My Little Pony: The Movie wants to be more than a toy commercial and succeeds in this with a serious adventure plot, excellent Disney-style songs and villains who will give you chills – even as adult.
My Little Pony: The Movie starts out in the capital city of Equestria, Canterlot, with a short introduction of Equestrias ruling princesses and Princess Twilight Sparkles five, best friends, as well as her loyal dragon assistant Spike, to get audiences not familiar with these characters up to speed.
Princess Twilights anxieties about organizing the big Friendship Festival lead into a cheerful song her friends try to lift her spirits with, but soon, the happiness gets interrupted as a menacing airship emerges from a dark, foreboding cloud in the sky.
Out of it step Commander Tempest Shadow and her partner Grubber, both of them there on behalf of the Storm King, who wants to conquer Equestria and get ahold of the magic of Equestrias four rulers, including Princess Twilight.
It does not take long until Tempest Shadow, with a surprisingly strong magic for the fact that her unicorn horn is broken, takes out three of the princesses.
Princess Twilight can evade the fate of her fellow princesses thanks to the help of one of her citizens, a gray pegasus mare going by the name of Derpy Hooves, but vastly outnumbered by the Storm Kings invading army, she can only flee, not without saving one of the other princesses from getting shattered to pieces of the statue she has been turned into, though.
After escaping from Canterlot in the last moment, Princess Twilight and her friends embark on a charmingly-classical heros journey to the south to find the mysterious “Queen of the Hippos”, last words spoken by Twilights mentor and co-princess, Celestia.
Their journey leads them through a variety of different environments, including a desert town with nefarious citizens and an underwater capital (possible by a transformation into the sea creatures who live there), and mentions of never seen locations like the “Badlands” or the mystical-sounding “Blackskull Island” give the audience the immersive feeling that there is more in this world beyond the confines of the screen.
As classical as the journey is their enemy, the fearsome Storm King, a yeti-like tyrant who wants to increase his power and influence with the help of an old relic that allows for the control of storms, but needs yet to be charged with magic.
Across the seven seasons of the ongoing animated TV series, Equestria had seen various, similar villains, who starred in the darker two-part episodes, and the Storm King fits into this established formula perfectly.
Before Princess Twilight and her friends have to face him, though, Tempest Shadow is going after them, grimly determined to capture the last of Equestrias princesses to serve her master.
On their journey, the team of heroines run into the sly cat Capper, who pretends to help, but abuses them for his own gain. As Capper breaks into a song to convince the six ponies of his honesty, this finally cements the movie as being half-musical.
The songs of My Little Pony: The Movie are memorable pieces of musical delight straight out of equestrian (and non-equestrian) mouths, delivered in a quality that makes them stand on the same level as the best songs from Disneys musical repertoire.
The offerings range from a happy celebration song right at the beginning to Tempest Shadows own, dark anthem; a chilling performance where she reveals her reason for following the path of ruthless villainy.
The latter shall not be enclosed here, to maintain the surprise for interested moviegoers, but Tempests motive paints a black picture of the mercilessness the world can sometimes meet you with, in a welcomed, cynical and realistic tone one would not expect from “My Little Pony”.
Out of all the songs, only Sias “Rainbow” comes across as a bit generic and not completely fitting to the world of Equestria – it is a mainstream pop song by a celebrity guest mostly meant for the movies soundtrack release, after all – but it still provides an enjoyable enough tune that gives My Little Pony: The Movie the right atmosphere during its grand finish at the very end.
After meeting Capper, the heroines land on board of another airship, owned by a crew of parrots, who are former swashbuckling treasure hunters (or pirates, but they dont like to be called that, so dont tell them I said this) and now enslaved by the Storm King, and their captain, Celaeno.
From there, their journey takes them to a whole tribe of seaponies ruled by the sympathetic, but also relentless, Queen Novo in their underwater city. All signs point to the seaponies being able to come to Equestrias aid, though, their queen refuses to help and rather keeps her own citizens safe.
Of special interest here is that Capper and Captain Celaeno are anthropomorphic, bipedal creatures. Not a first for the world of My Little Ponys modern incarnation, but a rare occurrence, which expands, together with the seaponies, the from the TV series known lore effectively via the help of these new species from faraway lands.
Although “My Little Pony” is commonly seen as a girls franchise, its movie adaptation does not give all of the great roles to female characters.
At first it seems like most of the important male roles are reserved for villains and antagonists, but Capper becomes a valuable comrade-in-arms of Princess Twilight and her friends later, after he got inspired by Raritys generosity. Even Tempests loyal sidekick Grubber seems to have joined the Storm Kings ranks more for the food than anything else and never comes across as truly malicious, while his interactions with Tempest Shadow radiate a feeling of mutual understanding and hint at a deeper bond between them than it seems at first glance.
Back to the journey, not everything goes well for Princess Twilight and her friends and just when all seems hopeless for the sextet of heroines, Capper makes a surprise return with Captain Celaeno and her crew. The daughter of the aforementioned Queen Novo, Princess Skystar, joins them a moment later against the will of her mother and together, they return to Canterlot to take on the Storm King and save Equestria from his greedy claws.
Near the end of the movie, Tempests boss, the Storm King, finally takes center stage, and goes right down to his terrifying business.
After a short rant about how much Equestrias pony culture disgusts him, accompanied by a quite refined comment (“Deliver the punchline, Tempest, because this gotta be a joke!”), he proceeds to charge his staff with the magic of Equestrias princesses, followed by blowing Princess Twilight through a wall to test his new weapon right away.
Thanks to this line by the Storm King, this is also where it becomes especially apparent that My Little Pony: The Movie presents itself as a clever movie for all ages, with some sharp dialogues and intelligent, sometimes even mature, jokes. More humor comes from the characters simply being themselves, like when Rarity shows off her best drama queen performance as the journey gets hard, which is the big strength of the movies comedic side.
My Little Pony: The Movie also received an animation upgrade from the traditional Flash animation of the TV series to a more fancy version called “Toon Boom Harmony”.
The feats of the new style are impressive, rendering Equestrias beautiful landscapes and the architecture of its capital city in a way that reminds on good old 2D animation from days long gone, with realistic-looking visuals that modern and synthetic CGI animations have forgotten how to pull off. The opening scene, with a catchy pony version of “We Got The Beat” playing in the background, when a group of pegasi flies through the equestrian landscape towards Canterlot to attend the Friendship Festival, is a spectacular experience that you have not seen for a very long time in an animated movie due to CGIs domination these days.
The appealing 2D animation also invites to scan the rich backgrounds for neat little details, like the treasures on Captain Celaenos pirate airship, an entertainment factor of My Little Pony: The Movie in its own right that makes it worthwhile to watch the adventure of the “Mane Six” and their allies multiple times. And audience members with a fast eye might even manage to spot their favourite pony in the massive crowd of background characters that fill Canterlot at the beginning and end of the movie.
The long-established voice talents from “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” – Tara Strong (lends her snarky-sarcastic voice to Twilight Sparkle), Ashleigh Ball (brings to life Applejack, a badass farm mare with a country accent, and Rainbow Dash, a speedster who sees herself as the fastest flier in Equestria), Andrea Libman (voices the shy, but often brave, pegasus mare Fluttershy and the crazy, hyperactive earth pony mare Pinkie Pie) and Tabitha St. Germain (the always fabulous unicorn Rarity) – get joined for My Little Pony: The Movie by a new cast of celebrity voice actors.
Liev Schreiber (The Storm King), Emily Blunt (Tempest Shadow), Taye Diggs (Capper), Kristin Chenoweth (Princess Skystar), Zoe Saldana (Captain Celaeno), Uzo Aduba (Queen Novo) and Michael Peña (Grubber) offered their voices to the new characters.
The finale of My Little Pony: The Movie takes place during a gigantic storm summoned by the Storm King with his newfound power, that wrecks Canterlot and makes a victory even more difficult.
It is also the movies finale, reached after almost 99 minutes jam-packed with exciting adventure, where it shows again that the modern “My Little Pony” is not just kiddy-fare, but well-written and mature all-ages entertainment, as a good amount of (non-bloody) violence is needed to fight the last battle, because the power-hungry Storm King is not one who listens to the “Magic of Friendship”.
A significant step-up from the flowery past incarnations of the franchise, as well as the more recent, brand-defying “Equestria Girls” spin-off movies that not only indulge in pretty dresses and overdone teenie-highschool drama, rather than high-fantasy adventure, but also turn the ponies into humans.
In the end, despite the cynicism in some of the plot, My Little Pony: The Movie manages to offer a positive message: One of tolerance, inclusion and overcoming ones own weaknesses and insecurities, but without being sappy about it, as the path to these values is a long and hard one for some.
If you seek a worthwhile My Little Pony adventure on the big screen, then the journey of Princess Twilight and her friends to find a way to defeat the Storm King and save their home is the right choice for you.
Peter G.
10
My Little Pony: The Movie wants to be more than a toy commercial and succeeds in this with a serious adventure plot, excellent Disney-style songs and villains who will give you chills – even as adult.
My Little Pony: The Movie starts out in the capital city of Equestria, Canterlot, with a short introduction of Equestrias ruling princesses and Princess Twilight Sparkles five, best friends, as well as her loyal dragon assistant Spike, to get audiences not familiar with these characters up to speed.
Princess Twilights anxieties about organizing the big Friendship Festival lead into a cheerful song her friends try to lift her spirits with, but soon, the happiness gets interrupted as a menacing airship emerges from a dark, foreboding cloud in the sky.
Out of it step Commander Tempest Shadow and her partner Grubber, both of them there on behalf of the Storm King, who wants to conquer Equestria and get ahold of the magic of Equestrias four rulers, including Princess Twilight.
It does not take long until Tempest Shadow, with a surprisingly strong magic for the fact that her unicorn horn is broken, takes out three of the princesses.
Princess Twilight can evade the fate of her fellow princesses thanks to the help of one of her citizens, a gray pegasus mare going by the name of Derpy Hooves, but vastly outnumbered by the Storm Kings invading army, she can only flee, not without saving one of the other princesses from getting shattered to pieces of the statue she has been turned into, though.
After escaping from Canterlot in the last moment, Princess Twilight and her friends embark on a charmingly-classical heros journey to the south to find the mysterious “Queen of the Hippos”, last words spoken by Twilights mentor and co-princess, Celestia.
Their journey leads them through a variety of different environments, including a desert town with nefarious citizens and an underwater capital (possible by a transformation into the sea creatures who live there), and mentions of never seen locations like the “Badlands” or the mystical-sounding “Blackskull Island” give the audience the immersive feeling that there is more in this world beyond the confines of the screen.
As classical as the journey is their enemy, the fearsome Storm King, a yeti-like tyrant who wants to increase his power and influence with the help of an old relic that allows for the control of storms, but needs yet to be charged with magic.
Across the seven seasons of the ongoing animated TV series, Equestria had seen various, similar villains, who starred in the darker two-part episodes, and the Storm King fits into this established formula perfectly.
Before Princess Twilight and her friends have to face him, though, Tempest Shadow is going after them, grimly determined to capture the last of Equestrias princesses to serve her master.
On their journey, the team of heroines run into the sly cat Capper, who pretends to help, but abuses them for his own gain. As Capper breaks into a song to convince the six ponies of his honesty, this finally cements the movie as being half-musical.
The songs of My Little Pony: The Movie are memorable pieces of musical delight straight out of equestrian (and non-equestrian) mouths, delivered in a quality that makes them stand on the same level as the best songs from Disneys musical repertoire.
The offerings range from a happy celebration song right at the beginning to Tempest Shadows own, dark anthem; a chilling performance where she reveals her reason for following the path of ruthless villainy.
The latter shall not be enclosed here, to maintain the surprise for interested moviegoers, but Tempests motive paints a black picture of the mercilessness the world can sometimes meet you with, in a welcomed, cynical and realistic tone one would not expect from “My Little Pony”.
Out of all the songs, only Sias “Rainbow” comes across as a bit generic and not completely fitting to the world of Equestria – it is a mainstream pop song by a celebrity guest mostly meant for the movies soundtrack release, after all – but it still provides an enjoyable enough tune that gives My Little Pony: The Movie the right atmosphere during its grand finish at the very end.
After meeting Capper, the heroines land on board of another airship, owned by a crew of parrots, who are former swashbuckling treasure hunters (or pirates, but they dont like to be called that, so dont tell them I said this) and now enslaved by the Storm King, and their captain, Celaeno.
From there, their journey takes them to a whole tribe of seaponies ruled by the sympathetic, but also relentless, Queen Novo in their underwater city. All signs point to the seaponies being able to come to Equestrias aid, though, their queen refuses to help and rather keeps her own citizens safe.
Of special interest here is that Capper and Captain Celaeno are anthropomorphic, bipedal creatures. Not a first for the world of My Little Ponys modern incarnation, but a rare occurrence, which expands, together with the seaponies, the from the TV series known lore effectively via the help of these new species from faraway lands.
Although “My Little Pony” is commonly seen as a girls franchise, its movie adaptation does not give all of the great roles to female characters.
At first it seems like most of the important male roles are reserved for villains and antagonists, but Capper becomes a valuable comrade-in-arms of Princess Twilight and her friends later, after he got inspired by Raritys generosity. Even Tempests loyal sidekick Grubber seems to have joined the Storm Kings ranks more for the food than anything else and never comes across as truly malicious, while his interactions with Tempest Shadow radiate a feeling of mutual understanding and hint at a deeper bond between them than it seems at first glance.
Back to the journey, not everything goes well for Princess Twilight and her friends and just when all seems hopeless for the sextet of heroines, Capper makes a surprise return with Captain Celaeno and her crew. The daughter of the aforementioned Queen Novo, Princess Skystar, joins them a moment later against the will of her mother and together, they return to Canterlot to take on the Storm King and save Equestria from his greedy claws.
Near the end of the movie, Tempests boss, the Storm King, finally takes center stage, and goes right down to his terrifying business.
After a short rant about how much Equestrias pony culture disgusts him, accompanied by a quite refined comment (“Deliver the punchline, Tempest, because this gotta be a joke!”), he proceeds to charge his staff with the magic of Equestrias princesses, followed by blowing Princess Twilight through a wall to test his new weapon right away.
Thanks to this line by the Storm King, this is also where it becomes especially apparent that My Little Pony: The Movie presents itself as a clever movie for all ages, with some sharp dialogues and intelligent, sometimes even mature, jokes. More humor comes from the characters simply being themselves, like when Rarity shows off her best drama queen performance as the journey gets hard, which is the big strength of the movies comedic side.
My Little Pony: The Movie also received an animation upgrade from the traditional Flash animation of the TV series to a more fancy version called “Toon Boom Harmony”.
The feats of the new style are impressive, rendering Equestrias beautiful landscapes and the architecture of its capital city in a way that reminds on good old 2D animation from days long gone, with realistic-looking visuals that modern and synthetic CGI animations have forgotten how to pull off. The opening scene, with a catchy pony version of “We Got The Beat” playing in the background, when a group of pegasi flies through the equestrian landscape towards Canterlot to attend the Friendship Festival, is a spectacular experience that you have not seen for a very long time in an animated movie due to CGIs domination these days.
The appealing 2D animation also invites to scan the rich backgrounds for neat little details, like the treasures on Captain Celaenos pirate airship, an entertainment factor of My Little Pony: The Movie in its own right that makes it worthwhile to watch the adventure of the “Mane Six” and their allies multiple times. And audience members with a fast eye might even manage to spot their favourite pony in the massive crowd of background characters that fill Canterlot at the beginning and end of the movie.
The long-established voice talents from “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” – Tara Strong (lends her snarky-sarcastic voice to Twilight Sparkle), Ashleigh Ball (brings to life Applejack, a badass farm mare with a country accent, and Rainbow Dash, a speedster who sees herself as the fastest flier in Equestria), Andrea Libman (voices the shy, but often brave, pegasus mare Fluttershy and the crazy, hyperactive earth pony mare Pinkie Pie) and Tabitha St. Germain (the always fabulous unicorn Rarity) – get joined for My Little Pony: The Movie by a new cast of celebrity voice actors.
Liev Schreiber (The Storm King), Emily Blunt (Tempest Shadow), Taye Diggs (Capper), Kristin Chenoweth (Princess Skystar), Zoe Saldana (Captain Celaeno), Uzo Aduba (Queen Novo) and Michael Peña (Grubber) offered their voices to the new characters.
The finale of My Little Pony: The Movie takes place during a gigantic storm summoned by the Storm King with his newfound power, that wrecks Canterlot and makes a victory even more difficult.
It is also the movies finale, reached after almost 99 minutes jam-packed with exciting adventure, where it shows again that the modern “My Little Pony” is not just kiddy-fare, but well-written and mature all-ages entertainment, as a good amount of (non-bloody) violence is needed to fight the last battle, because the power-hungry Storm King is not one who listens to the “Magic of Friendship”.
A significant step-up from the flowery past incarnations of the franchise, as well as the more recent, brand-defying “Equestria Girls” spin-off movies that not only indulge in pretty dresses and overdone teenie-highschool drama, rather than high-fantasy adventure, but also turn the ponies into humans.
In the end, despite the cynicism in some of the plot, My Little Pony: The Movie manages to offer a positive message: One of tolerance, inclusion and overcoming ones own weaknesses and insecurities, but without being sappy about it, as the path to these values is a long and hard one for some.
If you seek a worthwhile My Little Pony adventure on the big screen, then the journey of Princess Twilight and her friends to find a way to defeat the Storm King and save their home is the right choice for you.
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