Thoughts on 'My Little Pony: A New Generation'

Eh.

Wait, that's not long enough? Okay.

When I first read about the G5 movie, I was... not happy with how it was going to invalidate everything G4 did. But after watching the movie, my fears were unfounded; aside from the opening, 'A New Generation' has no connection to Twilight Sparkle or her friends. Heck, with some cuts and a few edits, all references to G4 could be removed without affecting the story at all. For all the talk about using the rich backstory and world of G4, 'A New Generation' does nothing with it. There's no world building, no revisiting familiar locations, no explaining how the Macguffins fit into a world where the Elements of Harmony existed, or even a cameo from those who would be really long-lived (not to mention explaining how all three races are still alive when the Windigos would have turned them into corpsicles long ago). All the G4 references feel like a lure to reel in established fans and nothing else. Oh, and once again, Earth ponies have no abilities or skills that put them on equal footing with their flying and magic-casting brethren.

As for the movie itself, it's nothing special. I didn't find any of the characters all that interesting or the story compelling, aside from how heavily it leans into, 'Being open minded is good, being conservative is bad' theme. The idea of all three races having split apart is ripe for exploring how and why that happened, but that question is never addressed. Villain-wise, Nightmare Moon would crush Sheriff and would-be emperor Sprout into bloody goop and laugh at how non-threatening they are. So would Chrysalis, Tirek, the Storm King, Tempest, or even Cozy Glow. Yes, this is a show ultimately for kids, but so was 'Friendship is Magic,' and they made the aforementioned antagonists effective and memorable villains.

In many ways, 'A New Generation,' feels like the previous film in that it explores new areas, has hijinks there with new characters, and is largely a standalone story. It's serviceable, it gets the job done, and has no flaws or errors that ruin it, but neither does it do anything particularly memorable. The upcoming show will no doubt have more world-building and explore what happened to Equestria over the decades, and I'm grateful that 'A New Generation' doesn't go the route of so many legacy sequels that invalidate what the previous protagonists did and cast them as failures due to Twilight and Co. having been dead for at least several decades, but I was still curious to see how Equestria had changed since Twilight took the throne, and I got a world that's Equestria in name only. G5 may grow into a compelling world in time, but it would have been better served by leaving G4 behind completely.