Make Your Mark Chapter 2 Review – "The Cutie Mark Mix-Up" & "The Traditional Unicorn Sleep-Over" – Episodes 5 & 6 · 5:30pm Oct 13th, 2022
Izzy: "Now we've got another unicorn around, we can bounce off each other's sparkle in song! Join me, Misty: 'This is how a unicorn walks – walks!'"
Misty: "'This is how a unicorn… smiles?'"
Izzy: "That's not how the song goes…"
[Misty sweats nervously]
Misty: "I like it! A barely-approximate rhyme, you are a sly one. So creative! We're gonna get along great."
By the time I began watching the latter half of Chapter 2’s episodes, and certainly when I began writing about them, it became clear to me that writing up on individual episodes for this show isn’t sustainable. I’m gonna finish up these next four posts as normal, naturally, but that’ll be it for my G5 episode-specific dissection.
Even then, and even with the episode posts remaining on the short side, the focus has shifted somewhat to using the material of that episode to discuss a broader point. At least in the case of Ep. 6 today. Makes for more interesting discussion.
Still, these two episodes are where we see plot progression mandated to a greater degree than before, so ostensibly, stuff is happening. Let’s see how ostensibly.
Episode 5 – The Cutie Mark Mix-Up
Sunny: "Um, Hitch… why does this ribbon-cutting scissors look like a toy? Is it to match with us being right outside Toyetic Castle Eyesore 2.0? For Standards and Practices, to match a kindergartener's scissors?"
Hitch: "Maybe both? The world of streaming toy commercials is nothing if not brand-and-safety focused. Plus, you know Hasbro. ‘The communal garden-opening scissors!’ I’d buy it over the Mane Melody playset."
Back in the reviews for Izzy Does It and Growing Pains, Serketry commented that he'd noticed there were three Lead Editors for this show, and it might explain not only the quality swing, but also inconsistencies of the dreaded Groupthink variety later on. This example probably isn't what he meant, but that this episode has Opaline remind Misty about her desire for a Cutie Mark, and we actually get close-up shots of Misty vowing she’ll do anything for one, reads as a better introduction (if still a clunky one) for that aspect than the DOA lines back in Izzy Does It (though her being an alicorn supremacist, mm, dunno if this is an ideal point to reveal that).
Indeed, the villain plot here, if still full of bad writing at the micro-level and more an obligation alongside the episode’s main action then linked to it in any meaningful way, is at least technically progressive, what with Opaline having intel now for what she needs (though no, Sunny’s lantern does not contain prismatic magic, or continuity is an afterthought), finally sending in Misty next time after teasing her and us on this for several episodes. And seeing Opaline do dark magic stuff with potions, even if it’s just conjuring a cute eyes-inside-the-Brighthouse phantom mouse, is a step over constantly brooding and laughing maniacally poorly. I’m suspecting by now that we won’t see Opaline outside her lair for the rest of Chapter 2, so you take what you get.
This is the face of a mare who's realised what kind of show she's in, is it not? Looking constipated usually means that, after all.
I lead with this not only because the villain scenes are the most successful part here, but because there's precious little to say about this fifth-generation clone of A Royal Problem closer to its Freaky Friday roots. Sunny and Hitch being this stubborn feels forced (especially for Sunny), the mangled pacing leaving only 8 minutes of swapped marks (some of that on critter wrangling with the others) leaves us with only a few half-hearted scenes of them in each other’s horseshoes that fall asleep on the page, and a draggy three-scene resolution that repeats the lesson learned about fifty times; the “swapped personality traits” angle gets abandoned once Zipp points out what happened; not swapping talents with the marks leaves it even more of a wheel-spinning exercise than usual. There’s many ways to show different elements of this kind of conflict beyond rote “trying others’ job, realises it’s far more difficult than it looked”, so naturally, they went for the autopilot route.
That’s probably a bit hard on my part. This is, at least, not insufferable. The depiction of Sunny and Hitch’s relationship still falls apart quickly when applying critical thinking, and many of their lines continue their flanderization as “positive snowflake” and “friendly rigid rule follower butt monkey”, though not doubling down on them, thankfully. But having the self-sabotage of Growing Pains as a point of comparison does make one at least appreciate the mostly upbeat outlook to many of their lines here. There’s a grace note every now and then between their interactions that got halfway towards producing a smile from me, anyway.
The fact that the rendering has improved enough to make the texturing this fine in stills, as long as the lighting is in control, I do appreciate. It may not flow well in movement, but I do like me some delectable fur.
As it happens, this episode has some other grace notes. Making the community garden from last episode instantly relevant is a neat step, as is it being an area to have more townsponies around, associating, and developing their flora magic (an amazing nomenclature by this generation’s standard, though the gag overexplaining its derivation from float and flight magic is weak). The menagerie of critters is neat, even if them running around taxes both the writing and the animation. And while not a positive, Sparky and Pipp are easily at their least annoying thus far, and if that means Sparky is just chasing Opaline’s Mouse Droid and Pipp is being buried alive by critters, hey, you take what you get.
On the other hoof, we have Izzy shifting between irritating gimmicks again (this time, it’s interrupting Hitch constantly to say he shouldn’t be interrupted, to trying to canonise new words, to having her energy carry her for critter wrangling without being successful at it), and she’s shaping up to be like Sunny, far worse out of the lead role than in it. Shrill’s worse then bland, coming from her. Zipp is so aloof and hooves off in her detective mode this time that she feels rather cold. Add the townsponies being the worst (and shifting which ponies are present between shots constantly), with their garden stampeding, indifference to the Mark swap, and assuming Hitch will know Sunny’s role as well as her, and you have the atypical ping-pong between lethargic moments and irritating ones.
Another visual dissection screenshot? Folks, it's Ghost Mike, and this episode’s starved of worthwhile discussion points. You knew what you were in for. Anyway, I wish Sunny rocking that hat throughout the episode came across as cool as it sounds. Clunky writing and delivery of her trying to wrangle critters doesn't help, ditto for some de-synced character animation, but the dreadfully flat lighting of the Brighthouse interior (that hat's supposed to be brown, not red!), where she mostly is while wearing it, certainly smothers matters too.
Honestly, though, this is probably the 2nd best episode thus far, as its cross-cutting isn’t as bad as Izzy Does It, and the worst elements are at least the more minor ones. And again, Sunny and Hitch’s relationship gets a few affable moments this time. Mostly, though, this is probably the dullest and most forgettable episode thus far, with even its (many, as always) shortcomings feeling too indifferent to dissect.
The sin here is not how small Hitch's cutie mark appears on Sunny, nor that she looks more caught in the act of robbing her own tip jar than anything else, but that the Adorable (next to Sparky) turtle Curtle is almost fully obstructed by Sunny's tail. Give the viewers what they want, Starscout!
Episode 6 – The Traditional Unicorn Sleep-Over
Izzy: "Let's see: one foreboding intro shot right before the title sequence that will not be remotely paid off on – check!"
By Ep. 6, after five episodes of constant wheel-spinning on the part of either the villains or the heroes as regards the series’ main plot, with only the most minimal progression, I obviously didn’t expect any progression, or even competent writing, for the episode where Misty infiltrates the Mane 5 to gather intel/steal the lantern. I expected muddled lurches from Izzy being in full one-dimensional Pinkie mode to Misty being a terrible infiltrator and nopony noticing, or at least not acting on, her frequent slips. And yet, the juvenile writing, though not strictly worse than anything beforehand, just irritates so much more when making a hash of the part of a plot strand demanding to move forward here and now.
The non-Misty moments here are the same old, same old; the episode’s other main point of viewer investment, Izzy wanting to make a proper unicorn friend (which at least trafficks with the relatively few number of unicorns that are recurring backgrounds extras in Maretime Bay) is just a flat nothing, with not a single moment of pathos coming across as anything but coldly calculated and clumsily delivered. Course, it doesn’t help that most of the “unicorn traditions” she comes up with for the sleepover, on top of being an energy-less Pinkie Pie impression, don’t slot up with what we saw and know of Bridlewood. What really leapt out was how slack the directing is, and of course tv animation of this calibre rarely has anything approaching the directorial voice of a feature film, yet there’s numerous beats (jokes, emotions and story) where there’s no telegraphed intended viewer response, it just feels like there should be one based of the parameters of the script. Given the moments of pathos for Izzy in the film were one of the key ingredients in making her not Pinkie Pie, it really is a shame, though not a surprise, that the attempts to carry that over flounder.
I do love me some Alternate Artstyle backstory animation, and even as obvious computer-rigged as this one is in motion, it's quite the refreshing antidote to the main art style that near-invariably spotlights the shortcomings. Pity about the story it's telling.
The Mane 4 being as braindead as ever, even Zipp, is another obvious checkmark against this, but that’s such an evident flaw that there’s little to add to it. The same goes, honestly, for the storytime flashback; I am perfectly capable of separating out timeline elements that poison what came before, and FiM’s given that plenty of practice, and not just from the last two seasons and its ending. Yet Sunny’s story outright confirming the backstory from Issue #2 of the G5 comic, that Twilight went mass Final Solution and locked all pony magic into the three crystals off of mere inter-tribal disagreements (ones they already quenched in Season 9), just continues to paint the connecting tissue in the worst light. Honestly, it makes the counter-story Misty tells, the spoon-fed lie Opaline has been preaching to her, it makes it cathartic. It’s just “obvious manipulative schemer villain painting a web of lies she actually believes” schtick, but it's comforting in its blandness.
If there’s an element that elevates this, it’s Misty herself. As predictable as her arc was from the moment she was introduced, it is, in principle, a good kind of predictable. She is the closest thing this show has to something that isn’t reheated (and sometimes food poisoned, depending on the pony) FiM leftovers. Which is ironic, given that her properly interacting with the Mane 5 for this sleepover (sans Hitch, because toy commercial cartoons are only allowed to be progressive in limited, calculated ways) highlights how she’s the missing member, the Fluttershy. It’s like she was meant to be part of the group all along, Rule of Six and all that. Yet naturally, years of gaslighting, manipulation and lies from Opaline have made her unable to even admit to herself the pleasure that the friendly interactions she’s having with these ponies are giving her. She’s so conditioned by her past that, for now, she cannot help but think only of her mission and constantly report back to Opaline. We want to see her eventually stand up to Opaline and join the good ponies, and the fact of her having a legitimate arc makes her, frankly, the only interesting character. And even on the Fluttershy comparison, her past changes her shyness and interactions enough that she doesn’t feel like a reskin the way the others do, where only Hitch escapes the same fate, and that’s by becoming a butt monkey. It was only in the process of typing this that I realised she’s basically the Gatomon of this series (apologies to those of you unfamiliar with the original Digimon Adventure), and I mean that in a good way. It has the potential, frankly, to be a far more appealing villain redemption then those FiM did, where they had to patch it up after the fact.
Misty (thinking): 'Okay, I'm in now. Do I make a washroom excuse and go looking for the lantern yet? No, too soon, they're not drowsy enough yet. Best stay low for a while. Their smiles are a bit creepy, but they do seem to be happy. Is this what it's like to have a Cutie Mark…
'Wait, they're looking this way. Oh shoot, what do I do? Uh… poking at this popcorn isn't helping. Do they already suspect me? Better spill whatever excuse comes to mind real fast, so they don't suspect anything! Opaline's never told me that's ineffective, so clearly it must be the optimal infiltrator strategy!'
That’s all in principle. In practice, the juvenile writing here doubles down on Misty being a terrible infiltrator, with seemingly infinite moments of somepony else asking a non-pressing question, and her laughing nervously and saying she doesn’t know about that. Not only does that well dry up fast, it strips the episode of the key moments of Misty privately smiling, or reflecting that she’s enjoying herself, moments that are pivotal for a show aimed this young, leaving only an energy-less gush on her part about the activities to Opaline to compensate. Portrait of a Princess proved this show can do basic emotional beats like that fine, and it frustrates me that it continues to shoot itself in the foot for no reason.
The frustration here on my part is overplayed, granted; largely this is just the same, boosted by the focus on Misty yet hampered by the juvenile writing sticking out more. The more things change, the more they stay the same. At least Sparky’s almost fully absent, sans the opening when he’s hostile to Misty because Script (and that opening basically hoofs Misty a free ticket inside the Brighthouse, yay for Gillian Berrow’s Story Editing). And the character animation is less defective, thanks to the near-absence of background characters, though most shots having five ponies does mean only a few moments of the quality in Portrait of a Princess that actually improved the script. Not that there’s writing here that better animation could really improve.
Yes, the writers and editors of this show have so little coordination, or care so little, that they will have Zipp overhear Misty communicating with Opaline, and then have it bear no effect or consequence on the following episode(s). All the budget and schedule shortcomings in the world doesn't excuse cock-ups like this.
I don’t have many extra points that it doesn’t make more sense to save for the next post, when this blog concludes. Just the one, really.
One point I have seen some folks bring up is that this is meant to be a low-key preschool show, and thus can’t be judged on its appeal for adults the same way FiM was. Certainly, the animation-imposed restrictions on character movement, locations and species variety do seem to reinforce this. But even if we ignore the omnipresent focus on plot and lore, and that the plots and characters are way dumbed down, the cadence and style of the stories and character interactions are still above those kinds of shows. Especially in the dialogue; no two-year-old’s going to understand this beyond the colours and movement, and pity for them, given how slack those are. And even if it was a preschool show, Bluey has elevated the standards of those to something actually positively good for kids and watchable for the parents, so that’s a poor defence.
Still, the greater point that this is a kids’ show, yes, I get, and it is important to remember that. But I’m more than game for a kids’ show done well and earnestly and honestly; the core emotional beats in Portrait of a Princess diluted a lot of that episode’s sins, and I just waxed words about how Misty’s character arc being obvious from the moment she was introduced doesn’t matter. And FiM frequently worked because it was unapologetically a kid’s show, just one with their best interests at heart (and those of the parents watching with them). It’s just evident how slack, unfocused, compromised and mismanaged this show is for its target audience, and there’s no getting around that.
Sunny: "So… what are we doing with all this yarn again?"
Izzy: "Isn't it obvious, silly! We're gonna take turns getting strung up like piñatas, and getting whacked by everypony else until we cough up the yarn we also swallow! Unicorn Sleepover 101, duh!"
Pipp: "…Now I have even more questions about how you all survived in Bridlewood before we came along."
Stray Observations
- Sunny’s mark has nothing to do with making smoothies, that’s just an offshoot of her being a helper pony. Makes Larson’s “Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark is for weather control” slip up seem tiny.
- During the critter chaos, we see the Spike doll from Sunny’s room in the film still in the communal bedroom. I’m glad they recovered it from the wreckage and repaired it, but sharing a scene with Sparky… not flattering, yeah.
- No, Seashell, you do NOT get to mention a book about a tree with crystals called elements at the end like that. It’s the “Tirek’s father in Season 9 finale free style points” desperation again.
- Near the end of The Cutie Mark Mix-Up, when Sunny and Hitch are returning their items, Hitch bemoans that he squashed something, before Sunny laughs it off and stows it away. It took me ages to realise that was meant to be a fruit from the smoothie botch, and honestly, it makes the moment even more confusing. Yup, that was the best object-of-value the writers could think of for Sunny. And yes, you do put squashed fruits into satchels. Never mind the object “vanishing” as she puts it away isn’t disguised nearly as well as with similar moments in the film.
- One thing Misty’s first starring episode highlights to a greater degree than before is that her model and design isn’t flawless. Her wavy hair strands frequently “glitch” between frames, a side effect of the numerous thick strands being too high-fidelity for this rendering engine. Only a little tick in most shots, but in the close-ups… dear lord, the close-ups. Another reason they shouldn’t do those close-ups. If not that, they should have kept her manestyle more manageable.
- That said, her rendering and lighting remains more consistent in the Brighthouse interiors relative to the others. Even if the pink patches on her body sometimes look off, especially when her lips are pursed.
- Interesting implication from the scene where Misty had to improvise a last name, that all ponies have one in this generation. Honestly, I have minimal trouble accepting this, as for the few single-name ponies thus far, it’s perfectly believable we wouldn’t have heard their last name.
Random thoughts as I read:
Hmn... Big Bad who wants to steal all the Pony Magic promises to give Essential Missing Part to unicorn minion. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
With the way ponies treat Sunny whether her alicorn switch is on or off, Opaline could openly stroll right in and be ruling the place inside of a month.
Little details keep bothering me about the 3D. In a pic above, the shelf of Sunny's cart shows an ever so slight weathering of the paint and the woodgrain beneath (obvious made-for-the-movie prop), while Hitch's hat in the same shot is straight-out-of-the-box geometry with a diffuse shader plus a bit of noise mottling. I mean, that's fine is some situations, but it's inconsistent. I think this is another sign of the time/money pressure the series is under.
See, this sort of 180 from reality bugs me. Detectives get information primarily from witnesses, not physical clues, and they get that by being deceptively easy to talk to. But the, "Aha! This is latakia tobacco ash, not cavendish!" trope is nearly universal, so I guess we're stuck with it.
Yeah, that damn hat. Perlin noise underlies so many textures in 3D, but it's not really meant to be used raw like that. The hat would be darker around the hatband area, and not just because of sweat; ambient occlusion is a thing. It would also be worn around the brim and crown. Completely random dirt/wear looks very unnatural. And the less said about the disappearing earholes, the better.
The nearly universal Terrible Infiltrator trope is, to be honest, a not-so-good solution to a truly difficult problem. If a character is to be redeemed, it makes that redemption much more difficult to accept if the character is good at deception. (Looking at you Starlight Glimmer.) Really, they had a golden opportunity for Misty to be sympathetic in spite of a convincing cover story. Good at being bad because she's misguided, but surprised by true happiness, which makes her waver in her loyalty? That's easily doable, and the contrast would make even more of an impact. Oh well.
Well, I still plan on watching the next set of MYM, which is more than I can say for TYT.
Yeah, I was waiting for these.
How... how did any of the three lead editors not catch how Misty's mane looks like a texture error half the time? The Admiral and I were guessing either their engine couldn't hack it, or they were renting out a larger, professional rendering farm, and just didn't have the time to get it to look right. But then, yeah,
This was the big one, for me. Crappy writing being consistently crap is one thing, animation glitches are another, but this? An inability to hold a basic narrative from the end of one episode to the start of the next one, and it made arguably the only decent character, Zipp, look like a complete idiot, just... no.
I won't go so far as to say the G5 crew just don't care, but I will say their efforts are insufficient, and really put G4 in stark contrast. The only G5 component that's remotely decent is, of all things, the IDW comics. Mostly.
5692086
Ha, yep, by this point, it's about the only way to react to these episodes. I'd be the same!
When how that plot point was written for The Storm King* and Tempest is running circles around this one here, you have a problem.
* I actually like The Storm King
, but am fully aware the writing for him, like much of everything in the 2017 film, is rather undercooked.
Naturally I find the model quality difference between film-made models and (most) show-made ones leap out at me mostly for the characters (literally any shot with Sparky and the Mane 5/film-designed critters), with examples like Posey's off facial proportions or the gruesome gradient of Jazz's mane springing to mind. But the examples in props and objects, especially those only around for an episode… eeyup, they be a thing.
A believable approach to problem-solving that at least quasi-resemble how we humans and spirits would successfully solve it? Get that outta here!
Obviously one has to expect playing into narrative tropes that eschew actual psychology and logic, but they really leap out at you when they make characters consistently act in non-friendship ways. And these aren't even the intended ones to facilitate the character dilemma of the day either.
I've sometimes seen folks cite Zipp as a better character then Rainbow Dash because she has less "jerk" moments. Conceding that Dash's jerky side was certainly written inconsistently over the years, that doesn't remotely fly, for the same reason that none of the characters that are reheated Mane 6 leftovers compare – Zipp is rarely anything but "the cool one" (and being an idiot by bad writing), and her writing in Ep. 5 perfectly shows how that and nothing else does not a good character make. Even when I disliked how Dash was written, there was always enough insecurity moments and genuine supportive moments there. One gets the impression the writers knew Zipp needed something else, hence the detective bit, but as demonstrated here, it just make her more aloof and distant.
It really does write itself, doesn't it? When I'm mentally rewriting the episode while watching it, that's never a good sign. And I can think of many effective examples of what you cite, a competent infiltrator who nonetheless is easily swayed because she's always being an obedient minion who listens to others and does what they're told. And how that factors into being misguided. Despite all the evidence, I was so sure what you described was what we would get this episode. Not even close.
I mean… you did read what I wrote, right? I was pointing out that others' argument of it being a preschool show was hogwash, for many of the same reasons you cite. Even bringing up Bluey too.
Ditto, though I am still watching TYT too, even if I forget each short near-instantly. I dislike the art style, but not as much as yourself. Mostly, though, I'm just watching to keep informed now, given Ep. 7 of MYM showed they will indeed drop things from those shorts into this series with no context whatsoever. Boy, am I gonna have some choice words about that next time…
Heh, I suspect the Admiral, yourself and I would have a whale of a time viewing new episodes together! If our shared thoughts and grievances are anything to go by.
I do suspect they must have a higher-quality rendering farm available on a smaller scale somewhere, as the newer character renders seen in marketing lately look much closer to those from the film, give or take somewhat heavier saturation. It certainly makes the packaging on toys look more impressive to unsuspecting parents at the toy store!
For what it's worth, a few show staff have publicly commented that the budget and schedule is indeed awfully cramped. Not that we needed the confirmation, especially in the wake of what's happening at Netflix Animation (even if they're not directly producing this, it still has a roll-on effect), but it's something.
And if that wasn't bad enough, the next episode had Cloudpuff present that morning (and crucial to a "Sunny talks to a pet and decides what to do on her own" bit), when he wasn't here this episode! Make him showing up to watch Zipp and Pipp in Ep.5 being a non-starter seem mild, doesn't it?
Some folks do care. I can tell that for sure. But it doesn't mean squat if the end result is still sloppy and the care doesn't come through (and that would help, because many a film or piece of television has been saved by the evident onscreen passion). I acknowledge it's mostly a byproduct of budget/time constraints, but enough of the issues are just writing/asset management sloppiness that it cannot just be shrugged off.
For all that #2 infuriated me, I don't even disagree with this! Well, except that the film stands heads and shoulders above anything else G5, of course. But yes, for 2022-onward G5 content, you're right. A lot of that's subtraction and medium change – even with not-the-best Pony artists, the art is always interesting in a way that the puppet and models of TYT/MYM are not. It being written means the viewer can project more competent pacing and voice acting in place of that shaky aspect of the aforementioned shows. The filler issues feel like more competent TYT shorts. And the writing is bereft of the trademark whiny mid-tier Canadian cartoon dialogue cadence and jokes.
I still don't enjoy it myself, honestly (though I'm aware The Admiral and yourself often get more from the comics them many of the rest of us), but it has less weighing it down at every turn.
It sounds like Misty's arc is the sort of predictable where you think, oh, so they're going in that direction, and then hope she actually gets where you expect she will.
It'd be interesting to see this compared to My Little Pony Tales or G3.
5692091
That's exactly what I was thinking when I wrote that comment!
Like I said, I was reacting as I read and hadn't read the next bit yet, but yeah a bit of sympathetic amplification there.
I'm depending on you to let us know if anything of note happens in TYT.
5692088
I sure they didn't miss it; they just sighed sadly and let it go. The same thing happens with the other characters' hair strands/cards, but they're so thin it's almost unnoticeable. Misty's dreads are so thick that it's hard not to notice. If you look carefully at the pic with the yarn above you'll see some strands interpenetrating each other and the floor, but since they're uniform in color and not moving, it doesn't leap out at you.
The only way to make the dreads not mess up like that, is to do collision physics for each strand, and that's a huge amount of computation, which equals a lot more time and money, and that's why it ain't gonna happen unless they do a second movie.
I don't blame the art crew at all. In fact, I'm pretty sure a lot of them are working extra hard and putting in unpaid hours to make things look as good as possible. Nobody becomes an animator for money or prestige, because there isn't much of that to go around; they do it for love of the art. But the realities of limited budgets and limited time are always working against them, and the suits make the final call on what's "good enough."
5692110
Exactly. It really is the kind of character story that, despite all the infantile writing everywhere else, would be honestly satisfying regardless of how predictable it is, just written in the logical chain that foregrounds the moments I highlighted above that should be foregrounded. And yet, nope, not even that, consistent foregrounding of typical whiny Canadian cartoon humour. We're left to pick on a few grace notes here and there for anything substantial (Misty's final line in the last episode – we'll get to it – is a perfectly good bit of this, sticking out for such moments being so rare in its episode).
5692115
I mean, given the pace it's taking me to get these posts up, you'll always be well through any moments of confusion before I explain it weeks after the fact. But will do. So far, there's just the one next episode; otherwise it's just the show expecting the viewer to be more familiar with the characters and locales via attrition from that show. Bad, but not as damaging as expecting the viewer to remember the name of Izzy's mechanical unicorn that she puts under her bed as a decoy next episode.
Yup. Render farms and texturing power will continue to get more efficient, but there's no substitute for the amount of time required for accurate collision physics in a simulation. It's the reason why we can have more recent lower-tier CG tv/streaming animation with hair/fur that is better-textured than, say, Sulley in Monsters, Inc., but the latter's fur moves far more believably in motion. At least, that's how I understand it.
I'm reminded of how many posts on Twitter I saw of animators/other CG artists making their debut with this show, or at least still early in their career. Yet again, I'm reminded that were it not for the brand name, there would be virtually no attention online for their work at all. It leaves me torn, frankly – they are working so, so hard, it's evident, and yet because there's being told to make a mountain with the tools and timeframe to make a molehill, the shortcomings dominate.
Honestly, apart from me lacking the personal discipline to be an animator, the level of work required versus the constraints and payoff may well have turned me off even had I qualified and entered the industry. Course, that's a big if, given most people I know who got animation degrees ended up in art positions not strictly to do with animation. Very tough market! So I do not, for a fraction of a second, doubt the skill and talent of these people.
A bit late to the party today because a building full of computer science professors couldn't successfully install Windows off a USB drive. Good on Serketry for getting a mention in the main review, though!
Watching these episodes all back-to-back with him was certainly fun, but it's still not quite like watching The Room or other bad movies- the pacing/editing is so frenetic I often found it hard to get a word in edgewise. Misty's non-Euclidean hair didn't really need a lot of explanation, though... seriously, every single scene it seemed to be freaking out. Which would.... actually have been kind of a neat effect if used on a character like Nightmare Moon who is supposed to be uncanny.
I started out this post saying that I thought Mix-Up was right down with the first two episodes in my worst-of-G5 list, but then your review reminded me how much the borderline incoherent Freaky Friday main plot was pushed aside for the villains trying to put together a plan.
I wonder if that RC camera mouse was ever supposed to be a toy release as well?
Sleep Over was actually one of my favorite G5 episodes so far. Which is really not saying much but still. It had a plot it was able to consistently follow through on, albeit a rather formulaic one, and it looked like Zipp was going to have the chance to do something genuinely heroic in confronting Misty here- it was the next episode that dropped the ball on that so hard the space-time continuum cracked. Although the whole time we were watching it, Serketry and I were wracking our brains to try to figure out if there had been previous mention of that lantern doing... well, anything, really, and we had just missed it. Good to know we weren't the only ones confused.
Also, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Zipp Storm wears a lot of hats. She's a detective, she's a scientist, and then in that one short she was angled to become the leader of a rebuilt Wonderbolts... no wonder she doesn't have time to try out a less godawful hair style.
And we got lore! It's not quite the panel books from G4, but that 2D cutout style is tremendously refreshing compared to the regular animation of the show. Shame everything everypony says seems designed to make Twilight's decisions look as bad as possible. If this were a better show I'd assume that was so that they could show later on how those stories were corrupted and paint her in a worse light than reality... actually, they might still do that, but not because they'd planned it.
I always was willing to give the comics the benefit of the doubt because I figured they did the best they could with what they were given- or, sometimes, weren't given, such as the issue where Pipp can only talk about posting on "social media" because the episode where she spams like five or six different punny platform names wasn't written yet.
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Yep, that's the other thing about animation; it's brutal work, particularly at "crunch time."* Young healthy people without families or other outside obligations do fine working 14 hour days seven days a week, but once they start getting "old" (30+), they tend to find easier work.
I remember visiting a friend at the Disney studio in Glendale a few times to leach a meal from their nightly catered dinners. That was a regular thing, not because Disney was altruistically treating their artists well, but because they didn't want to lose the productive time it would take for the animators to go out and get their own dinner. (Or possibly not come back to work until 10pm, the "understood" quitting time.)
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* Inevitably caused by deadlines set for considerations such as getting the game/movie out for the holidays, and without taking into account the actual amount of work to be done.
I just got to this point myself, admittedly having taken a hard pass on "chapter 1" or whatever they call that 45 minute one.
Listening to these with one ear while painting models has worked really well for me (not a ringing endorsement, I know). The animation is so stilted and simple, but the voices and exchanges flow well enough to keep my interest. Even Opaline, oddly - her voice is so terrible, but there's a ham-villain quality to it I do kinda enjoy, and her multi-episode exchange coaching Misty's evil laugh gave me a hoot.
The two real bright spots for me are,
1) Haven's appearances. I've always liked 'adult' characters getting a little shine, and her "I don't mind messes, I'm a mom" line was a nice and witty nod to the parents watching with their kids. She's really often been the highlight for me - in the movie she had 'secret villain' written all over her (dark clothes, queen-in-a-kids-movie, Diamond Tiara colors), but ended up just a tough and caring mom. Even the Youtube series' habit of her often screaming for the guards was its more amusing running gag. In the portrait ep, she got to develop, sing, and provide exposition in a way that felt pretty natural and pleasant.
2) The... idea, if not entirely the execution of the alicorn episode. "They only like you because you're an alicorn, before then you were nothing" is a shockingly hard-hitting conflict, all the more because Opaline... isn't wrong. This is the kind of thing G4 could have built a season around, and if Twilight (or, dream of dreams, Celestia) ever got an ep like that it would have spawned theories and art and sadfics to this day.
Alas, it was the same episode that checked off the 'Sunny is an activist' on their to-do list. I loathe even approaching the same side of the "Ew that's WOKE" crowd, but that notion worked in the first movie and now has to be awkwardly forced in to child-friendly causes (instead of uhhhhhh fighting a racist military-industrial complex). She can apparently declare holidays, but still runs around waving signs like she's fighting the system...
If the series was more mature, I would look forward to seeing the 'alicorn' plot and doubts develop. Also to see Izzy get some love, because we see over (went to hostile alien land to desperately seek a friend) and over (had no unicorn friends so built a toy, Jesus) and over ("I've never had a unicorn friend before!") that she is low-key super depressed and lonely. Alas, I cannot hold my breath.
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Wise, given how little the viewer needs to know (earth ponies got plant magic back; harmony must be maintained to have the crystals not glitch out; Hitch finds a dragon egg that hatches; Opaline and Misty have begun spying on the crew). You're not missing much! And the low-key meandering plotting with constant cross-cutting is far more irritating across 44 minutes.
Having already finished these eight episodes here, were I ranking the nine thus far, Chapter 1 would be 3rd last, with only two episodes full of massively infuriating stuff placing lower.
I always find a good test for how well-made something is on the technical side is if watching it is an improvement over just reading the script. If not, or it's worse, then no, as reading it means the reader will just plug in better timing and animation in their head. I suppose that applies just to listening to the episodes too, if not quite on the same scale. Heck, I'll even spot you on Opaline's hammy quality maybe working, because her character animation is subject to so many single-axis tilts that it modulates the voice performance to 'sound' worse. I bet is isolation it's more acceptable.
Evidently you missed my post on Ep. 3 & 4, as I cite both those points as positive ones, down to Sunny's alicorn dilemma being ostensibly interesting but sunk by having to share screen space with juvenile activist schtick.
It was actually quite nice, seeing Haven used effectively after she was a shrill nag in Chapter 1. The knowing mother moments, getting across some exposition of Zipp and Pipp's past organically and naturally, even the singing kind of worked. The narrow focus of Ep. 3 really brought out a not-insignificant number of nice character moments.
I always find it amusing, the divide between viewers who expected some of all of the three tribal leaders (Phyllis, Haven and Alphabittle) to be the villains or antagonists, and thus were surprised when it was Sprout, versus those who weren't surprised by the direction taken. And yes, I remember you still consider Phyllis the film's real villains – you see my point.
Indeed, and there would be a lot of potential to this if the writers ever delibretly tackled it, as opposed to be stumbling into it, saying a few generic platitudes with a non-committal shrug, and then backing out.
The age-old animation trope of a bubbly character who is that way to mask their inner depression and loneliness is a reliable standby, because it allows them to mostly suit the tone of the material while still getting across a deep, penetrating mental fear. Hence why it saddens me that the series, whenever it tries plotlines like that with Izzy (like in this very episode) just makes a hash of it to the effect of there being no emotional resonation whatsoever. Something I noted for Portrait of a Princess is that viewers are far more forgiving of anything that generates an emotional response, and that is very true. So pity the series has had maybe three moments like that so far, and Portrait of a Princess was the only one to be more than a few isolated grace notes.
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Bronies have known that one ever since sadLuna trotted into their hearts in episode two.
Also explains why Rainbow Rocks remains the favorite of the EQG movies...
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...you're not wrong.
Though, the Admiral and I were both way, way disappointed that Portrait of a Princess, the episode, woefully undersold its own amazing title. Because that title, man. That should've been a G4 episode and/or comic.