Rooty Toot Toot, right in the snoot

I just finished my first semester of grad school, so I believe it's time for the traditional grad school chant.

"Schools out, schools out.
Teacher let the monkeys out.
One was jailed.
One prevailed.
Both asked god,
'How have I failed.' "

Anyway, this means I've got more time to read more fanficts (unless work gets on my butt too much).

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Today (Dec. 18th) the second anniversary of one of the most important recent events: the start of the Tunisian Revolution and Arab Springs. My heart goes out to those people, but I have worries, mainly about Syria (I fear another Yugoslavia no matter who wins). The road to democracy is a gauntlet, where a lot can go wrong and a lot still does after completion. Still, I wouldn't trade the experience of watching it happen for any story I've read.

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On Wonderbolt Academy

First off I want to say the obvious, Pinkie needs to be given something. I don’t know what, but that pony is really got on my nerves. It’s personalities like her that tranquilizer darts were invented for in the first place, and I really wanted her friends to fire one at her rear (yes, this wasn’t going to happen, but a rabbit can dream right).

That aside I have a rather uncertain feeling on this episode, part of it hangs on how Dash and her clone were presented as characters, it seemed... off. I’ve talked before about how I view fictional characters, seeing them as ideas that are malleable in some ways but not others. Pick up a Carl Barks story and you’ll see Donald as an incompetent boob and his nephews as mature, but pick up another (even from the same year) and you’ll see that it has been reversed. Now in Barks’ hands, that seems natural and in character, not a case of plot or desire overtaking character, but in lesser hands it doesn’t work as well. This is one of those cases. Dash seemed way too cautious for her usual self (Dash is arrogant and cocksure with a soft, vulnerable inside that fears failure); she would give up her dream for her friends (although, she wouldn’t pass up a chance to make fun of them) but because of her cocksure attitude, she would still charge ahead without problems. Lightning Dust, I’m going to be honest, reminded me more of the old Dash from Season 1 (however I will come out and say that it’s been awhile since I’ve watched any of season 1, so I will admit to the possibility of being wrong). Dash wouldn’t pass up the chance to leave others in her dust without a care in the world (look at what she does to win in “Fall weather Friends”), but she doesn’t do that here. The characterization here was just off in my mind.

Then there’s the end. Okay, I am one hundred percent fine with Dash telling Dust and Spitfire to shove it. However, I expected her to do the same when Spitfire (or her one of her sisters, god her voice changes as much as Bon Bon’s) placed the pin on her, which for me cheapened the end.

Overall, I didn’t like this episode (didn’t dislike it either). It felt predictable and to be honest, it lacked humor (Pinkie doesn’t count). Merriwether Williams wrote this episode, and I’ll admit that it was better than her first episode (or are their any people who like “Mare-do well”, thus far the only episode I know to cause a sizable backlash from this fandom), and felt a little more in tone with the show than most of her others. So, it seems they tamed her, for what it's worth.

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Allegrezza by Coffeegrunt

I remember this one back when it was updating. It was popular enough that it was Fimfiction’s feature board way back in October and the months after and I read comments that showed excitement it when it was part of the updates (one commenter I think said that they usually don’t read shipping but this was an exception). Most notably this was one of only eight six-stars fanficts to ever get more than one thousand votes on Equestria Daily (Past Sins, Fallout: Equestria, On a Cross and Arrow, My Little Dashie, Progress, Fallout: Equestria: Project Horizons, and Yours Truly were the others roughly in this order from most to least votes, and I think the five starred “Through the eyes of another pony” did as well). For those reasons, I wanted to check it out to see what others saw, despite my general disinterest in the genre. I think I tried it out briefly, but stopped before finishing chapter two, deciding I’ll read it when Chris gets to it. Well, that didn’t work out, so I read it on my own time, and it took longer than it should have.

There are definitely things that are in this piece that were better than I expected. Light-hearted puns such as Hoofs Zimmer and Neighjing often brought a smile to my face (my favorite hands down being “Braytish”, that’s so brilliant I think I would steal it). Other amusing bits such as Vinyl’s “tin foil” outfit (and Octavia’s later put down of it being unfit for a Dr. Whooves episode) also made me chuckle. In a sense, there’s no shortage of humor, not all of it was funny (a fourth wall joke to the reader made me cringe given how out of place it was), but for a story like Allegrezza, it was good.

But I found Allegrezza lacking in other ways. The first problem I had came from after Octavia wakes up on Vinyl’s bed after being brought there by her. I could buy Vinyl taking Octavia to the former’s home because the latter was too drunk to head to her own, that’s a level of courtesy I can accept. But the way the two talked to each other after that, so causal, that it strained credibility. The two seemed to have jumped to first base way too quick. Neither of them is alluring as a character, there are differences (although I don’t think Coffeegrunt played up the typical fandom interpretations (snotty and aloof for Octavia and immature and hip for Vinyl Scratch) as much as most, not too surprising given this is one of the fanficts that helped establish them), but they aren’t as vivid as say “The Vinyl Scratch Tapes.” I just never could bring myself to care for them. Vinyl doing volunteer work for sick foals, that’s something both plausible and unexpected, but it didn’t change my attitude towards the character. The prose might have been part of the problem, there’s perhaps too much narration for me to describe the characters rather than letting them act out themselves (“Vinyl could never really lie”).

What really bothered me about Allegrezza was that at various points I felt that Coffeegrunt had set up something to make the story more interesting, but ultimately went in a direction that shunned such attempts (or perhaps did not realize what juices could have been milked out it). When Lyra was introduced as a rival for Octavia, I thought to myself, “finally, a conflict of sorts, an obstacle to truly overcome.” But, except for when the two are put in the ensemble and have trouble working together at practice (which was resolved in a rather unbelievable way), it was missing anything that could actually hurt any of the mares. Snide remarks aren’t enough.

Actually Lyra and Bonbon (who are thankfully portrayed differently than most fandom interpretation with Lyra being the more serious one and Bon Bon being more of a prankster, although whether that had to do with it being written when it was or was a conscious choice, I don’t know) actually lead to where my biggest issue was. When Lyra’s career was revealed to have a setback because of her decision to marry Bon Bon, I thought to myself, “why isn’t the same done for Octavia.” There was probably only one mention of Octavia worrying that her relationship with Vinyl would hurt her career, but that was it. We don’t see the tabloid magazine damage her reputation (it just embarrasses her), there’s nothing to bring her down. Plus, Vinyl wasn’t really sacrificing anything or had anything to worry about with her relationship. She wasn’t going to suffer from backlash from her fans or anyone. The stakes are just too low. When the audience pretty much knows the two are going to end up together, the writer needs to put in obstacles to overcome, something to make that final kiss seem like a triumph. I don’t mind Coffeegrunt going for a more mundane, real life like story that lacks glitz and glamour (plot twists, cliffhangers, and their ilk), heck I like those stories myself, but the ones I like to read always had something at stake (in “Of Mice and Men”, for example, there’s always the risk of George and Lenny having to go on the run again given the nature of the latter). Anything from the two having a fall out (there was only a brief bit where Octavia thought Vinyl was cheating on her) to the two really having to adjust with the other (they feel static for the most part) would have created a reason for me to care for the two.

There are two main types of flaws in a work in a fiction; those that result its creator does and those that result from what he/she/it does not do. I don’t think Allegrezza had a painful amount of the former, but it had way too much of the latter. There’s definitely a concept here that can work, and be interesting; a story of two mares (flowing with life) striking a friendship and then falling for each other, but worry about what such a relationship would do to their reputations and have to make choices about that; that’s a story I could get interested in. It’s just not presented here, and so I was bored, which is why it took as long as it did to read, and overall, disappointed.

Addendum: I just read Chris’s review of the fict (I don’t read his reviews for ficts that I want to read), and I’m a little surprised there wasn’t more a backlash for it, given the popularity of the fict. Most people seemed to say “this was something I read when I first came, and I didn’t have as high standards.” That’s understandable (that was the point of my top ten re-read), but the lack of disagreement is strange. Then again, there weren’t any defending Past Sins or MLD, so who knows. In any case it seems I disagree with this fandom.... again.

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Now time for something that doesn't depress me: old cartoons, including one of my favorites.

Lighter than Hare – 1960

The Martian is perhaps the most famous of Bugs’ interstellar foes, but what if one of his more common enemies took on a similar role. Featuring the rabbit facing off against “Yosemite Sam of Outer Space”, this funny cartoon features great gags even if it’s lacking in a few other fields.

Drag-a-Long Droopy – 1954

Avery is one of animation’s greatest directors and it’s cartoons like this that are proof of that. Featuring Droopy and a generic wolf character (generic is really the best way to describe a lot of Avery’s characters, if they were gag vehicles first, and personalities sixth), competing for grazing this “authetic account” told “by a Texan” (Avery was a from the state, in fact he was descended from Judge Roy Bean aka “the hanging judge”) features a lot of funny gags (one particular favorite of mine the wolf’s many attempts at mounting his horse). Truly one of the man’s finest.

Moving Day – 1936

After the last two cartoons, I should come out ahead and point out this is a slower paced cartoon. A much slower paced cartoon, and not as funny. But it’s far more important. This Great Depression flavored piece features the Disney trio (Mickey-Donald-Goofy) trying to load up all their furniture onto their truck before Pete sells it as a consequence of them being behind on their rent. There’s basically two main parts of it; one features Donald gets his rear end stuck in various objects and another featuring everyone’s favorite dimwit struggle to load a “living” piano. That part latter is what’s important is what’s important. Art Babbit’s animation of Goofy added a new layer of depth to characters that really hadn’t existed in cartoons before this one. It may be slow, but the animation is just as important as writing when it comes to creating characters.

Rooty Toot Toot – 1952

I’ve talked about the UPA cartoons before, but I didn’t talk about the person who was a big reason why the good one’s are worth watching. That was John Hubley, the creative head of UPA during its early years as a producer of theatrical cartoons, as opposed to the educational and propaganda cartoons it worked on in its earlier years. Hubley was a layout man back at Disney (before he left after the strike), and he was very much interested in modern design and using that in animation. Unlike most of his colleagues at UPA, Hubley didn’t look down upon the full animation and conflict in story of the other studios, but saw a way to combine with modern design to create something special. And that, once he got over his problems of working with others, resulted in this film, the one masterpiece ever created by the studio.

Using the song of Frankie and Johnny as its basis, this courtroom cartoon (a lot of worthy cartoons take place in courtrooms) is a musical delight of design. While it seems rather sloppy at first (the a single monochrome dot is used for the bartender’s color), it actually gives the cartoon something that couldn’t be achieved using Disney or Looney Tune style and a simplicity that can only be matched by going more modern. The lack of varying color give but at same time, the change in color in key moments gives the cartoon a powerful visual effect. The designs work as well (in spite of the simplicity), particularly in the way they move, distinct and (the animation of Nellie Bly is probably one my favorites in any film, mainly for the great snakelike effect). And the music is great, much of the dialogue is sung, but it feels natural and it’s so lively and upbeat that it never lets go of my interest. And much of the writing is really witty with Honest John’s defense is perhaps one of the funniest and best lawyer tales ever spun in a film.

In short, I just love pretty much everything about this film; the design, the animation, the writing, the music, there’s so much to enjoy (I got to watch it on the TCM UPA DVD, and the colors are just that much stronger compared to what I’m used to). This cartoon, despite being very different from the Looney Tunes and Disney inspired works most people are probably used to, is deserving of the word Masterpiece, and I wholly recommend my 6th favorite cartoon of all time to everyone. And if you don’t like, well then, “rooty toot toot, right in the snoot,” it’s the only cure I know for tastelessness.

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[Garbo]

My School vacation starts on the 21st.
If the world ends, so help me god I will--