My Little Pony: The Movie Review - Excitement Gallops and Shines in Theaters Worldwide

Finally, after waiting for a year or more (depending on when the news released to each person) the My Little Pony movie finally hit the theaters on October 6, 2017. What A fantastic movie I must say. I saw it the night before with a friend, and then saw it another 5-7 times with friends in our local state brony groups. After seeing it a few good times, I have an astounding blog review of the movie.

First, the brony fanbase has been waiting and requesting full pony movie for close to 3-4 years. When the announcement came across one of my social feeds about November/December 2016, I immediately got excited. A few reasons behind my excitement (even though it was about a year prior):

1. It was not a EQG/Equestria Girls movie announcement (I still fan over and love EQG 2: Rainbow Rocks, the music and story line was what caught my attention); This also being stated a wide range of bronies and pony fans were also wanting and anticipating a full pony feature film, other than EQG.

2. Every single generation of My Little Pony has had a movie made and produced, some more than 1 movie (Generation 4: Friendship is Magic is the longest running cartoon for the TV animated series); This being explained, it would also be a natural course of action for Hasbro and the MLP team of writers to produce a movie for the current generation ponies.

3. Last reason for now. The animation was in the style of the classic 2D movies that young adults like me at 25 (and a substantial amount of the fandom, some being up in their 30s and 40s) actually enjoyed watching. The TV series is ran by Flash 8 animation, excluding the musical shorts, which are still animated through DHX. The movie is animated through a program called Harmony (Which fits perfectly as the current TV series is based off the Elements of Harmony)

First, I want to take the time out and give small reviews on the writers/creators, actors, voice actresses, and the musical composer their respected credit for the movie. Of course, with this being a worldwide theatrical release, it was expected to have a few or more special guests and celebrities in the movie. Off the top, I want to give the first amount of credit to both Jayson Thiessen (Director) and Megan McCarthy (Main Writer) for giving this movie the story line and following through such an amazing experience that the movie held, and the direction it took. Next, I want to notice Daniel Ingram. Danny Ingram has been the TV series music composer for Friendship is Magic for the whole 7 seasons (and of course the EQG movies). The music was phenomenal and reached a new direction in the way the music was produced, and also sang by many different artists and groups. Which takes us into the next bit of credit for the musical artists and groups that helped Mr. Ingram in the music composing section and created original music for the soundtrack. Some of these artists include:

Sia
Palmer Reed
Lukas Graham
DNCE
ETC.

Of course a lot of the songs were also sang by the celebrities and the main cast. This takes us to my final credit given to the voice actors and actresses. Of course, a huge salute goes out to our mane 6 heroes of the TV series and that trusty little purple dragon. Along with our original cast, we also got some big name celebrities that were introduced to the magical world of Equestria. Here are those celebrities:

1. Uzo Aduba voice of Queen Novo (Well known from her roll in, Orange is the New Black)
2. Emily Blunt voice of Tempest Shadow (Known for her rolls in The Devil Wears Prada and Edge of Tomorrow)
3. Kristin Chenoweth voice of Princess Skystar (Known for her rolls in Rio 2 and The Peanuts Movie)
4. Taye Diggs Voice of Capper the Cat (Best known for his roll in Chicago)
5. Michael Pena voice of Grubber (Known for his rolls in Shooter and The Martian)
6. Zoe Saldana voice of Captain Celaeno (Well known for multiple rolls including Avatar, Gaurdians of the Galaxy, and Star Trek: Into Darkness)
7. Liev Schreiber voice of the Storm King (Best known for his rolls in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Salt)
8. Sia voice of Songbird Serenade (Best known for her hit music on the radio as a musical artist, she only had a few lines, primarily a singer pony)

that's a decent list of people, along with the music and story. All of the cast did a fantastic job with the voices and their characters in the movie. Now to get onto the more thorough part of this blog review. Starting from the top to the bottom, and some things that I was intrigued about throughout the viewings that I was apart of.

Starting off with the global market and how much money the movie has made. As of October 29, 2017 (Sunday), the box office in the United States and Canada has grossed 20 million dollars for the movie, and in other parts of the world and territories, a revenue of 23.3 million dollars, for a grand total worldwide of 43.3 million dollars. With all that money, Hasbro has no stop on pony, and a good reason to make a second movie potentially (Which was announced by Equestria Daily sometime mid-last week. Link: https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/10/possible-2nd-my-little-pony-movie-on-way.html). I hope to see a second movie/prequel to this movie.

Next, I want to tackle the animation. I love the short animation of the movie logo in the beginning (though I've heard a lot of confusion from the fandom regarding why we didn't have a more standard movie opening. What need was there for them to spend the extra money on that? Seriously, the movie is good enough with the standard credits at the end) the movie opens up in the skies above Equestria with an astonishing view of the clouds and 3 Pegasus ponies flying in, and taking us on a short, yet fast flight below the clouds and straight up to the great city and castle of Canterlot. It is apparent that some sort of celebration [Friendship Festival] was going on or being planned in Canterlot. The animation to the castle and city was astonishing to see, the colors and movie literally popped out from the screen, and just made me not take my eyes off the screen once. The physics of the ponies were also flawless with the wing movements, magic from the horns of ponies, and even the mane, tail, and overall body followed an in tune movement that was synced perfectly. The animation follows a classic 2D model, and reminds me at 25, just how that animation hooked me in different animated shows and movies growing up from the early 1990s (I was born 1992). The animation is one of the top reasons why this movie is actually worth seeing.

The story is 100% different from the actual TV series. To me and a few others that have seen the movie a couple of times as well, it almost feels like an 'extended episode' from one of the TV episodes. The main summary of the story from IMDB.com (Internet Movie Data-Base website) describes the movie:
"After a dark force conquers Canterlot, the Mane 6 embark on an unforgettable journey beyond Equestria where they meet new friends and exciting challenges on a quest to use the magic of friendship to save their homeland."
I like to dig deeper than what IMDB put as the official short synopsis online. The story follows many similar villains who try and rule Equestria with magic or dark power, however the way the writing went and the movie itself played out, it made it much more exciting than that of a standard episode villain, and either the mane 6, or some other ponies that are their friends defeating the darkness in a 30 minute time table. The movie follows a corrupt and hurt unicorn [who also has a broken horn (if she brings all 4 princesses to the Storm King, he promised her to fix her horn) from a past encounter when she was younger] named Tempest Shadow (In the end, she reveals her real name as Fizzlepop Berrytwist, kind of cute, right?) She, along with several other ponies and other creatures, have vowed to work for The Storm King. Based off of his name, you can kind of get the idea that he wants to control Equestria's Environment and rule over Equestria with the power. However, in order for him to obtain it, all 4 magical princesses must be caught and captured in order for the magic of his staff and stone to work. Tempest makes quick work of the invasion and turns 3 of the 4 princess (Cadence, Luna, and Celestia) to stone using these green power energy orbs. Twilight and her friends manage to get away with an unplanned escape down a waterfall. Throughout the movie/story, we are taken all over different areas of Equestria, where we trot with the ponies through a hot desert, roam a mysterious town/city where we run into a stray cat named Capper, who is more or less a snatcher to pay off debts and get paid big money for turning various things (And apparently) Ponies in for a reward or debt relief. Further along we meet the sky pirates, who are also the Storm King's rule. They are threatened to be tossed overboard to the ground below the sky, but then a bell, and it is a hilarious switch from angry pirates, pushing ponies overboard, to the dining area and a few confused faces. That's where we meet Captain Celaeno, and her crew of "merchant" pirates, who now just delivers packages to the various armies of the Storm King around and watch the skies. At this point, in the movie we also have a destination, Mount Aris, to seek out the queen of the Hippogriffs for help. We catch an amazing song, sung by Rainbow Dash, the Captain's crew, and the other ponies (Everypony except Twilight, who was annoyed Rainbow could start a song, when there was a darkness throwing over Equestria. Hey, for Rainbow Dash there is always time for a song, or Pinkie Pie for that matter, I digress) The song brought back the light and happiness the Sky Pirates had lost through the misguided leadership of The Storm King. Eventually, Rainbow Dash, who could not contain herself or understand why Twilight was consistently telling her no, performed the Sonic Rainboom (Nicely done, let's just grab the attention of the enemy, shall we?) Tempest catches up to the pirates ship, and demands to know where the ponies were that she knew was on their ship. We hear a scream from the quarters of the bottom of the air ship, and then a we also see a small door swinging in the open. Who's brilliant plan was this trap door escape? You guessed it. Twilight Sparkle, but her plan with all the rope and boxes, and a blanket/tarp was planned very quickly and confidently as her and her friends dropped through the small door. As Tempest begins blowing up and tearing up the ship above them, Twilight and the rest of her friends start falling to their doom. Twilight performs this one-of-a kind spell (It really was cool watching her whip this spell up in the amount of time between sky and ground, but she is powerful with her magic after all) She pulls the crate/boxes, ropes and the blankets together, sets her friends in the basket, and (It made me laugh pretty hard) uses spikes fire breath to inflate the baloon. Success, and now the ponies are in a balloon towards Mount Aris, while above the Sky Pirates ship gets destroyed by Tempest. The ponies arrive at Mount Aris, and discover the Hippogriffs had already deserted their old home on the mountain. They then hear a sudden singing voice and they follow the voice to a pond that is well hidden in the mountain. We meet Princess Skystar, daughter to Queen Novo, who turns the mane 6 into sea ponies with the help of an orb. Twilight comes up with a plan to steal this orb to help Equestria, but it alerts the Queen and the Princess. (Note: Queen Novo, Princess Skystar, and the herd of sea ponies all used to be Hippogriffs, until the Storm King threatened their land and they escaped into the water.) When the queen finds out the plan of Twilight stealing the orb, she banishes them from the water and has them return to land. This is where I even got a little emotional and could not believe that Twilight actually turned not only on Pinkie, but all her friends. We see Twilight, sitting on a ledge, talking about her faults to Spike, when she notices he was captured, and she is suddenly captured as a prisoner by Tempest and the other Storm Gaurds, Spike breaks free by lighting the Storm Guard's hand holding him on fire and escapes back to the other 5 of her friends, telling them that Twilight was captured. During the time Twilight was with Tempest, Tempest revealed her past story (Which got me right in the feels) and also made Twilight feel bad for her. Twilight is then presented to the Storm King, who takes her power and with the combined magic of all 4 princesses (Seems almost like a season 4 finale in bits and pieces here) he creates a monster storm that spawns a tornado. When Tempest asks for her reward to have her horn replaced, the Storm King instantly says he was using her to get the power from the princesses. At this same time, Capper, the stray cat we meet at the beginning and the Sky Pirates sneak the other 5 ponies in and the sky pirates, but when Grubber eats some of the cake, he catches an eye ball in the cake, and alerts the guards, when Capper says plan B, and they all burst out of the cake and they hold off the guards while Twilight's friends rush to the castle. After a broken promise from the Storm King, Tempest almost gets pulled into the tornado, when Twilight catches her hooves and saves her. When asked why Twilight wanted to save her, she simply replied: "Because this is what friends do." The other 5 mares appear and fight the King and knock the staff from his hands, which both the king and Twilight get pulled into the tornado. Fearing the worst, her 5 friends and Tempest look up as the sky starts clearing and Twilight re-appears with the staff in hoof. While the ponies are hugging each other, The Storm King then re-emerges and throws one of the Orbs at all of them, but Tempest jumps in front and protects them, and both her and the Storm King are turned to stone, and as the Storm King hit the ground and broke apart, Twilight saves Tempest. We return to the Friendship Festival, where Tempest shows off a bit of her magic, even though she has a broken horn. The movie ends.

So, obviously even in my review above, I mentioned again how it had bits and pieces of similarities to the Season 4 finale. Pretty much I look at the Storm King as just a different villain type, but who had the same motives as Tirek did to take all the magic from the princesses {Mostly, the only difference was that the Storm King did not have to also still the magic from all of the ponies, just the 4 leaders)

Now let's talk the movie audience and populations, along with some of the reviews I've seen around the web. Not a lot of critics and movie buffs decided to rate this above at least 3 to maybe 4 stars out of 5. This movie targeted a general audience of kids, families, pony fans, and bronies. It is an animated cartoon, not a high action movie, or sci-fi. So goes the reason this movie may have not been the biggest hit with the adult critics and film buffs.

The movie deserves a 5/5 star review honestly from me. It is worth watching if you are a pony fan or brony that wants to go catch a movie, or in a group, have a family that is into the show, or something to take the kids to, or even just a date night. The story is epic, the direction was flawless, the animation, music, heck all of the movie was just pure awesome to watch and enjoy. I recommend it highly to go see. Even if you have seen it like me at 6-7 times or more, it is worth buying the ticket.

NOTE ON FAVORITE SONGS AND MOVIE SOUNDTRACK ALBUM:

The album from the motion picture is available on Google Play Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and wherever online digital music is sold.

My favorite songs from the movie:
1. Time to Be Awesome - Rainbow Dash and Sky Pirate Crew (I've not ever actually lost my love for Rainbow Dash, she is without a doubt and will always be my favorite pony. Besides, she knows just how to kick a pony or another friend into good spirits, that loyalty shows}
2. Rainbow - Sia (I was really in love with Sia and her song Rainbow, it is top notch and is just so uplifting. Surprised Sia actually sang in the pony movie)
3. Open up Your Eyes - Tempest Shadow (This song got my attention due to the beautiful orchestration and the melody)
4. I'll Be Around = Palmer Reed (I really love how smooth his voice is for the song, and what the lyrics talk about, it really is a beautiful harmony in the chorus too)
5. We Got This Together - Mane 6 & Spike (Who doesn't like an original song from the ponies who started it all?)