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| "I'm tellin' you, Granny, avoidin' huge ships is somethin' I can do with my eyes clo—" |
S4E09: "Pinkie Apple Pie"
Written by Natasha Levinger
11 Jan 2014
My original rating: 9/10 (=★★★★★)
IMDb score: 8.5
Thoughts: Another new writer debuts: Natasha Levinger. She wrote four episodes, but most people feel this is her best. I do too. Sure, it doesn't hurt that this ep has one of the all-time great songs, a fandom staple ever since. But what makes it is the character work. Earth ponies get all the screen time (barring a little Twilight at the start) and the Apple Family come across as, well, a real family, not an unbelievably idealised one. The moral at the end is absolutely spot on, too. Better yet, Pinkie is handled excellently, which makes so much difference. She's silly yet determined, ridiculous yet containing deep wisdom. She's Pinkie. (I also mentioned in my original review that her unhappy early fillyhood might have had a bearing on her excitement at potentially being an Apple.) Goldie Delicious – voiced by Peter New! – is a fun side character, and even Big Mac gets to say something other than "eeyup" and "eenope", albeit only briefly. There's ladles of humour, the vast majority of which works. I don't know how effective Apple Bloom's clear fandom nod with the cut-off "Apple-licious" routine is with newer fans, but I still giggle. Only one look inside the Scariest Cave in Equestria (briefly glimpsed in Pinkie's scrapbook) but it works that way. I eventually gave this a five in 2014, but I now don't think it's quite there, partly because of its slightly inconsistent pacing. I can justify a high four-star rating quite comfortably, however. This is great fun.
Choice quote: Pinkie: "Applejack – when you're family, you make the time."
New rating: ★★★★
Next up is "Rainbow Falls". Back in 2014, that ep was best known for Derpy's Return. But shorn of that fandom excitement, does it hold up in its own right? I have some doubts.
This is an unusual episode as far as the script process goes. From the Outline onwards, it landed on itself early and with only tiny changes thereafter. But the Premise, from Scott Sonneborn, is a vastly different episode.
ReplyDeleteIt starts with the Apples being fed up with or unappreciated in their roles. When Pinkie finds the scroll, there's no smudged ambiguity - the conflict instead comes from Pinkie participating in Apple life, asking each Apple for help on things they don't normally do, and each Apple using that as a chance to do it (AJ to relax and not manage everything, Apple Bloom to be responsible, Granny to do manual work, Big Mac to provide wisdom). They find out they don't like it (Applejack worries about the tasks in other's hooves), or find it hard (everypony else), and revert, but with new appreciation for their roles. Then Pinkie finds she made a mistake and they're not related, bouncing off. So, we get a family-wide "I want more then my role - wait, no my role is actually the best" lesson, which at least requires them all to work, though Pinkie has no real character here. This Premise has potential, and it's easy to see how it evolved into the final episode. But it's also easy to see why this was changed.
By the outline, we just have incidental differences (Apple Bloom musing the raft would float better with 36 beach balls AJ made her not pack, showing the journey's last leg on a rebuilt small raft, with Pinkie failing to drum up a song reprise, and the visited relative being the link between the Apples and Pies). The big change - the episode confirmed Pinkie was related. Changing this makes sense, as confirming it robs the weight of the prior moping and makeup scene and is anticlimactic.
The 1st script is the most similar to the final episode yet! They consider sending Goldie a letter (shot down by Apple Bloom to get a quicker answer), the praise for AJ comes from herself), and there's a different order to the moping and makeup lines (though the actual dialogue is largely unchanged). These changes were excised by the 2nd script, and there's nothing else of note by the locked polish, other than changing sour patch plant glue to sugar pine sap. The below differences, thus, were all changed at the animatic stage:
* An explanation for the smudged page at the end - first being a leaking spit cup, then a split lemonade cup.
* The episode ends not on Pinkie playfully joining the arguing, but on her taking another picture and the Apples pausing their bickering for a pose.
* When Goldie offers some heirlooms to take as they leave, one is a rodeo poster depicting a pony with a cutie mark like Pinkie’s (it seems it was supposed to be an Easter egg, not focused on by the camera). Presumably to lean the fan theories towards them being related.
* An “elderly driver” gag from Granny while piloting the raft, honking her horn at some crossing ducks.
* We see inside the spooky cave, rather than hearing their reactions from outside. Could have been to save animating it, but this is arguably funnier.
* The song is really similar, except slighter shorter (as this script is only 31 pages, presumably the few cuts were to make room for extending it) and shows the jalopy getting shakier prior to collapsing (complete with a wobbly final verse!)
* A different order to the moping and makeup scene at the cabin.
* A few extra and extended lines.
* Some great gags (Pinkie unfurling the scroll outside; the "duck gets tossed object, is grabbed by large bird" bit; repeating the eagle the second time actually came from Hasbro!) were added in storyboard. Also extra praise for two hilarious bits from Andrea - the inhale while saying "Right…" for many seconds, and the giggle while reading the note (she was silent in the script).
So, discounting the vastly different Premise, this is the most straightforward episode production yet in S4. Though we still have the explanation for the smudge, and the fan fuel of a Pie from long ago being a rodeo Apple pony.
This is a really good episode! And it is all largely down to the character work. By and large, this is how to do Pinkie right - she's consistently silly, but there's a real, earnest character desire bubbling under the surface (one that doesn't quite line up with how well she gets on with her family from "Hearthbreakers" onwards, but would you expect any better continuity?). And the Apple family have one of their best portrayals - okay, they're always pretty good, but this feels like a real family, and is almost exactly like how they'd act if, say, one of them was bringing a spouse into the family, the closest real-world analogue to the situation here (perhaps this repeated itself when Sugar Belle came along?).
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting, being an earth pony-only episode. I never thought about it that way, but it gives in a kind of practical, realistic approach to the proceedings, above and beyond most obstacles being those that having a pegasus or unicorn would have been avoidable.
Shows how much early fandom stuff still eludes me, that I needed this to realise "Apple-licious" was a nod. I find it works in context regardless.
Oh, Peter New is a hoot as Goldie Delicious, and that may well be why the character was brought back three further times (suppose it helps costs that Big Mac is always in those episode!).
What's wrong with this one? Not a whole lot - the pacing is a little inconsistent, as pointed out, and much like "Rarity Takes Manehattan", there is one element, the song, that is the main memorable takeaway (though it does sport some noticeably poorer character animation then is the norm by this point - for that reason and the clapping, I prefer the San Diego Comic Con animatic). It's just a really solid, great episode, with plenty of humour that lands, and very little that doesn't - good comedy writes itself when you have character interactions like this (though as mentioned elsewhere here, many of the best gags came at the storyboard stage, like unfurling the scroll outside and the twice-repeated duck/eagle bit). "Pinkie Apple Pie" is a hoot, and one worth remembering. Season 4's finding its footing again!
At least, until next episode…
Honestly, yeah, this is a really good episode in hindsight. I don't know that I've ever thought much of it -- typical for an Applejack episode, sad to say -- but it's good fun while you watch it and there's not much to complain about. Plus, the wheel duck gag is one of the best ever. :D
ReplyDeleteI'm just glad they didn't do yet another "Applejack learns nothing" moral (re: the original script post above).
I had to truncate the above post to fit the Blogpost character limit, so a lot was left out. It wasn't an "Applejack learn nothing" moral at all, it really was just a stock "gain new appreciation for their roles and for others", though with the added detail that some changes are happening, like Apple Bloom taking on a little responsibility alongside being a kid still. Doc was only a page and change, didn't have much more than that.
DeleteBut yes, we can agree it was wise they didn't go for the original Premise. Clearly they did too, which is how this process is supposed to work!
A really good episode. I might rank this one a bit more highly than I did at the time. It's not aiming to be a top tier episode, or the most memorable, but everything it does lands really solidly and is really good fun. It's very well paced too- sets up the premise efficiently at the start and gets to the good stuff (the road trip) as quickly as it can.
ReplyDeleteRe the "the visited relative being the link between the Apples and Pie" Mike Cartoon Karma mentioned, there is still a hint of that in the final episode; Goldie Delicious has a mane that's a similar curly shape to Pinkie's. Also, in one of the episode's subtlest moments, the way Goldie pulls a book out from the bottom of the pile without the whole thing falling over is a neat repeat of Pinkie doing the same thing with the scroll at the episode's start.
Interesting! I'd wager Goldie's model might have been designed before that angle was scrapped, possibly (DHX does see the Premises and Outlines in advance, so they can start making new assets if necessary). As for the book pulling thing, probably just the whisky of the storyboard artists, but amusing all the same!
DeleteAnd it certainly does get going quick enough - normally in episodes like this it would take the whole first third, all of Act I, to get on the road, but this does that and leaves 2 mins and change for the song. Nice!
@Unknown/Culdee: Yes, indeed so. Checking back, I did note that as a plus point in my 2014 review -- "The subtle hints that Goldie Delicious might actually be a Pie" -- which is more than usually observant for me! :D
Delete^That "Unknown" was me, forgot to add my name.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the high 4 rating. This episode was what every pony episode should be: a whole lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteTwo of the best things about it was Pinkie Done Right, and a bunch of funny gags that fit into the story and setting.
Absolutely. S4 is very inconsistent when it comes to how well Pinkie is handled; I'm not sure why. This (and, soon, "Pinkie Pride") are highlights, but I know I'll have things to complain about as well...
DeleteI really liked this one at the time, and I think it holds up well. I probably would have been four stars on it to begin with and kept it there on seeing it again. It was a great portrayal of how no family is perfect, but that Pinkie didn't care about that. She just likes family so much that more is better, if if that doesn't make her an Apple, nothing would.
ReplyDeleteYes, that aspect (imperfection being part and parcel of even the best family) was one I'd mostly forgotten was handled so well here. Not that I'm complaining!
DeleteI also want to say just how lovely it is to have an episode that basically everyone likes. No controversy here!
ReplyDeleteThat's very true! I hope it won't be the last such episode in S4, either. :)
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