My Little Pony: The Movie (2017)

Originally I wasn't going to watch this movie until it became available on Netflix. 

However, due to circumstances I decided  to go ahead and watch the film through other means. The reason for this is that this guy I'm subscribing to on YouTube recently put up a blind commentary-video of this very film, as a Christmas special and I didn't watch his video until after I had seen the movie on my own. At the same time, I didn't want to put off watching it for the time it would take until Netflix added it to their library, so here we are.

If you have visited this blog before, you are most likely aware of my opinion regarding My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. If not, then suffice to say that its a show that I have a deep fondness for. 

I went into it with a great degree of skepticism, but it managed to win me over and ultimately, I consider it to be one of the best animated shows to come out this decade. Considering my enjoyment of the show and its characters, you'd think that my expectations for the first movie in this series to take place entirely in Equestria proper, would be pretty high up in the air, but they actually weren't. 

I did not go into the movie excepting it to be bad, but I wasn't expecting it to be a masterpiece either. 

Let me make one thing clear from the start: I do not consider My Little Pony: The Movie to be a great animated feature. As far as animated family-films go, its trounced completely by the best titles that Disney and Pixar have in their libraries (not to mention Ghibli). It is, however, a good deal more enjoyable than the weaker efforts from these titans. I can in all honestly say that I would put My Little Pony: The Movie (henceforth to be referred to as simply The Movie) on the same level as, say, Big Hero 6 and I would definitely take it over the likes of Cars or Dinosaurs any day. 

That said, let's take a look at the film itself.

The Movie begins in Canterlot where our main protagonist Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship is busy preparing for a festival of her own invention. However, the celebrations are quickly cut short by the arrival of an invading army headed by Tempest Shadow; a rogue unicorn, working for the evil Storm King, who has promised to heal her broken horn, if she delivers up the magic of the four princesses to him. Twilight, being the only princess who is not incapacitated by Tempest's weapons, escapes with her friends. Their goal is to find the queen of the Hippos, who hopefully will find a way to help them rescue their conquered homeland. Unfortunately, Tempest and her goons are hot on their trail.

If I was to point to this movie's greatest assets, I'd definitely point to the sound and the visuals. Friendship Is Magic has always been a very good looking show and so, its no small wonder that the movie, armed with a bigger budget and all that, was going to be a feast for the eyes. My only real complaint regarding the visuals is the way that Twilight and the other ponies look. Of course, they have always been cute and I don't mind cute, but here I thought their designs on occasion, strayed too far into the realm of the saccharine for my taste. 

The soundtrack and voice-acting for the show are likewise for high quality, but then I wasn't expecting anything less. The regular voice-actors all do a great job with their characters and are joined by the likes of Taye Diggs, Emily Blunt and Liev Schreiber, (voicing Capper, Tempest Shadow and The Storm King, respectively) who bring their parts to life convincingly. Likewise, the songs are really good and I doubt that I surprise anyone if I say that I consider the villain-song, Open Up Your Eyes, to be he movie's stand-out number.

Character-wise, most of the new characters introduced in this movie are fine. Capper, although he doesn't bring anything new to the role, is a good example of the loveable rogue archetype. Same thing goes for the likes of Captain Celano, Queen Nova and Princess Sky-Star. All of them characters that I wouldn't mind seeing in the show proper.

However, the real star of the movie, even more so than Twilight and pals, is definitely Tempest Shadow, whose ruthlessness and drive makes for a great antagonist. She's not my favorite MLP villain, but she's definitely in my top 5. Her villain-song, which explains her backstory and world-view, helps a lot in this regard. Speaking of Tempest, I will also say that I didn't find Grubber, her second in command, as annoying as I had feared he would be (relatively speaking, he's still one of the weaker parts of the movie).

By comparison, the Storm King is unfortunately, something of a disappointment: I liked his design and, as mentioned, Schreiber did a good job voicing him, but I didn't find him to be nearly as compelling, or competent a villain as Tempest. Its possible to have a villain who is both comedic and genuinely menacing at the same time, but in this case, I would have preferred if the writers had toned down the more comedic elements, as it was, I found myself wondering how this guy became the feared head of a world conquering army. He works as an off-screen presence though.

I suppose I should write something about Sia's character, Songbird Serande, but I can't really think of anything to say about her. She's a celebrity cameo and that's all there is to her. I must admit that I had never heard of Sia before this movie, so I can't say that her being in this movie was a big draw for me.

Ultimately my biggest gripe with The Movie comes down to the fact that while its well-made and fun, its also pretty generic and predictable, especially if you are familiar with the show itself. 

Of course Cadence and the Original Princesses are going to turn out to be completely useless against the new villains. Of course Twilight and her friends are going to have falling out somewhere down the line and of course, one of the villains (no prize for guessing who) will see the error of their ways and be redeemed by the magic of friendship. Don't misunderstand me, I get that this is a movie meant for kids, but it would have been nice to see the writers subvert expectations and take some risks. Perhaps the sequel will be more ambitious, one can at least hope.

To sum it up, if you are already a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, than you're most likely going to enjoy the movie. I did, despite some of my criticisms. If you are not, than I highly doubt that this movie is going to make you into a convert.

Happy Holidays everypo...everybody.