"Adventures in Pet Training" is a hard episode to properly break down. For the most part, the writing and animation are extremely par for the course in terms of this show, but the experience when watching it always feel 'off' to me.
The episode gets off to a standard, rather fun start with Ally glitching out in the middle of a mission, and the setup of Miko having to go through this simulated challenge to resolve it shows a lot of promise. Unfortunately, they quickly make the mistake of splitting up Miko and Five as well as breaking their communication, giving them virtually no one to talk to other than a companion that can't speak back. Not only does this strip away one of the most consistently enjoyable aspects of the show, but it also makes much of the dialogue feel practically empty by default, since we know there's no real interaction going on, and sometimes it even comes across as dumbing things down for the audience. And on top of that, while Miko and Ally do have many adorable moments together, the same unfortunately can't be said for Five and Alpha, for reasons we will get to.
Most of Miko's plot feels very aimless; we know she's supposed to reach the portal and that she'll find out what's wrong with Ally along the way, but most of what we see are just them navigating from one point to another with no clear indication what we're supposed to take for most of the journey. It's not exactly dull, and we do get emotional tension with Ally losing her feathers due to her "illness", but there's simply not enough going on to make it stand out beyond the environment and a super badass transformation scene. The fact it boils down to a simple miscommunication - while not a bad twist due to the point of the story - only makes most of what they go through look even more pointless on rewatch.
And while Five's side of the story has more action going on, his run-in with the robot he names Alpha just makes the experience feel rather dry. You can tell it's trying to go for something along the lines of "The Iron Giant", with Five trying to bond with this destructive machine only to slowly find a more innocent side to him, but unfortunately not that much personality shines from Alpha. His shtick of constantly beeping gets really grating fast, and most of how he's actually introduced feels like a watered-down variant of what we saw with Ally in "Going, Going, Gauntlet". It's structurally sound, and you can really tell they were trying with the emotional payoff, but the buildup to that is lacking a certain 'something' that would make me *really* want to see them together. Maybe if Alpha was able to better communicate with Five other than grunts, or have him personally hit closer to home with Five somehow.
It's worth noting that, despite being the 8th episode in listing order, this was actually one of the last produced episodes in the airing order (I believe the 19th of 20), which may explain why this episode feels as determined as it does to break certain molds, as well as the fact that Alpha never appears across all of season 2. But considering how little an impact this introduction left on me compared to many others in the series, it's honestly just as well.
There are a few things that manage to salvage this episode for me. We get a lot more hints as to how glitch pets work, as well as knowing more about the game Ally came from, adding a certain level of intrigue without going too in-depth. The creatures Miko and Five encounter prove an interesting challenge sometimes, and the overall environment poses a legitimately engaging threat. And we get a *lot* of the super-fun flying animation that I'm convinced this series can do no wrong in, as well as some of Top Draw's better expression work throughout their time on the series. But with a half-baked story, a lack of proper interaction, and an emotional core that doesn't quite live up to what it tries to accomplish, "Adventures in Pet Training" is easily the weakest episode so far.
The throwaway opening fight is with a speeding rabbit named Zoom KaZoom. The animation in this is nothing special, but the design is pretty well-done. Though he does have that "90s Sonic" attitude that starts to get tiring despite his limited screentime. Miko's thoughts match mine: "Okay, we get it, you like the sound of your own name..."
Ally shooting into the ball pit is a nice subtle bit of foreshadowing, and also makes for some really fun animation of Five having to dodge the balls she regurgitates. The "-7 XP" when he finally gets hit is a great touch.
Mitch appears for all of 5 seconds and one line of dialogue, just to take the glitch from them. I feel this is almost a running gag at this point.
The doctor Emma Deveraux's design bothers me way more than it should. What is with her triangular nose?? Still, her introduction is pretty solid, with her popping out of a creature's tongue exclaiming she's found her car keys.
The entire first scene in Emma's room has a lot of great expressions on Miko, again showing Top Draw's strengths in that department; these two are some of the more memorable. Also note that the shading is noticeably lighter than it normally is across the rest of the episode.
I really like Emma's eccentrities with how she programs the simulation, along with this computer being nicely laid out. I honestly wish we got a better look at her.
Good establishing shot, comparing where the two are in relation to the goal, even if the terrain looks a little simplified.
This time, the glitch - being a more environmental entity rather than physical - comes in the form of a 'wave' of sorts, which cuts off all communication. Works for the purpose, and I like the attention of detail with Ally glitching as it passes her.
The first scene of Ally and Miko riding through the volcanic canyon has really attractive lighting, with the reds standing out in all the right ways and the characters being more dim than usual. It also unfortunately has a couple bits where Miko refuses Ally these berries, which just comes across as bothersome on rewatch, even though she's supposed to be in the wrong.
Five's first solo scene has them defeat this one robot by saying "he got canned". Groan. Then he attacks again by kicking the disembodied head with "heads up!". Double groan.
Alpha's reveal shows a little too much, too quickly - but this shot is really cool with all the lighting shining on Alpha's front and the shadow falling on Five.
This scene in particular feels very "Iron Giant" with how Alpha is struggling to comprehend that Five wants to go "up". It doesn't help that there's nothing but a little ambience going on, which doesn't feel right for a scene like this.
They do the little "hopeful light leads to a ferocious creature" gag that feels lifted out of Finding Nemo but still gets a pretty big laugh as well as providing yet another bit of atmospheric shading and lighting.
Someone make this a poster. Please.
Here's a confusing gag. The little robots are... having a rave... with techno music and everything. Was this part of the game's programming or did the glitch make them that way or...? This isn't even relevant to the plot, but it comes out of nowhere and leaves just as fast.
Yeah, a giant robot hugging a teen just isn't as endearing to me as a teen hugging a bird. Still, the "Friendship Unlocked" graphic is cute.
This is the biggest heart-tug of the episode for me. "I know it doesn't make sense to be sad, none of this is real. *You're* not real. ...But the way I feel about you is." How poignant.
Whoa, when did this turn into Dragonball or something? Yeah, this transformation is pretty amazing, with Miko's expression pretty much matching mine. And the triumphant orchestration is one of the series' best tracks so far; god bless you, Brad Breeck.
You'll have to freeze-frame just to catch this face, but man is it contagious in how giddy it is.
The two's attempts to explain their partner situations to each other before the boss comes in isn't anything that funny, but it is honestly so refreshing to see them back together after spending much of the runtime basically talking to themselves.
The climax contains the best animation of the episode. The first screenshot is about as great as you've come to expect from Ally flying scenes at this point, but the second one with Five "whipping" Alpha is way more lively than it has any right to be.
The image of Alpha patting Five's hair is a really nice, wholesome image. I always swear he's about to say "You stay, I go" though.
They really go all out with Five's expressions in this quick shot, as they should with what exactly goes down. I know I said I didn't really get wrapped up in their relationship, but I give them credit for trying here.
I don't know what it is, but the coloring looks incredibly attractive as Alpha winds up and crushes the boss. Something about the contrasting three images in that multi-panel shot, along with the dreary-looking explosion behind the heroes... this is why I love talking about this show's artistry.
"I gotta read all 9 pages!?" Cheap, but relatable.
So these treats are released that Miko says "will teach all kinds of tricks"... but we get no indication as to what any of them do. Was this supposed to be ambiguous, or was a later episode supposed to follow up on this? Either way, odd note for an odd episode.
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