My Little Pony, A New Generation Review (Spoiler Warning!) · 6:39pm Sep 24th, 2021
In case you haven't seen the movie yet, consider this your obligatory warning to stay away until you have seen it.
So after over a year of speculation, anticipation and concern, G5 of MLP is finally upon us. Originally planned to debut in theaters, Hasbro moved it and the t.v. show to Netflix due to the ongoing pandemic (after previously pushing it back from its original planned release in 2020 and the t.v. show's release for this year instead of next year). Of course, some places did see a theatrical release but that's beside the point. After the initial leaks suggested G5 would feature the mane six but in a different world, it would seem that the idea was rejected in favor of what we now have. But the information that was released was quite concerning when it chose to highlight things like "Activism" and the ponies being divided against each other. With all those concerns, this movie was taking a big risk by tying itself to its popular predecessor while also trying to forge a new path forward. Did it succeed in that regard, or did it only prove that G4 was a fluke? Well, let's find out.
We begin on a surprising note, a fully animated appearance of the mane six complete with all their original voice actors returning. And it's done in 2D. But it soon turns out to be these other ponies playing with figurines of the mane six, the three ponies in particular being earth ponies named Sunny Starscout, Hitch Trailblaze and Sprout respectively. And Hitch and Sprout are siblings. Sunny is dismayed that her friends just want to play games where the unicorns and pegasi attack the earth ponies since that's what they've been led to believe. Sunny's father disagrees, having told stories to Sunny about the days of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. He also helps her send a message inviting the pegasi and unicorns to come to Maritime Bay which is where the earth ponies live. Yes, that's right, each of the three pony tribes now live in their own separate cities. Though to be fair, G4 wasn't very consistent with that idea either. Outside of Ponyville it seemed like every city or town was entirely populated by one type of pony (or at least almost entirely one type). Anyway, we cut to Sunny as a young adult as we get our first song "Today's Gonna Be My Day", Sunny's "I Want" song. But in what's going to be a problem for every song in the movie, it seems to lean a little too hard into the modern pop genre. This song feels the most like it's trying to stand out, but the backing music and auto-tuning indicate that they're trying to be pop. A shame really, there's so many good "I Want" songs out there.
Sunny is hoping to get into a presentation of Cantertech, a company that uses fear of unicorns and pegasi to sell various products. Also, at one point Sunny mentions "building a wall" as I swear we see a pony in a red hat appear. This is what led to so many people worrying that the movie was going to get political or even "woke".
Intentional or not, this political undertone creeps into much of the first act as we see Hitch and Sprout's mother apparently named Phyillis who seems to be more or less Maritime Bay's leader. Sunny tries to plead with everypony not to live in fear but she crashes a demonstration and gets attacked by technology intended to be used for self defense. Hitch sees fit to scold her for her behavior, right before a unicorn shows up and everyone starts to panic.
Sunny goes out of her way to save the unicorn, who seems to be oblivious to the panic she's causing. After thwarting an attempted capture of said unicorn, Sunny leads it back to her house and learns the unicorn is named Izzy Moonbeam. She also learns that Izzy can't do magic, and apparently neither can other unicorns. Soon afterward, Hitch shows up to try to arrest Sunny only for Sunny and Izzy to make a run for it and leave Maritime Bay. This leads into the song "I'm Looking Out for You" as the two decide to band together.
Hitch also leaves town in pursuit of Sunny and Izzy, leaving Sprout to take over as sheriff like he always wanted to. Meanwhile, Sunny and Izzy scale a cliff and end up in the pegasus city of Zephyr Heights. They soon get arrested by guards and taken to see the queen alongside her two daughters: Zip and Pip, the latter of whom is a pop star. Zip takes it upon herself to bust Izzy and Sunny out of jail and take them down to an abandoned airport that indicates Zephyr Heights used to be a destination for earth ponies and unicorns. She also reveals that pegasi can't fly, and what she and her family do is done through the use of wires. Sunny's attention is drawn to a display of two crystals, one for pegasi and one for unicorns as she theorizes that that unicorns lost their magic when the two crystals were separated. The only problem is that the pegasus crystal is in the royal crown, though there's an opportunity to swipe it at a royal concert Pip is hosting that night. All goes as planned until the crown is actually stolen, at which point the escape gets botched and the royal family is exposed as frauds.
Meanwhile, back in Maritime Bay, Sprout has risen through the ranks to become emperor. And he's used his power to stir up the crowds with "Angry Mob" as he literally gets the town to form an angry mob.
And Sprout decides that it's time to go on the offensive, much to the dismay of his mother who originally convinced him to become sheriff in Hitch's absence. We then cut back to Sunny and Izzy as Zip, Hitch and Pip all join them since they're more or less outcasts now (and the queen has been arrested). They do manage to get the crown and head to the unicorns' home in a forest, only to find that the unicorns are all glum because they can't do magic. They're also very superstitious. Izzy takes her new friends to her home and decides to dress them up as unicorns as we get the song "Fit Right In" which is confusing since we had a song of the exact same name in Season 9. I mean, this is the better song with that name but were they not aware that the song name had already been used? Anyway, the group infiltrates a tea bar where Sunny wagers the pegasus crystal for a chance to win the unicorn crystal in a game that's basically a ponyfied Dance Dance Revolution.
To make things interesting, Sunny just has to win one out of three, but she loses the first two before Izzy encourages her enough for Sunny to win the third game. Except she's then exposed as an earth pony and it's Hitch who saves the day by exploiting the unicorns' superstitions. The group doesn't get far though before the queen from Zephyr Heights shows up, and the unicorn Sunny battled is apparently the leader of the unicorns given how he gets into an argument with the queen. But Sunny convinces them not to fight and instead let her put the two crystals together. Except nothing happens and Sunny gives up, heading back to Maritime Bay. It's only when she examines a special nightlight her father made that she discovers there was a third crystal for earth ponies. But by now it's too late, Sprout is prepared to go on the offensive with his new invention of Sproticus Maximus.
Izzy and Zip try to help Sunny put the three crystals together back at her house, but Sprout attacks Sunny's house and it begins to crumble. Yet even when the crystals are put together, nothing happens. However, Sunny convinces the three tribes that they need to unite in order for magic to be restored. And when she does so, the crystals all glow and surround her, transforming her into an alicorn princess (though the movie never refers to her as such). It also casts a rainbow glow that brings back all the lost magic, Hitch gets his old job back and Sprout faces no real consequences for what he did. But all is more or less forgiven and peace has been restored. Interestingly, during a mid-credits sequence we see an earth pony foal leave glowing hoofprints that subsequently form a heart of some kind.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the movie? It's pretty good, though like I said the first act kind of gets too political at times with Sunny's message and things like "brainwashing" and advocating for fear. It thankfully gets dropped once Izzy shows up and the movie is all the better for it. Pip and Hitch join the group a little too fast for my tastes, there isn't much build up compared to Izzy's arrival (which is tied to Sunny's message as a child) or Zip opting to bust Sunny and Izzy out of jail to show them a secret. It's odd that Phyillis gets so much focus early on and yet she ends up eclipsed by Sprout for the big bad role. We do get to see how the characters function as a group, though on their own some of them don't stand out particularly well (Pip gets the least amount of development and Izzy kind of doesn't develop not that she needed much to begin with). The mane six cameo at the beginning was unexpected but quite appreciated, but there in lies the biggest problem with this movie. By opting to tie in with G4 but set itself far into the future, it raises a lot of questions about how the Equestria we knew at the end of G4 could become the world we see now. They don't offer a lot of details about what happened to the mane six, where the alicorns or Discord are or if they're still around and most importantly what it was that caused the three pony tribes to become divided and lose their magic. It's possible they wanna save all that for the television series, but these were details that should've been at least partially addressed here. And them not being addressed raises the concerning possibility that like with the 2017 movie opting to tie most of the new characters' backstories and development to secondary material, they may go down a similar route and not ever address directly how G4 became G5.
None of that sinks the movie, it's fine on its own and offers a good launching point for G5. My biggest issue might be how the songs all seemed to blend into the genre of modern pop rather than try to stand out, and how they didn't really establish the unicorns' new world all that well compared to the earth ponies and the pegasi. But I still gladly give this movie an A-.
Well, based on the trailers and teasers, i suspected as much
Honestly, as someone who absolutely LOVES the 2017 movie, I'll admit... this one is better and more enjoyable.
Which, I honestly wasn't expecting.
I definitely expected to like it, sure, but not as much as I actually did.
As for the songs, I love all of them, though for some reason "Danger, Danger" gave me weird "Be Prepared" vibes.
Fit Right In is probably my favorite, though Glowin' Up is a close second.
"Watch us shake our Unicorn butts" might be my favorite lyric.
And as for the characters, I like all of them, though Zipp is probably my favorite.
Hitch isn't related to Phyllis and Sprout.
It's Moonbow, not Moonbeam.
Pipp is the one who encourages Sunny, not Izzy.
Watched this movie, and while I can see the political undertones of the film, I much enjoyed the film. And yes, it leave a plethora of questions. So many that I would probably have as many questions as Sunny did for both Izzy and the Pegasi, probably more.
I will say that I think my favorite scene was when Hitch screamed all four of the words forbidden by Unicorns.
Unicorn Gandalf: *To Hitch*
One other thing is that if that prison that the pegasi had Sunny and Izzy in is their version of prison, I wouldn't mind breaking a rule or two for a few over nighters to stay in those dungeons.
When I saw the mangoes in there, I almost thought there was a subtle hint that bat ponies might get an appearance in the film, but then I told myself not to have high hopes for that. Bat ponies were a fan-made race, with closest canon thing being flutterbat and Luna's carriage pegasi dressed in uniform during Nightmare Night.
I found out something interesting: Elizabeth Perkins who played the mother of Sporut is Wilma from the Flintstones movie and Jane Krakowski who played Queen Haven was Betty from Viva Rock Vegas
I might be the only brony who didn't like the new MLP movie. I have personal reasons why but overall good take.
Political? eh....not really i don't think anyway.
But yeah, for an intro movie it works but leaves A LOT of blanks to be answered and stuff
like you know the other nations! or how the world ended up like this with such extreme revisonist history and the like.
Also how the sun and moon work without magic now appernelty.
I rather enjoyed it and Sunny has became my favorite of G5 so far and Sprout is such a moma's boy he is abdl material for sure.
Personally, I thought that the movie had some good highlights. However, it just wasn’t as awesome as people were making it out to be. Some of the flaws you noted were also the reasons as to why I think so.
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You’re not the only one, actually.
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https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/965392/how-i-feel-about-gen-5-so-far
Link to my blog on my thoughts