Generation One MLP Cartoon Roundup

Welcome to the G1 cartoon discussion thread. We’ll be starting with the specials and movies, before going on to My Little Pony N’Friends and My Little Pony Tales.
 
Amethyst_Crystal has graciously provided us with Youtube links to the first cartoon.
 
Rescue at Midnight Castle [’84]  
Escape from Katrina [’85]  
My Little Pony: the Movie [’86]  
My Little Pony ’n Friends Season 1 [’86]  
My Little Pony ’n Friends Season 2 [’87]
 
Whenever we start discussion on a new serial, I’ll include a link to the first episode in the serial, so don’t worry about coming back here or searching through the playlist. If someone else ends up advancing to a new serial, I ask that they do the same. I also ask that discussion of future stories in the series be kept to a minimum.
 

 
First up is Rescue at Midnight Castle, which gives us Megan’s first trip to the Pony World and introduces many of the elements of the series, including nigh-constant peril. I think that it works very well as an introduction to the series, both the highs and lows.
 
The writer was George Arthur Bloom, who has written a lot of children’s animation over the years.
 
I’ll be waiting at least a few hours before posting my own writeup, just to give people the chance to watch it blind.
 
If anyone wants to set up a livestream, now is the time to do it.
 
Episode Discussion Index  
Escape from Catrina  
My Little Pony: The Move

@Sjogre  
You’re most welcome!  
That’s a good picture choice to set the mood, too.  
The transition from serene cuteness to intense danger is pretty stark.

@Amethyst_Crystal  
I’m going to be trying to pick a good picture for each serial. Sadly, I don’t think that there’s enough artwork for the minor characters.

@Sjogre  
You could consider posting a screenshot in some cases, if need be. I would hope there’s at least one on here for each story by now.

@Amethyst_Crystal  
I think that I’ll be using a screenshot for Katrina. The Smooze should have some decent artwork, and I’ll just have to see what I can do for the rest. I’d rather use character art rather than a screenshot, but I might not have a choice sometimes.
 
Rescue at Midnight Castle
 
Ponies dancing on rainbows? That’s not going to last long.
 
You’ll see Firefly and the original Twilight here, and pretty much only here. The ponies from the specials don’t continue into the movies and the series.
 
Ember is a baby pony without a cutie mark, something that is otherwise unknown in G1. In fact, I think that ponies are born with them until G4.
 
The theme song ends at 1:49. Danger rears it’s head at 2:12. That’s a Time-to-Peril of twenty-three seconds. Hard time to beat.
 
Time for a stratadon attack. Notice that the ponies know what stratadons are; this isn’t their first encounter. Tough times in Dream Valley even before Tirek’s latest attack.
 
The blue earth pony, Bow Tie, manages to not only squirm out of the grasp of a stratadon but kick another one on the way down. Damn.
 
Unfortunately, two baby ponies aren’t quite as capable. Scorpan tosses off a proclamation of doom and flies off with his captures.
 
Realizing that they’re in dire straits, Firefly leaves to get help.
 
At Tirac’s Midnight Castle, Scorpan tosses the babies into a cell and tells an eager Spike that he’s not going into combat. Seriously. Little Spike, who’s far nicer than his later incarnation, is asking to go into combat. Spike’s career as a minion was short, and he was never a front liner, but it has some food for thought.
 
Scorpan then reports in to Tirac, who strokes a bag that’s twitching like it holds a beating heart. Tirac, I think, is what the G4 writers wanted out of Sombra. He explains nothing of his motives, his plans, his abilities. He simply appears, and menaces all that exists. He spends his first scene completely in shadow, with only enough seen or heard to be frightening.
 
During his report to Tirac, Scorpan ends up clutching Spike to his chest…
 
Firefly flies over the rainbow, and happens upon Megan. Megan is surprised to meet a talking, flying horse, but adapts quickly. There’s something of a mystery surrounding why Firefly grabbed the first human that she met on the other side of the rainbow. While Megan does prove useful over the course of the series, she ultimately just provides a cool head and insightful wit. Megan herself is well aware that she doesn’t have a lot of hero credibility at the moment. I’ve got my own theories as to why Firefly decided to take Megan, but the show ultimately never says anything about it.
 
Upon arrival at Dream Castle, the ponies all troop out to give a warm welcome to Firefly and Megan. As do the Stratadons. Yep. Less than a minute after setting foot on Pony Land, she’s grabbing by snarling scaly beasts out of a heavy metal cover.
 
Firefly manages to dazzle the stratadon into dropping her, but it’s Scorpan that gets her to ground safely. Not that bad a guy, is he? Still, he’s the leader of the stratadons and so Megan tries to attack him for the attack. He just flies off.
 
Spike actually runs on all fours a few times in the special. I can’t remember him doing it at all later.
 
Anyway, he watches as Tirac has Ember removed for being too small to pull his chariot of midnight. With her removed, he opens his bag and uses the power of darkness to turn the three ponies into enormous reptilian beasts.
 
Only one more pony needed, and if he doesn’t have it by midnight, he tells Scorpan that a head is going to roll. Spike’s head.
 
While heading to the Mushromp, Applejack falls into a river and Megan goes after her, leading to their first encounter with the sea ponies. The sea pony song is one of the few musical numbers that I’d accept as being completely diegetic, given how confused Megan and Applejack are.
 
For all that the sea ponies can’t live with the other ponies, they end up being some of their most stalwart allies, helping them as much as possible and often without even being asked. Given the “Steward of Nature” role that G4 ponies have, they’re probably the best fit of any of the extra pony types.
 
While the Moochick is both vastly powerful and has a wide store of wisdom, but his mind is starting to go. His voiceless rabbit assistant, Habbit, can generally keep him pointed in the right direction, but it can be difficult. How the ponies met the Moochick is another one of those things that is never explained, but he’s been a friend and ally for some time.
 
I’m not sure if the rabbit here is supposed to be Habbit. Habbit, aside from not being much for clothes, is white instead of brown and more irritable, although that might be the result of more time spent around the Moochick.
 
Tirac, he says, is trying to bring in the night that never ends, and can only be stopped by getting rid of his Rainbow of Darkness. Wisdom dispensed, he hands them the Rainbow of Light and sends them on their way.
 
Why was he just holding onto the Rainbow of Light until now? He’s powerful enough to defend himself without it, but it’s a useful tool for the ponies. Depending on the time line of Dream Valley’s settlement, the ponies may have had other options at the time, but the ponies have been bereft of those items and allies for at least a generation by this point.
 
Okay, the song implies that he made the Rainbow of Light from a piece of rainbow, but rainbows aren’t in short supply through the series.
 
To get across the lake surrounding Midnight Castle, they call upon the sea ponies. The sea ponies also know how to open a secret passage, so they’ve been scouting it for some time.
 
Scorpan, no longer able to condone working for Tirac, sneaks off to grab Spike and the baby ponies and escape, ripping the cell door out of the wall in the process.
 
Upon entry to the castle, Applejack is abducted, and transformed just as the others enter the throne room. Scorpan shows up, fighting Tirac’s other guards and trying to buy time for the ponies to escape.
 
Out on the roof, it’s time for the final showdown. Tirac makes his appearance driving the chariot of night through the walls of the tower, scattering the ponies in the process. An attempt to grab the Rainbow of Darkness through force of arms fails, so there’s nothing left to do but try the Rainbow of Light.
 
It… uh… Just kind of flutters there. Maybe the Moochick should have used a bigger piece of rainbow? Or maybe it passed it’s expiration date?
 
Tirac, secure in his victory, unleashes the Rainbow of Darkness upon it. Which turns out to be a mistake, because the Rainbow of Light consumes it from the inside out.
 
I guess that’s why the Moochick hadn’t handed it out before. I only realized that the Rainbow of Light needed to eat the Rainbow of Darkness to gain power just now.
 
Now fully powered, the Rainbow atomizes Tirac and his guards, returns Scorpan and the ponies to their original forms, and turns the lake and castle into a meadow and a tree. Fortunately, the Rainbow left a stream for the sea ponies, otherwise they’d be in serious trouble.
 
Actually, I can’t remember if those particular sea ponies ever reappear…
 
Alright, Prince Scorpan never returns, or even gets mentioned again. A prince going back to his kingdom wouldn’t bother me except that he was basically Spike’s surrogate father while they both worked for Tirac. His abandonment of Spike seems somewhat galling in view of that.

@Sjogre  
I think that it was what this thread needed to get started.
 
How the rainbow of drakness could have been created if the rainbow of light used a piece of rainbow. It would mean that in ponyland, somewhere, natural dark rainbows exist. Leading to the darkness universe perhaps like the normal ones lead to megan’s world. but that is to put with the insane theories.
 
The reason why spike was eager to be part of battle while being good and tirek evil wasn’t mentionned, we could think it is out of admiration for scorpan who do, but he don’t have a very good reason either as he seem to have keep his mind unlike the transformed ponies. It could be out of fear for spike, but he proved himself capable of trying to escape. A promise to be turn back to normal by Tirek perhaps but that seem improbable because it is exactly what Tirek disappearance did.

@boz  
Ponies… Well, the transformed ponies were needed to start the night that never ends, and that isn’t the last time that they’ll be associated with dark, or at least dangerous, powers. A later serial will have an unexpected connection.
 
Ponies don’t need dark rainbows to reach the Realm of Darkness. I’m dead serious, that’s canon.

you might wish to post pointers to your writeups in the threads main post.
 
you something like:

 
This way it will be easy for readers to find each one once the thread start growing.

I’d like to say that if possible, everyone should try to increase the color saturation of their screen or the video for the Midnight Castle and Katrina specials, at least 60% if not higher, or as much as you like before its excessive to your eyes.
 
It looks much better… and it’s the ‘official’ look too. That’s roughly how the edited tv series versions of the specials appears. MLPnF stories tend to hint at the power of colors in general and the ponies’ colorfulness in particular, too.
 
Judging the first special on its own merits, it feels like an exciting fantasy action adventure, and the stakes are more intense with the sharp contrast of loving soft ponies and cruel harsh demons. But the ponies win, and their determination and bravery makes it feel well deserved, despite the terrible odds.
 
Megan finally learns self confidence in herself by the end of the dangerous quest, and becomes a friend and leader to all ponies of dream valley ever since.
 
And at the end, the ponies meet the enemy’s minion that becomes their playful dragon friend, Spike!
 
 
Twilight: “Aren’t you gonna change back to what you were?”  
Spike: “Not me, I’ve always been a baby dragon!”

Wow, this was a better Dungeons and Dragons cartoon then the actual Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.
 
Who else wants to see Scorpan come back in Gen 4?

That voice acting is so weird. It’s not slow and stilted like some scripts, particularly what you get in videogames where there’s this brief pause between sentences with zero overlap, nor carefully constructed and with clear characterization in the wording, but it doesn’t feel natural either.
 
Speaking of unnatural performance, what the seapony? Even Megan and AJ looked like they couldn’t believe their ears.
 
I didn’t expect to see so much precedent for G4 in this, with the musical numbers and variations on the main riff played in various situations.
 
Also I just realized something hilarious; what’s a stereotypical “my first fanfic” for most fandoms like? A self-insert and some new scary dark threat…

@Trickquestion  
It really does feel like a dungeons and dragons game much of the time, like a custom campaign that focuses on magical sentient faerie ponies, which are what these creatures basically are.
 
@Align  
Kind of like they’re in the middle of telling a story while they’re in the story?

@Align  

 
One more excuse for bashing a fic without actually reading it blown out of the water.
 
 
Tirac is indeed what Sombra could have been, had the writers been allowed to do their job without that asinine TV-Y rating hanging over them like Damocles’ Sword. Alas, that rating kills so much of what could otherwise be done with the show.

@Align  

 
That was actually a pretty common plot for toy tie in series in the 80’s. Basically mos cartoon writers where more comfortable in writing adventure series than drama, so even stuff like Care bears and rainbow brights had villain based stories.  
The inclusion of a human kid in shows like that was meant to give the audience a P.O.V character, because it’s easier to the the viewers to identify with a kid and the show were about toys which many kids play with by inserting themselves as characters.

Hello, Sjogre, do you remember me? …From a few minutes ago on the other site? Yes, I’m back… TO FILL YOUR TOPIC WITH INSIGHTFUL AND DELIGHTFUL CONVERSATIONS! Bawhahahahahahahw!
 
Anyway…
 
First problem I have is just how calmly Megan reacted to the whole situation. “A talking flying horse wants to take me to a land of enhancement and danger? …Why not!”
 
Secondly, while Tirek is a great villain, he seems to fall into the no foresight generic darkness category for me. Sure, he was evil for trying to make eternal darkness but then what? Whats the point? Why did he want/need to do that? What was he planning to do after that? His entire plan seem to be…
 
Step One: Get evil army.  
Step Two: Make eternal darkness.  
Step Three: ….  
Step Four: Profit!
 
Thirdly, and worst of all, freaking sea ponies…

@ender1200  
I’ll be posting a pointer to where I post the next serial. We’ve still on the first story, though, so that isn’t a concern. The opening post is where we started this episode, and I’m deliberately making it easy for people to watch the episode without looking at my writeups.
 
I’m trying to get blind impressions, since I want to see what other people think of the stories without being tainted by my opinions. I might list pointers to my writeups later, but I’m hoping that other people will make writeups as well. My impressions aren’t supposed to be the only draw in this thread.
 
@ender1200  
Not sure how well it worked with Megan, as she was more a babysitter than someone you’d expect to watch the cartoon. Danny and Molly were probably better on that level.
 
@Sobana  
Nice to see you here, Sobana.
 
Anyway…
 
Some people just take things calmly. Megan was actually a bit freaked out when the stratadons attacked, but she recovered quickly.
 
While Tirac never did explain his plan, he didn’t really have anyone to explain it to. In this case, though, I don’t think that neglecting to explain his full plan was a problem. He was presented as alien enough that he had motives completely different from humans or ponies. The lack of explanation added to his menace because you didn’t know what he was thinking.
 
Just for you, Sobana, I’m going to post a link to one version or another of the sea pony song whenever they make an appearance.

@Sjogre  
Calling back to what @Kazapsky  
said about Tirac doing a lot of stuff they tried to do with Sombra but right, the no motive thing works far better with Tirac because he’s presented very much as a satanic force. He might not be called such, but everything about him screams demon, and such diabolical creatures do not need motivations for committing evil, especially one so “end of the world”-e as endless night. Sombra has an explicitly moral origin, and is thus expected to have mortal motivations.

@Sjogre  
Why would you torment me with sea ponies? I thought we were friends!
 
@Trickquestion  
You might consider him a demon, but he dies like a mortal. He might not be a demon at all, he might just be the worst of his species, they could be really friendly but we will never know…

@Sobana  
Your misery is hilarious. Also, I like the song.
 
Being atomized by a rainbow is dying like a mortal?
 
@Trickquestion  
Sombra had an origin, so we expected a motive. Tirac did not have an origin, so we expected nothing.
 
Okay, I forgot to mention this earlier, but this thread’s gimmick, at least on my part, is keeping track of the (interesting) dangers faced in the series. However, this is supposed to encourage audience participation, so what do you, the viewer, think was an interesting danger faced in this story?

Not sure were people are getting this impression of Megan being cool headed and ready to lead right away. Firefly has to spend a whole song just to try to reassure her to set aside what seems like a fair bit of social insecurity. Then she arrives and she is scared shitless by the dragon swarm. Lashing out at Scorpan was the first moment she showed a glimpse of leadership.
 
Scorpan shouting “GET BACK INSIDE!” with the music going crazy and Tirac just EXPLODING out of the wall of his castle with his four-demon-steed ensemble and midnight chariot was a pretty intense move into the end-game, though I’d say the bulk of this special was pretty intense, especially the graphic transformation of the ponies.
 
As the series progresses, it becomes clear that some of the ponies do have certain weaknesses and social problems, they can be as mean as G4 ponies sometimes. Some are argumentative or cranky or sullen or just plain rough. However, what I enjoy most about the G1 ponies is that they put a lot of emphasis on being good and caring and kind, while at the same time being able to defend your loved ones and your territory.
 
The ponies themselves don’t accomplish too much in this special, and Megan and their other allies do continue to do a lot of the ‘dirty work’, but that changes a fair bit as the series progresses. The ponies of Dream Valley and their allies even build a reputation of sorts. The witches speak of how the place used to be less pleasant and beautiful before their arrival.
 
P.S.: Besides both desiring to bring forth endless night, Tirek and Nightmare Moon share another major trait: they both specialize in transmutation magic. The difference is, Nightmare Moon changes her own form, while Tirek changes those of others. Everyone and everything around him were something else before, as revealed at the end (except of course for Spike, who’s always been a baby dragon).

To be honest i prefer Katrina as a villein to Triac. But i guess that i should wait with this until we start discussing the next special.

@Sjogre  

 
That brings up some interesting fridge logic for the remainder of the series, actually. It’s something I’ve been pondering off-and-on for years: do the ponies actually realize what’s powering their favorite MacGuffin/Deus Ex Machina? The phrase “ticking time bomb” comes to mind.

@Kazapsky  
I dunno, it could just as well have been purifying the RoD into its original form. Fits more with the whole corruption/purification theme Tirek (sp?) got loaded with.

@Kazapsky  
They do mention that they can only use the Rainbow occasionally, so they seem to at least be aware that it has a limited power source.
 
The Rainbow of Light being powered by darkness wouldn’t be the biggest revelation that the ponies ignore.
 
@Align  
Throughout the series, especially the early stories, it’s going to be mentioned and even shown that the natural state of Dream Valley is Evil, and that the ponies have been changing the place to suit their tastes.
 
So the Rainbow of Darkness being evil to start with is infinitely more likely than the reverse. Tirac, and his castle, and his guards, were almost certainly some of the original inhabitants of Dream Valley, and were living in a place that hadn’t been altered.

My thoughts reflect back to Megan. Why did the ponies need her again? I’m sure this isn’t the first time the ponies were kidnapped for some evil magical purpose. For this entire adventure, it seems like her only purpose was that she was the only one with thumbs that could open the locket. Besides that, it feels like she could have must been replaced with a pony…