Well, it was not bad.
Like many people I guess I expected worse, but I actually got a bit hooked while watching it. Ponies, their voice and visual acting and expression were pretty adorable which had its part in my positive impression, as well as their behaviour not being too childish. Though of course it wasn't really adult as well, as in what Sunny did in the beginning - breaking in the show and trying to tell a crowd things it wouldn't believe in (like Hitch said, did she think they would suddenly believe her?).
There were a few worse things, which were significantly bad for me, first of which is how Sunny's father actually died. We only saw him for about three minutes of screen time, and then, just in a couple seconds of screen getting dark and making a time skip, he suddenly dies. In the background. With the film suddenly kicking us out in front of his pictures and Sunny talking to one. I get it was supposed to be a beautiful dramatic gesture, but to me such a sudden quick loss of a character I just started to like was not dramatic, it was horrific, you do not do that with your characters! :p It would be better if we'd see an additional, smaller time skip of Sunny growing and Argyle getting somewhat ill, or just older, which would push us a bit softer to realization his time is about to end soon. Or if the film started with Sunny being grown up, with pictures if her father telling us he's not around anymore. But not like how the film did it, bleh
Second, and most important bad thing, was the ending. Like I said, the film was mostly enjoyable, and in the ending I felt like the tension was grown pretty nicely: Sunny was about to lose her home, the one she grew up in with her father, and which is everything she has left from her family (her mother is nowhere to see from the beginning), so it was the final moment when she finally joined the crystals, and...
when her home is destroyed, she just goes ":<". I'm not sure I'm supposed to demand a lot from her, but I kind of expected her to be more heartbroken about losing her home than she was.
...was it bad that they didn't work until she came to a rather adult realization about needing to unite and overcome conflicts? No, this idea on its own is pretty nice, and it can be greater then just having to simply connect the crystals together.
However. When she says those wise words, and the unicorn and pegasus pones seem to realize what they have to do, it's the moment of overcoming the conflict. It was a difficult moment, but now they made a big progress. So we don't feel any tension anymore, and that' why when the crystals suddenly fly up and give out their magic, I realized.. I don't feel relieved by that.
Because, look, I remember that their goal was to bring the magic back, but as of this moment, it felt like they realized more important thing, as in needing to overcome their misunderstandings and conflicts, not get the magic itself. When the tension was in the air, when everyone was at stress and physcially it was about Sunny's home almost getting destroyed, it was the moment when I really wanted crystals to work and magic to happen - that would give the satisfaction from the expectations, however when they really start to work, the pressure is no more, it feels just like a bonus gift.
To complete this with an example, this could work in my opinion way better if there were two problems: some big threat which is about to harm everyone, AND confrontation risen between the races, which doesn't let them unite together. This way, it would still be dramatic and meaningful when Sunny realizes what's the real problem between them, and they would listen to her, but also they would still have a big threat they have to overcome somehow, which would feel pretty bittersweet - they finally found a way to solve their differences, but now they're about to lose a lot due to not being able to fix their previous mistakes, And then, crystals would rise, letting Sunny and others fight/overcome that threat, in case of which magic given out would feel really meaningful as well, not just as a gift making everyone happier after ponies already realized the biggest problem they should solve.
Also, the ending itself. Y'know, maybe I don't get somethin, but I feel like, um, giving some sort of an epilogue where happy protagonists do something and we see their story continuing with bright future is something which every family movie should usually do to leave happy impression and mood for viewers when they end watching the film. I dunno. maybe it's not what people actually think unlike me. But I feel like it's pretty clear the ending was somewhat cut, because after the culmination happens - the magic is given out to everyone, everyone is cheering - they're just saying "we did it" and it ends. Like.. shouldn't there have been some sort of denouement to it? It felt kind of disappointing cause seeing them moving on with their lives in some happy attitude compilation would feel really right. Like seeing them hanging out together, seeing how they help Sunny to rebuild her house (which was. um. still broken when they were smiling during the ending??) and etc. Without that, the ending felt kinda sour to me. which is shame, cause properly written ending would make it a film I would rewatch again, but without it my general impression got lowered.
I'm also kind of afraid to build expectations for the upcoming series, because I feel like the general rule of most series is being less serious and immersive than their pilot movies, which was also true with EG series - I didn't enjoy any of their series, but the first four movies were actually nice, I enjoyed them all and they also had awesome songs which really hit my tastes (btw MLP:NG didn't hit my tastes with its songs as well, though they weren't too bad). But I can't know, so time will show
Not a bad movie, still. At least I somewhat liked it, which I didn't expect to
Well, it was not bad. Like many people I guess I expected worse, but I actually got a bit hooked while watching it. Ponies, their voice and visual acting and expression were pretty adorable which had its part in my positive impression, as well as their behaviour not being too childish. Though of course it wasn't really adult as well, as in what Sunny did in the beginning - breaking in the show and trying to tell a crowd things it wouldn't believe in (like Hitch said, did she think they would suddenly believe her?). There were a few worse things, which were significantly bad for me, first of which is how Sunny's father actually died. We only saw him for about three minutes of screen time, and then, just in a couple seconds of screen getting dark and making a time skip, he suddenly dies. In the background. With the film suddenly kicking us out in front of his pictures and Sunny talking to one. I get it was supposed to be a beautiful dramatic gesture, but to me such a sudden quick loss of a character I just started to like was not dramatic, it was horrific, you do not do that with your characters! :p It would be better if we'd see an additional, smaller time skip of Sunny growing and Argyle getting somewhat ill, or just older, which would push us a bit softer to realization his time is about to end soon. Or if the film started with Sunny being grown up, with pictures if her father telling us he's not around anymore. But not like how the film did it, bleh Second, and most important bad thing, was the ending. Like I said, the film was mostly enjoyable, and in the ending I felt like the tension was grown pretty nicely: Sunny was about to lose her home, the one she grew up in with her father, and which is everything she has left from her family (her mother is nowhere to see from the beginning), so it was the final moment when she finally joined the crystals, and... when her home is destroyed, she just goes ":<". I'm not sure I'm supposed to demand a lot from her, but I kind of expected her to be more heartbroken about losing her home than she was. ...was it bad that they didn't work until she came to a rather adult realization about needing to unite and overcome conflicts? No, this idea on its own is pretty nice, and it can be greater then just having to simply connect the crystals together. However. When she says those wise words, and the unicorn and pegasus pones seem to realize what they have to do, it's the moment of overcoming the conflict. It was a difficult moment, but now they made a big progress. So we don't feel any tension anymore, and that' why when the crystals suddenly fly up and give out their magic, I realized.. I don't feel relieved by that. Because, look, I remember that their goal was to bring the magic back, but as of this moment, it felt like they realized more important thing, as in needing to overcome their misunderstandings and conflicts, not get the magic itself. When the tension was in the air, when everyone was at stress and physcially it was about Sunny's home almost getting destroyed, it was the moment when I really wanted crystals to work and magic to happen - that would give the satisfaction from the expectations, however when they really start to work, the pressure is no more, it feels just like a bonus gift. To complete this with an example, this could work in my opinion way better if there were two problems: some big threat which is about to harm everyone, AND confrontation risen between the races, which doesn't let them unite together. This way, it would still be dramatic and meaningful when Sunny realizes what's the real problem between them, and they would listen to her, but also they would still have a big threat they have to overcome somehow, which would feel pretty bittersweet - they finally found a way to solve their differences, but now they're about to lose a lot due to not being able to fix their previous mistakes, And then, crystals would rise, letting Sunny and others fight/overcome that threat, in case of which magic given out would feel really meaningful as well, not just as a gift making everyone happier after ponies already realized the biggest problem they should solve. Also, the ending itself. Y'know, maybe I don't get somethin, but I feel like, um, giving some sort of an epilogue where happy protagonists do something and we see their story continuing with bright future is something which every family movie should usually do to leave happy impression and mood for viewers when they end watching the film. I dunno. maybe it's not what people actually think unlike me. But I feel like it's pretty clear the ending was somewhat cut, because after the culmination happens - the magic is given out to everyone, everyone is cheering - they're just saying "we did it" and it ends. Like.. shouldn't there have been some sort of denouement to it? It felt kind of disappointing cause seeing them moving on with their lives in some happy attitude compilation would feel really right. Like seeing them hanging out together, seeing how they help Sunny to rebuild her house (which was. um. still broken when they were smiling during the ending??) and etc. Without that, the ending felt kinda sour to me. which is shame, cause properly written ending would make it a film I would rewatch again, but without it my general impression got lowered. I'm also kind of afraid to build expectations for the upcoming series, because I feel like the general rule of most series is being less serious and immersive than their pilot movies, which was also true with EG series - I didn't enjoy any of their series, but the first four movies were actually nice, I enjoyed them all and they also had awesome songs which really hit my tastes (btw MLP:NG didn't hit my tastes with its songs as well, though they weren't too bad). But I can't know, so time will show Not a bad movie, still. At least I somewhat liked it, which I didn't expect to