Next Generation? Oh yes please. · 4:36pm Sep 25th, 2021
Must say I loved the movie, it gave a shitty week a wonderful end and I still have the fuzzies 20h later. That hasn't happened in a very, very long time. Watched it with my kids and other half, and we had a blast. Characters are great, the music is good to great and always fits, the jokes landed. References and also themes that will go over most kids' heads but are satisfying and often funny to the parents. Real family entertainment. Oh and lots of fanservice. Spoilers below.
Here be spoilers!
I've of course already started to view it frame-by-frame for all the Easter eggs, hints and references - and I really, really want to find out about Sunny's lineage. There's a picture frame on one of the walls that shows what only can be a family tree... and I'd love to be able to see the names on that.
Her dad pretty much has Twilight's mane and his cutiemark is a rainbow shooting star. He has Twilight's cutiemark on his necklace. And his collection of artefacts is *quite* something: in a short camera pan there's a Leonardo da Vinci picture of Twilight Sparkle, and in front of that, a huge, lavender feather in a glass. Which really only can have come from one very specific pony. A little later there's a trident in the background, which on closer inspection looks very much like the dragon lord's sceptre minus the red crystal. Also a mask that looks like it came from Zecora's hut.
Sunny herself has Applejack's coat and eye colour, and Izzy comments on her 'luminescence' (now there's a concept with potential) being lavender. I mean, come on. Izzy has more than a little of Pinkie, but in a gentler, less manic way. Still a planeswalker though ;)
There's not much worldbuilding going on, mainly hints really, but what there is I really like. The Canterlogic factory being a ponyfied Blue Ball Machine is awesome. There's FoE references. Fluttertree. A short landscape shot with the empty Canterhorn in the background. A derelict airship station. The inside of Sunny's lighthouse looks like out of a Tomb Raider / Indiana Jones movie. There's even a Legend of Zelda artefact that according to people knowledgeable of that lore could be used to explain why everyone just forgot about Equestria's past.
Is there fanfiction potential yet? Not really, at least for me... but there could be a lot of stuff coming in the series. The groundwork for a great many reveals has been laid.
All that rambling done, I loved it. The kids loved it. The wife loved it.
Can't really want more than that out of one single movie.
Wow. o.O I definitely did not notice any of this! I'm interested in specifics!
5587158
Heh ;)
First, Canterlogic. Compare the music and the timings -from 11:25 in the movie- and you'll find machinery resembling that in the Canterlogic factory in here when you look long enough (if you can remain sane).
FoE: Sprout pretty much turns into RedEye (for me, at least), the lighting is radioactive green and the sky is permanently overcast during his short-lived rule. Also Fillydelphia rollercoaster.
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Fluttertree:
In the next frame, Sunny says 'that's the tree from the map'.
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Canterhorn:
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Airship station (although not necessarily airships:
The 'elevator' is a balloon gondola.
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And there are a lot of ancient hot air balloons hanging from the ceiling and walls (plus there's a departure table in the background)
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Aaand the Zelda artefact is actually not that. My bad. It's the memory stone from EqG:
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although that one does appear to have originated in Zelda (Sheikah stone)... where it's used to provide hints and solve puzzles ;)
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So yeah. FoE and Fluttertree are of course debatable, but I *want* them to be intentional :b
The rest is solid though, and there's probably more that I didn't find (or recognise).
5587355
Yeahhh, I'm not gonna go all in on the Fluttertree theory there. :P
And for all that even I thought Zephyr Heights might be Canterlot, the side-by-side comparison actually makes me feel less sure about that. :O But you're right about the airship station!
5587361
I don't think Zephyr heights is Canterlot...
It's more like the mountainside where Canterlot should be is empty. Which I'd like a lot, mystery-wise.
Anyway. I had a blast watching the movie and fun hunting hints and Easter eggs.
And in the end, that's what really matters to me ;)
Ah, I'm glad you got so much joy from it, at a time it sounds like it was particularly needed. :)
...And thank you for the frame-by-frame, and the reporting on it and speculation! Wow, I did expect there were details I missed, and indeed, looks like there may have been some quite significant and interesting ones!
5587355
Ah, and thank you for the additional information!
5587375
Hey, check this out.
5588053
Yep!
Saw that a few hours ago, and confirmed by Imalou no less. Love it.