My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

here a forum about pony (General Pony Talk)

Moderators: Wayoshi, Venusy

Post Reply
Fizzbuzz
User avatar
Stare Masters
Posts: 1048
Joined: Sat Oct 28, 2017 10:54 pm
Gender: Male
Location: TN
Contact:

My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Thu Feb 17, 2022 4:42 pm

Image
My Little Pony: Make Your Mark will launch on Netflix on May 26 with a bonus 44-minute animated special teasing the “mane” series, to debut in September. Created with a dazzling 3D CG animation style evocative of the recent film, the special and series (8 x 22′) will follow the Mane 5 on a journey of self-discovery told through action-packed, hilarious, and heartfelt stories. My Little Pony: Make Your Mark was developed for television by Gillian Berrow, is produced by Atomic Cartoons, with Cort Lane serving as executive producer and William Lau as supervising director.
We finally have a name and date for the G5 TV series, and with Gillian Berrow at the helm, I'm feeling very optimistic about it. At this point my main concern is that Netflix will do the all-too-typical thing of dumping all the episodes at once for the sake of binge-watching, though if it's only 8 episodes in this first production run then at least that's not too many to digest at once.
Image

Fizzbuzz
User avatar
Stare Masters
Posts: 1048
Joined: Sat Oct 28, 2017 10:54 pm
Gender: Male
Location: TN
Contact:

Re: My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Thu May 12, 2022 10:24 am

An actual preview finally dropped.
Image

Fizzbuzz
User avatar
Stare Masters
Posts: 1048
Joined: Sat Oct 28, 2017 10:54 pm
Gender: Male
Location: TN
Contact:

Re: My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Thu May 26, 2022 8:32 am

It's out on Netflix now! Watch it there, or :filez: it, I'm not a cop. I'll be watching it after work today.
Image

Aramek
User avatar
Your MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue.

"So you're saying..."

Your brain is about 20% tumor.
Rarity's Roughnecks
Patreon supporter
Posts: 314
Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 6:46 am
Gender: Male
Location: Chicagoland

Re: My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

Post by Aramek (?) » Thu May 26, 2022 7:09 pm

Secret agent Zipp maximum sneaky engaged
Oh shit GM Berrow
She called them all guys
"thank hoofness"
Lol Posey sucks hahaha
Unicycling
Lol sunny has been having the alicorn State happen at random
Then they're eating that Pizza Hot from the oven
Zipp feels like the main character for this episode and I love it
He has deputized the critters
Owns
Oh wow I love the physical glitching of the magic is represented in the rainbow at the exact moment as the wings and Horn
Oh God he found an egg
Apparently pipp writes the music before the lyrics come out
Oh Jesus happy energy feeding the crystal so that's weird
The queen being bad at FaceTiming is a pretty good gag so far
"I saw it on the beach and knew it needed help"
Aww
And then zipp did a pun and there was a rim shot
Muuusiiii-KAH
I like this dude Pegasus that works at mane Melody
Posey again being the worst
Haha she got them to fight and then everything started immediately glitching that's hilarious
I do like that unicorn food is gross
Okay this magic storm seems to be making a magic pit portal and that's spooky and cool
I don't know if I'm going to get used to the CG realistic ponies holding stuff in their mouths
Saved Posey and Whinny(?) from the abyss
Oh shit Earth pony magic activate
Kenneth the deputy gull!
My little princess investigator
Hitch has a dragon son now
ALICORN VILLAIN?!
She looks pretty and mean
Okay that was really good I look forward to the rest of this season
Image There was a link here, it's dead now and I'm sad.

Fizzbuzz
User avatar
Stare Masters
Posts: 1048
Joined: Sat Oct 28, 2017 10:54 pm
Gender: Male
Location: TN
Contact:

Re: My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Fri May 27, 2022 12:08 pm

I feel like this was good, overall, but was probably great when G.M. Berrow turned in her script.

The feeling I got from a lot of aspects of this episode was much the same as with seasons 3 and 4 of FiM, the era where Hasbro's corporate meddling felt like it was at a peak. Plot points like Hitch finding the dragon egg and the villain teaser came off as things Hasbro needed to feature for the sake of toys, and thus probably required a fair amount of editing to work them into the script, leaving the main story hanging a bit in terms of consistency. I'm at least hoping Hasbro gets this out of the way now and lets the show be driven by its story first, like they did to great success in FiM's later seasons.

On the upside, I really liked the focus on Zipp here. It feels like she didn't really get as much attention in the movie, and from her looks alone it seemed easy to draw the Rainbow Dash comparison, but here we got to see she's way different. Having her be not just more chilled out, but outright inquisitive, feels like something we've never quite gotten previously. Hopefully this series will keep finding opportunities for the other four to do something fresh, too.

Something I always liked about FiM was how it showed that Equestria is always a land of adventure and magical mysteries, keeping that feeling even up to the very end of the series, and I came off of this episode feeling like that aspect of the world is still there. In particular I'm left wondering if earth ponies never having gotten any explicit magical gifts (in most cases; without magic it seems difficult to explain Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie) until now means that old Equestria was never united enough to realize ponykind's true potential. Although I doubt the show will ever get too much into Equestria's apparent decline over the decades or centuries, I still can't help but wonder a whole lot about it, and I do enjoy that feeling.
Image

Adiwan
User avatar
Patreon supporter
Posts: 379
Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 2:40 am
Gender: Male
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

Post by Adiwan (?) » Mon May 30, 2022 11:23 am

I had a "eh" feeling at the end. I felt that there were three plots but they were poorly meshed together and weak on their own.
I don't understand why Hitch and Zipp refused to talk about their weird observations.
Instead it escalates in a, for me, very unsatisfying way. I liked that it was addressed that Earth Ponies got the short end of the stick in terms of magic and I like that there is jealousy and other problems resulting from the magic. In Season 3 of The Legend of Korra something similar happens, when some people got air bending, heck even in ATLA the bender vs. non-bender discussion was nuanced. In comparision this movie/episode felt clumsily made. I think the writers didn't trust the viewers enough and had to SPELL IT OUT VERY LOUD WITH SIMPLE WORDS.
The other part of my "eh" feeling was from the animation quality. The movie was good but here it lacked all the energy in a lot of the ponies' movements. There was a lot of linear interpolation between poses creating a weightless and low energy impression of a scene, whereas the face animations were the opposite of that.
I will watch the future episodes but I REALLY hope the animators get more comfortable with the quadrupeds. FiM had also "stiff" animations in its first Season but they never felt too much out of place and they got better over time. I hope it will happen here as well.
"The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams

SigmasonicX
User avatar
Posts: 324
Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:07 am

Re: My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

Post by SigmasonicX (?) » Tue May 31, 2022 12:46 pm

Watched it a second time. Overall, it was adequate, but there were some glaring issues.

First of all, there's the fact that very little happens until the last ten minutes. Previous FiM or EQG stories could potentially be described this way too, but the big problem here is that what we get in the meantime is fairly weak. We largely see the ponies just baking food and making decorations for a while, with the conversations relating to what they're doing. And the conversations themselves move oddly slowly with a lot of pauses, which particularly stands out with the Tell Your Tale shorts moving at a snappier pace. It's similar to Rainbow Roadtrip, which also had slow-moving conversations, but that managed to maintain interest by throwing new characters at the viewer and giving everyone a little task to do. In comparison, over the entire special, there are only seven speaking characters relevant to the story (the Mane Five, Posey, and Queen Haven).

We do get a minor character arc with Zipp not wanting to return to Zephyr Heights, but for all the screen time that takes up, there was little depth to it. There's no real drama with the other characters, and the bits with Zipp failing to convince the others that the magic problem exists felt contrived (and didn't cause that much drama between the characters anyway). The pacing and lack of drama immediately brings to mind the idea that they're aiming for a younger audience (or rather the intended audience but with less faith in them), which is an odd route to take given the success of FiM. The ending with the villain and experience with shows like Tangled the Series (which started fairly weakly before getting good) makes me think this won't necessarily be what the rest of the series will be like, but we'll see in a few months, I suppose. They're lucky I happen to be OK with the characters just talking about making food.

The art and animation are a notable downgrade from the movie, but outside of a few odd moments, I don't consider it a big issue. One of those moments is Izzy's sleepy look at the start, but others relate more to the voice acting. There were some strange deliveries at points, most notably when Pipp says ,"I have to give it my best... shot," toward the end. What makes them really stand out is how the animation actually emphasizes these moments. These deliveries are what make me think this was recorded before Tell Your Tale, where we don't see issues like this; though it's also possible the voice direction in this was bad.

The last ten minutes raised a lot of questions that it seems like they fully intend to address, so that's good. It's interesting how they established that the crystals are a double-edged sword. Also, it seems like the crystals are necessary to convert friendship into magic now. I wonder if they'll go into these in particular more, since they did gloss over those in the end.

While the evil alicorn at the end is alright, I'm much more interested in the unicorn with her. Previous cast announcements imply that her name is Misty, and the fact that she had a cast announcement means she'll be important. Possible sixth mane pony? I wonder if she's the Twilight to the evil alicorn's Celestia.

SigmasonicX
User avatar
Posts: 324
Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:07 am

Re: My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

Post by SigmasonicX (?) » Fri Aug 26, 2022 5:19 pm

Got some news about Make Your Mark!

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/08/ ... -your.html

More screencaps at the link, but here the ones I want to highlight.

Image

Finally the mysterious evil alicorn without such harsh lighting. We can actually see what color her mane is now. Still not a fan of her color scheme, though. That unicorn with her, however, I like a lot.

Image

Almost definitely getting the "tries to infiltrate the heroes, ends up turning good herself" story with the new unicorn.

Image

The lighting doesn't seem anywhere near as intense as in the initial special, so no more Tired As Hell Izzy, hopefully.

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/08/ ... irmed.html

Image

Some new information (or new to me) that we're getting four full specials and 23 normal length episodes. The upcoming batch is only eight episodes, but I imagine we'll get these all throughout the upcoming year.

Fizzbuzz
User avatar
Stare Masters
Posts: 1048
Joined: Sat Oct 28, 2017 10:54 pm
Gender: Male
Location: TN
Contact:

Re: My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Fri Aug 26, 2022 8:23 pm

I hadn't heard that one about MYM getting a full-sized season, but that is good to hear. I was starting to wonder just how much Hasbro is willing to commit to animation for G5, particularly given how tumultuous the streaming market is right now.
Image

SigmasonicX
User avatar
Posts: 324
Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:07 am

Re: My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

Post by SigmasonicX (?) » Mon Sep 26, 2022 2:31 am

New episodes coming in about thirty minutes! (assuming a midnight release)

Fizzbuzz
User avatar
Stare Masters
Posts: 1048
Joined: Sat Oct 28, 2017 10:54 pm
Gender: Male
Location: TN
Contact:

Re: My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Mon Sep 26, 2022 9:18 am

Episode list so far (has synopses, so spoilering the link): https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdkwJudagAA ... =4096x4096
Image

SigmasonicX
User avatar
Posts: 324
Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:07 am

Re: My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

Post by SigmasonicX (?) » Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:13 am

Overall... this set of episodes was alright. If this wasn't MLP, I wouldn't be watching it honestly, but it has enough to keep me interested. I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone that wasn't already committed to watching G5.

By every metric, these episodes are an improvement over the initial Make Your Mark special, but they still fundamentally have the same issues. The pacing and the way the characters speak and act feels more like something you'd find in a Disney Junior show like The Rocketeer rather than Friendship is Magic. Which is fine, but it does feel off when they are clearly also trying to draw in older FiM fans with lore teases and such. Every single episode takes place in the same area of Maretime Bay, which is disappointing compared to how FiM had a variety of settings—or even the other G5 series, Tell Your Tale. The plots are basic, which isn't itself an issue, but they don't do all that much with them. As I mentioned, the fact that the episodes are 22 minutes as opposed to how the special was 44 minutes makes this much more tolerable, though.

Zipp is the one that suffers the most, with her detective work being very rudimentary and her missing extremely obvious things; and in this set of episodes she doesn't get any acrobatic stunts to make up for it or anything. Episode 7 in particular makes her look quite incompetent. Pipp is alright here, but I feel like you can see more of her appeal in the Tell Your Tale shorts. Sunny, Izzy, and Hitch are presented pretty well here, however. This is good for Sunny in particular, since she doesn't get showcased much in Tell Your Tale, and we get a great look at her issues in episode 4. Izzy is consistently fun throughout, and Hitch has a standout moment in the last episode of this batch.

The real standout is the new character, Misty, who acts as the incompetent lackey for the main villain, Opaline. She's fun and adorable. Also oddly similar to the incompetent lackey character in the current Polly Pocket series, Gwen; I would have even thought they had the same VA if I didn't confirm otherwise. Looking forward to her inevitable reformation.

Opaline is alright, but she doesn't feel threatening at all.

The songs are nice, but a surprisingly large number of them are cut off in the episodes themselves and/or aren't actually relevant to the story. The biggest disappointment in this regard is "Here We Go", which implied an exciting search sequence, but was actually just a song Pipp wrote after the fact.

Ranking episodes, I'd say it's only episode 7 that I disliked overall. Every other episode had fun bits, even if there were weak subplots, but Zipp's detective work was just aggravating.

For those wondering about lore, we do get some info that creates friction with what's mentioned in the comics, with Twilight's hologram implying that the crystals were created just to prevent Opaline from getting pony magic, rather than relating to any conflict between ponies but different characters say different things in a clearly deliberate attempt to keep the viewer guessing about what actually happened. Personally, I hope they keep things vague.

Comparing Make Your Mark to the Tell Your Tale web shorts, I think the latter are superior. They're more energetic, have more variety in settings, and make good use of the side characters. Their storytelling style also feels more in line with what one would expect from a continuation of Friendship is Magic, I think. Make Your Mark is similar to the FiM special Rainbow Roadtrip, however, and I have seen people that liked the latter like these episodes more than Tell Your Tale.

Looking at the two G5 series overall, I hope that if you're watching Make Your Mark, you're also watching Tell Your Tale, otherwise you're missing a lot of good G5 content.

SigmasonicX
User avatar
Posts: 324
Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:07 am

Re: My Little Pony: Make Your Mark (May 26)

Post by SigmasonicX (?) » Thu Jun 29, 2023 2:19 pm

Reposting old posts here:

I enjoyed this set of episodes more than the first non-special set, particularly since there isn't an outright bad one (aside from Bridlewoodstock, which is a special). "The Jinxie Games" and "A Little Horse" (which yes is about Pipp) were particular highlights for me. But still, this is worse than the worst of FiM (weird race stuff in season one aside). They just fundamentally don't seem to be able to make their stories interesting.

Zipp continues to get the worst deal in Make Your Mark, with us constantly checking in on her investigations but her being absolutely terrible at it. We learn more about Opaline, and rather than these lore hints exciting me, they make me go, "Really, that's what you're going with?" Sunny, Izzy, and Pipp continue to be enjoyable, but also so much less than they could be. There is significantly less Sparky than before, which is a good thing.

While Tell Your Tale remains fun, I've lost any hope that Make Your Mark will get much better, and instead I'm hoping for a soft reboot, perhaps as a 2D series (not Tell Your Tale's art style). For the creative team, I think it's more an issue with Hasbro higher ups mucking things up than there being an issue with the creative team in particular, so my hope is that the higher ups lay off once they notice their strategy isn't working to draw attention. Especially since it feels like there are more new people are watching old FiM episodes than new people watching G5.

~~~

We got some leaked slides.
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2023/06/ ... sible.html
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2023/06/ ... n-mlp.html

We saw in the slides that there are several more Make Your Mark episodes this year, but then none in 2024. Tell Your Tale, however, is mentioned as having a bunch of episodes and even specials of its own. Equestria Daily thinks it's pretty likely that there is in fact no more Make Your Mark after this year. What makes this more likely is that a slide mentions a survey Hasbro ran that showed that Tell Your Tale was more popular with the target audience than Make Your Mark.

Speaking personally, Make Your Mark was pretty clearly hitting against technological (read: time and budget) limitations that were making really expanding the world difficult; meanwhile Tell Your Tale has been showing off side characters and different locations pretty easily. So, given the same limitations, Tell Your Tale has more room to grow.

In any case, Equestria Daily says that chapter 5 of Make Your Mark will come out September 18, 2023 and it will be six episodes. Chapter 6, assumed to be the final chapter, will come out November 23, 2023. It will be three episodes and a special called Secrets of Starlight; I don't think this is about Starlight Glimmer.

Tell Your Tale season one will conclude in December, and with a total of 70 episodes, there are still 16 episodes left; this means it'll have to switch back to weekly at some point or double up some episodes.

Tell Your Tale season two starts in 2024 and will have weekly releases. There will be four specials: in March, August, October and November. There will be a total of 328 minutes of Tell Your Tale in 2024, which Equestria Daily worked out to be 48 5-minute episodes and four 22-minute episodes (the specials).

Post Reply