The idea for Season 4's 23rd episode "Inspiration Manifestation" is not a novel one, but it was an interesting one. It was appreciated that the episode was more intimate to usual with fewer characters focused upon. And to have more of Spike in the season than with the previous ones, though to me he has always been very inconsistently written, sometimes he's amusing and likeable and at other times he lacks personality and his flaws can be exaggerated.
"Inspiration Manifestation" is not one of the best episodes of Season 4 ("Rarity Takes Manehattan", "Pinkie Pride", "Maud Pie", "Twilight's Kingdom" both parts), but it is also not one of the worst ("Somepony to Watch Over Me", "Rainbow Falls", "Leap of Faith", "Simple Ways"). It is definitely worth seeing and somewhere in the middle as far as Season 4 episodes go. As far as episodes centered heavily around Spike goes, it's one of the better overall ones but namely for reasons other than Spike, and better than all the previous Spike-centric episodes of the show which were mostly mediocre at best. It could have done however with being more inspired considering that it was an episode about creative blocks.
Am going to start with what "Inspiration Manifestation" does well, and it does a lot very well. The animation is colourful and full of atmosphere and meticulous detail. The music is the kind that will appeal to children, being current and not being too old, and should have a nostalgic feel for older viewers. The voice acting is great all round, Tabitha St Germain never disappointed as Rarity (heavily focused upon as well) and Cathy Weseluk giving one of her better performances of the show standing out.
On the most part, a great job is done with Rarity's conflict. She was a great character in Season 4, and one of the most consistently written excepting "Simple Ways", and she is a very interesting and well written here too. The insanity may be confusing for some, but her inner struggles and seeing her on the edge was quite chilling and had me involved emotionally without it being gratuitously mean-spirited. Loved her chemistry between her and Spike, they are amusing and work well as a team. Likewise with Spike and Twilight, all the character interaction is genuine. Some of the humour hits amusingly, the moral is relevant and not hard to relate to, the dialogue isn't too exposition-heavy (like "Trade Ya" was) and it does get emotionally involving towards the end. Oh and Rarity's creations were great.
Not everything works. Not all the humour lands, have never found the "who" jokes or jokes with owls funny on 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' sadly and the grating and quite corny ones in "Inspiration Manifestation" does nothing to change my mind. It was great to have more focus on Spike and was expecting to find his inner turmoil moving and relatable but outside of the chemistry with Rarity he came over as pretty flat here and there was the sense that the writers didn't know what to do with him.
While liking the story on the whole, there are points in the middle where the plot goes at a standstill and relies on the character interaction to keep it alive, which generally it succeeded in doing.
Bottom line, quite good but wasn't jumping out of my chair. 7/10
"Inspiration Manifestation" is not one of the best episodes of Season 4 ("Rarity Takes Manehattan", "Pinkie Pride", "Maud Pie", "Twilight's Kingdom" both parts), but it is also not one of the worst ("Somepony to Watch Over Me", "Rainbow Falls", "Leap of Faith", "Simple Ways"). It is definitely worth seeing and somewhere in the middle as far as Season 4 episodes go. As far as episodes centered heavily around Spike goes, it's one of the better overall ones but namely for reasons other than Spike, and better than all the previous Spike-centric episodes of the show which were mostly mediocre at best. It could have done however with being more inspired considering that it was an episode about creative blocks.
Am going to start with what "Inspiration Manifestation" does well, and it does a lot very well. The animation is colourful and full of atmosphere and meticulous detail. The music is the kind that will appeal to children, being current and not being too old, and should have a nostalgic feel for older viewers. The voice acting is great all round, Tabitha St Germain never disappointed as Rarity (heavily focused upon as well) and Cathy Weseluk giving one of her better performances of the show standing out.
On the most part, a great job is done with Rarity's conflict. She was a great character in Season 4, and one of the most consistently written excepting "Simple Ways", and she is a very interesting and well written here too. The insanity may be confusing for some, but her inner struggles and seeing her on the edge was quite chilling and had me involved emotionally without it being gratuitously mean-spirited. Loved her chemistry between her and Spike, they are amusing and work well as a team. Likewise with Spike and Twilight, all the character interaction is genuine. Some of the humour hits amusingly, the moral is relevant and not hard to relate to, the dialogue isn't too exposition-heavy (like "Trade Ya" was) and it does get emotionally involving towards the end. Oh and Rarity's creations were great.
Not everything works. Not all the humour lands, have never found the "who" jokes or jokes with owls funny on 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' sadly and the grating and quite corny ones in "Inspiration Manifestation" does nothing to change my mind. It was great to have more focus on Spike and was expecting to find his inner turmoil moving and relatable but outside of the chemistry with Rarity he came over as pretty flat here and there was the sense that the writers didn't know what to do with him.
While liking the story on the whole, there are points in the middle where the plot goes at a standstill and relies on the character interaction to keep it alive, which generally it succeeded in doing.
Bottom line, quite good but wasn't jumping out of my chair. 7/10
