Review S12 EP16: The Lonely Snover!

[Meowth]

This was an ok episode.
-No! They cropped it! D: I was driving my brother nuts by complaining about it.
-On the bright side, the animation and colors look a bit better.
-I wish they would've changed the theme song. I can't stand that song.
-I didn't really like Snover's voice.
-I loved the part where Snover made them all trip by using Grass Knot.
-And Grotel learns Rock Climb!
I'd give it a 7/10.

 

[Musashi]

I knew I should've gotten up early to watch the HD feed... (unless someone has and that's cropped as well?)

Bizarre cropping (which isn't Cartoon Network's fault) aside, this was an ok episode. It was a pretty good episode in Japanese, but some of the things the dub did just annoyed me.

I really like the new opening. Glad they fixed the mistakes they made with the first version of it. (Though I don't get why they bothered to include the past characters when we only saw it for half a second)

It's really cool how they mentioned Grotle's nuts (ha!). Even though this is probably the only time we'll see them.

Did anyone during the boss fantasy think how Cynthia would be first in line to this "ice cream" stand?

It was kinda funny how no one wanted to capture Snover when it was practically saying it wanted to be.

I am and I'm not looking forward to the next Contest. We get some great Rocket stuff and the return of a few people, but...

 

[Shift]

DuArt didn't change the opening to widescreen clips just to crop it themselves anyway; why would they bother when they already have a 4:3 opening? It's definitely CN's doing. Now that I think about it, CN may leave the movies uncropped, but they almost always crop their TV shows (supposedly epic stuff like Star Wars aside). Chowder was produced in widescreen that's never utilized, for example.

The panning cut of May and others might also just be due to the slap-dash zooming in job CN did. Don't go crazy until you see what it's meant to look like (as long as the DVDs are as they should be. I do hope they keep the 4:3 eps to one set and the 16:9 to the rest.)

 

[Musashi]

The panning cut of May and others might also just be due to the slap-dash zooming in job CN did.

It's not zoomed it, it's just cropped.

At least we know why Pokemon.com didn't mention anything now. Though showing those widescreen screenshots sure was deceiving.

 

[Shift]

It's not zoomed it, it's just cropped.

At least we know why Pokemon.com didn't mention anything now. Though showing those widescreen screenshots sure was deceiving.

Sorry, lost track of what I was thinking.

And they got our hopes up, but deceit? At least we know they have the real deal ready on their end; how would folks have taken it if they showed the cropped shot instead? We'd be at their digital throats.

 

[Piplup]

DuArt didn't change the opening to widescreen clips just to crop it themselves anyway; why would they bother when they already have a 4:3 opening?

Maybe they did it so the quality of the OP match that of the actual eps? wide screen or not, HD TV/channel or not - the eps look better than the pre-HD eps... it is very easy to notice the differentce when you see a non-HD ep scene and a HD-scene right after it
So I guess it's possible

 

[Shift]

Maybe they did it so the quality of the OP match that of the actual eps? wide screen or not, HD TV/channel or not - the eps look better than the pre-HD eps... it is very easy to notice the differentce when you see a non-HD ep scene and a HD-scene right after it
So I guess it's possible

That is a decent theory, but I can't imagine they'd spend the time and resources to change an opening for anything but a truly substantial reason, IE the widescreen change. Your average kid would not notice what's really a subtle change in quality, but would notice if a widescreen ep had a fullscreen opening with two black bars on the sides.

 

[Queen Cynthia]

This time, I'm going to divide my review into two parts:

A)
Concerning the new opening, I must say that I sure was surprised and didn't expect it. Although I really liked the "old" opening of season 12, the new one is a welcome change. What did bother me though, was the fact that in the middle of the opening, the scenes with the supportive characters were cut WAY too quickly. I'm sorry for saying that, but this part was messed up, unfortunately. What a pity, because the more I think about it, the more I realize how great and amazing the opening is all in all. But, hey, no need to worry! Let's look at it from this point of view: Said scenes may be too short, but this also means that they are over soon. I guess we will be able to put up with a few seconds of messed-up cuts and still enjoy the impressive opening.

B)
Now let's take a closer look at the episode itself:
What may have seemed to be a standard episode (or "filler" as some of you call it) actually turned out to be pretty entertaining and sometimes even rousing during the scenes at the end when Grotle was shining and showing his power!

This week's "Comedy Award" definitely goes to Meowth for my favorite line which goes as follows (I don't remeber it 100% correctly, though): "Pokemon that bear fruit don't grow on trees"! A nice pun, especially with regard to Snover's shape which resembles a tree

Snover hugging Ash was somehow moving and cute, although I'm not sure what I would have felt in this situation if I were Ash. Moving though it was, but it also seemed kind of strange ^^

I don't know whether this is only a product of my crazy imagination, but please tell me: Who else thought at first that Snover's ice cream-like berries were poisoned and that Snover only wanted to give them to our heroes to mess around with them as it had done before? I just can't get rid of this worrying feeling...:XD:
What do you think?

Grotle using Rock Climb and acting like a superhero sure was by far the best moment today. But although I'm totally thrilled by it, I still wonder if this new attack will be of any help to Grotle. I mean, sure, it's extremly helpful during an adventure or in open terrain, but how would you use it in a BATTLE considering that only a tiny percentage of battle arenas actually have rocky terrain, quite apart from the battlefield during the leagues which is mostly a pool or simply an even field with Pokeball markings in the middle??
Well, I'm always open to surprises, I just hope that Grotle will use this attack not all too seldom so that we'll actually get to see it.

Did anyone during the boss fantasy think how Cynthia would be first in line to this "ice cream" stand?

Well, to be honest I prefer thinking about myself being the ice cream her angel-like hands. I'm melting awayyyy....:crush:


Yes, an interesting, nice and entertaining episode which gets
6.5 out 10 points

 

[GLXdazza]

Cropping aside, I thought this episode was better than I expected. I could've sworn Snover was using Frenzy Plant (which of course would make others say "IMPOSSIBLE!") then Ingrain gets mentioned. I don't recall Ingrain ever being used like that.:flinch:

 

[Magmaster12]

As I said earlier, I thought it was wood hammer

 

[Ampharos King]

Cropping aside, I thought this episode was better than I expected. I could've sworn Snover was using Frenzy Plant (which of course would make others say "IMPOSSIBLE!") then Ingrain gets mentioned. I don't recall Ingrain ever being used like that.:flinch:

yeah the attack animation is similar to frenzy plant

 

[Sonic-Mew]

i was surprised at how weak chimchars flamethrower was at the beginning

 

[Like_Fahrenheit]

Like many others, I was glad they changed the opening . i gotta say, if i didn't watch the last few new episodes of the Japanese version (I just started watching them), i would have no idea what was going on.

I thought that it was changed because of the HD, but I guess they didn't.

 

[Chatsy]

"Ash, what is Snover doing to you?!"

Oh god I lol'd

 

[DVD]

Grotle the new X-Man
That thing can fly better than gliscor

 

[poke07]

Wow. A lot to talk about in this eppy.

The new theme video is GREAT in that it uses lots of artwork besides just TV scenes. However, it is edited poorly. For instance, when they sing the word "friends" it immediately shows Team Galactic. I think the video got ahead of the audio, because that should line up more with the high five scene right before it. Also, the clips got a little fast. Oh well. Still, definitely an improvement...especially how you don't hear the pokemon cries at the end.
Does anyone know why they changed the opening? I'm glad they did, but I wonder what caused them to do that.

Some new unfamiliar BGM....was the christmas-y music PUSA or Japanese (near the beginning when they get friendly with the Snover)?

Interesting PUSA BGM when Grotle comes to the rescue. I think they should have used the track that they used in the Wailord/Drawbridge scene a number of epiosdes back. The track they ended up using was OK but not as good in my opinion. Really good PUSA ending piece...could have been a little louder.

Also, I liked how there was a Brock/Croagunk/girl moment. There hasn't been one of those in a while! Dawn's commenting on his "quick recovery" was very clever the first time, but is now starting to get a little old.

Rating: B+

 

[Thingamajig]

Does anyone know why they changed the opening? I'm glad they did, but I wonder what caused them to do that.

This was the first HD episode. Prior to this, all the episodes were in SD and assuming TPCI was only given the HD version of the High Touch! animation to work with, they couldn't use the widescreen version on the 4:3 episodes.

Of course, the episode was cropped anyway. But there's really no other way to explain it.

 

[Jorah]

Some new unfamiliar BGM....was the christmas-y music PUSA or Japanese (near the beginning when they get friendly with the Snover)?

When Ash, Brock and Dawn fall asleep and Snover tries waking them up? That's Japanese

 

[Ampharos King]

When Ash, Brock and Dawn fall asleep and Snover tries waking them up? That's Japanese

That was played when May's Silcoon evolved into Beautifly in the original.

 

[Luxio2k8]

The episode still aired in 4:3 aspect ratio. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! (Keeping fingers crossed that this is corrected in DVD releases)

Okay, now that is out of the way onto the random thoughts about the episode.

-Grotle was in this episode a lot this week, but seeing what happens in the end explains why.

-Grotle used both Synthesis and Energy Ball (when’s the last time it’s used, either)

-Got to love Meowth’s Boss Fantasy. That crazy cat thinks Giovanni would start an ice cream stand with Snover and Giovanni would even wear an ice cream man uniform. LOL.

-Snover’s voice was annoying at first, but it grew on me by episode’s end.

-Grotle learning Rock Climb prevents this episode from being considered filler.

-Tatsunami Town is now called Sandalstraw Town. HUH?!?

Overall, a good episode.