Over on Fimfiction, Mike Cartoon Pony has written this very detailed review of Make Your Mark. It's fair to say he's clearly more negative about it overall than I was, but it's no hatchet job: he does explain why he's unhappy with various aspects, and if I'm honest it's hard for me to disagree with most of them. I suspect I'm just a bit more inclined to be forgiving of significantly flawed material "because Pony" than Mike is; the same is true of the final seasons of Friendship is Magic.
One thing in particular from Mike's review that really does resonate: I'm not at all sure how much rewatch value Make Your Mark will have. As I'm finding right now, I can rewatch the great majority of FiM episodes with no trouble at all, even those which have clear flaws. They're still fun, for the most part. But will MYM prove to be a rather empty vessel? I fear it might. As things stand I'm still more positively inclined to it than Mike is, but his review has given me something to think about.
Still, however much Make Your Mark may irritate me in the future, I doubt it will be as off-putting as episode 13 of Tell Your Tale was. Fair to say "Dumpster Diving" has clunked to the bottom of my TYT ranking so far, and it's done so with some considerable ease. Probably the most off-putting characterisation of Izzy I've seen in any official media so far. I've actually enjoyed a fair bit of this series (for what it is), but not this episode. So, episode with fan-favourite character being obnoxious but a catchy song? Sounds familiar... though this is worse than that was.
All I know is EQD posted the song by itself, so I checked it out because of all the hype. Can't say I see what the fuss was about. <.< I think the bar is lowering in real time.
ReplyDeleteIs this a substitute for Text Review Roundup this time around, then?
ReplyDeletevery detailed review
Heh, that's me, guilty as charged!
I don't mean for such things to turn out as long as they do. And, surprisingly (or not) there were plenty of points I could have discussed, and didn't, or scaled back on. It is, at least, shorter than my (outdated) review on A New Generation, though not by much; I was aiming for half its length. Still, as I suspect the series come September will be very stylistically similar to this (and not just in the animation), I can defer to this review and not have to go over many points as much then.
Anyway, "hard to disagree with the points" is just about the best reaction one can except short of actual concurring with the opinion. And, for what it's worth, I get being forgiving of flawed material because of the franchise. I don't agree, but I get it. As I said at the review's end, I'm hardly exempt from liking objectively bad material, and franchise attachment is sometimes a reason why.
If anything was going to leap out for you, beyond why the animation affects the product's effect beyond being distractingly irritating, I'm glad it was the point on replay value. And not just because the closing line "It’s just a dreary, flat, indifferent product that intends to claim a victory if you watch it once" is one of my better concise statements of late.
We live in an age of having so much content available, such that people rewatch things far less as it is, which is magnified by the focus on serialised, plot-heavy shows that lose impact once you know what's happening. But media, still, usually puts in a good-faith attempt to be entertaining enough that a rewatch isn't out of the question.
This just feels so… empty, with hardly any jokes or character moments leaping out. A good barometer I've always used as to whether something can stand up to a rewatch is if there's a meaningful difference between reading the plot synopsis/script/transcript, and watching the thing. If watching it is not better, then no. And here, I'd argue it's worse, since if reading it, one can imagine better animation that enhances the "writing". For me, there are many moments in here that I can picture executed with the timing and flair of FiM, and they'd be much better for it. And not for being in 2D either.
For what it's worth, for all I grouse in Seasons 6-9 of FiM, there's enough to dig in 6/7 that I can still enjoy chunks of them (and if someone were to argue they preferred Season 3 to 6, that's not the most unreasonable thing). It's really only the last two, where the writing drops off a cliff and they get disrespectful to everything before, that I throw in the towel for and consider CINO (Canon In Name Only), helped by them contradicting many earlier canon points anyway.
_____
As for Ep. 13 of Tell Your Tale… yeah, that song sure is something. I laughed, more of a body reaction than most of this webseries. Ironic laughter, of course, especially a song singing about literal trash. And for all the comparison to A Friend In Deed is obvious, even apart from the Smile song, that episode still has much, much better writing and doozies upon doozies of compensating factors.
You know, I am starting to wonder if I'll have the stamina to stick with this for 57 more shorts. At least, in terms of writing up about them. There's only so many times one can groan inwardly at inept characterisation like this. And only so many ways to write about it too.
Fifty-seven? D: D: D:
Deletedude, quit while you're ahead D: save yourself
This is the Pinkie Problem all over again and amplified.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare knew how to write the Wise Fool, a mischievous character who slyly and humorously exposed (and corrected) the foibles of the people around them, all the while behaving in a seemingly carefree and goofy way.
The TYT writers aren't fit to scrub Shakespeare's toilet.
Fools transgress. They step over the boundaries of propriety, but only just. That's their function; to test those boundaries. An attempted fool who ignores boundaries altogether becomes insensitive to the point of cruelty, an idiot, or physically revolting.
This episode actively angered me. Are the writers incompetent or do they just "shit-it-out" because these are meaningless scraps of kid-vid to them?
Whatever the case, there's no good excuse for this garbage.