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My Little Pony: The Movie review

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The day has finally come, people. The My Little Pony: The Movie is finally out after so much waiting and anticipation. It’s amazing how this show once started small, but over time it grew into one of the biggest hits ever and a cartoon that still holds up well after seven seasons. With its cast of wonderful characters, good stories and morals, funny jokes, and appealing to a large audience outside of the intended demographic, it’s easy to see why this show is a classic to many.


As the show’s popularity grew, talks of a movie started to stir about shortly after the start of the Equestria Girls series with its first movie. In 2014, it was announced there would be a movie for the show and talks about it started to pop up. A lot of theories went around what the plot would be or what could happen. It was something a lot of people were anticipating. I have to admit, I was really excited about this since FiM has managed to always put together some epic season openers or finales, so the bar was set pretty high for the quality the show usually has.


As the movie’s release date approached, we got to see more and more details about the plot, the new characters, and where it was going. I have to admit, as I learned more about the movie, the excitement waned for me. It wasn’t helped that a lot of what I’ve heard about the movie seemed very reminiscent of stuff we’ve seen before and certain things about the movie raised some concerns from me.


Still, I figured it was still worth a shot to see this movie after all this hype was built up and the wait for this film to come out. After all this time and anticipation, I wasn’t going to just not see the film, even with some of the reservations I had as I heard more about it. This is a film that’s been highly anticipated for so long and people who like the show, like me, have wanted to see it and see what’s in store for this big adventure. Does it live up to the hype? Is it worth all this time?


Now, before I continue this review, I should warn you all right here, right now. This review will contain spoilers about the film itself. I’ll try to keep it to a minimum, but there are going to be spoilers brought up about the overall plot and some other details about the movie. If you haven’t seen the movie and want to avoid being spoiled, then don’t read any further than this at this point. Just close the tab now, and come back to read the review after you’ve seen the film. If you have seen the movie, or haven’t but don’t care about spoilers, then stay and read on. With that being said, let’s begin with the plot of the movie.


Twilight Sparkle is hosting the Friendship Festival in Canterlot, a party where ponies from Ponyville to Saddle Arabia have come together to celebrate unity and friendship. Before the party can get started though, a fleet of airships come in and invade Canterlot. The leader of the invasion is a unicorn with a broken horn named Tempest Shadow, who wants the magic of the four princesses on behalf of her master, the Storm King, and proceeds to start turning them to stone one by one. After being forced to flee, Twilight must seek out the Queen of the Hippos that Celestia was telling Luna about for help. With her friends to help, the Mane 7 must journey out of Equestria and find new allies to stop the Storm King and free Equestria.


If you were like me going into this film, you were expecting a huge and epic adventure, and we do get one as the Mane 7 have to journey across Equestria and leave their homeland to find more help. I welcome this kind of opportunity to explore more about the world outside of Equestria. It gives us the chance to explore different factions in Equestria and different locations to go to.


While the idea of world building is always something I love, the story itself does leave a little bit to be desired. It may be me, but the season finales and openers of FiM have usually been able to raise the bar slightly with each passing season, and each one got better and better with how epic and grand they could be. I’ve probably been spoiled and was hoping for some really huge and epic thing like the time travel plot set by Starlight Glimmer or the season seven finale. Most of the plot though centers on Twilight and her friends going from one place to another to reach their destination and get help to take out the Storm King and his forces.


I bring up the whole season finales and openers because you’ll quickly figure out that this movie does borrow elements from one of those season finales; Twilight’s Kingdom. When you get down to it and think about it, you do notice some of the similarities in this film to that of the season four finale. The Storm King can take magic like Tirek can. All of Equestria falls to the Storm King quickly like with Tirek. The fate of Equestria ultimately falls on Twilight. There are similarities to this finale that are hard to ignore.


To the movie’s credit, while it does borrow elements from the season four finale, it doesn’t end up being a simple complete rehash of it. There are elements that do stick out and manage to make the movie stand on its own merits without it relying too much on rehashing elements. Unlike Twilight’s Kingdom, all the Mane 7 are part of the adventure this time and contribute to helping out when they can. The story itself relies on the idea of making new friends and bringing them together to overthrow the Storm King.


Now, don’t get me wrong, the story isn’t bad at all. It does end up being a big adventure for Twilight and her friends and there’s a sense of urgency of stopping the Storm King and Tempest Shadow before it’s too late. The Storm King himself is built up to be this big menace throughout the film that’s terrorized and enslaved and brought ruin to so many. From him enslaving pirates to the sight of his own forces making the citizens quiver in fear.


While the story does include the Mane 7 going on a long adventure, the focus is pretty much on Twilight. The others are around to support and help along the way, but the majority of the focus is strictly on Twilight herself. Throughout the film, we see the weight of everything that’s happened from all the running away to how things outside of Equestria seems to go against everything she believes in and it starts to eat away at her.


However, while the majority of the focus is on Twilight, the rest of the characters are good too. Everyone is written in character and each one of them make a contribution in the movie. From Spike being the supportive guy we know to Rarity being overly dramatic at times, they are all written well like in the show. The one who may stand out the most is Pinkie Pie towards the end of the movie with what she tells Twilight and the scene the two of them have together. It’s probably one of the few times where Pinkie is being very serious without making a single joke.


While there isn’t much in terms of major character development for the other Mane 7, the focus is more or less on the new characters that have been highlighted in the trailers. Unlike most of the characters we’ve seen, these are entirely new races, with the exception of Tempest Shadow, and I welcome seeing more types of races in Equestria. We got Capper the cat, Captain Celano the avian pirate, and the Storm King the...yeti? I have no idea what species he’s supposed to be. It’s good to see more types of creatures being introduced into Equestria.


Unfortunately, while most of these new characters are great in their own way, they don’t get a whole lote of character development at all. We do get to know a bit about Celano and a lot about Tempest, but the other characters seemed to be totally forgotten. To be fair, the prequel comics that were published do a good job in getting us to know who these characters are and develop them, but I feel they could’ve spent some of the movie allowing for some more characters to be fleshed out.


This is especially problematic with our main villain of the movie, the Storm King. You know those trailers you saw of him? Well, I hope you enjoyed those bits because, I’m not kidding here, he’s barely in the film at all. At the very most, the Storm King only has around 10-15 minutes of screentime. That’s as bad as the lack of Friendship Games from Equestria Girls: Friendship Games, but this is even worse. The main villain, despite being built up so much, doesn’t make his major appearance until the final 10-20 minutes. I was hoping for some more funny scenes like from the trailers or comics, but for some reason they barely show him at all.


Who does get the most focus in this film in terms of a new character is Tempest Shadow herself. I’m not going to lie here; I absolutely love this character. Tempest Shadow is easily the best new character in the movie. The way she’s able to keep cool under pressure, her low voice and glare just silencing and putting fear into others, and being able to kick all kinds of ass in magic and physical prowess just makes her a badass.


Her back story is a bit generic, but at least it’s not as bad as Starlight Glimmer’s. In a way, I can understand her views on friendship and how she sees the rest of Equestria just constantly using magic and power for parties only. She’s not wrong about this as Equestria seems more focused on this stuff, but I’ll get to that in a moment.


Tempest’s redemption was honestly no surprise to me. Even before viewing the movie, I figured she’d be redeemed at the end. In fairness, it was built up better than with Starlight as it takes a bit more time for her to change sides in the end. While it’s a bit rushed, at least there’s some sort of build up to it. I do wish there could’ve been an earlier scene about Twilight doing something good for Tempest that made her start questioning her beliefs, but that’s just me though.


I’ve yet to talk about the plot, mostly because this is where the movie really starts to fall apart. As mentioned earlier, Twilight and her friends have to leave Equestria and find the Queen of the Hippos, later revealed to be the Queen of the Hippogriffs. The major drive of the plot is about finding them and getting their help to take on the Storm King. This isn’t really a bad idea as this is the first time the princesses decide to call in some help. Okay that’s nice and all, but there’s one tiny little problem.


Twilight could’ve easily contacted Ember and Thorax for help against the Storm King.


Seriously, even when Twilight decides to go for help, she doesn’t even bother to contact these two. After all, they’re allies to Equestria too. Also, wouldn’t it be faster to contact two kingdoms you know about instead of going to a place you have no idea where it is or met any of them? We later see that Queen Nova, leader of the Hippogriffs, decided to hide away and arrogantly refuses to help, despite Princess Celestia seeming to know her. She doesn’t do anything at all to help out and doesn’t seem to change at all in the end about how wrong she was. She’s just arrogant the whole way through, and comes off as a bit of a coward.


Why didn’t Twilight or anypony at all ever consider asking some of their other friends for help? Contact Ember and Thorax, explain what’s going on, and have them come and help out. Sure, the Changelings aren’t very strong, but they could still infiltrate Canterlot as the Storm King’s guards and help the ponies, and the dragons can come in and burn them all up. So why isn’t Twilight calling these two factions for help?


You could argue this was written in 2014 and that this wasn’t a thing yet. But, let’s consider this though. They were able to put in Starlight Glimmer as a cameo in the movie; meaning this takes place after season six. Add to that, apparently the movie itself takes place between the events of seasons seven and eight. This is far more glaring when you consider the events of the season seven finale too and its implications (Yes, I’ve seen the episodes early; and no I won’t give any spoilers about it).


Now you may be asking, “Well how about Discord?” He is in this movie though...at the end credits. Yes, they managed to get him in at the end credits only. This only raises more questions though as to why he wasn’t called to help out. Sure, the idea of turning to stone may’ve intimidated him, but why not have him fighting and trying to help instead of just ignoring him like this?


A lot of these issues could’ve been easily solved by simple rewriting and adding some scenes. The stuff with Ember and Thorax could’ve been explained by having the Storm King unexpectedly invading and taking over the Changeling Kingdom and Dragon Lands. It would’ve been weird to see them taken out like that, but it could be plausible. Again with Discord, just have him fight a little against Tempest before being taken out. I get adding scenes to a movie can make things a bit more difficult to the script, but this would’ve easily filled in the huge plot holes.


While I’m on the subject, let’s consider the response by Equestria to the attack, or the lack of a response. I get Equestria’s Royal Guards couldn’t stop even Cobra Commander’s forces, but where are they in the invasion? There’s no response from them at all. Did Celestia and Luna decide to disband their military altogether? Isn’t that just asking for trouble?


Let’s not forget that the princesses don’t even put up much of a fight against Tempest at all. In fact, I think they all get eliminated in less than a minute or so. Celestia herself got the worst treatment as she just stands still and doesn’t pay attention to what’s going on before being turned to stone. It’s like they took how easily the princesses were taken out in that awful Siege of the Crystal Empire comic arc and implemented it here.


It’s not just inconsistencies in plot elements, it’s also affected some of our main characters. The prime example here is Fluttershy. Recently, Fluttershy has been more assertive, but still her kind and gentle self. In the movie, it feels like she’s been regressed a little bit to her overly shy self. It’s not like how she was in Scare Master at all, but it’s noticeable after how she’s been portrayed the last two seasons.


This is a case of what happens when a movie is made while a series is running; it creates huge plot holes and inconsistencies throughout. Again, some rewriting could’ve easily solved this movie’s major plot holes throughout it. Add in a few scenes and some dialogue about this stuff, and you would have most of the problems I have with the movie out of the way.


If you can overlook the huge holes in the story, I can say something that is beautiful throughout the film; the visuals. At times, the CGI does look a bit wonky, but it’s not terribly done at all. The locations of each place has their own variety and theme going for itself. From Klugetown being a wretched hive of scum and villainy to the awe inspiring beauty of the Hippogriff’s undersea city. The character designs are also fantastic and have different looks to each of them.


Another major positive are the songs. Daniel Ingram brought his A-game here with this soundtrack. Even if you don’t like the movie, the soundtrack is excellent and all of the new characters do get to sing in them too. They’re not going to win any awards I think, but they’re all good and well done. My personal favorite had to be Tempest’s Open Your Eyes song. For some reason, I got a vibe of The Lion King’s song, Be Prepared. Something about the way Tempest sang it, with the dark visuals, and the ominous tone just made it so good. Of course, we can’t forget the excellent song, Rainbow by Sia and how great it is.


There are some action scenes through the movie that are fairly entertaining, but the final battle was easily the best one. We get to see all of the characters show off their skills and their abilities in the climax. My favorite part was easily how Capper turned Spike into a flamethrower and burned, and killed, several Storm King guards. One thing I do wish they kept in was a scene where the Hippogriffs come in to help save the day, but it was cut unfortunately. It sure would’ve helped redeem Queen Nova instead of her appearing at the end when everything is okay.


Unfortunately, much like how he was built up, there isn’t really a final battle with the Storm King himself. Twilight has to take the staff back from the Storm King, but there isn’t really a battle at all. This would’ve been a fantastic moment for another anime like battle from Twilight’s Kingdom, but they for some reason don’t have one at all. Of all the times to not have an epic battle, why here in this movie; especially when you consider how much the Storm King is built up to be. It’s FiM’s theatrical movie, and you don’t put in an epic battle? How do you mess that up?


One thing I will say that was interesting is that for the second time, we get a villain death. Not since the season three opener have we seen a villain, in this case it’s the Storm King, actually be seen being killed off. Though it should be noted that during the end credits and they show the remains of the Storm King’s petrified statue, his eyes are still moving; meaning he’s still alive. I don’t know how anyone can still be alive after being turned into a statue and being broken to pieces. It’s going to be awkward if he ever gets free and he has dismembered body parts around.


There’s really no proper stopping point at the end either. As soon as we find out what Tempest’s real name is, it just abruptly stops. I do wish we got to see the princesses interact more with Twilight or talk with Tempest about her broken horn. It’s somewhat implied that Twilight could’ve done something for Tempest’s horn, but it doesn’t go further than that. The movie just stops so abruptly like it’s saying, “Okay, you’ve seen enough ponies. Go home now.”


Alright, let’s step back for a moment and just look at this movie. If we’re to look at this movie for what it is, how does it stand up? In all honestly, this movie is pretty much what you would expect from an MLP movie. It has a moral about friendship and acceptance; like you would see in the show. It does accomplish for what you should expect in a FiM movie. It’ll please long time fans of the show and it does stay true to a lot of its core values and morals.


It does suffer from some major problems that hold the movie back. It has numerous plot holes that are never filled in or explained such as the thing with Ember and Thorax and Discord. Most of the new characters we get in the movie are hardly explored or get any major character development. This is a major problem for the Storm King as we know nothing about him at all or where he came from.


There’s not even much of a final conflict with the main villain of the movie himself. Hell, Twilight and her friends face off against Tempest and the Storm King’s fighters more than the Storm King himself. It’s disappointing that we don’t get some anime like fight again. Just when things look like they’re about to heat up between Twilight and the Storm King, it just abruptly ends. The finale battle only lasts around five minutes, without it being a fight scene.


However, despite my gripes with the movie, it does hit a lot of high notes too that make it enjoyable. All the characters are written well for the most part, despite Fluttershy feeling a bit regressed, and none of them feel out of character. The new characters themselves are likable for the most part, with the exception of Queen Nova. They all play a big role in the end and the voice work for them is very solid.

Visually, the movie is very beautiful to look at. The ponies look great in the style of animation and the set locations are all interesting and have variety. The soundtrack is very solid and has some fantastic songs from all the characters. The pacing is a bit good for the most part, even with some parts at the end feeling rushed. The story itself, despite feeling like familiar territory at times, isn’t too bad and does give us a chance to explore more in the FiM world.

Is it perfect and amazing? Not at all. Is it a bad movie? Not even close. It’s a good film that’ll satisfy those who love the show. It has a lot of good moments in it and it does stay true to a lot of what made the show so good in the first place. There’s nothing terrible about the movie at all and it does accomplish what you would expect in an MLP movie.

I think the biggest problem with this movie was that it was just over hyped. It may be me, but the bar was set high for a FiM movie; especially when you consider the season openers and finales and you see what we’ve gotten. I hate to say it, but the season seven finale was a more proper set up for the movie in terms of a plot. I wish they would’ve saved what we got in the season finale for this movie.

So the final question is this, is My Little Pony: The Movie worth seeing or not? Well, if you’re somebody who’s an avid fan of the show, you’ll go see it regardless. If you’re someone who’s not watched the show in a while or have given up on it, your mileage may depend on how you feel about seeing it. But it’s worth checking out, despite some issues here and there, to see the FiM show finally have its long awaited movie.

At the end of the day, the movie is flawed, but it’s still fun overall. It’s got a good charm to it that makes it endearing and fun for all who watch it. As a leap from the TV screen to the big screen itself, My Little Pony: The Movie does a good job in carrying over what made the show so wonderful in the first place. If there’s a sequel to this movie, maybe it can be more ambitious and aim higher.

It’s taken three years, but around the seventh birthday of the show’s starting time, we finally got the FiM movie a lot of us were waiting for. While not perfect and having noticeable flaws, there’s not much wrong with My Little Pony: The Movie. It’s what you would expect from a FiM movie and it does accomplish what it aims to do. For those who love the show and for kids, it’s a fun movie all around and a good movie all around.

FINAL SCORE: 7 out of 10 ( B- )

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The Storm King got at least as much focus as Shere Khan from "The Jungle Book" (1967) and Oogie Boogie from "The Nightmare Before Christmas", but has anyone complained about them?