Mini Re-Reviews: "Feeling Pinkie Keen" & "Sonic Rainboom" - Season 1 Episodes 15 & 16 · 11:00pm Dec 14th, 2019
APPLEJACK: "What does this mean, Pinkie?"
PINKIE: "Not sure, but I've had this doozy every week on Saturday evenings for the last six or seven weeks. Maybe it means someone somewhere is writing up about our adventures?"
TWILIGHT: "Yeah, right. Next you'll be telling me that one day I'll be ruling Equestria by myself and Princess Celestia will be in a home!"
One of the oddities about coming to the series as late in its run as I did, is that I was totally unaware of some of the criticisms over early episodes like these, and how many viewers took the main theme as a "science vs. religion" sort-of debate. In some cases I was, like with the "Bridle Gossip"'s theme and its execution. But with "Feeling Pinkie Keen", my memories went as far as the episode itself and it being regarded as "fine" within the context of Season 1, and that's about it.
It's not hard to see the "science vs religion" angle, of course. Another odd thing is that, for an episode that has easily the most cartoon slapstick of any episode to this point, it does get somewhat preachy towards the end in its execution, enough that Lauren Faust wishes she could have refined the delivery and execution of some aspects throughout so it wasn't taken that way (she also says the episode just started from the whole premise of "achy joints mean the weather is changing", structured around funny cartooning, so I don't think they were going for the way fans interpreted it at all). Me, judging from the episode itself, I feel some lost nuance at the end is to blame - it is absolutely the case that we should accept some things without having to scientifically prove them, but the bluntness of Twilight finally accepting it, and the fact of every misfortune she suffered throughout being a result of trying to prove the Pinkie Sense isn't a thing, does kind of also posit an anti-intellectual argument of not asking questions in favour of blind faith. Not much, but a little. This detracts at the episode not because I take any of this seriously - the episode is far too Looney Tunes in tone for that - but because it's a minor structural upset to an episode that is structured far better then you might expect from an episode like this.
With that behind us, though, we can turn to the good stuff. Because outside of a slightly wobbly landing, "Feeling Pinkie Keen" is a pioneering example of several things that should be well admired in writing a cartoon episode. Being funny is top of the list, of course, but still having an escalating structure throughout that keeps things from ever getting too predictable in the story sense is to be commended as well. Rather then having Twilight just get more steadfast in her belief of the Pinkie Sense being nonsensical, she gradually transitions to being focused on being right - by the time they race off to save Fluttershy, her concern is simply gloating when she's proven right (which makes Pinkie's non-reaction all the funnier, given Twilight clearly wants some kind of reaction). Tricks like these in the writing are the main thing that help to sustain an episode like this over even 21 minutes (though there is some slight padding, it should be conceded, mostly in the odd extra second spent on shots here and there, not at the script level), for "Feeling Pinkie Keen" is the first post-Ticket Master episode that could, on one level, be an 11-minute cartoon quite easily. But they put the double length to good use, beyond just more gags.
But really, as long as the characters are handled fine - and again, this falls at the right point in the series, with Twilight still being new enough to friendship and Ponyville that it's believable that her old science-focused ways would rear themselves again when presented with a situation like this - an episode like this all comes down to the visual gags, and man do they deliver. Not just the memetastic moments the fandom loved, like Ponyta Twilight (only took 8 years and 8 months for Game Freak to return the favour!), but there are plenty of perfect expressive faces too (squashed Twilight after the various door incidents has the greatest face ever). Describing funny gags isn't interesting to read, but as mentioned before, the writing has put them on a smooth uphill curve, leaving it to the animators to do their magic, and while it's not AS consistently perfect as it might have been in a hand-drawn Cartoon Network cartoon, or an old-school Looney Toons short, the animation tweening and character movement was on point in this episode. Only ardent Flash haters wouldn't be won over by something like this. And the gags just keep coming, knowing how to deliver them: Applejack's off-screen questioning of Twilight falling through the cellar door, followed by Twilight's bandaged arms being remote-operated thereafter leaps out at me as another stellar example.
Toss in just how perfect the Twilight/Pinkie pairing is from a writing standpoint (Twilight as the straight-man to Pinkie's shenanigans, though Twi had plenty of that early snark that we love about her, the episode stopping just short of it being too much), and Pinkie being an absolute delight - letting Twilight do her investigating whilst being adorable, taking zero offence at Twilight's skepticism - and we have an episode that is much stronger then my vague memories had told me. With a smoother landing to make the episode feel more even, this could have been a top-tier episode - as it is, it's still a great one, slotting it with an 8.5/10.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- I'd have to go back and check to be sure, but Fluttershy referring to Twilight by her full name in the post-title sequence seems odd, given I'm pretty sure Fluttershy has called Twilight just Twilight at least at some point in the previous 14 episodes.
- One of the details that got a kick out of me was when the Hydra roars - only three heads roar at first, with one of them being a bit slow on the uptake, looking around at its fellow heads before it joins in. It continues to have visual moments of personality throughout the sequence. Things like that prove, as if it was needed, that some people - many people, actually - on the show staff cared. A minute and a half later, we have Fluttershy repeating the "hop skip and a jump" mantra to herself when crossing the gorge. Continuity already, and in a small way that doesn't call attention to itself for viewers that hadn't yet seen "Dragonshy"; within this episode, it still makes sense as Fluttershy just giving herself a confidence boost.
- Celestia landing in like a jet really took me by surprise! Wonder if that ever became much of a fandom thing...
FLUTTERSHY: “Yay~”
RAINBOW DASH: "...and? Where the rest's of this header image's hilarious caption?"
FLUTTERSHY: "Oh, um, I'm sorry. I thought it was clever to repeat fan-adored moments like these."
"Sonic Rainboom" strikes me as being another big watershed moment both for Season 1 and the show (it's also another good "introducing someone to the show" episode, even if it's stronger having known the characters for a bit - we'll get back to that). It has a number of firsts for the show. Most obvious is that, with this episode, every character has had a starring introduction episode focused from their viewpoint that delves into what makes them tick, and after this we can look forward to meatier explorations of characters because we know them quite well by now. This is also the first episode to take place mostly away from Ponyville and its surroundings - I don't know if that was intentional, but the 16-episode buildup leads to Cloudsdale being quite the place to lose ourselves in. Mostly, though, it's because it features so many strengths of the show at this point firing on all cylinders - nuanced character interaction and development, expanding of Equestrian lore, comedy, suspense, and a good few enduring and memorable meme moments to boot.
The two characters frequently cited as taking time for new viewers of the show to warm up to are Rarity (who already had her "winning over the viewers" moment 2 episodes ago, though 3 episodes from now she gets another one in a sense) and Rainbow Dash, the latter usually due to a combination of her arrogance at being the most awesome one around, and that awesomeness being self-informed. Surprise surprise, an episode that actively focuses with a microscope on her insecurities does a lot to alleviate that. M.A. LArson actually goes quite far with that: though plenty of people who brag consistently about their greatness often are compensating for something, poor self esteem being a likely culprit, the episode blows her mask away. One could infer from this episode alone that she may well be the most insecure of the group (an episode towards the end of the season makes a compelling argument for Pinkie, though). And between the writing and the animation (comic timing might well be called dramatic timing here, with expressions being held for just the right length of time), with occasional facial twitches here and there that, though not beyond the level of TV Flash animation, give lots of layers to Rainbow's crumbling anxiety as the episode progresses, it delivers on that front.
Much like "Dragonshy", this episode is another one with a very clean, clear divide between the three acts; Act I is in Ponyville, Act II is in Cloudsdale as they tour before the competition, and Act III is the competition itself. And, like "Dragonshy", it does a good job at shifting between the three modes and using each one well so the transitions are seamless. More interesting is the evolution of the plotline - it first begins as an Odd Couple pairing of the loud Rainbow Dash with the quiet Fluttershy, the latter being all of her cheering section for the Best Your Fliers competition. That changes to a character study of Rainbow's lecturing to Fluttershy on confidence and assertiveness being a projection of her own insecurities. Then it becomes Rarity rallying the others to support her, which promptly turns into Rarity getting stuck up her own rear end, looping up back to the initial setup as Rainbow sinks deeper into her anxiety, with all these directions that the episode seemed to have tossed aside as it went coming back to a heed in the climax - even the Fluttershy angle gets just enough focus that the time earlier doesn't feel wasted, which is good because the pre-title sequence may well be some of the most adorable pony content you're ever likely to find.
A lot of the other things I could say about this episode are ones that have been said on prior episodes, but they bear repeating. Once again, Rarity had a mild exaggeration issue for the plot going on here, but it's acceptable here in a way it wouldn't be even a season later (and as such a detailed episode also gets to give her a bit of an arc too, arguably more then Rainbow Dash). The world-building is interesting, because though much of the tour is still focused on either Rarity showing off more or Rainbow losing even more confidence, some of it isn't, and as such we get quite a few moments that are doing nothing but showing us the ins and outs of the weather factory. They end up being few enough that it works, sprinkled around the ones that are intertwined with the characters arcs more directly. There's more to it then Cloudsdale itself, of course; the plot finds an elegant reason to have Rarity have wings but not the others, both in terms of magic power and sequence order, and it totally makes sense that a cloudwalking spell would take less magic then a set of artificial wings (also, they remember that Rarity doesn't have that spell when her wings burst, and bother to show her either supported by other pegasi thereafter, or in the balloon).
There's other things too: Fluttershy steals every moment in this episode that's focused on her, and Rainbow's "oh-my-gosh" fangirling remains as cute as ever. Really, elegantly constructed scripts that are plain character fun on the surface but say a lot about the characters in both the text and the subtext, woven around fun gags verbal and visual with lore building sprinkled through at the margins and occasionally focused on directly, is kind of what Season 1 of MLP does best, and while I don't personally know that I can call this one of the season's best (I'd still have to say that "Dragonshy" is my favourite to this point), it's another top-tier episode that did much for the fandom and the show (though it plays better with the knowledge of the events of the future "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" in the background, it should be said). A 9/10 here - the series is really on fire lately!
STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- Most of the "character voiced by an actor who voices two characters has a moment where their voice bleeds over into the other voice" moments up until now may have been once you'd only notice if you were looking for them, but Fluttershy's high-pitched cheering at Rainbow Dash completing the Sonic Rainboom is too obviously Pinkie to any viewer playing even slightly close attention.
- This is the first episode to this point that omits Spike where his absence is notable and doesn't give a reason in doing so. It's odd, given him not having being a part of cleaning up the initial book mess sticks out. Doubtless a time issue, either because he was written out when the script went overlong (the bit about lighting being kept in glass jars in "Tanks For the Memories" 4 seasons down the line was intended for this episode originally, but was also cut for time), or because Faust, Renzetti and Larson could tell there wouldn't be room and just omitted him without providing a reason because they knew there wouldn't be time. Still, it's a vexing thing.
Next week's episodes, a pair of CMC episodes in "Stare Master" and "The Show Stoppers" are regarded as rather middling these days - not having watched either in a long while, we'll have to see how they fare, though as the first time the CMC are really together, they'll be interesting for sure.
Right, here we go again...
I can't remember the fine details and don't feel like sitting through a 90-minute video, but I have a vague memory that Dave Polsky also did, though he defended the basic premise quite vigorously.
Mmm, it's not one of her finest moments -- though in S1, she did still hang on to some of her Canterlot snobbiness, so I suppose it works.
The biggest being one you didn't pick out -- Derpy's appearance. I wasn't around early enough to experience the reaction to that, but I understand it was quite something.
It's usually Rapidash rather than Ponyta who's referenced here -- I'm aware that's the evolved form of Ponyta, so it's not a big deal.
I don't know about early on, but by the time I was around (very end of S2) it wasn't really. Luna had taken over the brony world by then...
And as a certified FlutterDash friendshipper, I love those aspects of this episode. It's not my pick as the best on that score (that'd be "Hurricane Fluttershy"), but it's another good example of how Flutters isn't meek and shy all the time -- and I suppose the start of her bumpy show-long ride towards becoming more assertive around ponies, not just other species.
Yeah, that was a nice touch, and one I'm not altogether confident they'd have got as spot-on if this had been a late-series effort. (Which it couldn't have been for various reasons, but you get the point.)