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My Little Pony: the Movie (2017) trailer - 2D, FIM cast [up: Trailer #2]

Fat4all

Banned
A four minute short film I worked on is going to be shown in front of this movie, for 'Hanazuki - Full of Treasures', another one of Hasbro's properties.

We are very aware that it'll be seen by a confused, inpatient, and possibly hostile audience, but I'm proud anyway.

I've seen some of that, looks trippy and fun!

but that'd really be beating a dead horse.

giphy.gif
 

kyser73

Member
Saw the teaser for this when seeing Despicable M3 with the kids.

My daughter & son (7&4) are both very excited. I'm just happy there'll be a sonic rainboom in it.

#Dash4Eva
 
Had a chat with my bro, and I think what's off about the characters is that they look on model in some poses and off in others. Like there are new angles to view them now, but they don't look right.

They almost look like they belong in some of the comic books.

It is strange.
 
Saw the teaser for this when seeing Despicable M3 with the kids.

My daughter & son (7&4) are both very excited. I'm just happy there'll be a sonic rainboom in it.

#Dash4Eva

Cool to hear that the kids were digging it.


Realistically I think that this movie's financial success is almost entirely going to be determined by how well it can sell itself to kids that aren't fans of the show. (Especially boys) The show has a fairly universal appeal and I think that the trailer at the very least did a decent job at showing that off.
 

BDGAME

Member
Oh wow, that brings back memories.

A four minute short film I worked on is going to be shown in front of this movie, for 'Hanazuki - Full of Treasures', another one of Hasbro's properties.

We are very aware that it'll be seen by a confused, inpatient, and possibly hostile audience, but I'm proud anyway.

Hey cool! I hope that movie will be launched in Brazil too. When it happens, I will give my opinion about your short.
 
Had a chat with my bro, and I think what's off about the characters is that they look on model in some poses and off in others. Like there are new angles to view them now, but they don't look right.

They almost look like they belong in some of the comic books.

It is strange.
Good points. Maybe when you sit down with the movie for 90 minutes everything starts to feel more natural than two minutes with the trailer.

The funny thing is that all the main characters seem kind of off, but look at any background pony and they merge the styles well.
 
Concerning audience breakdown, Hasbro's CEO said this.
We look at our brands more inclusively than ever. In fact, we eliminated the old delineation of gender. And if you think about a brand, be it My Little Pony, where 30 percent of our global TV audience is boys, or Star Wars, where we are launching [all-female animated series] Forces of Destiny with Lucas and Disney, you're seeing people who want to be engaged in these stories. And we don't care who they are. We just care that they love that brand.

So despite the large presence of adult fans online, most viewers are actually girls.

Oh wow, that brings back memories.

A four minute short film I worked on is going to be shown in front of this movie, for 'Hanazuki - Full of Treasures', another one of Hasbro's properties.

We are very aware that it'll be seen by a confused, inpatient, and possibly hostile audience, but I'm proud anyway.

Don't worry, at least one person will know what's going on!

Still waiting for Micheal Bay to direct five whole MLP live action films.

WwSJ3aV.gif
 
Not sure what I think of that art style, but as long as the writing stays similar or better than the show then I'm good.

I assume the more surface fans dropped out along the way after a season or two, the more extreme 'fans' that give fandoms a bad rep either moved onto the new shiny internet thing or now keep to themselves, leaving a good (but smaller) portion of dedicated people that stuck with the show all the way through and don't take themselves too seriously.

At least, that's how I think fandoms tend to usually go, haha. I don't follow the show itself, but there's a group of people who do a series called 'Bronies React' where they keep pointing fun at details/themselves and it's p. fun seeing them rip on the movies and the more obvious 'merchandise-driven' plot points. They seem to be thrilled the show has gone for so long and any show that has 7 seasons and like 6 movies must still have a substantial following.

I think a lot of the fans that were super aggressive about it moved on to other things like Steven Universe.

I don't know about the other fans, but personally I kind of stopped caring about the fandom stuff. I find the show more enjoyable when I watch it without any outside influence. Plus it's kind of moved it's way down my priorities list.
 
this looks weird, it's like some half step between the tv show and uhhhh not a movie i guess. i don't know how to explain it

also rainbow dash still sucks
 
Wow, that looked terrible. The dialog is pretty cringy, but I'm sure it'll blow through the box office due to bronies.

I kinda feel sad for little kids wanting to see this in the cinema to find it full with young adult men...

Nah, it's going to be like Snakes on a Plane for that demographic.
 

KSweeley

Member
Lionsgate previous movie based upon a highly popular TV series, Power Rangers flopped, will be very interesting to see how well a My Little Pony movie will do in the box office and if this will be one of Lionsgate's 2017 successful movies.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
Lionsgate previous movie based upon a highly popular TV series, Power Rangers flopped, will be very interesting to see how well a My Little Pony movie will do in the box office and if this will be one of Lionsgate's 2017 successful movies.

I can't imagine this movie is a break the bank type of movie. Probably has a very modest budget, and it will sell a ton of toys.
 

UberTag

Member
The biggest obstacle for the film in my estimation will be not coming off "too busy". It'll have a tight 80-90 minute running time and my worry is that it will be rather frantic without giving the audience (or the movie) any time to breathe. This might serve it well with keeping a younger audience with short attention spans occupied while leaving the show's older fans rather indifferent.

I'm expecting a non-stop frenzy of action setpieces, celebrity character intros, Pinkie Pie jokes, Dash saving the day, Twilight doing her magic thing and everyone else just sort of along for the ride in the background with no more than a handful of lines between them.

I can't imagine this movie is a break the bank type of movie. Probably has a very modest budget, and it will sell a ton of toys.
Yeah, this will be a film judged more by the amount of merch it moves over the holidays versus how well it does at the box office.
 

Pandaman

Everything is moe to me
Lionsgate previous movie based upon a highly popular TV series, Power Rangers flopped, will be very interesting to see how well a My Little Pony movie will do in the box office and if this will be one of Lionsgate's 2017 successful movies.
Power Rangers flopped? What a shame, It was actually half decent. Movie should be fun, if only for the uptick in activity in fan communities.
 
First of all, I'd just like to thank all of GAF for not turning this thread into a shitshow like the first movie announcement thread. Mods know I was worried about this (as in, I was contacting mods about this over a period of months). It makes me glad to know PonyGAF doesn't elicit the sheer disgust from the rest of you that it used to, or at least that you're better about keeping it to yourself.

In order to prevent this thread from getting too scary, I expect a lot of the deep analysis of this trailer and how it connects to season 7 and such will be in the season 7 OT.

When MLP and Transformers Prime first started airing, I genuinely did not believe MLP would be the one to get five billion seasons and a movie

No kidding. This thread shows that they had all kinds of plans for Transformers Prime, including making a shared Hasbro universe from it.

Meanwhile, MLP has managed to survive radical shifting of its mythology, changes in show runners, the main character going through a huge change in appearance and status, a spinoff about the characters as humans in high school, and the effective introduction of a seventh main pony character.

Now in addition to the main TV series, we have Equestria Girls movies and specials (and maybe even a TV series), two ongoing comic book series, one limited comic book series, a series of chapter books, an upcoming series of kid detective chapter books with the CMC, picture books with high quality art, and oh right, a theatrical movie. All this effectively starting from scratch, in terms of customer willingness to support these supplemental products.

I did notice a lot of Pinkie and thought the same thing or marketing. Pinkie and Rainbow seem to be the strongest mascots for the show franchise.

The greatest crime this trailer commits is no Tabitha.

Best VA shafted!

No surprise there, unfortunately. But after all, that's why we switched to Rarity avatars ahead of time.

Pinkie and Rainbow have perhaps the easiest personalities to demonstrate in a trailer like this, since all it takes is a few seconds. Fluttershy is next, but it would take a bit more time to demonstrate shyness. I guess you could have Applejack act southern. Rarity and Twilight are much harder to accurately depict given an audience that doesn't already know how they act. If you had Twilight act sarcastic, people would think that's her entire character and she's some generic snarky hero. And it's probably better that Rarity didn't go, "Darling darling darling darling darling darling." Well, that probably would have gotten a great line reading from Tabitha, but the audience wouldn't get it.

Saw the teaser for this when seeing Despicable M3 with the kids.

My daughter & son (7&4) are both very excited. I'm just happy there'll be a sonic rainboom in it.

#Dash4Eva

Glad to see interest from the actual target audience! And I remember that on another board I go to, someone was complaining about how Dash hasn't done a Sonic Rainboom for a long time, so hopefully they're happy about this too.

I'd go see the first one at least.

Learn how talking ponies from outer space save humanity through ancient prophecies and shit.

thumb.gif

(Source)

I can't imagine this movie is a break the bank type of movie. Probably has a very modest budget, and it will sell a ton of toys.

I also expect this will do well in home release, and they probably have a Netflix deal in place already.

Figured, toys for this sell like craaaaazy. Lord knows my son has enough of them.

If you don't mind my prying, it's a bit unusual to hear about a young boy being interested in MLP. Mind saying more about what he likes about it?
 

Ri'Orius

Member
I mean, I know it makes sense from a business perspective, but I've gotta feel for the Mane Six's voice actors not getting mentioned by name in the trailer. They've put nearly a decade of work into the series, and when it hits the big screen, marketing makes sure the guests get highlighted and the regular cast get snubbed.

and the effective introduction of a seventh main pony character.

I haven't been keeping up, but I'm still curious: who's the newcomer?
 
Still up in the air whether or not I'm actually going to the theater for this. I went to see Lego Batman by myself, which is the closest comparison.

I'll chicken out and rent the bluray.

I haven't been keeping up, but I'm still curious: who's the newcomer?

Starlight Glimmer, a villain introduced in the season five premiere and reformed in the season 5 finale. She spent much of season 6 under Twilight's wing getting used to making friends and living as a normal person, and is continuing that into season 7, although they played with the idea of tossing her out like Celestia did to Twilight at the beginning of the series.

The fandom is very divided on her, and I'm not sure why. She's not really bad or anything. I can understand unimpressive.
 
I mean, I know it makes sense from a business perspective, but I've gotta feel for the Mane Six's voice actors not getting mentioned by name in the trailer. They've put nearly a decade of work into the series, and when it hits the big screen, marketing makes sure the guests get highlighted and the regular cast get snubbed.



I haven't been keeping up, but I'm still curious: who's the newcomer?

Well wouldn't you know it, I happen to have a character guide image right here!
LtkQ8iJ.png


Some PonyGAFfers like her, most are alright with her, and at least one member despises her. Notably, she's done a great job at making Trixie into an actual effective recurring character.
 
Alright, I'll try to keep this focused purely on the trailer itself and not factor in Season 7. If this ends up being a bit too hardcore for this thread, I'll edit this and repost it in the Season 7 OT.


Overall I guess the first thing to talk about is the animation since that's the big thing everyone is talking about. Overall I love it, although it does have some issues. The new tools at the animator's disposal by switching from the show's traditional Flash animation to the more robust tool Toon Boom Harmony really shows. In the show we usually saw the characters from the side or directly head on since having different angles would mean creating new assets. In the movie they have more resources to work with and so we get to see them animated from different angels then we're used to. Also although the show's done great work with flash, perhaps the biggest flaw that the animation had was depicting movement. One look at the run cycles from the Equestria Girls spinoff series (also animated in flash and featuring 2-legged humans rather then 4-legged ponies) shows the limitations that the animators had with flash. In the movie the animation looks substantially smoother and that combined with the new angles that the characters are being shown from makes it look weird for some because we just aren't used to seeing the characters like this.

Two major problems: first, and this is one that has been pointed out frequently: the cgi for the bad guy ship looks like it's from a PS1 game. It is such a substantial step down in quality from the rest of the trailer I have to only assume that it's a placeholder that some intern whipped up during lunch because not only does the model look atrocious but the way it moves through the clouds looks extremely lazy, like it's really obvious they're just moving a 3D model around on top of a 2D background. Second, and this is one that was pointed out in the initial teaser, the shadowing on the models looks a bit off at times. It's nowhere near as bad as the teaser but at times it does get a little distracting.



On to the actual content, it's pretty clear that this trailer is largely to sell the movie to non-fans. It's been pointed out but Twilight and Pinkie take up the lions share of attention in the trailer, with Rainbow getting a couple scenes and Fluttershy, AJ, and Rarity being virtually non-existent. It's pretty bad when a gag character has more lines then half of the show's main cast. My best guess is that in the future they'll drop a "Mane 6" trailer where they really show off all of the mane 6 in the movie.

Furthermore, many of the guest VAs (Capper, Queen Novo, Princess Skystar, and Captain Celaeno) didn't have any lines whatsoever and barely had any showing either. What we did hear though I was pretty impressed by. I liked all of the new characters they showed off here. Shadow Tempest (Edgy unicorn) was built up as being the main threat that the ponies seem to be facing, which might not be accurate in the actual move. Either way I was sold on her character and I'm eager for her inevitable
reformation
. Storm King was a bit sillier then I think most people were expecting but I was already kinda prepared for it with the prequel comic preview and I hope they can keep a good balance of him being a bit silly and still a credible threat. I'm hoping they don't just move him to basically being another comic relief and Shadow Tempest is the real bad guy.

Overall there's a lot of fun setpieces that they seemed to be showing off: whatever the deal with the windmill is that they thought was so great that they showed it at the beginning (why?), the opening confrontation with the storm dudes and the Mane 6, the swordfight with Rainbow and Captain Celaeno, and the fight between the Rainbow Zeppelin and the storm ship. One of the big hurdles that I think the trailer had to overcome was making sure that it was something that boys would be interested in, and aside from the beginning I think they did a pretty good job. How expansive all of these are, how fun they end up being, and how they fit into the narrative of the story is obviously something we'll have to wait for but given that the show itself rarely shows any actual fights it'll be cool to see some action, especially with them going all-out for it.

All in all I thought it was pretty fun and showed a lot of promise. There were some shots that I question why they thought they should be featured (like almost all of pinkie's lines) and I feel like the trailer house that made it might not be the best but I see the foundation for a fun adventure movie that everyone can enjoy. As to whether or not we end up getting that is obviously something we'll have to wait for but I'm cautiously optimistic.

Got a bit more I want to say but I'll leave it at this for now.
 

DJ_Lae

Member
Man, that style just looks weird. I thought I had warmed up to it a little midway through but it just kept looking off in a lot of scenes (and it has that late 90s shitty CG vs hand drawn clash with some of the bigger objects).

I'll field test the trailers on my daughters tomorrow and see what they think. Both have largely moved on from MLP, though, I don't know if this will pull them back in.
 

DemWalls

Member
I'm expecting a non-stop frenzy of action setpieces, celebrity character intros, Pinkie Pie jokes, Starlight saving the day, Twilight doing her magic thing and everyone else just sort of along for the ride in the background with no more than a handful of lines between them.

Fixed.
 
Oh wow, that brings back memories.

A four minute short film I worked on is going to be shown in front of this movie, for 'Hanazuki - Full of Treasures', another one of Hasbro's properties.

We are very aware that it'll be seen by a confused, inpatient, and possibly hostile audience, but I'm proud anyway.

Congratulations!



I realize this is super nitpicky, but this brief shot reminded me of how the comics often draw the ponies, which for some reason I just don't like.

Quick example:
d8wPp67.png
 
Congratulations!




I realize this is super nitpicky, but this brief shot reminded me of how the comics often draw the ponies, which for some reason I just don't like.

Quick example:
d8wPp67.png

The nose, you think? In the show, it's much better integrated with their mouth. In those two images, it's more like this bulging thing that sits above the mouth. It doesn't bother me too much, but the show models do nail it better.
 

brian577

Banned
I mean, I know it makes sense from a business perspective, but I've gotta feel for the Mane Six's voice actors not getting mentioned by name in the trailer. They've put nearly a decade of work into the series, and when it hits the big screen, marketing makes sure the guests get highlighted and the regular cast get snubbed.

It still doesn't make any sense to me. The kids won't care, the older fans won't care and the parents sure as fuck won't care. Who are they targeting with these celebs? It was the same thing with Ratchet and Clank.
 
So is that derpy cross eye'd pony still around? I remember there was a huge controversy about her

Oh wow, that brings back memories.

A four minute short film I worked on is going to be shown in front of this movie, for 'Hanazuki - Full of Treasures', another one of Hasbro's properties.

We are very aware that it'll be seen by a confused, inpatient, and possibly hostile audience, but I'm proud anyway.

Oh! I've seen a few episodes of Hanazuki! I thought it was really cute. Did you work on any of the episodes?
 
It's not smalle, it's not subsided.

People just stopped giving a shit about smearing them.

That's what has been dailed back, the hate against bronies, people went back to not caring.

Pretty much. Most people just enjoy the show, and the "lol pedo creep" stuff has been going down (*knocks on wood*).

I liked the CGI. Was pretty surprised by that.

Oh, and Starlight 4evar. Fuck the haters. Save the day, GlimGlam. ;)

duXM3rN.png
 
I do like the animation here, but I agree it does look like it's trying to be Disney. Seems like Tempest Storm is the real villain here, and I'm curious as to what her deal is.
 
I suppose I myself will risk scaring people by responding to Shiny, haha. Though really, by deep analysis, I meant more posting tons of particular screenshots and writing what they could mean.

Overall I guess the first thing to talk about is the animation since that's the big thing everyone is talking about. Overall I love it, although it does have some issues. The new tools at the animator's disposal by switching from the show's traditional Flash animation to the more robust tool Toon Boom Harmony really shows. In the show we usually saw the characters from the side or directly head on since having different angles would mean creating new assets. [...] In the movie the animation looks substantially smoother and that combined with the new angles that the characters are being shown from makes it look weird for some because we just aren't used to seeing the characters like this.

Stuff like the odd nose look people have pointed out are definitely caused by having to consider what the ponies look like from angles not typically used in the show. I agree that the animation itself is really nice, though it does also remind me a bit of fan animations like "Double Rainboom" that went overboard with tiny flourishes. Hopefully we get a better sense of how it actually looks from longer clips. However...

Two major problems: first, and this is one that has been pointed out frequently: the cgi for the bad guy ship looks like it's from a PS1 game. It is such a substantial step down in quality from the rest of the trailer I have to only assume that it's a placeholder that some intern whipped up during lunch because not only does the model look atrocious but the way it moves through the clouds looks extremely lazy, like it's really obvious they're just moving a 3D model around on top of a 2D background. Second, and this is one that was pointed out in the initial teaser, the shadowing on the models looks a bit off at times. It's nowhere near as bad as the teaser but at times it does get a little distracting.

Besides the CGI, I still have a hard time looking at some screenshots due to the shading. The weird thing is, it looks completely fine in the non-Equestria scenes! It makes me wonder if the trailer guys got bad footage for the Canterlot parts. Well, all we can do is hope the CGI and shading are better in the final movie, because I would hate for those to bring everything else down.

On to the actual content, it's pretty clear that this trailer is largely to sell the movie to non-fans. It's been pointed out but Twilight and Pinkie take up the lions share of attention in the trailer, with Rainbow getting a couple scenes and Fluttershy, AJ, and Rarity being virtually non-existent. It's pretty bad when a gag character has more lines then half of the show's main cast. My best guess is that in the future they'll drop a "Mane 6" trailer where they really show off all of the mane 6 in the movie.

While I was a bit surprised those three didn't get any lines at all, it really is what was expected. Like I said earlier, it's hard to depict them well in an action trailer. A Mane Six trailer or TV spot is pretty likely in the future, since every children's animated movie does that, but I expect even that won't accurately show what roles they actually play.

Furthermore, many of the guest VAs (Capper, Queen Novo, Princess Skystar, and Captain Celaeno) didn't have any lines whatsoever and barely had any showing either. What we did hear though I was pretty impressed by. I liked all of the new characters they showed off here. Shadow Tempest (Edgy unicorn) was built up as being the main threat that the ponies seem to be facing, which might not be accurate in the actual move. Either way I was sold on her character and I'm eager for her inevitable
reformation
. [...] I'm hoping they don't just move [Storm King]to basically being another comic relief and Shadow Tempest is the real bad guy.

Yeah, the real shocker was how they didn't give lines to all of the guest stars. Tempest Shadow (you got the name backwards :p) was pretty neat in the trailer and really benefitted from the new art style. It reminds me a bit of how the humans made for Equestria Girls tend to look much better than the human versions of FiM characters. The prequel comic shows that Storm King has an intense side, so he probably will be the main villain in the end, with his jovial side catching the ponies off guard at first.

One of the big hurdles that I think the trailer had to overcome was making sure that it was something that boys would be interested in, and aside from the beginning I think they did a pretty good job. How expansive all of these are, how fun they end up being, and how they fit into the narrative of the story is obviously something we'll have to wait for but given that the show itself rarely shows any actual fights it'll be cool to see some action, especially with them going all-out for it.

[...]

Got a bit more I want to say but I'll leave it at this for now.

From this fan's perspective, I thought the trailer did a great job making it seem like a fun movie for boys without being ashamed of its girliness. There wasn't even a fart joke! That was honestly my biggest fear.

I too have more to say, but I'll save background characters and scene analysis for the season 7 thread. And when I'm not at work.
 
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