MLP Movie · 3:59am Oct 16th, 2017
So, I went and saw the movie in a nice, awesome theater. It was fully packed with people I knew and their families and kids and whatnot. A few cool people that I know basically bought out a showing for a big group of friends and their families and extended families. It was a great time, I thought the movie was fun, and overall was a positive experience.
After the image, spoilers for the movie.
So grumpy!
So, let's get real for a second: I walked in with pretty low expectations for the movie. To say I was pleasantly surprised was an understatement. I thought they were going to really dumb things down, or any number of other typical "kids movie" failings. It left me super pleased, overall. The worst part of the movie was the pacing. Things moved super fast, scenes rarely lingered, and the move clipped along to the end without really doing any due diligence to any location or any of the introduced characters. We got a little taste of each new group of characters, with Capper and Princess Skystar getting the most time for themselves due to them being singular characters.
Capper, played by Taye Diggs, was interesting, but overall wasn't all that memorable, with a few lines that were pretty funny. His character design was so good, though, and Taye Diggs did a decent job of voicing him for something that, I believe, was essentially his first VA performance. His singing was EXCELLENT, which was precisely as expected considering his background.
Princess Skystar was cute and bubbly, a great counterpart to Pinkie Pie, and she was excellently voiced by Kristin Chenoweth. Her singing was great. I was so pleased to have her bubbly (really, water puns?) personality go with Pinkie Pie's.
Captain Celaeno was the one character that I was looking forward to seeing the most, by far. Her design is amazing, and she's voiced by Zoe Saldana, who has an awesome voice. Her singing was so, so good. She hits a few notes with this beautiful tremolo in "Time To Be Awesome" that sent chills down my spine. I was so disappointed that she never got a lot of screen time, sharing it with the crew and not really getting to as much development as Capper and Princess Skystar.
Man, speaking of the music: wow. Holy crap. So, so good. I loved pretty much every song. I'm not a massive Sia fan, so her inclusion and song were sort of secondary to everything else. The soundtrack is so excellent. Standout for me was "Time To Be Awesome" and "Open Up Your Eyes". "Time To Be Awesome" appeals to the Austraeoh reader in me. I love Ashleigh Ball, and every time she sings is a good day for the show, and that held up in the movie as well. "Open Up Your Eyes", though. WHEW. Talk about a villain song that belongs with the classics. They knew EXACTLY who they were copying with the style and visuals (If you can't acknowledge "Be Prepared" as basically the quintessential Disney Villain song, you need to re-watch it and remember why it's the best. Jeremy Irons is a powerhouse, Scar is amazing, and that song is the best of its kind.) and they took advantage of Emily Blunt's voice and vocal range. The beautiful orchestration is so excellent, and how it tells the backstory of Tempest is truly perfect. We immediately understand Tempest and her motivation by the end of the song, which really brings the character to a whole new level of "good."
Which brings me to the villains of the movie. Tempest, man. What an incredibly cool main villain—and let's not kid ourselves, she WAS the Main Villain—for the film. She had motivation, style, and was a truly threatening presence. Her sparking horn, the looks that just shoot daggers at anybody that crosses her, and her whole design were so, so great. She's expressive, emotional, and exciting to watch. Total top-tier villain. The Storm King, played by Liev Schreiber, was a good counterpoint/foil to Tempest's SERIOUS VILLAINY. He was a weird, lame, goofy ham that was just sort of unhinged, like a less-cool Discord. He gave us a final boss, but as far as final bosses go, he was totally ineffective. The only reason he exists is so that Tempest can do a heel-face turn at the end and get her redemption... and damn does she earn that redemption. She takes a bullet for Twilight and her friends, literally almost dying in the process (Storm King brings our Big Bad Guy Kill Count up to two for the series, with Sombra being the other.) and bringing a good end to the Storm King's buffoonery.
SO. I'm sure some of you are saying, "Props, let's stop for a second. The plot was sort of a mess. There's plot holes, and the pacing sort of trashes the movie."
Yeah. That's true. The pacing is pretty much atrocious. BUT, I remind you, I went and saw this in a big, crowded theater. I didn't pirate the movie and see it at home. The most important part of the experience I had was the kids in the theater. There were a LOT of kids there. Families brought their kids, of course, and I was worried, because my least favorite part of theater experiences are poorly behaved kids. But you know what happened? The movie got going, and the kids were GLUED. They didn't talk, except in brief bursts of commentary on a particular scene or laughing at funny gags and bits, or even gasping at Tempest being spooky a few times and when Celestia, Cadance, and Luna were captured.
It's so, so easy to forget the show's target audience, when we're here among mostly older people and reading stories that deal with more mature topics and delve into character aspects that we all, as adults, WISH the show would go into. We love these characters, we do them a great service by exploring them through our writing...
At the end of the day, this show has a target audience, and man... there wasn't a kid that walked out of that theater NOT smiling, laughing, and talking about how good the movie was. The pacing, for them, was perfect. The lack of lingering kept them interested, invested, and excited. Each set piece was timed out for them, not us, and it WORKED.
This movie had lots of gifts to the fandom at large. Little bits, jokes, gags, and callbacks. Don't forget, Derpy/Muffins is the pony that saved Equestria by taking a MacGuffin Grenade for Twilight Sparkle. She's our girl, and every time she shows up, it's a wink and a nod to the fandom, and she literally saves Twilight in the movie. I actually gasped when Derpy got frozen! My friend beside me said "Oh no!" really quietly. There's a ton of stuff that's so good and fun about the movie, and so much of it are bits that both the kids and adults can appreciate. Pinkie Pie was probably the BEST WRITTEN she's been in... a while! They took full advantage of Pinkie Pie for the movie and her silly antics keep things light and fun consistently. Andrea Libman was INCREDIBLE. And let's not forget the locations, too, which are basically a big gift-wrapped present to us writers. What a ton of awesome locations and places! What interesting background characters! There's so much to work with, and I'm pretty excited by all of it.
So, that's it. Overall, while I recognize the flaws of the movie, I had so much fun and was so enthused by the whole thing that I didn't really mind some of the stuff. It was a cool experience, and any fan of the show should go and see it.
And Shining Armor and Flurry Heart were completely scrubbed from existence.
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I'm actually pretty glad, it would have been really awful to see anything bad happen to Flurry Heart, or Shining Armor while protecting her.
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So, uh, the Princess of Love... no motherly love, no being in love... she's kinda useless, ain't she?
I swear, every positive blog about the movie has left me feeling more and more depressed. I've been trying to figure out why, and I think I have. The truth of the matter is that I didn't experience the same thing as most other bronies (remember that wording) who saw the movie. What I think I got was, when you really get down to it, an okay kids movie. I thought it was average, but also harmless, and on its own I wouldn't have any bad feelings towards it aside from the usual sense of "meh" that accompanies a movie that I didn't dislike but didn't exactly think was good either. Normally, that's where the story would've ended.
But then the fan responses started pouring in. About 90% of bronies I know love this movie. And... I don't get it. What depresses me is that I don't think I can get it. The fun factor of this movie has not gone over my head so much as gotten buried in the sand so deeply that there's no chance of my finding it. And the thing is, this movie was made for kids and bronies; okay, so I'm not a kid, but I still have at least one kids movie a year that really blows me away, a kids movie I can thoroughly appreciate as a college-age dude. So I'm obviously past that stage. But what about as a brony, as a fan of the show, or at least the best parts of the show? I... didn't find it all that enjoyable. I wish I could've, but I didn't. As a movie, I just don't think it's very good, and given I wouldn't be able to look past all these flaws if it was any other kids movie, I don't see how I should be expected to let them slide this one time. Maybe it's a failing on my part, but I just can't do that.
The funny thing is, finally seeing Blade Runner 2049 this weekend made my bitterness towards this movie even worse, because I just came out of a movie that I found both extremely well-made and emotionally gratifying, but no one's seen it; then there's the MLP movie, which pretty much everyone I know has seen by now, and I feel unable to relate to a lot of these opinions.
Probably gonna end up writing a vent fic or two about this, because this has been really weighing on my chest for the past week or so.
I could really tell that with the Storm King, they were REALLY trying for the whole "Man behind the Dragon" like they did with Palpatine and Darth Vader, but at least with Palpatine, we had a LOT more build up and tension to see how frightening such an old man was.
Even Tirek had FAR more of a presence despite being a "one-shot" villain, because he had the power and presence to back it up.
The Storm King though? Nah....
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I think Cadance in the context of the show is fine, but beyond that she's sort of hard to quantify. At least love and friendship as tangible powers in Equestria are forces to be reckoned with.
Really liked it, but it would have been a much better movie if Applejack and Fluttershy had been in it.
I've watched it three times. Yes, in theaters. And no, my wallet is not happy with me.
To me, the movie had few failings. I can understand why some people might not have found it as enjoyable if their favorite pony was Applejack or Fluttershy, or perhaps Rarity (but every moment with Rarity was gold). But even for me, where my favorite pony is Fluttershy (who had the least screen time) and my least favorite is Pinkie (who was basically the second main character), I absolutely loved the movie. It just wasn't Flutters' or AJ's movie.
Each time I've watched it, some things become more clear. Perhaps the biggest is Twilight's motivation.
She is always looking out for her friends. She's just struggling, like she has for the past few years, to find the middle ground between "friends" and "My Little Ponies".
I'm going to skip my super in depth analysis right now, because I'm feeling bad about writing an essay in your comment section, and I'll skip to my conclusion. (But feel free to ask if you're interested in it...)
Some people thought it was out of character for Twilight to steal the pearl. First, the pearl was a symbol: Twilight thinks SHE (and ponydom in general) is not good enough to win the way she is, so she needs to change into something stronger (which is exactly what she intends to use the pearl to do).
Second, Twilight did not send Pinkie and the others to distract JUST the Hippocampi.
(*pause for dramatic effect*)
She was distracting her friends. Because she intended to leave them there. Trapped in the ocean. Without knowing if she would succeed in defeating the Storm King or not, but at least her friends would be safe. If you think that's a stretch, go listen to what she tells Pinkie before the song:
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Applejack: Pinkie, we just don't have time for—
Twilight Sparkle: Oh, no. No no. Pinkie's right.
Rainbow Dash: Say what now?
Twilight Sparkle: Well, we still need to come up with a plan to get back. A few minutes won't make a huge difference. And if there's anypony who can cram a lifetime of fun into a blink of an eye, it's Pinkie Pie!
Pinkie Pie: [squee]
Twilight Sparkle: So, go ahead and show Skystar the best time ever!
Pinkie Pie: I won't let you down!
Twilight Sparkle: I'm counting on it.
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She isn't counting on Pinkie getting the help of the sea ponies, none of them thought that would happen. Twi's having trust issues after the first person outside of Equestria that they trusted tried to, ya know, sell them into slavery.
She was counting on the fact that by the time Pinkie and the others got back from hanging out with Skystar, she and the Pearl would be long gone. Except she overestimated her thieving abilities, silly filly
Again, apologies for the essay, I swear I tried to trim it down.
I liked it, too. Even though my blog on it was mostly complaining and nitpicking.
In the theater when I saw it, the worst-behaved kids would say "oh no!" at exactly the right time to be adorably hilarious.
That said, there were a lot of kids crying at some point in the film. It was pretty intense.