MLP: The Movie review/critique

Here’s a review of My Little Pony: The Movie, in my own words.

1. The theater experience. I saw it at 2:05 on Columbus Day at a theater not in my hometown. Sue me for wanting to keep my brony status on the down-low. About a dozen people were in the theater, of which I was the lone “unaccompanied adult.” Was I slightly uncomfortable? Yes, but I got over it. The kids were pretty good at not making too much noise. The nachos were OK.

2. Previews. They were mostly forgettable, as in I forgot them a few seconds after they ended. Ferdinand looked sort-of cute, though.

Now, onto the main event.

First off, can the rest of the run of the show be in Toon Boom? It’s absolutely gorgeous, and it only took a few minutes for me to forget about the style difference between the TV show and the movie. I’d compare it to driving a domestic car for several years, then getting to slip behind the wheel of a luxury automobile. You don’t know what you’re missing until you’ve seen the superior stuff.

Don’t get me wrong. DHX has done a tremendous job stretching Flash beyond what I thought it capable of doing. Toon Boom’s just better.

So, it kicks off with Twilight organizing a Friendship Festival gathering ponies from all over Equestria. Several fan favorites appear in the background, and I’m not going to take time to name them all. Suffice it to say the only one I would’ve liked to see, but didn’t, was Sunset Shimmer. Ah, well.

Twilight’s in full adorkable mode while asking the rest of the princesses to literally move the sun and moon to make her holiday extra-special.

Then, everything goes to Tartarus.

The Storm Troopers land, led by Tempest Shadow, the right-hoof unicorn to a new big baddie named The Storm King. Broken horn and all, she kicks the flanks of 3-out-of-4 princesses. Celestia tells Luna before being frozen in carbonite crystal to “fly past The Badlands to the Queen of the Hippo —”, but Luna’s also frozen. The Mane 6 plus Spike manage to escape via near-death fall, beginning the best part of the movie – the chase.

One nitpick about the desert scene. Spike literally took a belly flop into molten lava years ago. Desert heat should be slightly uncomfortable at best to a dragon.

I liked Taye Diggs’ Capper, who may have had the best solo song in the movie. The Pirate Parrots, led by Zoe Saldana’s Captain Celaeno, were all right, and Princess Skystar, played by Kristin Chenoweth, though a bit hyper, was cute.

Of all the ponies to play second lead to Twilight, I never expected Pinkie Pie.

I can’t have been the only one screaming internally during the hippogriff sequence, “No. No, Twilight. TWILIGHT STAHP!”

I give lots of credit to the writers for slamming the mood down to the ground after the Mane 6+1 got booted from Queen Novo’s pad. That may be Andrea Libman’s best work as Pinkie Pie.

Tempest’s constant stalking was sufficiently terrifying for a G-to-PG film, but The Storm King himself was too goofy to be menacing – at least, until the climactic fight.

Kudos for bringing all the friends the ponies made along the way and melding them into a good ragtag band of heroes.

It’s about time someone weaponized Spike’s dragonfire.

Tempest’s heel-turn to the light side satisfied, and her ultimate sacrifice rang true. No saving telekinesis for crystallized Storm King, I guess.

Sia’s song was good, and I love that Tempest’s real name is Fizzlepop Berrytwist!

Overall, I liked this movie. Were there flaws? Sure. A weak main villain and an annoying henchman (Grubber) could be beefed up. Outside of Pinkie, the rest of the Mane 6 stayed too much in their wheelhouses (AJ = family, Dash = awesome, Rares = fashion, Shy = eep). The final battle could’ve been more epic. Some of the songs sounded an awful lot like songs from the show. Yet again, every princess not named Twilight Sparkle got taken down before she could even act.

Random thoughts: I see what you did there, Hasbro, with name-dropping one of your other properties – Hungry Hungry Hippos. I also caught the Transformers “transforming” noise when Grubber extended his megaphone-thing. According to IMDB, the movie will probably gross between $9-10 million in the U.S. over the extended holiday weekend. Will that be enough to convince Hasbro to attempt another MLP theatrical release?

Comments

[Twilight is the BEST]

What about the song...