MLP episode review: The Show-Stoppers · 12:07am Jun 9th, 2014
*Striker does a tap-dance, trips on a shoelace and goes down* Ow, well, I guess I'm not one of...
The Show-Stoppers*
We open with Applejack leading the CMC through the woods. But it's dangerous to go alone! Wait, there's four of you? Dammit, the joke is ruined! We get a stock 'plant branch/frond slapped into someone's face', but it's good. Sweetie Belle is seventeen kinds of confused. It's more than her usual eleven. ;) They come upon... something. We pan over to see a treehouse in a pretty bad state of disrepair. It's their new clubhouse! And the silence is deafening. Applejack's a bit taken aback by their lack of enthusiasm. "Well, don't thank me all at once." :D It was her clubhouse, and has seen better days. As a chunk of the roof collapses. Scootaloos's snarky. Apple Bloom's in shock. Applejack tries the cutie mark route, but the wall she's leaning on collapses. Ohhai little birdies!
We come back to Scootaloo standing in front of Golden Oaks and drawing a map of Ponyville. She has the pnecil in her mouth and it's quite adorable. she rolls it up, stuffs in in her saddlebag and hops onto her scooter. EXTREME SCOOTING! *Headbangs, followed by whiplash* She uses a board as a ramp, does two complete turns in midair, sends Granny Smith into a spin and pulls a friggin' Neo by jumping over a tree branch. She is the One. Whoa! But, wait, Apple Bloom's the one who knows Kung-Fu! Well, karate at least. She bursts through a bush and skids to a halt in front of Apple Bloom. She takes off her helmet and even does a mane flip. Hmm, future as shampoo spokespony?
Scootaloo looks up and the camera zooms back to see the clubhouse, all restored. Mike Holmes would be proud! It even sparkles in that, "This is to let the audience know it's great" way. Scootaloo asks what Sweeite Belle's been up to. We push through some bushes to see her dusting a table with her tail and singing. She... even begins dusting a tree. Okay... The others find her, Apple Bloom saying they could find her by following her 'totally awesome voice'. She's been working on their own theme song. She's only come up with one part, and she begins singing it. As someone with a tin voice and zero talent in songwriting, I am quite jealous. Applejack wanders by and looks in, quite impressed. Then Scootaloo 'sings' and I think some glass shattered somewhere. She says she's impressed and asks what's next.
The CMC walk over, and I gotta say the interior's pretty damned nice. With a clubhouse, map of Ponyville and theme song-which leaves Applejack confused-they're gonna go out and find their talents and earn their cutie marks. Girls, I think the last few scenes have already shown you your talents. They'll leave no stone unturned, no mountain unclimbed and not even any meal uncooked! Good. I have a bachelor's in Culinary Arts and there's no way I am eating anything undercooked after the sanitation portion! Not even any socks unworn! And methinks that last one broke Applejack a little. She'll go leave no apple unpicked! Hopefully with Big Mac's help.
We get a montage with one of my favorite pieces of background music. They try feeding pigs slop, but get trampled by the hogs. No cutie marks. Next is making taffy! Scootaloo's tail gets stuck and they get sucked into it, their eyes the only things visible. Nothing. Next is Carousel Boutique and hairdressing! Their one client looks like a clown. Over to a field and one of the opening scenes from Ghostbusters, sans electrocution. Apple Bloom presses all the buttons and it goes Skynet on them. Over to Mount Everest, they climb the summit, but tumble down a whole three feet. Wait, why is there one snowstorm over this dinky mountain? Did they forget it during the Winter Wrap-Up montage? We need 'Eye of the Tiger', STAT! Next is a lake, for SCUBA diving. But they awaken one of the Old Ones. And finally, Golden Oaks.
We see Twilight and Cheerilee walking inside. Hmm, interesting! Spike disavows any knowledge of their actions, and we pan over to see the CMC enacting Twilight's second-worst nightmare. The place is a mess. Twilight walks over and says she thinks they're going about it the wrong way. She suggests they dfo things in areas they already like. That... does sound reasonable. That's how Twist got her cutie mark. Cheerilee suggests the school talent show. They're all over it! And then they're all off of it as they suggest insane stuff. Twilight tries to bring them back down to Equestria. Twilight, Twilight... *Shakes head* They'll do it as the Cutie Mark Crusaders! High-hoof!
We come back from commercial and they're doing Grand Theft Fabric Bolt from Carousel Boutique. Rarity's pissed. Sweetie Belle promises she'll bring them back. How? They'll be used already. They also get a fan from Mister Breezy. Apple Bloom asks what they need a fan for. "Trust me on this one." Sweetie Belle, that look is all sorts of wrong and I love you for it. They have six wooden planks, a box of nails, four cans of paint and four brushes. As Scootaloo reads off the list, the camera zooms in on each word. Nice. It resets and Sweetie Belle says they need instructions for each item, with the same zoom. Excellent. She arches her eyebrow so high the Rock or Spock would be envious. Scootaloo zooms off and we cut to Twilight giving them a horror-themed book. "Ghosts, Goblins and Ghoulish Figures." Twilight wonders what they're up to, and Spike's not sure if he should be excited or scared to find out. Take the third option and both?
Back at the clubhouse, they've decided on a song with great scenery, costumes and dance moves. Sweetie Belle doesn't want to sing in front of a crowd. Stage fright. Aww. *Hugs* I... don't really get stage fright. She reminds them of what Twilight said, and she wants to be like her big sister, who's a designer. She'll do costumes and scenery. Scootaloo, instead of doing the choreography, wants to sing a wicked rock ballad, complete with microphone out of nowhere. So instead Apple Bloom does the dance moves. She's not much of a dancer, but she likes Kung-fu! *Gasp* So SHE is the One! Sensei Iron Butterfly would be proud. She does some kicks and nearly takes Scootaloo's head off. Sweetie Belle is naturally freaked. They get started!'
We cut to them outside. Apple Bloom is working out choreography, but spins into Scootaloo. Scootaloo shows off some great spinning. Apple Bloom tries again and we get some offscreen crashes, with a legit, "I'm okay!" from her. Hey, that's my line! ;) Scootaloo tries her hand at songwriting. Dave Lister would be aghast, methinks. She then does her impression of that one muppet from Sesame Stree who messed up lyrics and banged his head into the piano. A wild bolt of fabric suddenly appears, chased by an angry Sweetie Belle. "Dumb fabric." Sweetie Belle asks Scootaloo how it's going, and it's bad. She comes up with some awesome stuff on the spot and belts it out. We hear some... odd sound and we pan over to see the fabric rolling into a small pond.
We see Sweetie Belle working on a costume with five sleeves. Hmm, one for the tail? And Apple Bloom stumbles over. She's decided to stick to punches and kicks. She sees the 'costume' and reminds Sweetie Belle ponies have four legs. She gets a bit melancholy that she'll never be like Rarity. Apple Bloom points out the dress form, and apparently Sweetie Belle didn't know that. We zoom out and see the 'sets', and dear lord that's a lot of brown. Apple Bloom tells her to clean her paintbrushes. Oh, I am cringing a bit now. I do scale-models, you see. Apple Bloom even asks if she's using power tools, complete with a vague rimshot noise.
We cut to Applejack going to check on them. She peeks in through the window and all we see are their shadows, bumping into each other and a lot of apologizing. Applejack's also wincing a lot. She walks off, aghast. The CMC emerge and she tries to evade them, but naturally they spot and zoom over, asking how she thought. She can't formulate a response. Well, to be fair, neither can I and that is her little sister. They decide her being speechless is good!
Now onto the talent show! There's a huge crowd, there. Snips and Snails are doing a magic show, which is actually kinda nice and heartwarming and a bit of a Trixie callback. One wonders if Dash did any heckling or if anyone else talked loudly over their performance. :p They... don't do too badly, except Snails eats the carrots. Next is Sunny Daze and Peachy Pie reciting their favorite poem on roller-skates. We pan over to see the CMC huddled under blankets. We can see just enough of their costumes/makeup. I am getting definite Jem and the Holograms vibes, here. We see a pair of fillies skating by and the standard 'break a leg' misunderstanding erupts. Twilight trots by with a title drop and asks how they're doing. They're nervous, natch. Twilight reassures them and says as long as they stuck to what they knew best, they'll be amazing. And she learns Scootaloo is the main singer, Apple Bloom the main dancer and guesses Sweetie Belle did the costumes and scenery.
Okay, their act. it's infamous. It's a disaster. I'm literally muting the sound and just letting it roll. I've never been able to watch the entire thing. I'll give them an A++ for effort, and honestly I think with some more time and practice, as we'll see in Flight to the Finish, it wouldn't be too bad. The entire set collapses and they're laughed offstage. :( They're shocked, but almost as soon as they're offstage Cheerilee tells them to go back. Time for awards!
They balk, but Cheerilee says to be good sports, and they made a great effort. Good form, Cheerilee! Onstage is also Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon and Twist. Wait, what talents do DT and SS have, besides being assholes? Also, I do like the ponies doing stampeding as applauding. Snips and Snails get best magic act. God, there were worse?! Sunny Daze and Peachy Pie get best dramatic performance. The CMC get an award... for best comedy. Oh, that's damning with faint praise. Or the other way around.
Back stage, they rip off their outfits. No cutie marks. Twilight congratulates them, but they're depressed. No cutie marks, after all. They think they know why. Trying too hard, and forcing themselves into stuff they didn't like. Twilight is hanging off every word as Apple Bloom says they should embrace their true talent...
COMEDY! And cue sad trombone.
We pan over to see Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash there. And it turns out Dash isn't Scootaloo's sister, so her being there is odd. Twilight is a bit condescending as we cut to credits.
Thoughts
As funny and screwbally as this episode is, the message is just... I dunno. It seems to be saying "Don't try anything new. Stick to what you know." I mean, okay, they weren't that good, but they were getting better. And it was what they liked to do. I mean yes, they also liked their 'true' talents, but who says they have to funnel all their creative energies into those pursuits?
I did like Applejack's interactions with the CMC, and the little shoutout to Trixie with the magic show. ;)
I'm not saying this is a 'bad' episode. It's not. It's just something that stuck out for me. Overall this was a pretty slice-of-life episode about the B squad
Headcanon
Nothing much to add, if anything. I already discussed the CMC 2.0 the last CMC-themed episode.
Now, I do apologize for this picture. I was in a bit of a rush to get it out. Tune in tomorrow for the Dog and Pony Show!
Aw, lucky. Ah was gonna go to a culinary school, but ah had some... meddling from mah mother's family that forced me ta waste a few years on computer classes instead an' miss my opportunity.
Maybe Scootaloo cooked one up somehow before they started? Her flight trouble doesn't mean her other pegasus abilities don't work.
Stage fright is, in my experience, basically anxiety in the form of invoking Murphy's Law. You imagine everything going wrong, and then you're so nervous that it does.
As for the message, I think it's "Don't be so focused on one goal that you lose sight of everything else." Or something along those lines.
...fainting with damn praise?
2188721 No, praising with faint d-mns.
Join the club. My sister who is much better at singing but has no ambition in that regard also tells me I'm tone death.
I love that background music. Bronies React still use it for their React videos.
Don Music was his name.
I laud the show so much for making me feel so invested in the characters that I feel as much sympathetic embarrassment as I do when I've watched this scene go down. One of a number of times I felt that. Most recently was Spike's attempt to sing the Cloudsdale anthem in "Equestria Games".