My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 212 - Family Appreciation Day

Rating:

Zap apples, timber wolves, bunny ponies.  For an episode supposedly about Ponyville’s founding, a lot of stuff never really caught on.  Cindy Morrow’s heavily retconned story ends up being about as much canon as Hearth’s Warming Eve, since almost everything is forgotten and there’s no guarantee Granny Smith ever told the truth.  Despite never being mentioned before, everyone at the Apple farm is excited about Zap apples.  These rainbow-colored fruits taste much better than the real ones, but their appearance and harvesting are both dependent upon magic that makes little sense.  Morrow’s goal doesn’t concern itself with this though, as she strives to show that older members of your family shouldn’t be dismissed because of age.  The sentiment is fine, but Family Appreciation Day doesn’t come close to doing so.  Instead, we have two acts of torture where Apple Bloom frets over how dumb her ancestor is acting.  Can’t imagine why she doesn’t want Granny Smith coming to school and giving a talk.  Thankfully, her story almost redeems the episode, as we glimpse a different Granny Smith from many years ago.  Then this somehow justifies dressing Diamond Tiara up as a bunny girl.  After head-scratching magic, pointless retcons, Granny Smith acting incredibly stupid, and many questionable scenes (such as one apparently inspired by Weekend At Bernie’s), Family Appreciation Days’ ending is in rather poor taste.  And that’s indicative of Morrow’s problem here, since she clearly has no idea how to say what she wants.  Except for Granny Smith’s story, the results are terrible.

The prospect of a zap apple harvest is enough to move even Big Mac to words.  Or it might only be a product of Granny Smith’s senility.  She’s acting crazier than usual; banging loudly on a kettle at night or making Apple Bloom hop with her over watering cans while wearing bunny suits.  Granny Smith doesn’t help as she’s constantly forgetful about the harvest and refuses to explain any of her actions.  Perhaps this would be mostly harmless, but Diamond Tiara and poppa Filthy Rich arrive to preorder the next zap apple batch.  Along with an embarrassing trip into town that finds Granny Smith both bonkers and oblivious, Apple Bloom is in danger of being a laughingstock for her entire class.

Enlisting the Crusaders, Apple Bloom spends the second act trying to get out of having Granny Smith speak at school (she’ll conveniently be free while Applejack and Big Mac are busy harvesting).  These attempts range from lazy (playing “sick”) to bizarre (Granny Smith becomes a marionette while asleep who tells Cheerilee she can’t make it, but then wakes up and says she can).  Their final convoluted effort involving Scootaloo bringing Granny Smith a pretend telegram from “uncle” Apple Strudel also fails when he just happens to be on the train arriving at Ponyville.

Diamond Tiara is raring for disaster, but surprisingly gets anything but.  Granny Smith relates a touching tale of her early days before Ponyville existed and she had to survive on seeds.  Battling starvation with her family, Granny ventures into the Everfree Forest and discovers zap apples growing within.  They’re unfortunately guarded by timber wolves (their obvious weakness thankfully goes unmentioned), who chase Granny back to her farm.  She starts furiously pounding on the kettle outside, which scares the timber wolves and sends them scurrying back to the forest.  Finally blessed with a product, it turns out every crazy thing Granny Smith did was specifically needed to produce the best zap apple jam.  The Smiths sold their product to the Richs, who became upper class while Granny’s clan remain farmers.  Even despite the income divide, this product led to a town springing up around its sellers, and thus Ponyville was born.

Apple Bloom’s class (excepting Diamond Tiara of course) is extremely impressed, which given Granny Smith’s earlier behavior is very understandable.  One thing she didn’t explain was the whole bunny thing, which doesn’t stop Filthy Rich from bringing his daughter to join in this “activity” with her other classmates.  Can’t imagine why she’d have such a sour look on her face.

Family Appreciation Day should be lauded for showing that Granny Smith is not just an old stereotype but a pony with history who used to be young once.  Of course, it does this after having her be just such a stereotype.  All Granny had to say was that the zap apples need this shit to grow and taste good, but she doesn’t solely so it can be revealed in the story.  Which is admittedly a strong section, but the movie soundtrack that plays underneath just seems manipulative.  As would happen later in Sleepless In Ponyville, this kind of feel suits My Little Pony rather well, but the buildup tries to paint Granny Smith as a great and important pony when she’s probably neither.  Since it’s decidedly less painful and shows a much more interesting Granny Smith, her presentation is the sole reason for Family Appreciation Day’s rating bump.  That it creates a time problem because Celestia looks the same age and Granny Smith must now be in triple figures is probably better ignored.

Outside of this section though, Morrow cannot find a single redeeming moment.  Not one thing about these stupid apples makes any sense, which is probably why the other writers have ignored them.  We’re supposed to accept “magic is as magic does” as an explanation for apples liking polka dots, talking to glass jars, that whole bunny pony thing, and their coming being foretold like an apocalypse.  Along with Granny Smith’s earlier bumbling, this is apparently supposed to be funny, because Twilight wouldn’t accept such bullshit from something she studies seriously.  Now I know why the mane six were given a week off.  For how much Morrow beats our heads with these stupid apples, their very mention is more cringe-inducing than Pinkie Sense.  At least they’re thankfully ignored going forward.

Likewise, Apple Bloom’s adventures in trying to skip her school assignment are just odd.  Stringing up a sleeping old person is also supposed to be funny, because there’s no way she’d wake up from all that noise or having her limbs thrashed about.  Then the Crusaders are legitimately surprised when she does wake up.  Bashing someone’s head on the ceiling while they’re sleeping will do that, Apple Bloom.  Everything about this act feels like a bad comic who doesn’t realize how unfunny they are.  It has no impact on the show’s overall message, and is therefore…well, you know.

While Morrow misfires almost every time out, she usually hasn’t struggled with taste.  What she was thinking when writing most of her episodes remains unknown, but never quite to the level of Family Appreciation Day.  A nice story about appreciating your elder family members turned into an episode more about magic apples and the crazy shenanigans of Granny Smith and Apple Bloom.  Which somehow also included dressing young girls in sexy costumes.  None of the acts fit together or cohere into any sort of a story, while two are extremely painful and boring.  With zap apples being directly linked to Ponyville’s creation, their complete lack of being mentioned elsewhere suggests Granny Smith is at least embellishing her non-canon story, which weakens the episode’s one decent stretch.  With all of this utter mess I’ve just described, Morrow’s lucky her rating isn’t worse.  She sort of accomplished her goal, but got there in a way no one else would have thought to.  Even while not uniformly terrible, Family Appreciation Day is better off forgotten.