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| "Why Rarity, you're gonna save us a fortune on buckets!" |
S4E07: "Bats!"
Written by Merriwether Williams
28 Dec 2013
My original rating: 8/10 (=★★★★)
IMDb score: 8.2
Thoughts: Merriwether Williams' final episode is arguably her most enjoyable, fighting it out with "Wonderbolts Academy" for that honour. It certainly boasts a good song, an excellent duet between Applejack and Fluttershy that – at least at the time – was unlike anything we'd heard before on FiM. Vaguely Tim Burton-y and with fine visuals to complement the music. The actual story is quite fun, too, though it sticks in my craw slightly to have to admit that AJ generally has the right in the argument over Flutters. Doesn't help either that all of a sudden 'Shy is, well, a Stare master. Plus the "mystery" over who's swooping in to eat the apples really isn't much of a mystery at all. Flutterbat became famous of course, but even so. As I said in my 2013 review, I do (mostly) appreciate how Pinkie is written here; S4 is uneven on this score, but "Bats!" generally gets her right. The moral about sometimes having to tell your closest friends no is a great lesson, but it's not really one from the episode we've seen. Oh, and Fluttershy's fang at the end was rather intriguing at the time; now we know it meant absolutely nothing it's mildly irritating. All this means that I'm going to nudge this down slightly, from a bottom-end four to a top-end three. I still like it, but song aside I don't really think it's a classic.
Choice quote: Rainbow Dash: "Won't somepony please think of the cider?"
New rating: ★★★
Next up is "Rarity Takes Manehattan". I remember this as being one of my favourite Dave Polsky episodes, but not as being exceptionally good.
Two minor personal irritants from this episode, besides the ones you've mentioned. 1: Fluttershy, in passing, sings about a much stronger argument (that the bats, properly managed, can help fertilise and strengthen the trees) that she doesn't really ever follow up on in favour of "but the destructive pests are cute!" 2: AJ sacrifices her special apple almost without hesitation, months of work on something that everypony knows clearly means a lot to her, to save her friend from Twilight's botched spell, and nopony so much as says thank you.
ReplyDeleteBut that song is awesome, and there's plenty of fun to be had, so I'm good with a high 3.
As I touched on below, both those points received slightly more attention in earlier drafts of the script, or were cut when the animatic was overlong.
DeleteOkay, Fluttershy's argument about the bats helping the trees grow more never had anything more during the bulk of the episode, just some extra dialogue at the establishing or the orchard at the end to clarify it further. Bu it's something.
As for AJ's prized apple, it has two bits of extra dialogue - the first during its reveal, saying the Apples have won the contest every year. The second was when AJ cut it - instead of the brief sad look, AJ sighs and remarks this is the first time Sweet Apple Acres won't take home the blue ribbon, with an indication that's is calling back off of her earlier line about just wanting her friends back. Okay, still no thanks from other ponies.
I think it speaks a lot to the crew's passion, both in writing and animating, that episodes (at least through to Season 4) frequently ran overlong and required instant trimming, truncating and condensation to fit a 21-min runtime. And while I don't always agree with what they did cut (many times, it would have been better had the writer been a little more aware this might happen when drafting the script - since the DHX staff can't make major changes or rewrite it directly, trimming is all they can do), most of the time, they do make the right cuts. Those two are mildly annoying, but as I stated, the 'problems' you pointed out were still there, even with those tiny little extra bits. So, minor difference.
Bats!" is mostly simple as regards script changes. There are few worth noting once we discard the standard process of normal dialogue adjustments, and the final script resulting in an overlong animatic that needs trimming to fit 22 minutes.
ReplyDeleteAmy Keating Rogers wrote the Premise (she tweeted it was pitched as a musical before "Pinkie Pride" got rolling), and it's decently detailed - the only change is it's the same fruit bats as in "Apple Family Reunion", which rarely go crazy. By the outline, this is changed to vampire fruit bats. Unusually, the outline has very few differences, acknowledging for not-yet-solidified details (Granny Smith partook in the stakeout but did nothing). The song is compared to "Summer Lovin'" from Grease, and Twilight's magic diagram is humorously described as resembling the spit explanation from Seinfeld that itself parodied the JFK film.
The notable differences in the script are as follows:
The song was quite lyrically different, and was a single-line back-and-forth duet the whole way (also, Twilight and Pinkie didn't flip flop with the others so quickly). By the 2nd draft, it was very similar to the final song, a few lines excepted (it's normal for Daniel Ingram to make his own tweaks).
AJ's flashback to the last time the bats came around was initially on her, not Granny Smith, and thus not as long ago. This was changed by the polish drafts, which was also when the explanation for her family's absence was added.
The prized apple for the Appleloosa competition was added in the 2nd script (in the 1st, it was just a big apple AJ makes every year in case they want to eat a big one). Oddly, it was first stated that Sweet Apple Acres has won every year since before AJ was born (despite Appleoosa being new in "Over a Barrel"), and she later remarks, when using it as bait, that it'll be the first time in 40 moons they haven't won (further confusing the length of a moon, if 40 moons is older then AJ). Both continuity mistakes were clearly spotted, as by the polish drafts, she simply says the Apples have won every year since the competition's inception.
Lots of extended fluff in the stakeout and pursuit scenes, but in the first draft, when the bat-signals were whistles, Pinkie has some fun playing with it early on, swallowed it when startled by a shadow, and coughed it up when Flutterbat swooped down. The bat-signals replaced this in the 2nd draft.
The episode's end has more explanation on the new orchard for the bats, and had the normal fruit bats joining them, thereby freeing up their space for the Apples to use. In the 2nd script, Dash herds them in rather than them finding it themselves. This was removed altogether by the polish.
Spike had this odd running gag of constantly running into trees, and various other bits. He also mistook himself as being responsible for rounding up some bats Dash caught, explaining his odd line in the final episode of taking the credit. All this business was cut with timing the overlong animatic.
Strangely, the episode's end shot of Fluttershy's fang is missing from all scripts, despite being in the outline!
Finally, in the 1st draft, AJ was even harsher on Fluttershy. She admits later on that she didn't want to give the bats any orchard space as she plain doesn't like them. And in the library scene, she ends her appeal to Fluttershy, gently, with: “Don’t you even care about being a good friend?”
We do see a few slight improvements - I'm very glad they caught those continuity errors. Spike's business was rather unfunny, so I don't mind it being cut, even if he does nothing all episode. And some of AJ's harsher lines were neatly reworked. But for those who find the aspect of AJ not listening to Fluttershy a big problem, that was always present. Still, the episode definitely improved minutely during production. Which is what's supposed to happen, after all!
AJ sure as hell doesn't care about being a good friend. >:B
DeleteThis episode is still the highest tier of garbage.
@Present Perfect: So which episode would you rate as the lowest tier of garbage? :P
DeleteOver a Barrel :B
DeleteThough that's really more 'problematic' than 'garbage', tbf
I don't know that I find this one as funny as I have historically in the past. But unlike "Castle Mane-ia", "Daring Don't" or "Power Ponies", I feel it didn't fall into the trap of 'parody of something else turns into just a bog-standard parody that happens to have ponies rather then integrating that genre organically into FiM'.
ReplyDeletePart of that is because the vague Tim Burton-esque horror genre elements only come into play in the second half. But mostly, it's because they feel properly geared to Pony - the scenario may be (probably not intentionally) the same as that of Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, but I don't deny it does work, the tonal threat of the horror being just about a fruit-guzzling creature that poses no bodily harm to the characters, but it having legit reasons to be threatening to the locals' livelihoods.
The song is an interesting one, as the lyrics are awfully prosey and juvenile in a way that, when I first saw this (it was one of the first Pony clips I saw) makes it Uber-clear this is a kids' show - it reminds me of the kinds of song common to preschool and Disney Junior animations. But, you know, good, with a catchy beat and very fun, coy visuals (the differing color schemes depending on the pony speaking! - very rarely do we see that) and lyrics that juvenile be darned, do work in their own way.
Of course, one's take on an episode like this will likely come down to whether one can buy some friends not listening to another. This has been a huge dividing points on many an episode past, usually Pinkie ones ("Feeling Pinkie Keen", "Too Many Pinkie Pies"). Perhaps because this isn't one of those, it's easier to stomach - I don't feel it's as well handled in the specific dialogue as it could be (oftentimes in this show, nuance is sacrificed for comedy), and that does minutely affect my enjoyment of the episode a bit. But I can ultimately buy it, as unlike past times where the character that don't listen are very clearly in the wrong (I'll even admit this is even true of the otherwise-grossly underrated "Over A Barrel"!), both sides can be seen to have valid points here, and that Applejack's argument is more compelling.
Past that, the joke horror elements are well handled, there are plenty of fun gags along the way, and (as Logan pointed out) no mishandling of Pinkie, or really anypony (okay, the animatic cuts resulting in Spike doing literally nothing such that it'd have been better if he hadn't been there in the first place, but what can you do). On the other hand, I didn't find the humour and all that AS great as I have in the past, so this episode is firmly in "good" territory. But it's watchable without any big complaints (I'm well aware this is no consensus, and not just because of Perfect Present's comment around these parts!).
It's a really fun one, and that is enough for it to be easily the 2nd best episode thus far this season, right behind "Flight to the Finish". Given the rocky start to this season otherwise in a decent two-parter, a goofy, silly yet disposable Scooby Doo episode, an indifferent superhero episode, and a actively bad adventure episode, that's well worth taking! Thankfully, Season 4, much like Season 1, gets much more consistently better from this point onwards. Away we go!
As for the fang coda ending, I've become so sanitised to the show's misuse of continuity as it proceeds that something like that barely registers on my radar at this point. Says a lot that it was in the outline, but was axed in all scripts, yet got reinserted back into the animatic. Guessing someone remembered it from that at Hasbro and requested for it to be re-included.
Well, for the sake of hilarity when I end up disagreeing with myself all the time from here on in, my instant take on the next six episodes is currently:
Delete"Rarity Takes Manehattan" -- good, with a good song
"Pinkie Apple Pie" -- very good, with a great song
"Rainbow Falls" -- probably meh now Derpy is less of a thing
"Three's a Crowd" -- not as enthused as much of the fandom
"Pinkie Pride" -- a masterpiece throughout
"Simple Ways" -- good, but T St G carries it rather
We shall see!
This episode was terrible, and I'm really surprised the imdb rating is that high, aside from everyone fangasming over Flutterbat. There's so much that went wrong here. The fang stinger at the end that went precisely nowhere. Several friends acting very poorly toward each other. The Stare suddenly becoming something Fluttershy can do on command. Fluttershy trying to browbeat AJ into letting the bats infest her trees, everyone browbeating Fluttershy into relenting, a "mystery" that carried absolutely no tension... This was just a hot pile of crap all around.
ReplyDeleteThis does seem to be one of those episodes where Fimfiction opinion and general fandom opinion diverge, and where I'm not on the Fimfiction side of the divide. Actually, I remember really noticing this when it aired, to the extent of some people saying that (at that time, anyway) "Bats!" was their pick for worst episode ever.
DeleteThere are several other episodes that have this divergence, among the most prominent being the S5 finale -- IMDb 8.6/8.5 -- but I think this was the first one where I noticed it happening in real time, so to speak. I'm really not sure how I'll feel these days about "The Cutie Re-Mark" -- but yep, "Bats!" is still fun for me. I'll defend this one against all-comers. :P
Huh. Yeah, the fang thing at the end was dumb, but it was an awfully common sort of dumb. People getting outraged over it would likely be outraged that McD's burgers have the texture of paste. No fun, but no surprise, either.
ReplyDeleteI haven't re-watched this one, and all I really remember was that Fluttershy's side of the argument could have easily been debunked by anyone who's ever done any real farming. Cool visuals, though.
I find myself in a middling camp: I can't dislike this episode for its fun gimmicks and surprising signs of potential, but neither can I ignore its major problems. I'd call this a high two.
ReplyDeleteI contend Merriwether Williams has done far better: "Hearth's Warming Eve" remains her undisputed best, with "Wonderbolts Academy" in second place. But she turned out to be one of the weaker writers of this half of the show, and a lot of her flaws are evident in this one.
The most fundamental is the two-headed nature of the plot. The first half is a (not very good) ethical dilemma between two friends with opposing but well-intentioned views. All the more disappointing because it's got a fantastic premise in a world where pests are not only somewhat sapient but can be understood by a gifted pony like Fluttershy. This is the perfect conflict between her and Applejack, and apart from a (pretty weird but thigh-thumpingly amusing and visually interesting) song, it doesn't take much advantage of its setup. It even handicaps itself by writing out Fluttershy's communication skills early on. To say nothing of the fact that Fluttershy ultimately has no answer to the immediate threat the bats pose to AJ's livelihood, something the episode sweeps under the carpet for its ending (like you said, AJ has the stronger argument, which is a straight-up writing bungle).
The second half is a diversion into horror for several minutes, and has nothing to do with the conflict. It feels like an excuse plot. To be fair, it delivers on its own terms (it's the entertaining kind of excuse plot, and traffics in the tropes of horror very nicely), but it's connected to what was going on before only by the most arbitrary and nonsensical of contrivances. Fluttershy's objections to the plan were purely ethical: her somehow being turned into a bat-creature is a meaninglessly random effect in that context, but it dominates so much of the episode that it narrows down any time for the ethical conflict. Twilight's documentary-like explanation pokes a little fun at it, but still doesn't change the fact that it's nonsense.
As a result, the first half feels perfunctory and undercooked, and the second half feels like something tossed in for an excuse to have Fluttershy flap around hissing at everyone.
"Doesn't help either that all of a sudden 'Shy is, well, a Stare master."
DeleteThis episode is lousy for continuity (Applebuck Season somehow becomes Applebuck Day... even though it's plainly depicted as taking longer than a day), but this one was already busted as early as "Keep Calm and Flutter On", when Fluttershy willingly used her Stare on Discord. Not that it excuses our current episode, but it didn't get there first.
"Plus the "mystery" over who's swooping in to eat the apples really isn't much of a mystery at all."
Honestly, I don't think it was meant to be. Delaying the monster is an age-old horror trope. It's less about mystery and more about menace. Blame Fluttershy's fang at the end on the same genre logic.
"The moral about sometimes having to tell your closest friends no is a great lesson, but it's not really one from the episode we've seen."
I think it's in episodes like these that the moral-based storytelling compromises too much. Put bluntly: Flutterbat is a gimmick, and the need to force a "just for fun" gimmick into a framework about not making someone do something they don't agree with... is transparently desperate to link the two, meaning they end up working at cross-purposes. And that's adding to the fact that the episode already has an undercooked "anti-pest versus animal welfare/rights" argument going on. You could make a case it's just trying too much.
To be fair, it's still watchable. It has a lot of potential in its elements, some of which are realized in entertaining ways. What it doesn't do is make them cohere into a functional episode, which means there's a damper on the fun. It's a weak, broken episode that still has enough good elements to make it worth a watch.
Also: Worst episode of the show!? Nah! I wouldn't even rank it the worst of the S4 eps we've seen so far, to say nothing of the show overall.