Nickelodeon kicked off the new decade with a brand new Nicktoon. It's Pony promise funny shenanigans with a girl and her talking pony. What it delivers, though, is a badly made cartoon that fails to do its premise justice. From the awful writing to the unlikable characters, this pony can't even do its one trick without falling over himself.
Created by Ant Blades, It's Pony centers on a girl and her talking pony going on misadventures togther. This is a really unique premise as it's not every day you see a show with a kid and a talking horse. Too bad this show's writing is a great example of what NOT to do with this premise! Instead of exploring the world, showing how Pony got to talk and show casing unique plots to each episode, this show just have very tired and predictable plots, no origin story and no other examples of talking animals besides Pony. This. Is. UNACCEPTABLE! Like with The Hollow, It's Pony's lack of showing and unique plots kills interest in the show and makes it an utter slog to sit through. We've seen the "character distracting the main character" "fixing something that was never broken" and "character growing attatched to an inanimate object" plots so many times and done so much better than in this show. Wouldn't it be fun if Pony had to fear of plants (biophobia) at camp and end up fighting a bear? Well too bad because the characters stay in the generic city where nothing even close to as exciting as that happens! The biggest short coming of this show, though, is it's painfully unfunny. None of the slapstick, puns or obvious subversions land and Pony being stupid is not funny once. This show's writing is so bad it would make an actual horse cringe.
It's telling that none of the characters are remotely interesting. Starting with the main character, Annie is just a basic kid who lacks a unique personality to make her stand out. She mostly just goes through the motions of what's expected in these types of shows and never becomes interesting or funny. Her pony, Pony (great name Annie, did it take you all day to give him such a unique name?), is just a stupid animal who can talk but never shuts up. He's nosey, he's rude, he never thinks before he acts and he always gets Annie into trouble. Are you tired of seeing bad friends in cartoons?! I know I am! Annie's parents, George and Helen, are just typical, underdeveloped parents with George not liking Pony (for just reasons) and Helen focusing her attention more on the business than her daughter. Beatrice is annoying, Brian's a wimp, Heston pretend to be cool but really isn't, Clara's just there to fill space, Gerry's an axious nerd and Henrietta is a blonde deadpan goth girl who's always negative (*cough* Mandy from Billy & Mandy *cough*).
The voice acting is fine, but nothing about the actor's performances particularly stand out. Jessica DiCicco is alright as Annie, but she doesn't sound as excited or carefree as I would hope. Josh Zuckerman wasn't very good as Pony as he just lacked the enthusiasm and honesty that Pony needed to be memorable. Abe Benrubi and India de Beaufort were fine as Annie's parents, though they sounded rather bored in some scenes. Megan Hitly's performance as Beatrice was alright, though it could've used less shouting and more honesty. Josh Keaton makes for good teenager, but not a 9 year old like Heston. Ditto Noshir Dalal as Gerry. Grey Griffin's always a treat to hear, even if her performance as Henrietta was as derivative as her character. While the acting's not terrible, it needed much better direction.
The best that can be said about the show is that it has good animation. Blue-Zoo Animation brought Ant Blades style to life in a very appealing way. The characters have a bold outline, big eyes and skinny limbs for a wide range of movements. The characters also have stylish clothes and detailed textures in their hair. The character animation is smooth with characters having unique walk cycles and bouncy hair when they move. The backgrounds are also very well detailed, especially the park with all the trees, flowers and wildlife. My one critique with the animation, though, is that the buildings look kinda flat in some shots, making it look like this city is made of cardboard.
This horse isn't even good enough to be turn into glue. It's Pony is another bad case of concept over execution. Its unique premise and good animation are laid to waste with terrible writing, dull and unlikable characters, nonexistent humor and passable at best voice acting. If you want a good show about a girl and their exceptional pet, watch Clifford The Big Red Dog. Be it the 2000s show or the recent incarnation on Amazon, you'll have a much better time with a big red dog than this no trick pony -.-
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