"Big adventure. Tons of fun." · 2:23am Oct 8th, 2017
Honestly, those two phrases could suffice for my review of this film.
Minor spoilers after the break.
When I discovered Pony six years ago, I knew there would have to be a feature film at some point. "I don't ask for much from it," I said to anyone who would listen. "Just humor, adventure, a little action, and really hammy villains."
And voila--here it all is.
But as much as that, I wanted to see Equestria and neighboring lands rendered for the big screen. The world is as much a character as any pony, but we've always seen it through the simplifying lens of Flash. This seems to have been one reason why the fandom creates so much art: We want the place to almost seem real enough to run around in--at least as much as the medium of animation allows.
It seems the creative team felt the same way. Just when you think you've seen as many amazing sights as one film can hold, along comes another. In the twentieth century, science fiction fans asserted that genre stories should evoke a "sense of wonder." Here, I'm almost thankful the plot was so simple, as a more complex one might have distracted from the imagery.
Now I want to see more of these. In Toonboom, Canterlot is as majestic as I had always imagined, and I want to see Cloudsdale, Manehattan, and the Crystal Empire done up like that. At last year's BronyCAN, I had a chance to ask a few of the show directors about the possibility of sequels. Their response was that no one had at that point thought about it, but they supposed there might be one, if enough tickets sold.
So if you'll excuse me, I have to go see it again.
Cheers,
HV
Cheers.
I felt exactly the same way. I came in after a rough day, feeling blue and lukewarm on the film based on what I'd seen so far, and came out with a huge smile on my face.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I think Tempest might be my favorite villain. If only she didn't have the little guy whose name I can't even be bothered to remember to add annoying lines to everything she said.
I'm more in the "an adventure, tons of meh" crowd. :B Not terrible, but not great on anything other than a visual level.
I agree completely. I went in looking for fun, not an expertly written masterpiece, and I got fun. Apparently the prequel comics and a chapter book about tempest give a lot of background.
Yeah, I enjoyed it very much myself. I find it interesting that you liked that the story was so simple, given how the story was one of the main things I took issue with (e.g. some characters were underutilized, the quick pace). Your greater focus on the visuals is an interesting perspective, and I can certainly see why someone would be taken in by them.
Personally, I enjoyed the movie as a quaint little adventure. I don't think people who go in expecting to see the MLP movie will be satisfied, but people looking for a fun little romp will be very pleased. I mostly went into it to be entertained, and I was.
I'm going to see twice more myself !