(2018) I LOVED My Little Pony: The Movie

 NOTE: This review was originally posted to Tumblr on January 28, 2018, and has been reposted here for archival purposes. It may not reflect recent events or my current opinions.

It’s been a long time since I last reviewed anything MLP-related. The last MLP episode I reviewed was Saddle Row Review, an episode that aired in Season 6, in which the review was posted the day it came out - May 21, 2016. And even then I was reviewing the episodes out of order, and all in all I only reviewed 3 episodes of S6 - The Crystalling, Gauntlet of Fire and Saddle Row Review. I’m not gonna lie, at the time I was getting pretty sick of doing MLP episode reviews, I actually found it hindering my enjoyment of the show in some aspects and I really stopped having fun doing reviews in general just because I felt like I had a lot of ground to cover after being behind on the series and I just did not really find much of a reason to carry on. I wanted to focus on some of my other planned work (like a webseries that I’m still planning out and more game reviews) and considering I was already considering leaving MLPForums and Scarlet’s Web closed a few months later, I decided to stop with MLP reviews overall.

But this is one exception. If you haven’t heard, My Little Pony ended up getting a movie that came out in theaters in October last year. Although, I actually first heard of it in 2014, the year I joined MLPForums, when it was first announced by the MLP creators. If you’re in the MLP fandom, you know that MLP:FiM has had movies before this one, those being the Equestria Girls movies… but my opinions on them have always been pretty back-and-forth. I wouldn’t call them bad, but just… not for me, the first one felt a bit too cliche for me and had it’s share of problems, and while Rainbow Rocks did improve a lot of my issues, I still wouldn’t consider it up there with the actual show. Friendship Games was alright, and I didn’t end up watching Legend of Everfree, and while I’ve heard it is one of the better ones, I just don’t really have enough interest. Maybe I’ll give it a go, but… whatever. Of course it has been a while and I might watch these movies again sometime maybe to form a better opinion on them, but for now I just can’t find myself having the motivation to. Anyway, back on topic, I was pretty excited after hearing about the MLP movie. This wasn’t just going to be a Direct-to-DVD film that is shown in some select theaters before it’s release starring humans, this was going to be a theatrical release starring the Ponies in their actual form. That said, it was going to be a long way off, and it wasn’t until three years later until we got trailers and merchandise of the movie. They did a good job building up a lot of hype, giving us screenshots of the characters and some of the guest voice actors in the movie. And then the film finally came out in theaters, and while critic reviews were relatively mixed (honestly though most of them were full of shit), reactions were generally positive among actual fans… but unfortunately I never got the chance and as much as I was tempted to look up spoilers and find some crappy quality upload from some guy filming in a theater (which is illegal but who cares), I decided to wait it out, it was worth experiencing the film for the first time by buying it on Blu-Ray so I could support the creators of one of if not my favorite show and a movie that I was most likely going to really love. And after waiting months for it to come out on Blu-Ray, I managed to get the chance to pick it up at Target a couple days ago, and I can say that I’m happy that I waited it out because… I ended up somehow loving this movie even more than I thought I was going to.

Well, with that long, rambly introduction out of the way (man i really need to stop making those so long), let’s go on a quick summary of the plot. After preparing for a Friendship Festival, a bunch of monsters led by Tempest Shadow, a unicorn with her horn machine broken, invade Equestria and petrify three of the princesses and lead to the Mane 6 and Spike fleeing the festival in order to seek help from the queen of the “hippos” (which turn out to be queen of the hippogriffs) leading to them going on an adventure in order to stop Tempest and the rest of the monsters.

So… one thing I noticed about this film really early on, and I’m not too sure how to phrase this, was that it actually felt like more than a My Little Pony movie. I wouldn’t say it didn’t feel like a My Little Pony movie, because for what it is pretty much everything’s there, but probably given the theatrical-ness, it was definitely a lot more ambitious than I expected, and actually felt like a Disney movie to me. I mean, even from the trailers I noticed that the animation was very Disney-ish, but the songs, the motifs, the themes, even the new characters overall felt very Disney-like to me. Maybe I should of seen that coming given that this movie was rated PG which, even in an age when pretty much every kid’s movie is rated PG for some reason, surprised me to see a movie with “My Little Pony” in the title being rated that. But the story did feel like a set up from the rest of the show and actually ended up being darker than I really expected. The Mane 6 go through a lot in this special as they go on their adventure, and by that I mean, they go through a desert where they actually suffer from dehydration and Pinkie Pie goes pretty crazy, and once they get into a town, they nearly get sold off by a con artist (but it’s okay because he ends up turning out to be a top tier husbando) after scaring off townsfolk trying to buy their belongings describing a fake disease where their “parts will fall off” (you know what i need to point this out, there’s a dick joke in a My Little Pony movie). One plus I will give this movie is that it doesn’t feel like a typical “hero’s journey” movie, I actually found that the variation and structure with all the different settings actually went well with what was going on, the scenes transition fairly well. The tone shifts from one scene to the next and everything feels natural and goes with the plot at hand. The Mane 6 provide a lot of great interactions with the new characters which really helps to develop and add to the locations instead of just having them go through a bunch of different places on their adventure and calling it a day. There is a lot of world building in this movie and there is a lot added in to the universe of the show that we never really got to see. I definitely like seeing world building, and I was really satisfied with what I saw. The seaponies, characters from the first generation of MLP, were introduced in this movie which I thought was nice to see even if they did turn out to just be an alternate form of the hippogriffs (i’m not gonna lie i actually thought that was just a silver quill thing before i watched this movie), and the other settings that were introduced did make things interesting for me.

That said, if there was one problem I had with the overall story, it was that it was a bit too fast-paced in some areas. There were definitely some interesting things in the movie that sadly didn’t really get touched upon enough due to them sticking to a 99 minute time limit. It wasn’t too much of a dealbreaker for me overall, but some scenes happened a little bit too fast, I actually noticed that we basically jumped in to the conflict right away and while that is fine to get the movie off to a start right away, it did feel a bit unnatural seeing as it happened pretty much just a minute after the first song of the movie (not counting the intro sequence anyway) and Capper’s redemption ended up being a bit too quick, although to be fair he really wasn’t that much of a villain in the movie so I’ll give it a pass there. But the part with the Seaponies was where it felt a bit too jarring to me. Not much is really discussed about their culture or their backstory other than the fact they used to be the hippogriffs and their potential goes underutilized. Right after the song, it pretty much jumps right to Twilight being caught and the Mane 6 being kicked out. I will say that overall, the pacing didn’t really hinder my enjoyment and for the most part I think it did do what it was aiming to, but at the same time, I do feel they could rounded the runtime up to 2 hours to make the film flow at least a little bit better. And if the Seaponies particularly get introduced into the show in the next season, I do hope they’re developed more.

And with since we’re on the subject of that, I think it is a good time to talk about the new characters. I will admit that as all the new characters were being announced, I was a bit concerned that it would be a similar issue to what I found in Thomas and Friends’ The Great Race, and since most people reading this are most likely not Thomas and Friends fans, that particular special had an issue where they basically introduced and advertised a crap ton of characters that, for what it is, had interesting designs and whatnot but aside for a few ended up just turning out to be background characters and literally just existing for the sake of merchandise that maybe said a line or two. I was kind of worried that they were going to do the same thing here, but on the bright side that did not really turn out to be the case. Tempest Shadow from what I’ve seen is the fan favorite out of the new characters and I can understand why, she makes out to be a great villain who has a well-developed and interesting character, and towards the end turns out to have one of if not the best redemptions in the show’s lifespan. While I didn’t mind Starlight’s redemption in The Cutie Re-mark like a lot of fans did, I think pretty much everyone can agree that Tempest’s was basically her redemption done a lot better. Her song, “Open Up Your Eyes,” actually provides a glimpse into her backstory where she got attacked and then shunned because she couldn’t play with her friends, and there’s actually some time before she is “reformed,” with that time being taken for Twilight to save her and Tempest to save Twilight in return, actually risking her life to do so. Pretty much everything that I wanted to know about her is answered and she’s easily the most complex character of the movie, her backstory is explained pretty well and no question about her goes unanswered. Moving on, though, my -husbando- favorite character of the film actually ended up being Capper. Pretty much right away I enjoyed his personality and he really fitted the role of being a charming con artist, and even though his character arc did go by a little bit too fast, the character development he does get is well done. His “con artist” side you can tell is moreorless attributed to the place he lives in and is really the only way he gets by in life, but his interactions with Rarity helping to change him for the better in the end. And even aside from that he’s perfect husbando material I mean he’s tall, he’s cute, he’s charming, literally top tier husbando.

…

I’m not gay.

I think.

I also did find myself liking the Celaeno and the rest of the pirate gang. Celaeno as the leader is given a lot of depth and the overall backstory the pirate gang is understandable as being downgraded from their job as pirates to being workers of the Storm King. They don’t really come off as villains ever, with the only reason for intending to throw the Mane 6 overboard being that they were pretty much forced to until Rainbow Dash reminds them of their history and once again gives them hope. And then there’s Grubber, who isn’t necessarily developed or deep as a character, but he did add to the movie’s humor to me and I did find myself laughing at some of his lines. Although, I will have to admit that not every character was a hit for me. I just talked about the Seaponies being way under-utilized, but focusing on the two main ones, I will say that Princess Skystar was a fun character with a good personality and I did like her interactions with Pinkie Pie particularly, but on the other hand Queen Novo’s was too pessimistic for my liking and not in a good way. She didn’t really come off as a very convincing leader to me and the whole time she was on screen she just came off as really bitchy to me and didn’t really have many positive things going for her. The Storm King I also didn’t care for, seeing how as a villain he really didn’t come off as anything special to me and in fact was just sort of annoying. Considering how much he was hinted at as being threatening throughout the whole movie, his character does feel very “flat” to me, especially since “Commander” Tempest actually felt like a far more convincing villain and better character overall. He is potentitally a character that could’ve benefitted from better pacing just to see how they could have balanced him out than just being a flat generic villain, but what we got out of him was just that - a flat generic villain. Then there’s Songbird Serenade, and while she’s far from being hateable or anything, she was the character that came closest to my original concerns. She didn’t really do much throughout the movie and aside for her guest voice actor and her song, there really wasn’t much going for her as a character which sucks considering what I just mentioned as going for her.

The Mane 6 themselves and their personalities are also stand there, and their interactions largely with the new characters I think are well-written. Most of the Mane 6 do have a place in this movie and help to advance the plot, although if there was one complaint I had I actually found Fluttershy and Applejack underutilized. Compared to the rest I don’t really remember them doing very much in the movie and just felt shoehorned in, and for what it is, I can kind of understand why they had to be here because… come on, it’s a movie based off the show and you pretty much have to have everyone here, but I would’ve liked to have seen them to a bit more.

So, with the major story aspects out of the way, let’s take a look at the presentation. So, one thing I’m sure most people noticed right away when trailers were coming out for this movie was that it took a different art style than what was in the show. This is understandable considering this was an actual theatrical movie with a higher budget than just the normal episodes or even the Equestria Girls films, but unlike in, say, the Spongebob movie or the Simpsons movie, this wasn’t just an upgrade to the show’s already existing art style. This was completely different, more detailed and more Disney-like which kind of goes with the rest of the movie as it is. And I have to say, while it did sort of weird me out at first, I really found myself liking the movie’s art style. The characters all look really good in their new Disney-ish look, between the Mane 6 and all the new characters, and the animation as it is is very fluid and colorful, plus having some amazing lighting effects and is overall a lot better than the show’s standard Flash animation. There are also a couple parts, particularly Tempest’s flashback and the credits that also take on a different art style with a “flatter” and “chibi” look and they still pull it off really well as it manages to still look good and within the scene fits the “flashback” aspect pretty well. That said, there are also parts of the movie which utilize CGI animation mostly for stuff in the background and that unfortunately does not turn as well as the rest of the movie’s animation and art style. It’s the same issue that Spike at Your Service had where it just looks out of place from the rest of what is going on, but on the other hand for Spike at Your Service the Timberwolves at least were well rendered. The CGI scenes in this movie… not so much, I will say they did make some minor improvements from the trailers where the CGI parts looked straight out of Final Fantasy VII, but the CGI still just looks a bit too underdeveloped and drab compared to everything else. It is a minor thing considering most of the focus is on the 2D animation, but when there’s CGI here and there, it just looks distracting and out of place. The last thing I could talk about is the soundtrack, which I honestly really liked. After watching this movie for the first time, I can easily say that I’ve been listening to the songs pretty much on repeat and found them all really catchy, some of which I would call some of my favorites of the show. My favorites from the movie (not counting any of the credits music) particularly being Open Up Your Eyes, I’m the Friend You Need and Time to Be Awesome, but I found myself liking the rest of the songs well enough too. Considering how much my mom has been playing the soundtrack to the Beauty and the Beast remake around me, I think I’m willing to at least buy the soundtrack for myself.

Well, with everything out of the way, let’s wrap this up.

Conclusion:

Overall, as a long-time brony who’s been watching the show since the beginning of Season 2, I found myself really loving this movie just as well as the rest of the show. I will admit that it had it’s flaws, mostly to due with pacing, but overall I honestly didn’t find any of the flaws to really bring down the overall quality of the movie. I can definitely tell they were being more ambitious with it, and I think they did a good job, everything’s still there but the plot I found myself really interested in, the worldbuilding to be great, most of the characters fun, the art style to be nice to look at and the songs to be catchy. And I’d probably say that as someone who’s watched the show for so long, this is probably, well, my favorite MLP:FiM “episode” (or i guess production i’m not sure what other word to use) in terms of the overall enjoyment I got. After watching it once, I’m glad to say that I am tempted to watch this movie again in the future and if you are a brony and really enjoy the show… or heck, even an ex-brony that’s familiar with at least the first 2 seasons or so, I can easily recommend it.

…

yeah…

y’know what scratch everything I said, this is worse than the emoji movee rite guise?!1