[Analysis] Equestria is Magic: The Leaked Generation 5 Storyboard Animatic

A month ago, a storyboard animatic from the Generation 5 movie that will start Generation 5 on September 24th got leaked, which I already talked about a little here. And now, the time has come to analyze this beautiful, little foal (quite literally, you'll see) that was generously gifted to us and that gave us the first confirmation that Generation 5 will be a sequel to Friendship is Magic.
I haven't seen any other analyses of the leaked storyboard animatic yet, so I'll go into this analysis completely blind. I will go through individual screenshots of the animatic with the information I could draw from them first, then bring everything together in the conclusion of it all.
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The beginning of the animatic shows us two new ponies. The first thing that already jumps into the eye here is that one of the two ponies is notably smaller than the other one. We have hardly seen size differences between ponies of the same age in Generation 4 and it's probably safe to assume that the same will be the case in Generation 5, so we have a foal here with the smaller pony. All the ponies in the animatic are drawn without eyelashes by default and the roundish nose of this foal is something a few colts have, as well, so we can't yet tell if this foal is a filly or a colt. Upon closer look, there is a faint outline of a rather long mane visible and that is indicative of a filly, but details in a storyboard are vague, so I'll just refer to this younger pony as "foal" for the time being.

The bigger of the two seems to be a stallion. This pony also has a long mane, which can be better seen than the foal's mane, so a mare is not impossible. But something about the face of this pony strikes me as male, so I'll go with stallion for the time being until we know more.
Above them are the Mane Six, with a rainbow behind them and trotting on a road that seems to be in Canterlot, as the buildings on the left side strongly resemble Canterlot architecture and the waterfall coming out of a mountain at the right side is reminiscent of the landscape around Canterlot. Twilight is a unicorn in this animatic, she clearly lacks wings, and this is where it gets interesting.

It's entirely possible that Generation 5 will be set in a rather near future of only a few decades. But the fact that we see Twilight as unicorn there, shows that these aren't the Mane Six in the present, but in the past. When I watched the animatic for the first time, I used to think that the two new ponies trot on the same road together with the Mane Six, but now that I am taking a closer look at it, I can see that they stand below them on a spot that is entirely separate from the path the Mane Six are on. The stallion is also pointing upwards, while clearly talking or singing about the Mane Six to the foal. And he drapes his left foreleg over the back of the foal while the foal listens, a very personal gesture, so it's likely that the stallion is the father of the foal.

What we see here is a father telling his foal about the Elements of Harmony, the great heroes of Equestria. Mysterious is the question how far in the future of Equestria this moment happens. It allows for two different interpretations.
This feels like these two ponies live hundreds of years after the Mane Six, when the Mane Six are long dead and only live on through stories anymore, and that this stallion passes down their story to his foal. However, the interpretation that they are still alive and it's merely decades into the future also makes sense. Maybe the Mane Six have retired or they don't do much in these days anymore because Equestria has become exceptionally peaceful, so that their big, heroic deeds happened decades ago in the past and all that is left are stories about their old adventures. The stallion and his foal might live too far away from Ponyville and Canterlot to talk to them in person, so that the stallion can merely tell the story of them to his foal.

Which of these two possibilities is true, though? We heard from Tara Strong that Twilight won't be in Generation 5 and this gives a strong hint for a timeskip into a very distant future. But in another news, we also learned that the Mane Six will appear as background characters in Generation 5 and saying that would be a huge exaggeration if we would only see them in visualizations of a story that one pony tells to another.
We have completely conflicting information here, so it remains a mystery for now how far into the future of Equestria we will go in Generation 5.
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The father shows his foal figurines of Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Then he adds figurines of Rainbow Dash and Twilight and the foal looks surprised and sceptical at them first, then becomes excited, starts to like the story and imagines how the figurines of the Mane Six come to life, followed by the father presenting their cutie marks to his foal.
This entire scene further confirms that the father is telling the story of the Elements of Harmony to his son or daughter:

We also see the cutie mark of the father here, a big star. So he seems to be either an astronomer or a movie star/actor. But it could be something completely different as well, the meaning of cutie marks can be very ambigious and cutie marks sometimes symbolize the special talent of a pony in an unexpected way, like Cheerilee's cutie mark does.
We can also see the long mane of the foal much better in this scene, which is why I'm leaning a bit more towards a filly now. But it's not completely impossible that it's a colt with a long mane, so I'll wait for more infos before settling for a gender of the foal.
What is also very interesting here is that figurines of the Mane Six exist. Did the stallion and his foal make these figurines themselves or can they be purchased as "Elements of Harmony Merchandise"? Whatever distant future Generation 5 will show, this means the popularity of the Mane Six has skyrocketed since Twilight ascended the throne of Equestria. They have fans and admirers all over Equestria now, to the point of commercialization of their looks and names.
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After telling the story of the Elements of Harmony, the father shows three generic figurines of an earth pony, a pegasus and a unicorn, the three pony tribes, to his foal. These figurines are very big, they have the size of an adult pony, as we see him standing in front of them and matching their size.
The father explains his foal, with a lot of enthusiasm and cheer and a very prolific performance that gives more hints for it that he is an actor, what the three pony tribes are and what traits and abilities they have. Which seems like an odd thing to do, they are both ponies and live in Equestria, so his foal should know everything there is to know about the three pony tribes. What could be the reason for it that his foal needs to be taught about the three pony tribes?
Maybe the two of them live in the Crystal Empire and are crystal ponies. The animatic up to this point has already shown that the father is neither a unicorn nor a pegasus and that the foal also isn't a unicorn. The foal could still be a pegasus, because we haven't yet gotten a good look at their back yet, but so far, the evidence leans closer to it that neither of them has wings or horns. There are no pegasi or unicorns among crystal ponies and the drawings in the storyboard aren't detailed, so that they are crystal ponies is just as likely as that they are earth ponies.
The crystal ponies don't belong to any of the three other pony tribes and they came from a different land to Equestria than earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns did. They have founded their own, independent empire in Equestria and they also were gone for a thousand years because of King Sombra's curse and had to adapt to modern Equestria. In addition to that, we also don't know if the other three pony tribes already lived in Equestria when the crystal ponies arrived there.
Crystal ponies are likely less familiar with the three pony tribes and what makes an earth pony, a pegasus and a unicorn who they are. For a young crystal foal, it would make sense having to learn what the three pony tribes are.
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After the father's presentation, he and his foal are suddenly out in nature somewhere; surrounded by mountains, bushes, a waterfall and a rainbow that hangs above them. We can also tell that the father and his foal are singing when looking at this shot. The title of the storyboard where it got originally uploaded indicated a song, but in the animatic itself, it was ambigious so far and the two of them could have been singing or talking. But here we see them in typical singing pose; with widely opened mouths, closed eyes and their heads stretched forward, while they clearly don't talk, because they don't look at each other.
We can also see much clearer that the second pony is a foal, they sit on their father's back and that makes for a perfect size comparison. And we see again that the foal's mane is very long, but I remain neutral on that.
A montage begins here and the camera twirls around them while they sing:

Five time's the charm with the long mane..... And not only do we see it as long here, it's also tied together with a bow or ribbon. Not really something that a colt would do. It's starting to look like we really have a filly here. In any case, the foal looks rather old in their face here, but that's probably just the storyboard being rough.
This shot also confirms that the foal isn't a pegasus, the wings would be visible in this shot if they had any. This makes it definitely possible now that the foal is a crystal foal.

If you look closely, you can see a small bow in the foal's mane here. Yep, definitely a filly!

Now we see her sitting on her father's back from behind. She doesn't have a cutie mark yet. And she is very small. Sitting on her flank, she only is as big as her father's head and neck combined. This means she is very young, maybe 4 or 5? At the beginning, we have seen that she reaches up under her father's chin when she stood next to him, though, which is the size of a foal we know from Generation 4.
Maybe that's just because a storyboard is rough again, but, could this be an indicator for it that the animation models of ponies will be more diverse in Generation 5 and take into account ponies of different sizes? Was the storyboarder instructed to draw the filly smaller when they got to this point where she sits on her father's back? The sudden size difference of the filly is remarkable. If it's true, then she is older than I said, but small for her age.
After this, we get a transition with butterflies that look suspiciously like Fluttershy's cutie mark:

Before we see our father and filly duo in a lake or river:

The father is swimming here, while his filly floats on an inflatable rubber ring. She can't swim yet, which further implies that she is very young. And contradicts the possibility of an older filly who is small in size again. But like I said, storyboards are rough, they don't contain much detail, so we can't tell for sure. We have to wait with a confirmation for the filly's age until we see a finished animation of this storyboard.
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Stoner face on filly after sniffing a flower. Now I wonder what flower that is~ One thing is clear by this shot, the animations in Generation 5 will be very similar to the Generation 4 animations. And the humor apparently, too. We definitely won't lack funny and cool faces in Generation 5.
It gets really interesting after this shot, though.
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The Mane Six appear all of a sudden! And the filly and her father join them:

They spend time with the Mane Six and do various activities with them:

Eating pie. Note how Twilight has wings, so unlike at the beginning, she appears as alicorn here.

Rope-swinging and a snowball or cloudball fight. It's not clear if this white mass they're on is snow or a cloud, but both would work thanks to Twilight's cloudwalking spell. The father and his filly aren't seen in these two shots, but they likely participated off-screen and they are seen again on the next shots.

They jump onto a rainbow.

And slide down on it, accompanied by Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Pinkie. After this, they sing together with the Mane Six; the father with Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash and his filly with Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Twilight (Do we learn about their favourite members of the Mane Six through that portrayal?), before they all join together:

The big question here is: Did this actually happen? Or is it just in their imagination?
The fact that Twilight is an alicorn there speaks for a real event. And the pie-eating, the rope-swinging and the snowball/cloudball fight are perfectly possible. But if you look at the whole animatic, you can see that the pie instantly refills after they took out some slices. And stepping onto a rainbow and sliding down on it is probably not possible even by equestrian standards, while we saw cloudwalking, there was never an indication that rainbows in Equestria are solid enough to step on them.
These two things are only possible in the imagination or if Discord is around and he is nowhere to be seen in this animatic (although, I'm sure he'll be in Generation 5), so these events are only a fantasy.
I think what we see happening here is the the father and his filly going on a trot in nature together and while they do that, they start thinking about the Mane Six and eventually imagine to meet them. This indicates that both of them are big fans of them and dream of meeting the Elements of Harmony. Whether this means that the Mane Six are already dead or that the filly and her father simply live far away from them and don't have the means to visit them still remains a mystery, one this animatic can't solve, because it is over after the final shot you see above this paragraph.

One last thing the animatic is hinting at and that I only discovered when going through it again to make sure I haven't missed anything, is this:

On the first picture, we see the father of the filly looking sad at a pony figurine that has fallen over. He then takes this figurine and the one next to it, puts a cloth over them, makes a few mysterious movements with his head, pulls the cloth away again and then we see figurines of Rarity and Fluttershy on his hoof.
I'm not sure what exactly he did there, whether he repaired damaged pony figurines, cleaned them or turned them into different figurines entirely, but this entire performance with the cloth and the mysterious movements closely resembles a magic trick during which objects are being "magically" replaced with different objects. His way of moving has something mystical and enigmatic there and if the magic trick theory I have is true, it means that his special talent is probably performing stage tricks, for which his star cutie mark could also be indicative.
I predict that the father of this filly works as a stage magician. Considering how earth ponies and crystal ponies don't have any active, magical abilities, it would be very unique and exciting to see one with such an occupation.

And this last observation concludes the animatic for real. This is a vague, first look at Generation 5, but we already get interesting, and potentially very important, facts and exciting possibilities out of this leak:
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• Two potential, new mane characters of the Generation 5 show: A father and his filly, who are fans and admirers of the Mane Six.
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• The possibility of a large timeskip into Equestria's distant future.
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• The Mane Six' legacy being kept alive long after their adventures.
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• The Crystal Empire as potential new main location in the Generation 5 show.
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• A big focus on songs again.
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• The same excellent animation and humor we know from Generation 4.
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• The unique idea of a crystal/earth pony being a stage magician.

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Personally, I love that one of the new mane characters might be a young filly. In Generation 4, I always loved Cutie Mark Crusaders episodes the most. And it feels that children are still underrepresented as lead characters in TV shows, especially in competent roles that don't stereotype them or put them below adults. So if Generation 5 has a competent foal who will fight and solve some serious problems, maybe even villain-caused problems, then I can already name one specific thing that I am going to love in Generation 5. And she is already extremely adorable in this animatic, I can't wait to see her full look.

I also hope for a confirmation that the father and his filly here are crystal ponies. The Crystal Empire holds a lot of secrets, that is something I feel since we saw it for the first time in the show, but we barely learned anything about the culture of the Crystal Empire throughout Generation 4. I would greatly welcome the Crystal Empire as the new main location in Generation 5. Maybe we will even see Flurry Heart again or learn more about the history of crystal ponies and where they came from. The Crystal Empire is also the main location in my own take on a Next Generation sequel "My Little Pony: Guardians of Crystal Growth", so it would be an amazing coincidence if the same would go for the official Generation 5 show. I am rooting for this.

A focus on songs like in Generation 4, hopefully even with some musical episodes and with Daniel Ingram as composer, and the animation quality and humor we are used to from Friendship is Magic is obligatory welcome. That's definitely a basic necessity and I'm glad this animatic revealed that most of these things will be in Generation 5.

The outlook of a pony who can't actively use magic working as a stage magician also excites me. This is similarly deep as a unicorn who's bad at magic performing fake magic stage tricks instead and if our father and his filly here are really the mane characters of the Generation 5 show, we will probably get a lot more focus on what it means to do magic tricks as a magic-less pony.

The only thing I feel uneasy about is a large timeskip into the distant future of Equestria. If Generation 5 would skip ahead several hundred or maybe even 1,000 years, it would be interesting in a tragic way to explore what is still left of the old Equestria as we know it and what marks in history the ponies/creatures we've come to know and love during Generation 4 left and how much of their legacy can still be seen. But I also hope to see a couple ponies/creatures I love in Generation 5 again, so I would greatly prefer a timeskip of only a few decades at most. But all of this is just raw speculation at the moment and we have no means of telling how far into the future Generation 5 will jump before we get more information, likely later this month during Hasbro's presentation at the virtual Toy Fair.

And with these final thoughts, I'll end this analysis. I'm dripping from excitement and anticipation for Generation 5 and soon, I'll post another analysis about the first, concrete Generation 5 news.
What do you hope to see in Generation 5? How would you feel about the Crystal Empire as new main location? Do you think a large timeskip of 1,000 years would be a good or a bad idea? You can tell me in the comments below.

Stay easy as a filly!

~ Fluttercheer

Comments

[Fluttercheer]

5456882

Thank you! There will be lots more like this, I'm keeping a close eye on Generation 5!