Sapphire Valley Reviews: My Little Pony the Movie (2017) · 1:54pm Nov 8th, 2017
Well, I finally saw it. It took forever, but I managed to go see the movie. I usually refrain from doing reviews of anything the show does, the closest I'll get to that is ranting about something that pisses me off, but I generally like to keep my opinion of the show to myself.
I piss people off enough with my opinions of games I like. I don't need to risk pissing off the very fandom I write for. I do that enough with the style of writing I have.
But I felt like I needed to give my 2 cents for this story. As such, I am Sapphire Valley, reviewing the 2017 My Little Pony movie.
Like when I reviewed the Power Rangers movie, I'm just really gonna talk here rather than try to break it up.
The plot was descent enough. It got darker than I thought it would, pretty early on too. Seeing Tempest and her crew come in and put the ponies in chains gave me Inner Demons flashbacks. All of the voice work was spot on, and overall I enjoyed the characters. Mind you, I said overall. There were a few things I took issue with.
For one thing, I felt that a bit of the main cast was horribly underused. I know this is small, but Starlight and Trixie weren't even in the movie. Yeah, they had like a one second scene in the beginning and were seen again in the ending credits, but it seems more like that was a last minute plug to let us know this was canon. I would have loved to see a side story of them working to protect ponies in Canterlot while the Mane 6 journey to find the Queen of the Hippogriffs.
Speaking of the Mane 6, I think only half of them were actually of use in this story.
Twilight of course got a nice meaty role, and Pinkie Pie was great in this movie. Rainbow Dash had a cool song and moment in the movie, but everyone else was sort of... there. Rarity essentially did nothing but complain throughout the journey, Applejack as always was more of support, and Fluttershy sadly did NOTHING of note worth in this movie.
I will give them credit for two things though. One, they gave Spike a good role, and didn't forget about his crush on Rarity. Two, the writers actually found a good way to keep the Princesses out of the action, and I was genuinely terrified for them.
The idea behind the world outside of Equestria was really interesting and confirmed a few of my suspicions. The world outside of the boarders of Equestria is NOT as nice, as in order for such a paradise to exist, sacrifices have to be made. Seeing that the rest of the world was full of chaos was refreshing and realistic. The only thing is, we didn't spend enough time in these places. It was more jumping from on location RIGHT to the next.
If I had to compare this to the season 7 finale, I'd still say this was the bigger tale. But not by much. The only thing that made this feel like a movie was the journey outside of Equestria, which they didn't really spend enough time fleshing out for my tastes.
So taking into consideration everything I've said plus my own personal enjoyment has me awarding My Little Pony: the Movie (2017) the score of:
7/10
And say that this movie is Worth owning on DVD and Blueray.
A bigger, grander Equestrian tale, huh? I might try something like that myself too...
Well, this is Sapphire Valley, signing off.
Salute! 
I did enjoy the darker, grander, and more epic tale of our favorite horses. I agree with most of your observations, specially Fluttershy doing next to nothing. Another problem where the celebrities characters, sans Tempest, suffered the same problems as the locations, not enough time to be really fleshed out, and you had to rely on other media to fix that. Thought, Starlight and Trix background roles made sense, despite the understanding complain, as the script was being developed since 2014 at least, and they couldn't afford to make so many constant changes, as I bet they wheren' t so sure what to do with Starlight back then
I guess Rarity's generosity was what Made Capper reform but other than that she didn't do much. Also where was Discord? If the premise was that the storm king some how stole Discords powers than I think there were higher stakes. And if the Hippogriffs have something that could potentially defeat the storm kings army why didn't they use it themselves instead of hiding under water? I liked Tempest shadow though. Her back story was just a bit better than Starlights.
The movie is good overall, the songs were amazing. My take from the movie is Twilight is least harmonious of the mane 6, seeing as she was basically a no show after the first song. Tempest is an amazing character, but the Storm King is just a total schmuck overall. Twilights lack of teleporting also annoyed me immensly. And Twilight had to once again learn that she should rely on her friend more. Go figure.
This might not have been the best movie of the year, but it was fun.
....I'm not sensing you rewriting the movie like you did for the Power Rangers (or maybe I am
) but I'm intrigued.
As for the actual movie.....I think it was originally scripted sometime long before we had reformations of Discord, Trixie and Starlight so.....unless the movie was to be delayed for re.....well, everything there wasn't much that could be done I'm afraid. As for characters.....Tempest, and the pirates I enjoyed and I greatly hope/anticipate to see more of them....along with the hippogriffs now that I think on it while Capper.....slightly more iffy on, but willing to give a shot. And yes, besides Twilight (cause of course), Pinkie and Rainbow.....not much was done for our heroines. Of the other three, Rarity might've done the most by showing off her Generosity, but.....that's about it.
I mean, Fluttershy did as a therapist for one of the soldiers, but.....I'd have laughed/greatly enjoyed her getting into the fight either on her own or with her legion of critters.....probably led by Angel.
So unlike the critics, I enjoyed the movie and would be willing to pick it up for future rewatchings.....especially since I have a niece who left the theater during the arrival of Tempest and there's another niece on the way.
To me, The Storm King felt like a Knock off of Hades from Disney's Hercules, which I didn't like...he didn't do much as well so basically a typical MLP Villain, however, Tempest was actually doing shit, if she was her own villain, that would've been cooler.
Also, even as a Pony, Emily Blunt is still a Badass XD.
I don't know how true it is, but I hear the script for the movie was written sometime during season 4 I guess, which is why some characters weren't used.
I love your writing in fact one of my favorite fanfics ever is one you began a long time ago in a fanfiction.net far away called Alive. You kind off left it of at a cliffhanger back in 2015. Everyday for months I would get on and check for any update that was never to come. I'm not asking you to continue this work, though that would be nice, I merely feel your mega-man sweetie bell story deserves both a formal cancelation and definitely a place on this site
Also I like the name SapphireLibra3 better. Cheers
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Thank you so much for your kind words. Yeah, I wish I could go back to Alive, and one day I might finish it, but with the fandom changed so much, I'd feel odd going back to it at this point.
I would LOVE to one day do a remake of it on here though, and I've wrestled with how to make that happen.