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| "Can you quit with the 'every "y'all" I play 5% faster' stuff already?" |
S5E06: "Appleoosa's Most Wanted"
My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 6.8
Thoughts:
I was mildly surprised to find I'd given this a three in 2015, as I'd remembered finding it a bit meh – as did the fandom as whole; that IMDb score is fairly representative. But whatever the case, this is now a reasonable enough episode, if no all-time great. Knowing the future for the CMC actually helps, I think: their work for Troubleshoes foreshadows their discovery that their cutie marks represent helping others to find who they are. Troubleshoes himself is quite a fun character, though his lugubrious self probably wouldn't work well as a regular. As I said six years ago you'd think the combination of a rodeo clown and Dave Polsky might have brought even more actual jokes. (The angry mob is an accidental one now, though!) This is an episode where Sweetie's magic really comes on, another quiet bit of foreshadowing that something might be up. A few minor callbacks to "Over a Barrel" (I know some may prefer to forget that one!) but overall this is a nicely self-contained episode. I don't think it's a particularly high three, as it's not that memorable – but I do think it does enough to retain that star rating.
Choice quote: Sheriff Silver Star: "I called for a meetin', not a mob scene."
New rating: ★★★
Next up is "Make New Friends But Keep Discord", which engendered some considerable excitement about the return of the Smooze, but which I remember as a moderately-good-but-no-more episode.
It is still dumb that Appleloosa is surrounded by a thick forest, but I always liked Troubleshoes, in every way, he's great. :D
ReplyDeleteEquestrian geography was clearly badly affected by some of Star Swirl's more excessive youthful magical pranks...
DeleteIt wasn't until this episode. Polsky isn't strong on continuity. (Or much else, IMHO.)
DeleteTroubleshoes seemed alright to me, but it was obvious what his deal was, so it got old quickly for me. Solidly middling episode imo.
ReplyDeleteI felt he could sustain one episode, but I'm glad he didn't come back for another go. I don't see what he could have done to make a second episode interesting.
DeleteWelp, bit late to the party with this one!
ReplyDeleteNot much to add – unlike many Dave Polsky episodes, it doesn't have moments of frankly dumb characterisation to fuel the plot or comedy (not always the case – see Applejack from an earlier script in the Production Notes). That's certainly good, but the main reason this episode produces an "eh, that was okay" is because, as Logan alludes to, it's just not as funny as the ingredients would lead you to believe (and not just that of a rodeo clown either). Combine that with a shaggy structure and a few random oddities (like forest surrounding a desert town, thanks Present Perfect), and it's the epitome of a mid ★★★ episode - watched, enjoyed moderately, and quickly forgotten about.
Just two other points. The early foreshadowing of the CMC's marks later this season is nice (and was far more spelt out in earlier drafts – here is a rare case where I think them holding that back a bit, letting it be just subtext, is better). And while Troubleshoes only just about sustains this one episode and it was very wise he was never brought back (FiM was largely more successful then not at knowing which characters wouldn't sustain a return appearance due to being too heavily designed around their feature episode), he is pretty great, and Jim Miller's performance is quite good. He's basically the Eeyore of FiM, and I mean that as a compliment.
See you in the new year (presumably) for another G1 throwback in a far more comical incarnation!
This man understands the grandeur of Troubleshoes. :)
Delete"Appleoosa's Most Wanted" – Production Changes
ReplyDeletePREMISE
Mostly just differences of focus here: Trouble Shoes (called Bad Luck at this stage) is convinced he has to be a bad guy due to his mark cursing him with bad luck, but his klutziness means he’s just a blowhard buffoon, and the conflict wraps up when everyone crosses paths in the forest, and the CMC get Bad Luck to share his cutie mark story (this is the first time they hear it too), and they all realise he was interpreting it wrong. The rodeo clown bit is confined to the CMC having a booked gig to try as that, which fails hilariously in the epilogue. They do, however, consciously note how they may have a talent for other ponies finding their destiny (foreshadowing!) and they’ll explore that further.
Oh, and an earlier draft of the Premise lacked the rodeo clown bit, but had a disconnected extra first act of Applejack reluctant to take Apple Bloom so she could focus on competing. AB doesn’t want to go without the rest of the CMC, but before Applejack can use that to shake her sister off, they’re coming too. So Applejack gets Pinkie and Fluttershy, the only ones available to drop their jobs, to come as supervision. Easy to see why this was dropped - it doesn’t inform the rest of the episode at all, and Pinkie/Fluttershy end up being hang-ons, stuck with the “bad foalsitter” bit Braeburn later gets.
OUTLINE
There’s some missing or swapped details, but the only significant thing not carried forward is that Trouble Shoes competes in a barrel race at the end (with Apple Bloom hiding under the sheets as him back in the jail cell), and an alternate backstory of his bad luck being failing confidence unwillingly stoked by a tough mentor who genuinely wanted his best.
SCRIPT
Like many past Dave Polsky scripts, there’s a lot of fluff in the early scripts, and a higher portion of changed words/lines from script to script then most other writers. In particular, the 1st script had its last act share almost no lines of dialogue, despite being basically the same onscreen events (for instance, Trouble Shoes does his speech totally alone without the CMCs, and it goes on for a full page-and-a-half. And weirdly, he wanted to be a rodeo clown from the get-go in the 1st script too). Funniest takeaway is the epilogue being the CMCs in jail until they get the train home, Applejack unmoving to their pleas for release as she plays cards with Silverstar.
The 2nd script has a lot of changes, but many lines still don’t match the episode. Most notably, after they divert Silverstar, Sweetie Belle produces the costume for Trouble Shoes (Scootaloo remarks Rarity would be proud), and the big stallion tries to escape, only getting more trapped. In V2 of the 2nd draft, the jail cell epilogue is jettisoned for the cleanup one in the final episode (except it’s manure… yeah, easy to see why that was changed instantly!), and Scootaloo is guilty about Trouble Shoes getting captured when he brings them back (before now, she was ecstatic about the thought of a bounty hunter cutie mark).
The next draft corrects all dialogue differences (except for the occasional bit that was altered in recording, more on that later).
[continued below]
[continued from above]
DeleteANIMATIC & OTHER CHANGES
As the script was 29.35 pages, there’s a lot of extra content. Mostly extra words and lines, pure fluff. The notable cuts include:
* In the opening, Silverstar sees the CMC unsupervised, bats away their questions about what he said, and tells them to get back to who’s minding them.
* Before the town meeting begins, Applejack asks Braeburn harshly why he didn’t mention Trouble Shoes was the reason many rodeos (including the ones local to Ponyville, as Applejack alluded to earlier) had been shut down. He tries another foreleg sympathy plea, which Applejack verbally swats down.
* After the CMC realise they’re lost, they have a classic argument about who’s fault it is (“I thought you were keeping track!”).
* The CMC wonder if Trouble Shoes is in the caravan before going in (as such, Apple Bloom’s dialogue about blankets, originally when they were inside, was shifted for better pacing).
* When the CMCs appeal to Applejack, Apple Bloom voices the possibility that Trouble Shoes didn’t take them, and they’d wandered off. Applejack goes into a verbal fit of fury, and they quickly cover it up as being silly, to which Applejack nods. Unneeded, given the “about that…” moment later.
* Sweetie Belle shows the clown outfit in the jail cell, specifying it as being made from Braeburn’s drapes (Scootaloo later remarks his taste in drapes isn’t very good).
Actual additions:
* Due to most characters having southern country accents, there’s a few cases of adjusted or added words/slang.
* In the script, Braeburn tackles the CMC to safety from the hay bale stack, not Applejack.
* When the CMCs slip off into a mud slide (specified to be like Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone), Sweetie Belle doesn’t fall, but jumps down after them (presumably to not get separated).
* The CMC free Trouble Shoes by Sweetie Belle jamming the cell door with a playing card into the latch as Silverstar closes it, rather than her just grabbing the keys.
* Apple Bloom’s “That’s my sister!” line upon Applejack winning wasn’t in the script. Very occasionally, DHX does get a full ad lib in there!
* Sweetie Belle’s line “But he never wanted to ruin any rodeos! Those were just bad accidents!” was originally Apple Bloom’s. Trying different things between the ensemble in the booth? Maybe Jim Miller being present for the recording (to play Trouble Shoes) accounted for more permission to go marginally off script with this one.
* Dave Polsky was reasonably specific with the visual action, but there were still some invented bits - for instance, Trouble Shoes and another clown wobbling their legs in synchronisation to keep one on top of the other was a late board addition, following animatic feedback on the audience’s laughter being unclear.
Animatic Feedback was non-existent otherwise: praise for Jim Miller’s performance, confusion over using a 10 to rank the hay hale score (hence the close-up on the higher measurement), cutting to the Sheriff earlier at the end as his voice isn’t that familiar, removing an injured pony during Trouble Shoes’ speech, and Standard and Practises making sure a townspony line came across as “whole dadgum thing!” and not “damn gun thing!” Quite literally everything!
OVERALL THOUGHTS
It’s a Dave Polsky script, alright – lots of wacky comedy business comes and goes between iterations, and there’s more fluff than other episodes thus far this season. Honestly, little of it is interesting, other than showing how the story was always shaggy. Even the instantly-scrapped false first act in Ponyville, or the CMC initially shoveling manure, barely register. My favourite bit is the CMC being in jail briefly, but it’s easy to see why this went, it doesn’t portray Applejack in a good light.
More ad libs and improvisation in this episode than most, though! That’s worthy of note.