(T>B) Movie thoughts

From this thread https://www.fimfiction.net/group/50/the-writers-group/thread/455081/the-movie-what-went-wrong-and-how-could-it-have-been-done-better - one of mine, for once. You can guess from the tittle it's not my most positive take, but I do try to be fair...

It's been more than three years now since FIM's main outing on the big screen - about as long as it took to make. And while there were certainly those who loved it, many (including me) found it a pretty resounding disappointment even by show two-parter standards. It's hard to say that all that work and money were "worth it", or that the movie was one of the series' heights - if not for the persistent presence of seaponies, I'd honestly expect it to be quickly forgotten.

The biggest problem, of course, was being caught between being a part of the show and a movie open to all, in more ways than one. The simpler to resolve side to this was the narrative - telling a tale that appeals to fans while not requiring prior knowledge of the characters and world - ideally, one which introduces them to a new viewer. I can't say the film did very well on that last part (would a movie viewer even be likely to remember Applejack?), and I personally think it leaned a bit too hard on the new over the established. But that ties into the other half of this problem - casting.

Back when the movie announced, there was a fair bit of concern regarding the casting... namely, whether the actresses we all loved would even get to be in it. Because Conventional Marketing Wisdom says that animated movies nowadays need actors with name recognition, and not even Tara Strong has much of that with the general public. (To be fair, it's not a new phenomenon - there's a reason the original MLP movie had Danny DeVito, and the Transformers one around then had Orson Welles.) As it turned out, perhaps fearing fan revolt, the show leads all retained their usual voices - and the celeb quotient was filled out by introducing several new characters. Too many for most of them to get much focus, but enough to steal away much of the show cast's, and raise the question "who is this film about, anyway?" On reflection, I almost wonder if recasting the Manes (and Spike) would have been the lesser of two evils...

The other big "unavoidable" flaw of the movie was timing. Because of it's elaborate visuals, it's production time was considerable, meaning it was being planned well in advance of the parts of the show it would air during. While this had some impact on the show too (for instance, I speculate it might have kept Spike wingless longer than if otherwise), the main thing to suffer for it is the movie itself, at least from a fan perspective - both because it seemed out-of-date in general and because it's chosen theme - the difference between cookies-and-sunshine Equestria and the harsher world beyond - had been covered pretty decently by the show in the meantime. Some of this could have been alleviated by deliberately setting the film earlier... but that would just probably confuse many kids, including the first-time viewers they wanted to draw into Season 8 via it. So it was stuck being set where it aired in late Season 7 with what felt like a post-Season 4 plot.

Of course, even if one accepted all the above issues as unavoidable side-effects of production, the movie could still have been pretty decent. And for some, it was. But I was hardly alone in finding the story, villains, guests and so on less than compelling. With all that was poured into the movie, that it at least match the show's better two-parters was not, IMO, too much to ask.

So now that I've had my rant... what flaws do you see in the movie? What did you like about it? And how might both the existing movie be improved, or a better one have been made in the first place?

[IMO...]
Dislikes

• The Storm King really fails to impress. Well, maybe for a moment here or there, but on the FIM villain totem pole, he sits around my initial opinion of Sombra... and that's not a good place to be. His army is likewise boringly generic, as well as a total loose end.
• The new "good" characters mostly weren't that great either - Songbird Serande can barely be called a character in the first place, of course, but most of the rest were hampered by their limited screen time. (Capper, for instance, has clear potential, but to develop it he would have to have accompanied the ponies.)
• Also not a great fan of the new settings, albiet mostly for worldbuilding reasons - Klugetown is full of all sorts of weird new creatures, mainly bipeds, while Seaquestria take the long-waited seaponies and makes them... actually hippogriffs? Who don't seem to have anything to do with griffons OR ponies... except that Celestia immediately thinks to call on their Queen for help (why?), but doesn't know they disappeared from their homeland Novo-knows how many years ago? And don't get me started on the vagueness of the Storm King's "kingdom"...
• Finally moving on from the new to the familiar... I get that not all of the cast can get the same level of focus in the film, but all the Manes (and Spike) at least deserved one chance to shine, and almost half of them didn't get it. (And commercially, each of them probably has more individual toys that the whole movie line, so smart move, Hasbro!)
• The dichotomy between soft Equestria and the hard outside felt kind of disrespectful to the ponies we'd come to love. Canterlot fell to an army in the wedding eps, too, but at least then we saw Guards fighting back - they were nowhere to be seen in the movie, and the final battle was all the Manes and their new allies while the ponies in Canterlot did nothing. (Oh, and who's idea was it to do an FIM movie without a single scene in the show's main setting?)
• Getting down into more nitpicky stuff now, but the CMC should probably have had at least some small role instead of just being more background cameos. (Starlight is forgivable given production realities... but see below.)

Likes

• Tempest wasn't a bad character, even if evil unicorns driven by foalhood trauma were a bit overused - probably the best-developed of the new cast. And unlike many, I didn't mind Grubber either - no other Twilight foil has had a Spike foil, and the nature of his role menas he can get away with being shallow better than most.
• I guess some of it was pretty good-looking? The upscaled Canterlot with hordes of cameos (and they finally gave Luna her throne!), Seaquestria's grottoes... Yeah, that's about it.
• The dilemma with the pearl made for some decent emotional drama. (It would help if it was clearer what use the pearl would be to saving Equestria anyway, but I suppose for Twilight that she thought Celestia wanted her to get it was motivation enough.)

Tweaks and patches

• Make Tempest the main villain, the Storm Queen who wants the alicorn magic to restore her horn and gain some neat wings to boot (and to rule Equestria as well because obviously she could do a better job). Of course, there's then the question of how to do her redemption arc... she might sacrifice herself to stop a magical storm she'd created, or perhaps something could be done with Grubber betraying her. Maybe merge him and the Storm King into one lieutenant for her?
• Whether doing the above or not, the Storm Creatures should be either replaced by magical golems/constructs/robots or be the same creatures shown in Klugetown, the place's poverty and lawlessness being attributed to his ruinous rule, mass conscription and the industry which builds his airships.
• The whole situation with the hippogriffs should be clarified more, from their (lack of) acquaintance with Equestria to why the Pearl is so important anyway. Really play it up as like their equivalent to the Elements of Harmony. (Oh, and for that matter, maybe come up with some explanation as to why they don't try and retrieve those. Or gather any allies. )
• This might be controversial, but... maybe replace Derpy's role with Starlight? With how big she is in Season 7 her just being a background cameo feels wrong.
• Have ponies (both Guard and civilian) fight back, both in the initial attack and once the battle starts at the end. There's a whole army, plenty to go around.