Movie Re-Review: A New Generation · 6:40pm November 9th
So it is that we bring this re-review session to an end with a look back at what is now the start of what may go down in history as one of the worst follies ever committed by a company, a generation of a popular IP brand so bad that it may have singlehandedly brought the company down with it. Three years after this movie first debuted, G5 has come and gone with two vastly different series, tie in comics, and even two shovelware video games, all of which landed with very little impact, and ultimately led to Hasbro pulling the plug all together. This movie itself, however, is quite interesting. Not only do we know now of a planned different draft for it that would've focused on lighthouses across Equestria, but we also know from leaks that it started life as a planned direct G4 continuation that was to focus on the following locations: Ponyville, Cloudsdale, and the Everfree Forest. All of this was under the initial leadership of then Hasbro president Brian Gold, who had big plans for G5, but sadly would not live to see them executed since he was forced to step aside as a result of cancer and this would be the last thing he would ever work on before his death just a few weeks after this film's original release. As for who wrote it, we have an interesting list. G. M. Berrow, who went on to work on "Make Your Mark" is the only G4 veteran to be attached to this project. The other writers are Robert Cullen, the founder of Boulder Media (the studio tapped for "Make Your Mark", which was already in pre-production at the time of this film's release), Jose L Ucha who created the first ever European anime, and Tim Sullivan whose previous work included live action movies. Aside from Robert, none of these names had any experience with animation. Still, this movie was originally all set and ready to come out in theaters in 2020, and then Covid hit and the plans got scrambled. Ultimately, a year later, Netflix picked up the movie and debuted it, and this was actually part of an agreement with the man who replaced Brian Gold to have Netflix cover the entire cost of the movie. It seems to have worked out, this movie was in the top ten kids movies of Netflix when it premiered three years ago. But now that the luster has worn off, does this movie still hold up? Well, let's find out.
The movie actually opens up with a fully animated cameo by the mane six (but not Spike), and they're all fully voiced. I know that there's now A.I. technology that can imitate voice artists, but the voices here sound too authentic to have been A.I. As far as I know, they actually bothered to lure back Andrea Libman, Ashliegh Ball, and Tabitha St. Germain to record with Tara Strong (the movie uses LA based voice acting, but the two series would shift the voice acting pool to apparently Toronto). However, it soon turns out to actually be children playing with dolls/action figures. And it's here we meet our first two main characters: Sunny Starscout and Hitch Trailblazer, along with what will end up being the main antagonist in the form of Sprout (who would later be revealed to have the last name Cloverleaf). And Sprout portrays the unicorns and pegasi as evil, much to Sunny's protests about how that's not what happened under Twilight.
Hitch tries to play peacemaker, pointing out that the earth ponies are taught what Sprout is saying, but suggesting they can play the way Sunny wants them to play. Meanwhile, we're introduced to Sunny's father, Argyle, who seems to be something of a professor or scholar. And then we are introduced to Sprout's mother, Phyllis, who also appears to pick up Hitch and expresses her dismay about Sprout "trotting off without my permission", before scolding Argyle for alledgedly "brainwashing" the children, to which Argyle retorts that it is merely "research" and says that "brainwashing" is Phyllis' department.
As Phyllis leads the two colts away, Sprout boasts about becoming sheriff someday and keeping everypony in line, to which Phyilis smiles and admits she's fond of the idea. Whether this is meant to explain why Sprout is working with Hitch once Hitch becomes the sheriff is unclear. I should mention that the discarded draft called for Sprout to be Sunny's boss, and he was ultimately going to kick her out of Maretime Bay after her job related to Maretime's Bay lighthouse would cause it to shut off. The discarded draft also had Argyle as more of a doomsday proclaimer, and in that draft he was apparently voiced by Jim Cummings and was even supposedly going to get his own song. No word on whether Jim was just a placeholder, or if Jim backed out or was unavailable, because Argyle here is voiced by Michael McKean. Anyway, Argyle comforts Sunny and reassures her that pegasi and unicorns can be friends with earth ponies. Then he lets Sunny dress up as an alicorn and helps her send a message in a paper lantern inviting the unicorns and pegasi to Maretime Bay. We go on to see that Argyle has quite the collection of G4 historic artifacts, all tied back to his "research". Then, after he says goodnight to Sunny, we cut to Sunny waking up as a full grown mare, with the implication being that Argyle is dead. He basically got the Bambi's mom treatment.
Sunny is now living alone in the lighthouse in Maretime Bay. But she has big plans for today, as she straps on her rollerskates and sets off as we get her I want song in the form of "Today's Gonna Be My Day". It's alright, but the big problem I have with all of the songs in this movie is that they all kind of sound the same, kind of modern pop esque And in terms of an I want song, it doesn't tell us anything we don't already know about Sunny. In fact, it really seems to hammer home the political undertones when Sunny sings about not building walls, and complains about children being taught to hate. It's as subtle as a brick, and not a very comfortable undertone given how divided people are nowadays.
When the song ends, Sunny strolls right up to a place called Canterlogic, which is the business Phyllis runs. The company manufactures products that are designed to protect earth ponies from pegasi and unicorns. We now learn that Hitch is the sheriff, and Sprout is working as Hitch's deputy. Specifically, Hitch tasked Sprout with keeping an eye on Sunny (we saw him in the background during "Today's Gonna Be My Day"). And we see that Hitch and Sunny have their own secret handshake (or hoofshake I suppose you could call it) of sorts, playing on the puns with their names (hitching a horse or wagon to a post, and flipping an egg sunny side up). Hitch also exposits that he's responsible for maintaining peace and security, and every year he tries specifically to stop Sunny from breaking in to Canterlogic during their demonstration. Sprout even points out that Phyllis had Sunny banned from the property. However, when Hitch goes to scold somepony else for literring, Sunny tricks Sprout and slips away. However, during the demonstration, we see that Canterlogic's products don't really work as intended, and actually seem to be putting the ponies who use them in danger. It's meant to be funny, but given the utterly terrified looks on ponies' face (particularly from one unfortunate pony who gets tied to a bunch of ballons and floats away) it betrays the golden rule of slapstick: Making the pain cartoonish and over the top.
Yet Phyllis doesn't seem even the least bit concerned about what happens to her "volunteers", which I guess is supposed to be a commentary on the ones who profit off of fear and divison. From there, Sunny crashes the demonstration and tries to give her speech to the crowd. But not only does the crowd not listen, Sunny ends up in danger from one of the products, and the ones overseeing it can't shut it down. It's up to Hitch to literally pull the plug and rescue Sunny. Then afterwards, he scolds her for having broken so many bylaws. He isn't just interested in telling Sunny off, though. He indicates that he does want to believe her statements, but he's not going to change his mind on a dime. He believes that everything Argyle researched was just a fairytale, or something that happened a long time ago. It's a good way of showing that he's firm but fair, he doesn't want to be the bad guy, but his job requires him to uphold the law. It's the textbook example of "Lawful Good", a hero who believes in doing the right thing, but isn't willing to break or bend the law to do so, and a hero who believes in respecting the authority of others and following orders. Of course, as history can attest, following orders is no excuse when you know they're wrong. But again, in life, there are few absolutes. Anyway, just as Hitch gets done scolding Sunny, a unicorn by the name of Izzy Moonbow shows up in Maretime Bay and causes a panic.
Interestingly, while Sprout immediately jumps into one of the anti-unicorn traps and gets stuck, Phyllis is seen actually manning the defenses around Canterlogic, suggesting that she really does believe the harmful stereotypes she peddles and at least cares about protecting her town. Ultimately, Izzy gets trapped in a box designed specifically to seal away a unicorn, but Sunny deactivates the trap despite Hitch warning her not to, and she and Izzy flee back to the lighthouse as Izzy at first is blissfully unaware of the danger she's in.
Once safely back at the lighthouse, Sunny starts bombarding Izzy with questions, mostly about what it's like to have and to be able to do magic. But Izzy reveals that she actually doesn't have any magic, she can only use her horn to do things like poke holes in a can of beans. As Sunny speculates about this development, Hitch and Sprout show up and basically give Sunny the "We have you surrounded" treatment. Izzy insists on going out to talk to them, and Sunny has to ultimately drag Izzy away as the two flee from Maretime Bay all together. Afterwards, Izzy reveals that she was taught that earth ponies smell like rotten sardines, and is surprised to find out that's not true. They then decide to journey together to find and restore magic to the land, as we get the song "I'm looking out for you", cementing the two's friendship and more or less embracing their outlaw status.
Back at the sheriff's office, Hitch quickly takes it upon himself to go after Sunny and Izzy. He tries to get Sprout to come along with him, but Sprout deliberately messes up his desk and then claims he's too busy with paperwork to go. Hitch decides not to call Sprout's bluff and sets off alone, though not before telling Sprout to "not start a riot" while he's away. Take a wild guess what Sprout's gonna do as a result.
Eventually, Sunny and Izzy make their way into the mountains, and Izzy reveals that she can detect a pony's "liuminsicence", or their "sparkle". From there, they make their way up to the top of the mountains, and are suddenly greeted by a pegasus named Zipp. Whilst Sunny and Izzy are terrified of Zipp, Zipp seems fascinated by the two. Then, when she hears guards approaching, she disappears and pleads with Sunny and Izzy not to tell anyone they saw her. We then meet the royal guards Thunder Flap and Zoom Zephyrwing, with the latter actually being voiced by G. M. Berrow herself (Rob actually cameos in this movie too). They quick place Sunny and Izzy under arrest, and place a tennis ball on Izzy's horn to stop her from using magic. They immediately take the two to the royal palace, as Sunny and Izzy discover the mountaintop city of Zephyr Heights, which is basically like every big city you've ever seen in fiction: Flashing neon-signs, billboards, lots of shops all clustered together, that sort of thing. There's also giant t.v. screens, and it's here that we are indirectly introduced to Pipp Petals, a popstar and a social media influencer. What might be most interesting to note is that she has a more pudgy design and smaller, fluffier wings. Pipp, however, was originally planned to be an antagonist too, and likely a major villain. Zipp and Hitch would've joined Izzy and Sunny on a heist related to Zephyr Heights' lighthouse, and Pipp as queen would've been trying to stop them. No word on if Zipp and Pipp would've been related at that point or not. Still, it's interesting that Hasbro would go back to the stereotype of the evil queen, even though Celestia and Luna were meant to be queens originally.
Sunny, meanwhile, is busy bombarding the guards with questions about what it's like to fly. This points to a flaw about Sunny that the movie doesn't seem to want to address: Sunny seems much more interested in the what rather than the who when it comes to pegasi and unicorns. It unintentionally creates what's known as a "White Savior Complex", the idea that marginalized or oppressed groups are incapable of protecting themselves and need someone not oppressed or marginalized to fight for them. And for a movie that's supposedly trying to teach that racism and prejudice are wrong, for Sunny not to be called out on this is a very glaring flaw that undercuts the message. Disney's Zootopia got it right in 2016 by having Judy Hopps confront her own subconscious racism and prejudice, so there's zero reason this movie couldn't do the same. Anyway, Sunny and Izzy are brought into the royal palace, and it's there that they meet Queen Haven, who is the mother of both Zipp and Pipp. Queen Haven quickly views Sunny and Izzy as a threat, and orders them to be thrown in the dungeon. She even steals Sunny's journal that belonged to her father, even though she has no reason to do so other than because potatoes. Give Queen Novo credit, she was given more of a credible reason to be suspicious and not trusting of outsiders.
We then cut back to Maretime Bay as Phyllis shows up to the sheriff's office, only to find that Hitch is not there. Sprout is in charge, and he's complaining about Hitch being so much better than him and going off alone to save the day. But this joke falls flat since we saw Sprout deliberately weasel his way out of going with Hitch. Anyway, Phyllis convinces Sprout to take Hitch's place, and exploit the townsponies' fears. Sprout does so, and this leads into the song "Angry Mob" (also called "Danger, Danger") as Sprout whips Maretime Bay into a frenzy, officially establishing himself as a villain.
Meanwhile, Hitch has managed to track down Sunny and Izzy almost singlehoofedly. Yet it isn't until he sees an image of them being captured (thanks to Pipp livestreaming it) that he realizes where they are. As for Sunny and Izzy, the holding cell in the dungeon they're in is actually rather lavish, even having a massage chair. Zipp then shows up, having swiped Sunny's journal from Queen Haven, and gives it back to Sunny as she mentions being "pretty sneak", whilst Izzy jokes about being "medium sneaky". This is likely a reference to the original draft, in which Izzy was meant to be a thief. Anyway, before Zipp can really talk to the prisoners, Pipp shows up (even having two other pegasi literally roll out a red carpet). She scolds Zipp for talking to the prisoners when Queen Haven warned them to "stay away". But Sunny questions Pipp about why only the royal family seems to be able to fly and why they're not teaching it to their subjects. Pipp insists that they would help their subjects if they could, but flying is something only the royal family is capable of. Zipp reacts with visible disgust the whole time, and waits for Pipp to leave before springing Sunny and Izzy and taking them down to a subterrianian area. It's there that she reveals that actually the royal family can't fly either, they just use wires (which somehow were hidden from view when Sunny and Izzy were in the throne room). And what Zipp was doing earlier was in fact acrobatics and parkour.
It's also revealed that the place Zipp is in used to be a station for zeppelins, and that she is fascinated and intrigued by posters of the Wonderbolts. Basically, she's your typical rebellious princess like Aireal or Jasmine, fed up with living a sheltered life and fascinated by the outside world. Then she shows off a stained glass window that depicts crystals for both the pegasi and the unicorns, deducing that the crystals hold all the magic. As it turns out, the pegasus crystal is part of the crown that Queen Haven wears, and she never takes it off no matter what (even going so far as to shower and swim with it). Rather than just have Zipp swipe the crown whilst Queen Haven is asleep and sneak out of the palace, Sunny and Izzy decide to steal the crown during Pipp's upcoming concert, taking advantage of Queen Haven supposedly being distracted (nevermind all the watching eyes that might be able to see the theft). And to that end, Izzy crafts a convincing fake crown, which makes you wonder why they again don't just switch it for the real crown when Queen Haven is asleep since Zipp by herself wouldn't attract suspicion. Maybe this was all a way to salvage the planned heist when Pipp was meant to be the evil queen, but if so why then did they make Pipp only indirectly part of the plan?
So the concert gets underway, with Queen Haven revealing that Pipp blabbed about Zipp going to see the prisoners. Yet Queen Haven isn't concerned, and also has no qualms about lying to her subjects. She expresses her desire for Zipp to open up to her more, but Zipp again expresses disgust with having to live a lie, making you wonder why she doesn't just abandon Zephyr Heights, blow the whistle, and leave Haven and Pipp to deal with the fallout if she's so fed up with it all? We already saw that she's been sneaking out of Zephyr Heights on her own without anyone finding out, so it's not like it would be difficult for her to do it again if she had to. Anyway, the concert gets underway, and during we have Pipp's song called "Glowin' Up". Interestingly, it contains the line "We don't fly like we used to", which is basically hiding the secret of the royal family in plain sight (you'd be surprised how much that actually works in real life). The heist initially goes as planned, until Hitch shows up and tries to arrest Sunny and Izzy (even though he's no longer in Maretime Bay and thus has no authority). Hitch's presence puts a crimp in the plan, especially once Cloudpuff (the dog) takes a liking to Hitch (they joked earlier about him being a critter magnet). Ultimately, Sunny, Izzy, Zipp, and even Hitch are forced to bail. And in the process, they inadvertently expose the royal family's secret.
In the aftermath, Sunny questions why Hitch followed her in the first place, to which Hitch claims he was both trying to arrest her and trying to save her. Zipp retorts that they didn't need rescuing, and Hitch reveals that he wasn't aware of Zipp being royalty. It's only then that the gang realize they lost the crown and the pegasus crystal due to the confusion. But then Pipp shows up out of the blue with the crystal in tow, angrily berating Zipp for ruining her concert, and shows that Queen Haven got arrested for "being a phoney pony full of baloney." And in her arrest video, she pleads with Zipp and Pipp to run away and save themselves. Yet we'll never actually get to see how the group escape Zephyr Heights, thus denying us a chance to see Pipp contribute to the group.
Instead, we cut back to Maretime Bay as Sprout has now converted Canterlogic into a factory to build a secret weapon. And Sprout has crowned himself the emperor (even though it's not clear what sort of government Maretime Bay has, Ponyville at least had a mayor). Phyllis, for her part, seems surprised that Sprout is taking this so seriously, and for the first time she seems to have regrets about what she's done. Granted, not enough regret to actually try to shut down the project. She just lets Sprout keep working on his secret weapon. Next, we have a campfire scene as Hitch takes a while to warm up to the pegasi and to Izzy. And Izzy reveals that she came to Maretime Bay because of the message in Sunny's lantern that she got years ago. Then, the next day we have something of an argument between Zipp and Pipp as Izzy leads the group to her home, Pipp complaining about whether Sunny can be trusted and revealing that she doesn't exactly trust Zipp because of how her actions got Queen Haven arrested. While this is going on, we get a funny background event as Izzy clearly uses her horn like a woodpecker in order to cut down a huge tree to use as a bridge.
Izzy takes the others to her cottage inside of a tree and reveals a tea set she crafted herself, the implication being that Izzy never had friends growing up (unlike Pinkie Pie, who clearly had friends as a child and not just imaginary ones). Then, so as to avoid raising suspicion, she decides to craft fake unicorn horns for all of her friends. And this leads into the song "Fit Right In", which is a bit odd since we had a FiM song from Season 9 titled exactly the same thing. Anyway, when the song ends, Izzy reveals that the unicorns of Bridlewood are all mopey and gloomy, Bridlewood appears to lack electricity or anything modern. And the unicorns are also superstituious about certain words. If they're uttered, the unicorns have to perform an entire dance routine to ward off what Izzy calls "The Jinxies". From there, she takes them to see what I assume is an old scholar of some sort within a place called The Enchanted Tea Room. But he reveals that he lost the unicorn crystal to the tea shop's owner, Alphabittle, who really likes to play games. In fact, his favorite game involves a glorified rubix cube, and he tasks ponies with trying to solve it before time runs out. If they can't, he takes something from them to display on his shelf. This appears to include a pacifier, suggesting he either beat a baby at something, or accepted a pacifier as payment from somepony else.
Sunny, undeterred, goes up to challenge Alphabittle after ordering "Tea, hold the milk" (which is treated like a very strong drink). She wagers the pegasus crystal in exchange for the unicorn one, the winner gets to keep both. But instead of solving the puzzle cube, Alphabittle breaks out a dance machine where whoever wins the best out of three wins the contest. He then taunts Sunny and says that since he's so good, he only has to beat her once to be able to win the whole thing. Interestingly, the song that plays on the machine is "Glowin' Up", and it's not the only time it'll be recycled in this movie.
Sunny loses the first two rounds, but then Pipp briefly encourages Sunny to "feel the rhytm", and Sunny manages to win the third and final round. It's been confirmed that originally Alphabittle was going to take on all five members of the group, and Pipp was going to be the one to win the final round against him. I have no idea why they didn't keep that in, other than because I guess they felt Sunny hadn't done enough already despite literally being the main character. If we'd gotten to see how Pipp helped the group escape Maretime Bay, then it wouldn't be so jarring. But alas, Pipp isn't able to get any big moment of contribution on-screen, and feels more like deadweight than anything. Anyway, Alphabittle immediately acts like a sore loser and claims the loss doesn't count. Then he inadvertently discovers that Sunny, Hitch, Zipp, and Pipp are not actually unicorns. Hitch, however, defuses the tensions by exploiting "The Jinxies" to allow the group to slip away.
They don't get far, however, before they're cornered by Queen Haven (who is on the run) and the guards sent to capture her. To make matters worse, Alphabittle and all the unicorns show up. And Alphabittle acts as if he's already aware of who Queen Haven is or has a prior history with her, even though there's no in-universe reason as to how or why the two would've ever met even briefly. He also bluffs about using his "powers" against Queen Haven, and she throws it right back at him by claiming "I'd like to see you try!". However, Sunny breaks up the argument and asks to be allowed to put the crystals together so magic can be brought back. When she then puts the two crystals together, however, nothing happens. And what does Sunny do as a result? She immediately gives up, abandons all of her friends (Hitch included), and walks back to Maretime Bay in a state of depression. She never once considers that the gap between the crystals could indicate the presence of a third (let alone how weird it is that the earth ponies don't have one even though they once lived alongside the pegasi and the unicorns and once had magic of their own).
For some reason, Alphabittle and Queen Haven follow after Sunny because Izzy, Zipp, and Pipp are going after her (even though you'd expect Pipp at least to want to go back with Queen Haven even if they're still fugitives). The two leaders plead with the others to return home, and briefly argue like an old married couple when Alphabittle interrupts Queen Haven. But the real development is that Sunny and Hitch find out that Sprout has turned Maretime Bay into something of a police state, with himself as the emperor. This apparently draws inspiration from a real life South American military coup where a guy who got drafted into last minute ended up believing he was the rightful ruler and basically got drunk on his own power. However, even during this ominous development, they still treat Sprout like a joke. As for his secret weapon, it turns out to be Sprouticus Maximus.
However, leaks confirm that the mecha was originally going to be called Roverleaf and was designed to look like a giant robotic version of Phyllis. This could suggest that Phyllis was going to be the antagonist, which would fit in with how much more present she seemed early on. But Sprout disregards Sunny and Hitch telling him that the pegasi and the unicorns are friends, and sics Sproticus Maximums on them, driving like a glorified truck or tank. Sunny retreats to the lighthouse, and by chance discovers the earth pony crystal hidden inside a lantern her father made for her as a child. But Sprout and his mech are hot on Sunny's heels, and even Phyllis can no longer get him to see reason. So Zipp and Hitch try to stop Sprout by bringing down his new mech from inside, whilst Sunny, Izzy, and Pipp try to assemble the crystals into a conveniently revealed stand within the lighthouse. Ultimately, however, Sprout succeeds in badly damaging the lighthouse, and the crystals are ejected from the stand they were supposed to fit into. Then and only then does Sprout see the folly of his ways, if only because he just destroyed public property (and something that could be vital to Maretime Bay given what lighthouses are supposed to do). As for Sunny, she sits on the grounds with a broken framed picture of her and her father, and tearfully states how she just wanted to bring ponies together and end all the hatred and divison. This is enough to convince the three leaders to put the picture back together, and when they do the magic starts to return and Sunny magically transforms into an alicorn as a result. Even with the later revelation that this is actually just a superpowered hybrid state and not a permanent change, it still feels very sudden and undeserved.
And from there, we cut to a day or so later with Sunny's new friends all celebrating with her as magic returns to Equestria. Meanwhile, Sprout asks Phyllis if he was a good sheriff, and Phyllis ducks the issue by instead highlighting the return of the pony tied to all those balloons. Then the movie ends with what the three ponies who would come on to become the Pippsqueaks running and laughing as they leave behind glowing rainbow footprints. Apparently, they had planned to include a scene of the brighthouse being built to replace the lighthouse, but they "ran out of time" to work that in, causing the brighthouse to just pop up out of nowhere in "Make Your Mark" ("Tell Your Tale" sort of implies that Sunny and her friends decided to build it together). And I find that highly questionable, how could such an important detail not have been included from the start? The movie even got an extra year in development because of Covid, how could after all of that they could not find time to fit in a scene of the brighthouse being built or even just alluding to it? Give the 2017 FiM movie credit, it at least wrapped up all its important plot points without leaving anything significant unresolved.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the movie? Well, it is interesting to look back on it in light of all that G5 did and failed to do. In hindsight, opening up with a cameo by the mane six was a bad move, and one that foreshadowed G5's biggest issue: Piggybacking on nostalgia for G4 rather than trying to forge its own identity first, and ultimately contradicting a lot of the lore that G4 established (some of which they weren't even allowed access to because of licensing agreements and copyright issues with Discovery Family). And like the 2017 movie, the knowledge of what we could've gotten sounds better than what we ended up getting, which feels like it exists in a far safer, less risk-taking environment. It's unclear if those changes were made after Brian Gold had to step aside, or if Brian himself decided the original draft about lighthouses wasn't a good direction. I will say that compared to the 2017 movie it doesn't feel like stupidity from the characters drives the plot as much, and Hitch and Izzy in particular were really well written. For Hitch to be a well written male character in a primarily female oriented product in 2021 is an amazing sign of progress, much better than when the Barbie movie decided to demonize Ken and make him the bad guy. Even Zipp at times was intriguing and engaging. And I think it's saying something that the characters carried the story more than the setting or the worldbuilding. That's not to say all the worldbuilding was bad, even knowing that it evolved from a direct continuation of FiM, Maretime Bay and Zephyr Heights felt like unique locations ripe for further exploration, they felt vibrant and full of life. Bridlewood, on the other hand, got the short end of the stick as just a typical enchanted forest. And compared to Make Your Mark, the CGI animation here is very well done, likely helped by having a bigger budget and a longer timeframe, on top of having a proven animation studio behind it. There's definitely an intriguing mystery about how G4 could become G5, and with the time frame appearing to be about 100 or so years after the end of FiM, it's enough of a gap to believe that something could've happened to cause Equestria to change and ponies to become divided. Time makes all things possible. Even the Holy Roman Empire, the British Empire, or the Ottoman Empire which lasted for centuries eventually broke up and faded away.
But Sunny herself as a main character is problematic, largely because she never expresses even a hint of regret or remorse about what her actions cause. Even as the chaotic good to Hitch's lawful good, Sunny sets a bad example and suffers heavily from protagonist centered morality. She never has to confront her own prejudices or beliefs, and never gets called out for caring more about the what rather than the who. It's not a condescending or even an intentional flaw, I get the feeling that she truly does mean well. And if you want to have a flawed hero who's not so squeaky clean, there's nothing wrong with that. You just need to show that your hero does care about others and can be made aware of when they screw up. And I don't get that sort of feeling with Sunny, and neither do I feel like all her victories are well earned. If anything, the entire group seems to survive mostly on luck, especially when Sunny never stops to consider there might be a third crystal and just gives up as soon as putting the two crystals together doesn't work. And Pipp is utterly useless, all her big contributions are off-screen. You could write her out and nothing of substance would be lost. Even the villains don't feel very threatening. Queen Haven presumably was a way to salvage the original plans for Pipp, but she never would've even put herself in the position of being exposed had she just sent Sunny and Izzy away instead of throwing them in the dungeon. And Alphabittle, who was originally going to be a blind and eccentric unicorn living alone in a cave, turned into a generic and forgettable bully, more of a glorified roadblock than an actual threat. My guess is that they changed him because they didn't want Izzy's personality and eccentricity to feel less special, but considering they went on to make Alphabittle a father figure to Izzy, I don't see why they couldn't have just made him the Yoda expy as originally planned.
And as for Sprout, I cannot take him seriously at all, not even when he crowns himself emperor. He feels like a joke that takes too long to get to the predictable punch-line. Contrast that to Starlight Glimmer, who FiM demonstrated was still a threat even when she was overthrown, rightfully revealing that even a dethroned leader drunk on their own hype is still dangerous and that it doesn't always end when you topple them (you have to then deal with the resulting power vaccum). They obviously wanted to salvage their original plans of him being Sunny's boss, which likely would've made him the final big bad. But when they decided on have the mecha be a robotic Phyllis originally, they should've switched to making Phyllis the main antagonist, given how she is much more vocally opposed to everything Sunny stands for. There are good moments sprinkled throughout this movie, even if the overall story and pacing leave a lot to be desired. The intriguing mystery that this movie teased does still hold up, because at the time it was open to interpretation, and wasn't implied to just be the result of this one pony who somehow accomplished what even the Legion of Doom could not. So ultimately, I give this movie a narrow B-. I still prefer the 2017 movie over this movie for two reasons: First and foremost, the 2017 FiM movie was a traditionally animated movie in a day and age were such films are almost non-existent (it took until 2023 for Disney to go back to their roots with Wish). And second, that movie offers more of an escape from reality, showing that it's not wrong to be optimistic and hopeful even if the world around you seems depressing and cynical, that being cruel yourself won't change the world. And it's been said that people watch movies and consume fictional media to escape reality, not be reminded of it (which is why The Wizard of Oz was so popular during the Great Depression), whereas this movie, especially early on, reminds me all too painfully of the reality we now live in. This is still the best thing G5 ever did, but it's really saying something when it can't pass for anything other than the narrowest definition of good. Perhaps if the same care and concern that went into making this movie had gone into G5 as a whole, G5 would not have failed. As it is, we can only speculate on what could've been.
And that brings this second re-review session to a close. Maybe next year I'll pick up where I left off in 2020 with re-reviews of all the IDW comics, but we'll just have to see. In the meantime, expect a journal sometime before the end of this month where I sum up my overall opinion on G5 and where it all went wrong.
I still love this movie.
My big issue with G5 as a whole (besides the Netflix schedule) is that it tried to be both a sequel to G4 and its own thing, and ended up in this weird middle ground.
It either needed to be closer to the original in time or just be its own thing completely.
5814978 Well said. And I'd argue that, given the restrictions imposed on it as a G4 follow-up, it would've been better off blazing its own path. The fact that it refused to do so indicates that Hasbro had no confidence in any MLP brand to be successful without baiting G4 fans with nostalgia. But as G5's failings attest, nostalgia alone is not enough, empty nostalgia doesn't make your product any better, it just makes what you're drawing from feel less special.
I will always love generation 5 no matter who says about it I will love it till the end of time and I really love pipp petals.
Wish wasn't a hand drawn movie, that was still CGI animated.
5814989 True, but it was a 2D animated movie, not a 3D one. It's probably as close as we're gonna get to that ever again, I don't foresee hand drawn animation making a comeback.
I agree, and I know for a fact MasterCode Ace Analyst would as well. In fact, he and Star Strike did a two-part review earlier this year going over all their problems with Make Your Mark.
As for me, if I could use one word to describe MYM, it would be lazy. I know I've mentioned this before in one of your reviews, but I think the best way to sum up the stories in MYM is what former Youtuber Jem Reviews said in the fourth part of his Seasonal Review on SpongeBob SquarePants Season 7:
That irked me a bit too, which is why I chose to incorporate it as a character flaw in my own writing that Sunny has to actively work against.
5815006 Hey, it's better than what they ended up actually doing with her: Nothing of substance.
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Which is a crying shame, as the fanbase found mountains to work with.
5815008 Again, when the fans can come up with better ideas than the actual showrunners, you know you have a problem.
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I'm confused, I thought 2D was the same as hand drawn animation? I thought CGI was 3D animation? What's the difference between 2D and outright hand drawn?
Before G5 was cancelled, i was thinking of a second movie set in it, only this one is released theatrically. Plus, it would use the same animation style as the 2017 film and Rainbow Roadtrip.
Although, the plot is more or less similar to the 2017 film, however, it would be much, much darker in tone (but not to dark, cuz its a kids movie). I even made a movie cast for it.
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To reply to a couple of other things in the review:
The South American leader you were thinking of was Augusto Pinochet, who led the coup to overthrow Salvador Allende. Like Sprout, absolute power turned him into a control freak, and during his 17 year reign of terror his regime tortured and murdered thousands of people. And like Sprout, big business had his back the entire time.
Your commentary on Zipp was interesting. Though your suggestion she leave raises an obvious question; if she leaves, where would she go? As far as we can tell Zephyr Heights is the only major pegasus population centre, and she'd be unwelcome in the other cities. I also think that the reason she never exposed what was going on was out of concern for her family; I know her relationship with her mother was strained, but her reaction to Queen Haven being arrested and later being reunited with her suggests a reasonable level of affection.
Pipp desperately needed more characterisation, and she's the closest the film has to a flat character. Thankfully, MYM and TYT both address this.
Am I alone in thinking Argyle being dead was a poor writing decision? I think having him still be around would have been far more interesting.
5815086 Pipp got a little bit of development in the two cartoon shows, but not nearly enough. Her development was mostly nibbling around the edges.
Those are some interesting points about Zipp, but given how utterly fed up and disgusted she looks and seems with the lies, it strikes me as odd that she supposedly never even considers running away before meeting Sunny and Izzy.
For me, “My Little Pony: A New Generation” is quite honestly perhaps the worst animated film of 2021, and I still think that even after all these years! Aside from its over-reliance on G4 Easter eggs, the entirety of the film’s story was largely uninspired, unoriginal, and uncreative. The film as a whole felt like a ripoff of several Disney films, borrowing plot points from “Raya and the Last Dragon”, “Moana”, “Zootopia”, “Pocahontas”, and “Encanto”, with the “Danger, Danger” song basically being an annoying jazzy version of “Be Prepared” from “The Lion King”. I can’t even understand how G5 is connected to G4 no matter how much I try.
There are many reasons for why I myself think the 2017 MLP film is better, that’s for sure. I mean, it does share a similar style to films from the Disney Renaissance, but yet…you could easily tell it was trying to be something entirely its own, just like Dreamworks’ “The Prince of Egypt” and Don Bluth’s “Anastasia”.
I agree, and what really doesn’t help is that Ken Jeong’s performance as the character further added onto how annoying Sprout was. And the most saddening thing is that these factors regarding Sprout ultimately rubbed off onto every G5 villain succeeding him, because just like Sprout, Posey Bloom, Opaline Arcana, and Allura were basically nothing more than one-dimensional jokes who neither grew as characters or proved why they should be taken seriously.
Heck, despite the Storm King not having much screentime in the 2017 film, he actually gives a reason for people to get hooked on him and proves himself to be far from a mere joke.
5815131 Allura at least looked and felt like a credible threat in her debut. The problem is that with MYM cancelled, she got shoved into TYT which did nothing with her until almost the end, and then opted to pull the "Not evil, just misunderstood" trope that did not fit her character at all. Plus, even with the need for a sidekick, I fail to see what she needed Twitch for. Twitch couldn't do anything Allura couldn't do by herself.
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I agree with you on that.
Of course, what really doesn’t help Allura on top of this is her apparent lack of intelligence, because there were several things involving the character that made her seem…idiotic, so to speak.
Do you think that if Tell Your Tale had never been cancelled, the ponies would have eventually learned about Allura's motives and helped her get home? And maybe even the possibility of Sunny's mother still being alive somewhere and exploring Skyros?
5818585 Possibly, but that seems more like what was planned for the scrapped second season of Make Your Mark that Tell Your Tale was never told about.
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I really was hoping that they would at least try to wrap those two plots before pulling the plug. I have a headcanon that Sunny's mother encountered Opaline during her journey, and the latter imprisoned her somewhere (possibly in Skyros) to keep her from interfering with her plans.