My Problems with The MLP Movie (And How To Fix Them)

[YoungJustice12334 51]

Well, The first problem I had with the movie was The tried-and-true "Hero's Journey" plot wasn't that impressive and did very little to improve the movie. It was pretty by-the-numbers and contained very few, if any, twists or turns. The pacing within the story is also rather uneven. The movie moves along at a mostly brisk pace, but certain moments are undeniably quicker-paced than others, and at times to the film's detriment.

Another one of the movie's big shortcomings was the uneven attention given to the main and secondary characters. Within the Mane 6, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash do most of the legwork in terms of contributing to the plot. Rarity provides a small contribution (mostly pertaining to Capper) but sadly, Applejack and Fluttershy feel like they are mostly just along for the ride, adding little beyond some additional dialogue. As for the secondary characters, I think the film may have suffered from a case of having too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak.

I understand that room had to be provided within the movie for all of the A-Listers, but it causes the overall film to feel cluttered. Worst of all, the film's limited run time meant all characters involved are ultimately deprived of any real development. Grubber, in particular, feels rather unnecessary in the grand scheme of the film, with his mostly comic relief contributions falling flat more often than not (When your movie already has Pinkie Pie in it, it really doesn't need a second comic relief character). To fix this problem, I would honestly nuke either a few or most of the new characters and balance the time given to the Mane 6.

After dealing with attention to characters, I understand that Twilight was under a lot of pressure, but Twilight came off as a bit of a complete killjoy throughout most of the movie, and her decision to steal the seapony's pearl was questionable to put it lightly. In addition, it feels like both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash got smacked with the stupid stick, what with the former announcing their plan to the entirely of Klugetown and almost getting herself killed by bouncing on the rope leading to the escape ship, and the latter performing a Sonic Rainboom while disregarding the fact that an extremely dangerous enemy is currently pursuing them. Rarity didn't really do much beyond her interactions with Capper (they kinda just played up her diva tendencies during the rest of the film). As for Fluttershy & Applejack, it's hard to pinpoint any characterization issues for them mostly because so little of their characters were actively engaged in the story.

Last, but not least, the Storm King's performance needed some serious work. He was certainly funny and entertaining...for the brief moments that he's actually in the movie, which are mostly relegated to the third act. Having what was supposed to be the big bad final boss of the movie come in so late in its run time causes him to miss out on opportunity to be truly intimidating. As far as being a legit threat is concerned, his underling, Tempest, outdoes him in pretty much every way. In addition, the Storm King is mostly portrayed as an unintelligent, immature man-child and (thanks to the predicable plot) his betrayal of Tempest during the climax is about as surprising as a broken jack-in-the-box, all things that ultimately hurt his showing. I would try to introduce the Storm King a good deal earlier in the movie (y'know, beyond just showing his fleet of ships and banners with his face on them) and re-work his personality to better suit the role he has.

[CypherHoof 26,479]

They did better with the storm king in the prequel books. Seriously I think the only reason there even WAS a storm king was so he could betray Tempest and set the scene for her redemption by Twilight.

But yeah. Visually, the movie is stunning - the backgrounds, the ponies, the "seapony" forms and all; this movie was everything I could have wished for.

However... the script sucked. Kludgetown added NOTHING to the plot (and could/should have been cut in favour of more mane-6 time) Sia was a waste of money (especially given they ghosted Lena Hall to bring Sia in)... and overall this is weird. While some episodes have been poor in the past, you would have thought the team could have done so much better with this, especially given how long it was in production.

[nightshroud96 116]

I wanted to enjoy the movie but how the Royal Sisters got shafted like that really hindered it.
It stung so badly seeing it happen to Luna in her case there..
The movie is a once-in-a-lifetime thing but the writers just shaft her badly instead, hence why it hurts so much.

[Sepul-Coloratura 756]

A : Not enough Mane Six

B : That villain background story again.

MLP G4's biggest asset are the characters. They didn't use them well.

[YoungJustice12334 51]

9 hours ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

A : Not enough Mane Six

B : That villain background story again.

MLP G4's biggest asset are the characters. They didn't use them well.

I agree with the points you have, and I'll bring up of what I would fix about the movie with A Few major points rather than focus on individual little details:

1.) The entire initial attack & finale takes place in town on the southern Equestrian border rather than Canterlot.

I think this fix would resolve A lot of the Movie's Plot holes and lazy writing because The Storm King's fleet is only just arriving, not having traversed half of Equestria unnoticed. The other Princesses aren't present just yet so do not get worried. Similarly, the far south regions like Klugetown are closer than any of Equestria's other allies. Instead, the Alicorns and Royal Guard turn up for an appearance at the final battle.

2.) Mount Aris/the Seaponies would not exist as a plot point.

Instead, Captain Celaeno and her crew become the Hippogriffs who are unwanted by pony or griffon society. Due to them being Exiled & judged, they have turned to piracy for survival. Bonus, the deletion of a plot point now allows time for more meaningful character development for the existing cast.

3.) Make Tempest Shadow A Much Better Villain without her forced Redemption

I would introduce Tempest Shadow as A sort of bounty hunter for The Storm King, who promises her the restoration of her horn as her prize for taking down The Princesses. The Storm King hires her to hunt down the one princess that escaped during his attack, delegating this task because he doesn't trust his minion Grubber to handle it on his own and because he's still busy consolidating his control over Equestria (as we get some cool scenes of the ponies of Cloudsdale putting up more of a fight after Canterlots falls)

I would have had the Storm Kong’s minions storm the palace courtyard, terrorizing the civilians. The Princesses would attempt to dispatch/route them while Princess Cadence evacuates the ponies. In the midst of the fighting Tempest finds an opening and traps Cadence. She orders her troops to double their efforts, and they move with more ferocity. Once again while Princess Celestia is distracted, Tempest gets in a cheap shot and traps her as well. Luna, enraged at her family being subdued, blasts aside the soldiers and goes against Tempest. Tempest manages to show she’s competent enough in fighting styles to keep up with Luna’s magic. But she’s slowly being driven to her limit, so she activates a spell that leaves Luna stunned for a moment, long enough for Tempest to trap her as well.

4.) The Movie's ultimate moral conflict is Friendship can't redeem everyone.

Rather than have Twilight panicking unreasonably throughout the movie, the middle act becomes her struggle to accept the roughness of the outside world. Why don't they care? How can they be so callous and cruel? In return, the pirates lambast Twilight for trying to make friends with everyone and not accepting some harsh realities. In the movie's finale, Twilight accepts that friendship alone cannot save everyone - her duty as a princess is to Equestria first. She allows Tempest Shadow to suffer a final fate from magical overuse after the latter betrays the Storm King, recapturing the Staff of Sarcanas and saving the day but at the cost of her innocence.

So Those are the Main 4 things I would fix about the Movie, and Here's some additional aspects I would fix about the movie:

We get a nice montage of the Mane Six traveling through southern Equestria, which is where we get the second song in the movie (we got this) which is based more around the girls confidence they can save Equestria instead of throwing a party. The scenery get steadily more and more ominous before the song ends, with the girls falling silent once they reach the Bone Dry Desert.

The girls actually pass out in the Bone Dry Desert, unprepared for the trip through the desert and are 'saved' by Capper who leads them to Klugetown. It's obvious from the start that he plans on selling them in the slave town, but they start to win him over despite their naivete through simple acts of kindness and watching his back when some of the Klugetown thugs try to shake him down. When he asks why they would help him the simple response is 'that's what friends are for' which rocks Cappers entire worldview. 

More of the movie takes place in Klugetown as it turns out many of the Hippogriff citizens, including Princess Skystar, did not escape Mount Aris before the Storm King invaded their territory. Princess Skystar promises to lead the ponies to the Queen of the Hippogriffs if they can rescue her and her people, but this is where it's revealed Capper was planning to sell the ponies.

Capper pretends to sell the girls, but makes it clear it's part of a plan to rescue Princess Skystar. The plan almost goes off without a hitch, Capper arranging to have the girls and Hippogriffs loaded onto a sky-barge owned by a Captain he happens to be acquainted with (he owes her money too). Unfortunately this is when Tempest shows up and starts tearing through Klugetown thugs and Hippogriff warriors alike trying to get to Twilight Sparkle.

The escape still happens roughly the way it does in the movie, but with Tempest capturing Capper he's not there to smooth things over with Captain Celaeno, who immediately threatens to turn them all over to the Storm King for the bounty on Twilight's head. Rainbow Dash notices that for sky pirates they aren't very 'piratey' which is where Celaeno reveals their sorry fates as servants of the Storm King and then things eventually resolve as they did in the movie with her helping them to 'be awesome' again and agree to deliver them to Mount Aris.

An entire Storm King Armada catches up with them, however, with Tempest Shadow leaping from the rigging of one of the airships to land on the deck and personally take out most of the crew and lock herself in battle with Captain Celaeno. The girls and Princess Skystar abandon ship like in the movie.

Things more or less pan out the same way with the Sea Ponies with Skystar taking the girls to Seaquestria and Queen Novo refusing to help them. Instead of Twilight trying to steal the magic pearl, however, the Storm Kings troops follow them to Seaquestria and begin to capture it's citizens, with Queen Novo blaming the girls for leading the storm Kings forces to their refuge.

EVERYONE is captured and loaded on various ships in the armada to be taken back to Equestria to face the Storm King's wrath. This is still where the big confrontation between Tempest Shadow and Twilight occurs, but Tempest's backstory is a little different. She was once an ambassador of Equestria who was sent to Mount Aris on a mission of goodwill. Before she could reach the distant kingdom, however, she fell pray to the desert just as the girls had and was taken in by someone she thought was a friend. Unlike the girls, she was sold into slavery in Klugtown, and to prevent her from escaping her horn was broken off. Losing her horn was a terrible and traumatic experience, made all the worse by the person who she thought was her friend counting the bits he had gotten for her while it was happening. She vowed never to trust anyone or anything but money from then on, and so after finding a way to pick the locks on her cage with a fragment of her broken horn she escaped and started a life as a mercenary. Her philosophy is that friends will always let you down, even when they don't directly betray you, and that Twilight's friends failing her is a good example of that. 'The only pony you can rely on is yourself'.

The big climax with the fight against the Storm King has Twilight taking Tempest's advise, and using her horn to pick the lock on her magic-proof cage. Twilight tries to face the storm King alone but is quickly overwhelmed. Realizing even as a Princess of Equestria , alone she cannot defeat him, that is when Twilight's friends arrive to fight for her and all of Equestria.

[nightshroud96 116]

On 6/18/2020 at 9:31 PM, YoungJustice12334 said:

I agree with the points you have, and I'll bring up of what I would fix about the movie with A Few major points rather than focus on individual little details:

1.) The entire initial attack & finale takes place in town on the southern Equestrian border rather than Canterlot.

I think this fix would resolve A lot of the Movie's Plot holes and lazy writing because The Storm King's fleet is only just arriving, not having traversed half of Equestria unnoticed. The other Princesses aren't present just yet so do not get worried. Similarly, the far south regions like Klugetown are closer than any of Equestria's other allies. Instead, the Alicorns and Royal Guard turn up for an appearance at the final battle.

2.) Mount Aris/the Seaponies would not exist as a plot point.

Instead, Captain Celaeno and her crew become the Hippogriffs who are unwanted by pony or griffon society. Due to them being Exiled & judged, they have turned to piracy for survival. Bonus, the deletion of a plot point now allows time for more meaningful character development for the existing cast.

3.) Make Tempest Shadow A Much Better Villain without her forced Redemption

I would introduce Tempest Shadow as A sort of bounty hunter for The Storm King, who promises her the restoration of her horn as her prize for taking down The Princesses. The Storm King hires her to hunt down the one princess that escaped during his attack, delegating this task because he doesn't trust his minion Grubber to handle it on his own and because he's still busy consolidating his control over Equestria (as we get some cool scenes of the ponies of Cloudsdale putting up more of a fight after Canterlots falls)

I would have had the Storm Kong’s minions storm the palace courtyard, terrorizing the civilians. The Princesses would attempt to dispatch/route them while Princess Cadence evacuates the ponies. In the midst of the fighting Tempest finds an opening and traps Cadence. She orders her troops to double their efforts, and they move with more ferocity. Once again while Princess Celestia is distracted, Tempest gets in a cheap shot and traps her as well. Luna, enraged at her family being subdued, blasts aside the soldiers and goes against Tempest. Tempest manages to show she’s competent enough in fighting styles to keep up with Luna’s magic. But she’s slowly being driven to her limit, so she activates a spell that leaves Luna stunned for a moment, long enough for Tempest to trap her as well.

4.) The Movie's ultimate moral conflict is Friendship can't redeem everyone.

Rather than have Twilight panicking unreasonably throughout the movie, the middle act becomes her struggle to accept the roughness of the outside world. Why don't they care? How can they be so callous and cruel? In return, the pirates lambast Twilight for trying to make friends with everyone and not accepting some harsh realities. In the movie's finale, Twilight accepts that friendship alone cannot save everyone - her duty as a princess is to Equestria first. She allows Tempest Shadow to suffer a final fate from magical overuse after the latter betrays the Storm King, recapturing the Staff of Sarcanas and saving the day but at the cost of her innocence.

So Those are the Main 4 things I would fix about the Movie, and Here's some additional aspects I would fix about the movie:

We get a nice montage of the Mane Six traveling through southern Equestria, which is where we get the second song in the movie (we got this) which is based more around the girls confidence they can save Equestria instead of throwing a party. The scenery get steadily more and more ominous before the song ends, with the girls falling silent once they reach the Bone Dry Desert.

The girls actually pass out in the Bone Dry Desert, unprepared for the trip through the desert and are 'saved' by Capper who leads them to Klugetown. It's obvious from the start that he plans on selling them in the slave town, but they start to win him over despite their naivete through simple acts of kindness and watching his back when some of the Klugetown thugs try to shake him down. When he asks why they would help him the simple response is 'that's what friends are for' which rocks Cappers entire worldview. 

More of the movie takes place in Klugetown as it turns out many of the Hippogriff citizens, including Princess Skystar, did not escape Mount Aris before the Storm King invaded their territory. Princess Skystar promises to lead the ponies to the Queen of the Hippogriffs if they can rescue her and her people, but this is where it's revealed Capper was planning to sell the ponies.

Capper pretends to sell the girls, but makes it clear it's part of a plan to rescue Princess Skystar. The plan almost goes off without a hitch, Capper arranging to have the girls and Hippogriffs loaded onto a sky-barge owned by a Captain he happens to be acquainted with (he owes her money too). Unfortunately this is when Tempest shows up and starts tearing through Klugetown thugs and Hippogriff warriors alike trying to get to Twilight Sparkle.

The escape still happens roughly the way it does in the movie, but with Tempest capturing Capper he's not there to smooth things over with Captain Celaeno, who immediately threatens to turn them all over to the Storm King for the bounty on Twilight's head. Rainbow Dash notices that for sky pirates they aren't very 'piratey' which is where Celaeno reveals their sorry fates as servants of the Storm King and then things eventually resolve as they did in the movie with her helping them to 'be awesome' again and agree to deliver them to Mount Aris.

An entire Storm King Armada catches up with them, however, with Tempest Shadow leaping from the rigging of one of the airships to land on the deck and personally take out most of the crew and lock herself in battle with Captain Celaeno. The girls and Princess Skystar abandon ship like in the movie.

Things more or less pan out the same way with the Sea Ponies with Skystar taking the girls to Seaquestria and Queen Novo refusing to help them. Instead of Twilight trying to steal the magic pearl, however, the Storm Kings troops follow them to Seaquestria and begin to capture it's citizens, with Queen Novo blaming the girls for leading the storm Kings forces to their refuge.

EVERYONE is captured and loaded on various ships in the armada to be taken back to Equestria to face the Storm King's wrath. This is still where the big confrontation between Tempest Shadow and Twilight occurs, but Tempest's backstory is a little different. She was once an ambassador of Equestria who was sent to Mount Aris on a mission of goodwill. Before she could reach the distant kingdom, however, she fell pray to the desert just as the girls had and was taken in by someone she thought was a friend. Unlike the girls, she was sold into slavery in Klugtown, and to prevent her from escaping her horn was broken off. Losing her horn was a terrible and traumatic experience, made all the worse by the person who she thought was her friend counting the bits he had gotten for her while it was happening. She vowed never to trust anyone or anything but money from then on, and so after finding a way to pick the locks on her cage with a fragment of her broken horn she escaped and started a life as a mercenary. Her philosophy is that friends will always let you down, even when they don't directly betray you, and that Twilight's friends failing her is a good example of that. 'The only pony you can rely on is yourself'.

The big climax with the fight against the Storm King has Twilight taking Tempest's advise, and using her horn to pick the lock on her magic-proof cage. Twilight tries to face the storm King alone but is quickly overwhelmed. Realizing even as a Princess of Equestria , alone she cannot defeat him, that is when Twilight's friends arrive to fight for her and all of Equestria.

How would it go for the Royal Sisters during the final battle or is it just the sisters would be just statues until after the whole thing blows over?
Still hurting on how the writers shafted Luna like that..

[BlazingKay 0]

I liked the film to death, but I too had a lot of critiques for it.

My main problem is that the plot is a rip-off of Twilight's Kingdom.

Basically, a ruler from a distant land (Tirek/Storm King) comes to Equestria to steal the magic of the Alicorns. By their side is a renegade from Equestria (Discord/Tempest) who is coerced into servitude through false promises but is eventually betrayed in the end, and ultimately reformed by Twilight.

The reason it failed in the movie was because the film managed to drag things out a lot longer whilst simultaneously cutting what could've helped the plot progress more, and much like any other film based on a TV show, it felt more like an extended episode of said show, and featured a road-trip among the characters.

My second problem is Tempest's redemption. Do not get me wrong, she is my favorite character in the movie and arguably in the Friendship is Magic franchise, but her redemption was pretty much the same cliche story of the villains backstabbing each other, and it confirmed her anti-moral of not relying on anyone. Finally, her redemption itself came across as shallow. Unlike Starlight, who redeemed her actions upon realizing the harm she could inflict as well as realizing how stupid her anti-moral was, or Trixie who was practically a victim of ostracization from society thanks to the Mane 6's unreasonable vilifying of her, Tempest redeems when the Storm King betrays her, and then Twilight refers to her as a "friend" when just the other day she tried to hunt her. Ultimately, it was the Storm King who redeemed Tempest by turning on her and not Tempest herself, which makes the scene of the Storm King's death look more like a revenge-plot rather than actual redemption. Again, the similarities between the film and the S4 finale really, REALLY hampered its quality..

My 3rd problem: The Storm King. Unlike most people, I found him to be an enjoyable comic relief villain, but that is the problem. He was introduced in the final act of the movie. If they were building up to him, maybe it would've worked, but they treat him like he was the antagonist all along when in actuality, Tempest did more as a villain. Seeing a villain this enjoyable to see but only at the backend of the film can be pretty bad.

Fourthly, some decisions in writing made the characters look... very questionable, especially our main protagonists. Apparently NO ONE in Equestria heard about the Storm King even though he had half of the world under his thumb. Cadence, Celestia, and Luna, despite being powerful rulers who have subdued enemies are useless against Tempest, Celestia apparently know Queen Novo and the Hippogriffs, enough to just drop everything and scream to them for help, yet when the Storm King trashed Mt. Aris, Novo didn't send help, and Celestia didn't notice their disappearance? The Mane 6 travel for a good 2 days to find an abandoned mountain, when they could've just gotten help from the Pillars, or the Changelings, Dragons, or even Twilight's brother. And I know the excuse is that the film was originally written in the same year that Season 4 ended, with the first 4 seasons in mind for the film's continuity, likely indicating that the film was meant to take place in between Seasons 4 & 5, but I think some decisions should've been changed when the movie was delayed.

 

Overall, the movie was flawed. Ok, but flawed.