As far as I could tell, they hired Hollywood and Broadway actors and gave ANG feature film quality as opposed to direct-to-TV quality in order to attract investors. Though, to reiterate, G5’s budget at time of writing is solely attributed to the revenue G4 acquired at the end of its lifespan. It’s far too early for the general public to see ANG’s long term effects.

@Dogman15
I think the latter option would be more smart and cost-efficient.

Both G3 and G4 had Canadian casts so it would be a no-brainer to have G5 be the same. Plus it would give the audience a chance to warm up to the new cast rather than have them compare and contrast from ANG to TYT/MYM.
As again, the main cast do not sound nor act like their ANG selves apart from TYT/MYM.
(Izzy of course being the worst offense.)

@thps48
Two other solutions: Keep animation production in the U.S., or start with the Canadian voice cast to begin with.

Presumably, the ANG cast could’ve been kept in MYM and TYT if they wanted to incorporate middlemen to bypass international laws that’d undoubtedly double the costs, lengthen the release schedule, and result in major losses towards the end of its lifespan. :D

@Background Pony #C50D
To the detriment of franchises that started with an American cast.

@ИІЯІЖIRIN
It’s literally a Canadian law For at least the main cast to be Canadian citizens In Canadian productions

@chaotic-7
Doesn’t help that the 3D itself had a massive downgrade after the ANG film. As that one had a higher budget that was completely spent.
Not to mention that the stars of the film sound nothing like they did in ANG because the studio decided to replace the original VAs with new ones because they couldn’t afford the original cast.

Cheapskates.

@ИІЯІЖIRIN
And now G-5 is getting flack (big shock). I’ll admit that I myself don’t watch it, I mean the 2D version isn’t horrible and the personalites are there. But the 3-d models?…yeah they just look like recycled skins from Filly Fantasia (which I guess was supposed to be some kind of April fools joke by Habro?). I dunno, I just find them kinda hard to watch.

@chaotic-7
I don’t blame you there. As I too feel the same way.

@XD-385
I just felt that there was a lot of wasted oportunities and potential is all. I don’t beleive in sugar-coating it.

@chaotic-7
Yeah, that’s Mr Enter levels of cynicism right there.

@Background Pony #7AC9
I think it’s safe to say that the later writing staff (much like the comic staff) were simply using the show’s success to add to their resume’s (back when it was successful that is).

I’ve brought this up before, but up until the 2nd season finale? Everything just seemed…half-assed overall. Like how they tried to use musical numbers in almost every episode of the 13 episodes of the third season (none of them memerable.) Or when they introduced King Sombra just to have him be a one dimensional villian. It was like everyone would tune in hoping that the episodes would improve, but we just got more of the same. That’s not to say that there weren’t any good episodes in later seasons. It’s just felt like the writers got stuck in a comfort zone (again I’ve brought this up before.) Like they would recycle the same type of scenarios, but use different characters each time. It would get to the point of predictability.

I’m not even going to start with how they tried to get away with the “twist” that Discord was Grogar all along or how he imediatley joined Tirek right off the bat when he made his debut. I mean, yeah I get it he’s supposed to be a chaotic character and all but that doesn’t mean use him as a lame plot device. Even he’s been known to show signs compassion from time to time kinda like an Equestrian Rick. He’s a character who acts like he doesn’t care about anyone or anything, yet you find that in truth he’s just a broken shell of a person inside. He can do or change whatever he wants but it doesn’t make him feel fulfilled. Instead we get “I made a mistake please forgive me, even though I helped cause the near total anihalation of your people and country, I’m sorry”. Only for the writers to do it again in a later season. I can’t tell if that’s writer burn-out or just plain lazy writing.

Sorry if I come off as a cynic, but that’s how I honestly feel about the show these days.

@Angrybrony

Interview here Mind, this is a 2016 interview, long before the leaks and the latter half of seasons.

I’d pprobably need to go digging further, but I’m not up for doing that atm.

Sorry, are you suggesting I was shitting on the previous generations with my post? Because that’s exactly the opposite of what I was doing - I love all the gens (except Newborn Cuties but that’s not really a surprise to anyone xD), and was just ranking them according to my tastes (and using the expanding brain UNironically), although tbqh it was a pretty close-run thing between them all anyway. :)

@Smitty1991
cept it is.
stop saying it is when we both know it isn’t.
there farmers with less horse shit.

@Yet One More Idiot
That’s exactly why it failed at the time. Slice of Life premises in animation weren’t really a thing at the time, so it failed to gain an audience. It’s generally considered to hold up much better today now that SoL premises have found its footing.

@Smitty1991
This guy gets it.

@Background Pony #DD2C
It wasn’t just Haber, though. The writing staff came 9ut and outright admitted that they had never seen the show.

@Angrybrony
Except it’s not.

@northern haste
Actually, it did change the show, and that’s not a good thing. Twilight underwent a drastic change in personality. At the same time, the fact that little about the show changed at all is a bad thing.

@Dogman15
Exactly, and that’s a bad thing.

@Yet One More Idiot
Got to love how bronies are still shitting on the previous generations.

@XD-385  
Yes, and as said in my post there, I did actually rather enjoy the Tales series; but compared to the other incarnations of MLP over the years, the stories in Tales were just kinda…bland, it was 100% slice-of-life and 0% adventure.

@Yet One More Idiot  
Come on, MLP Tales at least tried.

@Background Pony #7AC9  
Generally, this is how the meme is used - except just occasionally where you get one that tosses out the sarcasm and plays it straight instead. xD Like the one I did:
 

@Background Pony #5026  
In case this is the first time you’ve seen this meme, it’s sarcasm. The image is saying the bottom one is the dumbest, and going to the top is the best/smartest.

@Background Pony #5026  
Thinking about this again, the meme template just metaphorically means that Lauren Faust’s idea, her concept, was straightforward and simple, compared to the later takes on the show that veered off wildly from its original premise. (According to this meme - I am not necessarily agreeing with or disagreeing with the message of this meme, just trying to explain it.)

AKA, something was lost along the way.

@Background Pony #5026  
That’s not what that’s saying.

Lauren Faust with the peabrain. Lol.