My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - "Show Stoppers" - Talkback [03/04]

[The Huntsman]

Today@ 1:30 PM ET on The Hub

It's time for the second week of cutie mark crusader episodes. Last week's episode was better than I expected, but it was mostly average and it didn't do anything to make me like the kids more. Hopefully they learned something from that last episode and will be more tolerable this time.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders enter a talent show.

[MetroSparkster]

4 bits say Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara will return as well....

[Tobias]

Maybe all 6 core ponies will be in this episode. Anything involving Pinkie Pie is always fun.

[Mandouga]

I'll be direct. I hope this episode plays it straight by portraying them as having actual talent in whatever it is they do. You know the plot where someone is completely untalented, but after their performance, they get applause anyway because the audience (or someone they know) doesn't want to hurt their feelings? Considering this is the Cutie Mark Crusaders we're talking about, if this episode were to do that, that would just make it another unfunny parody episode with more forced comedy, IMHO. OTOH, who knows. Maybe it actually might be funny this time...

[The Huntsman]

...You know the plot where someone is completely untalented, but after their performance, they get applause anyway because the audience (or someone they know) doesn't want to hurt their feelings?...

Uh… When has that plot ever been used? I’ve been watching cartoons since the early 90s and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen an episode that ended like that. Usually, these episodes involve characters having a talent all along, perhaps even demonstrating it earlier in the episode, but not realizing that talent is actually a talent until the end of the episode. I am hoping for something more original – the talent show episode of SpongeBob SquarePants is one of my favorite simply because of how delightfully absurd it was – so we’ll see what happens.

[nakak]

We'll see. The last episode had some funny moments.

I noticed that after this, we'll be getting two Rarity episodes in a row (one of which she co-stars with Fluttershy).

[Mandouga]

I was just at Wikipedia to see which episode this was (the 18th) and this description worries me:

After entering a talent competition, the Cutie Mark Crusaders believe the event will help them discover what they are meant to do for the rest of their lives, and they hope that winning the contest will help them to finally earn their cutie marks.

(quoted for emphasis)

Long story short, I actually hope they do get their cutie marks this time (either that or for at least Applebloom to get hers), without going back to the status quo (at least this particular one)...

[Tobias]

I was just at Wikipedia to see which episode this was (the 18th) and this description worries me:



(quoted for emphasis)

Long story short, I actually hope they do get their cutie marks this time (either that or for at least Applebloom to get hers), without going back to the status quo (at least this particular one)...

Since Hasbro's calling the shots, I think they're eventually to ask Faust to give the crusaders their marks, simply because the toys are more than likely ready to hit the shelves (with all three having their cutie marks on the toys).

I don't Faust has control over *what* cutie marks they get, just in how they get them.

[The Huntsman]

Since Hasbro's calling the shots, I think they're eventually to ask Faust to give the crusaders their marks, simply because the toys are more than likely ready to hit the shelves (with all three having their cutie marks on the toys).

Is that the case or are you merely speculating? What pictures I've seen of the kids' toys didn't have their cutie marks, but they could have just been on the other side of the toys so I don't know.

[Tobias]

I'm speculating. I'm not even sure *who* in the show besides the core 6, Celestia, and Spike are due to have toys.

[zoombie]

So is ever character going to get a turn babysitting the Crusaders?

[The Huntsman]

I think I actually agree with what Mandouga has been saying all along. They do, on occasion, take the morals in really strange directions. I saw nothing wrong with Twilight Sparkle’s advice that you should do what you love, yet what the kids loved turned out to be something different than what they were good at, and then at the end failed to realize their true talents. Perhaps I should be paying the series a compliment for going in unexpected directions, but I actually think I would have preferred the cliché that I described earlier. I believe the kids were more tolerable in this episode, but that ending didn’t sit well with me.

[Mandouga]

The episode hasn't started, and it already isn't funny. I mean, Applejack gives them her old clubhouse...which is a "total lost cause" as one of them puts it. The unfunny part is where Applejack tells them they'll get their cutie marks by showing their talent for house cleaning. She was obviously patronizing them by telling them this so she could either teach them about working hard, or keep them out of her mane, one of the two.

1:39-Oh, it's a school talent show.

1:40-"My Little Ponies, you're missing the point!" Was this mythology gag really necessary (it's a pun, get it?)?

1:44-So far we have a straightforward scene where they're getting ready for the talent show. Keep in mind that they are doing this expecting to get their cutie marks afterwards...

1:45-...and now Applebloom is having trouble with practicing ballet (to say the least...)

1:48-So far they're (comedically) having trouble getting ready, but that's beside the point.

1:49-(Applejack) "I wasn't expecting that." Well, again, they're doing this expecting to get their cutie marks in the end.

1:52-The talent show is now on.

1:53-Another not-title drop. I hope this doesn't become the norm in future episodes...

1:54-The Crusaders are on now, but predictably, their singing is not very good, and yet in earlier scenes they were singing much better than that. The act falls apart and everyone laughs at them (which I admit I didn't expect, but was predictable regardless).

1:58-They just won "best comedy act". It wasn't a comedy act, and no surprise here, no cutie marks, which the writing then tries to justify by giving us an excuse moral about (more or less) turning negatives into positives, but that isn't the point here. You see, the episode was trying to change the subject in order to make it not seem so bad, but we all know it is, especially since it was all so the status quo could be maintained.

Except for the part they get laughed at, I otherwise pretty much called it. They worked so hard to get their cutie marks, but in the end the status quo reigns supreme (again). Still there were positive points. As I mentioned the episode plays it straight (mostly) when they get ready for the talent show, but as I predicted, they act was written as being bad, afterwhich it's played for laughs by having everyone think it was a comedy act when it wasn't. Most of all, the moral was just an excuse to again maintain the status quo.

In any case, this episode was strangely middle-of-the-road this time. It was unfunny in some places, but straightforward in others. Still, I think it could have been (and still can be) better (and less predictable).

[Mia]

I like the status quo of "No Cutie Mark", I was expecting after the first time we saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders they would get their marks, but it still looks like they need to grow.

As for them missing the point, I like that as well. Children for a very long time have trouble understanding morals and what they're good at. I find this take on them,as if they were actual kids refreshing. They're not preteens in kids roles, they're younger children learning lessons like kids do.




Yay~

[Mesousa]

Twilight, go away.

Why do they keep throwing her in episodes that she shouldn't belong? I don't hate her or anything, but they should just limit her appearances like the other ponies. It wasn't as bad as last week's shoehorning example, but still, again, she should at least, not appear in an episode for once.

I seriously hope Lauren awknowledges this...

[Monte]

I think I actually agree with what Mandouga has been saying all along. They do, on occasion, take the morals in really strange directions. I saw nothing wrong with Twilight Sparkle’s advice that you should do what you love, yet what the kids loved turned out to be something different than what they were good at, and then at the end failed to realize their true talents. Perhaps I should be paying the series a compliment for going in unexpected directions, but I actually think I would have preferred the cliché that I described earlier. I believe the kids were more tolerable in this episode, but that ending didn’t sit well with me.

Ya i felt the same way...
i mean on the one hand, discovering your talents and doing what you are good at is indeed a positive message. But on the other hand there is the idea of "you can be whatever you want to be"... just because you don't have a talent for something doesn't mean you can't work hard and develop that skill anyway. I mean if applebloom wants to be a dancer but has no talent for it, is it wrong for her to work hard and try to be a dancer instead of doing what she's already good at? In a way, doing what you like to do and doing what you are good at are not necessarily one and the same. there's not much of a real right answer here

Speaking of applebloom what was her talent? i got the other ones had singing and dancing, but i didn't quite get what applebloom was... the talent of common sense?

[zoombie]

The song at the talent show gave me flashback to the original series.

[TheGunheart]

I kind of liked the moral here. What one is good at isn't necessarily what one enjoys. Though the cliché may have been more satisfying, I think it's a better moral than saying you should only do what you have talent for.

[The Huntsman]

I kind of liked the moral here. What one is good at isn't necessarily what one enjoys. Though the cliché may have been more satisfying, I think it's a better moral than saying you should only do what you have talent for.

But it seemed that the characters enjoyed what they were good at. Sure, they all apparently liked other things more – other things that they weren’t very good at – but I’m not sure their reasons were entirely genuine. I mean, Sweetie Belle kept saying that she wanted to be like her sister, and while that may be true, her love for her sister may have been affecting her judgment.

[Mesousa]

For those who are wondering, I actually liked the episode. Heck, the song actually was catchy, and not that terrible. It started shaky at first, but Scootaloo actually did okay. I should also add that it was hilarious.

Voice acting fun fact: Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle are voiced respectively by Michelle Crebers, Madeline Peters and Claire Corlett, however, when Sweetie Belle was singing, that wasn’t Claire, it was actually Michelle.