It’s a bit of a shame that I haven’t written about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in this column yet. Despite it’s rather infamous brony fanbase, it’s a really accessable cartoon for girls, boys and yes, even adults. But the show itself is a topic for another day. For now, let’s talk about “Luna Eclipsed,” the Halloween special that premiered this weekend.
Ponyville is celebrating Nightmare Night, which is obviously supposed to be Halloween. Actually, Zecora goes into the history of the holiday, which is very similar to the real history of Halloween: ponies dress up to disguise themselves in case the evil Night Mare Moon comes, and they gather candy to give to her so she won’t eat them. Of course, it gets a little awkward when the reformed Princess Luna (formerly Night Mare Moon) comes to town and attempts to mend her reputation. It was refreshing to see Princess Luna again — we haven’t seen her since the two-part pilot, and her story was tied up perhaps a little too neatly. I was glad to see some consequences, plus it makes sense that after a millennium of magical imprisonment in the moon the Princess would be less than knowledgeable about modern social graces. However, I realized the artists changed her hair back to the always flowy Night Mare Moon hair, which bothers the part of my brain that loves continuity.
The costumes we got to see were pretty darn fun and appropriate for the characters. Applejack as a scarecrow and Zecora as a witch (I think) were both fitting, Spike not seeing the irony of a purple dragon costume made me laugh and I loved that Twilight Sparkle was basically Gandalf … and had the same trouble Community‘s Shirley has at choosing costumes no one gets. Plus, Pinkie Pie as a chicken? Absolutely hilarious. I’m actually really impressed she could stand on her hind legs for so long while using her front legs as wings! My biggest disappointment in the episode was the lack of Rarity. I get Fluttershy not wanting to participate in a scary holiday like this, but Rarity makes a living designing clothes … just think of the great costumes she could have designed for herself. And I can’t see her passing up getting to show off her beautiful work. That being said, fan favorite background character Derpy Hooves’ appearance was funny and I liked the subtle Jaws reference (did you see it?).
A nice addition to the MLP characters is the adorable Pipsqueak, a colt from the very punny Trotingham. I love that almost all of the characters in this show are females, but it’s nice to have another young male character other than Snips and Snails for young male watchers to relate to. I would actually love to see the colt interact with the Cutie Mark Crusaders in a storyline or two down the road.
All the best quotes:
“Happy Nightmare Night, Granny Smith.” — Twilight
“… I should have been asleep five hours ago!” — Granny Smith
“I’m going to do what I do best … lecture her!” — Twilight
“Ha ha! The fun has been doubled!” — Princess Luna
“Pinkie Pie! You’re a genius!” — Twilight
“No I’m not, I’m a chicken!” — Pinkie Pie
Clacked by Katie Schenkel 
on Oct 22, 2011 @ 23:52 EST5EDT
Why would you say “Despite it’s rather infamous brony fanbase, it’s a really well-written cartoon”? Thats like saying “despite Star treks infamous Trekkie fanbase, Its actually a good show.” Shouldn’t the fact that a show has fans indicate that its an excellent show worth having such a dedicated following?
Other then that though excellent writeup. Was a bit disappointed in the direction they went with Luna, but found her character hilarious nonetheless.
*POST AUTHOR*
What I mean is that newcomers often think MLP and go, “Oh, the show with the bronies” and dismiss it. Actually, like Star Trek the passionate fan base can make the show seem inaccessible to those newcomers. I’m a MLP fan too, and I’ve had trouble convincing certain people I know that this is a great show for little boys (and adults) to watch, so I didn’t mean that in a critical way towards any of the fans (men or women). It’s just gained a certain reputation despite the fact that the show is actually very accessible.
Thats actually a good point. I guess fandoms in general can be intimidating to people. Sad that a group thats trying to spread word of the show is actually keeping people from watching the show. Oh the irony.
*POST AUTHOR*
Per your comment, I changed the wording a little.
Katie, I had no idea! O.O
Haha, I confess I’m a MLP fan too. I gave away my huge collection of ponies when I was still a kid, but now I have two beautiful custom MLPs to remind me of my childhood (when I used to watch the original MLP cartoons). Haven’t ventured into Ponyville – the new ponies freak me out a little with their ginormous eyes – but I was excited to read this post. ;-)
Katie Schenkel, You should read these as Lauren Faust herself explained why Luna looked different and why Rarity was absent from Ep.4 Luna Eclipsed:
Lauren Faust explains Luna new appearance (reasonable)
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/10/lauren-fausts-explanation-on-lunas-new.html
Lauren Faust tells why Rarity was absent from Luna Eclipsed:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/10/raritys-absense-in-luna-eclipse.html
I hope this helps =D
This episode was fairly disappointing. It wasn’t as funny as most and was all around lackluster. I was a bit disappointed with Luna and the only parts that really made me laugh were the scene with Fluttershy and when Spike almost choked to death, I don’t know why but bad things happening to Spike are hilarious.
Your review made me find this episode and watch it. It’s not my type of cartoon (although I seem to be addicted to all the other ’80’s reboots), but it was nice to hear Tara Strong in the lead, and ponies in halloween costumes are the most adorable things I’ve seen all month.