G1 Media Retrospective: The End of Flutter Valley

[Leave a Whisper]

*sings* This is the ep that never-
*rest of arena* 

[Ponyfan]

*sings* This is the ep that never-
*rest of arena* 

 

*sings with Leave a Whisper* It goes on and on my friends....


Ponyfan

[Leave a Whisper]

*sings* This is the ep that never-
*rest of arena* 

 

*sings with Leave a Whisper* It goes on and on my friends....


Ponyfan

We need a force field.

Or a fakie catcher.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I'm glad to see that "boring" is the common opinion. This is such a disappointing episode to start off the series with, it made it hard for me to pick it up after suffering through around half of it. I don't remember that much about it save for the first episode or so.

[Wildshadow]

Oh man, I guess I'm the only one that enjoyed this one. I guess with Surprise and Spike being in it and the witches and such. I get what everyone hates about it but I still love the silly thing so much T.T

All the songs appear in my head when I think of it, and Morning Glory and Sting parts. I LOVE singing like Morning Glory and I annoy my mom when I start up the voice an old dog of ours LOVED when I used that voice on her ^-^

THE FURBOBS, I loved those crazy things! Wish the toys were made of them, which I'm one of the rare ones I loved that they didn't agree with each other like the bushwoolies, and how they healed Baby Cuddles with a song...

Yeah I know I only have this strong feeling about it because I watched it as a kid, all that nostalgic stuff going on =P

I was disappointed in some of the animation though but it was PONIES and that's all I cared about.

Oh and Morning Glory using 'calamity" and the fun looking up what it meant cause it was the first time I'd ever heard of that word.

AHGG BACK IN IT AS WELL. The "pony magic' song I loved as well, tricking Draggle, I enjoyed that cause it seemed so smart on their part to get away

UGH I enjoyed it so T.T NEED TO WATCH IT AGAIN! Been awhile watching the whole thing than just trying to sing Morning Glory's song, well both versions of that song and trying to mimic Sting's voice as well =D

[Lilja]

I don't hate it as much as the movie, probably because I was younger when I first saw it and have more nostalgic feelings for it. I also think it's reasonable to have lower expectations for a TV animated series than for a big screen production. That said, this mini series is worse than the movie in every way. The creators seems to care even less about their work here, the writing is sloppy beyond belief.

As annoying as the grundles were, at least they served somewhat of a point to the narrative. What point do the furbobs and the stonebacks serve here, other than to draw out the run time? Isn't it enough to have ponies, flutter ponies, bushwoolies, witches and beepeople? Although they seem to want to pretend the main furbob is a very important character, and give him kind of an arc. And this time you can't blame celebrity voice acting. It just seems like they don't want to focus on the ponies.

On the plus side, there are a lot of unintentional hilarous moments in this. I love when Bumble is held over the hole by Honeysuckle, and she's so terrified even though she's shown to be able to fly. Or when Pointer pushes his stinger into Sting's butt, and they act like it's such a serious moment.

The ponies tricking Draggle in order to escape is one of the few things that does make sense, but it did also make them look a bit mean.

And can we talk about how stupid the conclusion of the furbob/stoneback subplot was?  The stonebacks wanted to be their friends?  Really, Megan?  They tried to kill them.  I'm sorry, but if someone comes up and punches me in the face, the last thing I expect out of their mouths is "Do you wannabe friends?"

To be fair, the stonebacks' attempted murder happens in part 2, and Megan's friendship song is in part 9. You can't expect the writer to remember that far back! xD

(Similar to Pointer's stinger, I think George Arthur Bloom pulled that resolution out of his butt)

Oh yeah . . . this also undid the witches' entire story arc in MLP The Movie.  Reeka and Draggle go through MLP The Movie trying to undermine the ponies because . . . their mom told them to.  It's not like they have any particular animosity towards the ponies (which is part of the reason they're such weak villains), they are just trying to please Hydia.  But at the end of the movie, when they're dumped in the volcano, they tell Hydia "This is all YOUR fault" and seem ready to rebel and form their own opinions instead of blindly following Hydia's orders.

This basically has the same ending too. With Reeka and Draggle deciding to defy Hydia by calling her mother. (they already beat that gag to death in the movie, and it was never funny) But you make a good point! As weak as the witches were, there was a slight hint of character developement there. Although, honestly I don't think the writer thought this through enough for it to be intentional.

THE FURBOBS, I loved those crazy things! Wish the toys were made of them, which I'm one of the rare ones I loved that they didn't agree with each other like the bushwoolies, and how they healed Baby Cuddles with a song...

TBH, I would be so there for Furbob figures! As a kid I would've loved to see more cartoon elements incorporated into the toyline. The Furbobs are more visually interesting designs than the Bushwoolies too (although one can argue they're kinda ugly).

[Ponyfan]

I don't hate it as much as the movie, probably because I was younger when I first saw it and have more nostalgic feelings for it. I also think it's reasonable to have lower expectations for a TV animated series than for a big screen production. That said, this mini series is worse than the movie in every way. The creators seems to care even less about their work here, the writing is sloppy beyond belief.

As annoying as the grundles were, at least they served somewhat of a point to the narrative. What point do the furbobs and the stonebacks serve here, other than to draw out the run time? Isn't it enough to have ponies, flutter ponies, bushwoolies, witches and beepeople? Although they seem to want to pretend the main furbob is a very important character, and give him kind of an arc. And this time you can't blame celebrity voice acting. It just seems like they don't want to focus on the ponies.

On the plus side, there are a lot of unintentional hilarous moments in this. I love when Bumble is held over the hole by Honeysuckle, and she's so terrified even though she's shown to be able to fly. Or when Pointer pushes his stinger into Sting's butt, and they act like it's such a serious moment.

Honeysuckle taking over the crane and holding Bumble over the hole is funny. And the way she and Pointer panic over her being dropped in the hole even though she can fly. There’s also an error with Sting telling Morning Glory he can’t fly but seconds before that he was flying.

I also find it amusing that the flutter ponies stop to say Hi to Honeysuckle before they fall down the Stoneback hole to escape the bees.

*sings* This is the ep that never-
*rest of arena* 

 

*sings with Leave a Whisper* It goes on and on my friends....


Ponyfan

We need a force field.

Or a fakie catcher.

Ponyfan

[Lilja]

I also find it amusing that the flutter ponies stop to say Hi to Honeysuckle before they fall down the Stoneback hole to escape the bees.

Yeah, that's a funny moment for sure! Especially with Honeysuckle calling out each of their names as they jump down. Feels like a toy advertising moment!

Another funny thing is how quick and easy it was to make Bumble turn good at the end. After all the time she spent being banished from flutter valley and all the trouble she went through to steal the sunstone, all Rosedust has to do is offer her to come back if she promises to be nice, and she's like "ok thanks bye!" within the span of 10 seconds. Goes along well with the "MAKES IT EASY!"-resolution of the Furbobs/Stonebacks conflict.

[Al-1701]

I picture George Arthur Bloom writing this as a broken man sitting in darkened room in front of a TRASH 80 muttering "paycheck" to himself over and over.

[Bekuno]

I've legitimately only tried to watch this film once, and I gave up pretty early in  I still haven't seen it in full, but I'm glad there's a general consensus that it's not that great.

[Leave a Whisper]

I don't hate EoFV, I just can't stay interested enough to stick with it.

[dragonfly]

Love flutter ponies and desperately wanted Rosebud as a kid but never cared for TEOFV. I'm much more of a Sonambula, Ghost of Paradise Estate and Bright Lights kinda girl.

[Wildshadow]

Sweet, I'm the odd one out D=

[Leave a Whisper]

Love flutter ponies and desperately wanted Rosebud as a kid but never cared for TEOFV. I'm much more of a Sonambula, Ghost of Paradise Estate and Bright Lights kinda girl.

Me too.

[LadyMoondancer]

I don't hate EoFV, I just can't stay interested enough to stick with it.

Yeah, same.  It's something I might have on in the background to half-watch while I clean or something, it's just not interesting enough to watch "for real."  But I don't actually hate it.  The only G1 episodes I can think of that I actually hate are the Cloud Castle one with GARF and the one with the Gizmonks.  (I also strongly dislike The Ice Cream Wars, but mostly because the human(?) characters are so ugly and unlikeable.)

Speaking of songs, what does everyone think of the songs in this episode?

My ratings:

From The Sun . . . A
Oh, Family . . . C-
Dark and Dirty . . . F
Nature's In Harmony . . . C-
Stretch Yourself . . . B+
How Can I Be A Hero? . . . F  (Pro-tip, don't ask a voice actor to sing if they can't sing.)
Pony Magic . . . B
Imagine You Were Friends . . . D-
From The Sun (reprise) . . . A