Lorax Movie meets a Meme

I admit, I laughed harder at these than I probably should have:


Cut All The Trees by ~Ca14 on deviantART
Cut All the Trees? by *ThinkerGirl96 on deviantART

New SSC DVDs Coming

The latest Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures DVD and the last of the DiC series will be coming out on March 6th.  From the description, Bloomin' Berry Garden will have "Vanishing Violets" and "Trading Sizes," but there's no indication of what the third episode will be.  My guess: "Pop Goes the Garden."
And in case it interests you, I stumbled onto the site of the person who designed the logos for both these DVDs.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Episode 35

There truly is nothing like a Rarity episode, and this one is no exception.

Sweet and Elite
There are certain perks to being friends with Princess Celestia's personal protege, such as getting to stay in a suite at the castle when you're in Canterlot.  That doesn't mean that Rarity expected such a thing, though, and she can only express her gratitude through excessive kissing of the princess' hooves.  The bellhop, meanwhile, collapses under the weight of Rarity's excessive luggage.
Though Rarity is in Canterlot for business purposes, she takes some time to enjoy the hustle and bustle of Canterlot life with her kitty, Opalescence, and muses that she should make Twilight an outfit for her upcoming birthday to thank her for getting her the room in the castle.  As she sips her cafe au lait, she's approached by two unicorns who introduce themselves as Jet Set and Upper Crust, inquiring about her lovely hat.  Before Rarity can hopefully impress them with the fact that she made it herself, she's interrupted by a window-washing pony, A.C. Turnip Truck, who recognizes her from last fall's hoe down.  He embarrasses her in front of the Canterlotters, but Rarity is too nice to say anything.  Hearing that she's from Ponyville, the two unicorns reverse their initial thoughts on her hat and walk off with their snoots in the air.
Burning with indignation, Rarity designs her fanciest dress ever, and immediately writes to Twilight to let her know about the forthcoming gift.  She rushes out to buy the materials, but on her way back accidentally bumps into Fancy Pants, the most important pony in Canterlot society!  In the course of apologizing and picking up her things, Rarity offhandedly mentions that she's staying at the castle and knows the princess.  This garners her an invitation to Fancy Pant's VIP box for the Wonderbolts Derby that afternoon.  Stunned, Rarity can only mumble out "Sure."
Back at her suite, Rarity weighs the pros and cons of going to the derby versus working on Twilight's dress: though making connections in Canterlot could be very good for her and her business, her friends appreciate her work more than anyone, so shouldn't she throw her whole self into making the dress?  In the end, she decides that going to the derby will still leave time for the dress, and so she goes!  Jet Set and Upper Crust are also at the derby, in the regular seats, so they are shocked when Rarity is welcomed into the VIP box by Fancy Pants himself.  She is, of course, roundly ignored by Fancy Pants' other guests, until he drops the word that she's staying at the castle.  But the race is about to begin, and according to Fancy Pants, Rapid Fire is the one to beat.  His guests all agree, except for Rarity, who thinks Fleet Foot will come out the winner.  Her treacherous words are proved right, and she credits her prediction to her friend Rainbow Dash.  When questioned about this "Rainbow Dash," Rarity, rather than lose face by admitting she's just a pegasus from Ponyville, says that Dash is the Wonderbolts' trainer.  This ruse works, and Fancy Pants declares her his new favorite.  As his other guests cheer for her, she winks at the utterly gobsmacked Upper Crust and Jet Set.

With Fancy Pants' stamp of approval, Rarity quickly charms the rest of his guests, who extend invitations to their upcoming functions.  Though she would love to, Rarity must stick to her convictions and work on Twilight's dress.  However, the other ponies insists that their functions would simply be defunct without her there, and fix her with such puppy-dog-eyes that she can't say no, though she wonders how she'll have time to pull off such a fancy dress and attend all their functions.  She justifies all this to Opal by explaining the dress is still her top priority, but she can't stand to disappoint the VIPs of Canterlot by turning down their invitations.
And thus, Rarity's ascent into the Canterlot Elite begins, set to a montage song.  She attends art house openings, charity auctions, dinner parties, the opera, yacht parties, even christens an airship.  And each event has a specific wardrobe:

But despite her earlier promise, she leaves exceedingly little time for working on Twilight's dress, and on the day of her return to Ponyville, it is merely a simple frock.  She intends to finish it up once she gets back to Ponyville, but just as she's about to leave, an invitation to the Canterlot Garden Party arrives from Jet Set and Upper Crust.  At first she's ecstatic, as it's the most premiere party after the Grand Galloping Gala, but in the next moment she remembers that it's at the same time as Twilight's birthday party!  She can't miss that, but if she doesn't go to the garden party, then her all her function-attending was for naught.  Caught between a rock and a hard place, she makes the only decision she can: she writes to Twilight, but blames her inability to be at her party on Opal being sick.
The next day, Rarity gets herself ready for the garden party, only to find Twilight Sparkle herself outside her door, quickly joined by the rest of her friends.  The shock knocks her out, but only for a moment.  It's still a few moments more before she can properly express herself to ask what the hay they're all doing there.  Twilight explains that, considerate friend that she is, she asked Pinkie Pie if they could move the party to Canterlot so Rarity wouldn't miss it.  Rarity is touched by this gesture, but then Rainbow Dash demands to know what she's wearing such a fancy outfit for.  Rarity, remembering her initial lie, claims it's to bolster poor Opal's spirits, and Fluttershy asks to see the sick kitty.  To her friends' confusion, Rarity shuts her door, claiming to need a minute, and, apologizing to Opal, runs her under the shower to maintain her lie.  This manages to fool Fluttershy, and reveals that Rarity actually puts eye shadow on her cat.  As the other ponies filter into the suite, Twilight spots her dress, but much to Rarity's surprise and relief, she actually likes it for how simple it is.

Another perk of being the princess' personal protege is being able to use the ballroom for your own parties, which Pinkie describes as "fancypants."  Rarity hides in fear of being seen by Canterlot's most important pony in the company of her Ponyville friends, but quickly realizes that's not what Pinkie Pie meant, and instead asks how she decorated so quickly.  Two Words: Party. Cannon.  Rarity hides again when she sees that the castle grounds, where the garden party is being held, is clearly visible from the ballroom windows, but she doesn't have time to dwell on it, as Pinkie Pie declares it time to get this party started!  And so the friends celebrate as only they can, which includes cake fights and conga lines.
Rarity, however, finds her attention divided.  No matter how much fun she's having with her friends, she can't help but notice the garden party outside.  So she sneaks away to make an appearance at the garden party, then sneaks away from there just as quickly.  She continues to go back and forth between the two parties, sneaking off either when no one is looking or by inventing excuses (and even using the "what's that over there?" trick).  And no one is the wiser, until she accidentally brings a croquet mallet back with her to Twilight's party.  Twilight figures out that Rarity was at the garden party, but surprises Rarity once again by not being upset by this.  She assumes Rarity was just there to drum up some business (the Grand Galloping Gala is coming up, you know), and gives Rarity full permission to go to other party.  Rarity is once again touched, and thanks Twilight for being an awesome friend, then heads off to the garden party.
Rainbow Dash, however, insists that they all go and show those Canterlotters how to party Ponyville-style, much to Rarity's horror.  The other ponies agree, and they crash the garden party, party cannon in tow.  Rarity watches, helpless, as Rainbow Dash takes over the croquet game and knocks off a lady's wig, Fluttershy attracts all the birds, Pinkie Pie devours the snacks, Applejack puts actual gardening into the garden party, and Twilight dances like a dork. As Rarity downs a drink to get her mind off her friends, Jet Set comments on the plainness of Twilight's outfit, unaware he's talking to its creator, and Rarity can't bring herself to correct him.

Twilight is approached by Fancy Pants, who asks about her dress.  Twilight is quick to let him know it was made for her by a very close friend from Ponyville, causing Rarity to spit-take all over Jet Set and Upper Crust when she hears this.  She rushes over to get Fancy Pants away before Twilight can mention her name, but Fancy Pants, used to being dragged away from talking to ponies by other ponies who think they're more worth his time, gently brushes her off.  And once Twilight drops the bomb that Rarity made the dress, there's shocked gasps all around from the Canterlot elite.  Not reading the mood, Twilight adds that all her friends think it's a lovely dress, and the rest of the Ponyvillians gather around.  "You know these ponies?" Fancy Pants asks Rarity, and as the gossip starts to buzz around her, Rarity turns from her friends to the Canterlot ponies and answers, "Yes."  She gives them all a speech about how her friends may not have status, but they are the most important ponies she knows.  Jet Set and Upper Crust don't buy it, and laugh at them until Fancy Pants tells them he finds these Ponyville ponies "charmingly rustic."  He also compliments the dress Rarity made for Twilight, predicting that it may become the next big thing, and asks to be formally introduced to Rarity's friends.
On the new day of her return to Ponyville, Rarity begins writing a letter to Princess Celestia to tell her what she learned while in Canterlot (never be ashamed of where you came from), but the princess shows up to hear it in person.  While they both agree it's a good lesson, the bellhop would have appreciated it if they could have finished up a little sooner, as he collapses under Rarity's luggage yet again.

As expected, this episode was very entertaining.  Rarity can make almost any situation worth watching, and it was nice to see Opal going back to her snarky kitty role, as lately she's only been used as a mean kitty.  And "Becoming Popular" is totally the song that should have been the premiere song of Season Two.  Way more worthy than "Find a Pet" IMO.
One thing I loved about this episode was that Rarity essentially got away with it.  Normally I hate episodes where a character tells a lie and has to go to lengths to keep it up, since I'm always waiting for that moment when it comes crashing down, and everybody is all disappointed with that character.  But that doesn't happen in this episode.  Rarity flakes on making Twilight's dress...and Twilight actually likes it better than the super fancy dress Rarity had planned.  Her "Opal is sick lie" isn't found out, and even though her sneaking between parties is, Twilight isn't upset at all.  I guess the more important thing for Rarity to learn was to stand by her friends, so she was allowed to get away with it, but it was very, very refreshing.

Misc. Screenshots
Fancy Pants and Girlfriend
Canterlot Race Track
Did I mention it's for charity?
The Canterlot Bunch
Wrong move, Rainbow Dash
Golf clap
Upper Crust and Jet Set change their tune

That One Video

So I'm watching Obscurus Lupa's 30 Genre Films that DON'T Suck, and she mentions that one of the films on her list, Little Monsters, was her favorite as a kid and the one that she rented all the time from the video store.  Which got me to thinking about how my sisters and I also had a video that we rented more than any other when we were kids.  Actually, come to think of it, there were two.  We took Yellow Submarine out from the library as often as we could, until their copy got lost, or stolen, and they never bothered to replace it (still!).  But what I really meant to write about here was the video we rented from the video store: Unico in the Island of Magic.

In case you don't know, and when we were kids, my sisters and I certainly didn't, Unico was a character created by Osamu Tezuka, a unicorn who brought happiness to people, and for this was banished by the gods. But the West Wind took pity on him and kept moving him from place to place, trying to keep him hidden from the gods.  Unico in the Island of Magic was actually the second movie based on the Unico manga, and follows Unico after the West Wind places him on an island which turns out to be ruled by an evil puppet named Lord Kuruku.  He makes friends with a girl named Cherie whose older brother works for Kuruku in hopes of keeping his family safe from being turned into living puppet people that Kuruku uses to build up his castle walls.  But this doesn't work, as Toby and Cherie's parents are turned into puppets, and so Unico and Cherie travel to the ends of the earth to find out how to stop Kuruku.  There's all kinds of crazy stuff and great characters, so it's no wonder my sisters and I loved it so much.  I should rewatch it sometime.  It's on YouTube, after all.
What videos do you remember renting all the time?  I asked my husband, but he can't think of any specific examples.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Episode 34

It's back-to-back Rainbow Dash, as this episode has her in the focus again, proving that no matter how many lessons she may learn, "not being a jerk" is not one of them.

The Mysterious Mare Do Well
Scootaloo, in her quest to spread Rainbow Dash's awesomeness to the world, has put together an official fan club which has a pretty good number of members, including Snips and Snails.  First order of business: which adjective properly conveys all that is Rainbow Dash?  A voice from the crowd suggests "Super-ultra-extreme-awesome-mazing" which is voted for unanimously.  Considering it came from Rainbow Dash herself, how could it not?
After trolling the kids, Rainbow Dash relaxes in the clouds, until she hears a voice calling for help coming from a nearby abandoned well.  Without hesitation, Dash leaps into the fray and rescues a young filly, attracting quite a crowd in the process.  Surprised by the cheering crowd, Dash modestly tells them it was nothing, though the filly she rescued disagrees.  With the cheers of the crowd echoing in her ears, she flies off.
Sometime later, a scream pierces the air, as a mother watches her baby go careening wildly down the hill in her carriage.  Once again, Rainbow Dash leaps into action, managing to stop the carriage just before it went over a cliff.  And once again, she attracts a cheering crowd, though this time she plays it up for them a bit.  When the newsponies start taking her picture, she casually tosses the rescued baby to her mother so she can pose.  Twilight and Applejack think she might be overdoing it, but then again, she is pretty awesome.
Later still, the balcony at the old ponies home starts to crack, but luckily, Rainbow Dash is ready to save the day, even alerting the crowd that their "friendly neighborhood Rainbow Dash is here!"  And just in time, she catches the balcony and gently guides it (and the ponies on it) to the ground.  As the surrounding crowd cheers, Rainbow Dash fully embraces their adulation, showing off some aerial tricks for them.  And showing her friends that she may be getting a little full of herself.
Or a lot full of herself, as she tells the story of her recent rescues to her adoring fans over at Sugar Cube Corners.  She's even hired Spike to ghost-write her autobiography.  It's painfully clear to her friends (even Pinkie Pie) that Rainbow Dash's ego is going out of control, as she poses for pictures with all her fans, never once shutting up about what an awesome and heroic pony she is.

Out in Ponyville Square, Rainbow Dash signs autographs for her fans, and seemingly ignores a cry for help from a luckless hot air balloonist.  But no, she just wants squeeze in a few more autographs, knowing she still has time to make it.  Finally, Rainbow Dash takes to the sky, but as she flies, a masked mare suddenly appears.  Leaping across the rooftops, the mare manages to reach the falling balloonist before Rainbow Dash, and receives the crowd's applause.  As the mare gallops off into the sunset, the mayor declares her the town's new hero, dubbing her The Mysterious Mare Do Well.  As far as Rainbow Dash is concerned, the town only needs one hero: her!
Case in point, who shows up when a wagon full of tourists goes out of control on the same hill the baby carriage was careening down earlier?  Rainbow Dash!  However, stopping a baby carriage is one thing, but a wagon is considerably heavier, especially when it's full of tourists.  Despite her best efforts, Rainbow Dash is unable to stop it.  As the wagon heads straight for the cliff, Mare Do Well appears out of nowhere and stops the wagon, then takes off as soon as the tourists are safe.  Rainbow Dash is astonished that this interloper is stronger than she is, but reminds herself that there's more to being a hero than being strong.
Down at the construction yard, the equipment suddenly goes haywire.  Seeing this, Rainbow Dash starts to give her catchphrase, but is interrupted by a falling piece of lumber, which hits the tower under construction, sending it toppling to the ground.  Rainbow Dash attempts to save ponies, but there's just too much falling debris.  And once again, Mare Do Well appears, leaping into the fray and navigating with ease.  Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash saves a pony from being squashed by a falling load of bricks and gets him out of the danger zone.  She gloats about this to Mare Do Well, only to find out that in the time it took her to save one pony, Mare Do Well saved four.  Faster than Rainbow Dash?!  How can this be?
Rainbow Dash resolves to beat this newcomer, and flies off in search of something heroic to do.  She spots a crack in the Ponyville dam, and figures the valiant thing to do is block it herself, unaware that in doing so, she actually made it bigger.  Unfortunately, she failed to alert any ponies of her heroic deed, and thus has to congratulate herself herself.  Which unblocks the now bigger crack, sending forth a torrent of water, washing the pegasus down the river.  Rainbow Dash calls for help and is answered, but is displeased to see her savior is the dreaded Mare Do Well.  Before Dash has time to get two words out, Mare Do Well reveals a unicorn horn, and uses rocks to repair the dam, once again disappearing once the deed is done.  Rainbow Dash wonders how she's supposed to compete with somepony who is stronger than her, more agile, and has magical abilities, until she realizes that a unicorn doesn't have wings.  Her glee is short-lived, as she is suddenly passed by Mare Do Well in flight.

Back at Sugar Cube Corner, Dash sulks while her friends praise Mare Do Well's recent actions.  However, when Applejack points out MDW's modesty, Rainbow Dash loses it, vowing to prove herself the better hero.  She flies about town, looking for trouble, but finds only normalcy.  Then she spots Granny Smith, and figures helping a little old lady across the street has to count for something.  But rather than praise, she gets a whack from Granny's purse, as the elderly pony didn't want to cross the street.  Not one to give up, Rainbow Dash hears the sounds of a pony in trouble and leaps into action, even if the trouble was simply opening a jar of peanut butter.  She calls for praise, but as she didn't really do anything, the unicorn she "helped" is loathe to give her any.  But Dash is off to bigger and better things anyway, as she spots a lawn mower and mows all the grass!  She plays this up like she saved the grass by mowing it, but no one is buying it, and she is left alone.
Her day officially ruined, Rainbow Dash broods on a storm cloud, wondering how Mare Do Well stole her thunder.  After all, as far as she can tell, she's still as awesome as ever, yet everyone has abandoned her.  Not everyone, it seems, as Scootaloo calls her down.  But is she there to apologize for her lapse of fangirling?  Actually, no, she's there to invite Dash to the town's parade in honor of Mare Do Well.  Dash, of course, turns her down flat, until a thought strikes her and she comes along.  She bides her time until the Mayor introduces the guest of honor, Mare Do Well herself, and then confronts the mysterious pony, demanding to see under the mask.  Mare Do Well takes off, and Rainbow Dash chases her through the streets and back alleys of Ponyville.  Somehow, Mare Do Well stays a step ahead of Rainbow Dash, even appearing to be in more than one place at once.  At last, Rainbow Dash manages to tackle the masked mare, and pulls off the mask.

To her utter astonishment, she finds none other than Pinkie Pie under the mask, smiling sheepishly.  Even more surprising, another Mare Do Well stands just a few feet away and reveals herself to be Twilight Sparkle.  And yet another one steps out, this time revealing Applejack.  They explain that they each were the Mysterious Mare Do Well at different times: Applejack stopped the tourist wagon with her apple-buck-strengthened legs, Pinkie Pie saved the construction workers using her Pinkie Sense to avoid the debris, and Twilight fixed the dam.  Fluttershy chimes in that she did the flyby afterwards, and of course Rarity made the costumes.
Rainbow Dash is confounded by her friends' actions; wasn't she enough of a hero?  Applejack points out that a real hero doesn't brag about it.  Rainbow Dash concedes that she got carried away with the adulation, and the others continue on that while it's natural to want to be praised, you shouldn't force anyone to acknowledge your accomplishments.  The important thing is be gracious and humble.  Rainbow Dash finally gets it, and adds that acting with humility and grace when you're outdone by someone else is important, too.  Twilight tells her that sounds like Grade A material for a letter to the princess, but Spike, still on Dash's payroll, has a letter already on hand.  Rainbow Dash distracts him, and then takes up the quill to write her letter herself.

This is another episode that doesn't quite add up to the sum of its parts.  While there's a lot of fun and interesting things and scenes, the episode as a whole just doesn't do it for me.  And a big part of that is because it's mostly All Dash, All the Time.  Really, a little Dash goes a long way, and the last episode being so Dash-centric doesn't help, either.  But I loved seeing all the new background ponies, the RD fan club, and other little things like that.  And this ep had some really awesome expressions, seriously:

I wonder whether the mayor was in on the whole "Mare Do Well is just a thing to teach Dash a lesson."  She was pretty quick to declare the town's new hero.  Hm....

Misc. Screenshots
Blushing Dash
Peeved Dash
Opening Peanut Butter
Noogie!
Mare Do Well fans

Not Such a Smart Muffin?

So, apparently the next SSCBBA episode is about Blueberry Muffin assuming that Strawberry is sending them all on vacation, or some such, which is pretty par for the course for this series (yes, but how will the usual plot be affected by Cherry Jam?  Which is not actually what I'm writing about).  The fact that it's Blueberry specifically that does the assuming (the episode is even titled after her, "No Blueberry is an Island") got me thinking.  Now, Blueberry is supposedly the Smart Guy of the girls (her official profile calls her "super smart"), yet it seems like all her focus episodes do their best to prove the exact opposite.  Granted, a lot of the time, it's to cement Strawberry's position as the voice of reason, but some of these are just inexcusable.  Mild spoilers ahoy.
Pop Goes the Garden - Blueberry orders daisies from a mail-order catalog and just can't understand how she ended up with popcorn instead, in comparison with Strawberry, who found a typo in a cookbook and was just "Eh, people make mistakes."
Where Oh Where Has My Blueberry Gone - Most egregious example.  Blueberry goes crazy for the Patty Persimmon series of books and not only empties her store of any books but those, but seeks to emulate Patty in all her doings, especially when investigating a real mystery.  It's been a while since I've seen this one, but I seem to recall even the other characters pointing out the stupidity of getting rid of the other books.  Really, Blueberry, even in a fangirl mania, you should have known better.
Manners Meltdown - Blueberry goes crazy observing obscure manners rules when the Berry Bitty Derby is reinstated, to the point of lacking both common sense and tact.
Happy First Frost - Again, Blueberry just can't understand why no one but her would want a huge book on organizing books.  For someone who reads a lot, she sure can be obtuse.
Truth be told, none of the characters really fare that well in their spotlight episodes, which as I mentioned before, is due to the writers needing Strawberry to be the one to deliver the lesson of the episode most of the time.  But no one else usually ends up being the opposite of their character traits.  How weird is that?

What I'm Looking Forward to in 2012

2012 is going to be quite the year, as there's a lot coming up:

• My younger sister's wedding
• My older sister's first child being born
• Renewing the things that are only renewed every four years
• Presidential election

And on the non-real life side of things, there's plenty I'm anticipating:

• The rest of season two of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
• Season 3!
• The rest of season two of Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures (the next episode isn't until the 28th, what's up with that?)
• The Lorax movie