Woops forgot mah break (click read more)
Friendship is Magic part 1/2
Ticket Master
Benny Hill scene.
Applebuck Season
Bunny scene = Night of the Lepus. Also, cow lady may be a Fargo reference.
Bonanza Theme during the Cow herding segment (Here)
Apocalypse now "The HORROR", OPPP
Griffon the Brush Off
Dash trying to escape Pinkie is a Pepe Le Pew routine.
Pinkies Flying Machine is similiar to The Fantabulous Contraption of Dr Horatio Hufnagel
Porky Pig spike with the hiccups
Boast Busters
Snips and Snails do a Pinky & The Brain joke.
Dragonshy
A-team/Charlies Angels references
Feinting goat ponies all over the place
Swarm of the Century
Twilight wanting to make a duplicate Ponyville is a joke from Blazing Saddles.
Star Trek Tribble Parasprite sound effects.
Spike has a yellow parasprite (spyro reference)
Scooby Doo style Pinkie pie cake eating.
Look before you Sleep
"Everything you Always Wanted to Know About Sleepovers (but Were Afraid to Ask)" from Look Before You Sleep is a play on the book "Everything you Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)" (woah seriously?)
Winter Wrap Up
Call of the Cutie
Rocky Montage References
Tennis Pony is a Reference to Andre Agassi
Fall Weather Friends
Twilight is #42, and Dash jokes about the book "Egghead's Guide to Running" = Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference.
Suited For Success
Rarity's wallowing scene is straight from an old Greta Garbo movie, "Grand Hotel."
Hoity Toity = Karl Lagerfeld
"Art of the Dress" is based off of this "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-836TtoF_5I"
Feeling Pinkie Keen
Flaming-Twilight looks suspiciously like a Rapidash
"Wide, wide world of Equestria" is a blazing saddles reference
Ghost Busters Brain scan Machine!
Twilight jumping on the soap box for her anti-psychic speech.
Sonic Rainboom
Gradius music for the Coliseum
Rarity flying to the sun is a reference to Icarus in Greek mythology.
Swan lake song during Rarity/Rainbow Dashes Flight show.
60 comments:
Twilight's brain scan machine in Feeling Pinkie Keen bore a strong resemblance to the device in the first Ghostbusters movie that Egon had Lewis Tully hooked up to:
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/2418/360512526678f8673804o.jpg
Pretty sure either Friendship is Magic or Suited for Success was trying to imply sailor moon.
Rarity flying to the sun is a reference to Icarus in Greek mythology.
Rarity's dream of "Him" resembled the ball scene in My Fair Lady
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cmaCOf4LMM
That one .gif where Pinkie Pie licks all the cream off her face (I forget the episode) is a reference to the opening of Scooby-Doo Where Are You!
I think, at least. Might want to double check if you can.
Rarity's green hair and demand for a mirror are a reference to Tim Burton's Batman.
what? nothing for call of the cuttie?
but...but...ROCKY? Karate kid?
wtf man?
Rarity's song "Art of the Dress"
Is a parody to this song here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-836TtoF_5I
Maybe it's just me, but when Nightmare Moon said "The Night will last forever" I was thinking of the Boogeyman from Powerpuff Girls.
The Art of the Dress song was taken from some musical which I forget the name of.
While Rarity and Rainbow Dash were performing in Sonic Rainboom the music was a play on the waltz from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake
The titles can be obvious references, ie "Boast Busters = Ghost Busters, Call of the Cutie = Call of the Wild...
The very first parasprite to appear used a Tribble sound effect from Star Trek.
Fluttershy yelling for Rainbow Dash could be a reference to the horse racing scene in "My Fair Lady".
Oh, and the manly pony in "Call of the Cutie" was a reference to Andre Agassi. And the whole episode was basically "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" with added pony and rainbows.
The dragon in Dragonshy was a reference to Smaug from JRR Tolkien's book the Hobbit.
Don't know if this really counts, but in Feeling Pinkie Keen, when Twilight is falling off the cliff, there's a portion of the "Redeemer in flight" noise from Unreal Tournament 2004. It's repeated in the latest episode, as Dash is diving to catch Rarity.
Psssst.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVP95IGgyMI&feature=player_embedded
The toy fair pitch lady is discussing toys.
@Taco Wiz
sweeeet postin
Applebuck Season and Bridle Gossip:
1. "The HORROR" is a reference to Apocalypse Now.
Dragonshy:
1. The "gear up" montage was a reference to both The A-Team and Charlie's Angels.
2. As they scaled the mountain, the music that played was was riff on The Lord of the Rings' theme.
The cows' accents aren't really a reference to Fargo, more of a reference to Wisconsin in general, since they're famous for their dairies and cheese.
Oh. Sonic Rainboom has one.
"Let's Do this!" Is a Leroy Jenkins' reference. :D
Sonic Rainboom, Pinkie pie tasting the rainbow juice could be reference to the Skittles tag line of "Taste the Rainbow"
@madmax:
The way these cultural reference guides are built is by people spotting references that aren't listed and pointing them out.
It's the way we built the CRGA back on alt.tv.animaniacs and it works.
the ticket master
Wizard of OZ reference during fluttershys vision of the future
"oh my"
In "Griffon the Brush Off" Spike was talking like Porky Pig after getting the hiccups, fitting perfectly with Pinkie Pie's Warner Bros. style hijinks.
"Feeling Pinkie Keen" used the cliché about how psychic powers work perfectly except in carefully controlled laboratory setting. (Maybe they took flak from the woo-woos because "Bridle Gossip" promoted reasonable skepticism.) In a world where magic exists it's silly that psychic powers cannot.
I don't think the coliseum scene's music had anything to do with the music from Gradius. I think that was just coincidence
@Anonymous
I thought it looked more like Doc Brown's mind-reading machine in Back to the Future.
Some of these are probably pure atavisms, but the rest? Yeah, you can tell we've got a quality show here when they sneak such art in.
"Everything you Always Wanted to Know About Sleepovers (but Were Afraid to Ask)" from Look Before You Sleep is a play on the book "Everything you Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)". It's also a Woody Allen movie.
Boast Busters had a MIYAZAKI REFERENCE. When the Ursa minor rears up to the moon he looks EXACTLY like the beheaded forest god from Princess Mononoke. Heck, he even squats his own head down so that his shoulder like (like the should line of the headless forest god) lines up with the moon behind him.
Now I doubt this was something the directors planned from the beginning, but you can bet your BUTT the animators knew EXACTLY what they were doing when drawing that similarity in.
couple more for ya:
In Swarm of the Century the Bonanza theme song is featured when they're rounding up the parasprites
In Dragonshy, when Fluttershy and later Rainbowdash get startled, they flip upside down and make a goat noise, a reference to the fainting goats viral video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we9_CdNPuJg
snips and snails themselves are a nod to what little boys are made of on powerpuff girls
It's a reference to an old nursery rhyme, which is what PPG was riffing off of:
What are little boys made of
Made of
What are little boys made of?
Snips and Snails and puppy dog tails
That's what little boys are made of.
What are little girls made of
Made of
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice and everything nice
That's what little girls are made of.
Yeah, Dragonshy has an A-Team/Charlie's Angels reference there at the montage.
The effect that popped up whenever someone crashed in Winter Wrap Up and I think also Griffon the Brushoff were most definitely references to old Looney Tunes cartoons.
Ticket Master: Possibly a Brady Bunch intro reference?
For Swarm of the Century, I also saw the Scooby Doo reference when Pinkie licked the frosting off her face.
In Griffon the Brushoff, Pinkie's contraption may be a reference to The Fantabulous Contraption of Dr Horatio Hufnagel, though I can't confirm this because even the internet doesn't have a picture of it...
There's probably a list of references that are made throughout the series as well, like Fillydelphia, and the Wonderbolts being a pony version of the Blue Angels.
Applebuck Season:
The Bonanza theme (or something similar to it) plays while Applejack is herding the cows.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjdRgBAY278)
Updated a bunch of them, though some are a bit... situational.
Don't forget Snips' & Snails' names are a classic Mother Goose rhyme reference...
What are Little Boys made of poem
What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails
That's what little boys are made of !"
What are little girls made of?
"Sugar and spice and all things nice
That's what little girls are made of!"
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/what_are_little_boys_made_of.htm
Sonic Rainboom...
Science reference: While in the snowflake making place, about 'before rarity causes a hurricane'
Butterfly in X cause a Hurricane in Y... It is a comment, the 'butterfly effect' of everything being interconnected.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect
Swarm of the Century
When Pinkie Pie's cymbals went into Rainbow Dash's cyclone, Dash said "I can't hold it! She's breaking up!" This is a reference to the into of the Six Million Dollar Man
Second part of the Pilot episode, when they all have the elements of harmony. The sound when Twilight opens her eyes is one of the transporter noises from Star Trek (not sure which series)
Of course Berry Punch / Over Protective Parent's quoting of "The horror... the horror.." from Apocalypse Now can just as easily be said to be a reference to the Joseph Conrad story 'Heart of Darkness' which Apocalypse Now is based on.
Of course a lot of these references aren't especially intentional "look we're referencing this or that" so much as cultural memes which got dissipated into a larger popular tradition. People say "The horror! The horror!" as some general expression for comedic effect without really knowing that they're quoting Conrad. The other day I finally looked up "the angels of our better nature" and learnt it was actually a quote by Abraham Lincoln. I thought it was from Shakespeare. :p
In the episode Feeling Pinkie Keen, when Twilight was in her wheelchair looking at Pinkie Pie through binoculars, I got a feeling like it was quite a bit like the film Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock.
I always assumed that the title "Call of the Cutie" was a riff off of "Call of Cthulhu" rather than "Call of the Wild." Granted, the episode's plot doesn't really resemble anything Lovecraftian, but then it doesn't really have much to do with Jack London either. XD
These are getting reaaaaly random now ;p I think we hit most of the good ones.
Don't forget Twilight literally soapboxing in Feeling Pinkie Keen.
At the end of the second part of the pilot when Celestia and Luna are riding into town the tune kinda reminds me of the end music of Star Wars Episode 1 (I think the songs called Augie's Great Municipal Band).
How has nobody mentioned the fact AJ said Yall Come Back Now Ya Hear in Call of the Cutie
I thought the tennis pony in CotC was John McEnroe?
(sorry for the deletion, forgot to say what scene and episode! @_@)
If it hasn't been mention yet: Doesn't the scientific helmet in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" (when Twilight has Pinkie hooked up in an attempt to gather scientific evidence of her twitches) look suspiciously like what Doc had on his head in "Back to the Future?"
I was waiting for Twilight-Sparkle to say "Do you know what this means...? It means that this- DAMN thing doesn't work at all!!"
Also: How is it that nobody has pointed out that Pinkie leading the Parasprites out of Ponyville with musical instruments is a direct homage to the Pied Piper of Hamelin?
While they didn't have strings:
Cutie Mark Crusaders Chicken Rescuers are go = Thunderbirds are go.
Friend of mine claimed the line "Not baked goods, baked bads" is a quote from Boris Badenov in Rocky and Bullwinkle. I couldn't find any confirmation from Google, but I did discover it's a line from The Tick!
In Swarm of the Century, Spike says something to the effect of "i just gave 'em [the parapsrite] a little snack last night"
This is a Gremlins reference. If you feed the Gremlin at night, he multiplies and the duplicates are nasty monsters.
maybe its because Twilight being number 42 was reminiscent of Lee Petty, but the last leg of the race in fall weather friends seemed a refrence to the famous/infamous 1979 Daytona 500 race where Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison fought it out on the last lap then literally fought each other in the infield
Now that season one is finished with now this article should be redone with every episode.
Agreed
Some people believe that the scene in episode 4 where that one pony is lying on the ground while the bunny stampede happens is a reference to Mufasa's death from The Lion King.
Funny how I was just wondering if the IRC channels would ever be visited by anyone working with the show... Guess I got my answer now. :D
It's nice how people working with the show engages with the fanbase.
In Sisterhooves Social Rarity makes a Gone With the Wind reference. "With Celestia as my witness, I shall never be sisterless again!"
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