Here we go! It's been well over a month, but here's my rewatch blog on the G4 film. I've allowed it to go to Spotlight length for once, but I've deliberately kept it considerably shorter than my first review (linked below) so inevitably I won't have had room for everything. That's what comments sections are for! ;)
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It was a couple of watches before I noticed the left horn was a minotaur's...
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My Little Pony: The Movie
6 Oct 2017
My original rating: ★★★★
IMDb score: 6.1
The one with pirate pudding breaksThoughts: One should never take IMDb scores too seriously – but 6.1? Come on, guys, that's not fair. This is an enjoyable movie. It's not a great work, no Inside Out or a Toy Story, but it's a cut above plenty of films made to sell plastic merch. This was the first (though not the last!) time we saw the Toon Boom style, and while feelings were mixed initially I think it's aged fairly gracefully. One or two slightly rickety CGI moments, but in general it looks very nice. The film also sounds nice – in fact, this may be the best of all MLP media for audiophiles, thanks to very solid songs (I adore "Open Up Your Eyes") and a fine score, beyond that which many kids' films provide.¹
¹ Though.. grumble grumble "Ponies Got the Beat" grumble grumble "Equestria" grumble. :P
Fluttershy isn't in the story enough. There you are, I said it! Neither is Applejack. Maybe if we'd got a sequel things might have been different, but even I (four cinema visits and a convention viewing) couldn't make this a blockbuster on my own! Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow and Rarity have a fair amount to do, though even allowing for this being started in the S4 era (hence Starlight's absence¹) they seem a little too helpless occasionally. Witness their near-instant persuasion by the clearly less than trustworthy Capper.
¹ Bar that non-speaking cameo at the start.
Yeah, talking of Capper... while his character works reasonably well, I still don't really like anthro cats or the Klugetown creatures in Equestria. (I'm actually okay with Grubber as comic relief.) Plus if you didn't know the background of the film, from earlier plans or the prequel comic, you wouldn't have the slightest clue who Verko was meant to be. As for the seapony-hippogriff things... despite the lack of "shoo be doo" they weren't bad, though I probably like them more now I know we got Silverstream and Terramar in the show as a kind of spin-off result. The pirates? Slightly underused, but fun.
Tempest Shadow is for me easily the star of the film. Emily Blunt pitches her just right, giving her a genuine menace beyond that of the theoretically more powerful Storm King who – despite being actually (well, maybe) Killed Off For Real by the end, is more in the bumbling, self-absorbed comedic supervillain line. Tempest's redemption is arguably a little too quick, and her filly backstory a little too neat (again, there's more detail in that comic) but when you only have an hour and a half to work with there have to be some limits.
The film is a little bit lacking in the memorable dialogue stakes, with few really memorable lines. Well, okay, the "Hungry! Hungry! Hippos?" one is stupid in an amusing way, but of course the "bad spell service" pun doesn't work for a British audience.¹ "Brian! Noooo!" is up there, I suppose. There are some outright clunky lines, too: as I noted in 2017, "the three most royal princesses of Equestria" is just bad. Sia I can excuse as she only had dialogue at all because she was The Big Guest Star rather than in the story organically.
¹ The basic "ringtone" is one thing that has really dated.
You've been waiting for this, I'm sure, so: yes, that scene on the beach does still hit me hard. It doesn't last very long, true, but it's got quite a punch. (And to this day, I maintain that Twilight is not unreasonably out of character when she attempts to steal the pearl. Not in these desperate straits.) For a U-rated film this movie gets fairly dark in places, and that helps it no end. Looked at straightforwardly, this is probably only a three-star film. It has such good memories and associations for me, though, that it's keeping that four. Yes, purely because I can.
Choice quote: Twilight: "Friendship didn't fail me. I failed friendship."
New rating: ★★★★
Next time, I'll be returning to Season Seven of Friendship is Magic itself, with an episode I had a good time with back in 2017: "Once Upon a Zeppelin". I hope to see you there!
