The movie intro we got was the better one · 12:08am Nov 18th, 2018
Okay, okay, hear me out. First, we start with the recent post on EQD showing us the musical intro and opening that was originally slated for the movie:
Now, I listened to this, and my reaction was basically "THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS."
(Okay, it was actually considerably more "HOLY SHIT TEMPEST" <.< Was that pre-intro on the original movie? It wasn't, right? It's been a while, and I don't recall at all.)
The song featured in this video, while maybe a little weak for the show's output, is far more fitting than the ponified "We Got the Beat" that actually aired with the movie. It's about Equestria, it's sung by a choir, it's a nice introduction to the setting for someone unfamiliar with it, which seems to be a lot of people who saw it and actually got into the show afterward. I appreciate those people a lot.
But I was thinking about it today, and I realized that this newer, supposedly better introduction would actually have been the wrong choice to put on the movie. I mean, I don't know what the decision was to use what we got instead of what we could have gotten, but as I said in my movie review post:
The target audience doesn't know that song! Hell, there's a lot of people who lived through the 80's and don't remember the Go-Go's! You've got a movie with contemporary pop stars in it. They didn't call up Madonna, or Belinda Goddamn Carlysle, or even fucking Britney Spears, and yet they start everything off with a song from three decades ago. Why? I don't even think they have crossover with the "played it on Rock Band" crowd. It's so cringey, I hate it, and it screams to me "we do not know what the hell we're doing". So in that regard, it kind of sets the tone.
That last line is key. I thought back to seeing the movie for the first time and hearing the Pony Go-Go's come on, and just feeling horrendously uncomfortable. Sure, it wasn't pleasant to sit through, as the other intro doubtless would have been (that first shot with the pegasi flying is fantastic, let's be honest), but that's the whole point.
"We Got the Beat", for someone who recognizes it -- or me, at least -- sets the tone for the movie. It puts the viewer on edge, lets them know that they're in for a ride that's going to be filled with more disappointments than not. If we had gotten the safer intro, we would have maybe felt like, yeah, this movie's gonna be all right, if not awesome! And then there would have been more room for disappointment. And while I didn't like the movie, I sure as hell didn't emerge from it frothing with rage. I feel like I might have, had the other intro set my sight too high.
Of course, if you liked the movie, well, none of this likely applies. :B Sorry for wasting your time.
nope. I liked the intro they used more.
Aside from this being a double intro it also didn't set the right tone for the start of a pony movie.
The intro should show you the world. Not tell you the story.
FFS have people become so desperate for opening naration that they're upset when they don't get it?
Who cares if it's a gogo's remix (that tidbit didn't click for me until my second viewing I just felt that it sounded familiar) it's happy, cheerful and sets the world as we know it. not as we'll see it.
You know an introduction not a briefing.
I went back and re-watched the original movie intro. I remember I laughed when I saw it the first time, and it was a good laugh because I *am* from that age, and it put me into the 80's mood pretty good. My big problem with the movie is similar to the Last Jedi issues. Each scene is dramatic and pretty, BUT they don't tie together in a logical order. Last Jedi needed turned into two different movies. Pony needed (in my opinion) nudging. Admittedly *expensive* nudging since it would have involved more ToonBoom puppets, but having all of the primary Equestrian races involved in the big faceoff would have flowed into more merchandising. Starlight bringing the reformed changelings, Shining Armor bringing the crystal ponies and the Yaks, Gilda bringing the griffons, etc...
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I quite agree with you! I saw the other introduction on the outtakes when I purchased the movie for my collection. While it did set a tone, I think, like you, that the chosen introduction showed the Equestria and served the purpose of showing us not only the setting but how we should view it.
I don’t recall tempest blowing things up, but she does it so often; hell, the Tempest shirt I’m wearing right now is liable to cause property damage if I’m not careful. But the song... original yet... I dunno. It felt incomplete or something.
But yeah, first thing I said in the theatres was “We Got the Beat? Really?”
Something that occurred to me just now: The Go-Go's were almost unknown here in the UK in the 1980s. They never had a top 50 album or a top 20 single, and "We Got the Beat" didn't even chart. So even though I remember the 80s, the song had precisely zilch nostalgic value for me. I wonder whether that's part of why I disliked it from the first time I saw the film, even before I knew Daniel Ingram had originally written music for that section.
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Yeah, the Go-Go's never were really on my radar, either. For all that I adore the 80's (and lived through them), I didn't pay too much attention to them at the time anyway. I've always felt "We Got the Beat" is a really cut-rate 80's pop song anyway, and very little they've done has ever really appealed to me. So that's just a few more reasons I didn't like the real intro. :V
Less than the sum of it's parts is probably the most succinct criticism of the movie. I still enjoyed it for what it was.
But I still can't help smiling when the first dialogue has like 5 puns in 20 seconds :)
I get the connection of 'We got the Beat' with Gen 1, but still, the song was out of place for the movie.
The original posted here is a bit more...meh.
You get the feeling the people who made the movie had no idea how to give it a good start.
How depressing...
I'd held on to the hope that this attempt at reaching mainstream audiences would be the one thing that I could use to show my friends why I liked MLP so much. But then I saw the reviews...
Well, there goes my best chance at infecting them with ponies.
Small mercies, I guess.
Ever seen How to Train Your Dragon? I feel like its intro is the gold standard for animated movies. I remember listening to the deep hum of those instruments right at the beginning and thinking, "Oh wow, this is going to be something special."
I would've been absolutely furious if the rest of it turned out like most of Dreamworks' trashy CGI movies.
So, in summary, it doesn't matter wgat intro we got because you wouldn't have like it either way?
Personally I really like both of them. I've never heard of the Go-Gos, but the song was still a fun start to the movie. The alternate song was also nice, though I think them repeating "Equestria" all the time was a little much.
Honestly, keep the Go-Go song that aired but append the Tempest thing to the beginning and that would have made the intro fantastic, imo.
Unpopular opinion: I didn't hate the movie.
I don't remember how I felt regarding the musical choice for the intro -- I have to imagine it was at least some degree of disappointment or discomfort with a cover, but frankly it wasn't one of the things that really made a lasting impression.
Semi OT but the intro part where it says "one for family" kinda irked me. Cadence has always been presented as romantic love, so this is either an out of nowhere change that they didn't even do anything with or an endorsement of incest.
Also: can we talk about how often Twilight lacks a well thought out plan, including in this movie? :V
<stickfigure> <texttospeech> PP, what the hey. </texttospeech> </stickfigure>
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I SEE YOU THERE
Snarklin' up muh jurnl >:B
One of the few things the movie got really right was the first few notes of music in its opening. I agree, the opening song was terrible - I had no idea it was a cover until you just mentioned it. Rewatching it now, what a dire choice. But the bit before that, with the Lionsgate and Allspark logos, that was the highlight for me. Probably of the whole movie.
The first few notes, on horns, are the melody from the Hearth's Warming Carol. You know, "The fire of friendship lives in our hearts..."
That was the indicator for me that maybe, just maybe, the people making the movie weren't going to ruin everything. I can't think of another movie where the opening logos have held that much emotional clout for me. The opening logos from A Beautiful Mind, I suppose, because wow that music, but it's not exactly the same.
Unfortunately the opening logos were the only really emotional moment for me. Not much good to say about the rest of it, other than Tempest's song was awesome and we could always use more zeppelin invasions.
And wow that Ponies Got The Beat song is bad. I'd forgotten, completely - blanked it out, it's probably better to say - until rewatching it just now.
What makes it really sad is that MLP already did the opening titles for a movie adaptation of the series absolutely perfectly.
Really, forget everything that came after, and remember what EG was up to that point, and what it had the potential to be. There isn't a single thing about those titles I'd change - the way the recognisable theme is pulled back in tempo as it draws to a close, then the stuttering synth effect just before the drums kick in. The kaleidoscope of cutie marks, then Rainbow in the clouds and Fluttershy mouthing a 'yay!' And then the whirlpool effect as we're sucked from the familiar into a new world where it's reinvented - obviously for the 2017 movie that's where you'd open on wonderful cinematic Equestria.
Actually, I should add that sitting in front of a cinema screen from wall to wall, soaring through the gates of Canterlot, was a wonderful moment.
And, the Tempest pre-title sequence was great, but I don't know if the other princesses actually needed introducing, when they're killed off so early in the movie. And MLP has done pre-titles movie sequences better than that before, too.
I should also point out that MLP has done original opening songs before that have been amazing. This title sequence is probably responsible for me still being in this fandom.
The movie was a disaster from start to finish in every way except Tempest. It's best forgotten.
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Yeah, that was actually really fuckin' good. Magical, even.
I haven't seen EQG in a while, and I realize now how much that intro theme sounds like Alex S. <.<
I mean I still liked the movie. Despite its flaws. But yeah, We Got the Beat really irked me.