Equestrian Tales currently in production

[K_Cast 129]

Hello everyone,

 I'm Cast Executive Director of a My Little Pony inspired creation called Equestrian Tales, we originally started doing panels and posting about this in mid 2015, then realized to stay alive we needed to play it safe and go into stealth mode we have finally gotten to the point where are comfortable coming back into the light, and finally start to share what we have been working on, first to the place where it all started, the mlp forums. We wanted to finally give an update to the progress, and where exactly we are in the production. But first just a little about the story and what we are trying to do.

 Equestrian Tales story takes place over 1000 years in the past of the current FiM series, pulling together elements from generation 1 and a number of our own lore building to build a bridge between the shows, and making them into one my little pony universe. We will be following the journey of a small band of friends who set out into the world to record, and retell the stories of their adventures together, helping to inspire hope in the pre-equestrian world.

 We have several wonderful people helping push this show through, including Rick Farmileo animator of several characters during Disney's golden age of animated movies, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Oliver and Company, Rescuers Down under, Little Mermaid and several others, Rick was also the animator of Tulio in Road to El Dorado by Dream works. Along with Rick we have secured elements of Don Bluth animation, who created works such as The Land Before Time, Secret of Nimh, American Tale, and Anastasia. These guys are leading our animation of the generation 1 and historical elements of the pilot. We also have the help of Minty Root, Brutal Weather, Ruffu, imdrunkontea and Konsumo among others helping to push the art side of this forward. On the music side we have Marcato music, corvus, and Slender Duck (Duo Cartoonist lead composer) to start things.

 We are currently looking for voice talent for a few of our new characters as we push forward with production, if you are interested please leave a message here, or fill free to email me at- kenneth.casteel@harmonizeentertainment.com. We are not casting cannon characters at this time, very few will appear in the pilot, and will be used with permission.

I have included just a sample of the work that's being done right now, from some concept artworks, to music samples and we will be releasing more as we can, exclusively right here and with out spoiling to much. We will also be relaunching our youtube page, will be linked here once she is ready to go again.

Also some external links if you wanted to see what we had posted before-

Equestria Daily

New Animatic not yet released to public- Tallest Tale Part 1 - 

 

One of our talented animators of Equestrian Tales, we will be able to announce a few more soon-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2017 by K_Cast
added new content

[Hierok 11,829]

So much detail.  That looks amazing!

[K_Cast 129]

Just now, Hierok said:

So much detail.  That looks amazing!

thank you so much, the team has been putting their hearts into this, but you all are worth it.

[Hierok 11,829]

11 minutes ago, K_Cast said:

 

 

I especially like this one. That tree is just pure art.

[K_Cast 129]

4 minutes ago, Hierok said:

I especially like this one. That tree is just pure art.

 In about 2 months you should see this fully animated, its part of the shot we are working on right now. This one is Konsumo, he has more detail in his artwork then anyone ive ever seen lol

[Shadow Beam 1,179]

This is truly magnificent! The contextual concept is commendable and the artistic potential all the more. I'm truly awestruck right now, and ever so glad to witness the full throttle of a project of such proportions, already capable of showcasing some of the most lovely concept art I've seen. Needless to mention the weight of the talent and experience involved.

Fantastic work, I wish you and your team the best of luck in this endeavour.

Oh, and do remember that you can make a specific post asking for willing voice actors in Trixie's Tricks, within Other Fan Art.

[K_Cast 129]

3 hours ago, Shadow Beam said:

This is truly magnificent! The contextual concept is commendable and the artistic potential all the more. I'm truly awestruck right now, and ever so glad to witness the full throttle of a project of such proportions, already capable of showcasing some of the most lovely concept art I've seen. Needless to mention the weight of the talent and experience involved.

Fantastic work, I wish you and your team the best of luck in this endeavour.

Oh, and do remember that you can make a specific post asking for willing voice actors in Trixie's Tricks, within Other Fan Art.

Thank you so much for your kind words, these are so far our youngest talent and I will for sure post about seeking talent to there. Again thank you so much hope you'll enjoy the final product.

[K_Cast 129]

New animatic not yet posted to the public, this is a scene in the first episode of the pilot, please forgive the audio these are not the final music tracks, just added to give some sound. Voice work, and scoring are being completed, will post the full scene in an update when able.

[Shadow Beam 1,179]

Lovely work!

Now, taking into account the magnitude of this project, this topic shall be featured in hopes to stay active within the section and forums. Thanks for sharing the advances here, they look quite promising. ^^

Have a lovely day now, and the best of luck.

[Ginger Ale 722]

I would be glad to apply for helping. I can try my best indeed and I would definitely be happy to support something that will turn into magnificent soon. I would love to be part of it @K_Cast

Edited August 21, 2017 by Ginger Ale

[Fluttershy Friend 25,445]

Even sketches make an impression! Very interesting! Good luck of course!

[K_Cast 129]

20 hours ago, Fluttershy Friend said:

Even sketches make an impression! Very interesting! Good luck of course!

Thank you so much

[K_Cast 129]

Equstrian Tales would like to formally welcome Rick Farmiloe to the crew, if you do not know this man please watch our video, you will understand

 

 

[jackfettgames 50]

20 minutes ago, K_Cast said:

Equstrian Tales would like to formally welcome Rick Farmiloe to the crew, if you do not know this man please watch our video, you will understand

 

 

He seems like an amazing person to work on an animation with themes and stylization such as this project.  Good luck on the project!

[Shadow Beam 1,179]

Hopefully the production is going well?

[K_Cast 129]

On 8/18/2017 at 4:19 AM, Hierok said:

I especially like this one. That tree is just pure art.

 Thank you, this setting image aswell as the other backgrounds are paper drawn, when put to color, they will look the download card in this same post. We are trying to build the entire show to work in concert with all elements being given equal attention and detail. The music scoring, the visuals, the animation and the voicing are all being carefully created to push the story we want to tell forward, and provide areas of fun for fan fiction writers if anyone ever wanted to play in our stories world.

[Miss 6,211]

I am definitely interested in providing voice talent for this project

[K_Cast 129]

At this time I'd like to formally welcome to the crew Caleb Hyles to the voice crew, Caleb has joined playing the lead male character voice and singing of Tall Tale, and Sire Dusk. His voice, music abilities, and personality are really going to make these characters sing (pun intended).

 With casting this character, voice work has already begun, and we will be releasing a kind of audio drama of the screenplay of the entire pilot in chapters as soon as they are recorded, edited and ready to go.

 We are currently looking for a narration voice actor or actress that might be able to help in voice overs for announcements, and other public relations videos put to the youtube channel in the future, if interested please submit a voice demo or contact me here on MLPforums for more information. 

 Thank you all and updates are coming, sorry for lack of those thus far we are working hard but we dont like showing half done work, but I will be posting exclusive content here on MLP forums including behind the scenes articles, two are available right now to read, with new artwork, and some of the new / redesigned locations of Equestrian Tales.

 

[RaphLuna 305]

On 8/18/2017 at 5:04 AM, K_Cast said:

Hello everyone,

 I'm Cast Executive Director of a My Little Pony inspired creation called Equestrian Tales, we originally started doing panels and posting about this in mid 2015, then realized to stay alive we needed to play it safe and go into stealth mode we have finally gotten to the point where are comfortable coming back into the light, and finally start to share what we have been working on, first to the place where it all started, the mlp forums. We wanted to finally give an update to the progress, and where exactly we are in the production. But first just a little about the story and what we are trying to do.

 Equestrian Tales story takes place over 1000 years in the past of the current FiM series, pulling together elements from generation 1 and a number of our own lore building to build a bridge between the shows, and making them into one my little pony universe. We will be following the journey of a small band of friends who set out into the world to record, and retell the stories of their adventures together, helping to inspire hope in the pre-equestrian world.

 We have several wonderful people helping push this show through, including Rick Farmileo animator of several characters during Disney's golden age of animated movies, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Oliver and Company, Rescuers Down under, Little Mermaid and several others, Rick was also the animator of Tulio in Road to El Dorado by Dream works. Along with Rick we have secured elements of Don Bluth animation, who created works such as The Land Before Time, Secret of Nimh, American Tale, and Anastasia. These guys are leading our animation of the generation 1 and historical elements of the pilot. We also have the help of Minty Root, Brutal Weather, Ruffu, imdrunkontea and Konsumo among others helping to push the art side of this forward. On the music side we have Marcato music, corvus, and Slender Duck (Duo Cartoonist lead composer) to start things.

 We are currently looking for voice talent for a few of our new characters as we push forward with production, if you are interested please leave a message here, or fill free to email me at- kenneth.casteel@harmonizeentertainment.com. We are not casting cannon characters at this time, very few will appear in the pilot, and will be used with permission.

I have included just a sample of the work that's being done right now, from some concept artworks, to music samples and we will be releasing more as we can, exclusively right here and with out spoiling to much. We will also be relaunching our youtube page, will be linked here once she is ready to go again.

Also some external links if you wanted to see what we had posted before-

Equestria Daily

New Animatic not yet released to public- Tallest Tale Part 1 - 

 

One of our talented animators of Equestrian Tales, we will be able to announce a few more soon-

 

 

 

 

 

 

OMG AWESOME...

Granted im working on my own content ( Movie, TV series, books )...

However I love all cartoons And I Totally can't Wait to watch this Show with my kids...

Love everything you done so far..

EPIC..  You got to let us all know when you get the green light.. I will let you all know when I get my book going, and when a movie TV film industry, gets on board to bring the creations and stores from my wild imagination on both the big and little screens too..

Best of Luck I Wish you all Great Success on your Journey.

Hugs.

 

 

 

[K_Cast 129]

New character promo highlighting some of the main characters of Equestrian Tales, more content coming soon, as we gearing up to launch some fun things coming soon, also please come visit us at a few conventions coming up, including Galacon, Bronycon, and Ciderfest, just to name a few. Look for panels in relation to Minty Root, as he is headlining several panels coming soon. We will of course post what we can of our panels so everyone can enjoy them as soon as able, thanks all!

 

[Lord Valtasar 12,685]

looks so exciting,i can hardly wait,i'd offer my drawing skills but you seem well covered in that regard

[Lord Midnight Madness 1,542]

This is amazing the drawing and all of the skill required in order to do this. I am looking forward to seeing this

[BornAgainBrony 2,395]

Wow... no freaking way... how did you manage to do this?

Is there a benefactor with a fat bitcoin wallet or something here?

Also I can't help but wonder... if it's "just" detached enough from MLP CANON that it doesn't tread onto any copyright ground, is there any way this could actually be a for-profit show? With the amount of effort that you've put into getting some pretty big names involved, it just seems like you 'could' be doing just that. And with rumors of the FiM show closing, and not knowing if G5 will keep the fandom going or hurt it, I can't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe what you're doing here might actually be able to keep the G4 magic alive.

What kind of ambience of the universe you're building? Are you trying to stick with the same feel of FiM, going for something a bit darker/mature like the Equestria of fanfiction, or something entirely different? (kinda useful as far as coming up with voices for the characters, if you want it to be cartoony/bouncy or something that feels more serious and natural) Or I guess more simply, who is your target audience?

Final question. What is the animation going to be like? Are you still doing the "Flash" style of FiM or is this being hand-drawn the oldschool way?

And hay, being an older dude, I don't know if I can assist much with a voice (I guess another thing I'm wondering is if you'll be having a more balanced ratio of stallions/mares for main protagonists), but I'd love to give it a shot. Yes I know this was posted in June and maybe you're long-since done with it already, but I feel like this could reeeealy be something amazing to be a part of. My hat is off to all of you for trying something this bold. You seem like you're just disregarding the moonshot and instead you're trying to aim straight for Pluto!

Edited August 13, 2018 by bornAgainEquestrian

[K_Cast 129]

 

Hi there, first off thank you for your comment, I want to try to answer your questions as best as I can, and im sorry this might be a little longer then my normal postings lol.

 We started planning this series with the idea of working in concert with the FiM series, using the history, lore, and ideals set forth by the current show. We wanted to be able to go back and tell the origin stories of characters and settings that was never touched in the series. We had hoped to launch this originally at a point where the two shows could play off each other, and compliment each other. We never built this to compete with FiM, mainly to enhance it, bring a wider range of stories and perspectives that FiM simply couldnt cover. But as time went on and it seemed like the end of FiM was drawing near we started to bring in a lot more original elements into the pilots and the core story itself thats its basically become an original series, set into the world of Equestria (or that universe). We have spent nearly 3 years building the stories and characters you will see in the pilot and following series, if we are able to complete it. 

 I have been the Executive Director, Producer, and main financier of Equestrian Tales and our older film Last Stand of Harmony (was part of poniverse when we first started out). I'm not a rich guy, very far from it in fact, I use my job and frankly any means I can to build the crew, assets, and everything else we need to move forward, on top of recruiting every staff member of this crew, and having wrote the pilot episode personally. I wanted to give the show the start that was imagined, and get it the push it needed.  Our studio has been a part of the fandom since 2011 and is the final original fan studio still going, and have used that history and the connections I have made manning conventions to try to give us the chance we need.Our crew has always wanted to do this and prove to the world that you dont need to be rich or born a Princess to achieve a dream, that if your willing to put in the work, and fight for something you believe in, you have the same chance as anyone else. We knew the odds when we start this, and frankly that has only inspired us to keep going.

 This story is meant to reflect the ideals, that most of my crew grew up with, as well as represent to MLP brand, along side our own studios in the best light and traditions as possible. We built this show off the model of FiM, we wanted to have the same rating as FiM aswell, but just a slightly older audiance (but we for sure are not going to forget about the kids, we have had kids involved in the production to ensure the story and characters will be accepted and loved by them to). Some might argue that this might be a mistake because we cant get dark, but thats just simply not true. I wanted to hold to this rating so we didnt lose sight of the target, and what makes FiM so special, it also forces us to think about what we are trying to say, and do in an episode. It forces us to write smarter stories, characters and over arcs we cant take the easy way out and for example kill off a character, we have to write and animate it smart to relay the same thing, I think that is one of FiM's strongest points, taking stories, concepts and themes, that might be a little over done, and putting a new spin on them, in part due to the limitations of the rating, forcing them to write smarter. 

 Our crews main goal is to bring together the lessons, characters and stories of the entire MLP brand, using our show and story to bridge the gap between them, to form one MLP Universe that connects, makes sense and can be used for many years to come as a point to build new stories off of, and of course a fan fiction haven lol.

 On the note of diversity among the cast, frankly we wanted as much as we could get, I feel that FiM has done a great job with what they had, however we wanted to bring in a more diverse cast. We have Tall Tale a unicorn male, Ink Heart a pegasi female, Leaf Seeker an Earth pony male, his young sister an earth pony named Spring Leap, and finally another character that will not appear in the plots, but will join the main cast in episode 1 (or 3) after the pilots. These characters all have very different backgrounds, points of views, strengths and flaws. Also unlike FiM some of these characters will not be best of friends from the start, and their perspectives, will effect and grow their relationships naturally as the story progresses. We have built into the fabric of this story a continuity that has not been seen in the MLP universe before, each season of the show is intended to represent 1 year in time, the characters will grow up before the eyes of the audience, you will share their story, in a way thats not been seen before, and the characters actions and the events of the world will effect them. We also have an entire backstory planned and mapped for a time before gen 1's story took place, thats the foundation of many stories we have planned.

 The pilots are nearly all original content save a few bits thrown in for flavor, but have also been updated and retooled to bring out the story that we are hoping to tell. In the very first episode (two parter) you will see what we are trying to do in full motion, bringing in elements from gen 4, gen 1, even Equestria Girls to build this mid point in history, and a story that we hope you all will enjoy. 

 We do fully plan to bring in canon FiM and Gen 1 characters upon approval of course, but they will not over shadow the main cast story and the direction that we are hoping to take this. We plan to bring in Luna and Celestia into the show, if we are able to, into the pilot itself, starting them off as very young, and not really part of the main story till later in the series. Their parents, Dusk and Dawn are rules of the kingdom in the pilot and much of he series of a location very well known to gen 1 fans. We have brought back Dream Valley, and the old generation 1 locations, building them into a new  part of the world, a land and time before Equestria. We also have obtained some fan content that worked directly within the timeline we had already had built, such as Snowdrop who will become canon within our story. (Keep an eye on backgrounds in the pilot ^_^), but we have much more planned for them then just cameos.

 As for your question about animation style, we are in fact using some mixed media to bring this to life, all the backgrounds you have seen to this point are all traditional however in a digital form, the characters are a mix of traditional, and Flash animation, however we are exploring Toonboom harmony, with a side project underway, Mintyroot is working on a production that is testing a lot of methods we are playing with. However this story is meant to take place in almost the dark ages of the MLP timeline, so we wanted a style that represented that. Taking the generation 4 (FiM) animation and rigging style, we wanted to put a traditional spin on them. We have done a lot of study on this and children seem to think that traditional animation is old, and we wanted that to be represented in the styling of this show. No question that we are traveling back into the past, in design, history and story. 

This is just an example of how the animation will look when put together-

 This is Ink Heart our lead female character, and the pony writing the story of the adventures in our show. This is a rough look at how the blend will appear on screen. 

 We will however make the style and time very easy to see if you watch the show from the beginning, we have a single scene in the pilots with FiM characters, that being he opening scene, star light and Twilight are exploring the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters, when they fall through the floor into a part of the ruins they had not yet explored, here they find the bed chambers of Luna and Celestia. Within Celestia's room they uncover a chest containing the journal that contains our story, a Twilight begins to read the words on the first page of the book, the camera will zoom into the book, back in time over 1000 years into the past, and into the timeline of our story.  But in all there will be a lot of underlining traditional animation built inside of all of this, thats one of the reasons I wanted to pick up Rick, and we do have more joining on from the classical disney animation teams when we can get things fully running. 

 As for your last question, about voicing a character, we are nearing a full voice cast for the pilot, however I do have room for people that might want to voice a background character in the pilot, if you might be interest, please let me know.

I hope this answered atleast some of your questions, and made some sense. We will be releasing some content here in the next few days, and we are far from done, just been keeping safe as we plan our offensive.

Thank you so much again for your reply, if you have farther questions please ask.

On 8/13/2018 at 12:00 AM, bornAgainEquestrian said:

Wow... no freaking way... how did you manage to do this?

Is there a benefactor with a fat bitcoin wallet or something here?

Also I can't help but wonder... if it's "just" detached enough from MLP CANON that it doesn't tread onto any copyright ground, is there any way this could actually be a for-profit show? With the amount of effort that you've put into getting some pretty big names involved, it just seems like you 'could' be doing just that. And with rumors of the FiM show closing, and not knowing if G5 will keep the fandom going or hurt it, I can't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe what you're doing here might actually be able to keep the G4 magic alive.

What kind of ambience of the universe you're building? Are you trying to stick with the same feel of FiM, going for something a bit darker/mature like the Equestria of fanfiction, or something entirely different? (kinda useful as far as coming up with voices for the characters, if you want it to be cartoony/bouncy or something that feels more serious and natural) Or I guess more simply, who is your target audience?

Final question. What is the animation going to be like? Are you still doing the "Flash" style of FiM or is this being hand-drawn the oldschool way?

And hay, being an older dude, I don't know if I can assist much with a voice (I guess another thing I'm wondering is if you'll be having a more balanced ratio of stallions/mares for main protagonists), but I'd love to give it a shot. Yes I know this was posted in June and maybe you're long-since done with it already, but I feel like this could reeeealy be something amazing to be a part of. My hat is off to all of you for trying something this bold. You seem like you're just disregarding the moonshot and instead you're trying to aim straight for Pluto!

[K_Cast 129]

 Thank you both, will be posting something to youtube tomorrow that might be fun for you then, kind of showing the detail of the artist behind whats being built here. Thanks agian and hope you enjoy.

On 6/27/2018 at 8:59 PM, Lord Valtasar said:

looks so exciting,i can hardly wait,i'd offer my drawing skills but you seem well covered in that regard

 

On 8/12/2018 at 4:14 PM, Lord Midnight Madness said:

This is amazing the drawing and all of the skill required in order to do this. I am looking forward to seeing this