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| 🎵 And I know that my hat will go on... 🎵 |
My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 6.8
Thoughts: Quite a fun episode for the most part, but one severely let down by its feeble ending, one that's become almost legendary – largely for the wrong reasons. It's so disappointing to come off quite an enjoyable ride and find out that "Ha, it's a bunyip who eats cucumber sarnies and who we'll never see again" is the best these writers can do to round it off. Okay, it's just about given clues in the episode, but come on. That's not the only irritation, either: as just one example, Applejack late on sounding surprised that Pinkie bringing a pile of games was intended for her friends. The Rashomon-style approach is quite nicely done, and allows the animators to go to town once again: compare the ship's flag to British Columbia's. Twilight does some fairly good work on friendship, though I'm iffy about her outright lying to the others to get them to arrive together on the pier. No doubt that Arrrplejack steals the show, though! All in all, I think this is more a highish two than a three for me now.
Choice quote: Rarity: "Oh, don't worry dear. Luxury cruises never sink."
New rating: ★★
Next
time, it's on to "Where the Apple Lies". A slightly strange episode, that, and one which I had mixed feelings about back in the day. I suspect that might still be the case, but we shall find out.
To me, this is a dud from the start. I just can't buy the idea that these three seasons-long friends would get into such a hostile spat over something so trivial. It comes across as misunderstanding the characters (I think it'd work better if the three aggrieved parties were new characters introduced into this episode that Twilight could then teach). So if I don't buy that crucial starting point, the episode is basically crippled out of the gate.
ReplyDeleteAs for the comedy... I only really remember pirate-Applejack, and to a lesser extent Rarity channelling Rose from Titanic (admittedly an inspired comparison). Admittedly, the traditional West Country accent of the stereotypical pirate maps oddly well onto a rural character like Applejack, making it unintentionally clever, but otherwise it just strikes me as basic lolrandom comedy: amusing in the moment, though nothing I can bust a gut to.
The irony is that the bunyip is one of the highlights of the episode for me. That is purely because I have an impulsive interest in new monster designs popping up. That's... basically it.
You can tell I'm not particularly into this one, can you? :/
I just can't buy the idea that these three seasons-long friends would get into such a hostile spat over something so trivial.
DeleteThis is the exact complaint that a reviewer on IMDb has about this episode, so you're not alone. While that irritated me a little bit, there were other things that annoyed me more. (My comment about Pinkie gives an example.)
Still, only two episodes until "Top Bolt" now!
Thinking about it, I might have a couple more interesting things to say about "Where the Apple Lies" than I had for this current ep. I'll say more when we get there. Suffice it to say neither knock it out of the park, but I find the next one to be a bit juicier than this one.
DeleteWhile hardly the best episode, whenever I think about this one, my mind immediately goes to Rarity's entrance of "Lalalaaaa~!" and it just sends me. The Rashomon idea was great, it just needed better framing.
ReplyDeleteEver since I found the Equestria Now podcast from October 2015 where guest M.A. Larson acclaimed how FiM largely avoided the same stock hack-y story types that inevitably got pitched on every other show he worked on, citing how MLP never had a Rashomon episode… it's hard to not see an episode like this as a clear-cut example of the difference in writing approach for the show's second half. Doubly so in the writing hands of the Fox Brothers, who pen almost nothing but dull, lethargic scripts, an approach more noticeable when telling variations on the same story three times.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, while this episode absolutely does not escape that sin, it has some energy throughout, and even if that mostly comes in the form of lolrandom comedy that, Pirate Applejack excepted, doesn't linger in the mind, it is amusing enough in the moment. And, I can be even fairer: the application of the Rashomon effect, while totally un-innovative and as stock as they come, does largely work. Even if having Rarity's story first was a big mistake, with Pirate Applejack leaving the other two rather plain in comparison, even as fun as the specific personality embellishments the three do of each other are.
The mystery is outright crippled by how weak the connective tissue is (the sandwich and bubbles telegraphed shots moment just do not have any context that would lead the viewer to the reveal), and while the bunyip is also a little weaksauce (it just feels like a random monster design without a signature or standout feature or factor), I take more issue with this missing the key conclusion of any Rashomon story, how it actually happened; instead we just get a quick "I was blinded to wanting you two to have a good time" that is far too soft for how hostile the three were being to each other all episode. Especially Pinkie; if she's giving the cold shoulder, you know it's bad. You can tell the writers just started with "what if AJ, Rarity and Pinkie exaggerated each other's personalities in biased tales?" and didn't care too much about it structurally beyond being a vehicle for that.
And… yeah, it is rather unbelievable that these three would get into a spat over this. At least, unlike most other episode cases of "this would work much better just transported back a few seasons" where it would still be inferior and a waste, this would work (it's akin to "Honest Apple" in that regard). Given the cast of just five and no timeline-ties bar swapping Twilight's castle for the library and using her unicorn model, it's easy to imagine too. And, at least, this regression produces a "mm, that's kind of wrong, lads" reaction rather then a "what are you doing, my god?!?" one.
In the end, this does, more or less, fall into the same quality ring as "Applejack's "Day" Off", albeit for largely different reasons. I do think there's enough comedic highlights and subtle jokes in the moment, and it certainly has some energy. Not nearly enough, though, certainly not to overcome its story troubles. Yet another mixed bag representative of the state the show's writing had settled into.
That podcast, if you're curious: https://www.youtube.com/live/WD5irc9kcGc?feature=share&t=6209
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ReplyDeleteThis had its fun moments, but it's never been more than ho-hum for me, what with another example of late-season character regression and the kind of mystery that doesn't invite the viewer to solve it along with the characters. Like, say, Rarity Investigates! That's the way to handle a mystery.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Rashomon-style stories are necessarily bad, particularly in a show that might make kids more aware that there are valid points of view differing from their own. But the fact that they're almost always done badly is telling, and a clue as to why Larson called out the practice in advance.
ReplyDeleteThe enjoyment I got out of the episode was almost entirely down to the exaggeration of AJ's and Rarity's characters, and in spite of Pinkie's.
"I don't think that Rashomon-style stories are necessarily bad, particularly in a show that might make kids more aware that there are valid points of view differing from their own."
DeleteI hadn't considered that deployment of the trope before, but now I have... yeah! It could be a really cool technique for using POVs instructively.
I suppose the mandatory caveat would be that the POVs would have to be taken seriously as attempts to get into a character's headspace for insights, rather than as just structural excuses for gags and gimmicks.
Damn, that "Anonymous" was me, sorry. Why does this keep happening to me!?
DeleteHappens to me, too!
DeleteYeah, the differing POVs would have to be reasonable and valid, and that's not an easy puzzle to solve. Making them shallow and ridiculous is easy... as we saw in this episode.
Easily one of the show's most forgettable episodes. In fact, it's so forgettable I don't care to remember what happened. This is an episode that one can skip and not lose anything of value.
ReplyDeleteThis was a short comment from me, I know, but there's very little I could say that others hadn't.