What could the film have done differently to appeal to non-fans?

[Toon4Thought 274]

Easily the thing that disappointed me the most about the movie is something that really has next to nothing to do with the actual film - that being that it was clearly trying to appeal to newcomers as well as fans, and yet it seemed to fail in terms of the former. And while I do kind of see why looking at the film, the thing for me is, even before the film was announced I was particularly anticipated for a pony movie specifically because I felt like it would break the "it's for girls, so it must suck" mentality. Like, people who would go in skeptical would come out blown away by it.

So, keeping the story and much of the specifics intact, what would you have changed about the movie that you think would have won more people over? I personally think the Mane 6 could've been introduced better (like, I feel their first moments in the film didn't encapsulate their personalities that well and were sort of drawn out), and Ponies Got the Beat just reeks of mainstream executive meddling.

[Megas 27,892]

It was never gonna be able to appeal to non-fans, it was always gonna be an uphill battle. It's still a My Little Pony movie in the end, and some people just don't want to be caught dead watching it. It's best bet was to appeal to people who did give a shit about the series. People who did come in with an open mind admitted to being pleasantly surprised

[Leavemealone 547]

I don’t think it could have done much, but maybe it could have even had more explanatory bits? Otherwise it was this big movie that you did not have to know much about the series it was based on to watch it. Although, as @Prowl said, it was an uphill battle. 

[cmarston1 5,960]

I have to agree with what has already been said that the movie was already facing an uphill battle with appealing to non fans given it was a My Little Pony movie.

However, if the movie received a more extensive marketing campaign and more effort was made to advertise it, hopefully it could have made at least a little bit more money at the box office.

[BlueBrony 388]

The plot could have used a little reworking if they wanted to appeal to a wider audience. The plot was too predictable and the thought process could use a little more depth at parts, also, the villains needed to be a little more threatening, especially the storm king. That being said, I acknowledge that this movie wasn't necessarily trying to appeal to everybody, but mostly to younger girls. For such a small demographic on a slim budget, they did very well and made a safe, quality product.  

[KillerKingBakudan 702]

Start over from scratch. Really, there's no way this movie could have done any better without scrapping the overabundance of new characters and celebrity voice actors. I know they each have their fans, but you can't connect to any of them. Tempest was the only one who got any development, and that's not saying much because her life story is the most trite fucking thing for a kid's movie to have.

If I were producing the movie, I'd try to draw more newcomers in by showing them exactly what FIM already does best. I'd write it like it was another well-crafted season finale of the show, focusing solely on the Mane Six (and Starlight, if need be).

[King of Canterlot 9,603]

Well, I suppose for one thing, I would have extended the movie's run-time because a lot of events in the movie felt kinda rushed to me, not to mention the lack of dialog for some characters in the movie. I would have also maybe have tried to add in more references into the movie to help it appeal to a slightly older demographic/fans of the show. I think there are many things the movie could have done differently that would have made it better, and adding a fresh pair of eyes into the production of the movie would have helped a lot in the long run of things.  

[HereComesTom 2,269]

  On 2018-01-13 at 4:50 AM, KillerKingBakudan said:

Start over from scratch. Really, there's no way this movie could have done any better without scrapping the overabundance of new characters and celebrity voice actors. I know they each have their fans, but you can't connect to any of them.

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Probably this focus (if you can call it that!) on these characters like the pirates and Capper was what took away screen time from the mane 6, now that I think about it.

Funny thing is:  it's the mane 6 themselves, their personalities, believably, and depth, that make FiM as amazing as it is, and this movie didn't really give them enough of a chance to shine in that way.  I'll admit that they did shine in the sense that Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash managed to connect with and make allies of these other characters, which is friendship and is part of the show's core message, but the execution in the film didn't give any of them quite enough time to really shine as characters the way the TV show does.

The one silver lining to adding all those characters was worldbuilding, but I'm not sure they'll get a chance to do all that much with worldbuilding before they wrap G-4 up (but that's another discussion).

[Steve Piranha 29,451]

I highly doubt it, as MLP's stigma is practically worldwide tradition. And it's not because of FIM or the brony phenomenon, as ponies carry the negative stigma from G1 according to the Ponyville Confidential book

 

[Jeric 46,867]

A lot of people are making plot centric comments here. I thought that this was about appealing to a wider audience? Seems like that logic is putting the cart before the horse. It almost sounds as if people are projecting their own fandom based biases. The irony and salient curiosity here is that many negative fan reviews seem to bemoan the lack of other characters that would have confused a audience who isn't steeped in pony lore. 

Appealing to a wider audience starts with strong advertising, a streamlined story (since your wider audience is likely to be young people), and limit character arcs to three. But regardless you can't build your audience without appealing to them .... and again that starts with promoting your product. 

Fans would have still been annoyed. The more you cater to a general audience, the more you annoy the fanbase. 

 

[Ganondorf8 11,424]

The movie was clearly written for its intended age group with the fandom being a bonus via the references thrown in for their convenience. Granted, it would have helped had they started airing commercials say a month before the movie's release rather than two weeks beforehand. It seems that no matter what, the movie was going to face a difficult battle where victory was beyond its reach.

[Singe 2,111]

Daring Do movie. Daring Do as the main character and the Mane 6 as support cast.

Any of these movies doesn't have to be about Twilight, a different main character would work better if trying to appeal to a wider audience and gives them a chance to introduce the Mane 6.

Edited January 14, 2018 by Singe

[AlbaTross 1,586]

Well, I don't have shares in Hasbro so mass appeal is irrelevant to me and I was actually afraid Hasbro and DHX were going to try too hard to appeal to a wider audience and not give fans enough to sink their teeth into.  As it stands, it's...meh for this fan and meh as a general children's flick.  As something to reach a wider, older audience, it's an abysmal failure, but I don't think that was in the cards anyways.  

As a Brony the season 7 finale appealed to me way more, but to be fair that treaded heavily on the assumption that by this point fans would already know about concepts like the Elements/Tree of Harmony, are familiar with Starswirl from past seasons and had seen the episodes for the other Pillars from the current season.  Of course the movie had to be something even the uninitiated could follow, but that also meant it was never going to get very deep at all in the lore of the series.  In all fairness I can't be too hard on the movie and I did enjoy it.  I just think Hasbro was overreaching if they thought it could make fans out of non-fans, and they had to sacrifice some degree of service to the fans in their attempt to pull that off.

[blackstarraven 142]

  On 2018-01-14 at 8:12 AM, AlbaTross said:

Well, I don't have shares in Hasbro so mass appeal is irrelevant to me and I was actually afraid Hasbro and DHX were going to try too hard to appeal to a wider audience and not give fans enough to sink their teeth into.  As it stands, it's...meh for this fan and meh as a general children's flick.  As something to reach a wider, older audience, it's an abysmal failure, but I don't think that was in the cards anyways.  

As a Brony the season 7 finale appealed to me way more, but to be fair that treaded heavily on the assumption that by this point fans would already know about concepts like the Elements/Tree of Harmony, are familiar with Starswirl from past seasons and had seen the episodes for the other Pillars from the current season.  Of course the movie had to be something even the uninitiated could follow, but that also meant it was never going to get very deep at all in the lore of the series.  In all fairness I can't be too hard on the movie and I did enjoy it.  I just think Hasbro was overreaching if they thought it could make fans out of non-fans, and they had to sacrifice some degree of service to the fans in their attempt to pull that off.

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LOL

I do actually have shares in Hasbro.

 

And to the answer the OT question.

 

Nothing.

The movie was not meant to be a wide audience movie.

 

"Easily the thing that disappointed me the most about the movie is something that really has next to nothing to do with the actual film - that being that it was clearly trying to appeal to newcomers as well as fans"

I can't really say I'm glad you got this impression..

But I did not. Nor did any of the other people I went to the movie with.

Actually a few of them had never seen the show before (Parents taking there kids) And there biggest complaint was simply that it was clearly a movie that required knowledge of the show. Which makes sense. The movie was clearly not even considering that it might pick up people who where never interested in the show.

-

Now as to the question of what could it have done to maybe pick people up? Nothing that would have made the fanbase happy, because it would have had to be a 'from the start' story.
That is to say, the first 2 episodes (The pilot) Work because they know you have not seen any of the world. It explains it as it goes without much of a exposition dump, it lets you explore the story as you go.

The movie.. Operated on the concept that you already know some stuff.

 

First Question from a person watching with me: -About Pinkie- "That's... normal behavior for her? And she has friends who don't avoid her like the pox?"

-The above is a great example.... Without prior experience with pinkie, she's annoying and its mind boggling that anyone puts up with her. (Seriously she made the events of the movie WAY harder then they needed to be in places)

Because a new viewer has no frame of reference. They don't know that she's a good friend and comes in handy in areas where others don't.

-

Simply put, the movie would need to be a rehash of something fans had already seen.

Or it would have needed to be a movie where a all new character was the movie, and the cast fans knew where just... there... (Or not)
And Honestly.. I would have been pissed if that was the case. My nieces would have been mad.

It would not have been a good movie going experience

-

Simply put, If I go to watch a Star Trek Movie with the cast of TNG on the cover of the poster.
And then find out that 95% of the movie takes place on a Klingon ship. I'm going to feel tricked and mad, lied to.

[KillerKingBakudan 702]

  On 2018-01-15 at 1:19 PM, blackstarraven said:

Actually a few of them had never seen the show before (Parents taking there kids) And there biggest complaint was simply that it was clearly a movie that required knowledge of the show. Which makes sense. The movie was clearly not even considering that it might pick up people who where never interested in the show.

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It didn't feel that way for me. The movie hardly referenced anything from the show at all. The Mane Six and the princesses could have been replaced by totally different ponies, and everything would have played out the same way. I don't think having any FIM knowledge is crucial when coming into it, because frankly, the story is so bland and uninspired that it's going to be hard to enjoy it regardless. Unless you're just seeing it for the art. I can't take that away from it.

[RDDash 19,232]

I think that the movie would have been a lot better if they cut down a whole forest of background characters. For now we have those characters: Songbird,Tempest, Storm King, Seaponies, Mane6 + Spike, thats it, thats all that matters here. The rest aren't really matter, because they really don't contribute anything to the plot and therefore waste of space.

If they really wanted for non fans to treat the show seriously, then they should have build an entire cinematic universe: 

Storm King and his goons, plop an entire movie dedicated to him.

Captain Celeno and her FedEx crew of pirates, plop the movie for her.

Extremely rude Queen of the Hippos, why not create an origin movie for her.

Tempest Shadow is much better name then Berrytwist (why people should actually care about her?) establish the movie for her.

Capper, he is just there (once again why should people care about his existence?)

 

Make the plot more believable. The city gets invaded by a band of monkeys, while an entire equestrian army just takes a hike, that isn't really believable (I will never let it go)

Edited January 27, 2018 by Rebellious Rainbow

[KatonRyu 1,033]

Nothing whatsoever was explained throughout the movie. If they had wanted to appeal to newcomers, they should have at least mentioned why Celestia and Luna are important, who the Mane 6 even are, and why they are relevant to the story. It's also never explained where the Storm King came from (maybe in the comic, but I haven't read it yet and people unfamiliar with the series certainly won't have). Then, there's the vast amount of side characters the movie introduces as it races through its setpieces. None of them get much more than a cursory introduction showing off their major character trait, and then they show up and help resolve the plot. Even as a fan of the show, these side characters didn't really grip me, and I doubt they'd be well received by someone who wasn't already a fan.

Tl;dr: Explain more, have fewer side characters.

[Hierok 11,832]

I think this film wouldn't appeal in anyway. The only way, I can think of, to fully get into it would have been to first watch the show.