I admit, I wasn't really looking forward to this episode, because I am so tired of cliché, predictable Team Rocket schemes, and their scheme in this episode was as cliché and predictable as the rest. The only difference was that the TRio actually succeeded in kidnapping Pikachu and the others early on, and Ash and his friends didn't find out until the end of the episode. But the TRio apparently swallowed a dose of stupid, because rather than take advantage of their enemies' ignorance and take off with their prizes, they stuck around to try to kidnap the Ride Pokémon. And that was their first mistake. Their second mistake was assuming a resort
dedicated to rejuvenating Pokémon would leave the Ride Pokémon too worn out and exhausted to retaliate.
Otherwise, this was an enjoyable episode. It was nice to see the Ride Pokémon actually given some personality and interactions with each other and their riders. The rivalry between Garchomp and Flygon was humorous. Altaria messing around with Lillie was also funny. Wet Altaria just looks...weird, like a bird that has been stripped of its feathers.
The scenes with the group's regular Pokémon were charming, too. The amount of fun Pikachu and the others had on the water slide was cute. Tsareena being a diva and lounging by the side of the pool, rather than play in the water, got a chuckle out of me, as did Torracat and Turtonator's reluctance to get in the water, true to their Fire typing.