My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - "Griffon The Brush-Off" - Talkback [11/12]

[The Huntsman]

Today @ 1:30 PM on The Hub

Remember when I said that they were airing the series too early on a school day? I take that back. Now they're damn well airing it too early. I know there are always reruns, but this is the very definition of shooting yourself in the foot. Neither Cartoon Network, Disney nor Nickelodeon would do such a thing unless they were unhappy with a show and were simply killing it off. Oh well. I'll keep on watching and hope everything turns out for the best. This episode seems like it will be interesting.

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash play pranks on the other ponies; Pinkie Pie becomes a third wheel.

[Blackstar]

1:30 in the afternoon? Yikes! And I thought that 2:30PM was too early. Well, this looks like a job for my DVR.

[Mesousa]

The best show of The Hub (the runner-ups being Deltora Quest and Atomic Betty) is slowly getting screwed. It just randomly switched around with Pound Puppies.

[Silverstar]

It would be a real shame if My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic gets death-slotted into oblivion. I really feel that it's best show on The Hub right now and Lauren Faust and crew are doing such a good job on it. I get that The Hub is just a fledgling network, but they really need to work on their scheduling.

As always, I'll refrain from commentary until I've seen the episode, but like Blackstar said, I'm probably going to have to record this one.

[Mandouga]

While I felt it was a step up from the previous episode (but only a little bit), it otherwise felt random to me. Among other things, I don't think the episode was sure whether it wanted to illustrate a moral in a more straightforward fashion, or simply use that a source of comedy. Still, the episode was a little bit more watchable than the last one.

In any case, I do have some hope for this show. Also, I think it's too early to say whether or not the show has gotten screwed or not. Yes, it's airing at an earlier time, but don't forget that each episode gets rerun during the weekend. In any case, I also don't think it's likely that this show will be put in any kind of death slot. In fact, I personally think that The Hub doesn't have any kind of concept of that since MiB: the series (6:30 AM) also airs at 4:30 PM (EST). OTOH, they do air classic Atomic Betty episodes a half-hour earlier. IMO, I don't think they think in those kind of terms (at least for now, as far as I know anyway...).

Going back to this show, changing timeslots doesn't necessarily mean that the show isn't doing well (then again, it also doesn't necessarily mean that it is doing well, but I personally like to think it's doing okay at least). I think we should give the show a chance, and keep watching in the meantime.

[aegisrawks]

Im sad to hear that this show is getting screwed by the Network. Its really cute and funny and it deserves better.

[The Huntsman]

This was a good episode. I liked how they played with natural expectations, as I’m sure most people thought that Pinkie Pie’s party was, in fact, a scheme to reveal the griffon’s true nature. The revelation that she was just trying to get her to lighten up, and that Rainbow Dash was responsible for the pranks, was executed very well. The fact that the griffon didn’t suddenly reform at the end and apologize is also appreciated. The only gripe that I had is that Twilight Sparkle’s letter at the end wasn’t really necessary, considering she had a minor role in this episode. You don’t always have to spell out the lesson learned.

[Blackstar]

This was a good episode if you like Pinkie Pie (which I do). She was featured very prominently in this episode. I liked the twist that it was Rainbow Dash rather than Pinkie Pie who set up the pranks at the party, and that Gilda Griffin being the perpetual victim was only due to her own bullying nature and her suspicion of Pinkie Pie.

Gilda Griffin: I'm watching you like a hawk!
Pinkie Pie: Can't you watch me like a griffin?

That line gave me a chuckle for some reason.

I also liked the little tribute to the Pepe LePew shorts during the cold opening where Rainbow Dash was trying to avoid Pinkie Pie.

[One Radical Dude]

I disagree that the show is being "screwed". A change in time slot doesn't prove it's not doing well (or even the other way around). However, I believe The Hub should air the premiere episodes on a weekend.

As for this episode, I loved it. Enjoyed this one better than the previous episode. I felt really bad for Fluttershy having her feelings hurt by Gilda Griffon. I also agree that I'm happy that Gilda wasn't reformed here and really loved how the pranks were executed, being that Rainbow Dash was the one behind them.

[Mesousa]

I also liked the little tribute to the Pepe LePew shorts during the cold opening where Rainbow Dash was trying to avoid Pinkie Pie.

I sorta knew that was some sort of reference to a certain 'toon.

This was pretty good, maybe because it didn't need the "shock humor" from the previous episode to be pretty good. I really liked the twist at the end. I actually thought Pinkie Pie was acting a tad too well but it turns out Rainbow Dash did it, althought in a way that I sorta don't remember.

Heck, the aesop was really well done, as well. Probably the best of use of an aesop I'v seen in forever. I wouldn't mind seeing moe of these as long as they look epic.

[Toonatic]

It was a pretty good episode. Short 'n simple.

[SigmasonicX]

I'm currently rewatching the series between the end of season 2 and the start of season 3, with two episodes per week, adjusting as an actual start time for season 3 is announced.

And here is the "psycho girlfriend" episode. Looking at the episode in that way does work, but really, the way it's actually presented does make more sense. It's still amusing to look at it that way, though. In any case, this is probably the episode that really fired up shippers, especially for Pinkie Pie, what with her becoming obsessed with Rainbow Dash out of nowhere and being really protective of Fluttershy.

I find the title odd. I guess it's a pun on "given the brush-off", but I feel that's a really weak phrase to make a pun out of.

I have to say, with "MMMystery on the Friendship Express", I'm glad that they introduced another griffin in Gustav. First, it does show that not all griffins act like Gilda, and also that this species wasn't forgotten.

A lot of people point out that Pinkie's rant at the beginning of the episode could be referring to the events of "Sonic Rainboom", but Rainbow Dash doesn't do any loops after she dives down. Perhaps she's just seeing an unclear image of the future. Pinkie chasing after Rainbow Dash is still really amusing, though I can't help but notice that the expressions that the latter makes aren't quite as out there as they would have been in season 2. I also found the pranks to be pretty fun. I was surprised to see that Pinkie actually did get angry and frustrated at Gilda. I only remembered her acting like that in, well, the other episodes that she freaks out in. For some reason, I remembered Gilda having a more gruff voice than she actually did. I suppose I was just remembering the parts where she got really angry.

When I first watched the episode, I thought it was strange that Rainbow Dash was behind all the pranks that Gilda fell for, and that Gilda would just fall for all of them, but watching now, you can see that Dash actually does intentionally lead her toward many of them, which was a nice touch.

I think this episode actually did a pretty good job showing the difference between the pranks Pinkie and RD pulled and Gilda's actions, with the victims always seeing the pranksters after the prank and laughing together in the former case. I really liked that they made sure Pinkie gave Gilda the benefit of the doubt instead of immediately realizing that Gilda was a bad friend, and had Gilda prove to consistently be mean instead of just being annoyed by Pinkie once. So, the moral ended up being presented quite well. The fact that it's Twilight who learns this is odd, but season 2 fixes that problem.

I really like that the brief line where Fluttershy says she's a year older than Pinkie Pie has actually appeared to have been kept consistent, with Fluttershy looking noticeably taller than everyone else in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles".

I noticed that this episode has a lot of Whedon-esque speaking, with odd words and phrases being used. I somehow get the impression that there may have been a bit of a fight to do that, given that this was still an EI program at this point, and the higher-ups may have wanted to emphasize proper speech.

Some may find it strange that Fluttershy and Gilda apparently didn't know each other before, but first of all, I believe Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were together for flight school, while Gilda was only in the Junior Speedsters camp, and secondly, I can imagine that Fluttershy would be too, well, shy to hang out with RD's other friends from that time.

I actually think an interesting idea for an episode would be for Rainbow Dash to go over to a party in Cloudsdale held by some of her friends there, and Fluttershy on her own decides to work up the courage to go with her. Rainbow Dash is surprised, because Fluttershy always stayed away from them before, but is happy that she'd be willing to meet her other friends. While Fluttershy does find them intimidating (I imagine a scene where she's scared by a guy crushing a can on his head and goes over to a demure-looking girl only for her to crush five cans at once) they turn out to be nice. While this would be another episode dealing with Fluttershy's shyness, it's different in that she more or less overcomes it right at the start and the rest of the episode is just her dealing with the consequences.

Overall, the episode is still pretty good, but not that remarkable once the initial Pinkie craziness passes.

Edit: One thing I forgot to bring up, was that I really liked that Twilight was shown reading frequently in this episode, even when with her friends. When I first watched the show, I was worried that they would have Twilight's obsession with books be something that had to be dropped in favor of being with her friends more, and was pleasantly surprised when she was just shown doing both at the same time. I also liked the idea presented in the episode that the main characters minus Twilight weren't all friends before they met her, and ponies who didn't normally interact were now forced together by a shared friend, and were then able to discover things they shared in common.