>>4382
>What little we knew seemed to suggest a mystery plot of some kind, and I was expecting some type of rainbow magic to be in play.So I will say that I am slightly disappointed.
I was simply expecting that we had more places to visit because I assumed that the Roadtrip name was about visiting a few places and finding harmony for little situations everywhere they go. But nope, it´s just Hope Hollow, whose design feels like a simplified Ponyville and an easier town to spot its buildings.

>The first 15 minutes have a bit of a spooky vibe of something amiss going on and a sense of adventure that just kind of fades into slice of life.
yeah, the direction clashes a little bit and the scenery that appeared during the balloon trip looked like we were going for a rollercoaster or something that required more attention to the unknown.

>Think about it. Early in production your budget is cut and you have to wrap it up in a timely manner. Of course you'd go with a simple stripped down plot without too much conflict. In fact, under that idea, it almost is an achievement how clean it and smooth flowing it is compared to other projects that have met such fates.
well, if we go under that interpretation, it´s quite impressive that it has managed to combine both ways without feeling too awkward but those first moments in the special didn´t help to encourage that mindset.

>this certainly isn't what I'd expect from something that was intended for the big screen. I wonder what the original script was like.
I will only point out that they have reused the assets they had and at little moment, the Toon Boom artstyle almost made a symbiosis with the Flash animation, feeling like you were watching both because of the character contours. However, that´s not the most obvious case because a blue Big Mac showed up in Hope Hollow.

>Their was still a lot of elements I liked of this. The hopeless magic, the machine, even the new townsponies. But it feels those elements are undercooked. This cake was taken out of the oven too early.6.5/10.
eeeyup, that´s my rating for this special as well for the 2nd watch. At first, I rated it in the strawpoll with a 5/10 because while my thoughts haven´t changed all that much, it has grown on me a little bit and I have left the expectations aside. Still, while the new characters are charming and the town has its distinctive looks, I cannot help but feeling a little bit bored because of its generic plot and how it painfully tries to drag and put subtle padding by slowing down the pace in order to make this special different from the rest. However, I have watched much more meat with 22 minutes than this.

>Is it just me? Or does the tone of this special feel... tamer than even Season 1 at times midway through. I can't even say that as a complaint on its own, just an observation.