Thoughts on the MLP FIM movie 2017 · 12:28am Sep 24th, 2021
So I watched the MLP movie 2017 again to compare it to the upcoming new MLP movie for GEN 5 coming out tomorrow. When I post my blog about the MLP GEN 5 movie tomorrow, I will not go over any spoilers and just state my mind on the film. As for this one, it's been about four years since it was released, so I'll go more in-depth about this movie and what I think about it.
So in the first opening minutes, we have the festival of friendship, basically, a festival celebrating…something about friendship lol (it seems to never come up again, but I digress); anyways, the first thing I want to address is the animation. Overall it's excellent, and it's not that I don't think it's good, but at times when the characters face the camera, their faces look weird. But then a charming song come on, "we got this," which is pretty good, and at the very least, my boy Big Mac gets a small cameo (then sadly never seen again). But then, as the movie continues, here comes one of my biggest issues with the movie is at the beginning. Princess Celestia and Luna are pretty powerful alicorns who have fought big bads before like King Sombra, Discord, and here they go down without a fight. Celestia was right to be terrified, but if you remember how she acted when Chrysalis attacked her, she at least tried to destroy her before the changeling queen did anything. If you remember, Luna isn't a pushover either, and I think it's so annoying they depower Celestia and Luna. I don't think they needed to be the center of attention. Still, they could've lasted a lot longer in combating the storm king and his armies before being turned to stone. Also, the Wonderbolts go down without a fight!? Seriously!?
Here comes the worst villain of the series, the Storm King. I don't get how Tempest, a strong-willed intelligent, and very determined mare, gets tricked by a buffoon who doesn't even know the magical artifact he wields. I wished the writers got rid of the storm king altogether and just had Tempest be the sole focus as she's a much more compelling villain/character.
So, we're finished with the first part, and now we enter the badlands…now. We rarely see them in the show. But they're a giant wasteland, and I wish we got to know more about them and why Equestria seems so isolated from the rest of the world. With the badlands having a host of strange and dangerous creatures. But that's my theorist brain churning, and I don't want to derail this blog on my thoughts.
So after the random shady cat dude, Capper tries to sell them (which was obvious, and the song wasn't that great), Tempest conveniently finds and attacks them again. Then comes another part of the movie I wanted more from. I know it's only about an hour and a half, but we barely got to know Celaeno, a pirate forced into the labor of the Storm King. Me personally, I love pirates; I know that in history, they were romanticized despite being rather horrible people who killed and plundered for pleasure. But they were some of the first people to defy the English crown during the early 18th century. Basically, the story of the pirates ended with most taking the king's pardon and giving up pirating. It mirrors what happened with Celaeno seeing a portrait of her as a captain vs. the uniform of the storm king. How she and her crew's freedom was stolen from them and they were forced to be slaves to the will of a tyrant. We all have to decide for ourselves if we wish to be slaves or be free to decide what we want for our lives, but it's much easier said than done. Anyways the part where Rainbow dash performs a Rainboom was animated beautifully. Too bad it pinpointed their exact location.
What I think could have fixed this movie focused more on captain Celaeno. I think they should've, in my opinion, cut out the entire time they were in the badlands and just had the mane six find the pirates. As Caleno seemed to be a fascinating character, a former pirate forced into the labor of the storm king. We could've learned more about her and maybe learn more about how the Storm King took over other lands and kingdoms. We see this being a common theme in the badlands and when they introduce the hippogriffs as well. Maybe Captain Celaeno rebelled against the Storm King and lost, and it takes more than just a song to get her spirits back up. Again, maybe my love of pirates is making me wish they focused on her and the crew more than a random sly cat who was obviously going to betray the mane 6. But I think the movie suffered from having too much shoved into it being an hour and forty minutes long.
Then we get to the part where Twilight uses her friends to try stealing the transformation orb. This is defiantly a remarkable turn of events as people often miscategorize Twilight as a "mary sue." She never was, and this proves it even after the years of learning about friendship and growing she's prone to making rash decisions that lead to disaster. As they not only lose the transformation orb but lose the trust of the hippogriffs altogether. Then she yells at Pinkie pie and really shows Twilight can be pretty cruel.
After Twilight gets captured, you get a fantastic song with Tempest singing open up your eyes. Basically, we see her past showing how she was mutilated by an Ursa minor when she was younger and then became an outcast due to her broken horn. It's a simple story of how her friends made her go into the cave to get a ball they were playing with then they tossed her aside after her injury. Twilight is also in her dark place after betraying her friends this is a perfect part of the movie showing how Twilight is becoming like Tempest. Isolating herself and losing faith in friendship. Then we see a glimpse of the storm king's assault on Equestria with smoke rising and the airships everywhere. It's chilling as the stakes are getting higher.
Then we have the moment where the storm king takes the magic of the princesses, and here's where I think that Tempest should've backstabbed the storm king. It would've been so cool to see Tempest take down this overconfident douchebag and reveal she was playing him all along. It just feels to me that would be more true to her character and how she is, she wouldn't trust the Storm king at all and would have used him to take the power of the princesses for herself then have his army side with her. That would've been such a fantastic twist and make her an even more prominent villain than just a lackey to the storm king.
So…then comes what I think has to be the worst part of the movie where the mane six and their friends infiltrate Canterlot…I get it it's a kid's movie, so they have to play up the goons being idiots. But these guys, in the beginning, were terrifying, enslaving the ponies left and right being so powerful Twilight was going to use the transformation orb to make an army to fight against them. Now they're acting like complete morons for the sake of the plot.
So….the rest of the movie is straightforward, they beat the storm king save the princesses, and Tempest almost sacrifices herself. Then we have songbird Serenade sing a final good song which was pretty good… it's Sia, so of course, it's good, lol…
I knew that this movie wasn't going to be amazing; I'm not disappointed in this movie; I just remember being very skeptical of it with the merchandise and the hype. This will be the reason why I won't judge all of GEN 5 based on the film tomorrow seeing similar red flags with how Hasbro is pushing it. The movies have more eyes on them, so I feel they get filtered a lot more than the shows with what is allowed and how dumbed down it is depending on the suit's wishes over at Hasbro. But overall, I think the best thing about the MLP 2017 movie was the worldbuilding; we get the hippogriffs who get a lot more screen time in season 8 and onward. I also think that Tempest Shadow was the best new character introduced but it's sad we never see her again after the movie. Overall, I'm happy that this movie exists, and it was a fun watch. I just wish it was longer and did better with its characters and tried to trim down on unnecessary parts.
Well said.
I’m personally not all that surprised by anything that Twilight did in the movie. When I think back on how she treated Spike in the first episode of season one it is obvious that she has a bit of a mean streak.
Even though Twilight is presented in much of the series as being an introverted bookworm I think that it is more likely that she was like Diamond Tiara as a filly, but without the benefit of the extreme wealth or connections of the Rich family.
Also, Twilight is not a good leader. I can picture Twilight releasing Cozy Glow, Chrysalis, and Tirek (perhaps out of sympathy given her actions in the 2017 movie) and likely being turned to stone (or even killed by them) leading to an Equestria without her, Celestia, Luna, or Cadence. Princess Celestia probably would have been better off at least trying to get Sunset back as a student. It probably wouldn’t have worked, but it still would have been worth the attempt. The fact that she didn’t even try makes it completely unsurprising to me that Celestia went down without a fight in the movie. I’m not sure why Luna didn’t try to take charge at any point before being turned to stone, but that’s another story.
As for Twilight stealing in the movie that is something that even the CMC (that only barely appear in the film) would know not to do.
In short, I only watched the 2017 movie three or four times at the most, and I might give the new movie at least a single viewing, but at this point (based on the previews) I am not expecting much.