Obviously I'll do my usual look back at the FiM season just rewatched, but before I move on to S6 I may take a little time to consider a couple of other things. In particular, I'd like to have a serious watch of Jenny Nicholson's "The Last BronyCon: A Fandom Autopsy", Yes, I know it's now nearly two years old, and in fact I have looked through it already – just not in the way one does when preparing to write about it in public. It's probably about time I gave it a full-on look.
It has almost four million views on YouTube now, which is enormous for a Pony video these days – although clearly a large chunk of those are people who know Nicholson from her other work and (in some cases, at least) know next to nothing about this fandom. I know from my casual watching of the video that I'll find some parts of it more irritating than others, but again I'm not really up to writing about that until I rewatch it with proper concentration.
It's always interesting watching this stuff from outside the US, too. A kind-of comparison just popped into my head: recently I rewatched Monsters, Inc. and its later prequel Monsters University. The first film is a cast-iron classic I would quite happily watch again right now. The second, though entertaining, isn't in the same league, and I think it's partly the setup. Fraternities are so American; they just don't exist here, so they're not relatable for me in the way kids having nightmares are.
Anyway, before all that, there'll be the usual Ponyfic Roundup on Wednesday. For what it's worth, while I'm here: yes, I am still watching Tell Your Tale, and I'll probably continue to do that given how short the episodes are. The things really don't have to be that good to be worthy of five minutes of my time per week. They're generally in one ear and out the other stuff, though. I'm not bothering with the IDW comics, just reading all Silver Quill's spoilery analyses. :P
I've seen that video. Certainly got many good points, though a lot of it is a bit… difficult to sit through to agree with. Memories are rather fuzzy, so I'll wait until your post on the matter.
ReplyDeleteYour point about the two Monsters films get me thinking about the old mantra of how a film for everyone is really for no one, while a film about something specific can properly speak to the human condition, and thus appeal to those beyond what it's "about". Sticking with Pixar, Finding Nemo is about a widowed father whose drive to find his son, all that's left of a destroyed family, overrides every other concern or urgency, and he comes to learn more about that son and himself in the process. And yet it's Pixar's most successful film to this day.
That said, when a film uses certain cultures and doesn't explain them overtly because the audience has that shorthand, there can be a little distance if the audience doesn't have that, as you note. Me, I don't think Monsters University suffers from having something not as relatable to non-Americans. Maybe from playing the college film template rather straight, sans being G-rated. For what it's worth, Monsters, Inc. is the Pixar film I've seen the most times in my life, courtesy of a well-worn VHS. Getting nostalgic just thinking about it!
I'm not bothering with the IDW comics, just reading all Silver Quill's spoilery analyses.
I always say a good measurement of a piece of fictional media's value is if there's a substantial difference between reading a summary/recap/analysis of it, versus reading/watching/listening to the thing proper. If not, or the difference favours the first method, well…
Suffice to say I do not feel the G4 -> G5 material they're delving into now is at all successful (what they did with Twilight is everything I feared and expected), though there are bits in there that work. I think the Mane 5 characterisation is better than in Tell Your Tale or Make Your Mark, but it doesn't rise above comfortably bland.
True, it's not only the lack of relatability. After all, high school/college sports aren't a massive thing on this side of the Atlantic either, and yet that doesn't really bother me about Friendship Games. Possibly it's also that I really don't much like frat-house comedy in the first place. I can't think of a single such film I would actually watch for fun. Not even Animal House, and the likes of Revenge of the Nerds actively repel me.
DeleteMonsters University, ironically, may in fact be top of the list by default! I do think it's a fun film, if not a match for its wonderful predecessor, though the Scare Games and the way the Mike/Sully relationship builds is of vastly more interest to me than the fraternity storylines.
I wrote a long, detailed breakdown of my reaction to G5 so far, movie, TYT, MYM, and comics included, but I'll spare you nice folks all that.
ReplyDeleteTL; DR: G4 made me happy. G5 makes me sad.
I quite like the G5 film, with reservations as I mentioned in my review. My headcanon of all the Mane Five is essentially what it is in the movie. The other stuff is not on the same plane. I don't mind TYT as web-based shorts were of seriously inconsistent quality even in the G4 era. But by Celestia I'm hoping with all hooves crossed that MYM kicks up a gear in September. Hoping, but not really expecting.
DeleteI liked the movie quite a lot.
DeleteI wrote a long, detailed breakdown of my reaction to G5 so far, movie, TYT, MYM, and comics included, but I'll spare you nice folks all that.
DeleteIs it available to read somewhere? Or was all that a paraphrasing of "it's in my head/private, wanna keep it that way"?
Anyway, while I can't call it any better than Decent, I do like A New Generation, warts and all, and for better or for worse, my inclination and preference for animated films over television, and the massive gulf in writing, characterisation, technical/visual execution and so on makes it very easy, at least for moi, to separate it from what follows. Basically what Logan says, that's the only canon I've accepted into my headcanon (and even then, with many reservations). If I ever get bitten by a G5 idea enough to write it, at least with the state of the canon material right now, it'll either still be film-timeline, be able to ignore show canon unobtrusively, or deliberately ignore it.
But as I'd said in many places since the film came out (almost as much as "the character animation and surface rendering will take a nosedive with the series, mark my words"), its characters, story and world were only really designed to support that single flick, not a whole ongoing series. Especially as regards the characters; even there, Sunny clearly didn't have the kind of personality like the Mane 6 suited to lots of short form stories. Neither did Hitch, honestly. Izzy might have, but only with nuanced writing. And so forth. Being that my main headspace is film writing, not tv writing, I didn't mind it there, but it certainly didn't help.
Course, even with that, MYM has no excuse for stinking as much as it did. I too am hoping it can crawl up a bit come September, but don't expect even a little. I do expect it to be not as bad as the special, due to not having to serve so many masters on an episode-by-episode basis, but that's all I expect it'll improve. A sad state of affairs.
I'll PM you over on FiMFic when I get home.
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