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| Look, I don't need a reason to post a happy Fluttershy picture, all right? |
Written by Amy Keating Rogers
7 May 2011
My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 8.7
The one with Soarin's apple pie.
Thoughts: This is a hugely enjoyable way to end the first season of FiM. It's an ensemble piece that gives all the Mane Six something to do, and though Spike gets a bit left out at least that's acknowledged. Twilight does a bit of show-off magic early on – no travelling to Canterlot by rail for these ponies. (I hope Fluttershy's mice did come back, though!) Ponyville tech levels are still basic – the hairdryers are clearly shown to be clockwork. Once at the castle, there is a glorious song inspired by Sondheim's "Into the Woods", with Rainbow's rock section a particular highlight. Then we see both comedy and sadness in each pony's descent from excitement to unhappiness, with AKR's characterisation abilities coming through well. Prince Blueblood makes his full debut – and don't you wish he hadn't? At least it lets Rarity let rip at him in the end. Fluttershy gets to be a Disney Princess for a bit and gets one of her most famous "losing it" scenes. Celestia's mischievous streak returns. "Pony Joe" as he's called here makes his debut. I knew I liked this, and I was fully expecting to give it a four-star rating. But you know what? I loved it. Very different from any other season finale, of course, but that doesn't matter. I can't really fault it – so five it is!
Choice quote: Applejack: "Beg pardon, Rarity, but we don't normally wear clothes."
New rating: ★★★★★
Next up is... a short hiatus! In which I will reflect on S1 and look ahead to S2.
Although it makes perfect sense as a season closer - and the idea of the finale not being an adventure epic finds a pleasing reflection in season 9 - I didn't actually realise it was a finale at all thanks to the crazy British DVDs and their jumbled running order, which put all the gala storyline episodes on one disc and then left another 10 or 12 to go after this one (the actual s1 finale, for me, was Green Isn't Your Color!)
ReplyDeleteSo, I'm a bit partial to the slice of life and silliness aspects of the show, and this is just a fantastic example of both, as well as the lesser sighted six-handed (hooved?) showcase. Rarity just about edges it as MVP here for me (her deliberately smashing the slipper in horror is a superb cherry on top), but everypony gets lots of fun stuff to do and the tone is pretty much perfect throughout. When I discovered this was actually the finale, it made total sense. A five from me too here.
I'm a bit partial to the slice of life
DeleteReally? I hadn't noticed. :D
[Rarity] deliberately smashing the slipper in horror is a superb cherry on top
I knew I'd forgotten something I wanted to mention! That scene cracked me up.
It's not often that we get a single episode as a 'season finale', by that I mean for MLP:FIM in general (Course, this would be that first instance it happens). Now for this American, I've always been used to the BIG finales: The end of an arc kicking off with the villain putting their plan into motion, two episodes worth of the protagonists going through some insecurity, major musical numbers, action sequences, and overall, a satisfying conclusion. Now we don't get any villains in this episode, not the 'taking over the world' diabolic, but we do get at least 'one' antagonistic character. Turns out, we somehow 'get' most of what we expect in a finale as it all led to almost a spoof of a typical Disney scenario. Course, this wasn't the first time they made jokes regarding Disney.
ReplyDeleteSince the start of the season, aside from Twilight Sparkle learning the value of Friendship, every pony has been looking forward to going to this Gala, an event most small town ponies don't get to go to. They even had some episodes dedicated to preparing for this moment (Like Rarity designing dress for the event and displaying them for a high end fashion critic). Only to realize that when they do get there, everything they dreamed about wasn't quite what they imagined: Twilight didn't get personal time with Celestia (Who was too busy greeting the guests) nor Rainbow could get a chance to know the Wonderbolts, this party was pretty much snoresville for Pinkie and the animals wanted nothing to do with Fluttershy, Rarity's dreamboat turns out to be a snob and Applejack... Well apparently her food is not good enough for whatever these Canterlot snobs prefer. Still, they wanted to make the most of this night so badly they'd do anything to get what they want... Only for it to turn out to be a big mess.
But then, what's funny about this episode that Spike had stated the most important part about this event from the start: That they should just spend the night together. I admit it did hurt when they all ditched Spike the moment they arrived to do what they want and I felt bad for him when he spent most of the night munching donuts (Kind of like a kids version of going to a bar). That maybe if the girls had just listen to Spike and just spent the evening together even if the Gala was utterly 'terrible' (And boring before they arrived), then they would've enjoyed themselves more. Turns out, there is a reason Celestia did want them to come: Not to spend it like all the 'typical' guests, but to shake things off proving that there's more to Celestia than being prim and proper that she is just a pony who wants to have fun as much as any pony else. A shame that Princess Luna wasn't in on this, but this was back when the studio thought she was still a villain, but it's nice to see she'd make her eventual return next season (But that's another story).
Overall, I will say this was a slightly satisfying way to end the season knowing that later on the finales only get stronger and stronger as the series continues to grow. Though for me, if I ever saw Blueblood treat a lady like that (Even if he is Celestia's nephew)... He'd deserve a punch to his perfect teeth.
What a wonderful episode, and one fully deserving of your 5-star rating, Logan. As M.A. Larson's favourite episode of the whole show, there is little accolades I can add to that. It fully upends all the girly Disney Princess-esque clichés its premise seems to propose through a tightly-packed plot (would it surprise you the initial script was 6 pages too long?) and excellent characterisation; boasts a song that, despite being a similar riff on another, is still one of the show's best; and like many this late in Season 1, boasts iconic fandom moments by the bucketload (Fluttershy going from Snow White to Maleficent in the space of a few minutes is glorious, almost as much as "You're going to LOVE ME!" - no thanks necessary, Logan). Some plotlines are more laugh-filled and iconic then others - Fluttershy and Rarity's are the best, with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie's being behind them; Twilight and Applejack's still serve their purpose perfectly even if they have far less iconic moments to them - but they all still excel and weave around each other magnificently. Regardless of where one stands on the stance of "Return of Harmony" being the intended Season 1 finale or not, this is very nearly perfect in its own way, and by virtue of being the only non two-parter finale (even if I didn't eschew talk of "The Last Problem" around these parts, an epilogue episode doesn't count), continued to stands out as one of the show's most unique, and best episodes, even nearly 200 episodes later.
ReplyDeleteIt's curious, isn't it, to realise how little we've gotten of Canterlot to this point and that this is our first real time there (The Premiere's time being largely in palace gardens and an indoor library). In my opinion, we don't really get a feel for the city until "Sweet and Elite", but right now, the grand sweeping shots and numerous new designs and props make this one a visual feast, even if it doesn't seem nearly as dazzling in scope after all those later seasons.
This is one of my favorite episode of all, yet when EqD did their recent poll of season finales, this ranked as one of the least liked. That may not mean it was disliked, just not liked as much as the others. But I don't really get why. I understand that it's not really a finale in that it doesn't wrap up a season-long plot arc. Maybe that's what people like better in retrospect?
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think it did serve as a nice capstone, since there was a minor arc dealing with Gala preparations that went all the way back to "Ticket Master." It wasn't the kind of plat arc that built tension, but there was still a connecting thread. Even if there hadn't been, I still would have loved this.
All the main characters get their chance to shine, the first song was wonderful (I'd rank it my third-favorite of the show's entire run), the way all the characters' individual arcs managed to intertwine at several points was clever, and we got a lot of background characters who got to participate as well (yay for Octavia, though she never actually spoke until Rainbow Rocks).
Everyone seems to prefer Dash's part of the big song, and I did like certain aspects of it, but my favorite part was Rarity's though mostly because it just suits my musical tastes more. But back to Dash, I fond Ashleigh Ball's parts of the song interesting. Dash got a bit of that squeak to her voice that Sweetie Belle gets, and it was a nice effect, though I wonder whether it was intentional. What really struck me is that while singing Applejack's part, Ashleigh had to go up into a falsetto for the high notes, but she didn't for Dash, although they both use about the same range.
This was also the beginning of the show's inconsistency on "how long does it take to get to Canterlot?" Is it a few hours' walk or less, like in this episode? Is it an overnight train ride, like in "MMMystery on the Friendship Express"?
I love this episode.
But I don't really get why.
DeleteI wonder whether it may simply be, at least in part, that it gets overshadowed by "Party of One" before it and "The Return of Harmony" after it.
Maybe, except I didn't think "Party of One" was all that beloved. At least it didn't seem so at the time, for what social circles I was in, but if the IMDB score is that high, people in general must have liked it. And I'm not sure "Return of Harmony" would weigh against it that much, since the two aired pretty far apart. For all the fans who came on board after S2 had started, maybe.
DeleteI think the problem is that, of all Season Openings and Finales, "Best Night Ever" is one of the few that doesn't try to be "Epic" in any way. Indeed, it wouldn't be all that weird to have it air in the middle of the season. The only other one like this would be "Celestial Advice", the S7 opening, which was also poorly received. If you want pony to be "Slice of life bookended by epic adventure", then I can see why something like Best Night Ever would seem weak.
DeleteNot my position btw, as I love this episode.
I think it is indeed mostly for the large number of fans who joined in S2/S3 -- me amongst them, of course. The two episodes either side I certainly used to hear spoken of much more than this one. Used to.
DeleteI love this episode and it was my #1 favorite until Amending Fences came along. Still a brilliant subversion of the expected playing out of tired old tropes.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started watching, I liked the show a lot, but I know the instant I fell in love with it. It wasn't Fluttershy's breakdown, though that was amazing. It was the moment when Celestia entered the ruined, chaotic ballroom, took it all in, bent down to her beloved student... and whispered, "Run!"
I had to pause the video because I was laughing too hard to watch the rest.
Hell, I'm laughing now!