Journey of the Spark

Journey of the Spark is an upcoming fan-animated feature film based on the first two seasons of the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The film is written, directed, and produced by Eric Ridenour, making his directorial debut.

Since its first public announcement in 2012, Journey of the Spark has garnered public attention and accolades from both members of the Brony community and the show's staff, including the show's original developer Lauren Faust. The project is also notable for being one of the most ambitious fan projects in the community for its large scale and scope, its dark and emotionally complex story, its large musical production values, and its art direction.

The film was originally to be released for the holiday season in 2014, but was delayed to Summer 2015.

Summary
Journey of the Spark is set between the second and third seasons of the Friendship is Magic continuity. In the film, Twilight Sparkle (Meredith Sims) causes a rift between her friends that forces her to run away, feeling as though her friends can never forgive her.

During her self-exile, Twilight learns that this bout of dissension and confusion between the girls has caused Discord (Reagan Murdock), the spirit of chaos and disharmony, to once again break free of his bonds, allowing him to plot the end of harmony for good and rule Equestria. Guilt-stricken for the events she has caused, Twilight agrees to a deal with Discord that will forever separate her from everyone she ever loved.

Now, as things begin to look grim, the rest of the Mane 6, including Spike, must venture beyond the reaches of Equestria to find Twilight and rekindle their fractured friendship if they wish to restore the Elements of Harmony once again.

Trailer
In the trailer shown at BronyCon 2013, the problem starts when Twilight fails to protect an Equestrian city from a dragon.

The tralier also shows Discord taking over Canterlot, Princess Celestia badly injured, Spike begging Twilight to come home, Fluttershy in danger (trapped in a net over lava), Twilight falling off a tower, and finally Discord starting to form an alliance with Queen Chrysalis (Natalie Van Sistine).

Casting
Casting for Journey of the Spark began in early June 2012 when Ridenour heard voice actress Meredith Sims' voice demo as Twilight Sparkle for the fan game Fighting is Magic. Sims had always been Ridenour's first choice for the character as he was incredibly impressed with the emotional range that Sims had given off in her demo reel. Ridenour stressed to his team that he wanted actors who could deliver believable and emotionally resonant performances rather than actors who specialized in imitation. Upon contacting Sims, Ridenour attached a lengthy pitch of the film to convince the actress to sign onto the project. Sims accepted and was cast as the voice of both Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy.

Following Sims, Ridenour and co-producer Edward Marmet started casting popular voice actors and actresses within the community with additional help from Sims such as Reagan Murdock as Discord and Jen McGregor as Princess Celestia. Although not a fan of Friendship is Witchcraft, Ridenour hired Jenny Nicholson as the voice of Rainbow Dash after becoming impressed with a voice sample of Nicholson's from the series. On May 18, 2013, Ridenour announced that Nicholson had to back down from the role due to a change in her schedule. She was replaced by Emily Koch, known for her role as Rainbow Dash in Zachary Rich's Double Rainboom on June 19, 2013. Other voice acting veterans such as Kira Buckland (Twilight Sparkle in PONY.MOV) signed on to voice Princess Cadance along with newcomers Sarah Williams and Michael Carney signing on to voice Rarity/Princess Luna and Shining Armor, respectively.

Longtime collaborator Mirisha Lottich was brought on board to voice Applejack after a series of successful collaborations with Ridenour. Additional casting was held on the Voice Acting Alliance forums. Notable cast members that were hired from the forums included Lauren Collis as the singing voice of Princess Luna and Sakasa Jinei as the voice of Spike.

On June 23, 2013, Sarah Williams announced on her deviantART page that she was dropping out of the project because she said it was "time to move on and focus on different things which will help launch me into life as a successful and independent person". She did wish Ridenour and team good luck for the movie. Her voice of Rarity has been replaced by Madeleine Robison and Luna's speaking voice was filled in by Hannah Trusty (who voiced Princess Luna in Silly Filly Studios' Snowdrop), who also voices Cheerilee.

Following the release of the trailer at BronyCon 2013, it was revealed that Natalie Van Sistine will voice Queen Chrysalis. The role for Lauren Goodnight and Lauren Collis (second role) hasn't been announced yet.

Recently Emily Fajardo (voice of Pinkie Pie) has dropped out of the project and had her friend Amanda Gonzalez complete the voice. Then they cancelled the voice appearance of Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, Cheerilee, Princess Luna's singing voice, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle. Michael Carney who originally voice Shining Armor now is voicing Braeburn, Applejack's cousin. Scootaloo was recasted to Sabianna C. Augustin.

Development
Journey of the Spark began life as an audio drama back in November of 2011 when director Eric Ridenour had a dream involving the Mane 6 (minus Twilight), Princess Luna, and Spike walking on a log over a gushing waterfall. He stated that the dream became the basis for a concept that he was forming which began the development for Journey of the Spark's story.

Before the decision was made to base the story off of the Friendship is Magic continuity, Ridenour originally based the story off his improvisational parody series My Little Pony: The Brony Edition and planned for it to be a three act musical voiced by himself and four other friends. However, due to the lack of material and difficult story development, Ridenour made the decision to base the story off of the first two seasons of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as the series' third season had not yet been aired. Before long, the project began expanding and loyal fans of Ridenour's parody series began signing on to help bring the story to life. The demand for the project's release and the increasing scope of the story lead Ridenour to begin production on the project, this time as a full-length animated feature film.

Writing
Journey of the Spark was written by Ridenour and five other individuals. Although the film's story takes inspiration from the first two seasons of the original series, the story is its own completely separate plot from the show's original storyline. Ridenour has stated in multiple interviews that his reasons for distancing the film from the show's official canon was so that his story could appeal to a much wider audience away from the show's massive online fan base. According to the cast and crew, the script-writing process for the film took an entire year to complete starting with conceptualization to the ending of the first draft, with the draft being completed on November 8, 2012.

During his interview with BroNEcast, Ridenour said that Journey of the Spark is meant to be his envisioning of an "ultimate finale" to the original series, stating that "in order for the story to work, we had to make the film less free of consequence". To add onto his statement, Ridenour said that the film was written with a much darker tone than the show, stating that he wanted the film to be able present more adult and mature themes to children in a respectable manner. Ridenour cited films such as The Secret of NIMH and The Dark Crystal as the main sources of inspiration for the film's tone and sense of emotional storytelling.

Music
For the film's soundtrack, brony musician Forest Rain has written eight original songs for the film's soundtrack, with lyrics provided by musician Jeff Burgess and the vocals being performed by the film's original cast. Journey of the Spark's original score is written and composed by Nick Keeling and Michael Nicolosi.

The film's original soundtrack is expected to be released sometime before the film's release and will be available for download via Bandcamp and other media sites.

List of songs
Sung by: Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy
 * On Our Way

List of cast

 * Meredith Sims - Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy
 * Madeleine Robison - Rarity
 * Emily Koch - Rainbow Dash
 * Mirisha Lottich - Applejack
 * Amanda Gonzalez - Pinkie Pie
 * Sakasa Jinei - Spike
 * Jen McGregor - Princess Celestia
 * Reagan Murdock - Discord
 * Hannah Trusty - Princess Luna
 * Lauren Collis - ???
 * Michael Carney - Braeburn
 * Natalie Van Sistine - Queen Chrysalis
 * Sabianna C. Augustin - Scootaloo

Writers

 * Eric Ridenour - Writer, director
 * Edward Marmet - Co-writer, executive producer
 * Kyle Suter - Co-writer, Lead film editor, producer
 * Michael Carney - Producer
 * Sarah Williams (Ellybethe) - Co-writer
 * Jordan Rivero - Assistant film editor
 * Nicole Bono - Project historian
 * Meredith Sims - Co-writer, lead story editor

Sound & Music Department

 * David J.G. Doyle - Voice director
 * Nick Keeling - Composer
 * Michael Nicolosi - Composer
 * Forest Rain - Songwriter
 * Jeff Burgess - Lyricist
 * David Larsen - Sound designer
 * Oscar Lopez Mata - Sound editor
 * Dennis O'Keefe - Orchestra contractor

Art Department

 * Charito Domingo - Art director

Concept Art Team

 * Evan McCarvill - Lead concept artist
 * Celia Doup - Lead concept artist
 * Jude Surin - Concept artist
 * Felipe Gallardo - Concept artist
 * Dante William - Concept artist
 * Kressent Rhodes - Concept artist
 * Miriam Wadey - Concept artist

Storyboard Team

 * Charles Moss - Lead storyboard artist
 * Jennifer Seggio - Storyboard artist
 * Leanne Bernhardy - Storyboard artist
 * Celia Doup - Storyboard artist
 * Julia Serdyuk- Storyboard artist

Vector Artist Team

 * Cody Flick - Lead vector artist
 * Jude Surin - Vector artist
 * Jonathan Park - Vector artist
 * Andrew Bolanos - Vector artist
 * Joseph Surin - Vector artist
 * Kressent Rhodes - Vector artist
 * Joshua Surin - Vector artist
 * Nicholas Fleming - Vector artist
 * Dylan Reynolds - Vector artist, animation puppet builder
 * Michael Smith - Vector artist

Background Artists

 * Charito Domingo - Background brtist
 * Dante William - Background artist
 * Michael Smith - Background artist

Animation Department

 * Erick Osborne - Animation director
 * Oscar Dadfar - Animator
 * Dylan Daywitt - Animator
 * Jake Sloan - Animator
 * Nick Iaconis - Animator