This was something written two months ago, but I think it would work as first impressions on that teaser.
Before this teaser was shown, I was very sceptical about it. When I read many years ago that Joe Ballarini (who had written the shitty Ice Age 4) will work on that movie, I was disappointed. Then, many years later, when I read a couple of days ago some official things and rumous about season 7 and the movie (pretty much related to Starlight, the new changelings and Twilight), I was a bit depressed. It didn’t help the fact that the team was working on many EG movies as well as the show at the same time, so I tought this pony movie was going to be something made with no passion, like one of these blockbuster movies made by a cold factory instead of some passionate creators.
But then I watched this teaser. I was happily wrong! We’ve seen less than a minute, but this looks much more interesting than the season 6 and season 7. It’s better than this Game of Thrones trailer reference for season 6 from the last year, don’t you think?
I’ve always been a fan of Friendship is Magic since October 2011 (back then, the newest episode was Sisterhooves Social, one of my favourite episodes in the entire show). But I’m an even bigger fan of film as a whole. Storytelling, characters, arc evolution, soundtrack, inventive details…
I’m not hyped, but I’m much more interested in this movie than the future of the show (which is turning into some kind of “The adventures of Starlight Glimmeh” and a fan appeasement collection). Let’s give it a chance.
So what do I personally want from this movie in particular?
First of all, the main focus should be on the Mane 6 and Spike or the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It’s impossible to avoid Starlight Glimmer topic. This unicorn wasn’t very interesting to begin with. She looks like one of these boring anime characters with super-powers. And it doesn’t make sense that the character is suddenly socially awkward after being able to control a whole town. And I keep saying the same thing: In episodes like The Crystalling, No second prances and A hearth’s warming tail, we see Starlight trying to redeem herself. Each episode is a little step of her. What happens after that? She does the complete opposite thing in Every little thing she does. So the show will be focused on her, but I would really appreciate it if the movie will be focused on the six main characters or the Cutie Mark Crusaders like the first seasons. They are simple, but very relatable for everyone. Adults, kids, teenagers… The more main characters you have, the harder is to write the script. So I prefer something simple for them. I haven’t seen Starlight in the teaser, so that’s a good sign.
Less emphasis on magic. Don’t get me wrong, I want to see magic in this movie. But it should be used sparingly. If you see the first seasons, Twilight uses a bit of magic to read books or holding some objects, but in crucial moments like that ursa major, more magic is necessary. Sure, everyone loves magic, but after watching a huge compendium of magic (the case of season 6, like that boring opening of Every little thing she does), it just takes the magic away. Magic should be used as a storytelling element to progress the story, not as fan appeasement.
Make a story that doesn’t depend on the TV show to understand the movie. Remember when Square-Enix made a bunch of products related to Final Fantasy VII? Movies, anime, games, mobile games… Most of the fans said all these products were trying to present a big part of a story you already have been told. A story from a game that didn’t need another game or a big movie to understand the characters. It’s something like Kingdom Hearts, a series that received too many videogames with too many spin-off stories. Let’s face it: If the movie is going to depend on the show, the viewers who haven’t watched the show won’t understand the story. The movie needs an accessible story.
If the story needs a villain, then the villain should be new, solid and unforgettable. I don’t want to see the return of Tirek and specially Chrysalis after what they have done with her in the ending of season 6. I’ve seen some toy designs from the marketing of this movie and the characters look great and they are new, they are not introduced from the show. If you want to see something new, I think you’ll like the new characters. Personally, I really like them, at least visually.
The Mane 6 or the Cutie Mark Crusaders have to be faithful to the source material. And yes, I’m going to talk about Pinkie Pie. In the first seasons, she was a happy character who makes parties and wants everypony to be happy. But then, since season 3, she started to be incredibly annoying with screams, forced jokes and creepy faces from a Garry’s Mod silly animation as the main method os creating Pinkie Pie. That’s a pity, because she used to be my favourite character in the show. But now, she seems to be more like a tool than a character. One of my favourite examples is her appearance in Flutter Brutter. She appears not because she wants to contribute anything to the story, but because she has to scream as loud as she can. Or how about The one where Pinkie Pie Knows? That episode exists not because the writers want to introduce a new alicorn, but because the story is an excuse for Pinkie Pie to be as creepy, annoying and shouting as possible. I think people mistake that being a comic relief means being always annoying and loud and nothing else. If you watch some episodes from the seasons 1 and 2, you see that Pinkie speaks up many times, but she didn’t get to the point where she’s annoying. Since season 3 came out, the writers decided to make her loud in many episodes for many years. It’s much easier that way and people will still like it anyway. This has me worried. I don’t want to hear screams as the main method of writing her. For me, the last good Pinkie Pie episode was Pinkie Pride and the best episode was Party of One. That episode came out in a moment where she wasn’t very creepy, so it makes sense to write an episode where she’s really affected by that birthday party.
Let’s talk about the visuals. The TV show and the EG movies look are basically Flash cartoon. My biggest fear was if the movie will be filmed like that. Fortunately, it looks amazing. Stick to this design style, because it looks wonderful for a movie based on My Little Pony with characters like Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. But don’t depend too much on the visuals so you would focus less on the story. There’s a book called “The art of Frozen”. It says that “A good story might have a lazy animation, but even the most beautiful animation can’t save a bad story”. That’s actually true if you think of it. The writers of Frozen cared about the story. Some of the best animated films are praised because of the story, movies such as UP, WALL·E, Inside Out, the Toy Story trilogy, Spirited Away, Beauty and the beast (the good one), The lion king… The most important thing of a movie is the story, and animated films are not exception.
Speaking about the visuals, use this design style to give us Equestria with amazing views. Give to this movie great shots where we viewer can praise the huge scale of the world so it would be very creative and wonderful.
The music should be orchestral, not pop songs. I could accept one or two, but the soundtrack shouldn’t be focused on pop songs. One thing I didn’t like about the EG movies (specially Rainbow Rocks) was the music. The first movie had a couple of good songs, the second film I only liked the credits song and I don’t remember any song from the third movie.
If you’re like TL;DR and you don’t want to read it at all, I’ll give you a quick recap:
-The main characters should be the mane 6 or the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Starlight Glimmer shouldn’t be the main focus. I would accept at least a tiny role.
-Magic sparingly used as a storytelling element to advance the story.
-Make a standalone story.
-The main villain should be solid and memorable.
-The main characters shouldn’t be dived into full parody mode, specially Pinkie Pie.
-Stick to this design style. It’s great.
-Focus on the story instead of style over substance.
-Use this style to give us amazing shots of Equestria.
-Orchestral music.
And last but not least, the movie has to be fun. Simple as that.
Like I’ve said, the movie is more interesting than season 6 and 7, but I’m not hyped because the show disapopinted me several times with changes, forced jokes, repetitive stories, unnecessary stories, a seventh character who’s not very interesting… Even though, my first impressions about the movie are very positive, so the only thing it could possibly go wrong in the future would probably be Pinkie Pie as an annoying character (this is more established than the speeches of Christopher Nolan). If everything is done right, the movie will be more than just a good movie. The only thing we have to hold is hope.
