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| "Bubble baths? Now hear this, mister: I do the bubbles around here!" |
Written by Meghan McCarthy
29 Apr 2011
My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 9.1
The one with Gummy's hay fever.
Thoughts: This episode has the highest IMDb rating in S1, and for years it was considered one of Friendship is Magic's shining lights. Now? Well, it's still good, certainly. All the Mane Six get things to do, and there are some brilliant set pieces. The barn scene is probably my favourite: Applejack (of course) having real trouble lying convincingly, and in the fake "construction" noises, you can clearly hear Twilight (again, of course) saying, "Safety gear!" The episode is never boring, and it's nice to see Pinkie's sensitive side shown – though I do have slightly mixed feelings about the "Pinkamena" section, which has perhaps lost a little of its impact with repeated showings. I also find it a tad odd that Pinkie would have forgotten her own birthday entirely. Still, there's all the other good stuff, like the scariest "Okie dokie lokie" in history, Pinkie's turn in the school bell, a short but fun song, Spike's secret confessions, and nice background touches like Applejack's three-trailer cart. Gummy's support act is also great, with his yarn-pushing being my favourite scene. A tiny bit short these days of being an outright classic in my book, but the ep remains a very entertaining way of spending 22 minutes.
Choice quote: Rainbow Dash: "I'm just glad I haven't been replaced by a bucket of turnips!"
New rating: ★★★★
Next up is "The Best Night Ever", which I'm optimistic will bring Season 1 to a close in fine style.
Oh, look! I found that other star that you're missing under the couch. Here you go!
ReplyDeleteI gave it to "Green Isn't Your Color", I'm afraid! This one is a high four... but it ain't a five for me any more. I am comfortable with my pleb-level status. :D
DeleteIt's perfectly understandable why fans really like this episode compared to all the season's best episodes (Note that I'm referring to 'this' season mostly). Granted, this is a story I've seen done before: The protagonist who usually plans things ahead for her friends, finds that her friends actually already made plans, but turns out they are planning a surprise party, but she thinks they don't care about her and it all varies by how they react to this before the big reveal. Now unlike most of these stories, Pinkie's problem is in fact everypony forgot her birthday was coming up (If anything, she forgot about it because she's busy planning for every pony else) but we get to see this insecure side to Pinkie that makes us forget she's more than just the happy-go-lucky party planner, who's all about random jokes, visual gags, and having constant energy. We see what happens when she feels she's not wanted by her friends: Her mane deflating like a balloon (Like if someone washed the hairspray off), we see she's referring to inanimate objects as friends (I'd have preferred cats myself), and she has this bitter tone when she's trying to sound fine even though we as the audience know she's not.
ReplyDeleteStill, this episode has a load of laughs that are worth noting. All the random ways Pinkie sends out invites for her pet gator's party, that same gator floating in the punch that Rarity was drinking, Applejack 'trying' to lie while her friends pretend to do 'construction', I mean at least they didn't get Homer Simpson...
Homer: Stand back, I got a chainsaw. *Makes horribly fake chainsaw noises*
DO YOU MIND?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
*Clears throat* Anyways, this episode was a pretty enjoyable story as a second-to-last episode before the season finale. While I do wish these 'Pinkamena' moments were used often, we see that they kind of tone down on that (I'd be fine with the inanimate objects part, but at least keep the deal with the mane). Overall, it's one of those episodes that shows a relatable scenario a friend can go through... Even though it takes up to extreme levels, like 'Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs' crazy.
We don't have Cocoa Puffs here (or Trix -- so that slogan isn't here either) so I ended up watching US cereal commercials on YouTube for a while. :P But now I'm back... having cats might also have been a fun payback for Pinkie's own "crazy cat lady" line in "Suited for Success"!
DeleteThis was my favorite MLP episode until Amending Fences in season 5.
ReplyDeleteAnd the reason why is it was so surprising and subversive. This is a show for little girls! I said. And it just went suddenly dark in a hilarious way, expanding this character in ways I never expected. Pinkie going crazy was not something I ever expected to see, not in this show or many others, and it just blew my mind. I watched this twenty times over before season 2 was finished. :D
I reckon there are around half a dozen episodes before "Amending Fences" that I'll give fives to, but of course that's subject to change!
DeletePinkie going crazy was not something I ever expected to see
And I think that's largely why it's a four for me, and not a five. That part of the episode has its full effect when it's unexpected, and "Party of One" has been so heavily exposed in the last eight-and-bit years that that aspect no longer applies. Although I very much enjoyed rewatching this, I don't think I'd want to do so again for a while. "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" I'd happily rewatch tomorrow.
There are definitely other five-stars in the next four seasons, just none I like quite so much as this one. :)
DeletePerhaps some of Logan's fatigue with Pinkamena-Pinkie holds some merit - I confess that, having only watched this episode a few times prior to last week, I too had the feelings of "this is a normal part for Pony fans" (that's what 8 years of fandom exposure will do!). And yet, I don't really mind, I think it still has plenty of power on its own, never mind that the layers of insecurities it reveals about Pinkie are even more effective then they were for Rainbow Dash, due to be such a unique, unusual case and having such delightfully wacky presentation too.
ReplyDeleteThe most curious thing for me is that this is an episode that, by all normal means, should be broken and sloppy, yet due to sheer filmmaking skill, it bypass the fact of its plot construction being rather rickety. Not just Pinkie forgetting her own birthday, but other things, like the nature of how the Mane 6 sneak around too. But it just works and the flaws don't feel like flaws even when I'm discussing them here and now. By this point in our rewatches I've mentioned all the Season 1 strengths, so I'll confine myself here to the animation, with lots of truly great facial expressions during the awkward moments of Applejack lying, among other things.
While I still do find a certain something personally lacking to make it a 10/10, it's another easy 9/10 for me, and the other thing that actively bothers me is, as usual, a rough Spike treatment. Though seeing Rarity get just Karma - you see what I did there? - for getting him filthy doing her work and then insulting him for it manages to make up for it.
I did really like this episode, but for some reason, I'm never that enthusiastic about rewatching it. I'll happily watch it if it's on, but I don't go looking for it. Not sure why, as it has a lot of good points and not so many bad ones. Pinkie's portrayal here did seem to put off enough fans that it could be a polarizing episode in some communities, though I was always on the side of liking it. The thing that bugs me the most about it is where Pinkie is hiding in the hay bale with the trenchcoat and glasses and Fluttershy sees her up close. That looked so obviously CGI that it stood out poorly against the rest of the show's animation. It did set up years' worth of characterization for Pinkie that despite her exuberant demeanor, she was somewhat fragile, and that was an interesting dynamic, especially when "Magical Mystery Cure" showed how dependent on her mood the entire town is.
ReplyDeleteThe episode that inspired Pinkie Pie darkfics. :D In the entire show, only Pinkie Pride can rival this episode as the best Pinkie episode and Pinkie started falling down from there... (hint: Filly Vanilli)
ReplyDeleteI really agree with your assessment here. The thing that always puts me off about this episode is that, while it promises a lot about Pinkie's character, the show never quite delivers on it during the later seasons. All other Mane 6 grow significantly from their S1/S2 failings, but Pinkie? The future show runners never seemed to quite grasp how to evolve her character beyond what we see here and in S2's "Pinkie Pride". It makes her dark turn in this episode seem less like a hint of something deeper about her character into "just Pinkie being Pinkie".
ReplyDeleteNow you mention it, I wonder whether that's been a blessing in disguise for ponyfic writers. The other Manes had the blank spaces on their maps largely filled in. Pinkie, less so.
DeleteI think the writers missed a huge opportunity by not making Pinkie a Shakespearean-type fool. She was just on the edge so many times, and never quite made it. Of course that wise-fool who uses seeming random humor to help and/or gently chastise her friends when they've gone astray isn't easy to write well, so maybe it was just easier to assign the (insert random gag) duties to her.
Delete