My Little Pony n Friends Animation Errors

[DreamvalleyMLP]

This is a lot of fun, just like spotting them back in the eighties! Thanks for sharing those screenshots everyone! The errors didn't bother me, but the bad animation could be very off-putting sometimes. The pony design in Crunch The Rockdog was cute. The animation in the Golden Horseshoes on the other hand.... *shudders*

[LadyMoondancer]

Yeah, anyone know the story behind The Golden Horseshoes' animation?  It looks sooo different, especially the first episode of it IIRC?

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Yeah, anyone know the story behind The Golden Horseshoes' animation?  It looks sooo different, especially the first episode of it IIRC?

They may have exported it to a different animation studio. Reminds me of when Animaniacs would export to this one animation studio that...didn't have the same quality standards as the others. Their episodes stand out quite well.

[LadyMoondancer]

I kind of liked the animation better in the Golden Horseshoes . . .  It was wonky and off model for sure.  But it seemed to have more emotion?  And was a bit more cinematic than usual, with lots of varying "camera" angles and even shading in some scenes.  Like, usually MLP & Friends was just kind of visually bright and simple and shot from "the side" regardless of what was happening on the screen. 

I remember the "All Through the Night" song in particular being really dark and moody.  I kinda wish that company had done the whole show . . .

That said, it had some really obvious animation errors, like Megan getting off a pegasus and her arm morphing right through the pony's wing, LOL.

[northstar3184]

I kind of liked the animation better in the Golden Horseshoes . . .  It was wonky and off model for sure.  But it seemed to have more emotion?  And was a bit more cinematic than usual, with lots of varying "camera" angles and even shading in some scenes.  Like, usually MLP & Friends was just kind of visually bright and simple and shot from "the side" regardless of what was happening on the screen. 

I remember the "All Through the Night" song in particular being really dark and moody.  I kinda wish that company had done the whole show . . .

That said, it had some really obvious animation errors, like Megan getting off a pegasus and her arm morphing right through the pony's wing, LOL.

Ok I've gotta sit down and rewatch this episode because I never noticed there was a different animation style.

[LadyMoondancer]

Here are some screenshots from it:

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The ponies listen to the legend of the ancestral unicorn who owned the four golden horseshoes (WITH SHADING).

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The Moochick has seen too much.

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Pot is legal in Ponyland.

[Taffeta]

I wonder if it was in any way connected to some of the Jem animation that definitely went to subpar studios. Anyone who's ever seen the Shangrila episode knows what I mean...

I haven't seen the horseshoes episode in about 20 years, probably not since the first time I saw it and knew I wanted Mimic, which may make it even longer (given that I got Mimic in 1997). I hadn't remembered any of this. Maybe when my summer chaos is over and I know where I'm living next year, I'll try and make a point of rewatching some of these episodes as many of them I realise I haven't seen in a very long time.

[Ponyfan]

Note the drumstick. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "you'll have someone's eye out with that."

Clearly lesson learned too late.

.

I didn't even notice that when I took the screenshot but now it really does look like one twin hit the other in the eyes with the drumstick. 


I rewatched Quest of the Princess Ponies and found several errors no one has mentioned yet


Ponies missing horns or gaining wings


Princess Sparkle is missing her horn

Spoiler

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[

Princess Starburst  and Princess Serena turn in to pegasus ponies

Spoiler

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Heads and bodies different colors

Spoiler

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Princess Royal Blue becomes a unicorn

Spoiler

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Tiffany is flying Megan back to Royal Paradise but when the Princess Ponies, Spike and the bushwoolies fall through the wall and are recaptured Tiffany is with them.

Spoiler

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The chair that everyone calls a plant



The animation and script don't match in this scene. The Moochick's chair comes to life and Megan, the Moochick and Habbit are forced to run out of the Moochick's house, Both Megan and Tiffany call the chair a plant.

Spoiler

 

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Ponyfan

[Al-1701]

Animation errors was as much a part of the 80's as big hair and guys with watches going all the way up their arm.  The explanation was on the Real Ghostbusters commentary, but it applies here too.  It was just too expensive to do too many edits since it involved flying the film back to Japan/Korea for them to redo the cells from scratch and then fly it back to America.  There could have also been translation errors in the shooting scripts.  Like the acting script might have said "plant" but the shooting script said chair.

I like the animation style of The Golden Horseshoes as well.  I think the animation team really wanted to show what they could do.  The show was coming to an end, so it was chance to make a portfolio episode.  It did get wonky at times, but even the modeling looked better than the standard of the show.

Actually, Lofty's fifth leg is Heart Throb's but colored wrong, probably because they had enough legs for Heart Throb.

Galaxy was actually an alicorn twice (the other time was in Baby It's Cold Outside) and Wind Whistler was an alicorn briefly in Crunch the Rockdog.

[Taffeta]

Tiffany is flying Megan back to Royal Paradise but when the Princess Ponies, Spike and the bushwoolies fall through the wall and are recaptured Tiffany is with them.

And Princess Ruby is a sausage-pony. Look how far away her tail is compared to her body.

Also, I think that the miscoloured Amethyst/Sparkle/"Lilac" is actually Sapphire with an unexpected white horn attached? O.o.

[Jorgito93]

Tiffany is flying Megan back to Royal Paradise but when the Princess Ponies, Spike and the bushwoolies fall through the wall and are recaptured Tiffany is with them.

And Princess Ruby is a sausage-pony. Look how far away her tail is compared to her body.

Also, I think that the miscoloured Amethyst/Sparkle/"Lilac" is actually Sapphire with an unexpected white horn attached? O.o.

Her symbol is definitely Royal Blue/Sapphire's moon crescent, so she just grew a white horn.

[Ponyfan]

Tiffany is flying Megan back to Royal Paradise but when the Princess Ponies, Spike and the bushwoolies fall through the wall and are recaptured Tiffany is with them.

And Princess Ruby is a sausage-pony. Look how far away her tail is compared to her body.

Also, I think that the miscoloured Amethyst/Sparkle/"Lilac" is actually Sapphire with an unexpected white horn attached? O.o.

I missed how long Princess Primrose/Princess Ruby's body was in the group shot.


You and Jorgito93 are right. It's Princess Royal Blue/Sapphire  with a unicorn horn not Princess Sparkle/Amethyst  It was very early in the morning when I was watching  pony cartoons and trying to take screencaps at the same time. 


Ponyfan

   

[DreamvalleyMLP]

Heads and bodies different colors

Those are animated separately to avoid having to draw the pony in its entirety for every single movement it makes. In poor quality shows it leads to this type of color mismatch, but even in HQ work like Disney's it can be noticeable.

Post Merge: June 25, 2018, 03:03:59 PM

Some more favourites of mine:
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Pegasus Magic Star!

She was also a pegasus for a split second in the movie. When Wind Whistler and "North Star" return to Dreamvalley with Megan, Molly and Danny; when they're coming down to land, Magic Star is alongside Wind Whistler instead of North Star. I think that her and Truly were intended to be pegasi, but Hasbro changed it at the last minute. If I remember correctly, Truly was a pegasus in the final song of The Magic Coins; she and another pegasus push clouds together to form a pink heart (I could be mixing up episodes here, but she was definitely portrayed as a pegasus several times). It made sense to me as well, with her symbol being a dove in flight.

[Leave a Whisper]

I love watching out for animation errors in older shows. Its a lot of fun and can be pretty amusing.

[Taffeta]

The stripes in the hair of prototypes suggest they thought about making them unicorns...but Truly is a pegasus in Brazil . Magic Star is the most magical pony in the uk lore thus growing wings occasionally is child's play.