Good evening Hoofers,
In this G1 My Little Pony episode, we have one of the few appearances of male ponies in any of the My Little Pony generations, especially the early ones, and so it’s a good episode to watch for any pony bro interested in MLP.
Some interesting happenings occur in this episode, “Somnambula,” – which sounds reminiscient of “Soma” from the book, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – which have parallels in G4 MLP. For example, the pony named “Surprise” does something that Pinkie Pie might have done in a similar situation in G4, one of the hypnotized ponies just “…vants to be alone,” which is something Rarity said back in the G4, Season 1 dressmaking episode, and one of the big brother ponies only says “Eeyup,” just like Big Mac. There are also similarities with the first MLP:FiM (G4) Braeburn episode.
Another thing that makes this episode unique among pony episodes is that it begins almost immediately with a catchy song. As far as the plot goes, it seems to be based on classical stories and ideas that were popular around the time this particular episode aired, such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Snow White and The Seven Dwarves. The witch also reminds me of the witch in one of the Miyazaki movies, although I’m not sure which one; if you happen to know in which Miyazaki movie a witch climbed a bunch of stairs and was tricked into the draining of her dark powers, please comment below. This story, however, is less subtle. The story involves a 1-dimensional witch who (I suppose) wants to be young and powerful again, so she decides to steal the youthfulness of the ponies by hypnotizing them into chasing after their selfish desires rather than working together, thus allowing her to absorb their energy. The ponies must figure out how to overcome the hypnosis (or “trance,” as I believe it’s referred to in the episode) by working together.
Video: Bonnie Zacharle. …Wishfaerie.
One of the overarching themes I noticed throughout the episode was the theme of good vs. evil – not the more enlightened/modern view of good and evil – but, as this was an 80s kids TV show for girls, it perhaps fits with the spirit of the times. (If it were good and evil, the witch would have had her own story, like we see in later G4 episodes, such as with the reformation of various characters, although G1 wasn’t entirely 1-dimensional in all its episodes in regard to character transformation: see the G1 episode, “Woe is Me.”)
Another theme was the theme of working hard now in order to play later. The big brother ponies even had their own song about it. So, the big brother ponies were getting distracted by having all of their most selfish desires manifest in front of them by the witch, but they were able to overcome it by banding together and encouraging each other towards their collective mission. The values displayed here are consistent with: encouraging children to do well in school, showing the importance of staying on task, and reinforcing the hero archetype.
The religious concept of the age of accountability was reinforced in this episode. The concept is essentially that children under a certain age are not going to hades; they are all going to heaven no matter what. Looking back at the episode, we notice that the “baby ponies” in G1 terms, or “fillies,” more likely, in G4 terms, are not affected by the witch’s song. At first, I thought that all of them were just playing their instruments too loud – so no one could hear the witch’s song, but it is later revealed that the fillies are not affected; the adult pony who was later affected had only not been affected, due initially to her intense focus on her task, followed by the playing of the music. These instances reveal that there are multiple ways to break the witch’s siren song, namely: being blameless, through intense focus (either on one’s own or with the help of dedicated others), and lastly, just drowning it out with noise.
In addition, there was perhaps a fourth lesson – respect what you eat. The gingerbread(?) house that one of the ponies had been eating decided to go after the pony when they stopped eating it. This had parallels with the G4 trick-or-treat episode in which all the little fillies offered their candy to the mean/bad version of Princess Luna in order to keep her from “gobbling [them] up.” The underlying lesson in both cases could be seen to be not to be greedy with your food and to share. Or, more generally, just not to be greedy.
Lastly, if the episode is taken in a meta-context, the meta story is that we have happy ponies working and living together on the one end, whereas on the other we have a single person working to attain their own perceived good by tricking others in order to pursue their own selfish ends. When the little ponies didn’t want to “play” anymore, they were no longer of any use to the bad guy, and so they were attacked and imprisoned (also similar to Pinocchio, now that I think about it). So, what’s the overarching lesson of the episode?
Spike is always right.
Image: Lauren Faust.
Overall, the episode stayed consistent with other G1 episodes in depicting some fairly dramatic and significant scenes in cute pony form. While the general depictions of classical themes and lessons may be a bit culturally-dated, G1 can still be a good generation to watch every now and then. And this episode is worth watching, if for no other reason than to see the big brother ponies in action.
Video: kanashiipanda.
Works Cited
[Featured Image Screenshot: Bonnie Zacherle. …SuprisePony. …part 2. Screenshot Time: 00:31.]
Bonnie Zacherle. My Little Pony: G1. Somnambula. David Wise. (Big Brother Ponies Episode Song). Video uploaded by: Wishfaerie. “My Little Pony Song ‘The Big Brother Ponies’.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTdW0GNxBP8. Date Accessed: 10/16/24.
Bonnie Zacherle. My Little Pony: G1. Somnambula. David Wise. Episode uploaded by: SurprisePony. “Big brother ponies- Somnambula part 1,” “Big Brother Ponies- Somnambula part 2.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET1S_fg4Tpw, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvuo38_Up40. Date Accessed: 10/16/24.
kanashiipanda. “Friendship is Manly.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z7UnO66q9w. Date Accessed: 10/16/24.
Lauren Faust. “Lesson Zero.” Video by: “My Little Pony – Official Channel.” Screenshot Time: 21:23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBMFzcRgA7A. Date Accessed: 10/16/24.