What are your hopes for G5?

Okay guys there's a rumored G5 cartoon render going around.
My source is a rumor post on Equestria Daily: https://www.equestriadaily.com/2021/02/rumor-licensed-mlp-bedding-shows-off.html

This company, Jerry Fabrics, makes licensed MLP bedsheets and such. They have officially licensed G4 bed sheets coming out in April...but something interesting is that a licensed bed set for September, which happens to correspond with the release date of the G5 movie, has different designs and characters on it. This also resembles the design of the rumored movie animatic we saw and somewhat resembles the style of an artist we know worked on the film.

View attachment 36785

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I am not the biggest fan. They suffer from human-face syndrom.
(Especially noticable when you focus on this one
Yikes.png

Yikes!!!)
HOWEVER, I do like how the hooves have the horse-feathers (That's what they're called! Clydesdales have 'em!)
I'll keep an open mind for now. We shall see! Only time will tell what's truly in store!
 
Sorry. No joke after I saw it I was like “Oh no Leave a Whisper isn’t gonna like this.”
And I’m with you I’m not crazy about it.

Side note but I think that says “Everypony can make a difference” instead of everyone.
 
Sorry. No joke after I saw it I was like “Oh no Leave a Whisper isn’t gonna like this.”
And I’m with you I’m not crazy about it.

Side note but I think that says “Everypony can make a difference” instead of everyone.
I see you've been tapping into your psychic well of power. ;)

Tbh, I don't know if these are for real or not, and I'll just wait n see what Hasbro shows.
 
I am at the point I think they're just gonna throw out hints to keep us excited for a few years because Hasbro is run by monsters!

My WalMart has no ponies. NONE. For the first time in years and years there is no pony presence there and I am saddened by it.
 
This is just my opinion, it's okay to disagree!
With these possible new designs, I'm very... uhh... o_O

:star: I think they suffer greatly from overly-humanized faces, which have been mentioned throughout the thread. The muzzles are very snubbed, the eyes are on the front of the face, and they have really human-esque face structures in general (especially the jawlines). It doesn't look too bad in the prancing vectors, but with the faces on the front, it's... very apparent. G4 had stylized faces and short muzzles, but the muzzles were still clearly just that, while these ones look like they have snouts and human chins. I was really hoping G5 would resemble the rumored leaks from years ago, but it seems like they're continuing on the "let's not make them look like horses" route.

The irony of Imalou (who I actually do love as an artist) possibly influencing these designs is that her style heavily resembles Sisu (from Disney's upcoming Raya and The Last Dragon), who has been criticized for having an overly-human face. I think it's sad that many animal characters are now being designed further and further into looking like either people or bizarre humanoids. There's so much charm and variety with animalistic designs (look at The Lion King, Brother Bear, Bambi, etc.), but many properties are really pushing for chibi/humanized faces. It's especially evident in ones that've been around for a while, MLP being an obvious example.

:star: But faces aside, I wish there was more variety in the color pallette of this main trio. Of course there were pinks and purples in the Main Six, but aside from Pinkie, there was a good contrast of colors between them. Twilight is purple and pink, Applejack is orange and yellow, Rarity is white and purple, etc. The placement of these colors was also varied: if one pony had a pink body, another had pink hair. Even Pinkie had a lot of contrast between her hair and body.

With these three, their palettes all contain nearly the same two shades of purple/pink and they're on the same body parts. The colors seem desaturated overall and having dark purple outlines on everything makes it look worse (but seeing that they're CG, this might only apply to the vectors).

:star: Nothing about their designs really communicates their personalities, while there was a clear visual language in G4. I like the addition of hoof feathers, but I'm not digging the distinction between the bodies and the horns, wings and hooves. To me, the designs resemble pony bootleg toys, namely Filly Funtasia, and if there wasn't a clear indication of the MLP brand here I genuinely would've assumed it was something along those lines.

:star: I don't know the validity of this info, but the alleged names of these new characters (Izzy the unicorn, Pipp the pegasus, and Sunny the Earth pony) are weirdly... human? In a universe where there are characters like Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle, and Fizzlepop Berrytwist for God's sake, it feels weird for main characters to have such a short and plain names. Even G4's "Pip" was short for Pipsqueak.

I'm still bummed that it takes place in the same universe (I was hoping for a clean start) and is 3D, but here are my wishes for G5:
  • Expansion of lore that doesn't retcon or cheapen established lore
  • Messages that aren't hamfisted and don't take up the entire experience
  • Toys made of quality materials and with a variety of characters
  • Animation that looks at least decent (3D cartoons can be expensive to make well)
  • Overall charm and appeal from previous gens
 
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This is just my opinion, it's okay to disagree!
With these possible new designs, I'm very... uhh... o_O

:star: I think they suffer greatly from overly-humanized faces, which have been mentioned throughout the thread. The muzzles are very snubbed, the eyes are on the front of the face, and they have really human-esque face structures in general (especially the jawlines). It doesn't look too bad in the prancing vectors, but with the faces on the front, it's... very apparent. G4 had stylized faces and short muzzles, but the muzzles were still clearly just that, while these ones look like they have snouts and human chins. I was really hoping G5 would resemble the rumored leaks from years ago, but it seems like they're continuing on the "let's not make them look like horses" route.

The irony of Imalou (who I actually do love as an artist) possibly influencing these designs is that I think she also played a role in designing Sisu (from Disney's upcoming Raya and The Last Dragon), who has been criticized for having an overly-human face. I think it's sad that many animal characters are now being designed further and further into looking like either people or bizarre humanoids. There's so much charm and variety with animalistic designs (look at The Lion King, Brother Bear, Bambi, etc.), but many properties are really pushing for chibi/humanized faces. It's especially evident in ones that've been around for a while, MLP being an obvious example.

:star: But faces aside, I wish there was more variety in the color pallette of this main trio. Of course there were pinks and purples in the Main Six, but aside from Pinkie, there was a good contrast of colors between them. Twilight is purple and pink, Applejack is orange and yellow, Rarity is white and purple, etc. The placement of these colors was also varied: if one pony had a pink body, another had pink hair. Even Pinkie had a lot of contrast between her hair and body.

With these three, their palettes all contain nearly the same two shades of purple/pink and they're on the same body parts. The colors seem desaturated overall and having dark purple outlines on everything makes it look worse (but seeing that they're CG, this might only apply to the vectors).

:star: Nothing about their designs really communicates their personalities, while there was a clear visual language in G4. I like the addition of hoof feathers, but I'm not digging the distinction between the bodies and the horns, wings and hooves. To me, the designs resemble pony bootleg toys, namely Filly Funtasia, and if there wasn't a clear indication of the MLP brand here I genuinely would've assumed it was something along those lines.

:star: I don't know the validity of this info, but the alleged names of these new characters (Izzy the unicorn, Pipp the pegasus, and Sunny the Earth pony) are weirdly... human? In a universe where there are characters like Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle, and Fizzlepop Berrytwist for God's sake, it feels weird for main characters to have such a short and plain names. Even G4's "Pip" was short for Pipsqueak.

I'm still bummed that it takes place in the same universe (I was hoping for a clean start) and is 3D, but here are my wishes for G5:
  • Expansion of lore that doesn't retcon or cheapen established lore
  • Messages that aren't hamfisted and don't take up the entire experience
  • Toys made of quality materials and with a variety of characters
  • Animation that looks at least decent (3D cartoons can be expensive to make well)
  • Overall charm and appeal from previous gens
What if this time Pipp was short for Pippa? I’m just remembering the Wii game Pippa Funnell: Take the Reins about a real life rider

You make very good points about the designs :winkpony:
 
What if this time Pipp was short for Pippa? I’m just remembering the Wii game Pippa Funnell: Take the Reins about a real life rider

You make very good points about the designs :winkpony:
I've never heard of that game! But IIRC, I think it was referred to as a "nickname" anyway, so it could potentially be short for something. It was in this thread here:

The idea of giving ponies human names makes me laugh though. You have all these fantastical names like Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, Fluttershy... imagine just naming a pony something like "Mark" lmao
 
I am not the biggest fan. They suffer from human-face syndrom.
(Especially noticable when you focus on this one
View attachment 36809
Yikes!!!)
HOWEVER, I do like how the hooves have the horse-feathers (That's what they're called! Clydesdales have 'em!)
I'll keep an open mind for now. We shall see! Only time will tell what's truly in store!
Ooh yuck
 
This is just my opinion, it's okay to disagree!
With these possible new designs, I'm very... uhh... o_O

:star: I think they suffer greatly from overly-humanized faces, which have been mentioned throughout the thread. The muzzles are very snubbed, the eyes are on the front of the face, and they have really human-esque face structures in general (especially the jawlines). It doesn't look too bad in the prancing vectors, but with the faces on the front, it's... very apparent. G4 had stylized faces and short muzzles, but the muzzles were still clearly just that, while these ones look like they have snouts and human chins. I was really hoping G5 would resemble the rumored leaks from years ago, but it seems like they're continuing on the "let's not make them look like horses" route.

The irony of Imalou (who I actually do love as an artist) possibly influencing these designs is that I think she also played a role in designing Sisu (from Disney's upcoming Raya and The Last Dragon), who has been criticized for having an overly-human face. I think it's sad that many animal characters are now being designed further and further into looking like either people or bizarre humanoids. There's so much charm and variety with animalistic designs (look at The Lion King, Brother Bear, Bambi, etc.), but many properties are really pushing for chibi/humanized faces. It's especially evident in ones that've been around for a while, MLP being an obvious example.

:star: But faces aside, I wish there was more variety in the color pallette of this main trio. Of course there were pinks and purples in the Main Six, but aside from Pinkie, there was a good contrast of colors between them. Twilight is purple and pink, Applejack is orange and yellow, Rarity is white and purple, etc. The placement of these colors was also varied: if one pony had a pink body, another had pink hair. Even Pinkie had a lot of contrast between her hair and body.

With these three, their palettes all contain nearly the same two shades of purple/pink and they're on the same body parts. The colors seem desaturated overall and having dark purple outlines on everything makes it look worse (but seeing that they're CG, this might only apply to the vectors).

:star: Nothing about their designs really communicates their personalities, while there was a clear visual language in G4. I like the addition of hoof feathers, but I'm not digging the distinction between the bodies and the horns, wings and hooves. To me, the designs resemble pony bootleg toys, namely Filly Funtasia, and if there wasn't a clear indication of the MLP brand here I genuinely would've assumed it was something along those lines.

:star: I don't know the validity of this info, but the alleged names of these new characters (Izzy the unicorn, Pipp the pegasus, and Sunny the Earth pony) are weirdly... human? In a universe where there are characters like Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle, and Fizzlepop Berrytwist for God's sake, it feels weird for main characters to have such a short and plain names. Even G4's "Pip" was short for Pipsqueak.

I'm still bummed that it takes place in the same universe (I was hoping for a clean start) and is 3D, but here are my wishes for G5:
  • Expansion of lore that doesn't retcon or cheapen established lore
  • Messages that aren't hamfisted and don't take up the entire experience
  • Toys made of quality materials and with a variety of characters
  • Animation that looks at least decent (3D cartoons can be expensive to make well)
  • Overall charm and appeal from previous gens
I love how much you typed and what you have to say but I just wanted to say IDK where you got Imalou playing a role in designing Sisu from, Imalou hasn't worked at Disney to my knowledge, and when Sisu was announced she even started posting how she was surprised how much she looked like her OC so she started drawing them together!
 
I don't generally mind the "toony" style, but it would be nice to have ponies that look a bit more like horses. I think more color variation would be nice, too- while the pastel aesthetic of G4 is cute, it would be nice to see the look updated with more saturated or even neon ponies. More variation between body shapes/styles of pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies would be nice, too; they're adapted for different environments and types of magic, so having them be built differently would make sense (and make collecting/customizing much more interesting)! It would also be nice to see it engage with some more fantasy elements, and not just in the "this fantasy race is basically just this real-world culture" way that G4 sometimes did. Some diversity would be nice, too (both in the VA casting and the show characters) but it's Hasbro so who knows what we'll get, lol. Interesting thread!
 
EQD posted this on their Instagram today, I do like this a bit better than the vectors. But I’m still not a fan of the mismatch wing colour, like why? The more it’s talked about the more I see human faces, but in animation it happens a lot because humans are very expressive and thus it give a character more dynamics when emoting.

I love feathered hooves being the Clydesdale fan that I am, I enjoy having defined hooves again but I’m not digging the eye shape, head structure and the most matched wings/horns. It feels VERY off brand. But again still no confirmation from Hasbro so let’s wait for the official word before we get really into not picking designs.
2F17B038-BBE0-4154-B19B-EAED14D60062.jpeg
 
I love how much you typed and what you have to say but I just wanted to say IDK where you got Imalou playing a role in designing Sisu from, Imalou hasn't worked at Disney to my knowledge, and when Sisu was announced she even started posting how she was surprised how much she looked like her OC so she started drawing them together!
Oh for real? I thought she was drawing them together because she designed both of them (considering her style matches Sisu so well).

Admittedly I only follow her on DeviantArt, so when I saw them in her Twitter banner I assumed that was the case. My mistake!
 
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