Yes, I know that A New Generation has already come out in a few countries, but as far as I'm concerned here in the UK today is the final day of the G4 era. The film appears on Netflix at eight o'clock tomorrow morning UK time, and I hope that by the end of the day I will have had time to watch it. The G5 era is almost upon us. Nervouscited? You bet!
Thursday 23 September 2021
End of an era
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"but as far as I'm concerned here in the UK today is the final day of the G4 era."
ReplyDeleteFor some UK fans, maybe. As far as I'm concerned, it's not over yet. Or from another POV, it had already ended several years ago. It all depends on how you define the "G4 era".
I certainly hope you and other fans enjoy watching the next generation of the franchise, but personally I'm keeping my distance unless I hear anything personally appealing about it through the grapevine.
For some UK fans, maybe. As far as I'm concerned, it's not over yet. Or from another POV, it had already ended several years ago. It all depends on how you define the "G4 era".
DeleteSpeaking as someone who has written off all G4 material introduced after I got into the fandom via the G4 Movie, and even chunks immediately before that, I concur. But it will keep living on in our hearts. Certainly mine - I've had far too much experience coming to shows or properties after they've finished, or at least when they're well past their fame/prime, for this to faze me.
As for the film? Well, I am watching it tomorrow - I'm not in a position to ignore it, either in the short term or indefinitely. Plus, you know, Boulder Media produced it - gotta show support for the home troops' first CG film made in this country! Besides which, they can't all be Cartoon Saloon works of art. Most Irish animation studios very much solely produce outsourced preschool/young-skewing shows, not at all the sophisticated ones we adults would watch.
My expectations are… quite low. But not for the usual reasons. Won't say no more here, not when we're this close.
Either way, it'll be behind us, and for better or for worse, there'll be a whole year with literally no MLP content at all (a short G1/G4 comic miniseries crossover excepted, but hardly anyone reads those by now, as if the main series stopping wasn't proof enough). Not much different then the last two years, but even if very nearly everyone was ignoring Pony Life, it still existed.
Now there won't be even that. It's a weird feeling.
As far as I'm concerned, it's not over yet.
DeleteAs you say, it depends how you define it. I certainly can't see myself ever stopping watching and enjoying G4. After all, I watch and enjoy (in a different way) G1 content, and I was many years short of being in the fandom at all when that was current. But "current" is the word that explains what I was getting at: from tomorrow, for the first time since 2009, the newest MLP "thing" (barring short clips, trailers, ads etc) will not be G4.
I've tried to avoid spoilers, and have mostly done so aside from assorted screenshots. But what I keep noticing about the pony models is that they have lots of subtle differences, particularly in their faces, and that's a really cool thing. I'm surprisingly excited for the premier, and will be watching it in the morning tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteBut what I keep noticing about the pony models is that they have lots of subtle differences, particularly in their faces, and that's a really cool thing.
DeleteAs a animation connoisseur, and occasional practitioner (of sorts), this is something that caught my eye too. Mostly in the body shapes, but it's absolutely present in the faces too. Like the designs in general, I find the individual success of these subtle differences has more success outside the face then inside it - Sunny is marginally slim in a way that makes sense given her day job, Pipp is very much shorter/smaller then the rest, Izzy is stocky whilst being the same height as the others, and so on. I was very surprised at first to find this worked for me, given how much I found (and still find) the attempt in G4 to marginally enlarged Twilight's body once she got her wings to be a design failure that still makes my eyes twitch. But on reflection, it makes sense. G4 was not visually designed for that kind of tiny tweaks, while this CG film was from the ground up.
The faces, a bit more of a mixed bag - some characters look better or worse, as will happen when doing tweaks to a base character facial model when you don't have Pixar-level time or money to refine it. There's even some facial angles for certain characters that look off-model (there's a paradox to most people!), a reflection on how tricky three-dimensional equines are to design. But given how even $200 million Disney and Pixar films don't always nail faces, in either design, textures or rigging, this honestly could have been much worse. I seriously doubt this film cost more then $20 million, and compared to other modern CG films of that budget (The Star and Sausage Party, anyone?), My Little Pony: A New Generation visually sings.
Erm, so, yes, there's some animation insight! No charge, readers.
Honestly, clueless execs in the production pipeline are more harmful than a small budget.
DeleteHere's a great example of what a dedicated artist can do on free "amateur" software:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh6WbaYzwFc
And here's a lesson on how "pixel f#@king" can throw away millions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9VPbuq976E
As well as an unbelievable magic trick!