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| "You mean it was in the Public Announcements column all along?!" |
17 Oct 2015
My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 8.3
Thoughts: Given the excitement of "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" the previous week, G. M. Berrow's debut as a show writer (she was already well known for her FiM chapter books) was a little overlooked in places. This is a lower-key episode, although in retrospect it was the genesis of one of the series' less successful innovations, the introduction of Flurry Heart. Here, Pinkie knows that Cadance is expecting but tries desperately not to blab the secret to anypony else. (The fandom had guessed for ages thanks to merch, though at this point thought the foal would be called Skyla...) It's a bit of a one-note story and possibly a little thin for an episode by this point, but it's watchable. Pinkie is decently written, which always helps, although I wish her scavenger hunt hadn't been quite so rushed. Shining Armor's nerd turn was great as it usually is, and I liked Rarity getting to do a version of the "Forever" thing at Pinkie. Oh, Fluttershy's squeeing at the thought of an albino squirrel was cute, but there were irritations here. I didn't much like Pinkie literally "going to pieces" at the end: looking at it from 2022, that seems more of a Pony Life joke than a Friendship is Magic one. I still can't quite work out what they were going for with the Mayor Mare scene, and apparently Mr Cake calls his wife... "Mrs Cake". Well then. In some slightly indefinable way, this felt like an inexperienced show-writer's work. Most of the elements are there, but the gel isn't quite superglue. Still fun though, so it keeps its three-star rating.
Choice quote: Featherweight: "Maybe you'd better just make me a giraffe."
New rating: ★★★
Next
up is "Hearthbreakers", one of those late-S5 episodes that a lot of people tend to forget exists. My own memories are vague, though I seem to recall quite liking it in a low-key sort of way. If Limestone Pie can ever be low-key.
| assy's "Everypony loves royalty!" |
S5E14: "Canterlot Boutique"
My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 7.9
Thoughts: After the first of FiM's
irritating mid-season hiatuses, we did at least have the stalwart Amy
Keating Rogers in the writing saddle for the show's return. It's a good
episode, too, albeit perhaps the least of the run from "Amending Fences"
to "Rarity Investigates!" We see Rarity in her fashion designing mode
more centrally than since "Suited for Success", and personally I prefer
Canterlot as the big target for her than Manehattan as happened later in
the series. Sassy Saddles (voiced by Kelly Sheridan, incidentally) is a
decent sidekick, albeit not one with enough sass to be truly
memorable. A hint of a troubled past career ("another failed boutique"?)
but she was neither unpleasant enough to be a "love to hate" pony or
sympathetic enough for the redemption to really click. I still don't
like the very last joke, which is a bit too close to "let's make fun of
the weird-looking pony" for comfort, though it wasn't AKR's fault. A
couple of the other shop customers were fun, though, especially the
gothy Moonlight Raven. One small criticism of Rarity: the customer who
complained her Princess Dress wasn't what she ordered was correct,
yet she was portrayed almost as the bad guy for saying so. Still,
overall the episode's core plot of "creative job made into a chore" was
fine and appropriate. It was executed pretty well, there's a nice song by Jona Lewie and even though it's not an outstandingly memorable episode it is good. I think it's perfectly worthy of a very solid three. No change to this ep's star rating!
Choice quote: Rarity to Twilight: "In every poll Sassy Saddles took, you were the most popular princess!"
New rating: ★★★★★
Next
up is another Rarity-centric episode, "Rarity Investigates!" – it's
widely seen as an excellent ep. Certainly in 2015 I agreed with that
consensus. I hope I shall have at least as much fun with it this time
around!
"Thin" is definitely the word I would use to describe this. One idea stretched across 22 minutes until it's completely transparent does not a memorable episode make.
ReplyDeleteThough "Is it Albert?" is one of Fluttershy's greatest moments, no lie.
I must confess, I'm still missing the punchline of the "Is it Albert?" joke, which reflects poorly on me, I'm sure. Then again, I am the ghost who never noticed the Charlie Brown pony in "Made in Manehattan" until the rewatch a month ago, so…
DeleteAnd, curiously, is there a particular reason the fandom latched onto Skyla as a name for Flurry Heart? Another thing my (limited) digging into stuff from around the time hasn't dug up. Speaking to the whole crowd here.
Mike - Princess Skyla was the name of a "So Soft Newborn" pony toy released in mid 2012. Because the Skyla toy was a pink baby alicorn, fans quickly speculated that her name was going to be Hasbro's choice for a future child of Cadance and Shining Armor.
DeleteThe fact that Fluttershy knows enough albino squirrels to need affirmation as to which one Pinkie is referring is the sum total of the joke. Well, that and her adorable enthusiasm. :)
DeleteAlso, that toy name explains why iisaw's (excellent) adventure story starring an older Flurry Heart is called The Skyla Pseudonym.
DeleteAh, so that's where Skyla comes from. All the way back around the time of "A Canterlot Wedding". Fair!
DeleteThe fact that Fluttershy knows enough albino squirrels to need affirmation as to which one Pinkie is referring is the sum total of the joke.
Yet again, I was overthinking it, thinking it was a layered reference or allusion I wasn't getting. Bad ghost, stop being too smart!
Also, that toy name explains why iisaw's (excellent) adventure story starring an older Flurry Heart is called The Skyla Pseudonym.
That, I pegged the instant I first saw Skyla as an assumed name for Flurry. It's been ages since I read The Skyla Pseudonym, but I remember ranking it 3rd in the quadrilogy, though quite close to The Twilight Enigma – The Luna Cypher was the only one I felt underwhelmed by, the others were all great page-turners, though I persist in preferring The Celestia Code above them all, as stated before. Won't say much more until I return to reread the lot!
This was always G.M. Berrow’s best episode, no contest, but in the years since the show ended, I’ve really come around to recognise many consistent limitations and poor quirks in her writing, not least from reading the Mane 6 chapter books. Primarily in the area of characterisation shortcuts and simplification, and being consistent with her own works at the cost of not always matching that of the show's canon (better than Josh Haber, Michael Vogel and Nicole Dubuc managed, constantly contradicting their own canon). Finally revisiting this did it good and bad favours – it’s got some of her flaws poking through and strains six ways to Sunday to make 21 minutes out of this infantile plot idea. But Meghan McCarthy appears to have reigned in Berrow’s tendencies, possibly a side effect of this being McCarthy’s plot idea she handed off and which barely changed during production, like many other episodes in Season 5’s second half – it’s worth mentioning Berrow pitched a lacklustre Daring Do episode and got reassigned to this. And I cannot think of many episodes so boosted from both Andrea Libman’s performance and all the gags and poses the board artists added.
ReplyDeleteGranting that, I find this to be both quite funny and a drag. It’s not because we’re told the secret from the beginning, any kid would have figured it out without Pinkie spelling it out for us. But the episode does not remotely have the stamina for twenty minutes of wading through Pinkie freaking out (imagine an 11-minute version of this episode! – one can dream), and it makes it all kind of a non-issue, especially with the frequent fakeouts. Every single act tires before it’s over, and I found myself thinking “why is it spending so long on Pinkie around town, get to Shining Armor and Cadance arriving!” Then I sat through the scavenger hunt, which is equally draggy. Least the episode’s pacing is consistent!
That said, among other “a simple idea stretched beyond belief” nothing episodes in Season 5, you’ll notice I said this was funny. Not a laugh riot, and many of the jokes tied to the main plotline wear thin just as quickly. But a good gag, visual or verbal, comes along frequently enough to break up the monotony. They’re all there in the episode, so I will instead note there’s plenty of nice touches. Having Shining and Cadance talk to somepony other than Twilight, and having Twilight and Shining go all-out on being adorkable (horse noises!), are both great. The episode is better than many in a while at using various ponies from around the community (though the Mayor Mare plotline just registers as confusing without context of earlier script drafts). Pinkie herself is written well for how crazy she is in this one, with little annoying flanderisation, and we see her commitment to her craft and smarts in solving the scavenger hunt. I am obliged to note Spike gets a very raw deal, absent from most Mane 6 scenes and relegated to two lines (Cathy Wesluck says more as Mayor Mare) and burning Shining’s prized mint comic.
So, a draggy episode not suited to rewatching, alas but it's got simple pleasures and manages to marshal them into a mildly enjoyable end result. Still Berrow’s best episode, sadly, across all Pony media (not including A New Generation here, but it’ll be interesting to see whether the Make Your Mark series dates this comment badly – I’d gladly welcome it doing so). But sometimes the funnies are enough.
"The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" – Production Changes
ReplyDeletePREMISE
This was just a 150-word paragraph, reading more as an elevator pitch than anything. It skips right from the setup to "Pinkie manages to keep the secret" focusing on the elation of witnessing Twilight being surprised. So already we see the issue of it having to invent conflict to join the 3 minutes of plot laid out here.
OUTLINE
This goes over 6 pages and is very accurate already! Apart from prototype dialogue, notable difference include:
* Mrs. Cake doesn't tell Pinkie to keep it a secret, she comes to that conclusion herself.
* At the castle meeting, Twilight is disappointed Cadance is joining Shining for the trip last-minute, as she had no time to make a big surprise for her too, though her friends assure her that Cadance will be happy, revelling in Shining's delight. Applejack's suggestion that Cadance will get a kick from the toys as they might have a foal someday sends Pinkie into overdrive.
* Pinkie is more distracted when making the balloons, as they're all baby-themed.
* Pinkie and Mayor Mare communicate in code until it's clear it was a different secret she knew (this doesn't really make sense, as she knows later).
* Fluttershy didn't ask Pinkie to bring over food, so it's Rainbow Dash who gets Pinkie to come over for a different reason.
* Some different details in the scavenger hunt (no Applejack certificate yet) and it plays more into visiting locations Pinkie was at yesterday, with the ponies there 100% knowing what's up.
* Pinkie ends the episode by rattling on to Cadance that she's a great foalsitter.
SCRIPT
The 1st draft is standard "keeps some outline differences and has many different lines saying the same thing", but is very close anyway. There's a page of padding in everypony being received Twilight has good news and Pinkie egging her to spit it out (Pinkie herself spits out the pacifier she had from earlier, which ricochets like a pinball until it lands by Gummy, who starts sucking on it). In this draft, the CMC cameo is Pinkie darting away from two parents wanting to show off their new foal. Funnily, the balloon scene is clearly a pre-"Crusaders of the Lost Mark" draft, as Apple Bloom requests what her cutie mark might be (and is disappointed to get an apple-shaped balloon), and Diamond Tiara, still snappy, gets a balloon of herself as a baby. There's also a rather unfunny bit of Pinkie playing "Chicken, Chicken, Moose" ("Duck, Duck, Goose") and choosing Rarity to whisper the secret to. Finally at the scavenger hunt, Pinkie realises these are all places from yesterday and has them skip checking AJ's birth certificate to go to the furniture store (AJ is not amused by Dash wanting to her her weight when she was born).
The 2nd draft scraps all the above differences (though it still has Diamond Tiara instead of Scootaloo getting a baby-themed thing, here a present box). It also adds in Twilight piecing together the clues (up to now, they just told her the surprise), and has Pinkie connecting the clues on a chalkboard like a detective as she does so (the final draft had her squeezing a balloon tighter and tighter). The Polish drafts finally sub in Scootaloo (probably to avoid an unnecessary VA fee, as it didn't specifically need DT), and has the ant farm actually have ants already (it was previously empty).
[animatic-stage changes and final thoughts below]
[continued from above]
DeleteANIMATIC-STAGE CHANGES
Not that many cuts, due to the fast visual pace of Pinkie's dialogue and the gags/cuts. Mostly just some little trims. These include:
* Mrs. Cake tells Pinkie not to peep at the scroll (cutting this made it seem like she was aware Pinkie peeked at it). Worth noting the script had her line offscreen, while the episode had her come back in and do the “ssh” motion along with Pumpkin.
* When Fluttershy bumps into Pinkie, she has a book, “How to Become the Best Ant –” she sneezes, and Pinkie thinks she knows the secret too (Ant = Aunt) “– Farmer”. Perhaps it's good this was cut, localisers would have had a nightmare with that pun! The glasses on her tail and the Grouch Marx pony were board additions, of course.
* Pinkie’s delivery montage has her using Scootaloo’s scooter to drop off boxes, paper-route style, leaving the filly herself perplexed. Also, her pondering on whether to spill the beans to a window (her reflection rather than the pony inside) took place before this montage, not after.
TONS of gags and moments were added or changed at the board stage, though Berrow wrote her fair share too. Notable additions not already mentioned include:
* The close-up of an ant being terrified of Fluttershy.
* Pinkie contemplating a pony in a window (she was talking to her reflection in the script).
* The "friends, friends" bit as balloons of the Mane 5 (this was just written as them getting bigger).
* The whole cutaway of Shining liking his room, and being aghast at the burnt comic.
* Putting the first scroll in the fountain (the script had a random pony delivering it).
* Removing the Cakes and their foals from most of the final scene (also Spike from the whole scavenger hunt).
* In the script, Pinkie was squeezing a balloon tightly as Twilight pieced the clues together. Thus, her breaking up was written as her deflating down after exploding in fireworks with the balloon at the reveal. This was likely shifted and the gag rewritten to properly let Twilight’s delight at being an aunt ring truer. Pinkie’s “it was NOT easy” head shake at the camera for the final shot was a board addition off Hasbro’s request to incorporate the “lesson” better.
Lots of animatic feedback too, though they did praise Andrea and board artists for bringing their A-game on the stuff not between the lines, which the episode lives or dies by. As well as the above examples, some visual shots and gags came out of this, like Rarity's reaction to Pinkie.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Context is key here – G.M. Berrow pitched a poor Daring Do episode that didn't get approved, and got assigned to this. It's still her episode, as Meghan McCarthy only wrote an elevator pitch. But it landed very early and had only marginal focus shifts throughout. The core strengths were there from the beginning, as was the core weakness of the juvenile plotting and nature, and being a drag for 21 minutes. I note many of her tendencies evident in the rest of her Pony work are light or absent here, which makes sense, being her first episode under a tight rein where she'd be more cautious. Plus, you know, her other episodes were under Story Editors who didn't care, or herself with no one to say “no” – only A New Generation similarly expunged many of her poorer tics through tighter control.
Though Hasbro is right, Andrea Libman and the board artists plussed this one quite a lot. Berrow did contribute many gags herself (the blow-up dancing air pony, everything in the delivery montage, the reflection callback, etcetera), so she deserves credit too. Overall, very uneventful development for this, except to re-appreciate how important at DHX, the voice actors and Meghan McCarthy are to the show's success.
I'd forgotten about the Fluttershy bits in this one, but they really are the best things about the episode.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I saw it more than once, and I don't remember Fluttershy's part at all. It was just... very forgettable.
ReplyDelete