RedSquirrel456 vs. The Forces of MLP: The Movie: Part 2: The Re-Imagining: The Adaptation: Generation Five · 12:58am Oct 17th, 2017
Okay.
So.
Final score: You should have seen Blade Runner 2049 instead. No, seriously. That movie deserved to have been a true success.
Rest of the review below the break.
They just jumped from the pirate ship right? Leaving everyone to the predations of Tempest, who is most likely going to hurt them horribly if not outright kill them. And not one of the mane six worries about the people they left behind. Barely a word, certainly not a care. Why were the pirates in the movie again? I mean, can anyone actually answer that for me? I am genuinely curious.
Also, were they trying to make Twilight’s friends totally useless? I mean, Fluttershy AND Rainbow don’t use their wings as they’re falling? Nopony is told to help build the balloon? Twilight just pulls it all together by herself? It’s like they’re saying she should have gone on this journey on her own in the first place.
So the ponies drop in unannounced to Mount Air/Aer/Eri/es. While there they meet a ball of singing light, which only serves to hide the identity of Skystar for a little while longer. I don’t know why. More dramatic, I guess? Since they have to have a scene where they almost drown when a flower unplugs the ocean. On the way down, Rarity exclaims, “I HATE epic adventures!” which ranks right up there with “IS THAT A UNICORN?” for most pointless line in the movie. You might as well stamp a watermark over the scene that says ‘specifically created for use in trailers.’
Then they almost drown when they get sucked underwater.
There’s no reason to post this. I just think it’s one of the silliest faces in the movie.
But! They are found by Princess Skystar, who takes the cake for most adorable but still pointless character.
“Mother, don’t be alarmed, but we’re in the MLP movie!” “Don’t get excited, sweetie. This scene contains our only actual lines.”
Princess Skystar is probably the most fun character in the film, because her voice actor puts in work to make her sound appropriately eccentric for a kid who grew up in one little cave her entire life. But it’s still a missed opportunity because:
- They don’t sing Shoo Bee Doo.
- Capper doesn’t go with them and become a catfish.
- They don’t sing Shoo Bee doo.
- The fact that they’re hippogriffs has no bearing on the story whatsoever.
- The entire quest is pointless because they don’t even help take down the Storm King.
- THEY DON’T SING SHOO BEE FLIPPING DOO
This is easily where the entire movie starts to fall apart, and not just because of the lack of internal logic above.
So the queen of the Hippogriffs reveals she has a magic pearl that transformed them into seaponies, and Twilight wants it. The queen says “Nuh uh.” Twilight insists. Queen says “You’re grounded forever.” Skystar is happy because she has friends… forever.
Oh yeah, Spike is still in the movie. I actually forgot he was there until this scene.
They all get turned into fish for like… hold on, really? Let me check.
Seven minutes. Yes, you read that right. Starting from the moment they are turned into seaponies, the entire sea adventure is seven minutes.
This entire seapony sequence amounts to nothing. No exploring jaw-dropping sea caves, no encounters with awesome leviathans of the deep. Not a single shot of them soaring through the water over an exotic coral reef or exploring sunken ships for clues on how to beat the Storm King. They have the entire world’s oceans as their playground, and instead of submerging us, the movie makers decided we’d just dip our hooves in. For all the build-up, we get nothing.
Just… nothing.
EXCEPT ANOTHER SONG!
We’re taking up three of the seven minutes of our sea adventure with this so kids can wiggle around in the aisles at the movie theater!
So up till now, everything’s been, well, kinda level-headed? We haven’t seen much actually happen, for all that’s happened. Not a whole lot of forward thrust as far as characters are concerned. But suddenly things go into overdrive. When Queen Novo says the ponies have to stay with them forever and her friends decide to do what they do best and make friends, Twilight decides to screw over the entire seapony kingdom by having her friends distract Skystar while she steals the Great Pearl that transformed the hippogriffs and has the power to (maybe) defeat the Storm King. That’s right. When faced with an adult telling her “no”... Twilight emotionally manipulates her friends to emotionally manipulate a lonely girl with full intent to stab an entire species in the back.
Mua ha ha! You fools thought I was a fleshed-out character? Neigh, I am the Third Act Crisis personified! I am contrived and pointless conflict made flesh! Look on me and despair!
And you know what? She doesn’t even manage it. She fails. She fails at stealing the Pearl after going to all that trouble.
Uh, hold on. Remember Klugetown? Remember how that established she has telekinetic powers?
So uh.
Man, if only I had something like a magic spell to help me steal stuff! And if only I had a horn to cast that spell!
Why did she stick her face in the fucking alarm system? Why not just grab the Pearl with her magic the second everyone’s back was turned? No. Seriously. Show me how the movie shows us that’s impossible. It must be information provided by the movie. You cannot use headcanon. You cannot use “maybes.”
Hint: You can’t. But that’s not important. What’s important is that she gets caught so there can be a crisis.
And then… oh yeah, you thought I was done? When they get back to shore, they have their little hissy fits and point hooves. There are… so many stupid lines. Just… so many. I almost need another blog post to go over them all, but most of my answers to them require knowledge of the show, and I promised to try and do without that. So… here we go.
“It’s all on me. I’m the one Tempest wants. I’m the last Princess.”
“It was the only way to save Equestria.”
“Maybe I would’ve been better off without friends like you!”
Princess of Friendship, right? So if you’re the Princess of Friendship, why are you such a fucking failure at being friendly and believing you have friends? No, seriously, why? This is a question for readers. Explain to me how the movie actually gets across “this is why Twilight is the Princess of Friendship, this is what it means, and this is why she gives up on it so easily literally within fifteen minutes of the movie starting.”
There is no chain of continuity here. Twilight isn’t the Princess of Friendship. Right from the get-go, she has believed “I’m the only one who can do it!” And.. well, the movie actually proves her right on many counts. Rainbow and Pinkie fuck up beyond logical comprehension, getting them found by their enemies more than once. Her other friends are beyond useless, having contributed exactly zero useful skills or moments of drama to make them less pointless in the film. Twilight is the only one who actually does anything useful on the journey. Until this scene that is.
But by the same token, Twilight is equally useless. When her friends are clearly making mistakes, Twilight does absolutely nothing to correct them beyond a roll of her eyes, or her anger is played off as a joke. She did not push the issue about trusting Capper. She did not stop Rainbow from doing her Rainboom. She did not help anyone actually disguise themselves in Klugetown in spite of telling them to do so. She tried to steal the Pearl in the most ugly, malicious way possible, and then failed because she can’t come up with a plan to grab it? Twilight only gets to be competent because her friends are so incompetent!
If these are her friends, why doesn’t she understand them better? Why doesn’t she work with them? Why aren’t we given moments where they succeed together to juxtapose the moments they fail together?
Why is the entire movie only about Twilight and why does it fail to make her compelling?
The movie does its best to portray Twilight as the only useful member of the team… and then berates her when she tries to ditch her stupid friends… when she does an equally useless and stupid thing… but this time, friendship really was the right way and Twilight is wrong. All those other times, it wasn’t, and Twilight was right.
Basically, everyone is wrong and stupid all the time. Also, we never actually learned anything about the Pearl or why they might have needed it at all, so. Good job, movie! You had a McGuffin you didn’t even have on-screen for more than a minute.
Oh, don’t worry, they thought of that. The Pearl is never mentioned again and neither are the hippogriffs. Isn’t it great when the writers just give up because they know they’re out of time to develop what few ideas they had?
So yeah, Twilight is kidnapped. Boy, didn’t see that coming.
And then we get to hear Emily Blunt sing about how she wants to destroy the world because she was mauled by a goddamn bear.
Because we’ve all heard about how a prepubescent child can survive getting swatted in the face by a star bear. Also, wasn’t the Ursa Minor in the show a lot bigger than—oh yeah, the show doesn’t fucking exist here.
Okay, you know how some have made it a meme that Tempest is Starlight Glimmer 2.0? They’re half-right. Being mauled by a goddamn bear is slightly more believable as a source of trauma than “my friend moved away in elementary school.” But… you know? This song isn’t that great either. The background music is good. Emily Blunt puts in about as much effort as Tim Curry when he played an evil penguin or an evil smoke monster. That’s about it. We see Tempest being abandoned for sparky magic, which we can only assume her parents also abandoned her for. It could’ve been a good metaphor for kids shunning other kids with disabilities, but it wasn’t. Just more angst-fuel for Top Edge over here.
OKAY TEMPEST I GET IT YOUR EYES ARE OPEN GODDAMN WOMAN CALM DOWN
So, my problems with this song are many-fold. It’s a villain song, yeah. But… it doesn’t make any sense. Why is Tempest singing to Twilight at all? Why is she trying to get her to believe friendship is stupid? Because friendship is actually stupid—we established before that Twilight either does the whole quest on her own, or her friends actively impede her.But friendship is not stupid, or at least it’s equally worthless as Tempest’s position—we saw in the very scene just before this one that Twilight tried to do something totally on her own, but this time she failed.
But all the other times she was doing things on her own and succeeding.
And, and… here’s the biggest inconsistency: Tempest says “I can’t rely on anyone, so I will rely on the Storm King, who is also only looking out for number one and taking over the world purely for his own benefit.” Which makes him… more reliable? More honest, maybe. But then why is she surprised by his sudden but inevitable betrayal?
Sigh. This whole song just runs in circles. What is the point? Tempest feels like baring her soul to some stupid princess she’s about to destroy anyway? Does she think Twilight’s going to join her side once Tempest drains her of magic and makes her even more useless than she already was? Does Tempest just feel like being an asshole? Or is all of this just the most awful of evil minion motivations, a cry for attention from a broken soul who’s done bad things but is actually a gentle butterfly inside?
(Spoiler: It’s that last one. It’s definitely the last one.)
We cut back to Twilight’s friends who are starting to think that maybe they should stand up and be part of the actual movie.
Oh yeah and these guys show up to help get Twilight back.
Don’t think about how they got here from an exploding airship miles in the sky. There is literally no possible answer that could even remotely make sense given the information the movie gives us.
And ALSO Princess Skystar! Who turns into a hippogriff without the help of the Pearl so that means the entire movie was just rendered absolutely pointless! Hooray!!! But oh man, I can’t believe we finally get to see what the hippogriffs look liiiiaaaAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH
Look! I can be two toys with only half the effort!
No. No. Seriously. If hippogriffs can change from seaponies to hippos at will without the Pearl, what was so important about it? Nobody answers this question in the movie. At all. It’s probably the most glaring plot hole I can think of. Because surprise surprise, it’s friendship that takes the day, not magical power. So why the fuck didn’t they just get a bunch of friends from Equestria because we have seven fucking seasons’ worth of friends to choose from?!
Here’s a hint, movie. McGuffins aren’t clever. They’re a lazy fallback when you can’t be bothered to expand the setting, or your ideas, and the movie is just an hour and a half exciting distraction.
Who cares! Movie almost over.
So yeah, they all show up to stop the Storm King, who now controls the weather because of the magic he took from the alicorns. Then he betrays Tempest. Wow. Who would’ve thought. And also Twilight keeps Tempest from flying off into the tempest (HA HA HA HA) the Storm King summoned with all his brand new magic. Also, how did Twilight’s friends get back to Canterlot so fast? They have no airship.
Yeah. Her friends go from the edge of ass-end nowhere to the heart of Equestria mere seconds behind Tempest’s flying, jet-powered airship.
I can’t even make jokes anymore. This isn’t funny, it’s just stupid. I’ll let the Storm King do the talking instead.
Pictured: the movie’s writing staff when they hit the climax of the film.
So what does it all actually come down to? What is the great moment of friendship that really sells the bond Twilight and her friends? What is their time to shine?
They form a pony chain to grab the staff before the Storm King does.
That’s it.
That’s what an hour and twenty minutes has been building up to.
That’s why friendship is important.
So they can form a conga line.
Nobody uses their special talents.
Nobody shows off how they are unique and useful.
Nobody does anything friendly with Twilight.
They just hold on to each other’s hooves.
Ha ha ha! Go fuck yourself, Tempest! I bet you wish you were the length of six ponies and a baby dragon and had twenty-eight extra hooves now! Can’t do THIS without friendship, can you bitch? That bear would’ve been nothing against a pony centipede!
So then we have the typical death fake-out when Twilight flies out a window. We don’t see the final confrontation with the Storm King, nor how Twilight actually calms the storm, which could’ve been a proper Biblical moment but they frittered it away like so much else.
Oh but the Storm King had a death fake-out too, just so Tempest could also have a death fake-out.
But then Storm King actually dies for real when he gets turned to stone and falls down and breaks, so there’s that. I guess.
Then Tempest is like “Hey, you know, my last job didn’t work out so well. I’m gonna be unemployed for a while and might need a couch to crash on, maybe just a few months until I get back on my hooves?” And the ponies are like “Sure whatever” and then Tempest became hardcore pornography/self-insert romance fodder for all the bronies forever, which is the real reason why they made the entire movie.
“It’s free real estate.”
THE END.
---
So yeah. This entire movie. It was a disappointment, let me tell you. It didn’t feel like the culmination of anything. It didn’t feel like the entire show had been leading up to it. It tried to reference the show without actually making use of any of it. It tried to give us lessons that were half-baked recyclables from countless other kid’s movies. It had zero internal logic, no real driving force behind any of the characters, no impetus that would bring in an outside audience not already familiar with the show. It was not the high point, or even the lowest point of pony writing. It was just there. It existed. It was made because the show was really popular, so of course they were going to make a movie. Just one more plodding, boring, shabby excuse to get more money.
And yet for all that, I don’t think this movie actually acknowledged its own roots. It made absolutely no use of the phenomenon that spawned it apart from showing off various background ponies bronies can point at and go “Yeah! They put that in the movie because of ME!” This movie existed not because it needed to exist, but because Hasbro just decided some time in the middle of season 5 “Hey. We should like, make a movie or something? Kids still go see movies, right? Will we make more if we put it out in theaters or Netflix? Cinema? Okay, since that still exists go ahead.”
But lots of kids went to see it, so it made money. But you know what else made lots of money? Shit. Shit makes money at the theaters. Making money is absolutely no indicator of quality. It’s sad the only reasons I see people saying this movie is good have almost nothing to do with the movie itself. “It was fun for a little bit,” “Emily Blunt’s voice is good,” “It made a lot of money.”
And even now… well, have you seen it make a particularly big splash? Did the fandom think “Yeah, we can go out on this. This was a good milestone for My Little Pony. I’m going to flood FIMfic with all the clop of Tempest I can possibly find.” Cuz I certainly haven’t. Hype levels were about the same as a particularly anticipated regular episode of the show.
It just… feels like nobody on the team believed in this movie. They just made it because they were told to. Because it had all the elements that will get kids to drag parents to the theaters and they can make that sweet, sweet dosh. Pushing buttons to get pre-determined, market-calculated reactions from an audience they know they can poke for more money.
Doesn’t it feel great when your fandom is based around something about as culturally relevant and creatively innovative as Trolls or Sing?
Yeah… yeah.
After I saw this movie. I had to detox by watching The Lost Village for a third time.
I wasn't sure what to think when going into this review. I haven't seen the movie, and part of me wanted to try and like it, because literally everyone else who had seen it liked it and it might help me to try and get out of a cynical mindset every once in a while. On the other hand, most of the praise was fairly nondescript, and i was still apprehensive about whether or not i wanted to see the movie because the stuff that had been teased or described sounded kind of like warning flags (e.x. "it's got as many songs as a disney movie," "the visual direction is really inspired in the new locations," "perfect for kids.")
But after reading through this breakdown...hoo boy. That basically confirmed all my worst fears, and then some. I was half-expecting characters to act self-destructively stupid, but when it happens in literally every scene in the movie? i was expecting things to not be plot-heavy, but when there are three location changes just for the sake of changing locations? And a fucking fart joke - in the god damned MLP franchise, no less?
Even on the rare occasions when i actually find it funny,I put toilet comedy about as low as it's possible to put comedy, and I'm honestly kind of embarrassed by association that it comes up at all.I think the worst part is that, if i saw it, about the only way my reaction might differ from yours would be in regards to twilight. I mean, maybe she really is as much of an asshole as you've made her out to be, i won't doubt that - but from the way literally all of her friends allegedly behave, I kind of want to pre-emptively take her side in being sick of everyone else's shit. Or maybe that pre-emptively puts me on tempest's side? whatever.
Shame that it sounds like my suspicions were confirmed. Probably for the best if i don't see it at all - not that i'd feel like i had wasted time/money, but I probably don't need it taking up head-space if it actively causes me to dislike the canon characters without offering anything in return.
In any case, thanks for taking the time and effort to type all this out.
Honestly, the movie has more plot holes than the number of holes in Chrysalis's legs.
But seriously, thank you for taking the time to write this review and explain the many things that also bothered me about the movie. There were more bothersome things about the movie that weren't covered in the review, namely the dark and edgy moments where the entire supporting cast from the show is abused and enslaved (which legitimately angered me for some reason) and how it felt like Twilight was the only one who took anything seriously, which made it seem like the Mane 5 couldn't give two shits about the ponies they've met, helped, or learned from in the show. The tonal shifts are jarring, it ignores seven seasons of character development yet doesn't show enough to get potentially new audiences up to speed, the final battle is disappointing and comes off as especially flawed given the characters Tempest and company easily defeated, and it feels nothing like the show I came to love.
However, I enjoyed parts of the animation and background, and I admittedly liked Sia's song at the end, so I guess that's worth something.
I guess the movie just wasn't for me, and it's not like I'm bitter about the show's current direction. Season 7 is my favorite in the series, Starlight Glimmer is honestly my favorite character, and unpopular characters such as the Wonderbolts, divisive episodes such as Celestial Advice, and more are guilty pleasures of mine. Nevertheless, I couldn't get behind Tempest as a character, and the other new characters weren't much better. For those who enjoyed the movie, I'm glad those people enjoyed it, but your blog posts and other details that were impossible to ignore explain why I disliked the movie.
And sorry if my presence is coming out of nowhere. I found this blog post after following a link, and it was an admirable effort at explaining the movie's myriad of flaws.
To be fair, they aren't seaponies. I mean, if you're gonna have unrealistic expectations (I was up to my tits in seapony excitement prior to the movie, and I had zero expectation for shoo-be-doo-ing), at least put the blame on the actual seaponies, i.e., Twilight and co. for seven minutes. :B
YOU SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH D:
I'm just salty there's zero refutation to anything you have said. :B
You can't prove this. c.c;
Well'p. :B I think you said it all better than anyone else combined.
4700030
I'm glad that i was able to track down Sia's song elsewhere. It's pretty good, though i could be biased - i can't think of a Sia single that came out recently that I haven't loved, and even if it isn't Chandelier it's still gorgeous.
4700048
Yeah, I've heard some of Sia's other songs and enjoyed them. I should listen to a few more of them when I have the time.
Oh, and concerning Twilight in your earlier post:
That's not an unusual stance to take in my opinion. Even though Queen Novo was seconds away from changing her viewpoint, I honestly can't blame Twilight too much for snapping and going through any measures possible to save her home. As I mentioned in my own post, it feels like she's the only one who cares about the fact that other ponies are suffering, but that's just what it seemed like to me.
4699982
Yeah, the Smurfs at least has the excuse of having no real canon to destroy... or at least a huge fanbase to piss off no matter how crazy their movies get. Guilt-free enjoyment.
4700028
4700030
Yeah, I mean... it's not the worst kid movie ever made. But it's nothing good, either. I'm mostly just glad I didn't spend money on it. Even a couple hours after finishing this review I can hardly remember the movie itself. Anyone can enjoy a movie, even this one. I'm not saying they can't. I'm saying we should at least be honest about the quality of the things we enjoy. I "enjoy" watching movies like this in the sense I enjoy something like Revenge of the Sith. You get me? Although at least that movie had more moments to make memes out of.
As for Sia's Rainbow,... I liked it. At least it wasn't goddamn annoying like a lot of pop songs chosen for kid's movies. It just... that whole end sequence with it, seen in isolation, gives the idea some sweeping, almost melancholy journey has just been completed, and the ponies are having a moment of rest and contemplation. The song feels like it's for a much grander moment. And, well. The movie certainly wasn't that.
4700033
I should take these reviews to Youtube. I could become the next Manchild Inc. and have a similar psychotic breakdown.
4700055
It's not as if i'm enthralled with "edgy antiheroes that do what has to be done," which is what i'm sure some people will take away from that comment. But it really gets under my skin when it's established that there's a huge problem, there's a lot of innocent lives at stake - and then (almost) nobody who's supposed to be fixing the problem takes it at all seriously. It's like being flipped off by the scriptwriters for having the audacity to give a shit about the plot, because clearly nobody else is.
Also, it sort of sounds like that the Seaponies were basically holding Twilight & Co. hostage until abruptly deciding to kick them out? "You can't ever leave here, we demand it - wait, you did this thing, actually you should totally go away now bye." is sort of what it sounds like. In which case, wouldn't grossly disobeying their laws in the hope of getting exiled be the right thing to do in that situation? Assuming capital punishment's off the table, of course - but I guess singing a song is all it takes to get out of a death sentence, according to the pirate's (and slumlord's, and hippocampi's) code. Ich.
4700072
I will forever maintain that Anakin killing the younglings has the setup and punchline of someone telling a joke, and that laughing in the middle of the movie theater wasn't an inappropriate reaction.
4700077
That's exactly what it was. I mean, notwithstanding the fact that they now know where the seaponies are, and could have potentially revealed their location to Storm King, which the seaponies should have considered, but the movie clearly didn't appreciate its own scope so that wasn't relevant.
4700072
I will forever be thankful that r/PrequelMemes exists. As for the MLP movie, you make an excellent point when it comes to quality and enjoyment. And yeah, I don't remember some of the smaller details except for the dark and edgy themes that rubbed me the wrong way.
4700077
This. The moment it went from Pinkie Pie cracking jokes about hippos immediately to established characters (in this case Lyra and Blaze) in chains and suffering beyond what they've gone through in the show pretty much told me right away that I'd strongly dislike the movie's abrupt shifts in tone and the Mane 5's characterization, which is pretty much what happened. Later discovering that the aforementioned Blaze literally broke her wing, the severed unicorn horns in Klugetown, Ponyville being set on fire in the background, and other edgy moments hadn't helped at all. Listing them all without context makes it seem like a fanfic, and I don't say that as a compliment.
4700088
So should i take out of this that Queen Nova's a psychopathic asshole whose subjects probably live in fear of her "loving hospitality," since most of them are probably refugees captured and held hostage from elsewhere, and that she basically has no moral empathy for anyone (except possibly her daughter?) At the very least, it seems like she's easily as dangerous as any of the rest of Twilight & Co's "new friends," and that the M6 are lucky to have escaped with their lives.
...I can't wait until someone writes quality fanfic about this interpretation.
Does it ever say she doesn't use the pearl? Also, myself and many others loved the tempest song. Other than that, your criticisms are dead on. The pirates are the worst disappointment. They had great build up but in their usage they had no distinguishing role that any background pony wouldn't have.
It really needed another 15 minutes for capper and the pirates to defeat tempest in a penultimate conflict, tempest rejecting their friendship and fleeing, then sneak in and fail at beating the storm king, who tempest then turns on.
On the plus side, it was very very funny.
4700210
Knowing what not to do is extremely important. But then comes the doing what you should do part. I'm still not all that great at it.
4700072
Youtubers do love frothing rage. :B
But you're so calm and adorable in your game vids, I can hardly see you doing it. D:
4700072
Pretty much describes my basic issue with the movie. All the feelings that song captured for me (and I did like the song) drew from my time with the show, not anything in the movie. That's the whole film in a nutshell for me.
Well aren't you just a bright ray of sunshine? Seriously though, your overwhelming negativity made that a bit hard for me to read.
I liked this movie, even though I do agree with many of your points. I enjoyed watching it, and I remember it quite fondly, even though you've pointed out some valid flaws.
There are a few things I disagree with though. I'm going to go by memory of what I read, since otherwise I'm afraid I'll try to go over every little point, and you wrote a ton.
First, the situation Twilight and co. are in is pretty different from how they normally are. Equestria has already been defeated, and they have to travel outside of it to find their solution. They're under a lot of stress for most of the movie, and while they do a lot of stupid and impulsive stuff, that's the sort of thing you do in that kind of situation.
Also, what the heck did you want to see? Twilight and co. making all the right decisions in situations they're not familiar with? That'd be a bigger stretch than what we actually saw. And a lot less interesting too, IMO.
Second, when Skystar transformed into a hippogriff, I actually thought that she had used the Orb, then surfaced as she was transforming. Transforming on her own never even crossed my mind until you brought it up. I find it rather interesting that you came to the conclusion you made.
Third, I feel as though you came to this film with... I'm really not sure how to say this except that I feel as though you came to this film with the expectation that we were the target demographic. You can think and feel whatever you want about this movie - I really don't care at the end of the day - but I have a hard time taking your vitriol towards this movie seriously when you act as though this movie is supposed to appeal to you while just brushing off the actual primary demographic.
Let's face it: at the end of the day, this is a kids film. It's a kid film with a lot of flaws, yet I can't help but feel that at least one issue you had - Tempest's backstory - isn't as big of a deal as you think. Yes, Tempest's backstory is pretty weak as far as they go in the grand scheme of the universe. But think about this: Tempest was designed as a character that the audience is supposed to connect with.
And what kind tragic (or "tragic") life event would a little girl connect over? Hell if I know. I never was a little girl, so you'd have to ask one to find out. But considering Tempest's popularity among the bronies that generally seemed to like this film, I'd say that she was generally successful in connecting with the audience.
Being a kid's movie is not an excuse for being a bad movie. It just means that there's a greater focus on the target audience, and that focus may be unappealing to those outside of it.
And I'm not immune to this either. Even though I really did like this movie, there was a lot of stuff that didn't fully resonate with me. Although it's not like either of us was put off by the style or tone of the movie, otherwise how would either of us even stand writing all of this?
Lastly, Tempest's backstory is arguably better than Starlight's. Tempest was rejected by her peers for the way she was, while Starlight had her only friend taken away for events out of her control.
Not a terribly big point, but I just wanted to make it.
So yeah. Take that, I guess. Or not. Either way works.
4701186
Did you seriously just use the "Well its a movie for kids" to blanket excuse every flaw.
With Tempest I have the exact same questions as I do for Starlight. "Where is this bitch's parents." The show bothers to show us parents until its actually critical in a way that decides the future of a character. Then they are mysteriously absent.
I don't think Red is expecting them to make a continuous stream of good choices. But they shouldn't make incredibly stupid choices either.
4700137
The fact that the movie doesn't state if she does or does not use the pearl is a problem. Either way it makes the pearl the most pointless red herring in the movie.
4701494
I did not use that excuse. I tried to avoid doing that, and I only actually specified one issue relating to the kid's genre - Tempest's backstory. As for Tempest's backstory I just implied that it's one that the target audience is more likely to relate to. To be honest, I also found her backstory pretty underwhelming too.
Valid, if harsh. One point though: we do get told Capper is in debt to Verko.
So, I actually went and watched it on the Big Screen (my country didn't screen it until 2nd Nov).
Other than the overwhelming cynicism, I do agree with the major points you put up. (I guess, you're right. :V)
Characters were introduced and barely expanded upon while the main cast was shuffled from one
playsetlocation to another. The stakes the movie effected were so low that even Season 7 premiere felt like the end of the world. Maybe after Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis and Tirek, I was a little inured to the Storm King's goals. "Oh, you're just gonna steal control of the weather? Okay."In the climax of the movie, I was shouting [internally] for Twilight and her friends to "use your Magic Friendship Rainbow Powers already!" It was like it was Season 1 premiere all over again except Twilight forgot how to use the Elements of Harmony.
In regards to Tempest Shadow, I have the same questions as 4701494: Where the heck were Tempest's parents? She got mauled by a ginormous Star Bear and she got zero help from adults. It's a wonder that she only became a loner hell-bent on fixing her horn instead of a mental wreck. Also, I found it ironically hilarious she had a song about naivety when she (rather naively) trusted an egotistical megalomaniac to fix her horn.
You know what I found nice about the entire movie? Despite all the problems mentioned,
Twilight and her friendsRarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie did manage to touch some of these characters and making their life just a little brighter when their world was cold and down as the Storm King's thunder clouds.Also, Fluttershy psychotherapy-ing a Storm King mook to submission? Awesome.
All in all, the movie is decently enjoyable (if you don't think
about the plottoo hard). The presentation is far more inclusive of intended age group (the kids at the theatre certainly enjoyed it). All the fan favorites got their special 1 second of fame, so the kids (or Bronies, I guess) could get to name their favorite characters (I sure did). A far cry from the Season 1 pilot.I did like the songs though, so screw you Skwerl. D:
Looking back at this blog, I kind of feel bad for the movie. It was apparently planned MUCH earlier in the series, but kept getting pushed back