My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (TV Series) Brotherhooves Social (2015) User Reviews

Fun and sweet

[redwaytoo · 10/10 · 20 October 2015]

Definitely an interesting episode. It may has in my opinion the best end of the whole show. But let's say something about the rest before we come to that. The episode itself had already a great start. The problem is there. They don't say it yet, but it is subtle there. It feels slow that we don't get to the Sisterhooves Social fast, but that's actually well done. Because to me, the whole Sisterhooves Social part was a bit too long. I got the jokes, I understand their importance, to show how far Big Mac would go for Applebloom and to reach the goal he wants to reach, but also to not keep the whole episode in a too serious tone. But in my opinion, we've gotten a bit too much "Big Mac in a dress". Hard to explain, but I think it would have worked better if they cut at least one scene (Like the one in which Big Mac and Applebloom do the "We are the best sisters!" dance), and added some more content to the beginning instead.

I honestly can't say a lot about this episode. The story feels kinda short and easy, yet the end had such a big impact. Sometimes I watch scenes in the show that look emotional to me, and I feel like they could have done so much more with them, since some are rather short, get over too fast or just lack the lines and emotions to really make a big impact for me. But this one did everything right. The end scene was some 2 to 3 minutes long and the background music accompanied it perfectly. Everything that could have made this awesome was said, you felt the emotions in the voices and the animation was beautiful, too. I can't imagine a better atmosphere for that kind of scene. I've already said it yesterday, but this end almost brought tears into my eyes, which is a first for the whole show, and I think that's beautiful. In the end, I believe it would have benifit from making the whole event shorter, but to be honest, other than that, I can't say anything negative. It was an awesome episode and one I'm definitely going to rewatch a lot, especially thanks to the end.

Very average social

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 11 January 2021]

Am not giving the mixed feelings rating and review with malice, despite finding the premise pretty silly. Actually wanted to like "Brotherhooves Social", despite not caring hugely for the previous episode that it's linked to, being somebody that has liked Big Mac in other appearances and who loved Season 2's "Sisterhooves Social", one of the better episodes of that season. And of course as a fan of 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' and who has liked to loved most of the previous Season 5 episodes.

My feelings on "Brotherhooves Social" are very mixed, though leaning more towards being disappointed. Despite not being massively fond of "Made in Manehattan", that was still better and more tasteful, and compared to the quality of "Sisterhooves Social" this episode in quality is not even close. It has its good things and is not one of the season's misfires (only just!), but "Brotherhooves Social" had potential to be a lot better despite not being completely appealed by the premise.

"Brotherhooves Social", as said, certainly has good things. The animation is great with a lot of care and meticulousness clearly gone into it. It has vibrancy and atmosphere in the colours with strikingly detailed, big and small, backgrounds. The music is always dynamic with what's going on, is always fitting with the tone of the episode, appeals on the ears and never found it grating.

Really liked the interaction between Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo and Big Mac's monologue of his true feelings was really sweet and was the most emotional the episode got. The only aspect that has been universally acclaimed amongst the fandom has been the ending, and it is a reputation that is more than deserved. It is really fantastic and one of the show's best and sees Big Mac back to the Big Mac we loved before. The voice acting is excellent from all.

It is a shame that the rest of the episode isn't as good as the ending, while the ending was fantastic what came before it was average at best. The story just didn't engage and too much of it bordered on the ridiculous. Most of the attempts of humour, mostly from Big Mac, fell flat, thanks to the uncharacteristic lack of taste and that for the show it was surprisingly immature, not to mention not funny.

Tonally "Brotherhooves Social" felt off, with the humour feeling like it was lifted from another show entirely. The moral was on paper a good one but compared to what went on for much of the episode it did at the end of the day feel somewhat misplaced. The premise never really appealed to me and the execution was too ridiculous and didn't make much sense and as a result it makes who should look like intelligent characters dumb and too easily fooled. Usually like Big Mac as a character but the episode made him a total clown, and not a funny or endearing one.

Concluding, much of the episode disappointed quite badly but the ending redeemed it. 5/10

Lazy One-Note Joke Stretched To 21 Minutes

[nightmarelyre · 1/10 · 5 October 2015]

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a show that is often hailed for it's intelligent writing, great characters, positive messages and for being fun for both kids and adults alike, though one could be forgiven to mistake this for another lazy cash grab to be aired during a filler slot at a cartoon channel if one where to just watch this episode

The episode is about how Applebloom wants to attend the yearly Sisterhooves Social competition with her big sister Applejack, but in the last minute Applejack get called out on a mission, leaving Applebloom unable to attend. Meanwhile, Applebloom's big brother Big Mac is feeling down about how he feels he is drifting apart from his little sister and how she have stopped looking up to him like she used to when they were younger, and as such he comes up with a scheme: attending the Sisterhooves Social with his little sister in drag in an attempt to heal their family bonds.

What follows is 15 minutes of "hilarious" slapstick where Big Mac is unable to "pass as a woman" and constantly does "manly things" such as burping, smashing things and having an Adam's apple, as well as being scorned by other characters for "obviously being a stallion". The jokes are basically all taken from terrible 60's sitcoms, Adam Sandler movies and other lame ludicrous corny garbage that this show have been really good at being above for the most part before, and it all comes off as "well we need another episode in this season, I know, men in dresses are still funny right? Let's patch this together in an hour and get done with, recycle stuff from that older episode about Sisterhooves Social too!"

For a show that tries to provide positive messages to kids this also feels incredibly out of place, as the message basically boils down to "don't try and be something you're not" and gives out a regressive view on gender roles and identity that completely conflicts with everything else in the show. Other characters such as Applejack and Rainbow Dash defy their traditional gendered roles all the time without being mocked for it, and even Big Mac himself got away with calling himself a princess in an earlier episode without anybody making fun of him then, so even if one is not offended by it or find it funny it's still completely off with the tone and message of the rest of the show and feels completely disjointed, like some sort of weird re-skinned episode of some other show rather than a MLP episode proper

The only positives of the episode is that when Big Mac is inevitably outed at the end they don't actually disqualify him for "being a man"; the judges admitting they knew he was in drag the whole time and that the rules where very lax on what they considered to be a big sister, and the real reason was the poor sportsmanship involved in pushing other participants out of the way and smashing things, as well as a scene at the end with Applebloom and Big Mac having a cute family moment together, but that is small comfort after having to sit through so much painful bottom of the barrel junk that actively seems to undermine the show itself.

It's 2015, it's the 5th season of the show, it's too late to try and turn it into Family Guy for kids. The writers can do better than that.