So I finally got around to watching the MLP movie... · 12:00pm May 21st, 2018
I bought the movie a while back, but never quite got around to watching it. But after I got back from Everfree Northwest, I decided to catch up on some pony. First watched the episodes in the last half of season 7 I hadn't watched yet, which was nice... getting back to back Zecora episodes after meeting Brenda Crichlo (who is awesome and super nice). And with that done, it was movie time.
Spoilers ahead, obviously.
Thoughts:
Mixed feelings on the animation/look. As you are going through Canterlot, it all feels very layered, much more than the show. It makes it feel flatter, less real, despite having a higher quality animation, like it is some Nintendo Wii game (though with higher res). And it doesn't help that the sequence is backed by a recycled pop song, rather than an original number. Hello marketing department. Did you need a song name to slap on the sticker to put on the CD to generate interest? But once you get past that initial fly-in, it gets better. Or at least I stopped noticing it. That initial fly-in, though, is your first impression of the movie, and it would have been nice if it was a better one, not one that makes you think the show's look is overall superior.
The characters overall look quite good. Lots of animations, more detail, and so on. But there's one exception to that, and it's a biggie, because it's the Mane-6. For some reason, they went with rounder faces for them, which might work if they were 10-year olds, but when you're used to them being young adults, running their own businesses, saving Equestria, and so on, it just feels wrong. It did not work for me. Every other character looks great, though, with Tempest in particular standing out.
The new characters ranged from great (Tempest) to alright (Capper, Captain Celaeno, the Storm King) to meh (Princess Skystar, Songbird Serenade).
-Tempest benefits from getting a lot of time and actual attention given to her, but also diving deeper into her motivations and such. Great look as well. Of course, her background is pretty much Starlight's... friendship went badly as a foal, so she became evil to right the wrongs done unto her, or at least make others suffer as much. But hey, it's FIM, and friendship is magic, so need a problem friendship can solve. She is what makes the movie worth watching.
-Capper... well, cat-person... not exactly mythological or hooved, didn't really feel he belongs in MLP (and yeah, I know... Diamond Dogs. But even so, cat people just don't feel like a good fit to me). He also doesn't get that much time, so he comes across as a pretty stock character. Oh, look, it's the rogue who will betray the heroes because reasons but then save 'em, just because he's too poor to get someone to sew up his coat (and apparently not charming enough to con someone into it). And that act of kindness doesn't even really sell it, since Rarity herself says it's the least she could do after he saved them. Overall, seen it before, and seen it done better. Like most of the new characters, he needed more time on screen, more development. And I'd have preferred it if he wasn't a cat. But on the flip side, he does get the best song.
- Celaeno and her crew are fine, but for some reason, they make 'em pirates. And everyone is fine with that. Because pirates are nice guys and popular thanks to one Captain Jack Sparrow. And they do what they want because a pirate be free, so yay! Except of course, they aren't nice. Pirates are thieves. They steal, they plunder, and they kill when people resist. Just look at how many artificial limbs she has among her crew... they've been in some nasty fights. They could have avoided that by making them pirate hunters, keeping all the swashbuckling, providing extra incentive for them to turn, but nope. Pirates are cool and not at all bad, yo, and we have pirate themed toys to sell. Anyway, like Capper, could have benefited from more screen time, but this movie has more new characters to cram in.
- The Storm King is sorta there. He gets about the same development a villain might get a 22 minute episode. And he's part comic relief, part bigger villain. But he provides what the story needs, so no real complaints about him. The humor nicely offsets Tempest's seriousness, much for the same reason she gets a mildly annoying sidekick. And by having a boss above Tempest, you get a different dynamic than we've had with past villains, who have always been that boss. So he's not bad. But he's not great either, because being the awesome antagonist is Tempest's job, and she does it well.
- Princess Skystar is cute, but yeah, that's about it. She comes across like a sort of Pinkie-Pie-light, but without as much development. And I didn't care too much for her people. They just get brushed over pretty rapidly. They're hippogriffs, except now they're not, because they're mer-ponies. They provide a bit of exposition, that serves no real purpose because they don't do anything, other than Princess Skystar sneaking off because among a whole nation of her race, she has no friends.
- Songbird Serenade... she only exists to get a Sia song or two into the movie. It isn't like Zootopia, which managed to work Zakira's character a bit more into the plot, having her stand for something, providing more background to the situation. Nope. She's here to do a concert that gets a delay, then she sings while in a cage, and then she sings at the end. Not a character, just an advertising gimmick.
The Plot:
It's the weakest point of the movie overall, because the goal of the quest is pointless. They have to go to the hippogriffs. We're not told why then, but from what is filled in later, supposedly to get the stone so they can combat the Storm King's minions. Except by watching the movie, that apparently isn't the case. Because they clobber the minions pretty easily without anything really special from the journey. They picked up a cat, a few birds, and a half-bird/half pony. So here's a few things that could have all accomplished the same thing, but much easier:
1) Cloudsdale. Full of pegasi. Much better force than what they picked up. And you can hit Ponyville for some more pony reinforcements, like the Starlight, another pony of almost alicorn levels. Oh, and let's not forget the Crystal Empire, which might just want their ruler back.
2) Ask the griffons for help. Why get some birds and a cat, when you could just get a bunch of cat-birds?
3) Ember. Sure, if dragons help, you'll get some damage to buildings, but it'll be over pretty quickly.
4) Changlings. Who needs a pearl to change into big things to fight critters?
5) All of the above.
There's also the matter of Celestia logic. Why send Luna off to a far off land? Ponies can defeat the baddies, as we saw. And if they just blast Tempest as opposed to letting her throw rocks at them, hey, the Sisters could have easily spanked the rest of the invasion force, and then gone and borrowed the pearl. The pearl which wasn't important. At all. It wasn't even needed to change ponies back in the end.
If you're going to send people off to fetch the magic macguffin, that macguffin has to mean something. Or at the very least, going after the macguffin has to create an instrumental change in the characters that explains why they can now do what they couldn't do before. But in this movie, that doesn't happen. They just make some more more friends, but aren't really any stronger than when they left (no Twi), and far weaker than they could be by taking any of a number of other, obvious actions.
And why aren't they much weaker due to the loss of Twi? It isn't because their new friends are that powerful. It's because Twi is this movie is weaksauce. This isn't the post season-7 Twi. This Twi is at end of season 1. She doesn't trust her friends fully. She's super insecure. She feels she has to do it all herself. And so on. If you don't watch the show, that most likely won't be an issue, but if you do, well, that's a character squeezed into a plot-sized mold, forced to conform to it, rather than creating a situation in which the actual character reacts to the situation to drive the plot.
Overall, I give it about a 5/10. While it added some interesting characters to the world, it needed more effort put into many of them, and the plot needed a lot more work. It's lower quality than season 7 (and I presume 8) of the show. That said, despite the low rating I give it, worth watching for Tempest and some of Ingram's catchy songs. Just leave your brain at the door, don't go in with high expectations, and enjoy the storm.
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Also, Spike totally burned a bunch of henchmen to death. Sure, they didn't show them collapse into piles of ashes, but they also didn't show the usual cartoon "they're okay" jumping into water bit. So I'm pretty sure they're dead. But at the very least, they have third degree burns over large portion of their body, and they're wishing they were dead. Wonder if Spike will have any mental scars with the burninating he did in this movie in season 8. Let me hear you shout it, Spike! "Troooogdoooor!!!!!" ;)
Fair enough. Honestly, my favorite part was the music. Not all of it was perfect, but most. That and edgehorse.
It was one of those movies meant for kids that don't care about actual plot and their parents who don't know all the back story so the movie just goes with the early season versions of the characters so they don't need to know all of the development.
Good enough for me, though. I sang Capper's song three times over the course of EFNW.
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Yeah, the songs were pretty good. Which is part of why I was disappointed by the first song being an 1980's pop song. They've got Ingram, and he could have done something like that but original, as shown by his LPS work.
Yeah, I completely agree with you. The gave us all these new characters and didn't really get enough screentime to know them better. And they made Twilight try to steal the orb thingy (I forgot the shape and name of it on the underwater scene), which was probably my most hated moments of her in the franchise. And the plot, this movie felt rushed, from one place to another.
The worst part? They didn't take Starlight to help them
(This is a joke)still I enjoyed the movie