the Worst.

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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by Ragnar (?) » Tue Jun 23, 2020 5:13 am

Oh hey, this is decent. (Adiwan disagrees and that is okay.) The format is certainly different, but whatever there is to say about this, it isn't a lazy, cynical cash-in. That's the main thing I was worried about. The whole "make ponies relevant to modern kids by giving them laptops and whatnot" approach is silly, but I don't think it's really hurting anything.

As for the art style, I'm down with it. The backgrounds are the standout for me, but I've never had a problem with the character designs, and I like them better now that I've seen them in motion. I like seeing the characters presented in a different way after all this time.
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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by Adiwan (?) » Tue Jun 23, 2020 6:23 am

I WANT to like it. I give it way more credit and trust to get better than Tundercats Roar.
I'll hope it can grow on me when there are more episodes that show different facets of what it can be.
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Re: PONY LIFE: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst" (June 13)

Post by Ragnar (?) » Tue Jun 23, 2020 7:27 am

Depending on the next few episodes, I might end up agreeing with you. Right now I'm on "7.5/10 and I'll come back later," and I expect it to stay there, because the things I really want aren't going to happen in a gag show. Emotional complexity, a new villain with depth, an overarching plotline with a beginning and ending that leads to a change in the status quo. Yeah, this is a 7.5.

Maybe I'm just amused by the potions. After all the anti-drug cartoons of the previous century, I think we need to hear drugs's side of the story.
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Re: PONY LIFE 1-2: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst"

Post by Headless Horse (?) » Tue Jun 30, 2020 8:31 am

Well this was pretty great I thought.

I guess "toon it up" was the obvious direction to take it, since that's how every cartoon reboot goes these days, but hey I prefer that over making it DARK AND BROODING AND HEAVY or SUPER REALISTIC ART STYLE or whatever. This feels like nothing so much as the school-play version of Monsters Inc. that the kids performed over the credits which recapitulated the plot of the main story, or maybe the Ember Island Players: it's a tongue-in-cheek repackaging of the same concept, with more wackiness and more outrageous sight gags, where the run cycles involve flailing PONY POLKA style trotting instead of the ridiculously smooth animation of the original. Where they all constantly drink potions while making "g-g-g-g-g-guh" sound effects. Where it's all the same characters playing "fictionalized versions of themselves". It's a big goof and it knows it.

"Did you miss this? I missed this." Yeah you know what, this kind of inventive energy is the same sort of thing that was in abundance in regular pony S1, and it gradually drifted away over the years. I did miss it.

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Re: PONY LIFE 1-2: "Princess Probz"/"The Best of the Worst"

Post by Headless Horse (?) » Fri Jul 03, 2020 4:27 pm

Watched the second of these finally. Yeah this show just doesn’t give a fuuuuck lol

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