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| Yes, this is just an excuse to post a pic featuring a hedgehog |
Post-S8 FiM shorts
11 Dec 2019 to 26 Feb 2019My original rating: N/A
IMDb score: N/A
The one(s) with Twilight's fear of ladybirdsThoughts: At a suggestion from Ghost Mike, herewith a very brief look at the eight shorts that filled the S8-S9 hiatus. In order, we have: "Triple Pony Dare", which is fairly amusing but suffers a bit from shrill Pinkie. "The Great Escape Room", which is less fun and inventive than it ought to have been. "Mystery Voice", which is entertaining but relies on an out-of-nowhere AJ ability. "Rarity's Biggest Fan", which has the unicorn rather exploiting Spike. "Ail-icorn", which is silly but funny, with a worrying ending! "Teacher of the Month", which is full of Best Pony and so glorious almost by definition. "Starlight the Hypnotist", which doesn't do much beyond that sudden ladybird/bug fear. And "Sundae, Sundae, Sundae", which suits Pinkie better and has a cameo from Minty! Overall? At 2-3 minutes, they're quick fun, and although variable in quality they did keep the FiM train ticking over.
Choice quote: Fluttershy: "I don't know. Not even I speak sound effect."
New rating: ★★★ (just)
And now we really are finished with S8! Next time, it will be – quite literally – "The Beginning of the End". Or at least the first half of it...
I don't remember these at all. I wonder if I ever saw them.
ReplyDeleteI definitely saw the Fluttershy one (I know, surprise) but I don't remember all of them. I expect I picked and chose a bit.
Deleteyeah, these were... not very memorable c_c I maybe remember the Great Escape Room, but I suspect I'm thinking of an episode
ReplyDeletewith Season Nine. Beyond DHX pitching it as further chance to offset the R&D of switching to Toon Boom Harmony alongside "Best Gift Ever", I got nothing that isn't just guesswork.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of the reasoning, the results were… kinda threadbare. I may be no fan of EqG, but I'll freely admit, it didn't sink nearly as much as FiM did towards the end. Once you consider it beyond the tv specials, the shorts there actually provide a nice benchmark for genial and warm slice-of-life anecdotes. And the writers there, perhaps because the world building was so much vaguer and just "our world, with some equestrian magic for the Humane 7" could go loosey-goosy and it'd fit just fine. Plus, because there was so much less pre-existing material there, they could plant their stamp more.
These shorts lack that, and what with the writers being all actual newbies to the show or at least later season people (two, Kate Leth and Katherine Chilson, did nothing else for FiM, but came from those EqG shorts), they struggle with defining the characters right just as much as Season Eight, or knowing how to make them funny. Hence "The Great Escape Room" feeling so threadbare. With the budget for all eight of these being equivalent to one episode (in runtime, bar credits, they are exactly the length of one episode's new animation), they must have been a huge rush job where "eh, do whatever, harmless little vignettes, don't push yourself" was okay.
Mostly, I remember a few things that ticked me off, and having rewatched them now, that hasn't changed. The voices AJ puts on in "Mystery Voice" not sounding remotely like something Applejack could do (and indeed Ashleigh Ball only did one of the four, though I like how you can hear Fleetfoot in the 3rd voice which Andrea provides), plus completely sweeping past the annoyance the trio felt once they discover it was her (also, that's not the kind of flavour Applejack would go for, she takes pride in sounding like she does). "Starlight the Hypnotist" shows Gillian Berrow's further disregard for show canon for her own in this fear of ladybugs from nowhere and not fitting past canon (which is a pity, as taken on its own, it'd be one of the better ones here). And "Rarity's Biggest Fan", mangles lore teasing with the flowing manes on top of regressing to Spike abuse from Rarity (a tease for "Dragon Dropped" to come…!).
Otherwise, "Triple Pony Dare" and "Ali-icorn" had some workable comedic timing and jokes that actually worked pretty well (though the former is basically just leftovers from the Iron Pony competition in Season One). "Teacher of the Month" was cute, and "Sundae, Sundae, Sundae" was okay, though running the "Pinkie builds up the ice cream showcase for so long it's all melted in the heat by the time she shows it" joke well past its energy could sustain (in an episode, this would be a quick 20-30 second vignette at the start of a scene as an ice-breaker between plot business). I've often said quite a number of FiM episodes strain to reach 22 minutes and could have been half that, but these are largely just strained, low-energy fluffy nothingburgers notable only for existing. In the show's snappier heyday, such may have worked great, but not this late in.
RANKING
Good (★★★½)
1. "Ali-icorn"
Decent (★★★)
2. "Triple Pony Dare"
Okay (★★½)
3. "Teacher of the Month"
4. "Sundae, Sundae, Sundae"
Weak (★★)
5. "Starlight the Hypnotist"
6. "Rarity's Biggest Fan"
7. "The Great Escape Room"
Bad (★½)
8. "Mystery Voice"