Season 3 Episode Reviews: Apple Family Reunion · 8:06pm Dec 22nd, 2012
Let's look at Episode 8 Episode 9 of the third season, and Applejack's first episode since “The Last Roundup.” And with Derpy still out with the flu, will she finally have a chance to shine? We'll see for ourselves as we look at “Apple Family Reunion.”
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TECHNICAL SPECS:
Season: 3
Episode: 9
Written By: Cindy Morrow
First Aired: December 22, 2012
SUMMARY:
It's time for the Apple Family Reunion, the family gathering of every Apple in Equestria that was last held during that little mess with Nightmare Moon. Granny Smith normally runs the show, but after learning that everypony has already RSVPed, she realizes she's in trouble. Fortunately, Applejack is there to volunteer to take control of the whole shebang, and with the others helping, surely nothing can go wrong.
That night, Granny goes over the activities at former reunions, including working on an endless quilt, seven-legged races, and baking apple fritters. In addition, everypony always has their picture taken in front of the barn to mark the occasion. Applejack, however, starts freaking out over making sure this is the best reunion ever, to the point where she stays up almost all night drawing up plans. Even worse, this might be the only time they can get every single pony in the family in one spot; if she blows this, there won't be another reunion of this magnitude for some time.
The preparations seem to go off without a hitch, with everypony (besides Twilight and Fluttershy) helping to get ready for the big event. And now that their work is done, those side character all leave just in time for the Apple Family to arrive en masse. Apple Bloom quickly hooks up with Babs Seed, now in a new school and leading two fellow ponies in their Manehatten Crusades, while Granny reunites with her own favorite cousin, Apple Rose. And then there's Great-Great-Aunt Applesauce (so named because of an embarrassing incident involving apple jam and her dentures), who is showing off her new fruit-bearing hat.
Unfortunately, things begin to fall apart when Applejack takes the helm. She's so obsessed with cramming every last possible bit of fun and memorability into the day's events that she's turned things into a complete nightmare. The obstacle course for the little ponies turns out to be a marathon seven-legged race, followed by a series of ridiculous challenges including apple bobbing, running around trees fifty times, and spinning plates on your head while shouting gibberish. She ruins the quilt-making session by buying them all fancy sewing machines so they can finish the thing. And then she turns the apple fritters into an assembly line, working the ponies to exhaustion to make sure there's enough fritters to go around.
When she goes up to snap some pictures, she finally sees the problem...but then tries to fix everything by changing the traditional hay ride into a high-impact run around the West Orchard, a field that was abandoned after it was overrun with multicolored fruit bats. That's all part of Applejack's plan, however; once the cart's in range, she kicks one of the trees, sending the bats scurrying about in a rainbow-shaped formation. Unfortunately, one of the bats zeroes in on the fruit in Applesauce's hat, and before long the bats are running rampant, attacking the ponies and redirecting the cart towards the barn. Everypony manages to get clear, but the cart and bats all crash into the barn itself, destroying it.
Realizing that she has failed totally and completely, Applejack finally breaks down and cries over the ruined reunion. Granny and Apple Bloom both point out that it could be a good thing, however; she's had them running ragged for so long that they've had no time to actually enjoy each other's company. Applejack is still depressed over the ruined photo, but then has an idea. Grabbing her family's fiddler, she leads the other ponies in a barn-raising ceremony, getting the whole building rebuilt in time to take the photo.
The reunion ends on a good note, with AB and Babs both swearing to see each other before the next one comes along. And as the night rolls to a close, Applejack writers a letter to Princess Celestia, telling her that a pony's family is the first friend they'll ever have, and that you'll remember the who long after you forgot about the what.
REVIEW:
Well, it's finally time for another Applejack episode. If you've been keeping track, she's only had three episodes in the entire series so far. In the first one, she went insane from sleep deprivation, launched Rainbow Dash into the library, poisoned half the town, and nearly destroyed Ponyville with a bunny stampede. In the second, she spent a third of the episode missing, the rest of the episode being the antagonist, and was ultimately upstaged by a now-banished, wall-eyed Pegasus. And in the third, she got zero development and bragged about it. As you can see, she hasn't had the most impressive track record, and it's about time she actually got an episode that focused on her without making her nuts, pushing her to the side, or leaving her totally flat.
Our episode opens with our favorite apple-farming ponies pulling out supplies for the upcoming reunion, along with Apple Bloom setting up her own little subplot with Babs Seed returning...after only five episodes. (Six if you want to get technical.) There's really not much to comment on here, except for a little math failure. Granny Smith says the reunion only occurs every hundred moons, which amounts to about eight years under our lunar calender. Except the very first episode had Twilight stumbling into the middle of a reunion, so either we're eight years in the future or the moon works completely differently here.
Anyway, the real point of these early scenes is to establish the importance of the family reunion and why Applejack is taking over the planning. Surprisingly enough, though, what makes these scenes work isn't AJ herself, but rather Granny Smith. She starts by pulling her wrinkles back until she has her youthful face again for but a brief moment and chewing Applejack out for calling her old, and then goes right to the photo album. The small montage of scenes is cute and heartwarming and all that, with baby Applejack no doubt leading to the deaths of half the people watching (seriously, that little paunch she has is adorable), but what's really important plotwise is Applejack's reaction to all this. Every time Granny Smith mentions something, she immediately breaks down what she'll need to set things up. And when Granny casually mentions how this might be a one-time opportunity to have everypony there, Applejack officially goes into Twilight mode and starts obsessing over making the reunion absolutely perfect.
We see more of this in the next scene, with her drawing up one heck of an elaborate scheme to make sure everypony is satisfied. Apple Bloom comes in to re-establish the whole family angle, especially since Applejack completely forgets about it but two minutes later. And after that, it's off to set up the reunion.
First, Apple Bloom can officially buck apples, so that's good. After that, we get cameos from the rest of our characters, save for Twilight and Fluttershy for whatever reason, helping with supplies or preparations. Rarity loads up some fabric, which she then ties up with a ribbon because...well, she's Rarity. Pinkie dumps a beehive's worth of honey, consumes what remains, and then throws it off, managing to making it land perfectly on Twilight's head just behind the black. Rainbow Dash takes time away from the Wonderbolt Academy to make it rain...while also striking Applejack with lightning. And to top it off, we have Spike being used as a lighter/flamethrower to start the cooking fire. This is actually the best way to work the others into an episode like this; they aren't the focus of the story this time, after all, but their existence can still be acknowledged and appreciated.
And then we have the actual reunion. And my God, is it glorious. Just the sheer number of ponies on-screen at the same time is amazing. For the first time since the Pilot, we can truly appreciate just how BIG the Apple Family is. Even Braeburn makes it...but was cursed after building that outhouse on the ancient Buffalo burial ground and is now incapable of speech except in crowd shots. That, or they just couldn't get his voice actor for this episode. Even Hayseed (the buck-toothed pony from “Sweet and Elite”) makes an appearance, cementing him as a member of the family. And then we have Babs, who has spent the time between appearances starting at a new school and gathering her own two friends to join the Manehatten CMC. (If they're a Pegasus and a Unicorn...then the universe is obviously having fun with her.)
But then we get to Applejack...not going insane. Even though she ultimately messes up by missing the point of the reunion, she doesn't go crazy or psychotic or loony in any way. She's just obsessed with cramming in everything she can and making sure everything that can get accomplished is done by the end of the day. It doesn't put her in the right, mind you, but it does reflect very positively on her as a whole. Now if the writers could only do that for Twilight...
The obstacle course race is by far the funniest part of the episode. Applejack has apparently planned out the route for something she would do with Rainbow Dash, not for fillies. Apple Bloom's reaction is just perfect, even if the voice clip is obviously lifted from “One Bad Apple.” While the events are ridiculous enough on their own, what really sells this scene here is the two just trying to find a few moments to talk, despite growing more and more exhausted with every step. It's one of the first big clues to what Applejack learns at the end.
The quilting scene officially introduces us to Great-Great-Aunt Applesauce, which once again raises the question of just how freaking old Granny Smith actually is. And now we have a Great-Great-Aunt running around as well? While I do like that they tried to make her a proper Southern lady, she really doesn't click with me in this episode. Fortunately, Applejack arrives to miss the point once again: she wants them to finish the quilt they've been working on for...however long Granny's been alive. Fun fact: when families do quilting stuff like this, the goal isn't to finish; it's to keep building the quilt, turning it into a historical tapestry outlining the family's heritage and past. Applejack, however, is now forcing them to work under sweatshop conditions to finish the thing, ruining the fun of the old folks.
The apple fritters scene is kind of weak. It's just a continuation of the earlier scenes, albeit with food production. The only thing I really liked about it was Big Macintosh sneaking a fritter right after it was done frying. Meanwhile, Applejack retreats to...um, the carrot farm...thing she always had to take pictures, only to witness the destruction her reunion has wrought. But that doesn't stop her from trying to pull of the grand finale, despite Apple Bloom and Babs attempting to hide before they get pulled into any more “fun.”
This leads to the hay ride (apparently the ponies that pulled the carriage in “The Last Roundup” are family members, too), and where Applejack finally screws up big time...although it really isn't her fault. The parade of fruit bats was actually working quite well, and was definitely winning the crowd back over. Unfortunately, they get attracted to the fruit in Great-Great-Aunt Applesauce's fancy hat, which brings things to a literally crashing halt that ends with the barn destroyed.
What Applejack does next is telling. If this was any other character, they would have no doubt immediately jumped to rebuilding the barn by themselves, or keep focusing on making everything fun while remaining oblivious to the problems they're creating. But Applejack immediately breaks down over her total failure. It ties in perfectly with her actions from “The Last Roundup,” where her shame over failing to live up to promises she made caused her to run away from home until she could find a way to live up to them. We still get to see her stubbornness, however; she's unwilling to accept that her plans might have been too excessive until Granny Smith tells her that nopony's had a chance to really sit down and talk.
Now that she's learned her lesson, Applejack leads us in her first song, and it's...okay. I like the beat and the square dancing motif they're going for; it matches Applejack perfectly and is just a lot of fun to listen to. But the lyrics are a bit mixed. The chorus is rather dull and repetitive, while the verses and bridge are a bit more impressive. Of course, this ends with the barn rebuilt and the photo taken...with Aunt and Uncle Orange finally making an appearance, looking bored at the whole barn-raising scheme. And like all good reunions, the family finally packs up and heads on home, with Babs promising to return before the next reunion.
Also, Granny Smith makes a lot of aside glances and winks at the audience this episode. I hate those, especially when they're so blatant, so they go against this episode.
We finally get another letter to Celestia (the last one was in “Too Many Pinkie Pies,” but nobody seems to remember that one besides me), where Applejack finally admits to learning a lesson. It's not so much what the activity is that's important, but rather who you're doing it with. Again, it hits on the big theme of family, which seems to be one of the traits writers love to peg for Applejack, and is a pretty good lesson all around.
CONCLUSION:
This is a “feels” episode, make no mistake about it. The comedy is a lot more subdued this time around, mostly coming from the ridiculous extent AJ goes to in order to make sure the reunion is perfect, and she's the only member of the Mane 6 to exist here outside of a cameo. However, it's still not a bad episode by any means; in fact, I actually like a lot of it. Applejack finally gets some much-needed development, building off previous episodes perfectly, and seeing all the Apples again was just a lot of fun. Still, I don't really see this episode getting a lot of repeats for me; there's just not much to it outside of the pulls at the heartstrings and the general cuteness of it all, especially baby Applejack. It's one of the better episodes, but just not one I'll be revisiting a lot.
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Well, assuming you all survived baby Applejack's adorableness, we only have one more Saturday this year...and it's another AJ one. Man, they must be making up for lost time. See you then!
what was the second episode named again? i find of...forgot
i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u656/Bridget_Lawlor/189329__UNOPT__safe_applejack_spoiler-s03e08_zps83fd440b.jpg
Equestrian zoology note - There seem to be a distinct group of life-forms on Equestria quite unlike those on Earth - motile plants that resemble animals. The timber-wolves are one and now we have the fruit-bats, which are clearly plants that look a little like animals too. I think that pretty much guarantees that Equestria is on a planet where the biosphere is very different from Earth's.
638625 Find of?
This episode was good, I think.
Although Bad Seed is still easily the best song of S3 so far.
AJ is no longer a background pony, although it seems like the writers just don't know what to do with her sometimes.
Frankly, I would've prefered there be a Rarity episode, mainly cuz I just find her to be a much more interesting character.
So when is the next episode gonna air, and what ep is it? I can't remember at this point.
Or that wasn't a proper family reunion, but just a bunch of a family coming in to help with the festival preparations and get to watch Celestia raise the sun. It's worth noting that back in One Bad Apple Applejack specifically pointed out that Apple Bloom had never met Babs before, which with the 8.33 years cycle of reunions could maybe give us an age frame for the CMC. I suppose an argument could be made that this episode specifies that the reunions aren't always the ENTIRE clan, but still...
Works for me.
I second that motion.
True, true, though it also does show AJ coming almost close to a Twilight grade OCD with her little lesson in fritter efficiency. Not sure how I feel about that; there's something adorable about the way she's animated why doing it, but well...
Anyway over all I'll agree with your final summation. This isn't my favorite episode by any measure, but is got a good solid foundation. A lot like AJ herself in a way, so arguably about the perfect episode for her.
638666 noo! Put that away! The cuteness is overwhelming. Hng
It's probably worth pointing out something else that seemed to be going on subtextually. If you go back to the scene with the photo album:
Granny Smith and Apple Bloom are looking over the photo album while Applejack paces around. And in the background, we keep seeing this picture of two ponies behind them.
Granny Smith: I'm sure everypony is. And I do mean everypony. We got the whole family this time round. Who knows if they'll all be able to make the next one?
Two shooting stars go by as Applejack looks outside.
Applejack: That's true. Busy as every ponies lives are getting these days, chances are pretty slim we'll be this lucky next time round.
Applejack & Apple Bloom's parents aren't there for the reunion, and aren't commented on as missing.
And then, the end of the episode, they show Applejack's whole immediate family, again with the picture of the two ponies in the background, show the photos from this reunion and show the two shooting stars again.
They can't mention family members as dead on the show, can they?
Edit: Of course, it should be noted that the picture looked like American Gothic. OTOH, I personally have an "American Gothic" picture of my own parents...
Pretty good episode in my opinion, but probably not one I'll go back to over and over like a couple of season two episodes.
Any opinions on the theory that the two shooting stars were meant to represent the missing Apple parents?
I saw on a youtube video someone pointed out that shooting stars appear in pairs a few times this episode. Possibly a reference to parents? Who knows.
I thought this was pretty obvious. Allow me to get into the astronomy a little bit.
The MLP:FiM solar system has to be geocentric. That way, Celestia and Luna need to keep the Sun and the Moon on opposite sides for the system to function, assuming that the Earth doesn't rotate. That's probably the correct assumption, because if the Earth did rotate, the role of the princesses would be holding the celestial bodies in place instead of moving them around. This model does have some problems, though. Because the Moon would always be in the shadow of the Earth. Perhaps the Moon is slightly luminescent?
A heliocentric system wouldn't work for multiple reasons. First of all because the Earth would constantly have to be between the Sun and the Moon, because the Moon is the defining feature of the night. This would mean that some external power (Luna) has to hold the Moon so that it is in the Sun-Earth-Moon line at all times. This would make Celestia's role dubious, because the Sun doesn't move relative to the Earth. I would assume she would instead power the rotation of the Earth, but that's not what's canon.
Additional thought: The entire Apple Clan seems to have responded this time around but... no parents of the Ponyville Apples. This is, I think, as close as we're going to get as an admission in canon that Applejack, Mac and Applebloom are orphans.
Another note: No Uncle and Aunt Orange. This suggests to me that neither were Apples who married out of the family but were kin to AJ's mother (or, if Equestria is matrilineal, AJ's father). The fact that Babs seemingly arrived on her own (in a Pony-drawn Yellow Cab, just to remind us that she's a Manehattenite) will doubtless leave many a fan writer wondering where her folks are. Maybe she's an Orange and only got invited by Applebloom's special request.
638666 mo appew fwittews?
The episode's high point actually came for me afterwards when I was reading discussion online.
We saw AJs parents... kind of.
i.imgur.com/sPebf.jpg
i.imgur.com/R5zh1.png
i.imgur.com/FIeKl.png
I'm currently reading a fic about Babs backstory and it involves some romance between her and AB. This episode made me think of that everytime they were on screen and actually made the fic believable.
Glad I'm not the only one who noticed Apple Bloom finally bucking trees. I think that was a nice touch.
Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction.
I loved that the animators remembered them! Also, the same shot has a couple of unicorn foals. I was really hoping to see some non-earth ponies in the Apple family, and I got my wish.
Hear, hear. Fourth wall jokes are great and all, just don't be so... cliche about it.
638947
Except that the Oranges were in the episode. Back left of the group photo at the end.
638891, 638893, 638947, 639137
Well, it's official now. AJ's parents are dead. "Parent's Day" is cancelled.
@Swamphunter
I was just coming here to ask everyone's take on that. I honestly didn't see that coming. Ouch. It makes sense though, and even if they didn't say it aloud, (understandably, given the demographic) it was a nice touch for those who looked for it.
639503
IIRC, the show crew has stated a couple times that they didn't want to explicitly say that the parents are dead since the show is a kids show.
This is the best way that they could have done it, all things considered.
Eh, decent episode overall, I think I basically agree with your take (for once). Although I'm with Emeral, this makes it pretty clear that the gathering of the family in the pilot wasn't an official reunion.
I guess it's kind of inevitable that Babs Seed would show up, but still annoying. I'd be much happier if "One Bad Apple" were just quietly swept under the rug and forgotten, maybe with an aside mention in a season or two that retcons it out of existence.
My sister is the one who pointed this out to me, thankfully I was able to find a screen cap of it.
i.imgur.com/IJMny.jpg
Apparently Bon-Bon and Cloud Kicker are part of the Apple clan.... even if they did not show up in family photo, but its still part of my head canon now!
I had actually assumed that Granny Smith meant "a hundred days," for some reason...
Anyway. I've got no complaints about this episode, but not much to say about it, either; it was just kind of...eh, for me.
Except that apparently the twin shooting stars are a nod to AJ's dead parents, according to Sibsy and Faust. So that's confirmed and neat.
Mostly I'm just wondering what the Hell Carrot Top, Cloud Kicker, and Bon Bon were doing in one scene. They're not in the family photo...
640556
I'm pretty sure Carrot Top is a mistake in this scene. The stallion next to her came into town with Caramel Apple:
imageshack.us/a/img853/5875/caramelapple500.png
And a mustache.
Oh, and that's Cloud Chaser, not Cloud Kicker....
640435
Don't forget Carrot Top!
The thing is, this kinda feels like it started out as a Twilight episode and then AJ and the 'family' theme were substituted in later.
i think Cloud Chaser may have been a goof, but I'll buy Bonbon being an Apple by association, and i kinda always had it in my headcanon that Carrot Top was an offshoot of the Apple clan...
i think the best bit of comedy in the episode was the rainbow of 'fruit' bats, being actual bats made from fruit...i died laughing
and your summation of the song...well, you took the words right outta my mouth
"Get down if you're afraid of heights!" best lyric of the season!
I assume this about the 'hundred moons' thing. It was Granny Smith saying it, right? Was she really being literal about it? I don't think so.
640715 That stallion is Braeburn. It's not a mustache, it's Caramel Apple's mane and his mouth is opened.
642401
Huh. Suppose you're right. My mind interpreted it as a silly looking mustache. Not sure why I didn't recognise Braeburn offhand, but admittedly it's been a long time since I watched the only other episode he was in.
I liked this episode a lot. The bit where she put sleepy Apple Bloom to bed gave me the d'awws, and I enjoyed the way it ended up. The song wasn't great, but it was okay and it was great seeing all the Apples we've met before (and some new ones too).
...and we finally get the most direct confirmation possible that AJ's parents are dead. I'm perversely pleased with this. It would feel all kinds of weird for them to suddenly show up after all this time.
642125
That's a bit over 8 years... sounds about right for big family reunions. The Summer Sun probably wasn't one of those reunions, just lots of Apples visiting to attend and help AJ provide food for the festival.
638769 Was just watching the seasons so I can remember everything before the 4th season come and read these reviews after watching the episodes because why not... tho I do like the back and forth between you and IAH but one of your comments caught my eye.
Actually(you probably already saw it by now but whatever =P), when Granny was showing the pictures of the family sitting in front of the barn, and to see how large the family grew over the years, the last one had Apple Bloom stand between Granny and Applejack, not looking any younger....
Then again at the end of Dragon Quest there was a picture of baby Spike in his shell and adult Twilight beaming...
Yeah, I am probably going chalk both of them up as an oversight or something.
1528129
Oversight seems likely.
Not because I'm conivinced that this has to be ABs very first reunion, in fact I'm quite willing to except she's been to one before, since notable she's it specificly Babs coming that excites her, not the reuninon itself as a whole.
That said I serioslydoubt that AB would look the same 8.33 years ago as she does today. Well, unless ponies age signifcantly slower than humans. Admitedly that could reconcile Granny Smith's story of the founding of Ponyville with Twilight's statement about winter wrap up being a tradion 100s of years old, but it also would make the 1000 years to short a timeframe for things like NMM to have faded into obscure legend. Besides the easier way to reconcile the 100s of years line is to assume Twilight meant that winter wrap up was an earth pony tradition not just a Ponyville one and so can thus predate the town.
Overal since th CMC seem to be genrally meant to be the characters that most directly corelate to the shows target demographic, I'm going to speculate that they are all roughly 10-12 years old, and thus in the family photo, AB should be 2-4 even if the animation doesn't reflect it. Could maybe mean though that like really horses equestrian ponies initially mature pretty fast before settling into a more human like extended child hood. Pumpkin and Pound were after all more like 1-2 year olds by human standards, even though Pinkie explicitly stated they were exactly 1 month old. This could also help if the show further ages up the Cake twins for S4, which wouldn't surprise me since giving them more fully formed speach capcity would increase their amount of viable story potential.