What constitutes a movie spoiler?

I've now found a cinema in the English Midlands (my home region) where the movie is open for booking! It's the Broadway in Nottingham, where there are two showings a day from 20/10 to 31/10. The major chains don't tend to open bookings until a week or so out, so it's not surprising an indy would be the first I noticed.

This is a spoiler-free post, in spite of being about spoilers!

Now that we've reached the day when My Little Pony: The Movie goes on general release in North America (and a bunch of other places), the potential for being spoiled on major aspects of the film's plot is about to increase enormously. Most of us in this part of the world are trying to avoid spoilers to some degree – but what actually is a spoiler, especially as far as this blog is concerned?

I think we need to be realistic. If you're expecting to get through to 20th October without even seeing a still picture of any of the new characters, then frankly you're going to fail in that quest pretty hard. You'd literally need to hide in a cave for the next fortnight to achieve that. There's already a ton of merch on the shelves starring the main newcomers, and soon there'll be posters and perhaps even TV ads.

UK PonyCon is coming up just as the film releases, and that convention does indeed have a no-spoilers policy – but again, a total blackout is simply not going to happen. How could a convention like that possibly ban vendors from selling a huge range of merch? Answer: they can't and they won't. You will see images and toys featuring movie-specific characters there, and there is no realistic way of avoiding that.

Since I don't want to spoil people on specifics here, I'll use an analogy to explain Louder Yay's position: that of the first Equestria Girls film from 2013. This was where Sunset Shimmer made her debut – but I would not consider a still picture of Sunset in a neutral setting to be a spoiler. However, I would consider a picture of Demon Sunset to be one, as that's a significant plot twist. See?

And what about trailers? Frankly, neither they or synopses are really spoilers, since they're intended to be viewed before the film itself appears. However, here on LY I've still been reasonably careful to put them beyond a page break if their thumbnails reveal anything of significance. The official "Rainbow" video, for example, has a thumbnail that's simply Maddie Ziegler. Not a spoiler.

Now, how long will my spoiler blackout period last? Another vexed question, as there'll always be somebody who hasn't seen the film, even in ten years' time. I've taken the decision to be careful up until the end of 2017. As far as I can tell from IMDb's not-always-reliable list, nowhere that's going to get the film at all will have to wait until 2018, and that's informed my decision.

I will, of course, be posting a review of My Little Pony: The Movie once I've seen it on the big screen – but that will take a similar format to how I reviewed the Equestria Girls films. The above-the-line picture will be a neutral one, and nothing in the pre-break paragraph will reveal significant plot points. If you click beyond that point, though, I don't want any complaints about spoilers!

If you have any thoughts or comments on what I've just said, please feel free to use the comments section as normal. I'd ask that you avoid movie spoilers in any comments you do make, please.

Movie: UK cinema showings from 6th Oct... but only in Scotland!

This is somehow far more frustrating than waiting past the US release!

This is a spoiler-free post

Up until very recently, I'd imagined that there would be no previews or early showings of My Little Pony: The Movie in the UK, except perhaps one organised by Hasbro in London. However, it seems I was wrong. You can go and see the film before its general release date of 20th October – but there's a catch, and a pretty big one for me and indeed most of the UK: you have to live in, or at least be able to get to, Scotland.

I was confused as to the reason for this at first, but Silver Broom on Twitter helpfully explained: the half-term break in Scotland is two weeks earlier than it is in England, and since the reason the movie's been delayed south of the border is to coincide with half-term, I have to concede that earlier Scottish showings make sense.

Not all cinemas even in Scotland are showing it, as far as I can tell, but those I've found that are already listing it for an early release include:

Cineworld: Falkirk and Dundee (from Fri 6/10)
Odeon: Dundee and Dunfermline (from Sat 7/10)
Vue: Stirling and Inverness (from Sat 7/10)

And since you ask, yes I darn well am jealous about this, not to mention frustrated that a day trip to Scotland is beyond both my budget and my health. Booking has not yet opened for the movie at any English cinema, as far as I can tell, but I'll be a great deal more relieved when it does! :P

Ponyfic Roundup 175: Spotlight on The Arbitrage of Moments

This wasn't originally going to be a Spotlight review, but I've discovered I've got more to say about GaPJaxie's fic – which, incidentally, is the only story on Fimfiction to have the word "arbitrage" in its title – than I can fit into my usual single paragraph. Here we go, then...

Read it Later story count: 396 (-1)

The Arbitrage of Moments by GapJaxie
Twilight, OC and Mane Six
Sad/Slice of Life; 12k words; Jun 2013; Teen

When you have so little, and another has so much, it’s easy to justify theft. The more precious the commodity, the easier it is to tell yourself you need it more than they do. And what is more precious than time?

This is a really thought-provoking story, though which thoughts it provokes are likely to vary from reader to reader. At its heart is Applejack reading a diary, and later on Rainbow Dash's strong reactions to its contents. However, it takes a while to see what's going on, including why Twilight is specifically tagged. The main OC (the journal writer) is somepony who provoked strong feelings, but not all of them aligning. This isn't a story for those who are looking for easy answers, but if you don't mind greyness then it's fascinating. If you read the author's Royal Canterlot Library interview for this fic, you'll discover that he's not entirely happy with it.¹ I haven't read the (much longer) story he feels is better, but despite a few niggles (eg a rather unnecessary final chapter) I still think he did a very good job here. Oh, and for what it's worth, I'm in the "wow" camp regarding a certain highly contentious line that you'll know when you see it. ★★★★
¹ Although by 2022 he considered it "one of the best things [he'd] ever written"...

If you don't mind plenty of spoilers, then past the break you'll find some more of my thoughts on this tale.

Pony Music Library 47: "My Past is Not Today"

( Text link )

What? "My Past is Not Today"

Who? Daniel Ingram

Which? Equestria Girls short

When? April 2015

Why? At the start of April 2015, three music videos appeared on Hasbro's channel. There'd been no hint that they were coming, strange as it may seem in these days of blanket promotion, and they blew the fandom away. I like all of them, but "My Past is Not Today" is probably the one which had the most impact. After Sunset Shimmer's triumphant Rainbow Rocks appearance, she'd become a hugely popular character, and this song cemented that further. It's a great power ballad about her redemption, sung excellently by Rebecca Shoichet and featuring a fine hook, a catchy melody and a strong bass line. The lyrics are solid and easily singable, too. The quality of the animation doesn't hurt, either, but it's the song itself that's getting inducted here.

Episode Review: S7E21: "Marks and Recreation"

"Er, Rumble... I said to use paint for your circles..."

As the hypemobile for the movie moves way beyond 88 mph, the show just keeps chugging along. This week's episode was written by May Chan, which wasn't a name to excite me given that her only previous ep was the less than impressive "Not Asking for Trouble". Still, one episode does not a failed writer make, so let's have a look and see whether this week's instalment was an improvement.

A comment on something I've seen regarding the movie

Spoilers beyond the cut!

Just something I read in a small early review. I'm deliberately not giving anything away up here as to whether it's good, bad, both or neither, and I wouldn't recommend going any further if you've chosen to stay spoiler-free.

Might the movie do better in the UK than the US?

An interesting compilation of vague first impressions of the movie here on NeoGAF by ShinySylvee; that page itself is spoiler-free, but some of the links from there are not. Apparently the embargo on full reviews expires today, so the vague things above will probably be overshadowed – but the first signs are that the film was received pretty well. Okay, now to the main stuff.

This post is spoiler-free

This weekend sees the first public previews of My Little Pony: The Movie on the other side of the Atlantic. Inevitably, that's going to mean lots of people spewing spoilers all over everywhere, which isn't something I'm looking forward to but is probably something that's unavoidable. However, it also means people wondering about how well the film will do at the box office.

In the US, MLP's wide release on 6 October is going up against Blade Runner 2049, a behemoth by comparison – and one which has received ecstatic early reviews from the critics. (At the time of writing, it has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 98%.) It would take a miracle of epic proportions for Pony to match either BR's critical reception or its commercial performance, and I don't expect it to get close on either score.

Here in the UK, however, we have to put up with waiting another fortnight, until 20 October, to see the film. (I've seen a few hints of some 19 October previews, but I have no hard information.) And you know, there's not a great deal of competition on that date. The Lego Ninjago Movie arrives on the 13th, and that's the only big release I can see to target much the same audience.

Now, it's hardly a new thing for a film to flop in the States and do well over here. Watership Down did exactly that in 1978 – it's generally seen as a cult film in the US, but it was a major commercial hit in the UK. More recently, The Golden Compass did pretty well here and pretty badly in America, though its philosophy (real and perceived) might have had something to do with that.

I'm speculating here, but perhaps with MLP it might also be a factor that the G4 hypewagon is a little newer in the UK. It's only really since about 2014 that Hasbro UK have really pushed hard with bringing merch to us; previously, we tended either to have to import at inflated prices or, at best, wait a year or two for anything to appear. Similarly, our fandom, though small, is still quite strong.

One factor will be whether or not the UK's largest cinema chain, Odeon, decides to show the film. We already know that numbers two and three on the list, Vue and Cineworld, will – but Odeon carrying it would make a big difference. As things stand, it will be more prominent than Equestria Girls, but not that much more. It would be great if British cinemas went all-out with the MLP movie.

So, while I hope My Little Pony: The Movie will do at least well enough to put the memory of the commercial failure that was its 1986 namesake to bed, I don't expect it to be a $100 million blockbuster or anything. It doesn't need to be, really, as long as it drives toy sales enough. But it wouldn't altogether astonish me if it turned out to be a bigger hit outside its North American homeland.