I like the look here more than I did the last seasons after the movie. I never liked their heads being
that big compared to their bodies, the Professor's creepy looking diagonal pupil eyes, or overly pointy Mojo Jojo. And the look of the Dance Pants Revolution episode was...ick. I mean, the look would have been fine for an art print or some sort of merchandising, but it looked awful animated. I did like the look of the original show as it just came out, and I liked it when they started going digital and things got cleaner, just before the dreaded movie style redesign. Though I think the new odd expressions with their eyes is
very offputting. Especially when they get the surprised look and only have that one black pupil, or when Bubbles was super excited about winning tickets. Animation seems more fluid than when they went digital the first time. I'm actually mixed about that since the stunted animation worked in PPG's retro-Underdog style favor.
I liked the Derbytantes in the 2nd episode, and how they have a man (cisgender or otherwise) on their team, so they're nice and progressive there. I also like the little detail in that they took Princess Morbucks' cash offer to pretend to befriend Buttercup only because they needed the money to maintain their equipment, but genuinely liked her once they saw the strong bond she had with her sisters in coming to their rescue. I hope they appear more often as allies as the series goes on.
When I heard one of the first episodes featured Princess, I grimaced. I never liked Princess, she was good in a couple episodes that wrote for her well, but she's my least favorite recurring villain. I mean, I liked her more than Roach Coach, since the character was all about Punny Name, but they only used him once on the first episode. But I think they really wrote her well here. I
love that Monster Uber App and hope to see it as a recurring theme. I also like how Bubbles and Blossom were that let down by Buttercup they actually
let her join. That seems to be planting a great seed of discontent between the older girls.
I'll say that at first I was a little turned off by them being huge fans of a boy band, but I did think they captured the character's reaction to the band perfectly. Bubbles falls for the girly aspects, Buttercup puts on a reluctant face but still has a reluctant crush on one of the members (similar to Louise Belcher), and Blossom loves the organization and professionalism of the band's manager. It's not like these characters are radically different or Flanderized terrible. The writers at least
get the characters and kept their personalities more or less in tact. I mean, this is essentially how PPG would have been in a post-Star Butterfly vs the Forces of Evil, MLP:FIM world. Heck, I'd say if PPG took a cue from Spongebob and was still on the air, the episodes would be similar to this and would be considered an improvement. Because if it's on that long, you know the episodes would suck. And I think that all things considered, this wasn't as much of a let down as the last season of Johnny Bravo with the original creator, but without Butch Hartman and Seth MacFarline.