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| Lighting effects really do help the atmosphere of this episode |
S3E06: "Sleepless in Ponyville"
Written by Corey Powell
1 Dec 2012
My original rating: 9/10 (=★★★★★)
IMDb score: 8.7
The one with sleep-scootering
Thoughts: Well, here we are: the first episode I ever reviewed for this blog! Back then I called it "a flawed classic, but one in which the flaws didn't hurt it much at all", and I stick by that. I'd change a few details, for example the "flight" at Winsome Falls would be my closing scene, but not much significant. I love Applejack in this episode – she clearly knows what's going on with Scootaloo, but she doesn't want to embarrass her by saying so openly. I'd forgotten how long it takes for Luna to show up at all; this is her first dreamwalking episode, so it's very significant lore-wise. Rarity is perhaps not at her best in terms of her treatment of Sweetie Belle, but I have to admit she's immensely entertaining to watch. Rainbow I didn't mind so much, as I felt her slight emotional insensitivity worked here while Scoot was trying way, way too hard to impress her idol. Besides, Dash showed another side to her character – when nopony else was looking! – at the end, in a heart-melting scene that I unashamedly adore to this day. Objectively, this is probably a four-star episode: very good, but not perfect. But you know what? I'm not going to be objective. I love "Sleepless in Ponyville", and it's a major reason Scootaloo is my favourite CMC and second favourite character overall. Corey Powell went on to write a few more eps, but as we'll see none of them could touch her remarkable debut here. This episode remains, seven years on, a five-star gold slice of Pony for me.
Choice quote: Scootaloo: "Here, branches branches branches..."
New rating: ★★★★★
Next up is "Wonderbolts Academy", which I quite liked but which I know some people find really irritating. I'll be interested to see what I make of the first appearance of Abrasive Spitfire.
Yes! Finally, a Season Three episode I can be gung-ho about!
ReplyDeleteIt's honestly kind of surprising it took so long for Scootaloo to get her own devoted episode. Apple Bloom got in as early as the twelfth, Sweetie Belle the somewhat late 31st, but Scootaloo had to wait until the 58th to be the central focus.
Even more surprising because she quickly became one of the most endearing of the bunch. Unlike Sweetie Belle's love-hate relationship with her sister, and Apple Bloom's mostly strong bond with hers, Scootaloo has more complicated issues going on between her and Rainbow, starting with the fact their not blood relatives and Scootaloo is more a fangirl than in an actual sisterly relationship at this point.
I think what I like best is that a good chunk of Scootaloo's problem is self-imposed. Instead of confessing to the problem early on, she instead suppresses it in favour of trying to impress. It's a totally understandable reaction both to Rainbow's tough image and to Scootaloo's own (at this point) lack of understanding for what being a sister actually means.
Which is why fear plays such a big part in the episode, hence the nightmares and campfire stories. It's a more subtle version of what "Bloom and Gloom" did: sure, there are the obvious monsters and the opinions of others, but what Scootaloo ultimately fears is her own shortcomings, especially poignant when it's later confirmed she can't fly like other pegasus ponies can.
It also makes her woes more heartbreaking: deep down, she's plagued by the idea of being inadequate.
I still say the episode has problems. The animation makes the ponies act way too humanlike at times (Scootaloo flexing her hoof like a hand in a mitten comes to mind). Luna's scene is good but her ability to enter dreams raises major questions about her "slept through and shunned her beautiful night" backstory (like, ir she can interact with ponies in dreams, wouldn't that give her more immediate evidence that she can be valued? Or was everyone just a bunch of jerks back then?). And as sweet as the confession scene at the end is, I'm still bothered by the pacing in it. Feels like it skips through too much too quickly to get to the heartwarming moment.
But then I get to the racing bit wherein Rainbow holds Scootaloo up high, and I find it hard to let it bother me all that much.
A great episode, easily one of the best of Season Three and possibly even of the show up till this point.
Their, they're. Goddamnit.
DeleteAlso, I was going to expand upon the rest of the cast (Applejack in particular: I don't think she knows precisely what Scootaloo's problem is, but she definitely suspects), but it'd just be repeating what you say.
Even the gags involving Rarity's oblivious callousness work for me, mostly because she does show affection towards Sweetie Belle here and there to balance it out (and gets embarrassed by reminders of "Sonic Rainboom").
Just an all-round great episode.
Bugger, that was me. I don't know why it reverted to "Unknown" that time.
ReplyDelete"Flawed classic" sums it up. It's unfortunate that this is probably still the best, possibly only really good episode from season three (though I would argue there's a second), which just puts it at the top of a heap of weird garbage. :/ I mean, that's just damning with faint praise, ultimately.
ReplyDeleteNot going to argue here - Season 3's best episode, Scootaloo's best episode, and the 2nd best CMC episode after "Sisterhooves Social". I can hardly add to the points you or Impossible Numbers have made, or those I have made in the past, but I do have a few less common points.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the script's pacing is excellent. Consider how much happens during the first 4 minutes, 35 seconds of that being a theme song) - the cold opening of Scootaloo's stunt, the CMC discussing it in the clubhouse afterward and Apple Bloom inviting them on a camping trip, Rarity being reluctantly cohered into going along, the start of the trek, ending with them arriving and Rainbow Dash setting up logs and a fire pit. You'd be forgiven for thinking there's no way all that could fit in without feeling super compressed. Yet it does, and the end result is super dense in characterisation and humour. It is a lean and free of waste as any FiM script as you are likely to find. The rest of the episode isn't as sublime as that - I would trim 5-10 seconds apiece from both nightmares, the sleep-skating and the firewood fetching, and give that extra 20-40 seconds back to either a moment or two for the other sibling groups, or more breathing room for the heart-to-heart between Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash at the end. Doesn't affect the episode's score, though.
Rather then list off the other strengths - Applejack being Best Pony when not being a lead, Rainbow Dash having the perfect balance between brashness but not uncaring, even Rarity's potentially annoying tendencies being kept in check through shown affection and "Sonic Rainbow" reminders - I'll zone in on one.
That being how psychologically accurate it all is, largely through excellent shorthand via the writing and animation. Everything a character does feels natural, believable and realistic. All the moments of how Scootaloo reacts and carries herself through the camping show this, but the true highlight has to be when she wakes from the dream where Luna confronted her. Let us offer Luna plant of praise for not fixing the problem but for offering cryptic advise instead, but consider how, despite all Scootaloo's focus at the dream's end being on Rainbow Dash, not the horse, she remains scared by the former when she wakes up. The emotions in dreams are disconnected from logical connectivity to an extent that they usually don't carry over into our waking state. It would be easy to imagine a fan fiction, or a lesser, later-season episode, having Scootaloo rouse Dash and simply confess her fears there.
All too often in fiction and in MLP, resolutions can involve a bit of psychology or character hand-waving regarding something that wouldn't be so simple in real life. This, I find, clashes poorly with the lore straight-faced resolutions, but it's largely fine in these earlier stories, where the conflict is often of an equally high silliness quotient as the resolution. So much praise is due for subverting that. Also allows Scootaloo to largely resolve the issue herself with only a reminder from Luna. Gives her character more agency.
Anyway, this is also best writer debut episode - pity Corey Powell neither topped this going forward, nor contributed more then three other scripts. But much of the credit goes to DHX, for the sublime pacing, effective psychological shorthand in the animation, layout and animation (a few overt anthropomorphised poses and movements excepted). What a glorious episode, and small wonder it cemented Scootaloo as most people's favourite CMC.
This is hands down still one of the if not one of my favourite episode of the entire series. Every thing about episode is great, and Dash taking Scootaloo under her wing was the cherry on the cake, which is ironic as I would consider season three to be the weakest season of them all.
ReplyDeleteI thought this one was really sweet and full of good character moments, except, as you note, Rarity regressing somewhat. She's both overall not very sensitive in her demands on Sweetie Belle for someone who's supposed to be generous, but especially not considering the epiphany she had in "Sisterhooves Social" (though Sweetie Belle doesn't seem to mind). And as much as I did like it on first watching, it's not one I've felt like making a point of watching again. It's kind of a slow-but-steady thing in that the total effect is good, but it lacks a defining moment that had a lot of punch to it.
ReplyDelete