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| "But Twilight, we don't know about Pinkie's eyepatch stash yet!" |
Written by Charlotte Fullerton
8 Apr 2011
My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 7.3
The one with dungeons and banishment.
Thoughts: This is an episode I've always thought underrated. So much about it is a delight, and not just that it's full of Fluttershy doing her thing. We start off with the Alice in Wonderland-referencing cold open; actually, Angel is pretty good in support of Fluttershy more than once. We also get the birth of Trollestia, both with the teacup and because she could easily have just told Flutters that Philomena was a phoenix. I love that 'Shy – S1 'Shy at that – does something impulsive, because her kindness and need to care for animals trump her caution. She's also shown as resourceful and patient when treating Philomena. Pretty much the entire scene with Twilight in Flutters' cottage is wonderful, from the "dry night air" to "tough love, baby" to the hilarious section with the Royal Guards; I think having Flutters being the grounded one and Twilight freaking out was a great choice. And of course there's the show's second (and easily the better) Benny Hill parody. There are a few downsides. A little too much mildly gross physical humour for my liking, for one, and Celestia's strange address of Fluttershy as "child". I suspect my rating will be higher than most people's, but for me, this one really does deserve four stars.
Choice quote: Rarity: "Nobody move and my dress won't get hurt!"
New rating: ★★★★
Next up is "The Cutie Mark Chronicles". Enough said.
This is one that I always really loved, but that has grown stale on me in recent years. It does have some fun stuff -- though Benny Hill sequences are never going to be a good decision, if you ask me -- but I think it's just that it's carried by Fluttershy, and I'm not as gung-ho a Flutterfan was I was back in the early seasons. And it seems like everything could have been avoided had she simply not done the thing. Though at least she's ultimately the one hurt most by her own mistakes.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's partly that I haven't watched this Woodside for a bit, but I enjoyed it even more than I was expecting. I was fairly confident I'd be giving this one a three.
DeleteI'm not generally a big fan of Benny Hill in general, and I'm quite glad FiM didn't continue with those sequences in the long term... but I'm unrepentant on this one. I found it hilarious.
Episode, not Woodside. Weird autocorrect there!
DeleteFor me, this was a fun episode jam-packed with memorable moments. From the 'Alice in Wonderland' reference, Rainbow Dash making faces at the guards, the Benny Hill chase inspired scene, and even some of Twilight's own lines add a chuckle or two. Granted, I wouldn't put this episode so high on the pedestal saying, "It's the greatest episode I've seen in my life!" and besides that just milks it a bit.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do appreciate about this episode is that while we acknowledge that Fluttershy's care for animals is much appreciated, this is another example where we see she bit off more than she can chew. The moment she sees how 'sick' Philomena is, she just impulsively takes the bird and tries nursing it back to health without even stopping to do any research on this bird or even asking the Princess if it was okay. Now some could argue that Celestia ended up telling Fluttershy at the last minute when it seemed Philomena died, but if it's anything like some episodes I've seen in the series sometimes it's up to the protagonist to figure that out for themselves. Granted Fluttershy and Twilight would go through a lot of trouble, one with getting the bird to cooperate and ducking the guards thinking they'll lock them in a dungeon for stealing Celestia's bird, though suffice to say Philomena wasn't exactly easy to work with either.
Still, regardless of some of the episode's downsides (Like how some jokes kind of drag on for longer than it needed to), to me this is still a fun episode especially with Fluttershy in the starring role. This would also not be the last time we see a Phoenix play a part in the show, but that's for another discussion.
Yeah, it's true that the whole setup is a little contrived, in that Fluttershy could have stopped the whole thing with one little message to the Princess. But then that applies to quite a lot of episodes -- "Lesson Zero" is another example, though I'm getting ahead of myself here.
DeleteAn unassuming episode that delights and surprises me every time I go back to it. It really is Season One firing on all cylinders (and being a Flutterfan doesn't hurt).
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't, does it? :) "Unassuming" is a good description -- not many people bring this up when "best episodes" are under discussion, yet it's got a lot to recommend it.
DeleteThis is a delightful episode that I've re-watched several times.
ReplyDeleteUnassuming (from Culdee Fell, above) and delightful. That's a pretty good combination.
DeleteThis is another one I treasure quite highly. Between "Green Isn't Your Color" and this, late-Season 1 is just on fire with stellar Fluttershy episodes (and "Stare Master" whatever its faults, does more then fine on the Fluttershy front as far as I'm concerned). I also like to think of this one as another slapstick episode in the vein of "Feeling Pinkie Keen" just less obviously Looney Toons then that one, but without the minor discomfort produced by that episode's wobbly moral delivery.
ReplyDeleteAs Logan has pointed out, seeing meek, timid S1 Fluttershy take an animal without asking shows just how invested in them and how much she feels at home with them. That filters down to the comedy too, which is heavily character-based. This is easily Celestia's best episode to this point too. Even when Celestia is being something of a (hilarious) tease, it's all with an air of her wanting to be taken less seriously and without so much constant reverence: one fact I forgot before starting these episodes was that Twilight didn't know in the first episode that Celestia was the elder sister from the story. It certainly plays in Celestia wanting to downplay her living goddess statue, and when coupled with her "why do people think I'd lock them up/banish them?" reaction and her "no, you silly billies, no need to send me a letter of the lesson you just exposited for me" closing statement, everything funny coming from her is a character deepening moment.
That Benny Hill scene is of course a winner, though it is perhaps a good thing they never became a regular occurrence. While the 5-minute Fluttershy-and-bird show gets a little stale just before Twilight shows up, its largely gold, as it the Twilight-and-Fluttershy-show (a comic pairing the show very rarely tapped into again, alas - "The Hofffields and the McColts" barely used it well, frankly). And as a last touch, I quite like how this is an episode where only two of the main cast matter but the rest still get incidental funny roles that feed into both their personalities as well as their friendships (Rainbow Dash assuming they're racing and wanting in, am I right?). Many future episodes, and some ones we're already had would, often justifiably, write out a pony or two or more that weren't needed, but in these early Mane-7-with-occasional-CMC days, they were always kept around to usually good effect. It works, is what I'm saying.
Pretty stellar episode, then! Maybe not as great for those not as fond of cartoon slapstick in the context of MLP, but for the rest of us, its another late S1 gem. Oh, and here's the trivia of the day: this episode "was originally conceived as a tug-at-your-heartstrings style episode about losing a pet", according to Lauren Faust. Given we eventually got "Tanks For the Memories" at a later date, I'm not too sad about that; as mentioned before, there's too much I like about this episode to wish it was that radically different.
easily Celestia's best episode to this point
DeleteIf only she'd had a few more like this. I've always felt Celestia was a terribly underused character, certainly from about Season 3 to Season 6.
I like Fluttershy's take-charge attitude in this one, but it always bugged me that she never asked Celestia. She must think Celestia is an incompetent pet owner if she can't be trusted to see to Philomena herself or agree to get her appropriate treatment if it was brought to her attention. Assertive is fine, but she just decided nobody else could possibly be responsible enough.
ReplyDeleteAdd to that the chase scene that went on far too long, and this gets dragged down to an average episode for me, one I'd just as soon skip.
This is one of those episodes where logic can't really account for my rating. It's not that amazing, really, but I've liked-a-lot to loved it every time I've watched. And I like the chase scene because it goes on a bit. Again, it's maybe not objectively the best approach, but it works for me. :)
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