My Little Pony: A new Generation · 11:24am Sep 24th, 2021
My Little Pony: A New Gen is a mixed bag. It has a good setup that builds itself on the legends of FiM, and is a film about the monsters we make ourselves to be. It shows how prejudice and stereotype can be pervasive in culture, playing on our fears of the out-group. It's just a shame the story beats feel so forced, with a portion of the cast being under-developed. The resolution also feels rushed, with more focus being on the friendship between primary characters rather than others making an effort to dismantle unjust systemic problems.
Pipp is the worst. Her only character trait is: Social Media Influencer. That's it. She doesn't have much of a reason to join the cast, much less become their friend, beyond "the plot says so". So while there's a lot to like about the film, especially the adult characters looking at the consequences of their prejudice in light of what's in front of them, it falls short of the legacy it's trying to capitalise on. Which is a shame, given how much it wants you to think about FiM as the standards
Light 7/10
I kind of think, while most of what you say is valid, which could have been fixed with a longer run time to, at the very least, flesh out the main characters chemistry, I say it still did it’s job I’m both living up and exceeding the standard set by FIM by making, at the very least, a set up for far more mature stories that it’s previous generations could never dream of. Plus, if nothing else, you can still feel like everyone who worked on this movie had the same passion as everyone had in with FIM.
And also also, the fact FIM, as good as it was, left a lot for improvement turned out to be a good thing as it created opportunities for many fan creatives to make their own stories, and I’m hoping in the time between the movie and this series is the same. Heck, I’ve already been working on ideas of an AU EQG version where Izzy is a trans girl and Zipp is non-binary based on what I’ve seen/wish I could see more of down the line, which I consider a win 💜