My Little Pony The Movie Review · 7:01pm Apr 6th, 2018

The spoilers tag probably isn't warranted, seeing as the movie's been out on DVD/Blu-Ray for quite a while, not to mention digital media. But all the same there are those who probably haven't seen the movie yet for whatever reason. So I'd erring on the side of caution.

Anyway, this movie was written in a collaborative effort between Meghan McCarthy and Rita Hsiao, with Micheal Vogel joining the writing team late into production (though he did not work on the story). The movie started development all the way back in 2014 after Season 4 (thus explaining Meghan McCarthy's absence from the show for most of Season 5, all but one episode of Season 6, and all of Season 7, and potentially her absence from Season 8 depending on when it was ordered), and was originally going to premiere in November of 2017, before it got bumped up a month so as not to have to compete with the holiday box office. The stakes were pretty high for this movie, because the last time Hasbro gave one of their animated properties a theatrical release was more than 30 years ago, and the backlash was incredibly severe (The Transformers: The Movie has since become a cult classic). Considering the lengthy development period of this movie, and the fact that it's been canonized to take place between Seasons 7 and 8, was it able to deliver on the expectations surrounding it? Or did it only prove that ponies can't cut it at the box office? Well, let's find out.

Worth mentioning is that the opening scene was not the original planned opening. A deleted scene from the DVD release indicates a different opening that would involve narration from Twilight about the princesses, her friends, her hopes to be the princess everyone wants her to be, and then have the stain window crack and shatter as the silouette of Tempest's face would appear and say "Some things you can't plan for". It's also apparently been revealed that the movie was originally going to use the Rainbow Power see in "Twilight's Kingdom". In fact, a lot of the problems with this movie's story can be chalked up to the fact that it was clearly intended to take place between Seasons 4 and 5, but was instead thrown at the end of Season 7, and there was no effort made to communicate the changes in the show to the movie staff (Vogel didn't join until after he'd written for Season 6, by that point the movie was probably almost done). Anyway, we open up with a zooming shot of Canterlot, set to a ponyfication of "We Got The Beat". I don't get why exactly they did that, especially when they already had an orchestral, instrumental version of the theme song they could've used instead. It's not like they needed a pop song either, the soundtrack is full of them. Also, I should get the elephant in the room addressed. The movie was animated in Toon Boom instead of the show's flash animation style, probably so as not to look cheap. But while the new animation did grow me on as the movie progressed, I still prefer the show's flash animation. The animators have continuously pushed it to the limits, and demonstrated that they can make great visuals with it. The face Twilight makes when trying to smile is living proof that the animators are out of their comfort zone, because their attempts at making a meme worthy face dive straight into uncanny valley. Had they stuck with flash and bumped it up just a bit, I think they could've done just as great a job and probably saved on the budget.

Twilight goes to see the princesses, asking them to create an elaborate display for the performance of Songbird Serenade (who is basically Sia, but ponyfied. They probably could've gotten Lana Hall back to voice Countess Coloratura and filled the celebrity music star role just as easily, but I'm guessing Sia is a bit more modern and relevant). They of course refuse, so Twilight's friends have to give her a bit of a pep talk in the song "We Got This". It's alright, it has a nice beat to it and you might start humming the hook. But the lyrics are just thrown together and are kind of forgettable. I should also mention that because this movie was aiming for a wider audience, the mane six are stuck more in their default personalities and characteristics here. I understand why they did that, but I feel like at times they went overboard with them. There are times when Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash act unnecessarily stupid, and Applejack and Fluttershy don't really do much to stand out in this movie. "We Got This" also shoehorns in cameos of ponies like Cheese Sandwich, Twilight's Canterlot friends, and Starlight Glimmer and Trixie. Various expanded media have explored their role more in depth, but those are secondary canon at best. Anyway, things are going well up until storm clouds appear, and an airship emerges. We're introduced to Grubber, voiced by Michael Pena, who's the token comedic relief henchman. But he really doesn't amount to anything other than being annoying. Some people call him the Jar Jar Binks of the movie, but the thing is, Jar Jar Binks actually had somewhat of a role to play in his movie, his purpose was to guide the Jedi to the Gungan's underwater city. It's just that after that, he had no purpose other than being comedic relief. Grubber, on the other hand, can be written out entirely and nothing will change. It's a shame too, because apparently a lot of his dialogue was improvisation from Pena. But we've had better examples of improv comedy.

Next up is the primary big bad of the movie, Tempest Shadow, voiced by Emily Blunt. She's a unicorn with a broken horn, and a scar. But considering she almost never smiles, and her color scheme of black and red, she feels kind of like an edgy edgelord. In fact, she's kind of like the Shadow the Hedgehog of MLP.

Tempest sics an army of the Storm King's goons on the ponies, and effortlessly defeats the princesses with little crystal balls that emit a mist which, if it hits a pony, traps them in crystal. Celestia only manages to get out to Luna about finding the queen of the "Hippo-" before she is entrapped in crystal. And Tempest nearly gets Twilight as well, who is saved only by a last minute rescue from Rainbow Dash, and Derpy taking the blast intended for Twilight. Worth noting is that the royal guard is nowhere to be seen, or Shining Armor, or the Wonderbolts. It's a pretty glaring oversight that's hard to ignore. Twilight and her friends barely escape via a waterfall, and the ponies regroup to plan their next move. They decide that they must leave Equestria and head South to find the queen of the hippos (after a forced joke about "Hungry, Hungry Hippos"), even though if this movie is taking place after Season 7, there should be plenty of other options (go to Discord's dimension and get him to help, go to the changeling hive and talk to Thorax, find the pillars, go to Griffonstone, or go to the Dragon Lands). If this were taking place after Season 4, none of those options would exist. At the least the movie could've tried to come up with some sort of "reason" as to why finding the queen of the hippos was a better option. Meanwhile, back in Canterlot, Tempest receives a call from the Storm King, voiced by Liev Schreiber. I still stand by much of what I said in my Top Ten Villains list about how he's a better villain than Tempest, but I'll admit he's underdeveloped and lacking. We're never really told why he's so powerful or why he's supposed to be this big threat. It feels like they were trying to opt for something akin to a John Woods or John DiMaggio type of hammy evil (which makes you wonder why they didn't consider Woods or Mark Hamill for that matter, either of them would've fit the Storm King just as well). Probably the best thing about him and a sign of what he could be with better writing (not counting the comics, as that sort of stuff is secondary canon and we really shouldn't need supporting material to flesh out major characters) is when he warns Tempest that if she fails "Your horn won't be the only thing that's broken". In a lot of ways, it feels like Darth Vader conversing with The Emperor in "The Empire Strikes Back".

The ponies make their way South through the badlands, crossing a barren desert as they start to suffer from heat exhaustion. We even get a bit of dark humor when Pinkie starts conversing with a skull, and admittedly this is one of the scenes that the movie's animation does better. We get to really see the ponies sweat. There's also a rather funny out of context line from Pinkie about how she's got sand in her everything (they knew what they were implying with that one). Eventually, they reach a town (which has been since revealed to be called Klugetown). A town full of various bipedal animal creatures, who are pretty hostile. When Pinkie blurts out that they're looking for someone to take them to the queen of the hippos, they're ambushed and cornered. Then they're suddenly saved by an antromorphic cat named Capper, voiced by Taye Diggs. He manages to sneakily trick the merchants into thinking the ponies are diseased, and even tells one merchant that "Parts will fall off."

Despite Twilight's objections in trusting him, the ponies decide to go along with Capper as we get "I'm The Friend You Need". It's a nice, catchy song with some clever visuals to match. But it isn't very subtle, you can tell that Capper's going to end up stabbing them in the back. Heck, he outright does this to the audience when he gives a random creature a card and mentions Verko and some unknown debt that's never elaborated on. Anyway, Tempest happens to hot on the ponies' trail, and interrogates a fish creature merchant to find out where they are. A scene that would have a lot more impact if Grubber didn't make a terrible joke about "Fish Man". Meanwhile, up in Capper's room, Rarity fixes up his dress and gives him a button, which causes Capper to be taken aback when he learns she's doing it without expecting any sort of favor in return. While that's going on, Twilight finds a map that leads to Mount Aris, the home of the Hippogriffs (bonus points if you know what hippogriffs actually means). But at that moment, Verko arrives to collect the ponies. Rarity in particular is most upset that Capper was going to sell them into slavery. Then again, it's hardly the first time Rarity's been in that situation.

But Tempest intervenes, zapping Verko, which gives the ponies a chance to escape on a windmill blade. But much like the airship, it looks almost like it was rendered in SFM, meaning Toon Boom is even less suitable to CGI than flash. As luck would have it, there's an airship waiting to take off, and the ponies rush to get onboard before it leaves the dock. A task that is made difficult when Pinkie bounces on the rope Rainbow Dash ties to the dock for them to all walk across. Twilight saves Pinkie and everyone stows away onboard the ship, while Tempest furiously interrogates Capper to find out where the ponies are headed. Having a change of heart, Capper lies and says they're headed East, but Tempest decides to keep him prisoner until she gets what she wants. Once again though, Grubber makes a bad joke and ruins the moment. Back on the airship, the crew members are looking for the ponies, suspecting that someone is onboard. When they find them, they debate over what to do (arguing among other things that they tie them up, clip their wings, or scar them: emotionally), and turn to Captain Celaeno for advice. Captain Celaeno is voiced by Zoe Saladana, and happens to be a parrot. She declares in that according with the Storm King's rules, stowaways are to be thrown overboard. But before the crew can do so, a whistle blows and they stop for lunch. Turns out Storm King only allows one break a day for meals, and the parrots are shipping his merchandise (fans have joked that the Storm King is Hasbro). Rainbow Dash and the others soon learn that the parrots used to be pirates, leading into the song "Time to Be Awesome". It's not a bad song, it's nice to see Ashliegh Ball get a chance to do something akin to a solo song. But all it really amounts to is a pep talk to convince the pirates to go back to their old ways. And it ends with Rainbow Dash doing a Sonic Rainboom for no apparent reason other than to show off, which has the effect of alerting Tempest to the ponies location, something Rainbow Dash doesn't seem to consider until after Tempest is onboard.

Twilight's friends seem to think the pirates won't give them up, even though Tempest is threatening to blow up the ship (after doing the "count to three" routine). Rather than let that happen, Twilight throws them all out of the cargo bay, and forms a hot air balloon to get them to Mount Aris. Furious at the betrayals, Tempest ominously lights up her horn, and we see an explosion and planks fall into the water below. Of course, Captain Celaeno, Capper, and the pirates all survive (most likely they parachuted away). As for Twilight and her friends, they reach Mount Aris, only to find the whole place deserted and abandoned, as if something terrible happened. Suddenly, they hear singing and go to investigate. But none of them seem to suspect it might be a siren (though what a siren would be doing in the middle of nowhere is beyond me). Inside some kind of urchin, a glowing figure can be seen, but Twilight (and later Pinkie Pie) scare it away. All of a sudden, a whirlpool spins up, complete with an (unnecessary) toilet flush sound.

The ponies are swept under water, but someone makes air bubbles for them. That someone is the figure from earlier, who at first isn't quite sure if she should trust the newcomers. But when she hears they're fleeing from the Storm King's forces, she reveals herself as a sea pony and takes the seven to the underwater kingdom the hippogriffs now reside in. Said figure is Princess Skystar, voiced by Kristin Chenoweth, and her mother is Queen Novo voiced by Uzo Aduba (interestingly enough, Novo refers to the Native Americans of the U.S. Navy in World War II, who created unbreakable codes that the Japanese could never decipher) and she talks like Sapphire Shores.

The seaponies, as it turns out, used to be the hippogriffs and used to live on Mount Aris. But when the Storm King showed up to steal their magic, they transformed into sea ponies and fled underwater. Novo reveals the Pearl of Transformation, which turns the mane six into seaponies (and Spike into a pufferfish, as if making him a dog in Equestria Girls wasn't insulting enough, and at least as a dog he was actually kind of helpful). Admittedly, this scene is pointless in the grand scheme of things, even if the seapony designs look very nice. Twilight expresses her intent to use the pearl to fight the Storm King, but Queen Novo refuses since she claims it could end up in the Storm King's claws. She then departs and Princess Skystar goes off somewhere else. Twilight convinces Pinkie Pie and the others to go play with Skystar for a bit, and it soon turns out that she wants to use this as a distraction to steal the pearl. This leads into "One Small Thing", a really catchy and upbeat song, backed up by outstanding visuals. Of course, you all know the obvious joke.

It seems like the song has won Queen Novo over, and she's ready to aid the ponies. That is, before an alarm goes off, and Novo finds Twilight in the throne room, entangled in an anomea's tentacles, the pearl just outside her reach. Furious at this, Novo refuses to help and turns the ponies back to normal, before sending them up to the surface, gasping for air. What I like about this scene is that it actually acknowledges that Twilight's behavior was wrong, regardless of what she was trying to do. How many times have you seen shows or movies justify the hero or someone on the side of good do something that the villains are treated as in the wrong for, but the hero gets away with it under the justification "I did what I had to do"? Also, I like that we got to see Twilight's thought process, even though we know she's in the wrong. We can understand why she would do something so drastic, why she would do something so out of character for her. It's too bad that the scene that follows is the absolute low point of the movie, and reeks of forced conflict. Twilight's friends chew her out for stealing the pearl, and Twilight rightfully brings up that they haven't been taking things seriously. But then she goes off on a tangent about how she's the one Tempest wants and that it's all about her. And when Pinkie accuses Twilight of not trusting her friends, Twilight snaps at Pinkie and says "Maybe I'd better off without friends like you!". Even after Season 4 this would've been a stretch, but after seven seasons, you can't possibly expect me to believe that Twilight would DARE say such a thing! What's even worse is that all of her friends just leave her and give her angry looks! Considering Applejack and Rainbow Dash, that's extreme hypocrisy! They've said and done things in the heat of the moment that they instantly regretted later. And even Rarity and Fluttershy have snapped and said something they didn't mean. Heck, considering the last time the girls abandoned Twilight in her moment of need, you'd think they would remember their lesson! All this serves, is to write the rest of the mane six out, so Twilight can be captured by Tempest! But was there really no other way they could've done that?

While aboard the airship, Twilight is approached by Tempest and we get the villain song "Open Up Your Eyes". It's catchy and very moving and powerful, but the visuals are a major let down compared to the previous one. I guess maybe they blew their budget on the flashy visuals in "One Small Thing" and had to tone it down to save money here. This also leads into Tempest's backstory, told via the felt ponies style. As a filly, Tempest was playing ball with her friends when she accidentally tossed it into a cave. She went into it and encountered an Ursa Minor, which sliced off her horn and gave her the scar. Then because of that, her friends found her scary because of her magic, and abandoned her. Which caused her to run away and strike out on her own. I understand that when Meghan wrote this, she didn't know redemption would become an overused trope in the show, let alone that Starlight Glimmer was going to have a controversial reformation. But at some point someone should've told her how similar the two were, and that it would be wise to go back and revise Tempest's story. Much like Starlight's, we're not told enough to fill in the blanks. We don't know anything about Tempest's family, or if there was anyone who tried to help her, let alone why she didn't think to maybe go to the princesses for help first. I understand it's not on the same scale as Starlight's reformation, but being similar to it but on a larger scale is more a curse than a blessing. Especially since we don't know how this story is conveyed in universe. Is Tempest showing this to Twilight, or is it just a recollection Tempest is having?

Spike comes running back to tell the rest of the mane six that Twilight's been captured, but they have no army with which to rescue her. That is, until Capper, Captain Celaeno and her crew, and Princess Skystar all show up to offer their services. Meanwhile, back in Canterlot, Twilight is brought to the palace (after seeing Songbird Serenade imprisoned and singing, making her a caged bird that sings). She weakly pleads with Tempest not to give the Storm King what he wants, but Tempest retorts that she wants to show all of Equestria what she can do. And at that moment, the Storm King shows up, less than thrilled with the look of the palace. He drains the magic from all four princesses into his staff and decides to fool around with it some, while Tempest tries to no avail to get him to restore her horn. The rescue group sneaks into Canterlot under the guise of delivering a cake for the Storm King, but their "Trojan Horse" trick is foiled by Grubber in the ONLY scene he's relevant for (and any other character could've easily done the same). One by one the ponies have to leave some of their allies behind to reach the palace, and Capper gets the idea to use Spike as a flamethrower on the storm guards, one of which falls down and doesn't get back up. The Storm King decides then and there that he's fed up with ponies and uses the staff to create a massive tornado (Storm King was actually one of many names that praree dwellers in the West used to describe tornadoes, which were seen as chaotic and even the work of God in some people's eyes). Using Pinkie's special cannon she made earlier in the movie, the ponies blast to Twilight's location and succeed in knocking the staff away from the Storm King (who by now has made it clear he used Tempest and never planned to restore her horn). After a rushed apology, Twilight and her friends form a massive pile to reach the staff before the Storm King. But when Twilight grabs it, she and the Storm King are sucked up into the vortex. Fortunately, the storm soon subsides, and Twilight descends from the heavens with the staff in tow.

Having already been saved by Twilight earlier, Tempest is prepared to leave. But then the Storm King surfaces with a crystal bomb, and Tempest rushes forward to take the blast, which also causes the mist to hit the Storm King and crystallize him. Tempest's crystallized body is pulled to safety, while the Storm King's body falls to the ground and shatters into pieces.

The magic of the staff thaws out Tempest and restores everything to its rightful state, and Songbird Serenade takes the stage as we close out the music scene with "Rainbow", a fairly good pop song with some weird lyrics ("I can see a rainbow, in your tears as they're falling down" for example). Tempest gets a chance to show that her magic can be used for good, as she showers the stage with fireworks, and then she reveals that her actual name is Fizzlepop Berrytwist. "Rainbow" plays into the end credits, alongside "Off to See the World", and unlike the Equestria Girls films from "Rainbow Rocks" onward, there's no post credits stinger. A bit of a bummer.

And that's the story, so what do I think of the movie? Well, the story could've used another draft or two, especially if they were intending to have it take place between Seasons 7 and 8 (which I still don't think was for the best, they didn't even know what the Season 7 finale would involve when the movie came out, and it hadn't been leaked yet either). They could've done more to make the mane six at least competent, instead of reverting them to their basic personality traits. And Fluttershy and Applejack really needed to have more of a presence. Most of the new characters are good, the only one who really doesn't belong is Grubber. You could cut him out, and nothing would change. In fact, all he does is undercut any tension that Tempest might have, when she was probably supposed to serious to the Storm King's hamminess. The Storm King also needed far more of a presence than he actually has, something to establish just why he's such a threat other than because the movie says so. But I appreciate the songs (minus the ponyfied "We Got The Beat", that's just lazy), and I like that we got to have an adventure story with higher stakes, that didn't have to involve character deaths (some rumors circulated that the writers were going to off Applejack or Fluttershy). There's talk of plans for a sequel, which I'd be onboard for, but I feel like it would need to be a direct to DVD release and preferably with the show's animation. Another theatrical film would take too long to make at this point, though I'm glad we finally got a 2D animated movie at the box office. The animation did grow on me over time, but another criticism I have is that I feel like it robs pony of its unique identity. It feels too Disney, for lack of a better term. That's a compliment, mind you (I imagine a lot of general audiences felt this movie was trying to be like one of those musical Disney animated features we used to get all the time), but it still feels like a major upgrade that hurts more than it helps. All in all, I still stand by the rating I gave this movie back when I first saw it in theaters (7 out of 10). If I had to give it a letter grade, I'd say it's probably about a B, maybe a borderline B/B+. It's a great movie, but it's extremely rough around the edges and its setting in the timeline opens up a ton of plot holes. A rewrite or two of the story would've helped, even if it meant pushing the movie back (probably to a January 2018 release, that way it could keep pony going during the hiatus).

Now, I know there's an episode to review tomorrow, and I'm still going to review it as planned. But I'm also going to be doing a few lists related to the movie now that I've watched it and reviewed it in depth. We'll start with the new characters.

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