Episode Analysis - Season 4, Episode 14 - Filli Vanilli · 9:10am Feb 18th, 2014
WARNING: The following blog post contains spoilers. If you have not yet watched this episode, you might want to do so before you read this post.
Fluttershy being adorable. I hope you like ponies being cute, because this episode sure does.
Filli Vanilli reminds us that ponies are adorable; while last week had some cute stuff in it, this episode is full of Fluttershy being happy, and a happy Fluttershy is an adorable Fluttershy. An episode full of continuity references, the return of Flutterguy, ponies singing, and a solid humor, it has a lot going for it, but it has two rather large flaws, in the form of Pinkie Pie being out of character at a couple critical points in the episode, and the pacing.
It is enough to keep it out of the top tier, but is it enough to ruin the episode?
Can you really say that you disliked anything this cute?
The single biggest thing that sold this episode was its humor. As this show does when it is at its best, Filli Vanilli was about situational humor - rather than jokes or one-shot lines, rather the episode was full of humor which was reliant upon the characters and situations involved.
Thus, we had Big Mac, an ordinarily stoic character, singing a song about finding your voice, only to have him lose his voice the very next day, thus yet again resigning him to being very quiet for most of the episode. Indeed, not only does he lose his voice, but we learn that he loses his voice doing something he is, apparently, extremely good at which involves the use of his voice, an extra layer of humor layered on top of the generally quiet and laconic character. We had Fluttershy, the ordinarily quiet character with a beautiful, high-pitched voice become Flutterguy again, a deeper bass than even Big Mac possessed, and again singing the same song about finding your voice - which is doubly meaningful for her, as she is ordinarily very shy and avoids the spotlight.
Why does this work so well? There is a theory of humor that comedy is, essentially, the subversion of the audience's expectation. I feel that, while not universally applicable, it is fairly close to a rule that helps make things funny, though more specifically, comedy has to be something which is a subversion of the audience's expectations, but should be something which follows some sort of rule. I say this because completely random things tend to be much less funny than more specific subversions, such as irony. Thus, Big Mac losing his voice is funny because Big Mac is normally not a very talkative character, but in this episode, he would like to sing (and indeed, did so) but was prevented from doing so because he lost his voice. It is funny because he is silent, but not for the "right reasons". Fluttershy's deep voice, as well as her joy at performing while hiding, are likewise funny.
Tapping into things like this is very good way to get people chuckling, and these are the sorts of things you should look for when you're telling a story - and not just for comedy, as such things also are the stuff of many of the best plot dramatic plot twists as well. Moreover, by using tools which you have already set up for yourself, even unintentionally, makes your story feel more real and coherent to the reader, though the downside is that it raises the "cost" of watching the show or reading your story by requiring that they have seen what you're referencing.
Indeed, this episode brings continuity back to the fore. Season 4 has been much heavier on the continuity thus far; the premier, Castle Mane-ia, and Power Ponies reused the castle in the Everfree Forest from the pilot, with Castle Mane-ia actually revolving around it. Discord's presence in multiple episodes this season has made him into a supporting cast member ALA Cadance and Shining Armor, the former of whom has also made another appearance this season. The rainbow power keys have been showing up throughout the season, and Castle Mane-ia brought Twilight to the castle doing research on the box from the premier.
Filli Vanilli, however, did something that nothing else in the show has really done - taking something from an old plot, and recontextualizing it and turning it into something new, which integrated well into another episode. I never thought that Flutterguy would come back, but once it happened, I realized it was a perfect fit - and the episode synopsis didn't even hint at the return of one of the most popular things in the show, which is definitely a good thing. It is one of those positive surprises - like Derpy in Rainbow Falls - that excites people, but this was far, far better because it was completely unexpected, and yet wonderful.
Given the overall popularity of Flutterguy, it was a wise choice for Rogers (who was the writer on Bridle Gossip as well) to bring it back - indeed, I suspect that she pitched the episode as "Fluttershy has to replace a bass singer in a band for a charity concert by dosing herself with poison joke" and everyone realized instantly that it was a good idea for an episode. And she was right; it was a brilliant idea for an episode, and fanfic writers should take notes.
This was not the only bit of continuity which was brought forward, though; another occurred right at the start, when Rarity was trying to get Fluttershy to agree to join the Ponytones and Fluttershy, quite firmly, said no in a tone of voice reminiscent of how she dealt with Iron Will in Putting Your Hoof Down, reminding her of her development (though conveniently forgetting she did not totally freak out in Green Isn't Your Color back in season 1, though she did definitely hate it. Ah, continuity, how you play games with us).
There were some other, more background continuity references as well, the most giggleworthy of which was Cheerilee swooning at Big Mac's voice, a reference back to Hearts and Hooves Day.
Because goodness knows the CheeriMac shippers needed more encouragement. Maybe there is something there that wasn't there before...
The Spa twins also showed up again, and numerous little background touches, such as the seal playing with Bon Bon, a picture of Fluttershy from her modeling days, and Goldie Delicious's very brief appearance were nice visual touches.
They're so cute when they're excited.
Apart from the situational humor and the humor based on continuity, the episode also did well in setting up a few jokes and humorous scenes. The turkey call competition (which, I will note, is a real thing with a nation-wide organization organizing competitions) is wonderful from start to finish, and Pinkie Pie's head slowly creeping up then going back down is wonderful - as is her appearance afterwards as she springs by and gives a turkey call. Pinkie Pie's line at the end "Though, no offense, you kinda sounded like a dude. A GREAT SOUNDING DUDE!" was a solid bit of Pinkie Pie as well.
The episode also had a very solid bit of comedic dialogue in it, something which has not been season 4's strongest suit. When Applejack confronts Big McIntosh and tells him he has "some splanin' to do", the laconic run-through of the episode up to that point is a wonderful little back and forth, and is an all-too-rare use of Applejack in comedic dialogue. While imitating the exact gag wouldn't work well, understanding this gag and why it worked - and what it says about her relationship with and understanding of her brother - can help point you towards other jokes which can be used.
The other major weapon this episode brought to bear on the audience is cuteness. Fluttershy is adorable, and this episode did its best to make sure that everyone remembered that. From her happiness at the beginning of the episode, to her bobbing along with the music, to her dancing on her own backstage... she was happy and cute for much of the episode, and it really contributed to my enjoyment of the episode. This is difficult to replicate from a writing perspective - the visuals really helped deliver this.
The use of music in this episode was quite effective. It actually had an enormous amount of music in it - nearly as much as a musical episode - but unlike such episodes, the music was actually a part of the story, rather than telling the story, and it did a good job of being what it was. The music by the Ponytones was actually quite decent; the original form of their song was quite enjoyable, though as Fluttershy began to improvise the music declined in quality (and indeed, her singing at the beginning and end was the weakest music in the episode, I think). As a side-note, I've heard a surprisingly large amount of quartet-style music like this in the last year or so; I wonder if it is making a return. It fit in well in the world, though, and felt right. The cheerful tone of the music made the episode as a whole more cheerful, and fit Fluttershy's rise in mood throughout much of the episode. It also was suspiciously appropriate music, as both Big Mac and Fluttershy seem to have trouble talking (though Big Mac is more the laconic type, even here).
One final positive note: Fluttershy's panic attack was yet again quite excellent. The floating pony heads with headlights for eyes all circling around Fluttershy was simultaneously reminiscent of but very distinct from her vision of a million eyes in Hurricane Fluttershy. I thought this was a nice visual effect and a nifty way of showing just how bad things seemed to Fluttershy, when they didn't seem so bad to the audience at all. Indeed, this sort of visual representation, much like Pinkie Pie's felt thoughts, are a really neat tool to use on a character to present their point of view, and how oppressive their fears or how they perceive the world differently.
Clearly the time it took to make this gif was worth not using the version with the hub logo on it.
She could hear the raucous sound of the crowd, like a flock of hungry vultures circling around a dying animal. They were shouting and stomping their hooves; they hated her! She had to escape! But where? To the left? To the right? The light grew brighter, burning her eyes, blinding her; she could feel the heat of the torches the crowd was bringing, coming to teach her a lesson, make sure she could never embarrass herself on stage in front of them again; waste their time, waste their money listening to the cacophony she dared pretend was song. Their mocking faces surrounded her, the glare of their eyes searing her very soul. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to run. She threw herself to the ground, cowering, in a futile attempt to beg for mercy, but she knew it was useless. She could feel the light intensifying around her as the sound of their stomping hooves buried itself deep inside her skull. Her eyes were nothing but pale, unseeing, useless orbs now, and she could feel them dribbling down her cheeks as the light seared her, consumed her, devoured her.
And then, she was gone.
The episode wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, unfortunately. The episode had a few weaknesses which kept it from being top tier.
The first, and most glaring weakness was Pinkie Pie. While I praised some of the things done with Pinkie Pie in the episode - the Turkey Calling competition and the "sounds like a dude" bit, her confrontations with Fluttershy at the beginning and end of the episode both felt out of character. Her being super excited and talking about things which would terrify Fluttershy without REALIZING it is totally fair, as she likes being the center of attention and making ponies smile and laugh. To Fluttershy, being the center of attention is terrifying. The problem lay in the delivery of this - Pinkie Pie should have been saying it in a very positive way, rather than in the negative light she cast it in, and it could have still sounded completely terrifying to Fluttershy. It felt very forced, and didn't really feel quite like how Pinkie Pie would talk about it. As this drove two episodes of Fluttershy being terrified, this needed to be strong and in character, but the way Pinkie Pie's lines were written went belong "Pinkie Pie not thinking" and into "Pinkie Pie was deliberately scaring her", which doesn't really work right here - especially in light of her behavior towards her back in season 1.
The second issue is pacing. While much of the episode flowed fairly well, there are a couple spots where it noticeably drags. The two biggest points actually both come at the same time as Pinkie's little mental attacks on Fluttershy. The real problem with the one at the start of the episode is the lowered engagement; we had the song at the start, and then we fall down in engagement as they engage in some lower-key fare. While delivering a bit of exposition was necessary, as was setting up Fluttershy's stage-fright, this section was just too long and too uninteresting. Indeed, I'm not sure if Pinkie Pie's little rant here even really added anything; while "Don't be ridiculous!" "But I'm so good at it!" was kind of cute, the thing is that really the rest of it kind of established things anyway. Had Pinkie's rant been funnier and more in character, it would have worked better, but as it was, it fell a bit flat. But even aside from that, the rest of the scene is pretty low in terms of entertainment value, being very expository.
The second after Fluttershy flees the stage is also weak. Pinkie's rant is a little better here, but it still isn't very good, but the real problem here is that we have them run off after Fluttershy, who has gone to her house; we then have them chase her OUT of her house and across town to stop in front of the stage on the other end of town. This feels off; while I understand why they had her bathe in the poison joke before the scene, the trouble is that it just throws off the pacing of the whole bit, with them chasing her (after running off after her across town) and the whole start/stop thing. It could have just been them running across town and confronting her in her house, without the need for another chase scene, which just drug out what was going on without actually making it any better. Giving voice to the transition, giving Fluttershy a chance to actually speak up at the end there rather than just cutting straight to the final song, might have worked better at delivering her change in heart. As it was, though, it just felt awkward and a bit repetitive.
In terms of more petty griping, something bothered me about the Ponytones. Not in their singing or their character or even their name as a group, but because several times ponies address them as "Ponytones". This is probably me being picky, but it sounds really weird to address them this way; I've never heard anyone actually walk up and say, "GROUPNAME you were awesome!" or "Hello, GROUPNAME," in real life. You might refer to them in the third person when you're not around them (such as "KISS is an awesome band" or "Nickelback sucks" or whatever), but when you actually are addressing actual band members, it seems like generally speaking, folk will say "you" or "you guys" (or "y'all") rather than the group name.
One final thing to whine about - at the start of the episode, we had this:
Now, I do understand that this is a cartoon and they do cartoony things every once in a while, but this felt distracting. The problem was we just had a high point, and then we have... a random cartoon visual gag that doesn't really add anything to the scene, for no apparent reason. Similar to the spit take in MMC, it felt forced and too "look at me!", and probably should have been left out.
And now to be super nitpicky. There are also a few points in this episode where they clone ponies in crowds - specifically, Lyra. Indeed, in the pan where Bon Bon is playing with the seal, Lyra is both at the booth AND next to that other pony... at the same time.
Lyra on the left of me, Lyra on the right, and here I am: stuck in the middle with you.
While I do understand laziness, and that animation is a lot of work, not only do they have quite a few ponies at this point (thus making the laziness less excusable - they have other options), but Lyra, along with Bon Bon to a lesser extent, really sticks out due to her color scheme (and the fact that, you know, we fans are dorks and love her to death). If they cloned one of the less distinctive looking background ponies, I probably wouldn't notice, but cloning one of the most distinctive of them is a bit distracting as I actually notice sometimes. It is okay to be lazy (okay, no it isn't, but shh) but I really shouldn't notice it the first time I watch an episode. Is it going to ruin things for me? Not at all. But it is a bit silly.
In the end, while the Pinkie Pie stuff and the pacing keeps this episode out of the top tier, overall it was a very fun episode to watch, and was the third episode in a row I gave a 4/5 to. The combination of humor, ponies being cute, continuity porn, and just all the little touches the episode had really helped sell it to me.
Incidentally, for those of you who are on the younger side:
Milli Vanilli was a R&B pop band from the late 1980s which was involved in a lip-syncing scandal. The band was fairly good, but unphotogenic, so their manager hired two models to act as frontmen for the group, appearing on album covers and going on tour while lip syncing along with the music. They were found out when their recorded music started stuttering and repeating itself, resulting in the revelation that the faces of the band had sung exactly zero of the songs they were pretending to sing. A major scandal ensued and the band died a horrible death, despite people having actually enjoyed their music, raising the question of whether or not the manager was right that the photogenic models were necessary to sell the music, or if they would have been better off being honest. In either case, the band was completely destroyed as a result, the various people involved (save the manager, ironically) became pariahs, and 14 years later they lent their name to this episode in something which will make older people chuckle but which will make absolutely no sense at all to anyone under the age of 25.
I found the continuity points you raised where hamstrung by the fact that they more or less completely ignored the fact that Fluttershy's 5 friends know her very well, and were all surprised she was afraid of something.
You also completely failed to mention the other really adorable pony of the episode, Zippoorwhill.
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She was cute enough I suppose, but honestly I found the bird sitting on Lyra's head cuter. I mean, the entire episode was full of cute things from stem to stern, because they felt clearly that not being cute would be a terrible crime or something.
I must agree, though. Fluttershy episodes need the cute cranked up to 11.
Late to the party I know, but I personally found Pinkie to be on the edge of her character as opposed to out of character. This is Pinkie at her worst, but still felt very Pinkie.
Beyond that, one of the funniest and cutest episodes in the entire series (but not as funny as Simple Ways.)
1859133 Pinkie Pie was just Pinkie Pie. It's not her fault that Fluttershy literally cries over everything. She's performed in fornt of a large crowed several times before and now it shouldn't be a problem. It's Fluttershy who got written wrong.