Let's talk about My Little Pony: The Movie! · 3:24am Oct 13th, 2017
This movie was a long time coming, and now that it's out, it's... good. I wish I could say it was worth years of hype, but it's simply good. A fun ride with our favorite characters and some new ones that aren't bad in their own right. I'm not really in the mood to sit here and speak super in-depth and examine everything overall, so here's just a bulleted list of some of my thoughts on it, for the curious. Spoiler warning, of course.
1: You kinda have to go in remembering that the script was written years ago, before much of the tone of the series changed. Many extremely vital characters to this kind of story are absent (there aren't just four princesses anymore, nor does Cadance live in Canterlot...) and the Mane 6 are taken back in time to behave more like their season 3 and 4 selves. This isn't bad, just interesting to see.
2: Songbird Serenade is the most forced guest-character in the history of the current franchise. I could deal with her being around and singing at the end, but the movie seems to be trying to put some kind of special significance on her capture and rescue that makes no sense.
3: Twilight has a little arc in here in which being betrayed by Capper early on, and the general untrustworthiness of Klugetown in general, makes her lose faith that friendship is the cure-all that she's always believed it is. I really like this idea. Her venturing into a criminal den of debauchery is a huge culture shock for her, and nearly losing her freedom, and any hope of saving her friends and family, due to her own trusting nature is a huge shock to her psyche that leads up to the breaking point of her attempting to throw friendship aside and do something underhanded herself for the greater good. It's a nice little arc, though it is extremely subtle.
4: I like the new characters who aren't Songbird Serenade. Capper is a neat Aladdin-type character, and Celeano is a lot of fun. Even Princess Skystar surprised me by being just a fun ball of energy.
5: Spike is his "background smartass" character, and does a good job of it.
6: The songs are a little overly long and awkwardly-placed throughout the movie, but I actually enjoy the compositions themselves.
7: Tempest Shadow was a great villain, but The Storm King was only slightly more interesting than King Sombra.
8: Someone needs to look up their definition of what a "pirate" does. Even by cartoon portrayals, defining them as "swashbuckling treasure hunters" is a bit of a stretch.
Overall, I really enjoyed the film. It had its plot issues and inconsistencies (don't mention that there's a problem for the ponies to overcome, and then completely disregard it to move onto the next scene), but it was a visual treat, the writing was fun with a few actual chuckles (best end joke ever), and hey, they actually killed a bad guy for once. Props all around. I hope there's more someday.
.... you do realize there's a end credits scene with The Storm King pulling himself back together right?
4696386
Not in the showing I went to, there wasn't. Maybe they cut it out in later showings, or the theater I went to is just shit and cut it themselves. Either way, I didn't see it, and can't actually find it online.
4696405
I swear I saw it. Maybe people cut away after the credits roll to try and make it seem like he's actually dead online.
4696409
I saw the movie in a movie theater. There was no end credits scene.
4696414
I know what I saw.... maybe I saw something else... and joy I look like a loon.
4696409
Unless you're talking about that weird gag-reel type thing DURING the credits, where they're introducing the voice cast. If, so that doesn't actually count. Unless you think Pinkie also actually managed to find the queen of the hippos.
4696418
I mean I guess.
4696484
Same story for us. 2 PM on a Thursday afternoon, so a low turnout would be expected, but it was just us and some woman with her 4 year old daughter.
4696416
I stayed all the way until after the credits and didn't see this scene you mentioned either.
Gah! You're alive! O.0
I didn't particularly enjoy the movie, but I didn't watch it in a theater because I wasn't gonna suffer through our country's terrible dubbing.
I thought the songs were really tedious and non-catchy, and too many of them served as the narrative crutch of "well since this was told in a song, this character is totally convinced now" like in "the times they are a changeling".
I also thought the pacing was horrifyingly fast, skipping over any possible exploration, just throwing pointless characters and locations at us. At least the locations were pretty. Some of the characters had potential, but they were all more like mere ideas than actual characters.
Tempest I found to be a huge walking cliche and almost a parody of some kind of edgy OC who is redeemed like every other character at this point and everyone befriends them. I enjoyed the Storm King vastly more, he's like a better realized Tirek (Tirek was the worst villain of Gen4 IMO, even Sombra was better). The way he died was the only actual interesting surprise the movie managed to deliver.
Overall, it felt much more explicitly kiddie than the show's ever been, partly to the overly predictable and simplified story, partly to the ponies looking chubbier, partly for the songs being totally half-assed. (The "we got this together" one is an outright abomination of music IMO). If a friend asked for my recommendation, I'd only recommend watching it for free for educational purposes, but not to expect to be immersed or particularly entertained (just in case - I do know many people enjoyed the movie, but I've seen many share pretty much my whole outlook on it).
4696693
The only thing I'll wholeheartedly agree with you on is that the movie was lightning fast, but I don't necessarily agree that it was an inherently BAD thing. Each individual scene is super short and the characters come and go like lightning (Capper can't even wait for his introductory song to end before betraying the ponies, and he has a change of heart because Rarity put some buttons on his jacket), but the tradeoff is that the movie is 90 minutes of seeing and experiencing new things with nary a hiccup to be seen. It refuses to stop moving for anything, and while this damages the new characters somewhat, the Mane 6 are still represented well (albeit versions of them from previous seasons) and it succeeds at making the movie feel like an honest-to-goodness adventure across a dangerous world and a race against time.
Whether you prefer fewer slower scenes or more faster ones is really a matter of taste. I thought the only one who desperately needed expanding upon was Capper, since Celeano already hated the Storm King and didn't need much of a push to betray him anyway, and Skystar is just portrayed as the kind of person who would want to help.
4696944
I personally would have wanted more time in the bandit town with that naked molerat guy and Capper, and more time with the pirates (it was absolutely ludicrous how fast THAT got resolved - with a song, too, like everything else). Maybe at the expense of the whole underwater part and some of the songs. They didn't even end up using whatever Celestia wanted from them, and all that came out of it was one hippogriff kinda helping in some unoticeable ways, and the whole section felt unnecessary, especially with the arbitrary seapony transformation. I would've preferred if they just found the hippogriff city destroyed by Storm King, got depressed and then proceeded like after Twi got them kicked out from the underwater kingdom. Would've spared us the stupid scene where Twilight blows up at Pinkie and even though she immediately catches herself and starts to apologize, her idiot friends all indignantly leave her anyway. If Twilight needed a scene being disillusioned with friendship being viable outside of Equestria, we could've had her try to steal from the pirates or something. Maybe betray them when Tempest boarded the ship, which come to think of it they did anyway. Her friends, stressed by their failure to find the hippogriffs, could remind her of that.
Also maybe I would've cut short on the beginning because that was the only part of the movie that managed to drag on.
4697477
So your preference would be for the ponies to simply start snapping at each other because they couldn't find the hippogriffs? That would be way more out of character for all of them than what actually happened. At least here one of them actually DID something to cause tension between them. Twilight not only tried to do something that went against all of their beliefs, but she manipulated her friends to act as a distraction while she did so. That's a huge betrayal on Twilight's part, and is more than enough to cause a momentary rift in their relationships.
"We came all this way and didn't find anything, and I BLAME YOU FOR IT!" would be a wildly stupid thing to have happen. Not to mention after spending so much of the movie talking about the hippogriffs, not finding them at some point would defy all of the lessons about narrative that have been learned over centuries of storytelling. You can't make something the focus of a narrative and have it never be found, not unless you have a hugely special twist in mind.
The movie wasn't PERFECT by any means, but if there's one moment they didn't mess up, it was the rift between Twilight and her friends.
4697886
No I mean, not finding the hippogriffs could be the final straw or something. I dunno, they'd change some things around and it would make sense anyways. I just didn't like the whole underwater part.
And I don't know that I agree even that the rift wasn't screwed up. I still say that them leaving her was really stupid and more out of character than anything directly leading up to it. Twilight even tried to apologize already, like, what the hell was their problem.
But I really just didn't like the writing in general, besides how rushed it was: parts were too simple and parts just felt off. Maybe the different art style strengthens this feeling but I just have a hard time thinking of the movie as a part of MLP, honestly it felt like another team made it without understanding why people like the show, or understanding the characters too well.
4698125
The problem it has is that it was written so long ago. Even my brother who barely watches the show pointed out that the story would've made WAY more sense if it had been told back in Season 3-5, when it was probably written (the movie has been in production for a LONG time after all). Everyone felt more like their past selves than their current incarnations. This is especially evident in Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle. While the things they do aren't necessarily out of character for that time period (Fluttershy WAS this meek and whimpering little thing at one time, and Twilight really was prone to emotional outbursts back in the day when she encountered something that frustrated her or defied her sensibilities), they kind of are today after all of the development they've had over the years. Not to mention that back then their friendship was still relatively new, so this kind of rift opening up would've been more likely than it is TODAY, after 7 seasons and several in-canon years. Basically, the movie is a victim of its own really long production cycle, when it comes to characterization. You kind of have to consider it a period-piece to get it to make total sense, but then they went and threw in modern cameos like Cheese Sandwich, Sassy Saddles, and Starlight Glimmer. Notably, nobody created within the last 3 seasons spoke a word. There's a reason for this. They didn't even acknowledge Flurry Heart, who really should've been a huge part of an Alicorn-gathering story. There's also a reason for this.
As for her friends not forgiving her after she said sorry... well, sometimes sorry simply isn't enough to immediately close an emotional wound, and what she said to Pinkie Pie is probably the worst thing one CAN say to Pinkie Pie.
Also, considering the film was written by Meghan McCarthy, who's been writing for FiM since Season 1... no, that's just not true.
4698364
I know full well it's not true, but that's what it felt like. I would probably agree that the age of the script is at fault, but when I rewatch old seasons they don't feel this way - though maybe it's just because I already know them, or it's really the power of an alternate art style. Who knows.