Friendship is Magic: The Movie Review

Well, I finally did it. All the stuff that's kept me crazy busy or just plain unable to focus on the many, many things I had going on, and I got the time to finish watching Friendship is Magic.

WOW.

It's been a long, mostly wonderful ride all these years, and while I'm sad to see the series finish, the ending was great and the epilogue (the final episode) was a great way to wrap things up.

Chrysalis remains Best Villain. The most vicious, driven villain in the show, utterly adorable and terrifying at the same time... but I've waffled on about how much I love her in the past, so...

We have confirmation that changelings spit their slime. Also, that Luna and Celestia's manes do the wavey-wave because of magic.

Characters are in danger and actually hurt. Holy. Cow. That finale got intense.

Rose & the Doctor made an appearance, Twilight and Pinkie finally do a Pinkie & The Brain bit, Tempest Shadow reappears and... does nothing. Best (Reformed) Changeling comes back and... stands there. Okay, so not everything was all it could have been, but damn, it scratched that Epic Confrontation Itch.

As for the epilogue? ALL THE SHIPS! Like, there's now a bunch of canon ships.

I'm not really sure what else to say... except that with the way the show ended, I couldn't help but smile when I thought of all you wonderful people out there, everyone on this site, who were brought together by it. The friends we've all made, the memories we all share, it's all something to be treasured.

But now that the big show is done, where do we go? What do we do? I can't pretend to know that, but I'm still in this fandom! We still have all the fanfics, Equestria Girls seems to still be a thing, there's a spin-off-slash-sequel thing in the works that might be good?

Who knows, but I'm going to review the movie now. SEGUE!

My Little Pony The Movie Review

(Spoilers ahead!)

Where to start... Well, from the start, I guess. Ignoring the title, which is surprisingly awesome and a hugebuildup, anyway.

The movie starts off in what I can only describe as a 90's throwback so hard I felt it in my childhood. The music choice has a lot to do with that, but the sudden jump in animation quality from what the normal show was like also helps bring on that feeling. Everything really does feel like something from the late 90's, with the mix of 2D and... is it really 3D? 2.5D? There's clearly some 3D animation going on, but at the same time most stuff that's not a character looks like a 2D shape in a 3D environment, even though some buildings are, on a closer look, probably actual 3D.

Oddly magical feeling, and I wouldn't call it a bad thing. It's very living-storybook, due to the consistent quality across pretty much everything.

Some moments are clearly CG, though. One particular moment at the end of the movie sticks out badly.

Again, it really does feel like a 90's kid's movie. Just, much more polished.

Then the song ends, and it feels like something is wrong. The characters start talking, and the feeling grows. Something isn't right.

Enter, Twilight Sparkle, and it's clear.

The character designs are slightly different. Something about the faces is ever so slightly off. I can't really describe it except that I actually got the creeps a few times, like there was some uncanny valley going on. But, it's not all the characters. Just most of the ponies. The same design change shows up every so often in Season 9, although I only clearly saw it in the final few episodes, and even then only in a few expressions.

Moving on.

The character interactions are well-written. The dialogue's pretty good for the most part and the characters are well-animated and distinctive and detailed in their body language. Y'know, except for the faces. I'll give it some time, see if I can pinpoint just what's making my skin crawl like this.

I'll leave the songs for later. Suffice to say, it's a bit of a mixed bag.

The 90's feeling comes back full-force with Sia Pony Songbird Serenade, a rather pointless celebrity musician cameo.

In all honesty, her role could be better filled, and have more impact, by using an existing musical pony from the series. She has a couple of lines, looks at Twilight later, and sings a song. The way she's presented is like she's part of a big emotional moment, driving home that Twilight failed, but given that they shared maybe a minute on-screen together and just a couple of sentences it feels rather hollow. If that had been one of Twilight's Canterlot Friends in the cage, or someone from Ponyville she could have some actual connection to, then the moment would have been effective. It would have said "Look, Twilight. [Friendly Music Horse Name] is in a cage. They expected you, their friend, to save them, but you failed."

There's no emotional connection between Twilight and Songbird, so trying to use Songbird to reinforce Twilight's guilt at failing, and how bad things are, just doesn't quite work.

Then... it gets good.

We get probably the most menacing villain intro in the entire series. An airship emerges from the dark clouds, breaks towers as it decends, we get a casualty (I admit to laughing a bit when "Bryan" the balloon animal deflates and Party Favor cries out his name), and the Storm King is introduced. Kinda. Little bit of a fakeout with Grubber coming down the ramp, but it still works. Especially when it's followed up by Tempest.

Tempest Shadow. The way she's introduced, and her very first lines, are a great representation of her personality and role.
She's a close second on my Best Villain list. Taking Canterlot? It's nothing personal, it's just business. She's confident without being arrogant (most villains in FiM fall into this), not overly loud or dramatic (again, unlike most villains). Tempest Shadow, and the way her army is introduced, is menacing.

Chrysalis is menacing because she's a focused, vindictive, cunning, vicious character. Tempest Shadow is menacing because she's a professional. There's nothing personal, you're just between Tempest and her goal.

The way Tempest, and the threat she poses, is introduced, is like a combination of Darth Vader's first scenes in Episode IV and his cameo at the end of Rogue One. Cold, calculated and efficient.

I freaking love Tempest Shadow. Even with her being a bit of a jab at characters taking on "edgy" names. Her real name is Fizzlepop Berrytwist. That's honestly pretty cute, and her changing her name is kinda funny.

In fact, the backstories we're given for the characters with backstories are well thought-out, and very interesting. I'd say one of the best things about the movie is the worldbuilding and all the new places we're shown. It's great to see such a broader scope than we're showing in the series.

Grubber is... okay, I guess. He's more the comedic relief on the villain's side than anything, doesn't really add much to the movie. Is Grubber the same species as the soldiers? I suspect they might be, or at least somehow related. Unless their coloration is to denote that they're lower ranked than Grubber, since two of them have markings the same color as Tempests mane and tail, implying they're more directly in her command.

Derpy trying to save Twilight? You go, girl! I mean, it was futile, but still, not something I expected to see from a non-main character. In fact, Derpy got a lot more scenes throught Season 9, now that I think about it.

Aaand then the Storm King is actually introduced. Yes, the ringtone and modem gag is corny, but it's fairly funny and we see that Tempest thinks her boss is something of an idiot. Watch her body language. Again, whoever animated the movement of all the characters did a brilliantjob. Shame about the faces being all creepifying... but not Tempest? And maybe not the Princesses? Hmm... closing in on it.

The Storm King is a threatening, but believable, villain. Not intensly focused or unrelentingly driven, not some eldritch monster embodying Chaos, not even a kinda unstable megalomaniac. he's entirely believable and understandeable. He has what is basically an empire, he also wants magical power, and when he gets it he does the same thing I'm sure most people would: He plays around with it.

Later, we see that the Storm King has gone after multiple targets and Equestria is only his latest conquest (and he might not have gone for it if not for Tempest Shadow's influence (she wants her horn fixed and foiled one of the Storm King's plans before joining him, which would have potentially given him the power he wanted and not needed him to invade Equestria). His empire doesn't seem to be built on mindless slaves like Sombra tried to do, either, given that we see a cargo ship basically forced into his service and following a rulebook. I must emphasise the mindless part of that, since outside of his army nobody seems to have much choice about obeying. Kinda. Klugetown seems to be mostly left alone, so...

Tempest Shadow doesn't deal well with stress, being disappointed or things getting in her way. People get hurt when that happens. Again, very Darth Vader. Less killing, though. A lot more hurting than you'd expect, but nobody dies. Probably. I mean, the credits have one of those little sidebar gag things that shows that the Storm King is kinda alive, right?

Now, we come to the big problem with the movie: the pacing. It just moves too fast.
It really feels like the movie should be at least half an hour longer or... well, this might get me some controversy, but... The End of Fluttery Valley had better pacing.

Yep. You heard me. The G1 miniseries was better paced than the FiM movie. Why? Simple.

Because it's a miniseries.

They had so much more time to flesh things out, compared to how the movie is forced to keep things moving at a fast pace to fit everything in the runtime. If it had been a miniseries, we could have gotten an entire episode in each location, instead of the few short minutes we get. It would have made Twilight's journey feel more like an actual quest, as well, and really driven home her desperation.

As it stands, the movie seems to take place over... what? A couple of days? 3-4 days at most? It feels like just a few hours, though. They arrive in a location, meet a new friend, then leave. Short journey that's presented like walking across Ponyville, and then repeat.

It's really not given enough time to make things as epic as they could be, and that's a shame, because we're shown just enough to leave us wanting more worldbuilding.

Klugetown looks fascinating. I would have loved a full episode set there.

I'm convinced Capper is a jab at self-insert OC's. Rainbow Dash instantly thinks he's awesome, Rarity instantly thinks he's charming, Rarity fixes his clothes, etc. He hits most of the OC notes. Fluttershy doesn't fawn over him, though, which is kinda odd.

Capper is... not the high point of the movie. He's going to sell them, then changes his mind pretty much seconds later. Again, this could have been made plausible if the movie was a miniseries, but his interactions with, and change to the side of, the Mane Six is so hurried that Capper ends up feeling wishy washy. They did a couple nice things and it's enough to change a lifetime of habits and behaviours in a con-artist and thief? Way too rushed.

I might like Capper more if he was fleshed out a bit more. Twilight's distrust of him is believable, though.

Tempest is violent when things annoy her, and I absolutely love it. It further develops the personality she's been given so far. The two guards with the purple stripes are definitely her personal guard. Grubber is starting to annoy me.

The harpy parrot pirates are freaking great. Former pirates forced into serving the Storm King as a cargo freighter. They're another thing I'd love to know more about.
Unfortunately, we see two problems here. One, I'll talk about later. The other... we've seen pop up a few times. The tone of the movie. It really feels like they wanted to make the movie darker, more mature (relatively speaking), something more serious than we'd ever seen in the series. But then Mr Family Friendly chimed in.

"So, Tempest Shadow, the scarred unicorn with the shattered horn, serving the Storm Lord as head of his army, arrives in Canterlot."
"The first person we see is her talking badger sidekick!"
"Erm, okay..."
"He makes jokes all the time!"

"The Mane Six stow away to escape, but are found by the crew of the ship. The former pirates discuss ways of dealing with them, until Captain Celaeno decides to throw them overboard."
"One of them has a fake beak and squawks instead of speaking and his pirate gear has pool floaties!"
"Look, can you-"
"But then they stop for lunch, so nopony is tossed overboard!"
"...I can work with that."

Anyway, my point is that there is, oddly enough, too much comic relief. So far, we've got two comic characters, Grubber and... Fake Beak, and they're kinda a tonal whiplash. Hard to take threats of being thrown overboard seriously when one of your captors is walleyed with their tongue hanging out and a spigot for a nose. Moments that should be dark and serious, with impact or threat, are often undermined by jokes or gags that don't really fit.

Yes, I said two comic relief characters. Pinkie is still Pinkie, but for most of the movie she doesn't feel oblivious to what's going on, or even really like her normal comedic self. In the desert, in particular, she is very well written. It feels less like she's making jokes for the fun of it, and more like she's desperately trying to keep spirits up the only way she knows how. It adds some depth to her character. Her minor psychotic break at the end, when fighting the Storm Army, kinda works with that. Beat the bad guys, bring back the smiles. BRING BACK THE SMILES!

Back to the harpies parrots, their turnaround is a bit rushed. Unlike Capper, though, they have actual reasons for their change of heart. Mostly wanting to screw over the Storm King and be pirates again. Still an actual reason, though.

Again, this entire section was rushed. About half of it was taken up by a song, and then it's off to the next destination.
Like almost every part of the movie, it could have been fixed by making it part of a miniseries instead.

Captain Celaeno is great, though, and the idea of the pirate harpies parrots is very interesting.

Tempest Shadow continues to hold her place as Second Best Villain. Betray her? Get in her way? Wave goodbye to your ship, pirates!

Can't complain about Mount Aris, since that's fleshed out a lot more in the series. It does reinforce the Storm King's reach and power, though. Even more than Klugetown and the pirates-turned-cargo-haulers already did. It's a very clear representation of the threat the Storm King poses to Equestria.

Not much to say about Seaquestria or the hippogryphs/seaponies, either. Again, they get fleshed out in the series.

But, there is one huge problem with this entire segment: Twilight lying to her friends, using Pinkie Pie, and trying to steal the Pearl. This isn't in-character for Twilight.

Now, it could be believed if they'd driven home Twilight's desperation a bit better, given more time over to showing how the events of the journey had made her unwilling to trust that others will help, but all we're shown of that is Capper trying to sell them, then she doesn't trust the harpies parrots. Again, this would work better if they were given more time, but the movie just isn't long enough to develop everything.

Really, the argument and the party splitting could work with enough build-up. As it stands, it all feels like something that should have happened much earlier in the series. It just doesn't feel like the Season 7/8 characters, who have gone through so much growth together. Especially the "Well, maybe, I would've been better off without friends like you!" line. Like, that is not Season 7/8 Twilight.

But, no. Twilight lies and uses her friends, they leave, and the whole thing feels more like a story beat than an actual event with impact.
...
And Pinkie makes a face. I think I'm close to what's wrong here. Closer than I'd like. Skin keeps crawling.

Tempest is awesome, and her backstory makes sense with what we've seen of her. Best song in the movie, too.
Just skimmed the wiki page for her and now I need to read the comic, since that gives more of her backstory and history.

When Tempest shows Twilight what's become of Equestria, that is the "Oh, [Buy Some Apples]" moment of the movie. Look closely, there's smoke rising from a village. Equestria. Has. Fallen.

The rest of the group is a bit too willing to trust Capper again, even though Applejack gets a good line. That's... probably the first thing I can think of her actually doing so far.

The gathering of the Fellowship group is maybe a little rushed. Getting all their "friends" (Capper tried to sell them, the pirates can be believed to be in it to hurt the Storm King) together to save Twilight had to happen at some point, but it could have been spaced out a little better.

Everypony Twilight knew in Canterlot and Ponyville is in chains, but she only makes eye contact... eye-to-fringe contact? with Sia Pony Songbird Serenade and that's meant to be an emotional moment? Please see above for my thoughts on that. Like, way above.

Grubber is getting on my nerves again. Tempest drives home that Twilight has lost, and we see more of the ambition that is responsible for her serving the Storm King. Also, Tempest doesn't seem to kneel or bow or show much deference at all to the Storm King, did you notice that?

The Storm king is just silly enough that it makes him relateable and understandable. He takes pleasure in what he does and enjoys life. Even though his life involves growing his dark empire, overthrowing entire kingdoms and whatnot. Actually, I could see him being a big CEO or something in Equestria Girls. He's just that sort of prick. He's like the yeti... thing... version of Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2. This works for me.

Grubber finally does the only thing he's in the movie to do, and ruins the Fellowship's rescue party's plan, kicking off the big battle. I think he does a Tommy Wiseau reference? "Oh hello cake." Meh. I dunno.

The big battle is suitably great, although it does lean a little heavily on the comedic sound effects. Other than that, it's very serious and chaotic. Pinkie Pie has her aformentioned minor psychotic break, you know it when you see it.

Capper and Spike do a thing I'm sure I've seen several times in fics, typically with the self-insert OC's I think Capper is a jab at.

Tempest, rather surprisingly, did not expect to be used and betrayed. Everyone watching figured it would happen, but one of the few people she's put her trust in ended up betraying her. This makes her trusting Twilight to save her much more touching, and gives the moment more impact. In fact, everything Tempest sees between Twilight and her friends at the finale believably influences her to take a chance. Tempest's character arc is surprisingly well-written.

Also, Tempest downs the Storm King. Like, went staff-to-horn magic battle and fought him to a draw. Tempest is a powerhouse.

Obvious fakeout death is obvious.

Tempest's sacrifice is genuinely touching and, again, fits with her character arc and growth.

I don't care what the credits say, the Storm King is dead. Dude's rubble, ain't no coming back from that.

And now we see the entire reason Sia Pony Songbird Serenade is in the movie. Need that catchy song for the soundtrack!

Now, earlier I said there's a few very distinct CG moments, where things just stick straight out. After the song, when Twilight and Tempest are talking, watch Tempest's mane and tail. They're CG. They are a few other times, but the fireworks scene is the most noticeable.

Calling back to earlier again, when I was talking about the harpies parrots, remember that I said I'd talk about the other problem with the movie? This might be even more controversial than the Flutter Valley thing, but... I found the music to be a bit... not good. Well, the songs, at least. The music was generally pretty good and fit the tone. The actual songs, though... almost all lackluster at best. Be Awesome is terrible. I do like Open Your Eyes, though. Best song in the movie.

Going by songs... I think the Equestria Girls movies did it better than the FiM movie.

Well, that's the review I guess. Was it a bad movie? No. Worth watching? Certainly, there's a lot of great stuff in it and the animation is gorgeous. Except the faces. Is it an instant classic? Probably not, it just has a few too many things getting in the way. Mostly the runtime, and being a movie instead of a miniseries. And the faces.

OH! The faces! Right. I said I was getting close to figuring out why my skin was crawling so much? Well, I figured it out! It's the features. Most of the ponies have oddly rounded faces, particuarly when viewed from the front. Their pony features, like the ears and muzzles, seem to be altered as well, with the ears being lower and the snouts being smaller and kinda squished. All that, coupled with the extra depth of the animation and the oddly sparkly eyes, takes away from the ponyness of their designs.

The ponies with longer, more angular faces, like Tempest and the Princesses, are much nicer to look at and don't trigger the same reaction. Although, even the Princesses are a bit rounded off. Not as much as the rest of the pony cast, though; just a little bit.

Anyway, now that that is done, I should be able to work on my fics. Nothing will update before Christmas, though.

So, Happy Holidays to all of you, you wonderful people you!

Comments

[Reese]

I'm glad we've been on this ride, aye. :)
And glad you got the time to finish the series, and liked what you found!

Oh, sorry the movie ponies strayed into the uncanny valley for you at times. I assume the same happened with Rainbow Roadtrip?

Regarding Twilight's un-that-time-period's-Twilight-like behavior, well, she was under a lot of stress at the time.

"Capper finally does the only thing he's in the movie to do"
Did you mean Grubber?

Glad it sounds like you in large part enjoyed the movie, thanks for the review and updates, and Happy Holidays to you too. :)