MLP EPISODE REVIEW #3: Bridle Gossip · 6:34pm Dec 10th, 2020
So, remember when I said Amy Keating Rogers is not a perfect writer. Well, this is one of those times where her writing is not as strong as it could've been. Don't get me wrong. This is still a good episode. There are a lot of hilarious jokes, some of the commentary is actually clever, and the message, while pretty overdone, is still a timely one. With that said, the episode does suffer from a lack of subtlety, and some of the characters do have a few annoying moments here and there. It's nowhere near as bad as the previous episode, but these scenes do make me cringe every time I watch them.
Twilight and Spike arrive in Ponyville's town square to find the town completely deserted. While they speculate about where everyone could be, Pinkie Pie fervently calls to them from Sugarcube Corner, telling them to get inside before "she" gets them. Inside, they find Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy, who nervously explain that they are hiding from a strange hooded creature named Zecora (voiced by the one and only Brenda Crichlow). The only pony not scared is Applejack's younger sister Apple Bloom (voiced by the one and only Michelle Creber) and ccording to the other ponies, no one in Ponyville knows what Zecora's reasons for visiting the town are, except that she does so monthly. They also know that she lives in the Everfree Forest, a self-preserving environment which is almost alien to Ponyville. After seeing her pull her hood down, Twilight concludes that Zecora is a zebra, a species that live in "a far away land", and are born with gray stripes.
While the others continue to discuss Zecora's nature, Apple Bloom decides to investigate on her own and follows Zecora to the edge of the Everfree Forest. Applejack and her friends soon catch up to them, and Zecora escapes into the forest before giving the ponies a cryptic warning. Despite the ominous nature of the warning, Twilight refuses to believe that Zecora is an evil enchantress, and also claims that neither curses nor hexes are real. However, the very next day, she and her friends discover that all of them have drastically changed in some way:
* Twilight's horn turned soft, wobbly, and covered in blue spots
* Pinkie Pie's now blue-spotted tongue is swollen to the point of hanging out of her mouth, and she can't speak intelligibly or without spitting
* Rainbow Dash's wings have been inverted and moved from her back to her lower sides, preventing her from flying properly and causing her to crash constantly
* Rarity's mane and tail are messy and her coat has grown so long that she cannot see or walk properly
* Applejack has drastically shrunken in size and has to ride on Apple Bloom just to get to the library
* Fluttershy is afflicted with a deep-sounding male voice (provided by the legendary Blu Mankuma)
Twilight tries searching for a cure while her friends continue to blame Zecora for cursing them. During the commotion, Apple Bloom once again sneaks away to find Zecora, with Applejack hiding in her tail to see what she is up to. Once they reach the edge of Everfree, Applejack orders her sister to turn back, but she does not listen and instead, leaves Applejack on a tree branch. Meanwhile, the others notice their absence and, assuminfg the worst, they rush towards Zecora's hut to save them. On the way, Applejack hops on Rainbow Dash and even starts riding her like how Woody made Buzz do karate chops in the first Toy Story movie.
Once everyone arrives to the hut, they confront Zecora about Apple Bloom's whereabouts, but she promptly appears at the doorstep and explains the situation. Turns out, the change in the ponies' appearance was caused by blue flowers named, "poison joke", which they came into contact with when they tried to retrieve Apple Bloom the other day. In fact, Zecora's warning was about those flowers in the first place and Apple Bloom was helping her collect ingredients for a cure.
Upon learning the truth, Twilight and her friends apologize for their behavior, escort Zecora to Ponyville to help her acquire the final ingredient for the cure, and while they take a bath treatment at the spa, Twilight delivers the moral:
Never judge a book by its cover. Someone may look unusual, or funny, or scary. But you have to look past that and learn who they are inside. Real friends don't care what your "cover" is; it's the "contents" of a pony that count. And a good friend, like a good book, is something that will last forever.
Alright, before I talk about the good stuff, let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. Like I said before, there is a complete lack of subtlety in the episode. A big example of this is how Zecora is built up as a potential witch doctor. Her VA talks in an African accent, she belongs to a species that's endemic to Africa in real life, and her hut is full of tribal masks and exotic-looking concoctions. I mean, seriously, how much more stereotypical can this possibly get?!
Another not-so-subtle aspect is the twist at the end. I don't know about you guys, but even when I first watched the episode a couple of years ago, I saw it coming from a mile away. Not only the flowers had a bright blue color, not only they looked different from every other flower in the area, not only there were shots directly focused on them, but they were also so abundant that it was practically impossible to not think that they were going to be an important plot element later.
Look, I am fully aware of the fact this show is primarily intended for young children and that most children have a low attention span, but don't you think if we stop treating them like babies and put some more subtle details to cartoons, they'll start paying more attention to everything and grow up way faster?
Speaking of treating children like babies, I am definitely not a fan of Applejack doing that to her sister. Yes, she is still young and naive, but you can't help children grow up by underestimating them and constantly ignoring their thoughts. Who knows? Maybe they know something you have forgotten to take into account. To quote Albus Dumbledore:
“A child's voice, however honest and true, is meaningless to those who've forgotten how to listen.”
The other cringe-inducing moment is the "Evil Enchantress" song. Even though it's short, the singing is pretty loud, the lyrics need a lot of work, and Pinkie Pie sings it more than once. Thankfully, the song gets a lot better in the second half of the episode, thanks to Flutterguy.
And this finally brings us to the good stuff, of which there are plenty. The comedy is really superb. The facial expressions and line delivery compliment each other extremely well. Also, there are a ton of hilarious visual gags, especially with the effects of poison joke. All of them get a good laugh out of me every time I rewatch the episode and, by far, the funniest thing that happens during the entire runtime is Flutterguy. I swear, when I first watched the episode, I bursted out laughing for an entire minute as soon as that deep voice came out of Fluttershy's mouth. In fact, I still can't stop myself from laughing during every rewatch.
As for the overall message of the episode, it's something we have heard millions of times: do not be prejudiced and judge people by their character. As a matter of fact, this is pretty much the main lesson Disney has been trying to teach in the last few years:
With that said, this is still a timely message that every individual needs to learn. Does the episode present it in a unique or interesting way? Well, mostly no, but there is one interesting aspect about it:
Throughout the episode, Twilight constantly preaches on about how they should not be so prejudiced against Zecora and how unrealistic curses are. Then, when she encounters the effects of poison joke, she dismisses Spike's suggestion about looking into a book called "Supernaturals" for a cure, believing that it contains nonesense. Then, towards the end of the episode, she learns from Zecora that the book actually contains information on "remedies and cure-alls that are simply super". This makes her realize that even though she is against prejudice, she does have her own prejudices deep inside herself. That's actually a pretty interesting concept and having an incredibly likeable main character have a little bit of a prejudice herself is a really ballsy move.
The only other animated production that has done a move similar to this is Zootopia, and while that movie explored both the personal and political ramifications of prejudice (such as race wars), this episode goes on a much more personal approach. Even though it's not very deep, it's still effective.
So, yeah, I do like this episode. Sure, it has a few problems, but otherwise, it's a pretty enjoyable experience. I know a lot of people downright hate it due to how "out of character" the Mane 6 has behaved in it, but honestly, I think their behaviour was accurate most of the time. Besides, they weren't prejudiced against Zecora just because she looked different. It was mainly because she lives in Everfree Forest, which from what we have seen so far, is a pretty dangerous and creepy place. Also, the fact that they're afraid of everything there operating beyond the control of ponies is actually an interesting metaphor on man trying to control nature in the real world. Also, it is consistent with the established lore, as we have seen in the previous episodes how ponies control the sun, the moon, and the weather with their magic.
Even though some annoying moments and a complete lack of subtlety makes this probably the worst episode that Amy Keating Rogers has ever written, it still has plenty of hilarious jokes and interesting commentary.
FINAL SCORE: 7 out of 10
It's been a long time since I've seen S1, hence why I haven't had anything to say, regarding these reviews. But if there's one thing I can say, it's that Zecora absolutely deserved way more screentime than she got!
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Agreed