S04:E14 - Filli Vanilli

[Sir.Flutter Hooves 2,953]

This is by far the best (and cutest) Fluttershy face ever:

 

[Argumedies 1,748]

When they hit a home run... its outta the ball park.

 

This was an amazing episode.

 

That was great that they went all the way back to bridle gossip and continued that one aspect forward.

 

2things...

 

Big Mac has a set of PIPES!!

 

And...

 

Pinky Pie...NOT HELPING!!!...and quite creepy... on the wall ...thing... (shudders)

 

Over all an epp well worth watching over and over again

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

I loved this episode, I loved seeing the return of Flutterguy, and Fluttershy is such a good singer. I also enjoyed seeing the Ponytones perform and the songs were so good. I loved Big Mac, he was soo funny and silly in this episode. Pinkie being her usual crazy self was hilarious too. This episode had a good lesson and moral that I can relate to minus the singing aspect. All in all a good episode. 9/10!

[ggg-2 3,552]

i don't like how pinkie acted here.....personally something i would have liked to see is her walking up to big mac with the turkey gobbling contest medal around her neck and then taking the medal off and putting it around big mac's neck, stating that the only reason she won was because big mac lost his voice, and she wants to give him his title back....no bearing on the episode, yes but a kind gesture all the same

[lomk 20,663]

Can I just say that Fluttershy's adorable little dances stole this episode for me?

 

Edited February 15, 2014 by Space Woona

[UserNotFound 964]

Best part... Big Macapella!

[SparkBrony 379]

This was definitely my favorite episode of the season so far! Fluttershy was adorable as always and I loved how they brought back Flutterguy from a past episode. My only gripe about this one was that I found it hard to believe that Big Mac lost his voice for, like, a week. Still, LOVED IT! <3

[Batbrony 16,047]

"Filli Vanilli"... so this episode was surprisingly good.  I mean, no, good doesn't do it justice, this was a legitimately great episode that, going in, I didn't really know how to feel about.  Let me start by saying this: I called from the very second I saw the premise for this episode that it would be about Fluttershy overcoming stage fright.  I bucking called it, and I'm sure plenty of other bronies did as well.  And I groaned and moaned and worried that it would just be another retreading of Fluttershy overcoming some insecurity of hers, and that FINALLY this recurring theme with her would start getting old.  Well, I was right... partially.  The episode was entirely about stage fright, surprise, surprise, BUT it absolutely dazzled in its execution and actually handled the admittedly predictable subject splendidly.  So let's get down to just what made this episode work so well.

 

 

Firstly, we need to cover our main character of course, Fluttershy!  This was her second starring role of Season 4, and quite frankly it was a far superior appearance compared to her role in "Bats!"  While the idea that Fluttershy has stage fright was completely predictable, again, the way it was conveyed, as well as her taking her first baby steps to overcome it, were really, really handled well.  While I can't relate to her stage fright myself (I've been a choral singer pretty much all my life, and even performed in a few musicals when I was younger as well, including being a member of the barbershop quartet in "The Music Man", which was AWESOME), I CAN relate to her love of singing.  While we knew before this episode that Fluttershy loved to sing around her animal friends, we'd never seen before just how much she loved singing and appreciated it, and I'll be honest, this new element of Fluttershy's character has significantly raised her in my eyes, just because, well, I've always loved singing myself, so I can totally relate to both enjoying doing it yourself as well as appreciating it from others.  The scenes where we saw how much Fluttershy glowed behind stage, how very happy just singing for others at all was making her, those scenes were among my favorite in the episode, because I know those feelings that she was experiencing all too well.  When you're performing something like Verdi's "Requiem" or Handel's "Messiah", or even just something as fun as pre-game school spirit songs for homecoming, and you love singing more than most things, you feel ecstatic and your spirits soar, and that was captured perfectly here.  Fluttershy's always adorable, but the happiness that she had behind stage were some of the cutest scenes she's ever had, and honestly warmed my heart, really, they did.  Again, a lot of that has to do with the fact that I know exactly what she was feeling, so really it just felt true to life, a reaction that I could perfectly understand and knew that people really do experience when they get to do something like that which they truly love.

 

 

Besides Fluttershy's pure, sincere, and very real-to-life elation and love of singing, the return of Flutterguy was a hilarious and completely out-of-left-field twist that really spiced things up in this episode and provided an unexpected element, to say the least.  Seriously, I don't think any of us saw THAT coming, not to mention that it was actually a pretty ingenious solution to the Ponytones quandary, so good on Zecora for having one of her better and more creative ideas.  I also loved how Fluttershy didn't fully resolve her stage fright here.  Previous Fluttershy episodes treating her fears or insecurities, such as "Dragonshy" or "Hurricane Fluttershy", have generally thrust Fluttershy into center stage and made her the crux upon which everything else depends (though both of those episodes were excellent, really).  On top of that, how many kids shows can you think of that have dealt with the issue of stage fright before?  A lot, right?  Well, in most cases these episodes are extraordinarily predictable, and usually quite frustrating at that.  For one, 3/4 to even 4/5 of the episode usually deals with overcoming the stage fright itself, and it gets BORING!!!  Here, that wasn't the case; we actually got to see Fluttershy start performing about half way through the episode, even if she wasn't onstage.  Second, the stage fright is usually completely overcome by the end of the episode, and that's highly unrealistic.  Again, here, that wasn't the case.  Instead of completely overcoming her stage fright, Fluttershy quite realistically simply took her initial steps to doing so, performing in front of her friends and animal friends at the very end.  I expect that she really will continue to progress in this regard, and that maybe by the end of the season we'll even see her performing onstage in front of a real crowd for some reason or other, which I'd love very much.  Finally, in stage fright episodes in other kids shows, the person overcoming the stage fright generally has to perform a solo of some sort, be it vocal or instrumental, in doing so, completely taking center stage.  Again, that didn't happen here!  Fluttershy not only performed backstage for most of the episode, but she did so as part of a quartet, and as a choral singer who can appreciate the skill that it takes to coordinate group-singing (not to mention how fun singing in a group as opposed to solo really is), I really, really loved this deviation from the standard stage fright episode formula very much.  Once again, DHX took an episode format that we've seen lots of times in other children's shows and tweaked it just enough that it came off as fresh and original in its execution, and nowhere was that more apparent than in the way Fluttershy was handled in this episode.  All in all, she had a great turn in the spotlight this time, and this is definitely one of my favorite all-time Fluttershy episodes for sure.

 

Next, let's look at the primary supporting characters of the episode, the Ponytones.  Well first, let's cover Rarity.  She was lovely as usual; no surprise to me that she loves singing herself, seeing as she has probably the most mature singing voice of the Mane 6 (and still my personal favorite out of the bunch in terms of singing).  But where she really shined here was in her support of Fluttershy.  Rarity and Fluttershy have a delightful friendship, one of my favorites.  More than anypony else, Rarity is probably the best member of the Mane 6 for encouraging Fluttershy to overcome her fears simply because she knows how to be delicate, how to treat someone like Fluttershy with nuance and subtlety.  Even AJ, despite her patience and maturity, isn't as good for helping Fluttershy come out of her shell as Rarity is, simply because she's so much more blunt than Rarity.  Rarity helped Fluttershy take those baby steps by helping her find the perfect solution to her singing quandary, and it really did work wonders.  All in all, she had a great turn alongside Fluttershy, and another fantastic Season 4 appearance.  Big Mac's bass voice was glorious (especially for this bass guy right here  ), and he was a whole lot of fun to watch in yet another prominent supporting role.  There was even some fun "Hearts and Hooves Day" continuity with that Cheerilee-swoon midway through the episode, not to mention he just had some funny, funny bits, like the Turkey Call competition and AJ's interrogation at the end.  Finally, the two other members of the Ponytones (don't know their names yet) had nice debuts.  Their designs were lovely and they provided some great singing, nicely rounding out this quartet (and later quintet).

 

Seriously, do I look fabulous in this vest and bow tie or what?

 

Cheerilee: she likes what she sees.  :comeatus: 

 

Glad to see CheeriMac is alive and well.   

 

Finally let's cover the Mane 6.  For the most part they didn't do too much that was notable, aside from AJ's hilarious Big Mac interrogation.  However, one in particular stood out: Pinkie Pie.  :okiedokielokie:  Honestly, this might be the closest we'll ever get to seeing Pinkie Pie as an episode antagonist (albeit accidentally).  Her ridiculous antics, while hilarious, just kept distressing poor Fluttershy more and more as the episode went on.  Honestly, I wouldn't mind if an episode dealt with Pinkie reigning herself in, because not only is it a character trait that she seriously needs to deal with, but it would also be a pretty good lesson for kids about knowing when to cut loose and when to reign yourself in and control your excitement.  Still, she was hilarious, and the other Mane 6 were just fine as well (though I do somewhat question how they never recall Fluttershy singing seeing as she HAS sung in front of all of them prior to this episode, but eh, plot convenience, whatever  ).  Oh, also, SpiderPie is now apparently canon. 

 

BOO!  :okiedokielokie: 

 

Musically, the episode was stunning.  I don't care that the episode only really featured one tune, Daniel Ingram made it WORK!  They kept tweaking and changing it in slightly different ways as the episode continued, very creative on their part, plus I loved the barbershop/pop hybrid it ended up being.  All in all, this one piece featured multiple times in "Filli Vanilli" was a delightful number, one of the most creative Ingram's produced this season, and was a pleasure to listen to over and over again throughout the episode (not to mention how adorable Fluttershy looked everytime she sang it backstage  ).  The animation as well was wonderful; there wasn't too many notable sights (though the ponies movements themselves were top notch, and Fluttershy shaking her groove-thing to the music's beat nicely captured how much she loved music in general, totally being serious about that, honest!).  Comedy-wise this certainly wasn't the funniest episode of the season, but it kept delivering the laughs with great consistency in a wide variety of ways and from a wide array of characters.  The new minor characters were all a lot of fun, especially that cute little filly who had her cute-ceanera.  And of course, as mentioned earlier, the theme of the episode was not only great, but wonderfully executed as well!  Overall, I have no complaints about this episode (besides Pinkie Pie's rather bizarre, though somewhat unsurprising, over-the-top antics, just because one would think she'd know to at least try to contain herself around Fluttershy of all ponies).  This was yet another wonderful addition to Season 4, and I laud the folks at DHX for it! 

 

Hardly the best episode of the season, but this one scene is seriously one of my favorite scenes of Season 4 thus far!

 

EDIT: First, I've learned that the main tune of the episode is named "Find the Music in You".  Second, I've got to correct my earlier statement that there was only one number, because there were actually two, the first being Fluttershy's musical number at the beginning of the episode, "Find the Music in the Treetops" (which was lovely as well, though a far more traditional tune by this show's standards).

Edited February 16, 2014 by Batbrony

[lomk 20,663]

Is this a Flutterbat cameo? 

 

 

I'm sorry, it was the first thing I thought of when she popped down like that

Edited February 15, 2014 by Space Woona

[Frostgage 7,975]

One of the best of the season IMO. But seriously, why do they do this to Pinkie Pie? It's not even entertaining, and it's completely out of character.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Totally awesome episode!

 

Yay! The return of Flutterguy! I knew he'd come back!

 

And I knew that the tears were coming. 

[Kenny 232]

I'd say this episode was good, but not great. The singing was definitely interesting, especially Big Mac/Flutterguy. Though one thing I know I didn't like was Pinkie being an inadvertent asshole.

[mars 4,862]

Very disappointed at Pinkie Pie's behavior. As someone who feels Pinkie Pie is best pony, it made me really embarrassed when she acted like that.  She was just being a jerk the entire episode, and how could she think that any of her words would help Fluttershy? I didn't like the episode in that sense.

However! My jaw dropped when Big Mac sang- I'm glad they're giving him more lines! (and I saw a moment of Cheerimac eee)

Their music was good, and I loved the return of Flutterguy. I was really happy to see Zecora, but I was worried she was going to offer herself as a replacement when she started to laugh. 

I also like Applejack's interrogation of Big Mac. She reminded me of Kuzco from the Emperor's New Groove, which I found hilarious. I'm REALLY glad they didn't make a huge drama of Big Mac lipsyncing (I was already getting second-hand embarrassment, but it went away quickly when everyone was quick to forgive the Ponytones.)

 

Soo yeah. I really liked this episode- even with Pinkie Pie's horrible behavior. I'd give it 7.5 out of 10. 

[ShadOBabe 18,997]

Oh, I loved it!!

I loved it so much!! XD

 

I loved the music and it made me laugh so much!!

But it went by so FAST!! It felt more like a MLP short than a full episode!!

 

(Oh, yeah... though in my excitement, I forgot about Pinkie. That was ridiculous. Seriously guys, that episode was so awesome, but why did you make Pinkie act like that? It was the worst all season I think. I could handle her coloring in a book during danger. I could handle her getting distracted by a balloon. But this was bad... Enjoyed EVERYTHING else though.)

Edited February 15, 2014 by ShadOBabe

[Guest90210 3,568]

Great episode.

 

The song started to get a little repetitive but other than that I don't have much else to complain about. I'm not sure why everyone seems to hate Pinkie in this episode, I thought she was funny. It was one of her best performances in a while actually.

One of the best of the season IMO. But seriously, why do they do this to Pinkie Pie? It's not even entertaining, and it's completely out of character.

 

How? She does stuff like this all the time without realizing how it's really effecting her friends.

[Frostgage 7,975]

 

How? She does stuff like this all the time without realizing how it's really effecting her friends.

 

I don't agree. I know she's random and doesn't think before she speaks, but she's not ignorant enough to say hurtful things without realizing it. (Unfortunately that's Twilight's M.O.) This season they've taken Pinkie's traits to the extreme, it's just too much. It's becoming hard to take her seriously anymore.

[Scootaloo Is Best Filly 578]

Just when I think FIM can't get any better. They shoot out an episode like this and all I can say is "WOW" . Big Mac singing, the return of Flutter Guy, just about everything that could be made good, was amazing. I felt so horrible for Fluttershy , because in a lot of ways I am like her personality wise, and have quite a bit of stage fright. I didn't like the way Pinkie Pie was portrayed though. All in all, 10/10. And here I was thinking shows were supposed to get WORSE as seasons progressed. With FIM they seem to get better, and better, and better, and better.

[Carbon Maestro 1,003]

I love the musical aspect of it, I did have several issues with it.

 

It is a bit of a recap at what Fluttershy can do. I mean, there really isn't anything out there that developed her personality, unlike the other characters who went through some transformation or character development. The singing was interesting and hearing Big Mac more is good to see.

 

Pinkie Pie just lost a bit of respect. It might be because she's naive though. That's a negative aspect that they've shown. Don't get me wrong, I still love Pinkie overall because of the character development in previous episodes.

 

Oh yeah, since this is the episode closest to Valentines/Hearts and Hooves day, I saw what they did there . . .

 

CheerileeXMac shipping has been approved.

[ShadOBabe 18,997]

How? She does stuff like this all the time without realizing how it's really effecting her friends.

 

I have NEVER seen Pinkie go this far or seen her so completely oblivious to the visual feelings/pain of others around her.

At the end of A Friend in Deed she stopped herself getting all excited about throwing a crazy reunion party for Matilda and Cranky with barely ANY hints because she was aware enough to realize that they just wanted some peace. But in this episode she was going on and on and ON, even when Fluttershy was quaking and crying.

Edited February 15, 2014 by ShadOBabe

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

Did pinkie just loose all social understanding in this episode? Also, she climbed UP a wall....

 

Other than pinki-demon, I loved this episode. 

[Dr. Mechano 630]

"Filli Vanilli" was really enjoyable. But before I gush over it, I have a minor complaint to make:

 

For all this episode tries to maintain continuity by having a flashback to "Bridle Gossip," it still utterly falters when it comes to remembering Fluttershy's previous public performances. Fluttershy has sung in front of others multiple times, including on stage in front of a crowd of strangers in "Hearth's Warming Eve." For her to suddenly be so timid that even singing in front of her closest friends freaks her out strikes me as a major incongruity, especially in an episode that tries so hard to use previously-established episodes as a backdrop. It's a minor complaint overall, but it was pretty distracting for me personally.

 

Also, I normally don't agree with the complaints that Pinkie has been out of character this season, but I will concede to them for this episode. Pinkie is generally way more empathetic than this; Remember "Griffon the Brush-off," where Pinkie doesn't even want to play a small prank on Fluttershy due to how sensitive she is. Pinkie should, and usually does, understand when she upsets someone, and it feels really jarring to see her so clueless here. 

 

With that out of the way, man, this episode did a lot of things right. This is some of the best Rarity/Fluttershy interaction since "Green Isn't Your Color," and it's nice to see that Rarity did learn from that episode; She's really considerate toward Fluttershy here, and gives her multiple opportunities to back out of performing rather than pressuring her or insisting "she must." It's nice to see natural progression like this, and is one of the reasons I like this episode so much. While she wasn't the main character, Rarity definitely was in top form here.

 

Fluttershy herself really was interesting this time around. Ignoring my complaints about selective continuity, her disparity between a love of singing and a fear of attention really did feel natural, and her dilemma is easy to sympathize with. Her progression throughout the episode, as she goes from reluctant to enthusiastic about her role, was great to see too. I also like how the ending handled her development, going with "baby steps" toward larger performances, which honestly is a more realistic take on overcoming stage fright (whether it contradicts earlier episodes or not).

 

And of course, I was thrilled to see Big Mac finally sing. A man of few words, when he does say something (other than yeps and nopes, anyway), it's always memorable. I like the callback to "Hears and Hooves Day" too. I guess Cheerilee really might have some feelings for the big guy after all.

 

All in all, this one gets a solid "pretty good" from me. It wasn't without its problems, but the stuff it did right, it really did right.

[takai 1,060]

HNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG Fluttershy is best pony. 

 

Fun episode overall. And with no Rainbow Power Key in sight, it looks like this confirms at least one more Fluttershy episode.

 

Woah woah woah, did Cerilee faint over Big Mac? Then peek out of the corner of her eye to see if he saw? Looks like there's some hidden feelings going on.

 

And look, Fluttershy development. She was assertive in the good way saying "No" to Rarity. Looks like the episode "Putting Your Hoof Down" payed off. Kudos to the writers.

 

This was a really sweet episode though, and also more good development for Fluttershy's character. Taking baby steps, and slowly but steadily reaching her goal.

 

All in all, great episode. Very enjoyable.

 

Oh, and Pinkie was so funny. 

Edited February 15, 2014 by takai

[crysal 30]

Really loved it, I loved the small A-team reference, That Zecora came in a episode this season,

 

And the fact that fluttershy come over one of her fears. well a bit over it (baby steps)

[Fluttershyfan94 5,742]

Loved this episode, really enjoyable. Fluttershy was adorable in it, really good. Never expected Fluttershy to have a passion for singing. I thought it was awesome when Cherrilee fainted. Flutterguy was awesome, overall a really good and enjoyable episode. 

[ShadOBabe 18,997]

Oh, one other TEENY thing I was disappointed with in the episode...

Deer apparently aren't a "race" type species. Like not sapient and can be adopted as pets.

That was a bummer for me. I didn't expect to see a deer character, but I liked to imagine they lived far away in their own homeland.

 

OH WELL!! *throws hands up*

It was so small, I'll just do what I always do and pretend it didn't happen!! XD

Edited February 15, 2014 by ShadOBabe