Trigonometrize.
Member
Everyone knows Pinkie is nottom of the barrel. Rainbow is middle of the road.
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My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) |OT| Big Screen, Small Horse
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
- Start date
ShinySylvee
Member
Went ahead and updated the 2nd post. It's a little long now since there's a lot more stuff.
So is the "nottom" of the barrel near the top and the road that Rainbow's on leading strait into the dumpster where she belongs?
So is the "nottom" of the barrel near the top and the road that Rainbow's on leading strait into the dumpster where she belongs?
Trigonometrize.
Member
God damn I need to proof read my phone replies.
SigmasonicX
Member
Hey, hey, I'll have you know that "Apple Bloom's sister" is a perfectly fine name.
Anyway, read the SF Weekly review, and yeah, that is surprisingly fan-savvy. Considering her reference to alt-right bronies tweeting at her, has she written about the show before?
EDIT: YouTube MLP reviewer/analyzer Silver Quill talks about how critics will view the movie, comparing it to contemporaneous reactions to Transformers: the Movie. Note that he uses an animated griffon avatar in his videos, which can scare some people. He makes a good point about how a lot of reviewers will probably go in looking for lightning to strike, and for them to suddenly realize why bronies exist, and thus will be disappointed when it isn't life-changing.
ShinySylvee
Member
I feel like a lot of his video is trying to force unnecessary parallels between the two films due to them both being kinda similar in concept while ignoring that there's a lot of differences between the films conceptually and that the movie scene is in an entirely different place then it was back then. I have never watched the '86 Transformers movie or any Transformers stuff for that matter besides a couple of the Bayformers movies but from what I can tell the story itself was supposed to be a bridge between the second and third seasons of the show, and as such the story itself might not have stood well on its own since it might not have done a great job at establishing its characters and setting for someone not familiar with the series. The MLP movie at the very least seems to be making a strong effort to make the story more accessible to newcomers by making it a standalone plot that generally ignores pretty much all of the cast aside from the Mane 6.
Additionally the Transformers movie came out in 1986 and although I wasn't alive back then I can imagine that a LOT has changed since then in terms of how these kinds of movies are received. Many of the reviews for Transformers kept emphasizing how it was just for kids and that adults wouldn't like it, seemingly openly dismissive of it. We're in a post Lego Movie world. These days it's very uncommon for critics to just openly dismiss a movie just because it's based on a toy line. Dreamworks Trolls reviewed fairly well on its own merit, and that was an even more flagrant toy commercial then this one is. And as for TV Movies Sponge Out of Water also reviewed well. Even the Lego Ninjago movie, which reviewed poorly, had most of the people criticizing the movie on its own merits rather then just saying "it's for kids" or "it's just trying to sell toys" and calling it a day.
His points about expectations is probably the big thing I can get behind but that also greatly affects fans as well. Many fans might be disappointed if their favorite character doesn't make a substantial appearance or that they might not end up being treated with the respect they feel the character deserves. Some people might take issue with Tempest, claiming that she's just a retread of a plot line that they've done several times already. Comparisons will no doubt be made to previous episodes and some of them might not be fair. Additionally there's likely several plot holes that would be missed by uninformed viewers. Mild spoilers
The main conflict of the story requires you to completely forget about all of the different allies that the ponies have gathered over the years that could probably deal with the Storm King. None of these other races are even acknowledged to my knowledge, but critics not familiar with the show wouldn't know about them.
ShinySylvee
Member
More reviews are slowly trickling out, and we've finally gotten a negative review. (Or at least a review with a bad score whose conclusion is remotely reflected in the text of said review) From the Austin Chronicle, it's pretty much exactly what you would expect of a semi-witty dismissive review of the movie. He didn't seem to get invested in the movie and found the plot to be a rehash of "just about every MLP television episode and straight-to-video flick ever made." Reading this review and any of the guy's other animated movie reviews, it's extremely clear he is not even remotely giving the movie a fair shake. His review of Storks is still roughly the same length but goes into quite a bit more detail in terms of what he felt didn't work. The link for some reason doesn't work for a lot of people but you can find it here.
Next up we have a Christian review website called crosswalk which was a sort of duo review by a fan and non-fan. It's a pretty interesting review with some good points I haven't read anywhere else. The final verdict is that the movie is perfectly fine for non-fans and a must see for fans. You can find it here.
Lastly it looks like Rottentomatoes is finally going to start updating with reviews of the movie. Only one is up there right now, but it's one we haven't seen yet so just as well. From the Saint Lewis Post-Dispach, the review is extremely light on almost everything but at the end basically says it's great for fans and should probably be skipped by non-fans. link
Next up we have a Christian review website called crosswalk which was a sort of duo review by a fan and non-fan. It's a pretty interesting review with some good points I haven't read anywhere else. The final verdict is that the movie is perfectly fine for non-fans and a must see for fans. You can find it here.
Lastly it looks like Rottentomatoes is finally going to start updating with reviews of the movie. Only one is up there right now, but it's one we haven't seen yet so just as well. From the Saint Lewis Post-Dispach, the review is extremely light on almost everything but at the end basically says it's great for fans and should probably be skipped by non-fans. link
SigmasonicX
Member
I indeed can't access the first review. EDIT: It isn't even in their list of movie reviews. Was it taken down?
You're misrepresenting the second review a bit, since the fan is clearly the author's child and it was just a brief aside. But I guess that confirms I'm not getting "implied alcohol usage" on my bingo card.
Glad to see that "good for fans, not for people not into sugary stuff" is being counted as fresh.
But it does look like every review is obligated to set aside some time to talk about bronies, unfortunately.
You're misrepresenting the second review a bit, since the fan is clearly the author's child and it was just a brief aside. But I guess that confirms I'm not getting "implied alcohol usage" on my bingo card.
Glad to see that "good for fans, not for people not into sugary stuff" is being counted as fresh.
But it does look like every review is obligated to set aside some time to talk about bronies, unfortunately.
IGN reviewer didn't like it even going as far as to say it goes against the shows rules and philosophy. Sounds more like a nit picky fan than an actual critic.
http://m.ign.com/articles/2017/10/05/my-little-pony-the-movie-review
http://m.ign.com/articles/2017/10/05/my-little-pony-the-movie-review
SigmasonicX
Member
Yeah, I saw that. He complains about two-legged characters, even though the Diamond Dogs were in season one and Iron Will was in the second season, and says that Opal is proof that there are no cat people, despite, again, the Diamond Dogs. And he basically goes, "Why don't they just get Discord to help? 3.5/10".
Right now, 5/9 Rotten Tomatoes reviews are positive, leaving it only at 56%. Here's hoping it at least goes past 70%.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
I would agree that Capper looks like he belongs in an entirely different movie, but it's just based on how he's designed, more than him being anthropomorphic. As others have said, we've had two-legged animals before. And I really like the design for the big pirates and expect Pirate-Uhura to be my favorite new character.
As for Discord, I don't really mind that complaint.
As for Discord, I don't really mind that complaint.
I mean, if the writers didn't give a shit about the other Princesses and just offs them with a magic mcguffin stone, there's nothing stopping them from just mcguffin stoning Discord too.
Trigonometrize.
Member
I'm going to guess his goal was to put out a "fan review" to balance out most other major places that have no idea about MLP, but he went a little too far. I haven't seen too many people complain about the anthropomorphic designs; they work well enough with the movie's style of the ponies. And using the f-word
fanfic
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Boxoffice Mojo just put out their weekend forecasts, and are aiming low with $8.5m, so the forecasts are officially all over the place.
ShinySylvee
Member
Well Rottentomatoes has 8 reviews up now and a pattern is definitely starting to emerge. Maybe later on all of the fabled critics that actually loved the movie will end up coming out of the woodwork but for now it looks like the film is going to likely settle somewhere in the 40-60% region. There's two big things that probably should have been obvious before going into the movie that I think was always going to hold it back in terms of getting widespread appeal. Firstly, I feel like the show has always been something that had to grow on you a bit. A large part of the appeal is watching these characters grow and meet new people. Most of the stakes that they end up facing are relatively minor but we end up caring because we're really invested in the characters. This movie unfortunately does not seem to do a good at getting people unfamiliar with the show to be invested in them, and frankly with them having 6 main ones, plus the princesses who the movie acts as important despite them probably only getting 5 minutes of screen time, plus all of the celebrity characters it would have been a herculean task to do it to begin with. Across almost all of the negative reviews it seems that they just didn't seem to care about what was going on, and nothing else in the movie is jaw-droppingly spectacular enough to make up for that.
The other big thing is just that MLP's tone is offputting to a lot of people. Some people just don't like the optimistic teamwork oriented tone that the TV show has and you can tell from quite a few of the reviews that it put some of them off.
Overall the movie has still been reviewing extremely well by fans of the show, and so if this is something you are excited to see and think you will enjoy it looks like that will be the case. Unfortunately it looks like it won't reach much appeal past fans and so those that were hoping the show would reach more into the mainstream are going to be disappointed. If they do end up doing a sequel maybe it would be better served if they tried to focus on a smaller cast of characters and really developed those ones.
Also can't help but feel like this movie shows why 2D animation is dead in the west. There have been quite a few complaints saying that the animation looks cheap.
The other big thing is just that MLP's tone is offputting to a lot of people. Some people just don't like the optimistic teamwork oriented tone that the TV show has and you can tell from quite a few of the reviews that it put some of them off.
Overall the movie has still been reviewing extremely well by fans of the show, and so if this is something you are excited to see and think you will enjoy it looks like that will be the case. Unfortunately it looks like it won't reach much appeal past fans and so those that were hoping the show would reach more into the mainstream are going to be disappointed. If they do end up doing a sequel maybe it would be better served if they tried to focus on a smaller cast of characters and really developed those ones.
Also can't help but feel like this movie shows why 2D animation is dead in the west. There have been quite a few complaints saying that the animation looks cheap.
Just another issue with the growing list of powerful characters in Equestria. If you want to make a compelling story for the Mane 6 these days, you have to eliminate like, at least five other creatures.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Not true at all. You need a writer who gives a shit and can incorporate them into the story, while not making them the focus.
I again point to things like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, where Dumbledore and Gandalf were both super OP. They both played significant roles in the stories, but were not the focus of the story, and never really got in the way of the adventure that the main characters were having, they assisted.
Gandalf is one character. Dumbledore is one character.
Let's hear about a story where you've got an equivalent of Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Starlight and Discord all taking active parts in a story while plausibly not using their godlike powers to just save the day outright.
CelestialWolfZX
Member
I've been lagging behind on watching Season 7 after a pretty chaotic year on my end, but since this film doesn't come out until the 20th in the UK (and I'll probably be watching it a week later at London MCM) I've got to marathon all (of what's out) of Season 7 before watching the film (I know they don't tie in, but i've seen every episode between Seasons 1 and 6, might as well watch the rest of them). Any advice on marathoning Season 7?
SigmasonicX
Member
Here's our season 7 episode guide, with our own recommendations and things you may like or dislike about what we don't call out. The first half and the Equestria Girls specials are on Netflix, in the US at least. Not sure about UK.
AlexFlame116
Member
Taking my two youngest siblings to watch this tomorrow. But the leak is tempting me to just stay home and watch it...
Obviously I'm not going to. It's kind of stupid that it was leaked. Theater is the way to go.
I haven't seen the show since the middle of the fourth season when I had to leave for two years. Apparently lots of things have changed haha!
Wait, am I getting excited for this???
Obviously I'm not going to. It's kind of stupid that it was leaked. Theater is the way to go.
I haven't seen the show since the middle of the fourth season when I had to leave for two years. Apparently lots of things have changed haha!
Wait, am I getting excited for this???
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Have multiple magic mcguffins needed to stop the storm king. Have everyone split up on separate, mini adventures. Something along the lines of Star Trek Beyond where the crew is split into four groups.
Have the storm king fight the Princesses and Discord to a stalemate. Twilight and the scooby squad is sent out to find the magic mcguffin to break the stalemate.
The problem is that this movie was written by someone who sees these characters as obstacles, and never assets.
The problem with this film for me is the terrible set up. Storm king has airships, that's it. He doesn't have his magic staff yet. But his sidekick comes in, takes out the other princesses in a few seconds with some mcguffin rocks. they're not even given the decency of being able to put up a fight first. They're worfed by one single unicorn. 1/3 of the population can control the weather, and they do nothing. The horrible set up of this movie is what kills it for me.
SigmasonicX
Member
Not too much has changed since then, really, at least little of relevance to the movie. Now if you were to jump straight to season 7, that could get pretty confusing at first, but it's nothing that would make particular episodes hard to understand.
EDIT: Rotten Tomatoes is now at 64% with 11 reviews, and at least on mobile, only the positive ones are visible on the main page.
Trigonometrize.
Member
Cars 3 at 68. Just beat Cars 3.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Come on folks, you know the RT score is going to fluctuate all weekend.
Strider_Blaze
Member
Eh I honestly shouldnt try to feel discouraged from the reviews that were posted. Still will try my best to watch it no matter what.
But this review from THR:
Okay there is no way that could happen, not by a long shot. The Emoji Movie practically had 0 soul put into it unlike MLP. Kind of ironic given that Sony Animation could have potentially made it much worse.
But this review from THR:
Okay there is no way that could happen, not by a long shot. The Emoji Movie practically had 0 soul put into it unlike MLP. Kind of ironic given that Sony Animation could have potentially made it much worse.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
I'm going to be negative on this movie, I just know it.
But worse than the Emoji movie?BullHorseshit.
But worse than the Emoji movie?
Your second pitch sounds good, but that's a trick you can only really pull once. If you have villains with a power equal to three Alicorns AND Discord showing up every week people are gonna raise eyebrows.
Your first idea appeals to me as a fan, but that takes the main cast up to 11 characters, and that's assuming they don't make any friends along the way. Bit of a handful, and probably not ideal for an introductory mainstream movie.
I stand by what I said earlier: having this many powerful characters in the world make things difficult. If your show isn't about them, you're always going to need to find ways to get rid of them, whether that means a heroic stalemate or being turned to stone.
There's absolutely no way the MLP movie winds up matching Emoji's pathetic 10% RT score. That's really all that needs to be said.
for real
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Then kill them. Or, in a more family friendly presentation, have them take the ship to the undying Alicorn lands. 100% serious. I think it's better for the show to just kill them, or otherwise remove them from the show than to continuously treat them as damsels in distress. Least it would force the writers to think outside the box rather than returning to Meghan's Rule #1, "they must be useless".
SigmasonicX
Member
This review from The Wrap has a list of its Top 10 My Little Pony episodes at the end.
10. Keep Calm and Flutter On
9. Simple Ways
8. The Times They Are a Changeling
7. The Last Roundup
6. The Cutie Map
5. The first G1 special, Rescue at Midnight Castle (the one with Tirek)
4. The Cutie Mark Chronicles
3. Sonic Rainboom
2. A Friend in Deed
1. Twilight's Kingdom
Pretty interesting list. At first, it seems to focus on the lessons, but it goes off in a different direction at points.
10. Keep Calm and Flutter On
9. Simple Ways
8. The Times They Are a Changeling
7. The Last Roundup
6. The Cutie Map
5. The first G1 special, Rescue at Midnight Castle (the one with Tirek)
4. The Cutie Mark Chronicles
3. Sonic Rainboom
2. A Friend in Deed
1. Twilight's Kingdom
Pretty interesting list. At first, it seems to focus on the lessons, but it goes off in a different direction at points.
It's a dramatic solution, but in the long term you probably won't find a more effective one.
I was thinking about other possible solutions on the drive to work this morning; some kind of cataclysmic anti-magic event could see the power level of the regulars severely nerfed perhaps. Or maybe you could do a multi-season arc in which the more powerful cast members are dragged away into some greater conflict well outside of the boundaries of Equestria.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Or again, find ways to use these characters in a story rather than treating them as obstacles. This is the world they created, use what you got. Yes, it would take creativity. Yes, Meghan would have to spend more than 5 seconds writing "they get defeated".
We're just going in circles, so I'm going to step back now.
Let this be a cautionary tale about allowing a side character in a show become your favourite character.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Let it be a lesson that just because a show does an entire episode mocking the damsel in distress trope doesn't mean the new show runner won't just say "nah, screw that" and go all in with it.
Not interested in the movie, but here to point out that going through every negative review to find ways to discredit them, which this thread seems to be kinda doing, seems kinda weird thing to do? Opinions are a thing, not every reviewer is going to like every movie.
It has happened with other movie OT's too, but scrolling through this thread it seems even more prevalent.
It has happened with other movie OT's too, but scrolling through this thread it seems even more prevalent.
SigmasonicX
Member
Eh, it's just more interesting to talk about than positive reviews, and the movie isn't out in the US yet.
ShinySylvee
Member
To be frank it's a pretty damn hard movie to not be biased about one way or the other. Some of the fans will love it no matter what by virtue of what it is. Some fans will hate it because they want it to be bad for various reasons, or because they feel that their favorite characters weren't represented well. Some people will hate it because its themes aren't the most palatable thing in the world. And some people will hate it because it's freaking MLP. Pointing out any biases that someone reviewing the movie might have is pretty dang important for a movie like this when trying to figure out its quality. And it's not like we've only been doing it for people that didn't like the movie. Pretty much all of the reviews that are done by fans are specified as such. When the review from Equestria Daily was put up I pointed out that there was virtually 0 chance that they would ever give a negative review. It's true that we put a lot more stock in general of super positive reviews of the movie by fans of the show but we're also fans of the show so those reviews are a lot more likely to reflect our opinions then some guy who doesn't watch the show and barely talked about the movie since they weren't very interested in it. As I pointed out in my previous post I do imagine that the movie may have issues with getting people that aren't already familiar with the show invested.
Also at least for me I was hoping that the movie would end up doing well. MLP is something that I (and many other people in this thread) are fairly passionate about so of course we really want to believe that the movie is good. If the movie reviews well then it will probably end up doing better in the box office, which means that we will likely get more MLP stuff down the line. As I said before, it's really hard to look at the movie and not be biased one way or the other.
Funny how after I made my doom and gloom post about how the movie would be getting middling reviews a bunch more come in and bring the % up to 71 for 14 reviews. What's pretty neat is that the 4 "top reviewers" have all reviewed it favorably so as Sigma said all of the reviews listed on the top are positive for now. There's even been some positive reviews from confessed non-fans. 14 is a very small sample size so that number can fluctuate greatly but if it can hold at around that number then I think that would be a pretty satisfying score.
Whoa nelly that's a shit list. Map, Chronicles, (largely for story reasons, don't like the actual episode that much) Rainboom, and Twilight's Kingdom are the only ones there that I would put anywhere near a top 10 recommend list. For 10 episodes that aren't on that list that I think would be good on there in no particular order:
10. Party of One
9. Best Night Ever
8. Sisterhooves Social
7. Return of Harmony
6. Canterlot Weddding
5. Sleepless in Ponyville
4. Pinkie Aplle Pie
3. Testing Testing 1, 2, 3
2. Amending Fences
1. Mane Attraction
Ran out of space going down the list which is why I didn't list any season 6 or 7 episodes.
SigmasonicX
Member
*goes to buy ticket online for the earliest showing on Sunday, at theater with reserved seating*
*a bunch of seats are already reserved*
Hmm.
*after buying ticket, checks the earliest showing on Saturday*
*half the seats are reserved already*
Well, I guess I have more bronies in the area than I expected.
Interview with cinematographer Anthony Di Ninno, and it's pretty technical. My eyes glazed over a bit when he was rambling about eyelines and the technologies used, but there are also interesting bits about how he joined the film and decided to frame certain scenes. Note that one of the scenes he goes into detail about is a late one,
, and the other is just the intro.
*a bunch of seats are already reserved*
Hmm.
*after buying ticket, checks the earliest showing on Saturday*
*half the seats are reserved already*
Well, I guess I have more bronies in the area than I expected.
Interview with cinematographer Anthony Di Ninno, and it's pretty technical. My eyes glazed over a bit when he was rambling about eyelines and the technologies used, but there are also interesting bits about how he joined the film and decided to frame certain scenes. Note that one of the scenes he goes into detail about is a late one,
the one that some people here have complained about
BlackDoomShadow
Member
Okay so I saw the movie, does anyone want to discuss how
they straight-up murdered the Storm King
SigmasonicX
Member
Related to that spoiler, just going to link this old G1 comic.
EDIT: Ooh, looking at other boards, and I finally saw someone comment on Hanazuki.
Trigonometrize.
Member
The Double Toasted Review is a very interesting and hilarious look into four grown men trying to understand MLP.
BlackDoomShadow
Member
Also wanted to note that
I was a bit confused about
Twilight is a god damn savage in this movie. She uses Derpy as a human shield, tries to steal the hippogriffs' magic, and blows up at everybody. I was surprised she didn't publicly execute Tempest at the end.
I was a bit confused about
the hippogriffs' magic. Twilight tried to steal it, but the queen rejected them, but then later Skystar arrives to help but she doesn't actually do anything of use, and then they defeat the Storm King without her. So what was the point of the hippogriffs? Just a red herring?
meltingparappa
Member
SparksterMeta0
Member
He actually went down the same way as King Sombra did.
It was a pretty good movie, especially the way it was animated. Also enjoyed the short that came before it.
I was a little disappointed that
Grubber(sp?) wasn't acknowledged at the end as the first "real friend" Tempest had. He was certainly more of a supporter for her than just another lackey for Storm King.
However, if there was one scene in the movie that made me almost tear up but, at the same time, got really angry about was the
argument scene after they were kicked out of the Hippogryph Kingdom. I get it was part of the plot to teach Twilight a lesson in trust, but the line that drove her friends away (and made Pinky more down than usual) made me go "WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT AFTER EVERYTHING YOU'VE BEEN THROUGH?!".
Not a red herring.
If Twilight wasn't so desperate to steal the orb, there would have been a chance Queen Novo would have actually helped them, after seeing her people having fun with the other ponies since being isolated underwater for a long time.
Because Novo secured the orb after the attempt, banished them, and possibly forbid anyone from assisting them, Skystar couldn't do much else anyway except sneak out alone and help as best she could with pushing back some of Storm King's minions while the rest continued to save Twilight. "One small thing can help make a big difference," as she said.
If Twilight wasn't so desperate to steal the orb, there would have been a chance Queen Novo would have actually helped them, after seeing her people having fun with the other ponies since being isolated underwater for a long time.
Because Novo secured the orb after the attempt, banished them, and possibly forbid anyone from assisting them, Skystar couldn't do much else anyway except sneak out alone and help as best she could with pushing back some of Storm King's minions while the rest continued to save Twilight. "One small thing can help make a big difference," as she said.
Who did? Dude fell to his death due to being a jerk, clear consciences all round!
You know what I found really interesting? This movie is just a massively shit time for Twilight. She spends the vast majority of the story looking worried, or stressed, or sad or suspicious. The rest of the Mane 6 quip and sing and caper around like they're having a grand old time, while Twilight seems like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders... because she does.
When she ultimately snaps at Pinkie, I was kinda like "...yeah, I get this." Everyone with any rank or power is gone, and so the whole of Equestria is depending on her. Can you imagine being a character as fundamentally anxious as Twilight and then having that kind of pressure dumped onto you? She's being crushed by it, and you can see it on her face half the time. This is kinda the first time she's acted the way a real person might act under those conditions.
When she ultimately snaps at Pinkie, I was kinda like "...yeah, I get this." Everyone with any rank or power is gone, and so the whole of Equestria is depending on her. Can you imagine being a character as fundamentally anxious as Twilight and then having that kind of pressure dumped onto you? She's being crushed by it, and you can see it on her face half the time. This is kinda the first time she's acted the way a real person might act under those conditions.
ShinySylvee
Member
Man that was the exact opposite of my experience lol. My theater is usually not very busy in general, ESPECIALLY on weeknights. I went to the opening night of Zootopia and that had maybe 30 people, and that was at around 7 instead of 9:45 like tonight. When I showed up there was maybe 35 or so cars in the lot, and this was the opening night for Blade Runner too mind you. I wasn't expecting much but I certainly wasn't expecting to be literally the only person in the theater. I can just imagine the people in charge of screening going "Damnit we have to show this move for one person?"
For the Hanazuki short, the intro of it going "first Hanazuki then your regularly scheduled programming" was extremely cheesy, although I'm sure that the people made it had absolutely no control over that. The animation was nothing short of breathtaking, it was even better then most of the movie. However it felt very overwhelming to me.
Right off the bat there's this girl and these blob things. Why is she a human and the other things are blobs. Is she special in some way? Then out of nowhere some random thing shows up and she's like "oh hey it's that one thing that's showing up let me stop everything that I'm doing and go up to it." Then it gives out this gem that I guess is supposed to be significant. Even after watching it I still don't know how. It turns yellow at the end so I guess it can do that? Then the Yellow thing steals the gem and goes to the obviously dangerous area. Why does it do that? All the other blob things like the lead girl so why is this one stealing from her and disobeying her. Is it stupid or rebellious? From there the rest of the short is more or less fine. The emotional stuff at the end is a bit cheesy even for me but as I said before the animation is gorgeous and makes up for it.
As for the movie, I'll be honest. If I could go back in time and unread the novelization I would. Knowing how literally everything was going to play out was very distracting in addition to revealing a lot of the setup stuff too. One thing I will say is I can totally understand why non-fans in general are not giving this movie good reviews on average. As I had theorized before the movie seems very inept at introducing the characters and the world that they live in. And a lot of the frilliest stuff is right at the beginning too which I feel probably turned a ton of people off immediately. Overall despite really liking the movie I can totally understand the people that didn't care for it and were turned off by it.
On to some more spoilery kind of stuff
A lot of the comics and other prerelease stuff had gotten me really hyped and attached to all of the new characters, which is why it's disappointing that aside from Tempest they're barely in the movie. Tempest is definitely the standout character from the movie for me, and I imagine literally everyone else. She gets by far the most screen time out of all of the guest characters and the most development overall. Emily Blunt does an absolutely fantastic job voicing her, showing a massive emotional range and pulling it off very well. Her arc is handled very well and the fact that her sort of mediocre backstory is just told in song and not brought a whole lot of attention to makes it a lot less distracting then Starlight's. The arc is as a whole handled very well and by the end you feel very invested in her as a character. She was very well realized and I really hope that if they do a sequel movie they focus on her adjusting to her new life back in Equestria. (Hopefully with Starlight since I think they could play well off each other)
Unfortunately the same can't be said for virtually every other character. Grubber's demeanor was very charming for me but aside from one line where he talks about how him and Tempest make a great team almost all of his jokes were about food which made him feel one-dimensional when I feel like he could have been expanded upon and made a lot more interesting. In promotional material they talked about how small he was for his race, and that he had to rely on other tactics to get by. Additionally in several of the books they built it up that Grubber really liked Tempest and looked up to her. Aside from the previously mentioned line their relationship was barely explored. It could have been very interesting since Tempest kept talking about how friends were wasteful but she could have potentially had one with Grubber, or at least a one-sided one. Just an idea but it could be established that Grubber was the person that hooked Tempest up with the Storm King to begin with and always stuck his neck out for her. Later on the Storm King gets really mad at Grubber for being inept or something and he looks to Tempest to have his back, but she shys away and totally bails on him. Grubber calls her out on bailing on him after being bailed on by her friends and she gets really sad as she realizes what she's done to him. Then at the end of the movie she can go to him and make up and they can be super pals and stuff. The movie didn't have room for it unfortunately but it would have been extremely cool to see IMO.
Capper was pretty cool for me. The song felt weak initially for me listening to the soundtrack but in context of the movie and with the visuals I thought it was pretty neat. His character arc could have worked a lot better but unfortunately there's just too little time dedicated to it. (I'll just point it out here that this complaint works for the Pirates and the Seaponies. I won't repeat it after this) His introduction was awesome and I liked his personality a lot. His whole arc felt like it was being fast-forwarded though. Rarity fixes his dress in like 10 seconds and he's instantly changing his mind and is on their side. Just saying that it could have been a lot more emotionally powerful with more time to breath.
The Pirates were thematically really cool and had tons of potential. Once again though they are barely given anything to do in the movie. I was hoping for some serious swashbuckling hi-jinks and we got a bit of it in the climax but the actual fight is so short that it left me wanting more. Once again, what was there was executed well but they didn't have enough time in the sun.
The Seaponies were a nice diversion but it just feels weird given that they were the big thing the ponies were searching for and contribute almost nothing to the success at the end. Repeat my statements for Capper and the Pirates here.
The Storm King was fun but at times it felt like he was trying way too hard. The best scene for him IMO was the potion phone call. Him dancing around with the staff moving around the Sun and Moon was fun too. But they laid on the "this cuteness disgusts me" stuff a bit too thick for my liking. Not the worst MLP villain but definitely not the best.
Also Sia is really obtrusive in the movie. I talked to a friend about the character and he didn't know who she was and was very confused why everyone acted like she was a big deal. Moreover the delivery of the two or so lines she got felt extremely jarring. All of the other VAs (the guests included) did an absolutely fantastic job capturing their unique character so hearing Sia stroll up and say "hiya" in what is extremely obviously just her normal talking voice was very weird. She doesn't play that much a role in the movie but some people might find her a bit obtrusive.
All in all, I liked just about every new character but aside from Tempest (Who was handled VERY well) none of them felt like enough time was dedicated to them. It's a bit disappointing because I felt like all of them could have been absolutely fantastic but as it stands they're fun but disappointing when considering how muc hmore they could have been.
As for the Mane 6 aside from Twilight none of them get any real development and Fluttershy and AJ barely do much at all. Many of the issues that I had with the guest characters apply here too. For the most part I found most of them to be handled pretty well, although Pinkie was definitely dialed up to 11 and was a bit much at times. All of them had at least one gag that worked for me and as a whole watching them play off each other and reacting to the situation at hand was enjoyable and made up for the plot overall being fairly silly if you actually think about it. Twilight's portrayal is definitely the most contentious one out of all the characters and I feel like the biggest problem is that aside from her being in "princess mode" which I've generally never been a fan of she is once again learning the same lesson she learned in the Pilot and both of the season 4 two-parters. It didn't bother me THAT much and the scene where she constructs the hot air balloon was a strong moment but it feels out of place given that everything else she did involved her isolating herself from the rest of the group and generally not doing anything useful.
The plot itself has quite a few issues, largely settling around the main conflict. As others have pointed out, the entire journey the ponies take feels largely pointless as the Hippogrifs do almost nothing to actually help the ponies. It feels fairly underwhelming that such a massive force that had absolutely no problems enslaving the entire population of Canterlot (which included Starlight among other people) but that same force gets owned by a band of like 5 pirates, Capper, Skystar, and the Mane 6. Also kinda weird that they're doing this massive friendship festival but Twilight didn't think to invite ANY of the other races that the ponies are good friends with? Or think to ask them for help? I can understand why they pretended they didn't exist but it's still a bit distracting. Tempest's arc was handled well but the big payoff of her taking the bullet for Twilight and somehow turning the Storm King to stone was not very effective. An idea someone else had was that she could have joined in the pony chain to try and grab the staff. Overall the story kinda falls apart when you start thinking about it so you're best off just not doing that.
Unfortunately the same can't be said for virtually every other character. Grubber's demeanor was very charming for me but aside from one line where he talks about how him and Tempest make a great team almost all of his jokes were about food which made him feel one-dimensional when I feel like he could have been expanded upon and made a lot more interesting. In promotional material they talked about how small he was for his race, and that he had to rely on other tactics to get by. Additionally in several of the books they built it up that Grubber really liked Tempest and looked up to her. Aside from the previously mentioned line their relationship was barely explored. It could have been very interesting since Tempest kept talking about how friends were wasteful but she could have potentially had one with Grubber, or at least a one-sided one. Just an idea but it could be established that Grubber was the person that hooked Tempest up with the Storm King to begin with and always stuck his neck out for her. Later on the Storm King gets really mad at Grubber for being inept or something and he looks to Tempest to have his back, but she shys away and totally bails on him. Grubber calls her out on bailing on him after being bailed on by her friends and she gets really sad as she realizes what she's done to him. Then at the end of the movie she can go to him and make up and they can be super pals and stuff. The movie didn't have room for it unfortunately but it would have been extremely cool to see IMO.
Capper was pretty cool for me. The song felt weak initially for me listening to the soundtrack but in context of the movie and with the visuals I thought it was pretty neat. His character arc could have worked a lot better but unfortunately there's just too little time dedicated to it. (I'll just point it out here that this complaint works for the Pirates and the Seaponies. I won't repeat it after this) His introduction was awesome and I liked his personality a lot. His whole arc felt like it was being fast-forwarded though. Rarity fixes his dress in like 10 seconds and he's instantly changing his mind and is on their side. Just saying that it could have been a lot more emotionally powerful with more time to breath.
The Pirates were thematically really cool and had tons of potential. Once again though they are barely given anything to do in the movie. I was hoping for some serious swashbuckling hi-jinks and we got a bit of it in the climax but the actual fight is so short that it left me wanting more. Once again, what was there was executed well but they didn't have enough time in the sun.
The Seaponies were a nice diversion but it just feels weird given that they were the big thing the ponies were searching for and contribute almost nothing to the success at the end. Repeat my statements for Capper and the Pirates here.
The Storm King was fun but at times it felt like he was trying way too hard. The best scene for him IMO was the potion phone call. Him dancing around with the staff moving around the Sun and Moon was fun too. But they laid on the "this cuteness disgusts me" stuff a bit too thick for my liking. Not the worst MLP villain but definitely not the best.
Also Sia is really obtrusive in the movie. I talked to a friend about the character and he didn't know who she was and was very confused why everyone acted like she was a big deal. Moreover the delivery of the two or so lines she got felt extremely jarring. All of the other VAs (the guests included) did an absolutely fantastic job capturing their unique character so hearing Sia stroll up and say "hiya" in what is extremely obviously just her normal talking voice was very weird. She doesn't play that much a role in the movie but some people might find her a bit obtrusive.
All in all, I liked just about every new character but aside from Tempest (Who was handled VERY well) none of them felt like enough time was dedicated to them. It's a bit disappointing because I felt like all of them could have been absolutely fantastic but as it stands they're fun but disappointing when considering how muc hmore they could have been.
As for the Mane 6 aside from Twilight none of them get any real development and Fluttershy and AJ barely do much at all. Many of the issues that I had with the guest characters apply here too. For the most part I found most of them to be handled pretty well, although Pinkie was definitely dialed up to 11 and was a bit much at times. All of them had at least one gag that worked for me and as a whole watching them play off each other and reacting to the situation at hand was enjoyable and made up for the plot overall being fairly silly if you actually think about it. Twilight's portrayal is definitely the most contentious one out of all the characters and I feel like the biggest problem is that aside from her being in "princess mode" which I've generally never been a fan of she is once again learning the same lesson she learned in the Pilot and both of the season 4 two-parters. It didn't bother me THAT much and the scene where she constructs the hot air balloon was a strong moment but it feels out of place given that everything else she did involved her isolating herself from the rest of the group and generally not doing anything useful.
The plot itself has quite a few issues, largely settling around the main conflict. As others have pointed out, the entire journey the ponies take feels largely pointless as the Hippogrifs do almost nothing to actually help the ponies. It feels fairly underwhelming that such a massive force that had absolutely no problems enslaving the entire population of Canterlot (which included Starlight among other people) but that same force gets owned by a band of like 5 pirates, Capper, Skystar, and the Mane 6. Also kinda weird that they're doing this massive friendship festival but Twilight didn't think to invite ANY of the other races that the ponies are good friends with? Or think to ask them for help? I can understand why they pretended they didn't exist but it's still a bit distracting. Tempest's arc was handled well but the big payoff of her taking the bullet for Twilight and somehow turning the Storm King to stone was not very effective. An idea someone else had was that she could have joined in the pony chain to try and grab the staff. Overall the story kinda falls apart when you start thinking about it so you're best off just not doing that.
Overall I feel like there was some missed opportunities with the new characters, and that aside from Tempest (who was handled extremely well here, definitely the standout character of the movie for me) none of the characters really got enough love, the mane 6 included. It does feel like the story could have been a lot more powerful if they had cut down on all of the different characters the ponies ended up meeting and really fleshed out the ones that they left. Additionally the story doesn't hold up to scrutiny very well. All that being said the characters are still a ton of fun, both returning and new. The story goes to a lot of really cool places and the animation looks absolutely gorgeous at times. The songs in general were some of Ingram's best and were overall very strong, complimented very well by the movie's stellar animation during them. That being said there were definitely some times where the movie just looked downright cheap. There's one effect very late in the movie that looks like it's just 3 shapes glued onto each other and just lazily rotates around in a circle. It looks extremely bad. To make matters worse it's in an extremely important part of the movie and the scene just lingers on the effect for a solid 20 seconds. There were a couple other times where I feel the scene was a bit barren and some of the 3D models didn't look great. Overall though it very much is just a souped up version of the show's animation which I already loved so for the most part this one looks great too.
As a whole the movie could have been done better but if you're already acquainted with the show and its characters there's a lot to love. It really does feel like the show but bigger and better. Even if you've fallen behind and haven't watched the series in a long time but are remotely interested it's a must see.
For those who haven't watched the show but are slightly interested in seeing the movie, I would strongly suggest watching a bit of the show first, if only to acquaint yourself to the characters and the setting. Honestly I feel like non-fans are missing such a massive chunk of the enjoyabaility of the movie that if you aren't familiar with the show and don't have any desire to do so, this movie likely won't impress as I don't believe it does not do enough to try and inform you of those things. If you aren't already knowledgeable about the show and have no desire to change that then this movie is a bit hard for me to recommend. Not saying that you won't like it but you are going to be missing a lot of stuff.
I'll do some respondy stuff tomorrow as well as edit the review/impression post. For now I'll leave you guys with this. She used to do Friendship is Witchcraft way back in the day and I've already linked her once before. Also I REALLY want that Tempest plushie.
weird ass movie gets a weird ass thread
Trigonometrize.
Member
I was fully prepared for the movie to be bad. I think I can speak for everyone when I say no one here is "discrediting" reviews because we have a blind love for a movie we haven't seen and are hell bent on blinding ourselves to negativity. It's just that when you've been waiting for this for 3+ years and the initial reactions published by professionals who had special access to the film feel a little hackneyed, are we not supposed to comment on it?