There's another storm (Franklin) causing problems now, so once again I don't have very much time. But I'll add some relatively brief thoughts about the G5 announcements after the page break. Spoilers beyond this point.
Then there's Tell Your Tale, a Netflix/YouTube web animation series in 2D with no fewer than 70 (seventy) five-minute episodes. Given the style of the stills that have already been released, there's a strong temptation to treat this as the Pony Life of G5. I can't imagine it's going to be too deep. This one is likely to put some people's backs up, especially given the "bean mouth" appearance, but I'll give it a fair shot. I ended up kind of liking Pony Life in the end, though I still haven't watched every episode of that.
We now know that none of the voice cast from A New Generation will be reprising their roles in the series. While this was always likely for people like James Marsden (Hitch), I think quite a few of us did hold out some hope that Kimiko Glenn might return as Izzy, given that she has done a fair bit of cartoon voice work. Still, it seems only fair to give the new VAs a chance to show what they can do. I just hope they know what they've let themselves in for as far as the fandom is concerned! :P
- Sunny Starscout - Jenna Warren
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Izzy Moonbow - Ana Sani
- Hitch Trailblazer - JJ Gerber
- Pipp Petals - AJ Bridel
- Zipp Storm - Maitreyi Ramakrishnan
Interestingly, they've gone for Canadian VAs and will be recording the show in Vancouver. While I have absolutely no evidence that it will be the case, that does raise the intriguing possibility that the odd G4 VA may yet turn up as a guest star...
As for release schedules: Tell Your Tale will kick off the non-movie G5 era on 7th April. The first Make Your Mark special will appear on 26th May. The main MYM series turns up on 26th September. Finally, a Christmas MYM special, "Winter Wishday", rounds off this year's G5ery on 21st November. It's not going to be another Friendship is Magic because nothing could be. But it could still be fun in its own right.
While I have absolutely no evidence that it will be the case, that does raise the intriguing possibility that the odd G4 VA may yet turn up as a guest star...
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Tabitha St. Germain has been in every generation of MLP so far, I don't know why this would be any different. :)
Was she in G1? I can't be bothered to go and check, if I'm honest. I know Kelly Sheridan was (debuted as Melody in Tales when she can't have been older than a young teen) but I'm not sure about Tabitha.
DeleteAccording to my G1 watch-through review, she was a random Flutterpony!
DeleteWell there's a thing!
DeleteJust going to use this space to throw out some less well-known facts about the announcement, my own insights, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt's supposed to look just like the movie, which would be great – but given TV budgets, that seems like a stretch.
The easiest point of comparison to what we have here is Jimmy Neutron all the way back in 2001. That too was launched with a theatrical CGI film before the television show followed. The director specifically proposed doing the feature film before the show, rather then after, so feature-quality assets could be used for the latter. And this is true, the same character models and sets exist for the show. TV budgets and schedules did mean, of course, that nuanced, subtle character animation went out the window (along with more elaborate cinematography/camera movement), and instead characters flailed a lot. One reason why it's a goldmine of meme humour.
While we won't have exactly THAT here with Make Your Mark, given 20 years of technology development, the character movement will almost certainly be stiffer then A New Generation. The question is how much stiffer. But screenshots from the show that only have characters/locales also in the film? They may be borderline-indistinguishable (excepting aspect ratio and framing and other aspects, but you know).
I'll admit, given how pristine the character models Hasbro's been using on social media look (they're the film models with slight tweaks, but still, bravo), I'm cautiously optimistic as to how it'll look in motion. Looking at Atomic Cartoons' recent CGI shows will give us a good idea.
I must say, I'm really glad we're still getting 22-minute episodes. In the last decade, network cartoons have sided so heavily on just 11-minute ones, so this is one unquestionable benefit from being for Netflix now. And even then, it wasn't a guarantee (it remains technically possible these are 11-minute episodes in pairs, but very unlikely).
And I must also praise Hasbro for doing their best to spread content out while still following Netflix's "dump lots of episodes at once" strategy (Netflix is experimenting with weekly releases lately, as that's done wonders for Disney+ and HBOMax, but a show aimed as young as MLP isn't going to be an early adopter of that).
Still, it seems only fair to give the new VAs a chance to show what they can do.
That the VAs we currently know for these characters are exclusive to the film means that, once there's enough episodes and specials with the new cast, most viewers will stop thinking of them as replacements at all. I'm curious whether they'll go for being sound-alikes, or just adopt their own take. Given Boulder Media specifically got their cast to use their natural voice, or at least within their range (even for Phil Lamarr – one funny fact from the recent interview with the directors for an Irish Film & Television Academy event, was he was briefly offended at being asked to NOT use his endless range of other voices. The host also recalled meeting him at a con once and preferring his natural voice to most of his cartoon voices), the sound-alike tactic may be difficult for most characters. Hitch is the one I'm most worried about by a wide margin, I think the rest will probably be alright. We'll see.
I note the irony in how Liza Koshy was stunt-cast as Zipp for the social media and hipness, and of this new batch, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is the only 'name', known for starring in the Netflix series Never Have I Ever, and having almost 100K Twitter and 2.5 million Instagram followers. Still, she can only improve on Koshy! She's also in the upcoming Pixar film Turning Red, a good chance to see her voicing chops.
the odd G4 VA may yet turn up as a guest star...
The Vancouver VA pool isn't so big, so it's a guarantee at some point. Though many of them will probably be actors who only had bit parts in FiM doing the same here.
The Vancouver VA pool isn't so big
DeleteThe upshot of Canada having what are, by UK standards, pretty restrictive rules on who can work in its industry. But it'll be fun if someone who voiced some random side character turns up in G5 as another random side character, especially if the fandom manages to come up with ridiculous yet strangely compelling headcanon about how the two characters may have been distantly related or something. :P
Kimiko Glenn did such an astounding job in the movie. I'm not convinced that her replacement will measure up, but wouldn't be a nice surprise if she did?
ReplyDeleteAs for the bean-mouth version... at least it is in addition to the 3D show.
I did have the same concern – for all that Vanessa Hudgens and especially James Marsden turned in good performances, Glenn's is the only one that's "so good it inspires the writing and character animation to greater heights" quality.
DeleteThat said, Izzy's new VA is the most experienced of these new five, and I checked out her 2021 showreel on her Instagram. Nothing in there on the level of Izzy in the film, but it's hard to judge with writing/animation/schedules on a lower level, and she's clearly competent. I think she'll do fine, as long as she doesn't focus too much on voice-matching Kimoko to the effect of the strain being noticeable.
As for the bean-mouth version... at least it is in addition to the 3D show.
This. Soon people will realise this is little different to getting the EqG shorts constantly, or even the Pinkie Pie claymation-style shorts for a while, purely an optional side dish one can avoid. Only difference is Hasbro is actually marketing the side dish this time rather then just dropping it off unceremoniously, but that doesn't mean people have to follow it.