G5's "Small World" - The Reason

[Misty Shadow 7,088]

IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL

What do you guys think about G5 having a "small world" and do you know the likely reason for it? I've explained this on another site...

Yes, it's not what you would call a bunk criticism, it's just an awareness-lacking criticism. It makes perfect sense for G5's world to be small because 3D's not cheap, they don't have the money for it, and they don't want to give the team a headache. I think more people would understand this if more people knew the limitations of CGI shows, how often they have to recycle models and backgrounds. There's 2D-animated Tell Your Tale...but that's also something that's clearly made the way it is because of a limited budget. Regardless, do you think that G5 does a good job working with its limitations in how it develops its small world? 

[Steve Piranha 28,783]

1 hour ago, Misty Shadow said:

IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL

What do you guys think about G5 having a "small world" and do you know the likely reason for it? I've explained this on another site...

Yes, it's not what you would call a bunk criticism, it's just an awareness-lacking criticism. It makes perfect sense for G5's world to be small because 3D's not cheap, they don't have the money for it, and they don't want to give the team a headache. I think more people would understand this if more people knew the limitations of CGI shows, how often they have to recycle models and backgrounds. There's 2D-animated Tell Your Tale...but that's also something that's clearly made the way it is because of a limited budget. Regardless, do you think that G5 does a good job working with its limitations in how it develops its small world? 

The improved writing made this be noticed less 

[Props Valroa 26,051]

I think G5 should expand more upon it's world in order to create a more interesting storyline. 

[Steve Piranha 28,783]

11 minutes ago, Props Valroa said:

I think G5 should expand more upon it's world in order to create a more interesting storyline. 

Definitely, but as @Misty Shadow wrote, they have their hands tied on this one 

[Landi 597]

I don't really think that money in itself is an excuse for not expanding upon the world of G5. Hasbro is a very well-off company, and they could definitely afford to allot a little more into their animation budget. I think a lot of this comes down on Hasbro being lazy and just trying to pass off the minimum expectations. Part of what made FiM's world so great was how expansive it was. There were locations of all shapes and sizes sprinkled throughout Equestria, and each one helped bring more life into Equestria as a whole. Reducing that number down to basically just three is a big drop-off from what he had before. Hasbro has been making some improvements with the generation's characters and story, but they still have a lot of work to do in the worldbuilding department.

[AlbaTross 1,581]

On 2023-10-01 at 1:49 PM, Landi said:

I don't really think that money in itself is an excuse for not expanding upon the world of G5. Hasbro is a very well-off company, and they could definitely afford to allot a little more into their animation budget. I think a lot of this comes down on Hasbro being lazy and just trying to pass off the minimum expectations. Part of what made FiM's world so great was how expansive it was. There were locations of all shapes and sizes sprinkled throughout Equestria, and each one helped bring more life into Equestria as a whole. Reducing that number down to basically just three is a big drop-off from what he had before. Hasbro has been making some improvements with the generation's characters and story, but they still have a lot of work to do in the worldbuilding department.

My thoughts exactly.  With how little work they put into planning out G5's world, not to mention the lack of any explanation on how it's supposed to be G4's Equestria, I don't think they care about worldbuilding.  Heck, I don't think they care too much about developing most of their characters either.  It seems the team at Hasbro put everything into developing Misty's character, and it shows in Chapter 5 of MYM.  However, the former Mane Five (now collectively 5/6 of the new Mane Six) are way underdeveloped, with Zipp being the closest among them to being a dynamic character, and even she falls short.  I really don't think Hasbro cares about the pillars of good storytelling, as long as they can get views and sell merchandise.  I think that's a big part of why G5 feels like it lacks a lot of the soul of FiM and even EQG, in spite of having some strong moments here and there, with many of them concentrated in Chapter 5.  

Also, in response to the OP...yeah, going 3D was one of a number of really bad decisions made with G5.  If corners have to be cut in storytelling because the resources to animate it all is lacking, I for one think it would have been better to pick a style that works.  The 2D show is clearly low-budget, but doesn't have the same limitations.  Of course, it can only do so much because it has to go hand-in-hand with the 3D series.  I wonder if ending MYM will lead to TYT actually exploring things that wouldn't be possible in cheap 3D?  

[Misty Shadow 7,088]

On 2023-10-01 at 1:49 PM, Landi said:

I don't really think that money in itself is an excuse for not expanding upon the world of G5. Hasbro is a very well-off company, and they could definitely afford to allot a little more into their animation budget. I think a lot of this comes down on Hasbro being lazy and just trying to pass off the minimum expectations.

You should look at Hasbro's latest financial reports some time, their revenue is declining and they had to lay off 15% of their staff this year. No one is "very well-off" right now, we're all feeling the pain of the worst inflation we've seen in a long time. 

On 2023-10-01 at 1:49 PM, Landi said:

Part of what made FiM's world so great was how expansive it was. There were locations of all shapes and sizes sprinkled throughout Equestria, and each one helped bring more life into Equestria as a whole.

Much of FiM's world was hardly utilized though. Because the world was so large, lots of areas were not given adequate development. Sometimes, it's better to work with a smaller world, the point of this topic is to ask fans if G5 does a good job working with a smaller world. 

[Landi 597]

3 hours ago, Misty Shadow said:

You should look at Hasbro's latest financial reports some time, their revenue is declining and they had to lay off 15% of their staff this year. No one is "very well-off" right now, we're all feeling the pain of the worst inflation we've seen in a long time. 

True, however if the company really cares about this franchise (which unfortunately they may not anymore) then they could afford to pay a little more. Though really, this just brings attention to the big issue here, and that's them choosing to make this generation 3D. This worked fine for the movie, but is seemingly a detriment to the make your mark series. Having MYM be a good looking 2D animated series would have given the animators more freedom in what they could have done with a given budget. This mainly just comes down to bad management on Hasbro's part.

3 hours ago, Misty Shadow said:

Much of FiM's world was hardly utilized though. Because the world was so large, lots of areas were not given adequate development. Sometimes, it's better to work with a smaller world, the point of this topic is to ask fans if G5 does a good job working with a smaller world. 

That was more of an issue with writing and direction than the actual world of Equestria itself. I think that the friendship map sought out to fix this, and it did help a bit, though there was still plenty of untapped potential. However, with the right direction, I think it would have been completely plausible to further explore Equestria's locations while also providing plenty of great character development.

As for whether or not G5 has done a good job working with a small world, I don't think it has. Maretime Bay is a really boring location that doesn't have much to offer, and the Bridlewood forest is just used for whatever the writers feel like using it for (similarly to Earth Pony magic). Zephyr Heights is actually a pretty good location, but unfortunately they don't show much of that city outside of the castle. So overall, I think that G5s worldbuilding has been a big miss so far.