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| I remember this gag being very widely appreciated back in 2012 |
Written by Cindy Morrow
24 Nov 2012
My original rating: N/A
IMDb score: 6.6
The one with Sweetie's first little spark of magic
Thoughts: From one of S3's most popular episodes to one of its least: "One Bad Apple" has the second lowest IMDb average of any this season. It's not hard to see why: this is pretty much a Very Special Episode about bullying, and not an especially subtle one at that. Its high point is definitely the fantastic song, which is one of the catchiest FiM ever produced. The accompanying animation was apparently deliberately given a Hanna-Barbera feel, right down to the recycled sequences. It's beautifully done, though: watch how well the Crusaders' eye-blinks are fitted to the beat. The low point? Well, Babs Seed herself doesn't have much of a motivation to be a bully (and no, "she was bullied in Manehattan" isn't good enough), but for me it's that the CMC are nowhere near their most likeable here. Sweetie partly excepted, but I mean, getting a foal to drive a float over a cliff? It's surprising, since Cindy Morrow is usually pretty sure-footed when it comes to character interactions. Not, unfortunately, this time around. There are some wonderful moments, not least the little A-Team montage when the CMC are building the golden float, but they can't disguise the episode's central weakness. Great song or no great song, this has to end up down in the two-star bracket. Watch it for its fun little touches, not its hackneyed message. Oh, and Pinkie's "veggie salad!" line is still near incomprehensible.
Choice quote: Sweetie Belle: "That must be what Rarity uses on her emergency edible boots!" [Yeah, I know SB's "ironic" quote from the tub is a classic, but I wanted to choose something else for a change!]
New rating: ★★
Next up is "Magic Duel", which I've generally been able to take or leave, though now I like Trixie more from her later appearances that may change. As always, wait and see!
It really says something that I generally don't remember anything about this episode other than the song. I wish Babs Seed had existed outside S3. :(
ReplyDelete"Oh, and Pinkie's "veggie salad!" line is still near incomprehensible."
I KNOW, RIGHT?
Definitely not one of my favourites either. In fact, it's the only Cindy Morrow episode I don't like ("Tanks for the Memories" I feel more sympathetic towards even while acknowledging its flaws: at least when Rainbow messes up a factory for selfish reasons, no one nowhere is pretending she's justified to do so).
ReplyDeleteFor one thing, in an episode about examining bullying, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are conspicuously overlooked when they could have benefitted most from some character depth. In its eagernes to introduce a whole new bully character to make the plot work, it keeps its established bullies in the status quo, with the result that it either botches the message outright or introduces a double standard. Either way, it's a forced move. "Forced" is a very apt word for this episode.
Then again, Babs' "justification" is nothing more than a lame, nonsensical excuse anyway, and an inaccurate reflection on the psychology of most real bullies (I called it the Myth of Insecure Bullies years ago: most of the psychological research I know of pegs narcissism, Machiavellianism, negativism, antisocial behaviour disorder, and psychopathic traits as more indicative of bullying behaviour than being insecure, which - wouldn't you know it - is more typical of bully victims). So we can add moral bad taste to the episode's list of problems.
Meanwhile, the moral about informing adults doesn't work when, in-universe, Applejack is completely incompetent at both picking up on it and doing anything about it when it's happening right in front of her (also, her revealing the reason for Babs' visit well into the episode is ludicrous and contrived timing just to prod the CMC's consciences for drama; why didn't she just tell Apple Bloom before Babs arrived, and if there's a reason for that, what lame excuse justifies her changing her mind now?).
And the CMC are given more finger-wagging for their revenge stunt than Babs is for her persistent and outright thuggish behaviour towards them, part of an especially annoying trend in the show to get its moral priorities backwards, if not outright treat its "reformed" antagonists more kindly than it treats most of its victims. You bet that's not an endearing trend to me.
The song is catchy and there are a few cute details in the parade and during the "A-Team" montage, but this is a definite miss for me. Speaking of which, I'm skipping the next episode. I hate it even more than this one: at least this one didn't try to excuse Babs by saying she was innocently magically drunk at the time, to say nothing of its treatment of Fluttershy.
You can skip over the next review safe in the knowledge that I will be having Words about its treatment of Fluttershy. That's been one of my bugbears with it from the day I first saw it. But that's all I'll say here.
DeleteI hear lots of people cite this as a great song, but I've never cared one way or the other about it. It's just passable.
ReplyDeleteAs to the episode, it's saved by a bunch of funny little touches, but overall, Babs isn't a character I'm given enough context to care about, and the heavy-handedness just does it in. The real diamond in the rough is the adorable few seconds of the CMCs enjoying their milkshakes during the song.
Oh man.
ReplyDeleteIt just occurred to me that the whole "veggie salad" thing falling completely flat is further proof that the real Pinkie Pie got sent back to the Mirror Pool. <.<
Think about it. That first clone was pretty close to being her, certainly in comparison to the later cloned clones. But it still wasn't her. It was the kind of pony that would make a 'joke' like "veggie salad!" and then be surprised when no one -- not even the audience -- gets it.
So that experience helped shape her into pretending to be the real Pinkie Pie better. Even if the veneer would slip now and again (c.f. Filli Vanilli).