Toon4Thought

Yeah, I can very easily see setups revolving around them reaching Trixie, Flash Sentry, or even Sunset Shimmer herself.

The way I've thought it up, Sunset would stay in the human world. But it would take a lot of contemplation to get her to that point, even finally giving Equestria a worthwhile visit before she does decide.

Oh yeah, they really should tackle that as the grand finale or something; it would probably be the single perfect note to end it on. Have it even take place during her and the other girls' graduation.

Actually, one of the leaks "infected" Juniper Montage's mirror in Mirror Magic, so there is that.

Forget season 8, this is where my real hype is.

10 minute episodes would be most preferable to me, or at least long enough for meaningful stories to play out (still waiting for Sunset's ties to Equestria being further explored). But overall... yes, I am unbelievably hyped for this. Not even in a "tide me over until season 8" kind of way; if anything, I'll still more focus on this even when that starts up.

I'm still wondering if it would've been possible for this film to win over the critics, if it was handled just a little differently. Because I was personally hoping for something like a Lego Movie effect (albeit on a smaller scale), where no one would think much of it only to find themselves completely blown away at how great the film actually was.

I thought the UK aired the tail end of season 6 before anyone else?

The network is now predominantly focusing on their app, where these issues are near non-existent. And Steven Universe has for the most part gotten quite good treatment. Here's the thing though - their live feed is basically an afterthought to the network now, and they now predominantly rely on their app and On Demand services. And like I said somewhere else in this thread, even a 6am Saturday slot would be superior to Discovery Family considering the app would give it a good amount of exposure. Amount of reruns does not equal quality of treatment. In both cases, I do agree that Netflix is probably by far the superior option though.

Discovery Family is more accessible than Cartoon Network... those are some weird packages.

For me, it's definitely Starlight. Her human design just feels so perfect and has a lot of creativity to it that almost none of the other ones have. Though a close second would be Sunset. A person who spent the majority of her life as a pony has no right looking that attractive...

Let's be real here - Discovery Family is a channel that's basically just waiting to be put out of its misery. Nobody seems to care about it, including the network itself, and MLP seems to literally be the only reason people watch it at all (and even that's debatable given recent numbers). Put simply, the show is too good for a channel like that, so I believe it's about time they consider moving the show to somewhere different. I know the crew has said views aren't very important to the show's success, but they're obviously always good to have. So, where do you think the show should be shown now? One possibility that comes to mind is Netflix, since it's proven popular on there, or possibly Cartoon Network. Yes, I'm aware it will likely be put to 6am on Saturdays or something, but their app alone would give the show a lot more exposure than it currently does.

My point exactly; many higher-ups tend to look at financial success as an indicator of quality even when that's not true. Hence, we're more likely to get films resembling The Emoji Movie than those resembling this one. And it's not that I think people won't stop having ambitions, it's that the studios and higher-ups won't let them fully realize it, at least not without executive meddling. Even this film had a little bit of that at the very beginning with "Ponies Got the Beat", which was a last minute replacement to an original composition.

Honestly, I'm looking forward to the EqG series 100x more than season 8 of the main show.

Honestly, I legit can't tell whether or not it's because they have yet to get a reliable estimate on those. I've heard some markets take a while to gather such statistics. CN's app alone, which the network actively encourages their viewers to use, would give the show a ton of exposure for sure even if it would end up on early Saturdays. Really, I just wanted this to be successful enough to encourage more studios to try different things in American film animation, not just in storytelling and tone but also in visuals. We really need a resurgence of 2D because all the mainstream 3D films basically look the same now and I can't think of much more that even could be done with it. Sure, this only would've been a starting point even if it was majorly successful, but if you don't have a starting point you can't have progress. As true as that statement is, honestly one of the few legitimate issues I do have with the film is that I felt the first time we saw the Mane 6 weren't particularly great first impressions. And by that I mean, when making a movie on it that is also intended to appeal to non-fans, you basically need to fully establish the main characters as soon as possible by best summing them up in a single moment. They tried to do that, but it's a little drawn out and not particularly fluid.

Said series is actually starting in late November (of this year), according to the Hascon pannel and K. Hadley's Twitter.

Kind of a random tangent, but I've honestly been wondering for a while why they are still bothering with Discovery Family. Forget ratings, that channel is so irrelevant by now that I don't think even the people running it care. I think them putting shows like Hanazuki and Equestria Girls on YouTube is literally more profitable at this point.

Now, to be completely clear here, I really enjoyed the movie that we got. Like, a solid 8.5/10. I believe it was worth all the effort and the big-budget advances, and while it isn't flawless by any stretch, to say the positives outweigh them would be the understatement of the year. However, I am disappointed by how the film seems to be basically a small blip on the radar among the public. Even before the movie was announced, I was imagining in my head that one would be so phenomenal that it would basically break the misconception that just because it's made for girls it must suck, and bring the entire property to a level of popularity previously never even imagined. I mean, the Lego Movie accomplished a very similar feat on both fronts. But it turns out, not only is the film not doing very well financially, but it seemed to just come and go at the blink of an eye. It's getting rather mediocre ratings on most sources, and it never even seemed to get much buzz anywhere. The consensus seems to be that this would mainly appeal to the fans and not really non-fans (though I have seen a couple exceptions on both ends), and while I most definitely see that while watching the film, it does make me wonder if the film could have potentially won over non-fans if it was done just a little differently. Or, if it was meant to appeal just to fans, they should've just gone all out with that direction and made it the best dang thing ever for us. It just feels like both in and out of the fandom, it's leaving little more of an impression than your average Equestria Girls film. And for something that I and so many others wanted to see on the big screen for a long time, and an experience that the majority of us feel for the most part delivered, I was expecting it to leave at least somewhat of an impact, even if it was little more than social media trending. I mean, really think about what it could have done to American film animation if it was a major success. Maybe I was just thinking unrealistically here, but I will admit, it's hard not to think about how IMO this film should've been much more of a hot topic than it actually was, especially out of the fanbase. Would you agree, and what is your own perspective here?

To my knowledge, seeing them return is like the #1 thing people want to see from Equestria Girls in the near future. And I can easily see a number of directions they could take this, too, especially given how much the property has evolved by this point.

It is a real shame they couldn't find anything to do with Applejack and Fluttershy, but at least they get at least a couple of good moments in and it is kind of a necessary evil when you still have time limitations and want to fully flesh out no less than two others (Twilight and Pinkie).

Yeah, the film definitely seems to be doing better on week 2 than I thought it would. Really glad to see the film seems to have some staying power, if nothing else.

It's perfectly fine for what it is. Mediocre premise and weak conflict elevated by witty dialogue, decent pacing, and an effective atmosphere. Nothing special, but it was definitely entertaining.

It was clearly at least trying to aim for newcomers just as well as the fans. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it really succeeded on that front, and I'm not even really sure if it really could have at this point. One of the few real complaints I did have toward the film was that I felt it didn't start on a very strong note. As fantastic as the opening logos and shot is, they kind of suddenly thrust us into a quiet scene right off the bat. Twilight's character is introduced to newcomers fine, but I can't say the same about her friends. Something about the way they act when we first see them didn't really come off like they quickly and fully encapsulated their personalities and dynamics in a way that would've immediately appealed to newcomers, which is a problem because we're meant to care about these characters throughout the entire film. To me, an ideal way for them to have done this would've been like the first post-opening credits scene of Regular Show's TV movie, of all things. It's somewhat disappointing for me to say that it seems to mostly appeal to fans, as the Equestria Girls films pretty much intentionally did that already and I really wanted a pony movie to win non-fans over, even before it was officially announced, but maybe it really was just wishful thinking. They clearly did what they could to please both sides, and to be fair it's not like non-fans will HATE the film or anything (for the most part), but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Well, if what the NC said is true (and he does reasonably support his argument), that more or less means the film will become much more beloved by the masses as time goes on, which I hope will be the case here. You can't say nobody saw it or anything, considering a lot of showings were indeed selling out.

Note he says "as far as I understand it", i.e. he could be wrong. And honestly, I kind of think he is, since everything about the film points to it being standalone. It is indeed canon, don't get me wrong, but it is in a sense where it really could've taken place anywhere between seasons 5 through 7. The cameos don't count because they were thrown in long after the film was scripted.