[x-post from /r/MLP] My 6500 word review of G5.

Introduction & Production Notes

This is a mostly-unedited translation of the original text of my review on Reddit translated from Markdown to BBCode. It was written over the course of Novemver 2021 and published on Thanksgiving Day. Yes, the original publication date is relevant due to the puns.

I additionally apologize for not stuffing in even more links. This review is already pushing up against the 40,000 character limit for a single Reddit post, so some sections may be thinner than I would prefer. Here’s a gallery of images that inspired this review. Connecting images not directly linked to the various sentences is left as an exercise to the reader. For readers on Fimfiction, I may expand some parts if you are very polite in asking. Our length limit is significantly longer over here.

This also serves as my retrospective review of the 2017 Movie. Let’s get started!

Summary

• The 2017 movie was worse than I remembered it
• Friendship is Magic, Parts 1 & 2 was significantly better than my memory said it should be
• The story beats of ANG felt like the plot of the FiM pilot stretched to movie length and padded with songs.

Visuals

This department is where the 2017 movie is the most relevant comparison, as both attempted to add a third dimension to Equestria. Given my above summary on the comparison of the movies, my overall opinion of the visuals is a good metaphor for my overall relative opinions of the two films. MLP: The Movie (2017) looks better in stills but is occasionally janky in animation. MLP: ANG has very uncanny stills but looks way nicer once the ponies are allowed to move.

Ponies

3-D is a mixed quality bag for the ponies of both movies. Unfortunately for the 2017 movie, one of the ponies the new style was less successful on also happened to be the protagonist. One of her better poses makes it clear just how bad the 2017 movie wished it were in the Disney canon. Re-watching clips of the G5 movie to write and inspire this review revealed that the 3-D models work best while in motion and on an iPhone screen compared to being zoomed in and watching a short clip on repeat for details. Faic moments as well as great moments in animation (smear frames, etc…) are present whether in FiM, 2017 movie, or the new movie. FiM solved the problem of the giant eyes on the ponies facing the camera at all angles by giving them a skull that changes shape depending on the camera angle. Neither the new movie nor the 2017 movie fully squared that circle, but ANG does a better job so long as you don’t look too close. IMO, this is the second-weakest single aspect of the new movie. When paused at just the wrong time, it is readily apparent that their eyes are often way too far apart.

Two horse details to note are their wings and frogs. I’m curious if the TV-style series will continue to have such different wing styles between Zipp and Pipp. The heart-shaped frogs are a nice touch. Unlike FiM, where the underhoof was always left unadorned, G5 seems to have given IRL equine frogs the same treatment that they have IRL horse heads. It works better than one would first expect. Finally, zooming in on closeups of the ponies reveals that the animation team used a felt-like texture for their coats, compared to the flatness of G4 pony coats.

Backgrounds

The art deco of Zephyr Heights was a highlight of the movie. Bridlewood’s forest had strong Everfree vibes. Both Zephyr Heights and Maretime Bay had movie posters and propaganda advertisements I appreciated. They’re there if you notice them but the camera does not make a point to linger: it’s on you, the viewer, to pause the movie if you want to see everything. Background details are a strong positive quality signal—high-quality shows like Bojack Horseman are full of them.

Other creatures

These were the weakest part of the film’s visual design. The idea that amorphously fat == 7cute is a firm marker that the movie was a children’s toy commercial first and did not have to turn out as well as it did. The marketing materials focusing on “the world’s cutest flying Pomeranian” were a non-trivial part of setting my expectations for this movie so low.

Motion

In spite of all my ambivalence about the ponified visuals, it was seeing this clip of Sunny rollerblading that flipped my opinion of the then-forthcoming 5^th generation of ponies from “almost certainly rubbish” to “cautiously optimistic”. The earlier leaks as well as some official merchandise and marketing material had soured my expectations to the point of “there’s no possible way this could turn out good”. This was also the first motion clip I saw: Sunny looks infinitely better here than in most of the leaked stills and tie-in merchandise released previously.

Music

Significantly more syncopated than Daniel Ingram’s FiM songs, especially in the bass line. When re-watching FiM, Parts 1 & 2, I was struck at just how much electric guitar and banjo were in the background music. The more electric ANG music fit the overall movie well: it was fast-paced and avoided lingering on any one moment for the magic to dissipate or a joke to land flat. Even the syncopation and dovetailing of the vocal melodies leaned into the relentless optimism of the movie. Rather than wait for beat 1 to start the next phrase, it would start sometime during beat 4 and allow for no gaps or downtime.

Quick thoughts on the 2017 soundtrack

Again, this movie desperately wishes it were from Disney. I found most of the songs to be considerably downtempo from where I would expect My Little Pony songs to be. The opening “We Got This Together” was my favorite and most FiM-like. The visuals during “One Small Thing”, even more than its composition, were what sealed the opinion on the wannabe Disney nature of The Movie (2017). “Time to be Awesome”, in particular, could have been improved by being around 15 BPM faster. However, the cave-like reverb on the drums meant that the music could not go much faster without becoming a muddy mess.

Gonna be my Day

I don’t have much to say about this song other than it was enjoyable and a good introduction to our protagonist and Sprout. It does start the trend that every single song in this movie was calculated to be an earworm.

Looking Out For You

Beyond making every song memorable, another thing the music did well was to highlight Sunny’s amazing chemistry with Izzy. “I’m Looking Out for You” is obviously their duet, but “You’ll Fit Right In” may as well be a second duet for the pair with interjections and a guest verse by Hitch. As I’ll discuss in the characters section, Izzy could have been an equally credible protagonist instead of Sunny for everything except the beginning. Re-watching her duets with Sunny is what fully sold me on this opinion. While on the topic of “I’m Looking Out For You”, this track is the best example of the increased syncopation compared to Daniel Ingram’s music. The vocal lines have a rhythm reminiscent of Gloria Estefan. However, their melodic content is more in line with the brass stabs of the Miami Sound Machine than with Ms. Estefan’s vocals.

In spite of this increased syncopation, this is also the song that could be grafted into FiM with the least modification. If FiM was more open to exploring the lives of the M6 before Twilight’s arrival in Ponyville, this song would have been an ideal duet for either Rarity or Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. For that matter, if S8E17 had been structured to include a song after the climax, this would be what Rainbow Dash and Rarity would sing to one another.

One last note before moving on, the line “a pony gone missing from Pegasus-ing” comes to mind. I misheard it as “another pony…” and got to wondering just how many unicorns before Izzy “went missing from Pegasus-ing”.

Danger Danger (Angry Mob)

I find it to be an interesting choice how this song and “You’ll Fit Right In” both used largely metaphorical background visuals while the action in the other songs were clearly meant to be interpreted literally. I do not think there was a conscious effort to connect those two specific songs in that way, but I liked how the musical numbers were primarily backed with action meant to represent the reality in Equestria rather than being a break from the plot for the characters to sing or, worse, a big-lipped alligator moment. Even these two songs mixed allegorical imagery with literal action, rather than being separate like the music video reviews during Beavis & Butt-Head.

In terms of being a villain song, this hits the mark. Sprout lays out his plans and gathers his mooks. More importantly for the plot of the movie, it’s where Maretime Bay is convinced that the best defense is a strong offense. Time for a preemptive strike before Zephyr Heights has the opportunity to use its wings of mass destruction.

Glowin’ Up

I don’t have much to say about this one. It does get a full performance during the end credits. I look forward to hearing Pipp sing to the other ponies extemporaneously rather than being part of a performance.

Fit Right In

This one is the big enchilada. When the visuals are considered along with the music, it is obvious that the whole team aimed for this song to be their “Winter Wrap-Up” moment: this is when everything clicks and it shows the show running with all cylinders engaged. No wonder this was the clear fan favorite. As a wish for the future of G5, I’d love to see what the team can do when they put their minds toward a real “Winter Wrap-Up” moment where all the main characters sing and background ponies pop into frame to deliver their interjections. “Fit Right In” was an excellent test. Now let’s see what they can do once they let the pegasi join the vocal fun.

Musically, this song fulfills the desire to have an eclectic range… to make it as unpredictable as they can. This song is pure musical theater. Especially when listening to the single release with its extra lines, it’s right out of the genre: not only do the characters sing to one another, they are also quite specific about the plot developments. With the high-energy tempo close to 176 and the brass stabs, it’s outright fun to listen to. Of particular note are the syncopated piano notes during Izzy’s and Sunny’s first verses. Every time I hear them, I think I’m listening to off-brand Elton John. Re-orchestrate it so it’s just keys and drums, and it could then be played by the pit orchestra of a Broadway production.

My only real criticism of this song is that the transition from “watch us shake our unicorn butts” «image not included for Rule 2 compliance» into Izzy rapping about unicorn horns was the one time I was pulled out of the movie. In terms of being an unexpected transition, they over-delivered to the point of being jarring. Interestingly, that same transition is much less jarring when listening to that song in isolation. For that matter, I found the entire Bridlewood section to be the movie’s weakest section. It never got bad, but it got the closest to some of my most-disliked tropes, which I’ll discuss in the next section. Finally, the conclusion of Izzy’s rap was that of a child’s rap done right. Similar to a child, she keeps using the same word ending with increasing excitement. Unlike children, she never runs out of steam before she means to finish. No running out of breath or stumbling words for her.

As I noted in the Visuals section, there was a paucity of horse-isms in ANG compared to the pilot of FiM. However, equine puns are in full abundance during the songs. There’s an important world-building note that is casually dropped near the beginning of “You’ll Fit Right In”: rather than referring to earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns as “races” or “tribes”, they are “a bunch of different breeds”.

It’s Alright

Again, I don’t have much to say. It was diegetic music for equine DDR and, like Glowin’ Up, got a full performance during the credits.

Plot

In terms of plotting and pacing, ANG borrowed heavily from the FiM pilot. Copy from the best. Not only are there many parallel story beats, but they also occur roughly at the same playback percentage.

The Movie (2017)

One of the aspects of this movie I disliked the most (while also being most in line with real episodes of FiM) is that it had two plot developments caused by characters making inexplicably stupid decisions. Both Rainbow Dash getting high on her own supply and capping her song with a rainboom during a stealth mission and Twilight Twilighting and going on a solo heist while her friends sing a diplomatic song are in character. What is not in character is having both of these events within 20 minutes of each other in the same movie. It felt like the writers needed an excuse to have the M6 dropped into the next set piece and resolved that dilemma by making a pony do something to get themselves kicked out.

The closest the new movie came to a character making inexplicably stupid decisions due to a lack of genre-savvy was, of course, when Sunny bet the Pegasus crystal in her quest for the unicorn crystal. Had she been given slightly more genre-savvy, she would have assumed that there was no way Alphabittle would have let a mere 2x2 cube be the challenge. After all, “a special prize calls for a special competition”. Thankfully, the writers didn’t go for the cringe comedy route of saddling Sunny with comic ineptitude at cubing. Perhaps they could have shown her cubic fumbles during the prologue and then the DDR competition would have been saving her by the bell, but they gave us no reason to doubt Sunny’s claim that she could win cubing with her eyes wide shut.

Prologue

While the 2017 movie has an introductory section, it doesn’t have a real prologue. Both the FiM pilot and ANG have a double prologue. The double prologues both start with a story from ancient Equestria before transitioning to the present characters acting or reading the events of the pre-prologue. After the rest of the second prologue, there’s a jump (temporal for ANG, physical for FiM) to the main narrative.

In ANG, Sunny is the protagonist specifically so that the movie could have this prologue and introduce Sunny, Sprout, and Hitch right off the starting block. As I’ll discuss in the characters section, Sunny isn’t the only credible protagonist in this film. However, selecting her to be the main heroine lets other character introductions happen more organically than if the film followed Izzy.

As an aside, Twilight’s Canterlot bedroom was one swanky suite. I’m surprised the animation team didn’t re-use it to be Luna’s bedroom. It probably gets too much sunlight for Luna.

Character Introductions

• 2017 movie skipped these entirely because it assumed that anyone who watched it already had familiarity with the M6.
• FiM, Part 1 introduced the characters one at a time to Twilight while Part 2 showed them using their talents one by one.
• ANG accumulated its cast. Sunny didn’t meet Izzy, then Zipp, then Hitch and Pipp. Each new member added to the group rather than the entire group assembling at once.

One of the two points that made it obvious just how much inspiration ANG took from FiM, Parts 1 & 2 was the mane cast being fully assembled to start their adventure right at the halfway mark.

The Spark

Here is the other element heavily shared with Twilight’s journey in FiM. Both the physical Elements and the crystals turned out to be superfluous. It was the friendship between ponies that contained the real magic. It was once Sunny/Twilight realized that fact when the full power of the magic could be released. For Sunny, it took two moments of “it didn’t work”. Twilight had the realization forced on her when Nightmare Moon broke the stones containing the physical Elements.

Although both FiM (pt. 2) and ANG featured a reformation of the fellowship before the climax, the reasons the ponies separated are different enough that it seems more of an incidental structural similarity than deliberate inspiration.

Wrap-Up

Here’s an element where both FiM, Part 2 and the 2017 movie did a better job than ANG. Namely, ANG had quite an abrupt ending. While it wrapped up all the plot threads of the movie itself, the ending more or less was:

1. Sprout swerves his mecha to avoid flattening his mother
2. Sunny restores magic with her pronouncement that it is the friendship between ponies that causes magic
3. Roll credits

Both FiM stories took the time to have a full party scene to celebrate the victory and give the cast a chance to make their concluding remarks. Twilight gets to ask Princess Celestia for an extension to stay in Ponyville. In the movie, she took the time to invite Tempest on the path of friendship while everypony else listened to Sia. As a movie, there is nothing wrong with the abrupt ending of ANG. The story was complete. As the introduction to G5 as a whole, I would have liked for these ponies who live in segregated communities to have made some plans on how they can remain friends once they go back home and maintain their magic. They don’t have to show the follow-through on screen (that’s what the G5 series is for), but an acknowledgment that xenophobia will soon re-establish if they remain segregated would have been a better setup for the rest of the series. If we assume everypony made friends at the end and then went home, that would have been like Twilight returning to Canterlot at the end of the FiM pilot.

G4 connections

Plot holes?

A common element in negative reviews of ANG are the supposed plot holes caused by its connection to FiM. However, the majority of these so-called holes have an obvious explanation. They may become genuine holes later if the series chooses to explore them and comes up with nonsense that makes for a good episode at the expense of a coherent story, but that would be a problem with G5 as a whole more so than the new movie.

• Discord, wendigos, changelings, etc… are all highly magical creatures who would cease to exist in an Equestria without magic.
• As for Yaks, dragons, griffs, etc., we have only seen three purely pony towns. If the series chooses to introduce them, this would be a place to tread extra-carefully
• Big Princess Twilight: If Celestia got sick of ruling after a millennium, why wouldn’t Twilight? Her succession plan obviously did not work out as well as expected.

The one plot hole that I’ve noticed yet seemingly no one else has commented on is the fact that the ponies have cutie marks. In a non-magical Equestria, just how do ponies obtain them? Is there some low-level latent magic that activates? Is it a leftover tradition that somehow has been maintained among all three breeds for ponies to visit the tattoo parlor once they feel they’ve found their calling?

Ease of severing the connection

In spite of all the above, it would be a bait-and-switch if the entirety of the connection between G4 and G5 is the prologue to ANG and the shared logo on Sunny’s journal and the ZH airship dock. The rest of G5 had better take some time to explore just what happened in Ancient Equestria to cause ponies to move apart and lose their magic. That said, the movie production team kept their options open should the executives make a last-minute decision to sever the connection. All that would need to change is to ax the first 90 seconds, make a few dialogue tweaks during the rest of the prologue, and change the shared logo to something other than Twilight’s cutie mark.

Overall Feel

This is the section where the new movie simultaneously pulls farthest ahead of the 2017 movie and is left in the dust by the FiM pilot.

The Good (a.k.a. Improvements from 2017)

Short Metaphor

The 2017 movie was the fat kid who everyone liked because of his intensely gregarious personality. A New Generation is that same kid 15 years later after he got a well-paying job that afforded him a personal trainer. He no longer has a personality because it was replaced with self-confidence.

Longer Comparison

I read more than one opinion expressed that “the 2017 movie was for bronies while the new movie is for children”. Not only do I agree, but I’d also go so far as to say that is specifically why the new movie is better as a movie. The 2017 movie was highly confused as to what it wished to be: was it My Little Pony, a Disney animated film, or an Avengers movie? A New Generation set clearer, though lesser, goals and achieved them. This is also why I’ll say it’s not quite as good as the FiM pilot after the sidebar by what exactly I meant by “Avengers movie”. ANG had a story to tell while the 2017 movie had many cool scenes to show.

That’s not to say that there was no fan service in ANG—“watch us shake our unicorn butts” is equal parts fan service to bronies who watch it for the plot as well as children who find the concept of the gluteus maximus inherently funny. Sunny’s flirtatious personality, which I’ll discuss later, arguably could be fan service if you don’t view it as a particularly equine way to convince other ponies to move out of your way. For that matter, the backstory of Ancient Equestria itself could have been there to draw in bronies. The plot in ANG simply never grinds to a halt to give us time to appreciate the nods to the fandom—the most obvious part from the 2017 movie were the long panning shots that were there to show that everyone’s favorite ponies from Ponyville had traveled to Canterlot right when the Storm King attacked.

Sidebar: “Avengers Movie”

Note that I did not say “Marvel movie” or “comic book film”. I specifically meant the big ensemble productions with Avengers in the title. The four criteria are:

1. A large cast
2. That has been Flanderized
3. Who must all be shown on screen
4. And who must each say their catchphrase(s) or else the fans may boycott the merch

The 2017 movie being for us bronies played directly into being Avengers-like. Why were Fluttershy & AJ part of the film? Because they’re part of the Mane Six and it wouldn’t be a FiM film if they stayed in Ponyville. Giving the fans what they want (such as loads and loads of fan-favorite ponies in the background) does not necessarily lead to a cohesive narrative. Rainbow Dash, in particular, felt one-note “Awesome”.

The OK, I guess

Honestly, even a week or three after my second viewing, the new movie shine still hasn’t worn off. However, I still have a gut feeling that this new movie smell is that of sugar and not marble. Nonetheless, it has withstood more opportunities for rain than I expected.

Just how well-produced all the other aspects are made the movie feel tame and corporate. The FiM pilot aimed higher and achieved those goals. This movie smashed it out of the park in a much smaller stadium. It’s hard to describe, but watching Twilight make some friends and then learn their talents in the Everfree had more heart than this film. Perhaps it was the lack of standout musical numbers that made FiM better. FiM packed a surprising amount of goodness into 44 minutes of total run time without ever feeling like a ferret on methamphetamine. The breathless pace of the new movie combined with its double run time perhaps is where the soul got diluted. In some ways, the new movie’s plot was like riding the Millennium Falcon: it’s so smooth that you never feel like you’re falling 300 feet at 93 mph—you’re moving so fast that the feeling is identical to gliding slowly. A New Generation played it safe and it paid off.

Selected Character Reviews

Yes, locations are treated as characters in this section.

Note on comparisons to FiM’s Mane Six

Plenty of opinions have been shared regarding how the spirit of FiM’s Mane Six lives on in the five protagonists of ANG. However, I do have some disagreements with the characterizations. Often, it feels like the reviewer is trying to shoehorn in some way for each of the M6 to be reflected in the G5 protagonists.

The best FiM episodes with a focus on Twilight have two distinct characterizations of Twilight: Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and Twilight Sparkle, Lover of Books. “Book Horse” and “Friendship Princess” will be used as shorthand, respectively. Many of the characterization misfires on Twilight were misfired by combining both halves of her character. When making Twilight comparisons, I’ll specify which Twilight is the one that fits.

Maretime Bay

One of the best fantasy portrayals of living in the USA between January 2002 and March 2003. To be scared is to be prepared. Unfortunately, the antagonist won IRL.

(HRH?) Princess Zipp

I do not know whether all the royal pegasi style themselves as “Her Royal Horse” or if that title is reserved for the big boss mare, Queen Haven.

Her head shimmy on the runway at the end of “You’ll Fit Right In” after Pipp’s shoulder shake is what sealed the deal on making her my favorite pony. Unlike Rainbow Dash, Zipp has both the confidence and competence to dress up to go undercover. If it were a run-of-the-mill FiM episode, Dash would have comically screwed up the costume or pouted at it being too frou-frou and feminine. Instead, she chooses to vibe to the music without a single worry in her mind. As much as I hate the obnoxiously obvious comparison, Zipp is Scootaloo+Book Horse (at least for the duration of the film). Whether the refreshing lack of comic ineptitude will last into the G5 series remains to be seen.

Another element that remains to be seen is Zipp’s singing voice. Even Rainbow Dash had regular songs in FiM. However, we did not get to her Zipp sing. I will not fault the film itself for this, as trying to stuff in content for everypony is one of my criticisms of the 2017 movie as well as many FiM ensemble episodes. However, it would demand an in-universe explanation if she never sings for us during the rest of the G5 series.

One final continuity to look forward to in future G5 installments: Zipp’s relationship with her mother. She’s evidently disinterested in being the boss mare of Zephyr Heights, but she’s also no republican in line for the throne. Once she is queen, she’ll be a philosopher-queen of natural philosophy. Mostly, she’s currently uninterested. Her mom isn’t in frail health and there was no hint of republicanism among the populace until after the royal family was outed for being phony ponies full of bologna.

Sprout

Our golden-maned antagonist. His off-putting petulant nature makes him an ideal child villain. Even children who are too young to understand why what he says makes him the bad guy will root against him simply for being annoying. One of the better depictions of the archetype of the child villain I’ve seen. Although his mane style and refusal to leave office on Hitch’s return were probably inspired by a recent US president, his overall persona was closer to the North Korean dictatorial family or Qaddafi than the boss of The Apprentice. If nothing else, he had a goal in mind of what he wanted after he seized power.

About him filling the role of a child villain, ANG had even more ambiguous age coding than FiM. Sunny, Sprout, & Hitch are shown being the same age in the prologue and it’s implied that Izzy is also the same age (barring some epileptic tree theory that the lantern was aloft for several years before it landed when Izzy was a filly). However, Sprout is portrayed as the petulant child overly dependent on his mother while the other three are all independent adults (despite being the same age). There’s not much age reference for the pegasus princesses other than Zipp being older. They could be younger than the other ponies. Then again, it’s not unexpected for IRL royal families to have 45-year-olds living at home under the thumb of their matriarch. Assuming the forthcoming series is slice-of-life, I look forward to seeing more hints into the day jobs of Sunny, Izzy, and Zipp.

Hitch

In terms of emotional development, he should be the protagonist. If any pony from ANG followed Book Horse’s journey from being annoyed at having to waste time making friends instead of performing her job, it was Hitch. Likewise, both Book Horse & Hitch end their introduction with first-hoof knowledge of the value of friendship. However, the movie would need to be restructured to accommodate Hitch in the starring role. Instead, it’s a movie focused on Izzy & Sunny with Hitch and the pegasi as necessary supports. Understandably so, considering how much of Hitch’s actions are in reaction to some scheme cooked up by Sunny.

Bridlewood

One of the better cinematic illustrations of [Tamas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamas_(philosophy)) I’ve seen. Perhaps a metaphor for depression, but tamas fits better than the more clinical “depression”. However, towns with a strong representation of the other two gunas are not present in this movie.

Bridlewood’s entrance had strong Everfree Forest vibes. If the towns in ANG are far-future rebuildings over places we knew and loved from FiM’s Equestria, it would be safe to say that Bridlewood is Ponyville after the breeds parted ways. In spite of Ponyville being a town founded by earth ponies, the unicorns inherited it in the divorce. Along these same lines, Zephyr Heights is likely to be either Manehattan, Las Pegasus, or Canterlot. Personally, I’m inclined toward the Canterlot theory because:

1. It’s closer to the other cities.
2. ZH is built on a butte in a way those other two towns are not.

Of course, what makes Bridlewood so important is its contrast to a certain resident.

Izzy

The usual comparison I’ve seen in everyone else’s reviews has been to Pinkie Pie. However, for an even tighter fit between Izzy and a FiM character, we need to leave our precious ponies behind and journey all the way to the Silent Order of Artiodactyla. That’s right: Autumn Blaze is an inspiration for Izzy. Izzy’s relation to Bridlewood is what makes Autumn fit better than Pinkie. After all, “the first friends I’ve had to use” her tea set didn’t arrive in her abode until around one hour into the movie. She went out seeking those friends in Maretime Bay for a reason. As to why she set out when she did, we do not yet know. The invitation had been with her since she was a filly, so all we know is that she did not immediately act on it. No magic in Equestria means there is no stream of silence into which other unicorns could dump Izzy to make her manageable.

OK, Autumn Blaze has the same manic energy as the pink pony. The usual comparisons aren’t wrong. Still, a 💯% purified Pinkie Pie doesn’t fit quite right. Rarity turning herself into Pinkie Pie sits better. Note: this isn’t a fusion of Rarity and Pinkie nor somewhere right in the middle. Rather, Izzy has the sanguine outside affections and cotton candy mane as Pinkie over the inexhaustible competence-inspired self-confidence (and horn) of Rarity. It’s hard to say exactly what a purely-Pink Izzy would have done in Bridlewood simply because Pinkie had arguably the most inconsistent characterization in FiM. However, faking a phony protrusion to make a bony illusion—while not out of character for Pinkie Pie—is a move straight out of Rarity’s book.

From what we’ve seen in the movie, Izzy is a galaxy-brained shitposter, not a class clown. Rather than set up and receive slapstick gags, she instead consistently performs for an audience. Crucially, the camera mare is not a member of this audience (or she’s an accomplished enough actress to pull off that illusion). She’s either oblivious (such as her entrance to Maretime Bay) or deliberately playing a bit at pretty much all times. She’s a mare for whom dropping the act and being serious for a moment is more of an act than continuing the Izzy show. While other ponies may wear a mask, Izzy is her own mask. Her hard inner truths are casually dropped in conversation and moved on from rather than taking a moment to let the gravity of her words settle.

Sunny

Why is this mare our protagonist?

In terms of accepting the other pony breeds at first sight, she’s pretty much equal to Izzy and not that far ahead of Zipp. The movie easily could have followed either of those mares as its protagonist. As discussed previously, Hitch is the pony who went through the most emotional development during the film. So, why Sunny?

First, let’s answer why they introduced us to three characters who were so similarly alienated from their respective societies.

1. Izzy is the friendless extrovert
2. Sunny is an extrovert too driven by her mission to notice that she only has a single tenuous friendship.
3. While we haven’t seen evidence one way or the other about her friendships, Zipp is similarly dedicated to her mission and—if she is similarly lonely as Sunny & Izzy—too introverted to care.
4. Although she’s not in the running for the role of the protagonist, we also do not know what sort of friendships Pipp has. All we know is that she has a large parasocial following. Let’s hope the G5 series follows up on this rather than leave it as early-installment weirdness of the movie.
5. Since I’ve ranked the mane cast from most to least lonely, Hitch is the one who is implied to have healthy friendships. Sprout is much more jealous than lonely.

Why are the three ponies who did the most the malcontents? To ensure that Sunny was not a morality Sue. When descriptions of the movie described Sunny as “an activist working to restore friendship to Equestria”, that was yet another marker to lower expectations. When described like that and no other details, my thoughts were that the plot structure would be as follows:

1. Sunny annoys the road apples out of everypony for 90 minutes
2. Sunny is proven to have been right all along
3. Roll credits

Instead, it was only once she gained friends through outside circumstances that she was able to make a difference. Her direct action during the Canterlogic demonstration was merely an amusing annoyance. It was once she befriended Izzy that the real journey began. Sunny was not the only pony in all Equestria who could restore its magic. In terms of seeking adventure, Izzy was more instrumental in starting the story than Sunny. Importantly, the two of them met Zipp and made her day “a lot more interesting”. Again, it was neither Zipp’s research nor Sunny’s activism that was the catalyst to restore magic: it was Izzy’s decision to take a long walk to find some friends.

Why Sunny and not Izzy, then?

While it’s obvious that the pegasi could not function as protagonists for this movie because they do not show up until halfway through the story, Izzy remains a credible protagonist. Follow her journey out of Bridlewood and into Maretime Bay, then let the rest of the movie proceed as written. It’s Sunny because Maretime Bay is a better protagonist’s home than Bridlewood.

1. Following Sunny in the prologue also introduces us to Sprout & Hitch
2. While all three cities have negative stereotypes about the other breeds, Maretime Bay is the most vocally paranoid about them. They are the only ones who actively remind each other of stranger danger, while the other two towns have negative stereotypes but never have much reason to discuss them.

Misc. Sunny notes

• One final note about the decision to make Izzy & Zipp equals in their respective dissatisfaction with society: it’s a backdoor to a believable “you’re not alone” narrative. Unlike the conventional “not the only one” narratives, all three genuinely are alone within their respective communities. Yes, there are others who share your desire to make the world a better place, but you may need to leave your neighborhood to find them.
• Sunny and Izzy have no problems ignoring personal bubbles. Sunny specifically likes to nudge Hitch and Izzy. Izzy has a focus on getting close & personal with Sunny. In IRL horse terms, that’s a sign of affection or a demand to clear the way.
• Those leaks that claimed G5 would be a rebooted FiM with an earth pony book horse were correct in one way: the protagonist is an earth pony friendship princess.

Hopes & fears for the rest of G5

ANG was a wildly successful tech demo. It was too self-contained to be a movie-length cinematic trailer for the forthcoming G5 TV series. However, it showed what the creative team could do when they’re allowed to run on all cylinders. An alternate title could be My Little Pony: A New Dimension. They came remarkably close to challenging the truth that 2-D > 3-D.

What we know about the forthcoming G5 series is that there is a 44-minute special and two seasons with at least 23 total 22-minute episodes and three more specials happening sometime. What is unknown is how strict those runtimes will be. A gripe I had with FiM was its strict timetable. Episodes often felt padded or wrapped up out of nowhere due to the hard time limit. I also couldn’t find whether the 23 episode number was the total between the two seasons or the episode count for G5S1. It is my hope that the new series learns from FiM and either wraps up the story or embraces its new nature as a soap opera if it gets extended long beyond its original series finale. Let the mane cast change once the story of the old cast is complete. Further, assuming it is released in traditional Netflix fashion, I hope the writers take advantage of bingeability to write more secondary stories and implied story arcs for background ponies. My #1 fear for the whole of G5 is that it doesn’t learn from FiM. After all, FiM had an even better premier, so my current G5 trepidation is based on the fact that a strong opening has little correlation with overall series quality.

Beyond the obvious further exploration of connections to Ancient Equestria, I would love to find out more about G5 Equestria. Currently, we only know of three segregated settlements. It would be either a major plot hole or imply dark themes out of character for My Little Pony if those were the three remaining pony towns for all Equestria.

Best Pony

Zipp.

tl;dr Conclusion

Gonna be gonna be gonna be my day (be my day)