Most certainly the animation is a step up and was quite nice to look at.Unfortunately the movie itself doesn't hold up well. I enjoyed it when I first went, mainly because it was nice to just attend with fellow fans and see MLP on the big screen. But after analysing it later, and watching it after it became available for purchase, I was able to get a clearer picture of it without my rose-tinted glasses.One of the biggest problems I have with this movie is there is absolutely no build up for the main villain, The Storm King. We have no background on him, who or what he is, or anything more than his flat 2D, been done before thirst to 'take over the world'. We have seen this schtick, a thousand and one times already, knock it off. I get that this movie's target audience was 'children'. But I call bull because the creators, especially Lauren Faust knows a good chunk of their fan base are adults. There was not a good mix in this movie of child targeting and adult targeting like say---Pixar can do. And there was many opportunities for it, but they all fell flat.I assumed with this villain, I could read the prequel comic and get a better understanding. Nope.In fact, the prequel comic is quite insulting, and basically the Storm King breaks the fourth wall by turning to the reader and saying (and I'm paraphrasing here:) "You wanted to know more about me, and my backstory? HA! Well too bad!" and then the comic moves on. No, literally, those are basically his words, speech bubble and all. The comic throws you the proverbial middle finger, and we NEVER learn who this guy is, where he comes from, what the push behind his motivations (no matter how tired and over used) are. So, right from the get-go. Sucky villain.My next issue was Tempest. Now, I read the prequel and the small little story book about where Tempest came from, and how her horn got broken, and how she left because she couldn't trust anyone. Honestly though, is that all it took? Okay, I get it, being ostracised is a very hurtful thing; I won't say it isn't. But where was the support of her parents? And there has to be some pony in that village that would have given her aid. If anything, you'd think her parents, being concerned would have actually taken her to see Princess Celestia about her broken horn. That would have been a great start. But whatever, okay, so it's a 'slighted, broken' villain background story. Generic, idiotic, but unfortunately based in some root of truth. People getting ostracised does cause problems for most. I eased up on Tempest more after reading that story than my original opinion of her character which was basically rolling my eyes that her motivation to become a villain was just because 'they hurt my feewings.' Boo hoo, kids are mean, get over it.It was also very predictable, although I really thought that them getting out of Equestria was interesting, but some of this makes absolutely NO sense. Capper, cool character---but not only him but in the prequel comics there's a whole slew of cat kingdoms/creatures (where Capper is from), but yet, Rarity has Opal? As a pet? Who is a cat and doesn't walk bipedally, or even talk? Wait, now I'm confused, how does the hierarchy of animals work here now? That's not even mentioning how Applejack OWNS cows that apparently are intelligent enough to TALK but they are still rounded up like idiots who barely know their butt from a hole in the ground. Are you serious? What's the story here? Then there's the Diamond Dogs, but Applejack also has Wynona? Hold the phone...wut?But back to the movie----I think the settings were interesting, but my most hated part of the movie are the Hippogriffs. Why? Because it seems so out of place. Now if they had just flown off somewhere into hiding, okay, but no, they have to say they transformed themselves into Seaponies, introducing a magical pearl with the power of transformation, but we NEVER hear or see of it again, despite how powerful it was, don't you think that's important? Not to mention, the whole SeaPony idea? To sell toys. The movie by this point comes off as pandering, "We just want to get as many toy sells as possible, let's do MERMAIDS!" thus sea ponies were a thing. This movie tried to be so many things, in so many different places that it started to become disorienting and disjointed. The whole sea ponies thing, was completely POINTLESS. They didn't get what they were going for in the first place because, and let's be honest, as much as I enjoy how REALISTIC Twilight was, she was still a bit of an unbelievable dick in this movie, and again, though I find that AWESOME, because she did put her hoof down and decide to make a choice between the destruction of her peoples or this silly little pearl----she still fucked it up (still uncharacteristically, mind you; and this was just so they could have some "friend fight" to "fake you out" into thinking they weren't going to be friends anymore, OH NOES!), she messed it up, and they got NOTHING out of that trip.It was an excuse for toy marketing (because along with unicorn stuff, MERMAID stuff is really selling very hot right now, so why the hell not sea ponies? Let's CAPITALISE!), but also an excuse to squeeze another song in there to pad the run time. And I'm sorry, Princess Skystar? My god, nails on a chalkboard, can anyone stand her? Or is it just me? She's like that weird sing-songy, screechy weirdo at school that you try to talk to to be nice but honestly they are so ridiculously, ill-functionally weird that they tip your uncanny valley. Like how does this person even function from day to day?And who was Sia? I had no idea who this person was until the movie. I had to look her up because apparently she's a real person. Whatever, that was a celebrity plug. *waves hands*And why was everyone freaking when they were falling? HALF of the Mane 6 CAN FLY. And can grab the other three. Oh wait, someone would fall to their death because Fluttershy is utterly useless. She doesn't even try to fly when we know that she CAN. Just take your paralysing fear that we have already seen you 'over come' in the series and let it crash to the rocks below with you. (harsh, really but COME ON.)Also, small gripe, wtf, why does Spike always get the short end of the stick? Poor Spike.Lastly, I get that this movie was made for already existing fans, as in we get no short exposition/introduction to who the characters are before the movie gets really rolling, I can live with that----but I don't know, the whole thing just seemed like it was thrown together with no thought. They just tried to think of everything they could market, and threw it together. Sad too, because with some great episodes they've had, I expected better. You know what would have made a great movie? The series episode or two with the Shadow Pony and the StarSwirl the Bearded group. That could have been expanded BEAUTIFULLY into a movie---instead they rushed the story, it had no impact and it was another sad little villain 'they hurt my feewings that's why I'm evil' bull excuse and he gets saved with a /hug/. COME ON. You've beaten the tar out of villains before and shown how strong your characters are, and this one is just brought down by a HUG? Give me a break.Lastly, I'll close this by saying, that yeah, this sounds harsh, but these are my feelings on it. I have it, to watch when I want to see the animation---but story-wise, my god... no. And while I don't care about Fluttershy getting no time (because she's a blend into the background type of character anyway) poor Applejack didn't get to do...well JACK in this movie either. It was just Rarity overly-whining, when we KNOW she can really get down and dirty when it depends on it, especially when it comes to her friends, Pinkie Pie being----overtly Pinkie. Twilight being a gloriously realistic arse, and Rainbow Dash just being her cocky, jocky, short-sighted self. Liked the Pirate song though, Time to be Awesome, the beat is very uplifting. Only good take-away. Also Capper's nice. The End.
Last update on March 25, 7:24 pm by Memento Mori.