How would you fix the 80s My Little Pony Movie?

[sunshinedim]

A lot of people dislike My Little Pony the Movie from 1986. But the question is... how would you try to fix it? I personally would have made the witches a bit more scary and intimidating more similar in tone to Ursula from the Little Mermaid... (make the witches both funny and evil).

Also I would have completely redesigned the Grundles.... they looked pretty unappealing.

[kestral_kitsune]

keep it in one studio to  keep animating consistent and less buggy -if i remember correctly there were either 2 or 3 working on the movie-
give it more depth to it, work on the witches make them a little less corny and a bit more threatening. 

[Taffeta]

I don't like pretty much any part of the movie, with the exception of the smooze. I like the smooze, but that's about it. The characters of most of the ponies jar with me from my childhood and the comics, as they bear no relationship. Megan is annoying. Danny and Molly are annoying. The witches are squeaky and annoying. The grundles are irrelevant. Basically, I'd want to rewrite it from scratch xD.

But from a personal standpoint, I'd also want to revise the characters of the ponies most of all. That's the thing that makes me most annoyed about it. Magic Star and Shady in particular bother me.

[Gator]

Make the art better!!!  Although I love Reeka and Draggle, the backgrounds, colors, and ponies were awful!  They needed to slow down and draw the ponies as good as they did with Midnight Castle and Catrina.  And not to open up the humans or no humans argument, Midnight Castle Megan was the best.  I would have made movie Megan more like her, and ditch the blue and pink ruffled outfit.

[SpacePinto]

Add that rejected scene where Wind Whistler and North Star were supposed to meet that drunk Transformers guy while looking for Megan.

[TwistedRiver]

Maybe I'm the odd one but aside from fixing some animation goofs I would leave the movie as is. I'm sure a lot of that is my nostalgia talking but that movie was one of the staples of my childhood.

[sweetstuff85]

Add that rejected scene where Wind Whistler and North Star were supposed to meet that drunk Transformers guy while looking for Megan.

Wait can you explain this? There was a rejected scene or was this a joke that went over my head?

I didn’t realize a lot of people disliked the movie. I actually LOVE it. I loved it as a kid and I love it still. I like the witches I find them enjoyably ridiculous and silly. Most of their jokes went over my head as a kid, especially Hydia’s but I love them now. I even like the Grundles, I find hem cute. I also love that all the storylines come together at the end and that the flutter ponies are stuck up and initially don’t want to help.

I might be the lone few that liked the movie. Saying that the movie had NOTHING on Rescue at Midnight Castle. Now that TV short should have been the movie. That would have been way more fun drawn out and even more epic.

If I could change something, I would change the fact the the ponies sort of take a back seat to the film. There are ALOT of other characters in it. It would be nice to have a little bit JUST pony scenes, but I do love that the TV show brings literally every character from the movie into the show at some point, including the Grundles. They show up in Return of Tambelon which is pretty neat. Although it’s no longer Danny Devito’s voice who plays the Grundle King.

I would also change the drawing style to RAMC it’s so much better. The pastels aren’t great. I also hated the moochick song, i find it annoying. Wish I could have been another epic sea pony song.

[starscout]

give Danny DeVito more lines

[Annie]

I actually didn't enjoy the movie as much even as a kid so I think it certainly has a lot it could have improved on.
That said I watched it over and over again as a kid since it was ponies after all

* Main character Baby Lickety split was not a fun "lead" character. She was just arrogant and selfcentered and the only time I felt sympathy for her was when Buttons and the other yelled at her in the beginning. Granted, she deserved it for trying to outshine the others in such a selfish way but it felt a bit like bullying to me and that´s just not fun to see in a kids movie.

* It felt as the witches had almost as much screentime (if not more) as the ponies. Even in ponyland there seemed to be more cute critters running around than actual ponies. Most of the time it was just Reeka and Draggle messing up and acting clumsy. I would have liked to seen more ponys on screen time since they are supposed to be the stars.

* More focus on the storyline and better explanation to things.
The main story was the smudge attacking ponyland with lots of smaller sidelines that didn´t seem necessary IMHO. Like the Grundles that didn't do much to the storyline at all and the only positive Licketysplit added to the story was that she befriended Morning Glory so that Morning Glory could convince Rosedust to help the ponies.

* I would add a bit more personality to the ponies and make them stand out more.
The only ponies who seemed to show their personality was Baby Licketysplit acting presumptuous and Shady as the unlucky negative one. Fizzy did a couple of bubbly happy jumps and whindwhistler showed direction over the sunflower field and saved Megan but other then that I didn't think any other pony got their chance to really shine. I remember Magic star being in the group the entire movie but she didn´t add anything to the search party for the entire movie than just being there (and the fact she GAVE AWAY the dream castle to the Grundles at the end of the movie! What would Majesty say!?! ).
Also Molly and Danny didn't do anything either then just being there. And WHY is it always Megan that has to lead all the ponies and bring them hope and tell them what to do. The ponies should be smart enough to handle it on their own. Put Windwhistler in charge or anything.

[Snapdragon]

I'm a sap, I like it as is! It has such a delicious twist of nostalgia for me, I'm not sure I would be able to pick out any one thing to say, nope, this stinks!

More Danny Devito, I could definitely see that! I'll agree with that critique Starscout! But for the folks saying the Grundles weren't any good - well, they were *supposed* to be sort of ugly, hence the whole 'Grundles Good' song about not judging based on appearances! I thought it was a very nice moral to tuck in there. (I also feel like, honestly, they look like a group of animated Muppets, which are pretty ugly outside of puppet format IMO! And as I recall, the Muppets were VERY big in the 80s, especially with Fraggle Rock!)

Honestly, I'd have to watch it again to have better critique; I seem to recall finding the 'finding Flutter Valley' subplot being a little dull, with the whole 'sorry, Queen Rosedust says we can't help' bit being a bit like, uhhh? What about the power of friendship and kindness, buddy? You're seriously okay with watching all these nice ponies be homeless because of your non-interference doctrine? Oh wait, that might be a whole other reference that went over my head as a kid...

[Carrehz]

*shrug* I wouldn't. Well, no, okay, I'd fix the animation errors, and if we could give it RaMC's art style, etc then I'd definitely go for that. (Not to say the movie's art style doesn't have its charms. The Flutter Valley backgrounds are just gorgeous.) Otherwise I don't see anything that does need fixing, honestly...

Mind you, I also adore The End of Flutter Valley and I'm under the impression that's an unpopular opinion around here, so. :p

[Leave a Whisper]

I wouldn't. I like it just the way it is.

[SpacePinto]

Add that rejected scene where Wind Whistler and North Star were supposed to meet that drunk Transformers guy while looking for Megan.

Wait can you explain this? There was a rejected scene or was this a joke that went over my head?

Sorry, it was actually supposed to be a G. I. Joe guy but I got them mixed up, basically one of the guys working on the movie mentioned somewhere that they wanted to include a scene where a drunk GI Joe guy sees Wind Whistler and North Star, but Hasbro wouldn't let them.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I do NOT like the movie. This is a little scrambled.

*Yes, the animation, absolutely. It is not cinematic at all. The RAMC style would have been much preferred-it sort of seemed the opposite of what happened with the FiM movie. They had adapted the ponies to have more small details because they would be on a bigger screen, but this cut down on the details considerably.

*The opening scene is fine, if a bit boring. I think at this point, it would have been acceptable to have focused more on the ponies getting ready with some expository dialogue instead of creatures. The opening song is cute.

*Pick a struggle. Part of my reason for detachment is the movie seems to flit around too much. Reading the summary on Wikipedia, it seems to make sense, but some things need better buildup. I'm inclined to pick Baby Lickety Split as the "main" character and the one who gets the most screentime.

-Change her voice. Less nasally, more childish, not broken english. More sweet? It would help lean towards the audience wanting to sympa/empathize with her instead of going "nasty child character annoying voice".

-Have a small Baby Lickety Split scene trying to get attention of an older pony, maybe she feels she blends in too much. She's in her dance class. OR, Buttons wants this dance to be spectacular and wow-ing, but isn't taking input from the other ponies. Baby Lickety Split wants to help Buttons and decides to learn a new dance movie. Something. Maybe she has a big head because she gets a lot of congradulations and doesn't see the other ponies as being important to the dance? Anything. There are so many options

-Buttons can explode at Lickety, but now the reasons behind her acting out will make more sense than "I wanna".

*I don't love the witches in this movie, but I could. I would try to frame Hydia as more of a scary villain, and try to give the witches a little bit of an edge as well. I think one of my big problems is a lot of the emotional moments don't hit for me because they're too comedic. Trying to take the witches more seriously (not erasing their personality/slapstick entirely) may help.

*Get rid of the flume plant or have to connect to something later in the movie. Maybe a hint that the Flutter Ponies are powerful and able to hurt the smooze, maybe a mention "This is the only Flume plant left, after the last forest of them was inhabited by the Flutter Ponies, they all seem to die off". The Flutter Ponies seem a bit random to me, this may hint to them having anti-something properties.

*I was joking in another server that it would have been funny if Rosedust just acted completely otherworldly, sort of like the Last Unicorn "I am immortal/I feel no regret" but amped up. This is a bit of a joke suggestion, but it would be funny if Rosedust had lost feeling towards mortal struggles because she had seen so many tragedies like this. Maybe could play into "I've been playing cat and mouse with the witches for years, I will not entangle myself again to help mortals when we finally have a happy home here".

*The only songs that are memorable are the Smooze song (iconic) and the wishing well song. The singing is a bit all over the place, I would spend more time trying to make it a proper musical. Song at the beginning of Lickety Split ("I want" song). Witches/villains song chastising the witches for being goofy, maybe more of a back and forth vibe of scary Hydia and light jaunty witches. Lickety Split running away/feeling regrets. I don't actually remember the order of the rest. Smooze song should be kept. Wishing well song could maybe help to develop Morning Glory more (Maybe she wanted to help the other ponies, got lost? Doesn't like Rosedust keeping everyone locked away?) and trying to relate her to Lickety Split.

*Sorry, guys. Get rid of the grundles. I don't care about them.

[brightberry]

I never got to see it as a child and I haven't watched it all the way through as an adult.  But I would fix the animation first.  Maybe tighten up the story.