My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (TV Series) The Perfect Pear (2017) User Reviews

...wow...

[ericstevenson · 10/10 · 23 June 2017]

Okay, people. This may in fact be my favorite episode of the entire show. I mean, I don't even know where to begin with this one. Well, the actual's episode's beginning isn't that strong. Of course, more into the episode, we finally get one of the biggest questions in the entire show answered. Yes, we finally find out about APPLEJACK'S PARENTS! We saw literally every member of the entire Apple family except for them and now we finally have what we wanted! Her parents are referred to in the past tense so it can assumed that they're dead. I doubt the show would delve into it that much.

So this episode features the Apple family (save for Granny Smith) meeting up with a guy coming from a family that sells pears. They already did the "apples and oranges" joke. There turns out to be a feud between them and the Apples. While talking to another relative, Golden Delicious, we find out Applejack and her siblings are the children of an Apple and a Pear! I seriously did not see that coming! We get this amazing flashback that shows how their parents fell in love, right when they were just fillies. It's been awhile since I've seen a great star crossed lover story.

As we talk to other characters, we slowly learn their backstory. This is currently ranked as the best episode of the series (though it's based on relatively few votes). If not my favorite episode, it's certainly in the Top 3. This is why this is my favorite kid's show airing on TV right now! In its seventh season, we're still learning new things about the characters that we always wanted to! There's little romance on the show, but we can still see some nice romance between parental characters. Thank you for making this incredible episode! ****

The Greatest Episode of the Entire Series

[fakesterrakester · 10/10 · 22 October 2019]

This is probably the best episode of the entire series. It's close between a few others, but this episode is just oozing with world building and heart and soul that its hard not to smile throughout it. Too bad they couldn't keep up the momentum.

Not just the pear that's perfect

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 28 June 2021]

On first watch a few years back, "The Perfect Pear" shook me and blew me away. It didn't matter to me whatsoever that the premise was not an innovative one, not when the execution was so exceptional, when the emotions were so strong and the characters so well written. Episodes centered around the Apple family in some shape or form are somewhat hit and miss and up until this episode none of them would have belonged in my favourite 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' episodes list.

Something that "The Perfect Pear" is very much in and quite high up. Few of Season 7's episodes were perfection, but this and "A Royal Problem" were the episodes that were. If asked what is the best Apple family episode, "The Perfect Pear" is my very, very easy answer and that is coming from a usually indecisive person. On paper, it doesn't sound like a special episode but don't let that fool you. The character writing and the emotional impact are the reasons for why "The Perfect Pear" is as wonderful as it is.

The animation is beautifully crafted and shows the big advance in quality from the already great visual style to the even greater one it increasingly became, ethereal and vibrant with some lovely atmosphere and attention to detail in the backgrounds. The music has quirkiness but also beauty and atmosphere, while never jarring with the action.

Writing is some of the best of the season and of the whole show in a while, the humour being genuinely funny, the pathos genuinely touching, any cuteness very sweet and sincere without being heavy on the sugar and any conflict has a nice amount of tension. The message is delivered so honestly and is truly haunting. The story is truly beautifully done, while the 'Romeo and Juliet'-like story between Bright Mac and Pear Butter is very sweet and at times playful with some lovely little details, it was Grand Pear's story that really grabbed my heart.

Grand Pear is a very fascinating character too and it was a long time since we saw a character with this amount of emotional complexity. It is easy to hate him but anybody who has held long term grudges will relate to him and he is very well developed. Granny Smith is also written extremely well, her character writing had never been this meaty or likeable before and wasn't since too. All the characters are spot on but those two especially shine. The voice acting is terrific all round, particularly Felicia Day and was certainly not expecting William Shatner to be this great.

All in all, perfect. 10/10.

They Delivered

[Bane42 · 10/10 · 11 March 2020]

For years, people had been hoping for an episode regarding the presumably passed Apple parents, and what we got was about what anyone could have asked for. From their mirrored humble upbringings to their eventual blooming relationship, both parents were as likeable and believable as you'd expect with the apple siblings best traits shining through each of them. That paired with a keen eye to detail and continuity makes this the best episode of the season imo. You can really feel the heart that was put into this.

This got me back into the show

[neko-52176 · 10/10 · 1 July 2017]

I haven't been into the MLP show in years. I heard this episode finally explains Applejack's parents backstory, something questioned for years.

This episode has a great story and writing, reminds me of Romeo and Juliet after Ink Rose pointed it out. Expect, I enjoyed this more than Romeo and Juliet, I hated reading that play for school.

Thanks for getting me back into the show.

Another jewel of the crown.

[cruzwindt-46534 · 10/10 · 7 September 2017]

This episode is excellent and almost made me sentimental, I didn't cry but it made me feel sadness, which is really hard considering you need something Grave of the Fireflies to actually make me cry. I'm not gonna bother making a huge and detailed review because I don't need one, this episode talks for me. Greatly made. Perhaps, it could have a little more interaction between the Apples and the old Grand Pear. I love how they made him into the apologetic side rather than still be grumpy all those years.

Probably the last "good" episode of the show

[daytonhersh · 10/10 · 21 January 2020]

It was all downhill from here, but they did a good job of making this an emotional rollercoaster of an episode. Very well made.

The PERFECT Pear

[aliayoung · 10/10 · 21 November 2023]

Probably the best episode of the entire show, and that's really saying something considering how late in the series this one was! We finally learn about Apple Jack's parents, and their Romeo and Juliet style love story is heartbreaking yet beautifully executed. I've watched this episode several times now, and each viewing causes me to fall in love with it even more. Needlessly to say, I can never make it though without crying, and I know few who can. The story revolves around Apple Jack, Apple Bloom, and Big Mac talking to different ponies in town and learning the truth about their parents' past. It is heavily implied (if not confirmed) that they are dead, and that revelation is devastating, but done in a perfectly written way to discuss the topic with younger kids. Older viewers will appreciate the tragedy even more, and the deeper themes intertwined behind colorful ponies. Growing up with the show, and with that extension Apple Jack herself, we are taken on a truly emotional journey that pulls us right into the story and characters' head-spaces. We get such a lovely song in the middle as well, and the conclusion to this episode is so so good, honestly the best way they could have ended it. There's nothing bad about this episode, and I am honestly in shock that the creators were able to approach the long-awaited tale of the Apples in such a satisfying and breathtaking way! Only the highest praise for this one.

I really want to see Grand Pear again. Why did the other main characters have to miss this?

[adampkalb · 8/10 · 23 April 2018]

This episode was lovely, touching, and it was great to hear about Applejacks' parents backstory...but I docked 2 points for a reason. 1 because Twilight Sparkle was absent except for 1 second in the background, and 1 because it gets people talking about how well it handled their deaths or whatever when this episode has nothing to show for it because it never tells us if they are really dead or alive. I was afraid to watch this at first because I was worried...that it would tell me they are dead or how they died, but I'm glad it doesn't. I can't be the only one sick of having to go into The Perfect Pear with the mindset that Pear and Bright are already dead when the ending never reveals either way.

The thing is, you can't talk about how well it handles the subject of the death of a parent because it doesn't handle it at all unless it showed or told us that Bright Macintosh and Pear Butter are really dead, but it didn't. Otherwise, anything that the writing staff said about this isn't truly 100% official. What if they're actually in a world simulated by Changelings and half the Changelings are still evil to keep Queen Chrysalis from being lonely and they're running the fake identical Changeling world together? That really makes you wonder what their Changeling Apple family is like. Also, I really don't like it when they act like a character such as Pear Butter is perfect you have no reason to not miss them (which was a much bigger and more explicit problem in Family Guy's Life of Brian). Who's to say she had no parental conflict with Applejack like what Rainbow had with her own parents in Parental Glideance?

The Final Good Episode

[kyzentruth · 10/10 · 29 October 2019]

I loved this episode, it's a shame that this is the last good one. I wish this was the series finale instead of the crappy one they made in October of 2019.

Another episode that saved season 7

[secretevils · 7/10 · 28 September 2019]

We finally get to see the Apple parents in a flashback. We got some of the color schemes explained. I still think they are a live somewhere. Also, this episode made me want Asian pears/ apple pears.

A pear shaped disaster!

[trollbogyo · 1/10 · 27 September 2021]

In my opinion a love story needs two things to function:-two equally developed interesting characters and a good story. This episode lacks both and the reasons why is obvious! The love story in question isn't forbidden just frowned upon, out of the two romantic leads there's only one is a fleshed out Person, and unlike other stories where the couple impacted the world around them here it's a meaningless event that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things! Zero stars from me.