@Background Human  
This is why this movie will save Hasbro movies in terms of critical reception, considering Transformers and G.I. Joe, as well as Battleship and Ouija got negative reception that makes me think that toys adapted to films are hard to adapt. (Except LEGO, which Lord and Miller does something Michael Bay and Ehren Kruger doesn’t. Bay was kind of the reason critics take a grudge against Hasbro movies.)
 
Thank god McCarthy and Thiessen are taking the hardest test to make a good Hasbro movie.

@Background Pony #0EBA  
Yeah, I’m feeling pretty good about this pairing. You’ve got Meghan, who knows the franchise inside and out. Then you’ve got this other person, who has feature film experience and can bring a fresh set of eyes to the team, to help the movie click with audiences that may not have seen the show.

@Background Pony #6FE6  
Get your vision checked “Meghan McCarthy[…] wrote the screenplay with Rita Hsiao” and it seems like a good idea to have one of the showrunner co-working with a Disney writer that havent worked on MLP before
 
@Background Pony #A844  
(sigh) Just,dont, dont put oil in the fire please

@Background Pony #0CE8  
Toy Story 2 has the 8th best domestic box office of the 16 Pixar films so far; if you adjust for the inflation in ticket prices, it rises to 3rd best. It doesn’t fare as well when looking at worldwide box office gross, but I suspect that’s more due to Disney not realizing at the time how much potential there was in foreign markets.
 
Mulan wasn’t quite that successful, but it didn’t do badly either; with a domestic gross of $120.6m, it ranks 6th out of 14 films between The Lion King and the second coming of Lasseter. (Worldwide, its $304.3m gross would rank it 5th in the same group, and while I didn’t look up numbers adjusted for inflation, it’d likely go up another notch with those adjustments made.)
 
The bigger worry is getting a successful theatrical release for a franchise that’s still running on television; I’m not certain, but I don’t think that’s ever been done before.

While I like Mulan and Toy story 2, this actually makes me worried for the SUCCESS of the movie.
 
Specifically, while Mulan and TS2 are well liked, they are very much viewed as some of the least successful of their respective groups (Disney princess movies and the toy story movies).  
Mulan’s high quality, but compared to its compatriots like the little mermaid or Alladin, it absolutely pales in comparison.
 
 
I’m just saying, we want a movie that’s BOTH good and financially successful (So hasbro will want to make more or not pull the plug)
 
 
@Background Pony #6FE6  
I’m not a fan of the Equestria girls movies, but I think they got WORSE without her. Haber wrote Friendship games instead of McCarthy and its MUCH worse than McCarthy’s works, as problematic as they are.

Mulan is one of my favorite Disney movies of all time, and Toy Story 2 is pretty good.  
Kind of excited.

@Bexar Bandito  
Yeah, I mean, right now the cast of stars they have aren’t randomly pulled A-list celebs to simply boost name recognizition in a film. Of the four they’ve announced for sure, only one is even close to a household name, but there is weight on the others that it might draw a few more people.
 
As long as they are filling in key parts with such names, and keep it to this level of mid-tier Hollywood stardom, it’s not yet as worrisome as Shark Tale.

@Masem  
aren’t the ocean group actors members of actra? i know they have similar rules about doing non-union work; i don’t really know how it works if some actors are sag-aftra and some are actra. i think the nfb gives subsidies for animated productions as well but i dunno if that applies here since it’s not a 100% canadian production. come to think of it, would this movie count as an international co-production or is this just straight-up american? i dunno if that actually changes anything but i’m thinking that might have an impact how union pay is apportioned per country.
 
also, your mileage may vary on whether or not the new influx of hollywood actors fits with the actual product but i really don’t think this is comparable to shark tale. that was a case of gimmicky, prodigal casting of a-list stars in order to pique interest and fill more seats (will smith, angelina jolie, jack black, renee zellweger, fucking robert de niro?) i think in this case there’s at least a fair chance that the new actors are being picked out due to what they can bring to the project and not just name recognition. bear in mind they aren’t exactly obscure or washed-up but they’re not exactly far above b-list - i think kristin chenoweth is probably the most recognizable name out of all of them. i know this movie is unlikely to have a dreamworks budget behind it but at the same time i feel that if they wanted to go for gimmicky casting they’d look for bigger names than aduba, blunt, chenoweth, and schreiber - all of whom being emmy, bafta, or tony winners.

So thinking about this:  
One of the big issues that many had with the film is that most of the VAs outside of Tara are not with the US Screen Guild, a requirement for any voice work in a US-made feature film. It is not impossible to get Canadian VAs into it, but it is costly.
 
Obviously you can’t do a MLP movie without Andrea, Ashleigh, and Tabitha. You could argue away the need for Spike, Celestia, and most other principles, so if you only get those 3 into the SAG, that’s the least expensive to keep the set. Add a few others, like Cathy, Nicole, Kazumi and Shannah for singing, and you get about 10 extra characters to play with, but you can’t bring the entire town of Ponyville into this. Eg, not even expecting the CMC to appear in vocal roles.
 
So the theme of exploring past Equestria and introducing several other allies or friends with all these “celebrity” voices (this isn’t as bad as say something like Shark Tale, but its starting to get there), gives them a way to keep a story revolving around the Mane 6 with the same voice actresses but minimizing the SAG cost.

That’s potentially big, Mulan is one of my all time favorite Disney movies

i gotta say, i’ve been cautiously optimistic about the movie so far but from what i’ve seen regarding the people they’re bringing in, it looks like we’re in for a quality production. i think the addition of hsiao has allayed most of my worries about the writing quality - not that i doubt mccarthy’s abilities, but the step from the small screen to the big screen is much larger than people realize (yes, she’s behind eqg but those are essentially tv specials that may warrant the occasional limited screening.) i’m also really looking forward to some of the voice talent they’re bringing in; i can personally vouch for the acting abilities of aduba, blunt, chenoweth, and schreiber in their respective works. the only team member i’ve had any real doubts about so far was ballarini, but relatively speaking he’s still in the somewhat early stages of his career so i think he may very well be able to pull it off, especially considering the crew he gets to work with.
 
also, that release date is really close to my birthday so i may be slightly biased by my own personal excitement.

Oh yeah!

@driver240b  
Yeah, but dash was being mopey at the time.

You are a sad, sad, little pony.

@PlanetKiller  
Testing Testing 1-2-3, she kept up with Dash while flying home with her.

@PlanetKiller
 
I suspect that the drama will come when she realizes she’s a toy and will have a breakdown like Buzz.

@Amber  
When was the last time she seriously flew, without crashing? Also, so did Buzz, but; well …

@PlanetKiller
 
But she has wings!

So, Twilight Sparkle tries to prove herself by acting like a small masculine flying toy, that cannot fly? All in an effort to fit in with the other masculine army toys?

Can we not have fucking drama about unrelated shit on this, ffs.

@Background Pony #6FE6  
You mean unlike the EqG movies? Which are the greatest movies ever made?

Oh good, I was worried for a moment that McCarthy herself wrote it, and it would be terrible and full of contrivances and bad writing like the EQG movies.

Cool story bro.

K. Cool I guess.

Even better!