The Upcoming Pony Movie · 5:15pm Sep 25th, 2017
Well, I've got my ticket:
At least, I assume it's a ticket. I went to IMDB, looked up the Pony movie, put in my ZIP code, and it spat out a list of places within 10 miles that were showing the movie. Employing the magic of Paypal to send them $14.60, I found myself instructed to simply load the e-mail I'd just been sent onto my cell phone, display this to the ticket-takers when I went to the theater, and I'd be able to get right in.
I, of course, have no cell phone.
So I printed out the e-mail along with its pixelated little QR code. Here's hoping that'll work just as well. My motto, after all, has always been: what could possibly go wrong?
I'll be going to see the movie the Thursday night before the official Friday opening. Not a midnight show--I mean, this is My Little Pony we're talking about here. The first show, actually, is at 7:15PM, but I get off work at 6 and didn't want to be in a rush to get to the theater. But they're then showing it again at 10PM, so I'll try to stay awake till then. I can't even remember the last time I saw a movie in a theater. Frozen maybe?
Then I discovered that my Pinkie Pie Paint Splatter t-shirt has somehow acquired a big hole about halfway down on the front left side, so I've had to order another one. Alas, the depredations of entropy...
Mike
Hmm. I'll have to look and see what early showings are available near me. Especially since Estee provided me witha free popcorn coupon.
I thought it didn't premiere until next month. o.O
4678368
Next week, man. It's happening!
I doubt it’s gonna be shown at my rinky-dink local theatre, but I guess I should check anyway...
How would this rule out a midnight showing? Sounds pretty unfair to say that, like you're saying it's inferior because the main characters are ponies.
Got mine yesterday too... similar situation: 10:15 the Thursday before nominal release (did the same for Wonder Woman actually--I'm not sure why that theater gets so many Thursday previews) at whichever convenient theater was showing it. I could have done ~7, but thought that it'd be a bit less infringing-on-actual-kids' space to go with the later time...
In terms of "what could go wrong," I've done your plan before and it's been fine, but it wouldn't hurt to call and make sure it's all right.
4678368
Next week is next month! :P It's already here.
Awwww, if you feel like seeing it a second time, come see it with us at the irvine spectrum! https://www.meetup.com/SoCalBronies/events/214623562/
Ugh, probably going to have to make a pilgrimage to, like, Sacramento to see it. And I've got a SAR training search opening weekend.
Guess I'll have to dodge spoilers for a bit until I figure out how to logistics. <.<
4678386
...I guess that is next month. o.O Crap.
4678300
Mmmm:
Popcorn...
4678313
Mmmm:
Cotton candy pony...
4678443
I was attempting:
To draw humor from the idea that My Little Pony is targeted toward a demographic that shouldn't be staying up till midnight especially on a school night. That's all.
4678426
4678497
4678650
After my first search:
For someplace showing it, I thought I was gonna hafta drive nearly all the way to Disneyland to find a theater showing it. But my boss at the library said she always uses IMDB to find theaters, and that one showed me one a lot closer.
4678386
4678667
October's:
Right around the corner!
Mike
4678667
4679182
Pictured: October.
i.imgur.com/AGvF9h4.png
4678547
Thanks for the offer:
Seems unlikely I'll make it, though, Have a good time!
Mike
4679182
4678497
The belief it's a children's show is really persistent in this fandom.
By the themes that MLP: FiM presents, and the level of darkness and maturity it has, it is actually a family show.* Children shows don't do life-sucking changeling armies, diseases that turn you into a tree and force you to infect your fellows yourself and life lessons for which kids lack the necessary years of living to understand them.
As such, it has a large, adult audience from all spectrums (Read: Parents AND non-parents), which both makes a midnight showing absolutely appropriate (and profitable) and means we don't need to make sure to keep a place in cinema free for the children who want to watch it cause this show is as much meant for us as for them.
* This sentence will be on my gravestone, isn't it?
4679211
Exactly:
That they're even having a 10PM showing of the film on a Thursday makes me think that they understand how wide the fan base is, and I'm glad to see that they do.
As for gravestones, I've got a story about ponies thinking about their epitaphs if you haven't seen it yet...
Mike Again
4679211
Probably 'cause, yannow, it is. The stated goal was to create a children's show that wouldn't make the kids' parents blow their brains out when they had to watch it too.
I mean, Harry Potter is a young adult series that targets children as young as twelve, but opens with a double murder. Kids are perfectly capable of handling "darker" imagery.
4679226
Why do I always get the feeling that folks interpret is as insult to children when you say "MLP: FiM is not a children's show." every time I get a response like this?
I know the stated goal, but I am talking about the end product. The things you see in MLP: FiM, and what I listed are just very few examples, are not things typically aimed at children. Much as your Harry Potter example isn't either.
Initially, a long time ago, things like this were created as adult entertainment. And while children could still watch those things if they could handle them (coming from someone who watched 18+ horror movies as young as 5 and was more excited than scared), no one would have classified them as children's entertainment back in those days.
Fast forward to today, we seem to enter an age where children are entrusted with more mature entertainment (at least, in western regions of the world, Japan was always ahead there), because society finally starts realizing that children can handle a lot more things than what it gives them credit for.
It's too early to say that we live in a day and age where separation into children entertainment and adult entertainment doesn't exist anymore (and it will probably take a lot more time until society is ready to entrust children with even harder stuff), but the lines start to blur these days.
MLP: FiM is one, if not the best, example for this. It is child-friendly, yes (by today's definition of that term), but it contains a lot of stuff that wouldn't have gotten a G rating some decades ago and what once was considered as exclusively adult entertainment, hence why we are even here right now and have this conversation.
This new development here, which is great, does not make the former adult entertainment suddenly children entertainment because society has grown up and trusts children more. There is a preceding history here, which makes such kind of entertainment always of adult nature.
You'll see a lot of people saying that bronies watch a kid's show with MLP: FiM, but it is much more the other way around, it is children who watch an adult show because society has raised the bar what it lets children watch.
However, since the way MLP: FiM is made is really appealing for both ages, keeping it on a level that lets it still qualify as adult entertainment but without scarring the children of today's age, it is neither right to call it an "adult show" nor to call it a "kids show".
MLP: FiM is neither of that, hence why it is a family show equally interesting for all ages and demographics. This is something the staff at DHX sees like this as well, as past statements confirm. Even Hasbro is aware of this, although acknowledges this fact much more subtle by producing very adult-oriented "toys" since last year.
No matter what you call MLP: FiM, be it kids show or adults show, it will always be unfair towards one of these demographics (and, sadly, A LOT of people still think inferior when they hear "kids show", so it's not the smartest thing to call MLP: FiM like that as that hurts its reputation) and an incorrect labeling of it.
The correct term for MLP: FiM is "Family Show", because it has all-ages appeal by its style and production value. Every other label attached to MLP: FiM is a common misconception, into one direction or another.
Now excuse me, I need to order a gravestone where the sentence from my other comment will get written on.....
4679225
Shameless advertising.
I'll read it one day.
And the movie still deserves a midnight showing.
4679225
Seriously, this.
4679270
Midnight showings are probably pretty expensive and aren't exactly the norm for every new release (I think). I'd guess even less so in these cases, where it's almost explicitly excluding the primary demographic, something like girls ~8-12 (who, frankly, are probably not going to show in droves for even a ~10 o'clock showing on a weeknight anyway), and they already had two preview showings earlier in the evening. Unless something really unexpected happens, this isn't going to be the kind of huge blockbuster that justifies keeping theaters open and staff on duty way past normal hours, especially for (I'm guessing in Augie's case, but pretty sure for mine) just one screen, maybe two (out of 13 in my case).
4679269
"For kids" isn't, properly, a value judgement so much as a positive statement about the targeted demographic. As 4679226 says*, there is a big range in content (and quality) in material geared and marketed mainly towards children/YA. The show is made to appeal to all ages, and we even get our nods (and I'd even say the comics series are primarily geared to an older audience than the show), but 1) family/all ages implies many or most of the constraints that children's does and 2) more than anything, the money center for the franchise is toys and merchandise for girls, and the show is in support of that.
*On the content note, forget HP, look at what you get in Disney animated features.
4679308
I thought about bringing that up, but didn't feel like researching the Disney Renaissance's explicit target demo.
4679269
The Hobbit. Children's book. Grownups loved it. So it was a good children's book.
Tl:dw--in good children's literature there is always a tension between the maturity of the subject matter and the immaturity of the target demographic. This started with The Brothers Grimm and has been going on to this day.
The secret to being a good children's author is knowing how to dangle the car keys juuuuust out of reach.
4682158
I heard about this, too. And it just really makes me wondering about what compels people to label such things as children stories, when they are obviously universal, even more.
Though, actually, I blame the cynicism of the society we live in for this. Everything that isn't about the hard reality, but rather fantasy, is deemed as something that isn't normal for adults to get engaged with.
One would think this belief has vanished today, what with all the adult nerds and such, but with how often things that aren't explicitly children entertainment get labelled as such anyway, this shows that society still doesn't really expect adults to get caught up in anything than their job, their family, business, their taxes and boring, every day small talk.
A lot of people need to work on their definitions. There is a very big problem in the fact that people just don't understand what family entertainment, or, all-ages entertainment is.
I'll probably be asleep by the time you're done--I'm guessing you basically just started previews--so I'll ask now, since I just got home from mine: how'd you like it?
4679270
There were literally 7 people in my 10:15 showing. This does nothing to make me question my belief that a midnight showing would have been a bad idea.
4688586
A midnight showing of a great movie is never a bad idea. And the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Movie isn't any less worthy than all the widely popular and well-known blockbusters, so it deserves one as well. People need to get the crazy ideas out of their heads that it's less-deserving or less good than "Blade Runner" or "IT" or whatever else runs over cinema screens these days, especially if they think that because the characters are ponies.
And my latest screening here in Austria is 10:50 PM tomorrow and on Saturday, which is pretty close to a midnight screening already.
Also, if anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet is interested, I wrote a spoiler-free "First Impressions" blog entry here:
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/765108/my-little-pony-the-movie-first-impressions