Season 3: Bonus Review #4: “MLP: FIM”: Season 5: Episode 21: “Scare Master”

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY CONTAIN YOU KNOW WHAT’S!!! TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS HALLOWEEN/NIGHTMARE NIGHT EPISODE THAT CAME OUT EARLY ON ITUNES LAST MONTH!!!!!

We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled (“SPOOKY”) Review, Already in Progress-

PREVIOUSLY ON “THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN”:

THE REVIEW MASTER (PRESENT): Ugh, this again. We always have to face off against each other and as long as I’m here, I’ll have to– *Portal Opening Up* What’s that noise?

THE REVIEW MASTER (FUTURE): Hmm. Sounds like– Oh no.

THE REVIEW MASTER (PRESENT): What?

THE REVIEW MASTER (FUTURE): It’s–It’s– *Sucking Both Present and Future Review Master and All Clones*

EVERYBODY: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! DETECTIVE! SCRIPT PERSON!! HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!– *Portal Closes*

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Well, that takes care of them.

SCRIPT PERSON: Gee, I wonder where they went to now?

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh, don’t worry! They’ll be fine! But, the one thing I need to worry about is getting back to my office and cleaning up the mess those clones made. And to also say good-bye to the audience. As always, I’m The Detective Librarian and we’ll see you all in my next review AKA my 80th review!! Bye-bye, small childrens!

THE REVIEW MASTER (PRESENT): Ugh, where are we?

THE REVIEW MASTER (FUTURE): We’re in some sort of portal that leads us into time and space!!!

THE REVIEW MASTER (PRESENT): OH AND WE WERE SO CLOSE!! SO CLOSE THIS TIME INTO DEFEATING OUR–

THE REVIEW MASTER (FUTURE): Hey, LOOK AHEAD!!!

THE REVIEW MASTER (PRESENT): What? Is THAT?!

THE REVIEW MASTER (FUTURE): It’s a–

BOTH PRESENT AND FUTURE REVIEW MASTER: ALIEN MOTHERSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: But, at least that the next episode will be the series’ second Halloween/Nightmare Night special, which is WAY better for October, if you will!– *Portal Opening*

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: What the– What. IS THAT????!!!!

TED THE SCRIPT PERSON: WOAAAHHH!!!! DETECTIVE, HELP MEEEEE!!!!!!

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: TED!! GRAB MY HAND!!!

TED THE SCRIPT PERSON: I CAN’T!! HEEEELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!– *Portal Closes*

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh, no!! TED, WHERE ARE YOU??!!! I need to get you back, now!!!! Where could he be????………

TED THE SCRIPT PERSON: *Portal Opens and Closes, While Bringing Ted Here- Ugh, where am I?

??????: Well, you’re stuck here, WITH ME!!!!

THE REVIEW MASTER (PRESENT)???: And me!

THE REVIEW MASTER (FUTURE)???: With me, TOO, Script Person!!!!

TED THE SCRIPT PERSON: Actually, it’s Ted now, guys!!!

THE REVIEW MASTER (FUTURE)???: Oh, sorry, “Ted”!

??????: Anyways, GUARDS, bring him into the Conversion Chamber!!!!

TED THE SCRIPT PERSON: Wait, where are you guys taking me??! NO, STOP, DETECTIVE, HELP ME!!!!!!

LINKS TO PREVIOUS REVIEWS:

Season 3: Review #11: “MLP: FIM: Season 3: Episode 3: “Too Many Pinkie Pies”

Season 3: Review #26: “MLP: FIM”: Season 5: Episode 20: “Hearthbreakers”

-Now, Onto the Actual Review-

-Prologue, The Detective Librarian’s Office, 5:45 PM-

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN:….*UUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!*

SHINING ARMOR: Hey, Detective! What’s wrong?

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh, it’s nothing. But, ever since Ted got sucked into that bizarre portal, I’ve been suffering through a mental depression over him. I’m not sure where it took him and if he’s okay or not. Besides, today’s episode focuses on the new “MLP: FIM” Halloween/Nightmare Nighr special that’s supposed to be airing on TV tomorrow on Halloween Day, but came out on iTunes early on September 21, 2015!

SHINING ARMOR: Well, look at the bright side. Besides, this is your perfect chance to share your thoughts on an episode that you forgot to review, but saved it up for the end of October.

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Well, I guess your right. But, I’m gonna need your help to find Ted and bring him back and discover what’s going on.

SHINING ARMOR: Really? How can I help?

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Well, you can help me do research on those mysterious portals that keep randomly popping up and taking my friends/enemies to an unknown location, probably.

SHINING ARMOR: Alright. But, who’s going to look after my job as Captain of the Royal Guard and duty at the Crystal Empire with my wife, Cadence? After all, she’s currently handling a situation that involves a Crystal Pony getting injured, here’s footage of how the incident happened!:

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh, I’m sure she’s fine! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some reviewing to do, once again, while you have investigating to do! So, adios!

SHINING ARMOR: Aye, aye, Detective!

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Yeah, as you can tell, this episode is the 2nd Halloween– I mean, Nightmare Night special in the series. Even though we kinda got some sort-of Spooky episodes in the last few seasons like “Sleepless in Ponyville” in Season 3, “Castle Mane-ia” in Season 4, “Bloom and Gloom” from Season 5, etc…. Well, at least the last time we had a Nightmare Night special was in Season 2, titled “Luna Eclipsed”, where Luna returned with her new and awesome look, as well as more popular memes of the show. But, let’s put them aside for now and focus on the newest Halloween/Nightmare Night special, “Scare Master”, which was first released early on iTunes on September 21, 2015, before it comes out on Halloween tomorrow on October 31, 2015. Since it’s the end of October, I’m going to review this episode right now and guess what, it’s a Fluttershy episode and let’s just assume that this episode will hopefully be a good one, since Flutter’s one of my favorite characters, even though her episodes have been decent or bad at times. Is this episode going to be a good Fluttershy and Halloween episode/special, well, let’s find out, by taking a look at “Scare Master”!

So, we start off this episode at Fluttershy’s cottage where Flutter is hiding there because her least favorite holiday, Nightmare Night/Equestria’s version of Halloween, is today and because she’s a coward, Flutter is afraid to go outside. Well, at least Halloween isn’t that bad, even though I prefer Christmas better than you-know-what. As soon as Fluttershy is relieved that she’s found her bed the perfect hiding spot until morning, her bratty pet bunny, Angel storms in to remind her that he’s out of carrots, meaning that Flutter will have to go out into the Nightmare Night festivities in Ponyville. She nervously goes through the Nightmare Night preparations in Ponyville and encounters Big Macintosh and Granny Smith, who are preparing for their Corn Maze that the Mane Six will be going to at Sweet Apple Acres, later. As Granny Smith tells Flutter about the Corn Maze’s attractions and uses her wicked witch laughter, it (of course) scares Fluttershy and it leads her to Twilight Sparkle/”Sparkle Sparkle Sparkle”‘s castle. Gee, and I thought that everybody else in town were mean to Flutter, but Granny Smith really is a mean-scare towards Flutter. In that case, she might be added to Fluttershy’s Biggest Fears List, okay, maybe not.

Anyways, Fluttershy continues her search for carrots inside Twilight’s Castle, where a shadow comes towards her, which is actually Spike the Dragon in a Two-Headed dragon costume, with him as one of the heads.:

Whoopity, hoopity, another scene where Spike does something stupid that the fans would just ignore him and focus on the Mane Six and other characters of the show! This time, it’s on a double-headed dragon, but, Spike, a MUCH better costume for you would definitely be your stereotypical Western movie suit from “Owl’s Well That Ends Well”!:

But, I digress, Spike tells Flutter that every year on Nightmare Night, she spends most of her time, locked up in fear in her cottage and she has to celebrate this holiday with her friends. Fluttershy decides to take Spike’s advice and join the rest of her friends at the Castle library, where they’re telling each other scary stories (and pretty generic and silly ones at that) and if I were here, I would definitely tell them BETTER scary stories like “Shed 17”, “Sonic EXE”, bad movies like “Food Fight”, “Mac & Me”/the rip-off of “E.T.”, etc… She tells her idea of partaking in celebrating Nightmare Night and everyone is delighted over it and they get to the Carousel Boutique, where Flutter chooses her Nightmare Night costume. The Mane Six’s costumes for this year are:

1.) Twilight Sparkle as a Spartan

2.) Pinkie Pie as a Disco Skater

3.) Applejack as What looks like the Cowardly Lion from “The Wizard of Oz”, which means that it could be a sign that she may act as a lion, but whatever!

4.) Rarity as a mermaid/Merpony

5.) Rainbow Dash as a astronaut/similarity to Buzz Lightyear from “Toy Story”

6.) Fluttershy as a simple black dress/a party girl, but without a party mask on

Well, why not go as your Vampire Fruit Bat form, “Flutterbat”, oh wait, it may bring back memories from Season 4 and cause many bronies and pegasisters to go wild over your Flutterbat form! So, the dressed-up Mane Six get to Sugarcube Corner to play some Nightmare Night/Halloween games, such as put the horn on Nightmare Moon/Luna’s evil form after a thousand years/moons ago, bobbing apples, and getting a free candy bag with our heroes’ faces crayon-drawn on them. But, Flutter’s fears sadly ruin the fun and feels terrible for doing so. This gives Twilight the suggestion to have Flutter come up with her own kind of spooky-scaring and Fluttershy agrees to do that and have it take place at her cottage. She does it when the Mane Six arrive at her cottage and it’s kind of a fail-scare and how does it go?:

I have to admit, the reference to ponies being in anime was kinda funny and it makes me chuckle when I see it. As you can tell, the Mane Six are impressed over Flutter doing her best to make the tea party seem scary, but they weren’t frightened at all. So:

As her friends leave to get to the Haunted Corn Maze from earlier, Fluttershy decides it’s finally time to take BIG steps, instead of baby steps and she decides to have her and Angel to come up with an “EVIL” plan to impress her friends. Meanwhile, Twilight and her friends arrive at the Corn Maze, where Granny Smith greets them with her “Horse meme” costume and they go inside the maze. Hopefully, they won’t make a reference to the corn field scenes in the movie, “Signs”, *UGH* and I can just smell a reference to a “Homestar Runner” cartoon, like “Most in the Graveyard” or even missoliverandblossom/DaWillstanator’s “Thomas”-parody series, “T&F”, Halloween 2009 special, “Lost in the Scrapyard”.

SHINING ARMOR: Actually, they don’t!

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh, good, but “Lost in the Scrapyard” was funny, but, (AGAIN), I digress.

As they go through the Corn Maze with a bunch of tricks and traps of fake bones, fake eyeballs, and getting a funny scene of Big Macintosh pretending to be a mummy and failing to do so when he does his usual “Eeyup” quote, they realize that someone/something is watching/following them. Suddenly, a pair of glowing ghosts pop up and chase them into an underground tunnel/cave, where they are trapped inside. As they venture through the tunnel, AJ gets scared by a skeleton that represents Granny Smith and she reveals that the scary things they’ve encountered weren’t actually the things that she and the Apple Family actually planned in the Corn Maze, leaving that someone else planted those tricks and traps in the first place. This causes the Mane Six to get really intimidated by it and then a sea monster comes out of nowhere and chases them into a spiderweb, where they get stuck, but Twilight uses her magic to escape and lead them to the edge of a cliff and the end of the tunnel. Just then (oh, you’re gonna go crazy for this), Fluttershy’s Vampire Fruit Bat form, “Flutterbat”, returns and scares our heroes! Since Flutterbat is back, let’s play some heavy metal/rock music to suit her theme, guys!!!:

As Flutterbat notices the Mane Six’s scared faces, she snaps out of her act and apologizes for scaring them, while revealing that she made Flutterbat as a costume in this scene. It’s revealed that Fluttershy created the scary adjustments  to the maze with the help of Granny Smith and had her animal friends like her pet bear, Harry, be the sea monster, her spider to create the spiderweb, and have her fireflies to be the ghosts. The Mane Six praise Fluttershy’s excellent attempts to make the Corn Maze even scarier, but Flutter admits that she doesn’t like to see her friends in grave danger and still, Nightmare Night isn’t her “Cup of Tea” and her friends accept her opinion and they go home. At her cottage, Fluttershy realizes that hiding under bed, reading is what she’s always wanted to spend Nightmare Night and her animal friends agree with her. Well, at least she’s not afraid of it anymore, but she’s always afraid, but still a great character. 😉

So, that was “Scare Master” and is it a good Halloween/Nightmare Night episode and better than the last special? Well, even though this episode was very predictable, I actually enjoyed it. Although, it is good, but not my favorite, it’s still predictable but a good watch. The plot was predictable, the humor was well done as always, the animation has gotten better as usual, and of course “FLUTTERBAT” came back, but only for a short while, which is disappointing. Also, if I was in charge of making the Corn Maze in this episode, I would make the adjustments out of the following:

1.) Have it a mixture of both showing stuff from “Shed 17” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s”, even though kids would pee/poop in their pants, even though ponies are always naked and would do it on the ground

2.) Make it take place at the Everfree Forest or a cemetary/graveyard, even though it can be dangerous

3.) Make it seem like an actual horror movie

Gee, I wonder how other people would think of it? But, I can speculate, overall, when the story was predictable, this episode was predictable as well. But, it doesn’t stop me from liking it, it does show a good moral that something your friends do doesn’t have to be your “Cup of Tea” and just do what you want to celebrate and enjoy. It leaves me from giving this episode a 6/10, it could’ve been a little bit better, but the humor and everything else was still well done. I’m The Detective Librarian and October is ALMOST OVER, just ONE MORE Halloween special! I don’t even care if it’s in the “Middle of Nowhere”!!

SHINING ARMOR: Did you say “The Middle”?

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh, no! NOT ANOTHER “MIDDLE” EPISODE!!!! By the way, did you find anything, Shining?

SHINING ARMOR: Yes, I did. There’s this weird symbol that has a circle and a dotted line in the top to the bottom.

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Okay, we’ll analyze it later. SINCE THERE’S ANOTHER “MIDDLE” EPISODE, THAT MEANS–

FRANKIE HECK: ME!!! Frankie Heck from “The Middle”!! HEHEHEHEHE!!!!!!! Guess who’s back, everybody??!!! HEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!

-TO BE CONTINUED-

Season 3: Bonus Review #3: “Thomas & Friends”: “Sodor’s Legend of the Lost Treasure”

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!! TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS SPECIAL YET!!!!!!!

-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Review, Already in Progress-

Hello, I’m The Detective Librarian and some of you may have already remembered me doing a “Trailer Reminder” of today’s “Thomas” special, during my review of “Hero of the Rails” and mentioning it during my review of the last “Thomas” special I reviewed named “Day of the Diesels”. Well, I can assure you, it really was worth the wait and watch because of old characters coming back, great CGI animation from Arc Productions, three well-known celebrities joining the voice cast, having so much action, catchy songs, and having more characters and locations from “The Railway Series”. That way I can enjoy “Thomas & Friends” more, I will feel more happiness inside my heart. What is the special you may ask? It’s “Sodor’s Legend of the Lost Treasure”, which recently came out on iTunes in the US on August 25, 2015, VUE Cinemas in the UK on July 17th, and will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the US on September 8th and in the UK on September 28th. I call this special “The Special with the Most Returning Characters, Locations, and Joining of Well-Known Celebrities” because of having Academy-Award Winning Actor, Eddie Redmayne be in the cast, along with Nathan Clarke, Sir John Hurt, and Jamie Campbell Bower.

So, let’s see if this special is worth having these three well-known celebrities and having all those returning characters. This is “Sodor’s Legend of the Lost Treasure”.

So, the special starts off on Thomas’ branchline, where everybody’s favorite screen-stealing hog AKA Thomas the Tank Engine is happily huffing along his branchline with his two coaches, Annie and Clarabel, He sees Bertie the Bus and he (of course) decides to have a race with him, but he nearly has a collision course with Toby and Henrietta, but manages to dodge them, unscathed. As for Bertie, he spots Oliver the Excavator (our first returning character that isn’t Oliver the Great Western Engine) on the road and heading to work on a new branchline, as well as a cameo of the Rev. W. Awdry AKA The Thin Clergyman riding on a bike. After this, we get cool opening titles that go like this.:

After Thomas wins the race and stops at Ffarquhar Station, where Bertie sadly loses once again. He tells the news about the new branchline that’s being built from Arlesburgh to Harwick, before Thomas and his coaches chuff away. Annie and Clarabel get concerned that their branchline might close down, but Thomas is sure that their beloved branchline they’ve known for so long won’t get closed down, just because HE’S the Fat Man’s #1 AKA the #1 of the North Western Railway. Wow, what a way to foreshadow future events, Thomas, even for a title character that is a screen-stealer!!! Meanwhile, Marion the Steam-Shovel (the one voiced by Olivia Colman and first appeared in “Tale of the Brave”) comes across a forest, while she’s on her way to the construction yard of the new branchline. She describes it as an enchanted forest, until something zooms by her in gold dust (not Mr. Conductor’s gold dust from “Shining Time Station” and “Thomas and the Magic Railroad”). She shuts her eyes, until she bumps into Oliver the Great Western Engine and his breakvan, Toad, who are near the Arlesdale Small Railway and are collecting ballast from the Ballast Hopper.

The Small Railway Engines include Rex, Bert, and Mike from the “RWS”. Now, THIS IS, HONEST TO GOD EFFORT, FROM ANDREW BRENNER!!!! But, we don’t see Jock, Frank, Sigrid of Arlesdale, or Blister I & II, which are also from the “RWS”, which will (hopefully) appear some other time or in the next few seasons or years. Anyways, Oliver’s trucks are loaded with ballast and he and Toad take them to the new branchline, while Marion concludes that the Small Railway Engines are magic because of the way they zoomed by her earlier. Meanwhile, we see Duck (who is also helping out with the project) at the Construction Yards, where we see the return of Donald and Douglas, the Scottish Twins, who last appeared in Season 12.:

Well, it looks like this special IS worth spending your money watching, instead of Sharon Miller-written crap! After Donald and Douglas’ (FINALLY) return, we then cut to the next scene, where Oliver the Excavator arrives at the construction of the new branchline, as well as seeing Jack the Front-Loader and the return of Alfie the Excavator (played by Nathan Clarke) and the official building of the branchline begins. Meanwhile, we cut to the next scene where Thomas is late for shunting some express coaches for Gordon the Big Engine, who is impatiently waiting at the platform, at Knapford Station, as well as making a reference to “The Big Engine Strike Trilogy”, when Gordon, Henry, and James went on strike because of them claiming that “Tender Engines Don’t Shunt”. 😉 After Gordon calls Thomas a “Silly Little Engine”, which makes Thomas to cheekily play a trick on Gordon to get back at him for calling him that insult. The trick involves Thomas pulling Gordon’s coaches out of the station, but things go awry when Thomas accidentally derails the coaches, causing a humongous mess!!!!! Back at the new branchline, we continue the subplot involving Marion’s silliness when she spots Oliver the Excavator and this scene is also funny because she thinks that the OTHER Oliver turned into an excavator (whom she believes is still magical) thanks to the wish Marion made earlier about being a digger/excavator. But, one of the tracks of the recently dug-cutting get unstable, which forces everyone to reroute the entire track into another line.

Back at Knapford, Fat Man inspects the damage over Thomas’ accident and (of course) is not pleased over the mess Thomas made and punishes him by having him to work on the new branchline, while he has a new tank engine, which is Eddie Redmayne’s character, called Ryan. And to answer your question, the voice Eddie Redmayne gives Ryan is not the same voice as he did as Balem from “Jupiter Ascending”, which was terrible, but humorous. Let’s take a look with Ryan’s and Balem’s voice, shall we?:

I’m not even joking, that’s how Eddie sounded in “Jupiter Ascending” and it really makes him sound like an emo, no offense. Anyways, Thomas arrives near the Small Railway and crossly tells Rex, Bert, and Mike about the whole situation and we get our first song of the special. Okay, folks, get ready for the biggest Disney and “Veggietales” knock-off (even though it’s enjoyable), you have EVER seen!:

So, after that song that looks like a Disney or “Veggietales” song and Thomas acted like he was tripping on ballast, Thomas takes the train full of ballast to the Construction Yard. There, he notices some flatbeds of rails and sleepers and idiotically decides to show everybody how useful he can be, by pulling the flatbeds to the construction area. The workman try to stop him, until Thomas destroys the danger signs, goes on the unstable track, falls down the track that creates a giant hole, and lands inside a cave. Inside the cave, he discovers an old pirate ship, while Ryan takes Annie and Clarabel out on Thomas’ branchline. Soon, Thomas is rescued by Rocky the Breakdown Crane and is scolded by Sir Topham Hatt AKA The Fat Controller once again and is sent to the Steamworks to be repaired, but doesn’t the chance to tell Fat Man about the pirate ship he just saw. However, a mysterious sailor named Sailor John (played by John Hurt, coincidence) and his boat named Skiff (voiced by Jamie Campbell Bower) are watching them in the ocean, while Skiff is spitting out water from the sea. Now, you can definitely tell that they’re the villains of the special and the Sailor John is MORE sinister than Diesel, Diesel 10, and other villains in the series.

Later, Thomas receives news from Edward at the Steamworks that Rocky just lifted the pirate ship out of the caverns, even though Thomas ACTUALLY FOUND IT FIRST!!!! Wow, Thomas is really being put down by Sir Topham Hatt in this special and believe me, there are going to be more harsh scenes from this guy, later. Everyone decides that just because there’s a pirate ship, that must mean that there’s–:

–Pirate treasure or something. The Marion subplot continues when Marion decides to wish that she could find the lost treasure from the Small Railway Engines. So, the Pirate Ship is held on display by Donald and Douglas, while Sailor John and Skiff AKA Jamie Campbell Bower are spying on the ship and the Scottish Twins themselves. That night, Henry the Green Engine is pulling the Flying Kipper (possibly), until he spots a white figure (which is actually Skiff, who is now a Railboat, and Sailor John) and gets frightened by it, which causes him to come to a complete stop at some buffers at a siding. He tells the other engines about his encounter the next morning at Brendam Docks, saying that it was a Ghost Ship, but no one believes him. However, Salty realizes that this may be connected to a legend of “The Lost Pirate” AKA the Ship and the Treasure’s backstory.

Decades before this story begins, the Lost Pirate AKA Captain Callas sailed across the Seven Seas, while attacking Merchant Ships (which looks a bit similar to the Marine or the Navy) and stealing valuables and treasures. The Navy and the Merchants attempted to get back the treasure and chased after the Lost Pirate, but the Lost Pirate hid inside a cavern with his ship, while the Navy and the Merchants couldn’t find him. He buried the treasure and put it in a hole, as well as drawing himself a map in order to find it once again. But, he never got the chance because one stormy night, he lost the treasure map when the wind blew it away into the night. Now, the Lost Pirate roams around Sodor, looking for his lost treasure. However, all the other engines are not convinced, except for Henry because of him claiming that he did see a “lost pirate” that night. Meanwhile, Thomas continues his work at the Construction Yard, while taking on bad coal and finding out that Ryan is now part of the project.

However, he still can’t go back to his branchline, yet because Percy’s now taking over it, like in “Trouble in the Shed” from Season 1. While we partake in more Marion filler, Thomas shows off black smoke and sparks from the bad coal he just took to the Small Railway Engines. That night, all the bad coal is removed from Thomas’ firebox, fresh coal is taken from a good coal hopper, and Thomas decides to sleep on a siding all by himself, even though Ryan offered him a place at the sheds. Later that night, Thomas is awoken by a boat figure and decides to follow it, which leads him to Skiff and Sailor John near the danger signs. Thomas nervously introduced himself to Sailor John and decides to help Sailor John and Skiff find the treasure, which remember, sounds like he’s partaking in stealing the treasure. Down at the cavern, Sailor John discovers the treasure map and comes back up, only to also discover that daylight is coming. He lies to Thomas that they forgot their shovel to find the treasure and they’ll continue their search tomorrow night.

But, the wind has died down, meaning that Skiff can’t go anywhere. Unless, if Thomas pushes Sailor John and Skiff, all the way to the ocean at Arlesburgh Harbor with Ryan noticing it, while he’s sleeping. Yep, I was right!! Later, Ryan asks Thomas about the other night, but Thomas lies to him that he didn’t see him pushing Skiff. This convinces Ryan that he’s only half-asleep and he was dreaming the whole time. However, unbeknownst to him, Ryan is taking on the bad coal, before he goes to Brendam Docks to collect some trucks, which will be important to the plot, and Thomas doesn’t warn him about. I guess it’s because Thomas still doesn’t trust Ryan AKA Eddie Redmayne and it happens.

Later, Ryan returns and he starts to have the same side-effects Thomas had when he took the bad coal, yesterday. Sparks start to fly out of his funnel and land into his trucks, causing them to have black smoke coming out. It turns that Ryan’s cars are full of D-Y-N-A-MITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:

Hurry, everypeoples!! ALL THE FANGIRLS WILL GO NUTS OVER EDDIE REDMAYNE’S CHARACTER NEARLY BEING KILLED, ONCE AGAIN, BUT THIS TIME IN A “THOMAS” SPECIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HURRY!!!! Now, they have to get rid of the burning dynamite before it explodes. Marion and the other diggers pop up and she puts in her shovel, tosses to Alfie, then to Oliver the Excavator, and to Jack, who puts it back in the trucks full of dynamite. Yep, it’s official, just like in the Season 19 episode, “Lost Property”, “Thomas & Friends” has turned officially into a cartoon! Thomas tries to get rid of the trucks of dynamite, by pushing them, but he pushes them towards Ryan (while Fat Man is watching by in his car).

Luckily, Ryan is switched onto a siding, while Thomas pushes the dynamite into the hole where the cavern is and we get a great, big, epic, outstanding, and awesome K-A-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!! Or in “Team Fortress 2”.:

Now that Thomas has saved the day again, everybody is pleased, except for Fat Man, who is furious! He scolds Thomas severely and sends him to his shed to stay there for the rest of the afternoon, but doesn’t listen to Thomas telling the truth! It’s even harsh than the events of “A Canterlot Wedding” from “MLP: FIM”!!:

Gee, Thomas. I feel very sorry for you for having Fat Man turn into a MAJOR JERK THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE SPECIAL!!!! This is “Tale of the Brave” all over again, where James acted like a bully towards Percy when he constantly teased him and scared him, ALL THROUGHOUT THE SPECIAL!!! But, at least James learned his lesson when Percy saved him from a landslide at the Clay Pits and apologized in the end. Anyways, back with the story, Marion continues digging and discovers that she found the treasure! But, there’s no one here to be told by her, so Marion will have to wait until morning. That night, Thomas finds Skiff and Sailor John again and we get a montage of them trying to find the treasure, while the song “We Make a Team Together” is playing in the background, but to no avail.

Now, Sailor John realizes that someone has beaten them into finding the treasure, which is clearly OBVIOUS, ISN’T IT?!! Now, dawn is breaking out and that means that Skiff is going to remind John to get out quickly in a funny way.:

So, Sailor John and Skiff escape, without being noticed, while Marion shows her discover of the treasure to Thomas. The news later spreads to Sir Topham Hatt AKA the Fat Man, himself, who decides that (of course) it would be perfect for the Museum, while he sends Ryan to collect more dynamite and Thomas to collect construction waste to Whiff’s Waste Dump. Later that day, Thomas encounters John Hurt AKA Sailor John and Jamie Campbell Bower AKA Skiff again, who demands Thomas to know where the treasure is. As soon as Thomas tells Sailor John about the treasure being put in the Museum, as you’d expect, Sailor John is furious because it turns out that he WANTED the treasure for himself, instead of giving it to the Museum. Now, this is serious because Thomas pushes the Sea Duo out of the way and continues his job and stops at Knapford to overhear a phone conversation between Fat Man and the owner of the Museum about the treasure. However, the Museum looks like won’t accept the treasure, leaving Fat Man to keep it inside his safe (which sounds like a dumb idea because of an evil sailor/pirate with the voice of John Hurt stealing the treasure for himself, like most villains).

Later that evening, Ryan encounters Thomas again, who thanks him for saving him from the burning dynamite and apologizes for getting him into trouble for the third time in a row. However, Thomas explains to him that HE should be the apologizing one because of him not warning Ryan about the bad coal in the first place. Now, Thomas has to be on guard at Knapford Station, just in case Sailor John breaks in here and steals the treasure. Later that night, Thomas keeps a sharp eye on Knapford, while the EVIL Sailor John himself shows up, breaks into Fat Man’s office, and steals the treasure from his safe! See, I told you that was a dumb idea! Maybe handing it over to the Museum would’ve worked, after all! Now that Sailor John is escaping with the Treasure and Skiff, Thomas has to chase after him and stop him!

But, during the chase scene, Thomas discovers that John has stolen the Pirate Ship, too and it’s too birds with one stone! Meanwhile, Ryan puffs around, who can’t sleep and have his driver and fireman be brainless robots and wonder about what Thomas had said to him earlier, until he discovers Sailor John and Skiff, pushing the Pirate Ship, which alerts the Small Railway Engines, who are sleeping beside him. Rex, Bert, and Mike decide to use ballast trucks to stop the villains and the Ship from escaping, which causes them to lose power (“Never Overlook a Little Engine”). Now, it’s Ryan’s turn to play his part when a rope from the ship, somehow ties up on his left buffer and drags him along the line and into another set of buffers. This causes the ship to crash to the ground, leaving Skiff and Sailor John, alone. Now, I totally get it, now!

HIT Entertainment and Andrew Brenner wants the new characters voiced by famous celebrities to play important roles to the story because it would be a shame to leave celebrities as characters not on one big of a note and be sold for more toys, as usual. Anyways, the chase continues down to Arlesburgh Harbor and Sailor John tries to stop Thomas, by using various tools and dynamite, but is easily foiled. But, as soon as they reach a set of points, the villains switch to the track that leads them to escape, but Thomas luckily stops them at a crossed-track and pushes them to the ocean. But, Thomas’ firebox burns out, due to the water, allowing Sailor John to getaway scot-free, but not for long because the treasure on Skiff is causing him to rock-and-roll across the waves, until a giant wave causes Skiff, Sailor John, and the treasure to fall to the bottom of the ocean. Luckily (again), Skiff and John aren’t dead, Skiff’s just floating on the ocean, while John’s on top of him. As morning comes, the police arrive on Captain and arrest Sailor John, while Thomas is lifted onto a flatbed by Rocky and expects Fat Man to be cross with him. But, Fat Man is pleased because Ryan told Fat Man about Thomas preventing Sailor John AKA Pirate John from escaping with the treasure.

But, he assures Thomas that his engines are more important than any treasure and Thomas is his “#1”! I’m gonna take that as an apology scene, even though it’s obvious that Fat Man apologized to him, off-screen. Anyways, the new branchline is finally completed and the grand opening ceremony is held with Marion realizing that Oliver didn’t turn into an excavator at all and there are actually two Olivers on Sodor. At the ceremony, Fat Man announces that Ryan will be the goods engine at the Harwick and Arlesburgh Branchline while, you guessed it, Daisy the Diesel Railcar is going to be the passenger engine there, even though she’s supposed to be on Thomas’ branchline. We end this special with many things!:

1.) Thomas cuts the ribbon, opening the branchline and he gets his branchline back.

2.) The test tour starts and we get cameos of Max and Monty in full CGI.

3.) Skiff now has his own “Railboat Tours” and gets a brand new paint job.

4.) The treasure is found by some divers and Captain.

5.) The branchline opens and Skiff and Thomas watch some fireworks at Arlesburgh Harbor, announcing the end of the special and the ending credits.

And that was….AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! In my opinion, I’d say that this special is a great special! The animation is great, the story was intriguing, the new characters played their part, Sailor John was a great villain was a mixture of P.T. Boomer, Alfred the Holden B12 from “Sodor: The Dark Times”, and Captain Ahab from “Moby Dick”, the songs were catchy, the soundtrack was good, the shots were incredible, and there were SO MANY RETURNS OF CLASSIC CHARACTERS AND SUCH!!!! However, one thing that bugged me was that Fat Man was a complete jerk to Thomas (I can understand he wants Thomas to change and learn his lesson), but I can accept his apology, since he cares about his hard-working engines, except for evil ones. Now, I really liked Ryan and the choice HIT made for having Eddie Redmayne play as him was a good choice and it suited him well, but he felt like sort-of a rewrite of Stanley from “The Great Discovery”. Speaking of, the plot felt like a “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” and “The Great Discovery” mix. But still, it was a nice change of pace to see the main antagonist get his comeuppance in the end, instead of being given a second chance because that has been overdone, SO MANY TIMES IN “THOMAS” SPECIALS!!!

The subplot involving Marion was okay, but her humor still cracks me up and she’s one of my new favorite characters in Andrew Brenner’s era. Overall, this special is definitely better than “Tale of the Brave”, even if “TOTB” was a good special but needed some changes, and it even was as good as “The Adventure Begins”, the previous special! I would highly recommend watching it and if you’re a fan of “Thomas & Friends”, Eddie Redmayne and other celebrities, or anything else, this special is for you. All in all, I give this special a 9.5/10 and it really was worth it for all those three celebrities, instead of having Peter Fonda, Mara Wilson, and Alec Baldwin be in “TATMR”! And that’s my review and as always, I’m The Detective Librarian and I’ll see you next time!! Adios, folks! 😉

-THE END-

Season 3: Bonus Review #2: “Shaun the Sheep: The Movie”

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!! TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN’T– Forget It!

-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Review, Already in Progress-

Hello, I’m The Detective Librarian and remember Aardman Animations? Yes, the one company that continues making stop-motion for their well-known projects, such as “Wallace and Gromit”, “Chicken Run”, “Flushed Away”, etc…. Well, they also made another well-known TV series that is known as “Shaun the Sheep”, a stop-motion series that is about a farmer that owns a dog and a flock of sheep that can cause trouble and panic and are up to mischief, which can sometimes land them into trouble. Sadly, I’ve seen only a few episodes of the show, years ago and I remember bits and pieces of it. But, aside from that, we’ll be taking a look at the movie based off of the show called “Shaun the Sheep Movie” AKA “Shaun the Sheep: The Movie”. It first came in cinemas/theaters on February 6, 2015 and in the US, six months later on August 5, 2015. Here’s the funny thing, I wasn’t interested in seeing this movie, even though I found humor from the trailer of this flick funny, until I saw it in theaters.

So, just like my reviews of “Jurassic World” and “Inside Out”, I’ll be doing a spoiler-free review, even though it’s already out on DVD in the UK and when a movie’s already out on DVD, Blu-Ray, or on a VHS or if there was an episode that recently or already aired on TV, I would usually give away spoilers. But, I digress, is this movie worth watching, even if you’re new to the show? You’re about to find out, let’s take a look at “Shaun the Sheep: The Movie”.

The plot of the movie is that Shaun the Sheep (played by Justin Fletcher) gets bored of his daily life at Mossy Bottom Farm, so, he decides to have a day off and he and his fellow sheep create a plan in order to have a day off. But, the plan goes awry when their Farmer (played by John Sparkes) has an accident at the Big City and loses his memory. Now, Shaun and his family of sheep, along with the Farmer’s dog, Bitzer (also voiced by John Sparkes) have to make it to the Big City and get the Farmer and his memory back, as well as get back home before they get caught by the evil Trumper, a member of an organization that catches animals called the Animal-Control Service, (voiced by Omid Djalili). Now, you may think that the plot is a replacement of the usual story that would be in every-single, solitary movie that is based off of every kids’ movie, including saving the world from chaos, but no. Instead, we get the plot that is just like a feature-length “Shaun the Sheep” episode, but in a tolerable way.

The positive things I can say about this movie are that I do like the stop-motion/animation that was taken nicely, the way that the writers decided to have body language (even though it would be kinda confusing after a while and confusing for children), even though I like dialogue better, the humor, and the way that they decided to make it stick to the original show, itself. However, there other things I don’t like about this movie. The plot was a bit complicated and it left me a little bored, but I did manage to sit through it all the way, the pacing felt very slow, and I felt like a little bit of dialogue could’ve been added. But, a movie having or no having dialogue is fine. But, that’s just my opinion. But, I also forgot to add that this scene is probably my favorite scene in the entire movie.:

Now, onto my final thoughts. Overall, I have nothing else to say about this movie because it was alright. The plot was decent (even though it got written a little clumsy), the animation was good, the jokes were amusing, but the pacing was a bit too long, and a bit of dialogue could’ve made this movie a little bit better. Don’t get me wrong, it was an enjoyable movie, but there were a few problems that needed serious adjustments. Now, I know a lot of you enjoyed this movie and not a lot of you are going to agree with me because it’s just my own kind of taste, even though I’ve seen bits and pieces of the show. On a scale of a one to ten, I give this movie a 6.5/10 for not the best, but still good to watch. It’s up to you if you want to watch this movie or not. But, if you’ve never seen the show itself, you would probably not enjoy it.

And that’s my review of “Shaun the Sheep: The Movie”. I hope you enjoy it and, as always, I’m The Detective Librarian and I’ll see you in my next review and other posts!! Toodles!!

-THE END-

Season 3: Bonus Review #1: Disney’s “The Fox and the Hound”

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!!! TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS FILM, YET!! YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT IN MOST REVIEWS LIKE THIS!!!!!!!!

-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Review Already in Progress-

-The Detective Librarian’s Office, 4:27 PM-

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN:……*Deep Sigh*

SCRIPT PERSON: What’s wrong, Detective?

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh, nothing. It’s just that summer’s coming to an end here and school’s about to start. That means that there’s less time for reviews and other posts, before and after school returns.

SCRIPT PERSON: Well, look at the bright side. You have plenty of time to focus on other things, BESIDES the one place we have to learn for the rest of our lives!!!!! Also, you have a review to do for today.

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Really? What is it this time?

SCRIPT PERSON: Actually, it’s a bonus review. You said that in the script for today.

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Gimme that! *Reading Script* So, you want me to do a bonus review on one Disney film that is considered emotional?

SCRIPT PERSON: Yes! It’s called “The Fox and the Hound”. Oh, speaking of, it’s time you did your introduction!

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh! You’re right! Alright, folks, today we’ll be reviewing the one Disney film that everybody emotionally cried at, “The Fox and the Hound”. It was loosely based off of the novel of the same name and first came out in July 1981. Please remember that this is another one of those dark Disney flicks that is what most classic Disney and children’s movies are and is emotional. So, what makes this film so “emotional”? So, let’s find out, by taking a look at “The Fox and the Hound”.

So, we start off with the opening credits that would be more fitting for the ending credits because they basically give away ALL OF THE CHARACTERS and their respective voices, which means that you know what’s going to happen! Anyway, we officially begin this film with a female fox, carrying her baby fox across a field as fast as she could, and placing her baby near a farm. Why is she running and protecting her newborn cub?: Because a hunter is hunting down the mother fox and when she races off into the distance, she sadly get shot by the hunter. We then see an owl named Big Mama (played by the late Pearl Bailey) and a woodpecker named Woody Woodpecker– I mean, Boomer (voiced by the late Paul WInchell) and his finch friend, Dinky (played by the late Richard Bakalyan) deciding to bring in the young fox into the farm’s owner named Widow Tweed, a kind and elderly farmer lady (played by the late Jeanette Nolan), wow, there is a LOT of actors who passed away after this movie came out, but I digress, in order to adopt him. It makes sense because this young fox doesn’t even know how to survive yet.

So, Widow Tweed finds the fox and takes him in. She decides to name the fox, Tod, a feisty one, who reminds her of a toddler, while we see a hunter named Amos Slade, a hunter (played by the late Jack Albertson), bring in home a puppy with wrinkles on his face named Copper and introduces him to his hunting dog named Chief (portrayed by the late Pat Buttram). Now, you may think that Chief will get jealous over Copper, and you’re right because things will change when Copper grows older and they’ll start bonding from father-like-son to brother-like-brother, later on in the film. So, Tod grows a little older into his younger self (played by the younger version of Keith Coogan/Keith Eric Mitchell and to answer your question, this is the first time we see him play a character in a movie) and starts chasing a butterfly, while Copper, who is still young (played by the kid version of Corey Feldman) starts sniffing a smell he’s never smelled before. Even though Chief said to Copper that it’s just food that Slade is cooking grits and fatback/meat, but I would say that Copper’s smelling crap or some crappy movie or TV show like films by M. Night Shyamalan or Michael Bay or “The Middle” or something.:

Because, Rarity, crap smells bad and it causes people to puke one way or another. Anyways, the first subplot of the movie comes, which involves Boomer and Dinky trying to hunt down a caterpillar, even though that subplot is just here to entertain the audience. Now, this could be the inspiration for Timon and Pumbaa from “The Lion King” because of Timon and Pumbaa’s love for eating bugs, while Boomer and Dinky are a clumsy duo that try to hunt down that caterpillar, now matter what, until the very end. Aside from that, let’s move on, Tod chases a butterfly, which leads him into meeting the sniffing Copper. The two of them meet and decide to become playmate, while playing hide and seek, like this.:

A fox and a hound become BFF’s, how quaint is that?! However, Slade begins to feel exasperated over Copper escaping to meet up with Tod, so he decides to prevent him from wandering off, by putting a leash around his neck, near his and Chief’s resting place outside. Later, Tod meets up with Copper again, near Chief, who is sleeping, and decides to play around him. The young feisty fox (of course) refuses to listen to Copper and he wakes Chief up anyway. This causes Chief to attack Tod and chase after him, along with getting the attention of Slade, which gives Tod the perfect chance to escape, by hopping onto the truck that Tweed (conveniently) is driving by, while delivering cartons of milk. However, Chief and Slade chase after Tod and accidentally shoots his rifle at the milk cartons that Tweed is carrying, which–:

–startles her and confronts Slade and grabs his rifle to shoot his radiator. Well, that was an appropriate way of not killing someone, violently, otherwise, this will affect kids deeply. So, Slade and Tweed get into a major argument about the whole situation and Slade is so furious that he threatens her, saying that if Tod EVER comes back to his property ever again, he will kill him!! After that violent death threat/fight (not an actual fight), hunting season arrives and it’s time for Copper to be trained by Slade on how to hunt, along with Chief. This means a sad goodbye for Tod and Copper, until hunting season is over. As Copper rides at the back of Slade’s truck, Tod glumly watches Copper ride away with the two hunters, before they’re out of sight. Speaking of hunting season, I wonder how Copper’s first hunting experience will turn out. Will it be like a “Looney Tunes” or “Bugs Bunny” cartoon?:

Oh, never mind! Let’s just continue the story, here. Big Mama attempts to warn Tod that his friendship with Copper must not go on, it’s like what they say: “All good things must come to an end.” However, Tod refuses to listen to Big Mama and hopes that he’ll still be friends with Copper, permanently. Wow, this movie does do a good job of foreshadowing events that will be contrary of what Tod and Copper say. As the months and seasons go by, Tod and Copper start to grow up and be adults. Tod is now voiced by the late Mickey Rooney, while Copper is now played by Kurt Russell.

Also, hunting season is over, too, which means that Copper is going to return home. On the night of Copper’s return, Tod sneaks over to Slade’s farm to visit Copper. However, Chief is still asleep and Copper is now (officially) a hunting dog and many things have changed, now. Tod and Copper’s conversation about still being friends and how things have changed now wakes up Chief, who uses his barking to alert Slade and causes a chase scene between our villains and Tod. During the second chase scene, we hear 1970’s music that would be better fitting for a cop show, like “CHiPs”, but, I think that this music would’ve been a better payoff.:

During the chase, Copper catches up with Tod and decides to distract Chief and Slade, while Tod races on some train tracks, in order to escape. However, Chief follows Tod and it leads him into getting hit by an oncoming train and falling into the ravine below, near a bridge. I would expect Chief to get killed by the train (imagine if it was Timothy the Ghost Train), but, no. Instead, Chief’s leg gets severely injured and Copper gets so enraged that he and Slade blame Tod for Chief’s injury. That means that he’s now adversaries with Tod, instead of friends. Y’know what I just realized, imagine if the driver of the train that hit Chief was so insane and psycho, that he said this quote from “The Temple of Doom”.:

Now, Copper and Slade are determined to avenge Chief (who is still jealous, over Copper and can’t go hunting anymore), forcing Tweed to sadly put Tod into the wildlife in a game preserve in a song called “Goodbye May Seem Forever”. Trust me, this scene will make you cry. 😥 Really, you don’t want to sob in tears. Okay, play it and I can assure you, this scene will make your heartbreak in sorrow.:

So, *Sniff* how did you react to this scene. Let me know in the comment section below *starting to cry*.

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!!! *Crying Loudly*

SCRIPT PERSON: Detective, you okay?

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: YES, I’M FIIIIINNEEE!!! *CRYING*

SCRIPT PERSON: Okay, okay. Calm down.

-12 Hours of Crying, Later-

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: *Sobbing* Okay, okay. I’m better now. *Deep Sigh* Alright, back to the movie. *Sniff*

Now that Tod is going to live on his own for the rest of his life, his first night in the woods goes on, horribly. How bad is it? Well, Tod accidentally goes to an old badger’s home (which looks like Cornelius the Badger from “Once Upon a Forest”) and has to sleep with a friendly porcupine in a tree for shelter, during a rainstorm. Now, we can’t have Tod be stuck in that kind of danger because Big Mama decides to have Tod (why) get a girlfriend to have baby foxes, of course. She finds a female fox named Vixey (played by Sandy Duncan) and Tod’s first encounter with her goes clumsily, here.:

Now, ever since I first watched this scene, I’ve noticed that Tod’s face when he meets Vixey (which shows that he’s in love) looks like he’s on meth or tripping on any type of drug. So, Big Mama teaches Tod that he must appreciate Vixey, by being himself, while singing the song that may be another inspiration for “The Lion King” because of Tod and Vixey being romantically attracted to one another and playing at a waterfall. Meanwhile, Copper and Slade (who are still angry) now want to spread their revenge on Tod, by trying to hunt him down with his gun and bear cages, while trespassing the game preserve, where Tod, Vixey, and the other animals are at. Tod easily escapes from the villain’s traps and (along with Vixey) get chased by Copper and Slade, once again. The two foxes hide in their burrow, but Slade has an idea; he’s going to set the burrow on fire, forcing Tod to come into where Slade and Copper are waiting for them, which’ll lead him to his death. However, by another giant surprise, Vixey and Tod easily manage to escape from the burning burrow the OTHER way!!

The chase continues, until they reach a waterfall (probably the same one from the song “Appreciate the Lady” earlier) and just as Slade and Copper are about to attack our foxy heroes, a giant bear attacks back against the villains, causing Slade to trip and fall into one of the traps he set up for Tod and drops his gun. As Copper attempts to fight back against the bear, he fails in doing so. Now that he can’t let his former friend get killed, Tod sacrifices himself, by going against the bear, as he falls into the waterfall. As you’d expect, the bear is defeated and Tod is exhausted at the water below the waterfall, with Copper watching, amazed over Tod’s bravery to save his life. Just then, Slade pops up and points his gun at Tod, but Copper luckily defends Tod, causing Slade to see the error of his ways and walk away with Copper, who gives one last smile to his friend. After that scene, the movie ends with Tweed and Slade being friends again, while being nursed back to health, and Copper and Chief rest, while Copper remembers the day when he met and became friends with Tod. Speaking of, Tod and Vixey watches the dogs on a hill, which means that they’re still friends.

And that was…A good Disney movie. There are a few things that are wrong with this movie, such as the lack of realism (normally, I would rant on about it, but it’s Disney, they know it would be too dark for kids), how it’s really short, the plotholes of the story, and one subplot about Boomer and Dinky catching a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly at the end, which is basically just a way to entertain little ones. But, overall, this was a really emotional, sweet, and nice movie. The animation was beautiful (as usual), the characters were good, the songs were nice, and even the drama was taken seriously. Although, I would’ve extended the story a little bit, even though it would ruin the movie, even if Disney decides to blindly make a remake that might go unsuccessful at the box office. But, all in all, I really enjoyed this movie and I’ll be giving it a 7.5/10 for such a well-thought out film that had really nice and emotional scenes. Well, at least we didn’t have to deal with the crappy sequel/midquel that was direct-to-DVD (like most Disney sequels) and was totally panned by many people alike.

Well, it’s a good thing that I won’t have to review the sequel/midquel that nobody liked, but maybe. We’ll see. As always, I’m The Detective Librarian and–

PINKIE PIE (CLONES): FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN!!!!–

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh no! Brace yourselves, everybody! The FUN AND THE PINKIE PIES, ARE COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-TO BE CONTINUED…-

Season 2: BONUS REVIEW: “MLP: FIM: Season 5: Episode 11: “Party Pooped”

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING YOU’RE ABOUT TO SEE MAY CONTAIN SOME Y’KNOW, SPOILERS!!! BE SURE TO TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN’T, Y’KNOW WHAT I’M SAYING!!!

-We Now Join Our Regularly Scheduled Review Already in Progress-

Hello, I’m The Detective Librarian and you may already think that Season 2 is finally over on my blog. Sadly, we have a “BONUS REVIEW” to do. This time, on the latest episode of Season 5 of “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”. Please note that I was supposed to do it on the day it aired, but I got caught up on a different review, but, it’s finally time to share my thoughts on the latest episode, titled “Party Pooped”, which aired on June 27, 2015. As you can probably tell, it focuses on everyone’s favorite, party-animal, crazy, and serial killer member of the Mane Six, Pinkie Pie! Well, it’s been a while since we had Pinkie Pie as the main character of an episode, but who cares, it’s a new episode, which she once again gets to herself, Yaay! Now, let’s see how crazy Pinkie will be once again, by taking a look at “Party Pooped”.

We start off this episode in Twilight Sparkle Sparkle Sparkle’s castle with a bunch of food and decorations because of a new Friendship Summit coming, which is about the Mane Six being friends with a bunch of yaks from a location called Yakyakistan. Okay, it may sound like a racist or an Equestrian version of countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, since they’re filled with terrorist countries, no offense. But I digress, the reason why yaks are visiting Ponyville is because the border between Equestria and Yakyakistan hasn’t opened for hundreds of years (or “moons”, if you will) and please note that Yakyakistan is located South of the Crystal Mountains, which is located near The Crystal Empire. After we hear those facts, Twilight starts to get nervous/crazy over being friends over a Yakyakistan prince named Rutherford, or as Pinkie Pie would say “nervouscited”! Well, something tells me that this episode will be a sequel to the Season 2 episode, “Lesson Zero”, when Twilight went insane over not getting a friendship problem to report to Princess Celestia, which went something like this:

Anyways, Prince Rutherford and the Yaks arrive at Twilight’s castle and are greeted warmly. Twilight offers them Yakyakistan food that they made for the Yaks, but it doesn’t taste or smell like the way the Yaks like it back at Yakyakistan. Because they get angry when things do go perfectly, the Yaks begin to destroy/smash the decorations and the rest of Twilight’s castle. Well, let’s just hope they don’t go into a frenzy that destroys a bad video game, movie, or TV show that would be something either me or Nostalgia Critic would do if we hated a film, video game, or a TV show so much like this:

After all, he IS one of the angriest reviewers or critics you’ve known and seen, just like his rival/enemy, “The Angry Video Game Nerd”. But I digress, after the destruction the Yaks created, our heroes decide to repair the damage that had been done to the castle and try to make the Yaks feel home at Ponyville in the Summit/Friendship Party, such as create haybeds at Sweet Apple Acres, use Fluttershy’s animals as yaks, trying to make the same fabric as seen back in Yakyakistan, and have the same type of snow back in you-know-where. However, as try as they might, the Yaks still get angry and destroy EVERYTHING that isn’t perfect for them. Geesh, what a bunch of hot-heads if you ask me. Later, the Mane Six discuss on the current progress of the Summit so far at the Map, but they go “COMPLETELY CRAAAAAAAAAAAZYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Meanwhile, Pinkie explains insanely to Gummy on how her friends are struggling to make the Yaks feel like Yakyakistan, while she’s at her room at Sugarcube Corner. After she says that she might have to go ALL THE WAY TO YAKYAKISTAN, JUST TO GO AND GET THE THINGS NEEDED FOR THE FRIENDSHIP SUMMIT, Gummy puts his tongue on Pinkie’s mouth and guess what?

Pinkie magically agrees to go ALL THE WAY TO YAKYAKISTAN to get those supplies to make the Yaks feel like Ponyville is their home. Outside Sugar Cube Corner, Twilight is giving the Yaks a tour of Ponyville and tries to find Pinkie, since she’s the most well-known party-pony, to find out on how everything is going for the party. However, she soon finds that Pinkie’s gone and decides to send a search party to find her, but to no avail. However, she receives a note from Pinkie, which is about her quest to go to Yakyakistan, in order to do what I explained earlier. However, things go from bad to worse when she finds out that the Yaks are about to eat the cake from one of the bakers, Mrs. Cake, made and just as she was about to stop them from eating it, it was too late.

The Yaks eat the cake and (of course) start smashing it up. Then, we cut to the next scene, which involves Pinkie Pie on the train to The Crystal Empire, beginning her quest to Yakyakistan. However, the train stops at Dodge Junction (a cherry village in the desert from Season 2 episode, “The Last Roundup”) due to a flock of sheep on the tracks. This reminds me of a usual episode of “Thomas & Friends”, except that it doesn’t involve Daisy the Diesel Railcar encountering a bull named Champion, when she thought that she could handle bulls, even though she’s feeble–

DAISY THE DIESEL RAILCAR: Feeble? FEEBLE?!

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: Oh yeah, sorry.

Anyways, Pinkie encounters Cherry Jubilee (from again, “The Last Roundup”), who was basically leaving the bathroom shack, which reminds me of the scene from “The Last Roundup”, when Pinkie needed the restroom, until Applejack went out in a huff. So, Pinkie asks Jubilee for her help and gets her only means of transportation so far, since Jubilee is going North of The Crystal Empire as well, which is a carriage with stallions with hats on their heads that are controlling the carriage, that have basically been very exhausted due to counting 400 cherries, along with Jubilee. As they leave Dodge Junction, Pinkie’s quest continues and danger arises when Jubilee falls asleep, along with those stallions and they are heading towards the edge of a cliff that lays above a deep ravine below. Clearly, this is like Timothy the Ghost Train’s death, except that Timothy isn’t involved in this and he doesn’t show his demonic form in this episode. Pinkie tries to stop the carriage from crashing into the ravine below, but it luckily wakes up Jubilee and the others, but the cliff easily breaks, like in a “Roadrunner Cartoon” from “Looney Tunes”, causing Pinkie and the carriage to fall into the ravine below.

Meanwhile, we see more montages of Twilight trying to impress the Yaks, by having Spike playing the piano, that pleases the Yaks, until we find out that Spike wasn’t really playing the piano and it was playing on it’s own. So yeah, the Yaks destroy the piano as well and want the Friendship Party to begin immediately, leave right now, and declare war as well. But things get even more worse when we see Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash attempting to create their own party, now the Yaks’ war between them and the Mane Six will have to commence without anything preventing it. Back with Pinkie, it’s revealed that the Wonderbolts (by a huge coincidence) saved her and the carriage, brought them to Manehattan, and we get a reference from “The Beatles” that goes like this:

So yeah, Pinkie joins the Beatles, temporarily, and it would’ve been funnier if we had Ringo Starr speak, instead of making a cameo as a background character. So, Cadence randomly pops up and warns Pinkie that she’s reached the Northern Boundary of the Crystal Empire, which leads to Yakyakistan, and nopony has made it out unscathed, everytime he or she tries to climb it. Well, because of Cadence’s short appearance, it raises the question of why Shining Armor didn’t even appear in this scene anyway? After all, he IS part of the Crystal Empire and Cadence’s wife, besides, it’s been a while since we last saw him and it’s high time Shining gets more screentime and has more info about his character and backstory, even though I decided to create his own backstory in my fan-fic, “Shining Armor & the Shadow Kingdom”. Well, it could be just a theory of Shining’s past and I won’t spoil it for you, if you haven’t read it yet and I’ll give you the links to the various chapters of my fan-fic on my blog at the end of this review.

Anyways, back in Ponyville, Twilight and her friends have realized that they created way too much pressure on Pinkie and they’ve let everybody down and fall into major despair, because of their failure to make friends with the Yaks, until Twilight accidentally presses a ice cream-like switch that opens a trapdoor under them into a dark room. Meanwhile, Pinkie begins braving her way through the snow and encounters a yeti, monkey-like snow leopard in a cave next to her. The snow leopard attacks her and Pinkie runs away from it and encounters (again, by huge coincidence) a small yak with a sleigh that leads to Yakyakistan. As she’s about to step off the sleigh and go into Yakyakistan, the cliff under Pinkie and the sleigh collapses and sends her ALL THE WAY BACK TO PONYVILLE (UNREALISTICALLY)!!! Meanwhile, the rest of Twilight’s friends find themselves in a dark room, which is revealed to be Pinkie Pie’s Party Cave, like the Bat-Cave in “Batman”.

The Party Cave includes all sorts of files of parties Pinkie put up and other ponies or other animals she met or knows, while learning about Twilight’s fear of quesadillas because “They’re just so. *Ugh* cheesy.” *Ba Dum Tsh!*

THE DETECTIVE LIBRARIAN: HEH, NO WONDER THIS FOOD’S SO “CHEESY”!:

So, Pinkie arrives back to where she started with disappointment that she never succeeded in her quest to Yakyakistan. However, she cheers up when she overhears her friends congratulating her on how much hard work she’s done over the years and drops by in the Party Cave, still feeling like she’s a failure over her failed quest. But, she changes her mind when her friends praise her hard work and just then, Pinkie gets an idea to make this party rock. Because the train to Ponyville is stuck due to that flock of sheep, the Yaks are left stranded in Ponyville, having to partake in the Friendship Party. The Friendship Party turns into a festival because the Mane Six realized that every time they tried to make the party a Yakyakistan tradition, they failed in doing so, making everything worse. Even, Celestia is there too and the Yaks are impressed over the Party and cancel the war declaration as a result. The episode ends with Celestia being impressed over Twilight and her friends’ performance over the party and having their new friend, Prince Rutherford, hug Pinkie Pie extremely hard! (Awkward)

Guys, this episode is not the greatest, it’s decent. Although, the jokes are funny and my favorite joke is definitely the Beatles joke because ya gotta love the Beatles for how popular their songs were back in the 1960’s and it would’ve been more funnier if Pinkie just did a parody of the “Yellow Submarine” song and made it titled the “Pink Submarine”. As for the plot itself, it moves along a little bit slowly and it really has a cheap way of bringing back old characters we haven’t seen in a long time or a while such as Cadence and Cherry Jubilee. Speaking of, the new characters, the Yaks, were okay and I find it bland that all they did was just smash things when things go badly, since we need a personality MUCH MORE THAN THAT AND IT FEELS LIKE ANOTHER CHEAP WAY TO MAKE MORE TOYS, JUST LIKE WHAT HIT ENTERTAINMENT WOULD DO!!! Although, the animation is still good as always and I’m still wondering after Cadence’s appearance, “Does Hasbro prefer Cadence better than Shining Armor, after the events of ‘A Canterlot Wedding’?”

Besides, Shining Armor NEEDS more screentime and I really want him back, even though I still hold a grudge against him, it still would be nice to have him back every once in a while, since he’s sort of good and bad. All in all, I’d say this episode is a hit or miss and I would’ve expected more from it, even if it’s slightly better than the previous one, but at least the next episode will pick off Twilight’s old friends from the first episode of the series, but that’s another story. On a scale of a one to ten, I’d say this episode is a 5/10, it could’ve been better. Now, since I mentioned Shining getting his own backstory in “Shining Armor & the Shadow Kingdom”, I’ll be showing you the links to various chapters of the story and the full version of it right now, but remember, the following you’re about to see contains some scenes that may be unsuitable for younger audiences, such as intense action, dark/scary scenes, ectetera, so please read at your own discretion:

LINK TO CHAPTER 1: https://detectivelibrarian.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/mlp-fim-shining-armor-the-shadow-kingdom-chapter-1-feeling-unlucky/

LINK TO CHAPTER 2: https://detectivelibrarian.wordpress.com/2015/05/23/mlp-fim-shining-armor-the-shadow-kingdom-chapter-2-the-legend-of-king-mephiles/

LINK TO CHAPTER 3: https://detectivelibrarian.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/mlp-fim-shining-armor-the-shadow-kingdom-chapter-3-chrysalis-secret/

LINK TO CHAPTER 4: https://detectivelibrarian.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/mlp-fim-shining-armor-the-shadow-kingdom-chapter-4-journey-through-galloping-gorge/

LINK TO CHAPTER 5: https://detectivelibrarian.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/mlp-fim-shining-armor-the-shadow-kingdom-chapter-5-an-alone-journey/

LINK TO CHAPTER 6: https://detectivelibrarian.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/mlp-fim-shining-armor-the-shadow-kingdom-chapter-6-the-truth-revealed/

LINK TO CHAPTER 7: https://detectivelibrarian.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/mlp-fim-shining-armor-the-shadow-kingdom-chapter-7-escape-from-the-shadow-kingdom/

LINK TO CHAPTER 8: https://detectivelibrarian.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/mlp-fim-shining-armor-the-shadow-kingdom-chapter-8-invasion-of-the-shadow-kingdom/

LINK TO CHAPTER 9: https://detectivelibrarian.wordpress.com/2015/06/06/mlp-fim-shining-armor-the-shadow-kingdom-chapter-9-the-final-showdown/

LINK TO THE 10TH AND FINAL CHAPTER: https://detectivelibrarian.wordpress.com/2015/06/08/mlp-fim-shining-armor-the-shadow-kingdom-the-10th-and-final-chapter-the-memorial-of-the-shadow-kingdom/

LINK TO THE FULL STORY: https://detectivelibrarian.wordpress.com/category/shining-armor-the-shadow-kingdom-full-story/

So, be sure to check it out if you haven’t and tell me what you think of “Shining Armor & the Shadow Kingdom” and the episode down in the comments below. And as always, I’m The Detective Librarian and be sure to look out for the Season 3 premiere of reviews on my blog later this week! Good-night, everybody!

-THE END-