The My Little Pony Movie (Spoilers)

[Lux]

Hello all! 

I felt it was time to dust off this journal and post here with some exciting news! Yesterday I watched My Little Pony: the Movie! Before I go into this, however, I need to put this disclaimer. *Ahem
 

Warning! Spoilers Imminent! Turn back now if you don't want to be spoiled! Last Warning! 

Phew! Now that I got the Royal Canterlot Voice out of my system, let me start with the good. 

1) The animation. Oh wow, the animation with this movie was phenomenal! Toon Boom Studio really made all the colors come to life. There were tons of things to see with the details it sometimes became mind boggling! Everything from the scenes of Canterlot to under the sea to aboard the zeppelins was amazingly done. 

2) The songs. While the lyrics I'm going to need to retrace, the music was great. I especially liked Tempest Shadow's song "Open Your Eyes" was a powerful song. 

3) The new characters. Let's start with Capper, the anthropomorphic cat the Mane Six first meet on their tour of Equestria. I love his cunning and suave personality. Then you have the bird pirate group with Captain Caleno who are a fun swashbuckling group. Lastly you have Princess Skystar and Queen Novo, former hippogriffs and now seaponies. I love their backstory and how excitable Princess Skystar is seeing the Mane Six. Then you have Grubber, the Storm King's version of Spike. He adds some comedy relief but not too much. But the best one is Tempest Storm. You can feel her presence everytime her skyship arrives. She appears as simply a villain, but we get to see why she's so cold and what's up with her broken horn, and why she joined the Storm King in the first place. She certainly resonated with me as I watched the movie. 

4) The emotions. Oh my, do we see the emotions! This is especially from Twilight who feels responsible for not being able to stop the Storm King, and frustrated for not being able to find a key to defeating him. She goes as far as to steal the sea ponies' orb in an effort to save her land which leads to her snapping at her friends and breaking down. Yeah, this was a very emotionally heavy. 

5) The story. The story was pretty cohesive, basically a tour of beyond Equestria. You have Twilight trying to save her land from the Storm King and encountering friends and enemies in the process. 

6) Derpy. We see her in the show many times, but the most interesting time was where she sacrificed herself to be petrified instead of Twilight. Powerful stuff there. 

Now you have some bad moments.

1) The Storm King. I wasn't really impressed by him. He was kind of a cross between Sombra and Discord, sometimes somber yet sometimes nuts! I wished that we got a peek at him early before the end of the movie.  Yes, i knew he had this power to create this army, but without his staff, he seemed pretty weak and unstable. 

2) The pacing. I get that this is a movie geared to kids, but it seemed like you had lots of hurry up and wait moments. 

3) Sia's pony character. I don't mind her, but I see her kind of as a filler compared to the other characters. She was merely another name to the cast list and another song to the roster. still, her design was interesting. 

Overall, this was a wonderful movie, and I really recommend seeing it on the big screen! 

[Dessa]

Dessa found it fair to middling.  No better than a good episode, definitely better than bad episodes.

Man, I dunno about anyone else, but I found the animation like uncanny valley for a good half hour before I got used to it.  It's similar to what we're used to, but dissimilar enough that it's kinda unsettling.  But from a technical perspective, it's nice and smooth and I spent the whole movie going back and forth on the question of whether it was 2d or 3d animation.  It was probably a mix of both. 

As for the plot, it was pretty much what you could expect from a Meghan McCarthy season finale/opener, so if you like the finales/openers from seasons 2-5 (Except Magical Mystery Cure and Return of Harmony, which were done by M.A. Larson), you'll probably love the movie.  Pretty much we're talking "big bad comes to town, kicks flank, ponies are despondent, they pull it together and make a friend of the bad guy and a few others on the way, and save the day in the end. 

IMO, the movie is carried mostly on spectacle, with the sheer newness of everything being the main drawing point here.  I had hoped that this movie would be a chance to get deeper into the characters, but it's so busy introducing new characters, of which there are too many, that the Mane 6 were pretty much static entities the whole time.  Flanderization was in full force here.  Tempest was the only character that really seemed to get the development she deserved.  The cat guy pretty much just flipped after a single act of kindness, and while I like his character outline, he really needed more time to establish his motives.  And given the expense put into securing VAs for most of the new characters, odds are low we will see them in the show, or if we do, they will have different voices.  Taye Diggs and Kristin Chenowith can't have come cheaply.

Hell, that whole Badlands city scene just BEGGED for more.  What is the deal with that place?  We may never know.  It was just kinda dropped in as a scary bad place full of scary bad creatures who were never visited again, save 1.  Perhaps season 8 will see us revisit.  I sure hope so.  I'm definitely intrigued. 

Whatever the case, I think most folks here will like it.  Don't bring newbies to the theatre thinking this will convert anybody though.  This will appeal pretty much only to fans, kids, and perhaps some parents.

 

—Dessa

PS.  Hi, yall!  Hope you've been good lately!

 

[Lux]

Well, I heard that the staff will be exploring the characters and places from the Movie in Season 8. I think I heard that this movie takes place between Seasons Seven and Eight.

 

Funny you should mention bringing newbies to the movie, I went to see the movie with a few of my best friends who are also bronies. My one friend's boyfriend isn't a Brony.... yet (*maniacal laughter*), but he knows a little about the show. He was actually impressed by the movie and is excited to learn more about the ponies. 

[Dessa]

57 minutes ago, Lux said:

..He was actually impressed by the movie and is excited to learn more about the ponies. 

Well, that's good then.  It's got lukewarm reviews from critics who do a pretty good job of nailing the movie's shortcomings.  I'd still go with Party of One or Dragonshy to convert people.

[Lux]

Yeah, those two are good ones. I typically recommend Winter Wrap Up as that was the first episode I watched of MLP and one that gives the viewer a good idea of all the characters' personalities even if they never saw another episode. 

[Dessa]

Winter Wrap-Up might be a bit tough to swallow if someone's not into musicals.  Otherwise good.

[ButtonMash1973]

On 13/10/2017 at 10:58 PM, Dessa said:

Winter Wrap-Up might be a bit tough to swallow if someone's not into musicals.  Otherwise good.

I agree

[FrankT]

I had to forgo the movie in theatres because I didn't want to look like a ponce. Now I've got to wait til February to get it on Blu-ray! This is most inconvenient!

[FrankT]

Well, I've caught up with the rest of the world and watched My Little Pony: The Movie. And I have to say, for a feature-length FiM feature, it's pretty good! It's reminiscent of the Disney Renaissance films, and I like the sort of CGI/animated approach of the art style - kind of like When the Wind Blows but without the practical sets. All in all, worth a watch!

[tacobob]

I saw it...The animation was nice..But cripes...There were just so many characters they did not need. They could have cut both the Storm Lord and Grubber and focused on Tempest, who I really liked. And ugh. Must all animated movies end with the characters getting together and clapping along (and or singing along) to some song? This bit even managed to ruin the one GOOD thing they did to the Storm Lord during the ending.

[Ciraxis]

So, I caught up as well. I liked it quite much but it had some....issues. I blame executive meddling.

 

Also I disagree with you Taco. By cutting Storm King the villain - redeemed:dealt with - ratio would be even more thrown off the wack. If anything I would say they should cut anything laughable about Storm King, transplant it on Grubber and expand the role of pseudo hedgehog.

If anything could be called unnecessary, it should be the whole Seaquestria part. It's amounted basically to nothing besides creating drama between Twilight and rest of the gang as well as some seaponies fanservice (and they weren't even a real deal!).

 

Yeah, Storm King wasn't that impressive considering he was the main villain. He's just a Diet-Tirek with army at his disposal, with some elements from previous villains blended in for good measure.. What I didn't liked particularly was how hard he was hugging that villain ball in the finale. In comics prequel to the movie he was shown that while he still was funny, he was also pragmatic to the bone. Here...well....not so much.

Also I am not sure how well it worked for him being so laughable evil. I assume it was to make a contrast with No-Nonsense Tempest, but at the same time it made him less intimidating.

It made me feel that it made him not as effective as he could be.

 

Speaking of being capable, Celestia, Luna and Cadance were being Worfed again. At this point, beyond being pencil pushers they about as effective as chocolate hammers.

[tacobob]

Would have nuked Grubber...As he really did not do a single thing..Give Tempest a cool army and wala! And there's a really cool statue of Twi and Tempest fighting. We should have had that animated....Ala the Twi vs Tirek battle, but EXTREME.

 

And I really want to see Celestia at her best..animated...It's mostly in the comics where she can shine..I wanna see that animated..

 

Spoiler