My Little Pony: A New Generation - My Thoughts

Reposted from my DeviantArt journal.

Here are my collective thoughts on the movie. I'll break it down into sections.

First off, to all who worked on this movie - voice actors and actresses, sound editors, animators, character designers (*ahem* Imalou), and more. I am very pleased with the results of your efforts and appreciate every one of you. Thank you all for an amazing movie.

Characters

Each of these "Mane Five" are awesome and unique in their own right. As My Little Pony movies go, there isn't adequate time to fully flesh out all of them (especially Pipp). But this is a given considering this movie is simultaneously kind of an "entry" into the G5 universe and a tie-in to some of the concepts of G4.

Sunny is a solid character. Despite exhibiting a level of enthusiasm, she maintains a level of consistency in similar situations, as shown with each attempt to interview. Guided by the principles her father taught her from their cumulative research, she is able to keep her friends on track and maintain control to keep the goal in sight and the mission on course.

Hitch is a pony of principle and compassion, too, but he lacks being open-minded due to his job loyalty.

Izzy is quite the character. Her fun-ness, creative skill, quirky humor, and fearless expressiveness are what will likely establish her as a fan favorite for a long time. Her cuteness obviously plays into this through quality voice acting (s/o to Kimiko Glenn you're a real one!), a detailed long flowing mane, her light purple colors (which naturally invoke thoughts and feelings of calm, love, and imagination) and her love for arts and crafts plus sharing them.

Pipp has much to go before she grows on most of the fandom. Her love of public performance and her passion of livestreaming on social media via her cellphone to fans (and taking selfies) causes many people to immediately draw real-life parallels and thus lead to presumptuousness. This is noted in a scene where she encounters the rest of the group and the first thing she complains about was being humiliated and the musical performance being ruined, rather than the state of her friends and even her sister. But like the others, she soon builds an understanding of friendship through Izzy and changes.

Zipp is kind of a unique variant of Sunny. Being a rebellious and sneaky girl, she doesn't just accept things for what they are, and seeks truth outside of the norms of the royalty bubble her mom and sister live in. In this pursuit, she shows a degree of intelligence with drawing diagrams on the science of flight and making mental connections with her observations of Sunny.

Unlike G4, which was 2D and therefore had to rely often on being wild and goofy to emphasize feelings and thoughts behind visual expressions (Pinkie Pie, I'm looking at you), the usage of 3D with G5 allows the characters' expressions to be more subtle yet carry more depth and draw empathic feeling from the viewers, due to its level of realism from textures and vivid colors.

Storyline and Setting

This story was interesting and fun, despite being predictable at times - if you're an adult with keen observation. (But that applies to most kids' entertainment in general, even the well-written ones).

A 2D-animated callback to the basic principles of the Mane 6 from Generation 4 was a great way to kick off at the beginning, with a transition into the direct point of the main conflict - Sunny's historical research vs. the modernist perception Sprout believes based on a false narrative about the Mane 6.

The concept of having a factory developing technological products to protect Earth ponies from unicorns based off of the aforementioned narrative felt a bit absurd, but I warmed up to it as it is 100% relatable to issues in the modern world around group-thinking, confirmation bias, and corporate marketing. Not to take away the escapism kids' entertainment provides, though. More on this later.

Detail on backgrounds in this movie are nothing short of outstanding. All the texture of natural elements - trees, grass, dirt, food, etc. all look realistic and vivid. It seemed to give me a closer feeling of connection to the environment and thereby the characters, as if the world was real but with talking ponies added in.

The scene of the magic crystals spinning around Sunny as she ascends and temporarily transforms into an alicorn was a nice callback to the Season 3 finale of G4. However, with filly Sunny having a pair of cardboard wings and a unicorn headband, the implications of this felt a bit too obvious early on. I wish it'd been more subtle - perhaps through some dialogue later in the movie. The ending felt abrupt but the post-credits scene made up for it with some nice subtlety.

Soundtrack

Given Vanessa Hudgens and Sofia Carson's background in Hollywood acting and singing, the performances of each respective character were amazing and the animation of the scenes complemented them well. There's also a possible subtle G4 callback with Hitch's line in Izzy's song "Fit Right In" having an almost identical verse structure and melody as the song "Babs Seed" from the Season 3 episode "One Bad Apple". (s/o to IggieBlackIce on Twitter for pointing this out)

The style of the character songs appear to be in line with G4, with their catchy rhythms and similar visuals. An interesting note is a certain background tune that plays whenever magic is shown to an effect. You hear it at the start of the movie, then again when the piece of stained glass depicting the unicorn crystal is revealed in the Zephyr Heights castle, and yet again when the three magic crystals start to glow and orbit around Sunny near the end of the movie.

Themes/Message

This movie gave the common but highly relevant and important messages of how stoking fear, controlling narratives, and prejudice can damage nations; and how simply being open-minded, objective-based and hopefully seeking the truth from historical research and simply holding assumption-free, good, insightful conversations can lead to unity, friendship, and love between each other. And it's the key reason I love it; it serves as a joyful and positive escape from reality whilst retaining a level of familiarity and universally relatable realism.

Sunny's haphazard attempt at trying to convince the residents of Maretime Bay of her beliefs and ideals was a big disappointment, but also a good reminder for many Gen Zers on how not to convey a message. Don't come off as being pleading or preachy, and definitely don't crash an event that is promoting the opposing ideas. You're only going to make a fool of yourself and drive people (er, ponies) away from listening to you.