My Little Pony Movie Thread 2: Electric Scootaloo

[Adiwan]

I miss Pushing Daisies. When I was fresh out of college, I had a couple job interviews with the composer for that show to be his assistant. The writer's strike ended up prematurely finishing the show, though.

I'm super jealous on the basis that you met James Dooley.
And yes: It's a crime against humanity that the show ended too early and the end of season two was rushed into a somewhat unsatisfactory ending.

[Highbrow Dash]

I think that "One Small Thing" sticks more in the head and Kirstin Chenoweth's voice is a big reason for this.
She was really great in Pushing Daisies.
At least the song dug real deep into my skull.

Oh shit, that's her? I had no idea

Yeah, that was a great show.

[Fizzbuzz]

Just as a reminder, the DVD and Blu-ray of the movie are in stores today.

[Octavia]

Just as a reminder, the DVD and Blu-ray of the movie are in stores today.

Yoink!

Thanks for the reminder!

[SlateSlabrock]

I ordered it from Amazon, and it was marked as delivered an hour ago to my front door.

I've been here all evening, nobody knocked, and there's no package here.

edit: The parcel locker is not the front door, UPS.

The "trailers" special feature is the trailers for other movies they run before the title menu, not the pony movie trailers.

The Equestria Girls short "Road Trippin'" is in special features, along with an odd "Baking with Pinkie Pie" clip show, the PR interviews with the staff we saw before launch, the Hanazuki short, and Capper's song cutting between video footage and Taye Diggs in the sound booth.

[Headless Horse]

MLP:Movie shows up under "Top DVD & Streaming" at rottentomatoes.com

[Dal]

I don't think I'm going to bother tracking a copy of this down and watching it. From what I've seen and read, there are too many inconsistencies with what's been established in the show, too many instances where characters a sidelined by a plot that you can tell was thrown together at the last minute (who would win: an alicorn whose shield can protect an entire kingdom from darkness incarnate; or one orbie boi), and a ton of out of character moments.

I would also like to mention my immense distaste with how the story makes Celestia out to be one of the most inept or naive ponies in the world since she couldn't keep track of major shit like the Storm King was pulling off, or how she just let an entire invasion force steam into her capital and enslave her people.

That said, the new characters are pretty great, but it's too bad we will never hear or see from them again.

All in all this movie has been a major source of frustration for me, and frankly, it evokes the same feelings I get when I read some out of touch, sub-par fanfic. I desperately wish it wasn't the case. I know they were trying for a more epic scope and adventure here, but I can't get over how poorly it was executed, and it's a shame that it got stuck in developmental hell and forced them to hack together this end product.

It's me - the lonely fucking turbo-nerd obsessing over how a movie for little girls doesn't conform to his ~vision~.

[Bremen]

For what it's worth, I quite enjoyed the movie.

I would also like to mention my immense distaste with how the story makes Celestia out to be one of the most inept or naive ponies in the world since she couldn't keep track of major shit like the Storm King was pulling off, or how she just let an entire invasion force steam into her capital and enslave her people.

Eh, I kind of found this an interesting direction for the movie to go. There's a scene where one of the new characters is looking over the captured Canterlot and goes "So much power - and they use it for parties." Along with a few other comments it paints an interesting and unexpected picture of how the ponies are seen by the rest of the world. It's not a direction I expected them to go.

[Dal]

I know I'm being too hard on it, but I've never felt so disappointed by FiM like this.

[PhoolCat]

No, I'm with you - also where the heck were Discord, Starlight Glimmer, etc. and why did Twilight completely forget how to teleport?

Also I still dislike their blobby facial design.

[PhoolCat]

I am glad that Muffins got to be a hero, though

[SlateSlabrock]

Discord doesn't show up and instantly solve most problems in the show and the movie because that would be really boring.

Alternatively, if they had him show up for every villain just to be stuck in an anti-Discord genie bottle or something every time, he'd be in the same place people complain about with the princesses.

[The Doctor]

Well, the creative team made the decision to reform him, and keep him around. They should put forth the effort to utilize him. Just like with the Princesses, it would not be too hard to give him a side task that gives him an active role in the story, while not being the focus of it.

It just takes more creative effort than ignoring him.

[Highbrow Dash]

Well, the creative team made the decision to reform him, and keep him around. They should put forth the effort to utilize him. Just like with the Princesses, it would not be too hard to give him a side task that gives him an active role in the story, while not being the focus of it.

It just takes more creative effort than ignoring him.

So turn him into stone again, I won't complain

He's OP and I'm very much not a fan of his episodes (other than Return of harmony). I'm okay with silently ignoring him.

You could totally complain about how the movie goes against the "lore" in many ways (for instance, they figured they needed the pearl so they could transform and defend Equestria... so why not ask the Changelings for help?). That just spoils the fun, though. And this movie was good fun

[Mr. Big]

As far as why this movie didn't have Starlight Glimmer, its a matter of production issue: they started working on this movie before the first episode with Starlight AIRED (the movie was announced in late 2014; "The Cutie Mark" two-parter didn't air until 2015). Turns out, a feature length movie takes longer time to develop than a show.

Basically, the movie was in the works the same time as seasons 5-7 (roughly) and was pretty much produced separately. Any elements from those seasons that ended up in the movie were kept at a minimum.

[Fizzbuzz]

Considering how much revision (a polite term for development hell, admittedly) the movie seemed to be subject to, I figure its crew had time to add at least a little stuff from S5 and maybe S6 depending on how early that season's stories got pitched. Twilight didn't seem to utterly lack confidence in her royal status like she did back in S4, for instance.

[SlateSlabrock]

Considering how much revision (a polite term for development hell, admittedly) the movie seemed to be subject to, I figure its crew had time to add at least a little stuff from S5 and maybe S6 depending on how early that season's stories got pitched. Twilight didn't seem to utterly lack confidence in her royal status like she did back in S4, for instance.

I can buy that the script had to be written a loooong time ago, and that revisions couldn't be added easily -- especially since one of the big flaws was needing to cram in so many special guests. Changing the script means changing the storyboards means changing the animation.

That said, the show has not had a very strong continuing story arc from season to season, and I suspect Hasbro doesn't give DHX much chance to react to decisions like renewal for more seasons. One part of the recent leaks was Meghan McCarthy complaining that the creative team doesn't get clear directions from above, which makes executing a plan difficult.

Ideally, the movie would've anticipated some of the places the show went in the intervening years, written them into the script, and then Meghan could tell the writing staff to drift in that direction. I wonder if production ran a lot longer than expected, which would've exacerbated planning characters out ahead of time (and explained things like the weirdly low-poly airships). Maybe they thought they could pump the film out in a year like an Equestria Girls flick.

[Captain Rufus]

I just got around to seeing it today. It's decent. Not great but decent. Tempest's song was hella great but in general it was more or less like an up budget made for TV special. Trixie and Glimmer do have a cameo towards the end though. And there is a Discord one as well.

I was happier with it than say the recent Alien and Star Wars films which isn't exactly a massive bar to clear...

But we can still see these characters again since back in the 80s Hasbro recast all the big names in the Transformers movie for the next TV season. Most would just get new voices or they could get cameo type appearances. Or just show up in the comics for whatever that is worth. Only 2 seasons left anyhow which is like 6 more than it was intended to get plus this movie and the EqG and the comics which could continue past the shows ala the Avatar/Korra books.

I would have wanted more out of the movie personally but it was a fun little adventure none the less.

[Mr. Big]

The movie managed to get at least one nomination: Ursa Major Awards, possibly the most well-known award given out in the furry community (which I imagine doesn't have very many, but yeah ). Season 7 got a nomination as well.

Ponies have won the TV show category every year since 2011 (with the exception of 2014, although the IDW comic book managed to win that year), so the odds of it winning are relatively high.

[Mechanical Ape]

It's time, yes it's time, for me to watch pony movie!

So ... seeing the trailers and promos, you may remember that I was not especially hyped for this film. The art seemed different but not really better, the new characters looked bizarre and nothing about the first trailer tried to sell the concept to anyone who wasn't already going to see it. So my expectations were not sky high.

But I ended up liking it a lot!

Some of the things I'd been apprehensive about were justified. I never did get used to Cat Guy or the rounder, Rankin-Bassed shape of everypony's face. They ended up being minor quibbles, though, in an experience that quickly put a big stupid grin on my face that stayed there for most of the running time. There was nothing I hated, a few things that were "eh", a bunch of things that were good and a bunch of things that were great. Just like the show!

I now share my notes (tweaked retrospectively):

- 1:30 - Our first song and it’s an embarrassing ponified Go-Go’s cover? Well, at least it’s an energetic way to introduce things. The main goal here, I think, is to keep the parents from falling asleep -- show that the next 90 minutes are going to be different from what they probably imagine, which is:



And the song accomplishes that, as does the nifty extended zoom around Canterlot. But still ... ugh. Sorry Rachel Platten.

- Are Spike’s ear-flaps supposed to be translucent?
- “You Got This” - a good song!

- At this point it's clear they haven't designed this film to make pony fans out of people who weren't already pony fans. There's not any sort of introduction to this world or to life in Equestria or even to the main characters. They're magical ponies, go with it! That said, everyone's perfectly in character and there's plenty of quick cameos, so if you are a pony fan then you're good to go. But this wasn't going to be like the LOTR films, introducing the wonder of this setting to a brand new audience and creating millions of new fans of the material in the process. They're not trying to make bronies out of the whole world, is what I'm saying. Just making a decently pleasant experience for the non-fans who've been dragged along.

- First big laugh: the pony yelling “Brian! Nooooo!” when his balloon animal gets squished.

- RIP Twilight’s crown.
“I think my bottom’s on backward.”
- Emily Blunt's killing it, but the Storm King is a poor man’s Hades.
“I can multitask.”
- Weird animal town is like something out of Samurai Jack, and cat person looks like he comes from a different cartoon altogether. Doesn't he have a duet with Paula Abdul to get back to?
- “The Friend You Need” is good though. Nobody can say Taye Diggs doesn't have chops.
“So many fun breakables!”
- “Time to be Awesome” is good!
- Big screen rainboom is great.
“I hate the big adventures.”
- MOTHER FUCKING SEA PONIES.
- Sea pony princess is the best. Oh, that's Kristen Chenoweth! That makes her the double best. KC rules.
- Twilight gonna motherfuckin' steal that pearl.
- “One Small Thing” is great.
- Everypony’s pissed at Twilight and that rules. This is the end of Act 2 so you have to have a "group falls apart" moment, but I think it's well set up on both sides. And it's nice that they have the courage to make their main character do a bad thing. But it doesn't seem forced. And Twilight's frustration with Pinkie and Dash is shared by the audience, so it's nice to see that come into play.
- "I just can’t talk to you right now”, for those who know Pinkie, know this is the most horrible thing you could possibly hear from her.
- Tempest song!
- Fucking Ursa ruins everything
“Well, look what the cat dragged in! Himself!”
- AJ immediately getting that "he's just talkin' about us".
- Fight scene: Psychotic Pinkie, pink frosting as murderblood. Awesome.
- Dr. Fluttershy is the best. Sorry Fluttershy and AJ, you don't get to do anything plot-relevant but you have good character moments.
- RIP The Throne Room
- Storm King is fucking dead.
- nm, Long live The Throne Room!
- “We're all in one piece”? Oh Songbird, too soon. Too soon.
- Good Sia song! I wonder which pony is Maddie Ziegler?
- Fizzlepop Berrytwist

--------

So yeah, solid adventure, not overpacked (there are really just a few locations), fast moving, everypony's in character and gets great character moments. There are nods to Rarity's generosity and AJ's honesty for those who know about those aspects of the characters. Spike got things to do. And I felt some feels.

Tempest's design at first screams "edgy OC", but then I realized that only bronies like me would make that association and really, fuck bronies. Nothing wrong with a broken horn, a scar and a dark color scheme as long as you ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING WITH IT, and with Tempest, they do. She's great. Emily Blunt plays her mean, not over the top, it's just right. And her character arc is not mindblowingly original, but it's done well and hits all the necessary beats. What more could one want? It's also nice that they didn't feel the need to fix her horn in the end. Though she probably should file it down or something.

Grubber is fine, I guess -- he's your silly kid-appeal not-really-a-villain villain that I suppose you gotta have. For the kids. If Storm King is Hades, Grubber is your Pain & Panic mooshed together. Really thought he'd be the one who switches sides and saves the day, but instead he just disappears around Act 3.

There's a kernel of interesting idea in the Storm King, and I like Liev Schrieber's performance, but in the end he's just too silly and lightweight to matter much. It's okay because Tempest is the real villain and she's the one who matters, dramatically.

Bird pirates are fine. Cat guy still doesn't belong. Sea ponies/hippogriffs rule.

OK I'm done.

[Madeline]

I've watched this movie three times now Best songs in a long while, especially "One Small Thing" and "Open Up Your Eyes." Emily Blunt & Kristin Chenoweth were great.

[Applepie2017]

And while I think Sia still makes a convincing headliner, "We're Off to See the World" with its devil-may-care exuberance, its wild energy and its determination to sound like it could have come from anywhere but hey guess what surprise it's from the MLP Movie soundtrack, makes a huge case for itself as kind of the chief embodiment of the movie's entire attitude.

Made by Lukas Graham and how he had grown since the 1990's.

[Auxiliatrix]

I finally got around to seeing the film myself recently, and I was awfully surprised by how much fun it was. It really delivered on the "big adventure" plotline, in my opinion, as the scope of Equestria was definitely expanded by this film.

I was impressed by how energetic "One Small Thing" was, as well as how effective "Open Up Your Eyes" turned out. The combination of visual storytelling and the song's own dramatic lyrics made that segment probably my favorite in the whole film.

I could gush about many other elements in the movie, but I wanted to draw a little attention to how Sia's pony character was actually decently integrated into the film. I liked how she had an actual character name and introduction at the start, but what stuck out to me more was how she served as a visual reminder, when the captured Twilight sees Sia-pony in a similar position toward the film's end, of the increase in stakes since the film's start, and how much the pleasant land of Equestria has been transformed.

I loved the movie.