 |
| FiM Flutters realises she can copy Pony Life Flutters' size-changing spell... |
14 Nov 2015
My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 7.1
Thoughts: It's not "What About Discord?" That's one plus to start with. On the downside, the real-life Hatfield–McCoy feud is not that well known on this side of the Atlantic, so its resonances don't necessarily hit. What results is an okay episode with some nice touches, and happily a well-written Fluttershy. Her best scenes are with critters, such as a lovely moment involving a tortoise (not Tank). It's a shame that 'Shy very much takes second place in her team-up with Twilight – she's almost a "with" rather than a "co-starring" in the episode. The hillbilly ponies do what hillbillies do in basically every hillbilly story ever. That might actually work better over here, as they're less overplayed in the UK than I suspect they are in the US. Back to FiM: the guest characters are reasonable, if not especially memorable (even Big Daddy McColt) and the various vegetable-based attacks are mildly amusing. The resolution at least makes some use of Twilight's alicorn-level magic, ending on a suitably Pony note of friendship and reconciliation. I gave this three stars last time, but I can't quite justify that now. So it's bumped down to two, but it's a top-end two. Not a memorable episode – I'm having to look things up already – but it passes the time. And, as I said, it's not "What About Discord?"
Choice quote: Fluttershy: "I'm Fluttershy and, um, I'm here too."
New rating: ★★
Next
up is "The Mane Attraction", which in 2015 I liked with a few reservations. I suspect I'll feel similarly now, though perhaps with some different emphases.
I gather that even to American audiences for whom the historical feud this episode is based off of is a thing, this was always a weird choice for an episode plot. Certainly, that it had to be toned way down to be appropriate for a TV-Y cartoon makes it feels rather infantile at times, and there’s a pervasive “so, what was the point?” feeling here. They foreground how the two families excel in different things, right down to their designs (the McColts are all bigger than normal ponies, being builders), and I even like the notion of some earth ponies not being natural farmers. But coupled with the feud’s actual origin feeling so flimsy, it just makes the conflict feel rather inorganic. That said, the overall story is perfectly fine, it’s just the details within that need tweaking.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing Americans probably have a stronger reaction to is the families both being hillbillies, and rather stereotyped ones at that. I can’t comment much there, except to say it gets old pretty fast, and certainly wasn’t a wise play. As for our lead ponies, Fluttershy is pretty great in this one (as is everything before we get to the conflict, wonderful cute moments and chemistry between her and Twilight, plus Furry Friends Book Club), with a nice balance of being timid but not too scared, though the episode strains to fit the conflict into something for her. As for Twilight, well, her geeking out is fine, as is her planning, but her reliance on her title and the almost-smug sense of superiority that comes with it just grates fast. Not “Applejack is as dumb as a rock” levels in “Hearthbreakers”, but still. It only underscores how much Twilight’s character change as a princess, which was more or less complete by this point, made her a rather bland mush who got entitled, coasting on rare dork moments and our previous affection for her. When getting her written in a better way more true to her old self means an episode like “What About Discord?”… tough world we live in, isn’t it?
Some other small highlights – there’s nice visual designs throughout (I really liked most of the background Hooffields, though the McColts are more interesting characters), and Big Daddy is the one character who comes through with a proper personality (I hope I’m not just saying that because of his future cameo in “Fluttershy Leans In”, one of the few good things in that episode, but you never can tell). But off the back of Twilight moaning in prior map episodes about wanting her turn to get called, it’s easy to understand why this one has been consigned to “meh” filler status from the moment it aired. It’s certainly less dull than “Made in Manhattan”, though with a range of more good and bad moments in either direction. Hard to say which is better or worse, though I don’t think it really matters.
"The Hooffields and McColts" – Production Changes
ReplyDeletePREMISE
Nearly identical given its four-paragraph length. Only difference is when Twilight and Fluttershy find the problem out from the animals, the two families almost make a new feud out of which side is really the bigger pony, until Fluttershy gives the critters a voice to speak through.
OUTLINE
There's a couple of small differences: the first grievance is the McColts putting rocks in the Hooffields' pillows; the tomatoes were set off by accident by a hungry squirrel trying to get them; the Trojan Cake was denied entries and the McColts rained pebbles on it, to which the Hooffields slingshotted the ruined cake back, and at the end, Twilight reigns in her theories over what's next when Fluttershy assured her they'll figure it out, only to then wonder if the map will go away having served its purpose.
Scarily accurate otherwise, with one small difference and one big one carrying through to the first draft.
SCRIPT
The small difference from above is the pair taking the train, not a balloon. The big difference? We got the narrated backstory right from the animals (identical except for, and thus Fluttershy was later summarising it for the two feuding families. Surprised it made it this far, it's such an obviously repetitive thing.
Otherwise, Twilight mentions the name of the one reference book (Equestria: A Topographer’s Guide), the McColt guard isn't stunned by Twilight being an alicorn (and he name-drops his fellow guard, Rock Mason) one guard licks off and enjoys a tomato he's hit with, Fluttershy fetches blankets for the animals, and the fountains of the ancestors was originally a glass mosaic of the families working together.
The 2nd draft compresses the backstory into one scene, and corrects every other small dialogue difference (of which there were very few, honestly). The polish drafts rephrase the guard being surprised at Twilight being an alicorn (previously, he said he thought only princesses were alicorns, to which Twilight confirmed this, saying she’s one too), to make it clearer they simply hadn’t yet heard of Twilight’s coronation. Two seasons ago.
ANIMATIC-STAGE CHANGES
This script only clocked in at 27.5 pages, so the number of cuts were quite small. Thus, I've noted more than usual.
* The Book Club meeting for the Wuthering Heights parody started off with Fluttershy checking every animal had blankets and cocoa.
* Fluttershy’s excitement about new animal friends also has her musing they could use more voices in the book club.
* Ma Hooffield also notes Twilight’s an alicorn, wondering how the McColts got her as a spy. Later, when Twilight asks for a pumpkining ceasefire, Ma questions why, and Twilight says so they don’t get splattered while talking to the McColts.
* When Big Daddy says Twilight & Fluttershy caught them at a weird time, another guard chimes in that they’re always in the feud, so there’s never a good time. Big Daddy then says now’s as good a time as any. Later, the same guard notes the Hooffields dinners getting launched at them wouldn’t be so bad, it’d be food besides pumpkins.
* When the McColts launch hay bales, Ma Hooffield asks Fluttershy to help hammer their broken home back together. This continues through the next few scenes, where after Ma answers Twilight’s question, she asks Fluttershy for another building favour, ending in a melon catapult being revealed. Twilight exclaims at this, Fluttershy realising her mistake and saying she didn’t mean to. A few other bits of Ma and Fluttershy’s relationship like this throughout got cut too.
[animatic-stage changes and final thoughts below]
[continued from above]
Delete* When transporting the cake, Ma Hooffield agrees Twilight was right, winking at her, which Twilight doesn’t notice. Making her think Twilight’s speaking in code more obvious. There were other Hooffields present too (bit weird Ma could pull the cake by herself), and Twilight was helping with her magic the whole way.
* The guards need to be told what “Assume delta force formation” means (“It means get out there and fight those Hooffields!”).
* After the act break, there were several specified lines of McColt/HoofFields walla during the fight.
* Fluttershy says the animals told her the Hooffields and McColts used to be friends. Wise to cut this, revealing it too early.
* Unnecessary narration over the ancestors's repeated sabotage was removed.
* After peace is made, there’s a few lines of Ma and Big Daddy admiring the new house and gardens, before Ma gets Fluttershy to unveil the fountain statue. Twilight and Fluttershy’s cutie marks also started glowing here.
* Like prior map episodes, Twilight and Fluttershy’s departure had the camera angle on a Tree of Harmony sapling sprouting out of the garden.
* Twilight cut her rambling on the next possible map mission off Fluttershy’s look, saying they’ll just wait and see.
Many visuals one would think were board additions (all of the troubled animals bits underneath exposition, for instance) were actually in the script. Actual additions and changes:
* Most of Twilight’s over-excited quirks, especially the frequent teleporting, were board additions. Much like in “Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3”.
* The shot of Fluttershy tying the balloon down and then flying off after Twilight.
* Tara Strong ad-libbed Twilight’s “Sorry I’ve been a little skiddy-bopty-boo”. It was written as “distracted”.
* Half of the pumpkin food Big Daddy rattles off (quesadillas, paella, cheese, pie) were recording booth additions too; the script only had three.
* A few words were sometimes changed to reflect some characters’ dialects/accents (e.g. yellin’ -> hollerin’), and the “They know what they did” lines were written as “The McColts/Hoofields know what they did”.
* Twilight ripping pages out of her friendship portfolio.
* Twilight puts heavy bags on Fluttershy again in the final shots as they leave. Thus, in the script, they flew, as opposed to walking.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco either gel really well with Meghan McCarthy and Hasbro's sensibilities, or with sharing writing duties, because much like "Rarity Investigates!", basically the whole episode was there right from the outline. Far more so here: 95-7% of the script was unchanged from the 1st draft, and it would have been 99% without sensibly compressing two tellings of the backstory into one. Kind of fitting a very unmemorable episode (though not the worst on that front this season) had a very unmemorable production, with the one notable thing, a repeated backstory, being dull as rocks.
This gets me thinking, though: the Lady Writers' writing went over so well with McCarthy & Hasbro, what if they'd been given the Story Editor keys from the start over Josh Haber? Yes, they didn't do much better than him when they did get them in Season 7 ("The Perfect Pear" excepted), but they had to deal with his mistakes by then. Imagine if they'd had it from the start. It was reasonable to not give it to new writers with only three episodes under their belt, and maybe they were busy elsewhere during Season 6 anyway. They got occupied with a studio sitcom during Season 8 that never took off, after all. But one does wonder.
God, what a stupid episode. Nevermind what people outside the US would recognize, literally no kid in the target audience watching this episode would know about the Hatfields and McCoys. That feud wasn't even a major event when I was a kid, I only absorbed the general idea through various cartoon parodies.
ReplyDeleteAll of which had characters that looked exactly like these ponies. :| Not great.
And I mean, the story's just fine, though it's got some crossover with Over a Barrel. But yeah, 3 stars down to 2 is right on if you ask me.
I have forgotten most of the details of this episode. I intended to rewatch it before your review but got buried in work and new lambs. Low three-star would be what I would have thought.
ReplyDeleteThe hillbilly thing... well, as an American living in the backwoods (sort of) I'll just say that stereotypes come from somewhere. One visual gag I do remember fondly is the cutie mark on one stallion being a bag of hammers. I don't know if it's widely known in Britain, but "dumb as a bag of hammers" is a common countryism here.
Of course, the "Hollywood Types" who wrote this episode have their own set of semi-deserved negative tropes, so... pot / kettle.
Considering their attitudes toward Applejack, I am not inclined to give them any consideration in this case whatsoever.
DeleteI don't know if it's widely known in Britain, but "dumb as a bag of hammers" is a common countryism here.
DeleteI hadn't heard it, but I'd get it. I suppose our closest equivalent would be "sharp as a sack of bricks", though I prefer the shortened form "sharp as a brick" myself. I'm not sure if that's specifically a British colloquialism (it certainly needs no explanation as to the meaning), but it feels more common here, at least.
As for Present Perfect's point, I suppose we'd have picked up the types they're going for through various cartoon parodies over the years as well (hey, animation travels well), though that doesn't make me any more favourably inclined towards their execution here.
"Thick as a brick" is the phrase I know. I don't remember actually hearing "sharp as a brick" (or its longer version) out in the wild, so to speak. I agree with Mike though that the "hammers" phrase is not a British thing but is pretty easy to understand so nobody would get confused at seeing it on screen etc.
DeleteI first heard "thick as a brick" on a Genesis album!
DeleteThe writers of the earlier seasons seemed to treat Applejack pretty well, (Over a Barrel aside... which treated everybody badly), and her "country" ways were held up as the virtues of hard work, close family, honesty, etc.
As time went on, the writers and their work got more of that insular Hollywood feel, and they started to insert weird new-age fads and superstitions into episodes without explanation. I'm a bit surprised we never saw a jade egg somewhere in the background.