) I can safely say that My Little Pony: A New Generation was great! 
And here are my random thoughts:
My Little Pony: The Movie review (MASSIVE SPOILERS) · 9:03pm Nov 16th, 2017
Well this is long overdue: my thoughts on My Little Pony: The Movie. And don't worry, I'll post my rankings on the other EQG movies and seasons in future.
But first lemme say that I was pleased when I went to my local cinema and saw I wasn’t the only male in the audience. Three seats away from me to my right, a young boy around eight or nine years old was attending with his mum and younger sister. And he had his eyes glued to the screen with wonder the whole time. I couldn’t help smiling as he enthusiastically pointed out and described each of the characters to his mum and went “Oh, no!” whenever he saw any of them in peril or locked in a cage.
Anywho, onto the film itself.
The story sounds like a grand and epic fantasy on paper but when compared to the high stakes the show has written for its premieres and finales, it ranges from good to passable. It feels like it wants to be great but never quite reaches that level. And like the show, it sadly does rely on making the Princesses completely useless once again so Twilight and co. can be the ones to save the day. But it is nice to explore more of the world outside of Equestria, including a vibrant underwater kingdom and a rundown desert city with some incredibly intricate backgrounds. Part of these designs’ appeal comes from the update from the show’s regular Flash animation programme to stunning Toon Boom Harmony, allowing for more fluid movements and a huge scope. Even though I tend to not care what animation style is used so long as the product itself has a good story with good characters, I’d be open to seeing this animation style again. And who knows? Maybe this film can play a part in putting 2D animated movies back on the map.
Much like the show, the movie is mainly carried by the Mane Six. Regrettably, Applejack and Fluttershy who aren’t given much to do, but luckily the show’s signature fast-paced comedy and clever one-liners also carries into the film’s writing, the majority of it provided by Pinkie Pie. But a main factor that drew many people to this movie was the large amount of celebrities it made part of the cast. Fortunately though, they never completely overshadow our equine leads.
Kristen Chenoweth as a bubbly seapony named Princess Skystar is particularly cute and enjoyable. Her mother Queen Novo (Uzo Aduba) is compelling in that she’s selfish but selfish for her people; indeed she made a mistake in hiding herself and the other Hippogriffs underwater from the Storm King but for understandable reasons.
Taye Diggs was my personal favourite though, playing a feline con artist named Capper with smoothly animated movements and a personality just as smooth.
The other characters, however, vary in terms of quality. Tempest’s cohort, a LeFou-type hedgehog with a lisp and a sweet tooth called Grubber (Michael Peña), is high on the pointless and annoying scale. I give Peña credit for having fun improvising most of his dialogue, but I’ve never fully understood the need for a comedic evil sidekick to make the villain less frightening to the kids.
Captain Celaeno and the pirates are fine but ultimately not that memorable. They aren’t onscreen long enough to leave an impression and their turnaround from jaded cargo haulers of the Storm King to getting their pirate mojo back is incredibly rushed. They may as well have replaced the It’s Time To Be Awesome musical number with “Hey, stop being slaves. Okay”.
As for our main villain, the Storm King, I feel they were going for a vibe similar to Aku from Samurai Jack, in that he’s hugely entertaining but still a force to be reckoned with. However his motivations for wanting to create a storm with the Princesses’ magic aren’t fleshed out, he only shows up for ten whole minutes at the end and his fight with the main characters isn’t as exciting as it could’ve been. It’s a shame considering he had a very manic and entertaining personality, partly due to Liev Schreiber having a blast voicing him, and I did want to like him. The key word being “want”.
The biggest blunder in terms of new characters, however, comes down to Tempest. And I know I’ll most likely be on the receiving end of intense backlash, considering she’s currently the fandom’s (umpteenth) darling. But I'm sorry. I don't think she's a good character. Which is a shame because she actually starts off very interesting and intimidating with an “I’m so done with everyone’s crap” attitude. But that all comes crashing down when she finally captures Twilight and belts out her villain song Open Up Your Eyes. On a subjective level, it’s an adequate song complete with sinister orchestra instrumentals and Emily Blunt’s chilling vocals. But when you look at its lyrics more closely, its epicness wanes. The song explains that after losing her horn as a child, her two friends left her and thus Tempest turned to villainy.
It’s at this point that Tempest becomes another Starlight Glimmer, a petulant pony who got screwed over as a child one time, grew up still bitter over it and took it out on the world. I’m aware her friends became afraid of her after her broken horn’s magic went haywire, but here’s the thing: this clearly only happened once. Tempest’s backstory and that fact she gets persuaded to reform by a minor act of charity from Twilight implies she never even tried making new friends or seeing a doctor about her horn afterwards, even when Equestria has been shown to have spells capable of reining in unstable magic. A villainous backstory about one bad childhood experience to try tugging the heartstrings simply isn’t enough to warrant sympathy. Tragic backstories are things like “I grew up in slavery” or “my family was killed right in front of me”, not “my friends wouldn’t play with me”. It’s ironic that one of the lyrics is “it’s time to grow up and get wise” considering Tempest is the one who threw a tantrum and made everyone else suffer for it.
It seems like ever since Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks, villains in the show are no longer allowed to be evil because being evil is fun like Discord, Chrysalis, Tirek or Adagio Dazzle. So for every villain they’ve created since, DHX has resorted to this “I was screwed over by friends once so I’m gonna destroy the world” schtick they expect you to take seriously complete with a snapshot redemption. It isn’t tragic so much as it is pathetic and boring at this point.
Despite Tempest’s song severely dampening her previous qualities, the rest of the music is thankfully quite enjoyable, courtesy of show composer Daniel Ingram whose collaboration with a live orchestra truly makes the film feel huge. Though the soundtrack suffers somewhat with Open Up Your Eyes along with the incredibly forgettable We Got This Together, the other musical numbers succeed in moving the story along and grabbing the audience’s attention, young and old alike. One Small Thing and It’s Time To Be Awesome are relatively decent, but the two biggest standouts are I’m The Friend You Need, a toe-tapping tango performed by Capper, and the closing song Rainbow which makes you leave the cinema with a smile, courtesy of Sia in the form of Songbird Serenade (right down to the blonde and black bangs covering her eyes).
Where the movie truly soars, however, is the middle act. The Hippogriffs, being comfortable with their new underwater life as seaponies, refuse to help the Mane Six with their Pearl of Transformation. This leads to a desperate Twilight Sparkle tricking her friends into keeping Queen Novo busy while she attempts to steal the pearl. But just as they’ve managed to earn the Queen’s trust, Twilight’s deception is discovered, resulting in them being banished from the kingdom. On one hand, you can’t believe Twilight of all ponies would resort to thievery. But at the same time, while what she did was wrong, you understand her motivations; Twilight’s home has been subjugated, she and her friends have been forced on the run, they’re being hunted likely with no days of sleep, everything’s trying to hurt them at every turn, they were nearly sold into slavery by Capper and thrown overboard an airborne ship by Celaeno’s crew for stowing away, her friends aren’t taking this mission as seriously as she’d like them to (even accidentally drawing attention to themselves twice), and the one hope they had isn’t interested in helping them save Equestria. She's so blinded by stress and following Princess Celestia's orders to the letter that she can't see can't see how her friends have been making new allies on their journey. Thus she begins to lose her faith in friendship and it makes you wonder what she’s willing to do or sacrifice to save her home.
This results in a heated and even uncomfortable argument between Twilight and Pinkie Pie. When it’s the always-jovial Pinkie Pie of all ponies calling you out, you know you’ve screwed up badly. She tries explaining that they were doing exactly what they had to do but Twilight has blinders on and just won't listen. The emotional highlight of the movie comes when Twilight's stress finally reaches its breaking point and she snaps that she would’ve been better off without friends like them. Understandably hurt and betrayed, they leave Twilight by herself to repent her actions, leading to her getting captured by Tempest. But even with all this, they never end their friendship with her altogether; they simply need some time alone. And when Spike informs them of Twilight’s abduction, they don’t hesitate in formulating a plan to save her, which culminates in a pretty fun final battle with the Mane Six and their new allies against the Storm King’s troops that doesn’t end with “blast ‘em with rainbows” like most of the show’s finales.
My Little Pony: The Movie may not be flawless or likely to be encourage newcomers to give the show a watch, but it’s charming and funny enough for fans of any age. I didn’t go into the cinema expecting it to be near Pixar levels of quality but it’s nowhere near as saccharine and painful as cynical viewers are making it out to be. If DHX chooses to make a sequel to this, maybe it’ll greatly improve upon the flaws like Rainbow Rocks did for the first Equestria Girls movie.
Though maybe they could leave out the pony-fied version of We Got The Beat next time. Seriously, an orchestral version of the show’s theme would have sufficed.
I have to say, I found myself agreeing with a lot of your points in this review. You laid out your points and feelings on the film clearly and logically, and to that I say "Good work!"
Although I will say, while I do totally get your point on Tempest Shadow, my own views of the character are a bit more complicated. While I do think that her working for a conquering warlord like the Storm King - and, most importantly, betraying her entire country and species to said warlord - puts her way over the Moral Event Horizon, I do think that her backstory works on a far better level than, say, Starlight Glimmer's. Not the whole "broken horn" thing, but the fact that it was done trying to help some other ponies; that's far better motivation for becoming bitter and cruel than just "my best friend moved away and didn't write back to me".
...But still, I am getting kind of tired of the series' parade of evil unicorns who end up being reformed and redeemed. Can't we just have another EVIL villain like Tirek or Chrysalis?
4759749
"but the fact that it was done trying to help some other ponies"
I'm sorry, could you please clarify that? I didn't quite understand that.
4759790
Didn't she lose her horn to that Ursa after two of her friends were dumb enough to go into its cave or something? That's what I meant.
4759792
Ah. Well the part where she actually lost her horn is fine, it's the fact she was ostracised by two kids ONCE in her childhood and that's what made her turn to villainy that's the problem. That implies she never even tried making any new friends or even seeing a doctor about her unstable magic. Remember how in The Crystalling, Sunburst had a spell in one of his books for reigning in Flurry Heart's unstable magic? How he so matter-of-factly pulled that spell out of his saddlebag after being told about it. That implied that spell was common knowledge.
4759827
Oh, I absolutely agree. It's still a weak motivation. But still, it's at least better than Glim-Glam, so I can give the movie people that much.
I don't necessarily know if I'd agree, however, that Sunburst knowing the spell would make it "common knowledge," since he seems to be that much of a magic theory specialist. I'm not trying to play devil's advocate for Tempest (far from it!) but that's just my own two cents. But again, I totally am in accord with you - that one bad incident with being ostracized does not make Tempest a sympathetic/tragic figure.
Especially given, y'know, that she was willing to sell her whole race into slavery for the merest chance of a new horn.
4759906
Well Flurry Heart was the first Alicorn baby to be born so that spell had to be designed for something. Hell, even when I first saw that episode, I thought to myself "Huh, wonder if that could help ponies with broken horns". Oh, look, a pony with a broken horn who's clearly never seen a doctor.
4759977
Fair enough. Part of the real problem with Tempest's backstory, of course, is just that we don't know any more about what happened. If she just skipped town after that one incident, or if she did see a doctor (or if her parents could take her to one, or if she even had parents to take her)... It's like this thing I read once about Starlight Glimmer, that she has a backstory that has *just* too muchdetail in it to make you ask questions (again, the parents thing), and then poke holes in her sob story.
4760000
That's a problem, yes, but the real problem is that they've done this same backstory of "I was slighted by my friends and that's the reason I'm so evil" so many times in a row. It's not the concept of redemption I hate, it's the fact that DHX had told this same story over and over and over again and I'm bored of it. If they wanted to make this concept work, first they need to not do it for a while because it's been done too many times in a row and we need something different.
4760277
I'm fully in agreement with that.
4760373
I like you, mate. Everywhere I've gone with my opinion on Tempest, it's always been met with people either responding with the equivalent of a child going "nuh-uh" or ranting at me and completely ignoring everything I said. But you actually calmly let me know when you disagreed with me on something and actually explained why. I like that.
4760379
I'm glad we've had this discussion. Sorry that you've had that reception to your opinion on Tempest; I had a similar experience in the Legend of Korra fandom regarding Kuvira in Book Four. >_< It's a shame that a lot of people these days just can't really seem to actually discuss when they don't fully agree on something - especially when it has to do with fan stuff.
Why thank you!