80s MLP Animation Production Material

[Carrehz]

I don't have any off-site contact details for Wildshadow, but I sent her a PM on here

Omg omg omg these storyboards are amazing! Some things are completely different to both the final cartoon AND the one that used to be on Wendell Washer's site! Oh my god, sea ponies using telegraphs, I love it! and it's cracking me up that this ver just has them get caught up in the song while AJ and Megan quietly drown in the background I see why they toned it down but omg this is so fantastic!!

[greeby]

I don't have any off-site contact details for Wildshadow, but I sent her a PM on here

Omg omg omg these storyboards are amazing! Some things are completely different to both the final cartoon AND the one that used to be on Wendell Washer's site! Oh my god, sea ponies using telegraphs, I love it! and it's cracking me up that this ver just has them get caught up in the song while AJ and Megan quietly drown in the background I see why they toned it down but omg this is so fantastic!!

Good catch, I might not have noticed.  Sure enough, the version I saved off Wendell's website was revised six days later.  The changed panels are marked with an asterisk at the top: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LTkQCOJ8TDOp-CfpaOA9gU7R448m4JVK/view?usp=share_link

[Carrehz]

Ahh!! I'd been looking for a revision date on the website version and totally missed the asterisks XP Good eye!
So it looks like the other ver Rhaegar has is right in-between these two, then?

Oh man I can't believe we actually have multiple versions of this sequence now.

These are the changes I noticed between versions:

Spoiler

(Page count refers to 1/3/84 revision, also I kept the dates in their original format, which I'm assuming is month-day-year, to avoid confusion...)

pages 1, 2 are missing from 1/9/84 version
page 4 - same as 1/9/84 but missing Twilight's v/o line
page 5 - missing third panel (which is lightly sketched into the revised ver)
page 16 - sixth panel was revised
pages 17, 18 are completely different
page 19 - all panels except sixth were revised
page 21 - sixth panel was revised
pages 22-25 are completely different
page 26 - bottom center (Simply signal SOS) panel was revised
page 27 - all panels except first were revised
page 28 is completely different
pages 29-31 are missing from 1/9/84 version

God these storyboard panels are beautiful. I love the unused shot of Twilight asking "weren't you afraid?".

[Ponyfan]

Omg omg omg these storyboards are amazing! Some things are completely different to both the final cartoon AND the one that used to be on Wendell Washer's site! Oh my god, sea ponies using telegraphs, I love it! and it's cracking me up that this ver just has them get caught up in the song while AJ and Megan quietly drown in the background I see why they toned it down but omg this is so fantastic!!

I just read the storyboard panels.   I wish Twilight's line would have been kept too. I guess Megan and Applejack almost drowning was considered too intense?

I haven't read the press kit yet.  Is there anything about why Spike chose to stay with the ponies instead of going back to his home or staying with Scorpan?


Ponyfan

[Leave a Whisper]

This is very cool!

[Rhaegar]

1/6/1984 version of the sea pony song uploaded.

Post Merge: October 20, 2023, 05:07:17 AM

Midnight Castle act III storyboard up.

[Rhaegar]

Ghost of Paradise Estate Part 1 up.

[Leave a Whisper]

Thank you so much for doing these Rhaegar.

[greeby]

Now I've had a chance to compare, Ghost Of Paradise Estate is heavily cut.  The first 14 pages with all the painting mishaps are cut, presumably in compensation for the song sequence which was not ready to be boarded yet.

Because that's a thing I've noticed.  Whereas Jem songs were recorded using singers in New York, while the script was still being written. Because both MLP and Glo Friends were more musical numbers sung by the voice cast, Marvel had to wait until after dialogue recording to put those sequences in as revisions.

[Rhaegar]

Somnambula Part 1 up.

[Carrehz]

Thanks so much for these Rhaegar, these are amazing <3

Yeah, it does seem like the songs were added in after the fact for the series, the "Somnambula" boards just say "song start/song end" rather than going through the "Big Brother Ponies" song. (or maybe another artist boarded that sequence?) Interesting!

I haven't properly looked over the series boards yet but there's a few differences I noticed in the RaMC Act III boards:

- the Rainbow of Light locket isn't heart-shaped
- APPLEJACK IS WEARING A HAT HERE omg omg omg I can't cope with this. it's not in the Sea Ponies song so I'm guessing she would've gotten this from the Moochick?
- the scene w/ Megan and the ponies sneaking into Midnight Castle is slightly longer/different
- Not a change, but the description of Spike as being like "a hysterical cheerleader" is sending me right now
- Tirac's Rainbow of Darkness incantation is a bit longer
- at the end, Bubbles is dismayed at being splashed rather than finding it funny

I've just skimmed the Somnambula boards and I've spotted some extra dialogue ("Six-way tie" etc) too

I just read the storyboard panels.   I wish Twilight's line would have been kept too. I guess Megan and Applejack almost drowning was considered too intense?

Yeah, I was surprised when I saw those boards. It's a cool sequence but I can definitely see why it didn't make the cut.

I'm guessing the morse code bit was cut because it didn't read clearly. I put the storyboards to the music and those shots would go by VERY quickly, too quickly to really tell what's going on in them - I can see why they simplified it for the final.

I haven't read the press kit yet.  Is there anything about why Spike chose to stay with the ponies instead of going back to his home or staying with Scorpan?

Nope, in fact Spike's not really mentioned in the press kit at all (there are some pics of him though).

I'd guess that they just never thought of an explanation for that. I think RaMC was just written as a standalone story and they hadn't necessarily planned for future stories, and then probably it wasn't deemed necessary to explain it later? it would've been nice if they had gone into that, though (I wish we'd seen Scorpan again).

Also WOOT official spelling of "Kiri", nice! I was never sure exactly how to spell that.

[Rhaegar]

Loose storyboard pages for Baby It's Cold Outside up. There's a lot of loose character designs and art for this episode, I'll bundle those together once I've scanned them all.

Next up soon will be the rest of Somnambula.

Also I have the digital audio for the MLP movie audition reel. This thing is a trip, hope to have it up soon.

Post Merge: October 25, 2023, 08:53:57 AM

Somnambula part 2 and some sketches from the same episode up.

[sweetstuff85]

This is all so amazing!

Thanks for the updates. Love all of this!

Thanks for all your hard work!!

[Rhaegar]

Quest of the Princess Ponies up. I like the little sword sheaths they hold their wands in.

[Carrehz]

Some interesting differences in the "Somnambula" boards:

Spoiler

(Part 1)
- the storyboards include Babies Cuddles, Lickety, Gusty and Heart Throb in the first shot too
- Page 3 isn't used in the final ep
- anyone got any idea what "N.D. Ponies" means? (On page 3)
- So Soft Twilight and Locket are in the boards, but not the final ep!
- the boards don't specify Somnambula's voice changing along with her appearance
- Probably a coincidence, but I'm amused by one of Score's first lines including the phrase "touchdown" when we now know that was his original name
- page 54 - Salty's line is cut down to just "Blow me down!" in the final ep. Page 55 and most of 56 didn't make it into the final.
- The Brothers' feathering is drawn differently in some panels compared to the final ep (two lines of fur instead of just one? looks like they're wearing little socks or something, lol)
- There's a cute background gag where Baby Sleepy Pie keeps falling asleep, this got cut in the final (it's not pointed out so possibly the animators just overlooked it?). Shame since this is her only appearance in the cartoon, it would've been nice for her to have SOME sort of personality trait.
- Somnambula's much prettier in the final ep! Conversely, I actually prefer Kiri's design from the boards (very Snow White-esque!)
- page 79/80 - the close-up of Kiri being crushed didn't make it into the final. The rest of this *technically* made it into the final ep, but the storyboards are a LOT clearer than the final ver - I never really got what was going on here before now. Guessing S&P found it too violent and asked for it to be toned down, but the final ver is just kind of confusing.
- Score's final line "I suddenly have a very bad feeling about this...!" was cut (at least it's not in the version of the ep I have...... most home video releases cut a few seconds out of the end of every ep to remove the "To Be Continued" so this might have been a casualty of that? don't have time to hunt down a copy without the TBC cut right now)

(Part 2)
- Pleasure Island the amusement park looks a bit less empty/abandoned in the boards
(speaking of Pinocchio, I *just* noticed the Monstro-esque building in the background of the final ep. Nice touch.)
- In the boards, the first pony the Big Brothers come across is Ribbon; in the final ep, it's Truly. I get why they changed it, since Truly's more relevant to the story (follows up from the end of part 1 better too), but Ribbon never really did anything in the show so it's sad to see we lost a moment with her here.
- "Clearly this is Heart Throb's personal romance theatre" (I just wanted to quote this lol. hey, is her Salome thing here a Sunset Boulevard ref?)
- Gingerbread has dialogue in the boards but not the final ep
- Score's line "This place is making all the Little Ponies - old!" cut in final

Rhaegar - Page 13 from the Somnambula Part 2 boards is a repeat from Part 1, was that intentional? :o

Re: Baby, It's Cold Outside - SO nice to finally get a confirmed spelling for the little duckling's name. I was never sure if it was meant to be "Sunny" or "Sonny" since both make sense.

Princess Ponies: OMG the wand sheathes. Oh god that's adorable, they should've kept those!!! The final ep just has them awkwardly holding the wands in their mouths a lot (and talking clearly even despite this) - that's always bugged me but I figured, you know, what else could they do - but sheathes are such a clever workaround!

(comparisons, nitpicks, etc)

Spoiler

- the boards specify to reference "The Magic Coins" for the Crystal Desert, which isn't really obvious in the final ep
- in the boards, the princesses are introduced making "hat shapes in their own colours". in the final ep they're making magical versions of their symbols. I wonder why the change?
- cut dialogue:
Serena: Did you hurt yourself?
Tiffany: Well, not hurt, exactly... But it's just awful!

now this one shoulda been kept - I always said Serena was the most sensible of the princesses - it'd be nice to see that early on in the ep.
- Lilac: -a knowledge of every part of one's domain! Especially the growing things!
Second half of line is cut from final.
- page 16 - "Who should be queen?" is just said over a black screen (transition out of song) in the final. the transition is MUCH smoother in the boards but I guess they had to cut it for time?
The storyboards suggest that Washer was working off the idea that the "By Right, I Should Be Queen" song would have the Princess show off their talents in a talent contest-esque setting - the final sequence just has them wander around showing off. I like the final version, but the Princesses-on-stage setup is really cute too.
- Cut sequence (pages 17-19) where the Bushwoolies "vote" for should be the Queen. this explains Spike's "let's let the Bushwoolies decide!" line in the final ep!!! the final ep just cuts straight from that to Lavan, making Spike's line this kind of weird non-sequitur.
between this + the Ghost of P.E. cuts it's looking like eps getting trimmed down to accomodate the songs happened quite often? IIiinteresting.
- Lavan's name is spelt like that here, not "La-van" as one VHS tape spelt it. *nitpicky*
- I never noticed Spike + the Bushwoolies dipping their little feets in the fountain before! in part cuz it's not really animated very clearly. but omg, that's *adorable*.
- the Bushwoolies' dialogue in the first panel of page 3 was changed for the final (in the storyboards it follows on from the cut sequence from pgs 17-19)
- the boards actually _show_ the Lava Demons taking the magic wands out of the sheathes, as opposed to the final ep where there's just this awkward jumpcut where one sec the ponies have 'em in their mouths, and the next sec the demon's holding the wands
- Lavan vs Spike makes a LOT more sense in the boards. Spike isn't breathing fire *directly on* Lavan and there's a decent amount of space between Spike/the Bushwoolies and the Lava Demons when Lavan does his smokescreen thing to escape. I guess there was some sort of miscommunication cause the final ep has Lavan right in front of them for the whole bit.
- Last two panels of page 32 were cut
- Pages 34-37 cut entirely (apart from Serena's line on page 34, and Lavan/Sludge diag. on pg 37) - Princess ponies bickering again
- IMO storyboard!Lavan has a lot more character, design-wise. IDK exactly what it is but I feel like something got lost in the transition from design to final ep there.
- Page 40-41 - Cut exchange between Lavan/Sludge
- not sure if this was a conscious change or not, but Spike's "now what??" line is specified as him sounding fed-up in the boards (makes sense since the princesses bicker a LOT more here), which isn't really the case for the final ep
- I feel like the bit w/ Fizzy's horn exploding bubbles is clearer in the storyboards
- More cut dialogue on page 57
- Page 60's final panel is missing from the final ep but again, I suspect this WAS animated and it just fell victim to those damned To Be Continued cuts

overall, wow, a lot of little cuts but they make a BIG difference... this ep really suffered for it too. guessing they had budget issues or somesuch. It's fascinating and saddening to see what could've been and where they were limited by TV animation budget, etc restraints (I definitely think that's why Fizzy's bubble stream looks so weird in the final).

Also I have the digital audio for the MLP movie audition reel. This thing is a trip, hope to have it up soon.

*vibrates with excitement*