My Little Pony: The Movie

I didn't think I would review My Little Pony: The Movie. I've never started on the current TV series, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but I heard good things about it. I'm not what the internet describes as a "brony" (a fan of this franchise). But after a slow summer and few Oscar contenders at this point, I decided to review something. This looked harmless enough.

And I regret nothing.

So Princess Twilight Sparkle (Tara Strong) of Equestria, the land of Ponies and Unicorns and other critters, is holding a big Friendship Festival. Her fellow ponies, Rainbow Dash and Applejack (both Ashleigh Ball), Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie (both Andrea Libman), and Rarity (Tabitha St. Germain), are here to help. Spike (Cathy Weseluck), Twilight's baby dragon personal assistant, is here too.

The bad mare Tempest Shadow (Emily Blunt) crashes the party on the orders of the evil Storm King (Liev Schreiber). Storm King wants the magical power of Equestria's four princesses for himself. Tempest petrifies the other three princesses but the "Mane 6" (and Spike) escape. Twilight and her friends have to find a few hippogriffs who might help them save the day. There's a colorful cast of characters along the way like Capper (Taye Diggs) the slick cat and Captain Celaeno (Zoe Saldana) and her sky pirates. How will our heroes' friendship survive this big screen adventure?

The movie hopes you're at least familiar with the TV show and its cast. Fortunately, the movie doesn't leave one drowning in a sea of continuity. The Mane 6 (and Spike) have personalities as colorful as their pastels. You'll get a sense of who they are and their relationship to each other when they appear. The other Equestrian Princesses require a lot more explanation but you can tell they're important. The voice cast perfectly define their characters and it's especially impressive for those who double-up characters.

The new characters are also well-defined by their celebrity voice actors. It's great to hear Liev Schreiber and Michael Pena (as Tempest's hedgehog lackey, Grubber), ham it up in their roles. Emily Blunt's Tempest Shadow is an outstanding villain with a believable sad backstory and heel-face turn. Kristen Chenoweth is also great as the hippogriff Princess Skystar.

The main selling point for me was the 2D animation. You don't see many of these on the big screen anymore unless you live in a big city. So that's one point in its favor. Its bright, vibrant, lively drawn characters in dynamically shot environments look outstanding on the big screen. Effects like Rainbow Dash's trademark "Sonic Rainboom" and Tempest's lightning attacks are visual highlights.

It also helped that it had a great soundtrack. Daniel Ingram and Michael Vogel, veterans of the TV show, composed the film's musical numbers. They're all addictive even if one's tired of hearing songs about friendship and stuff. Tempest's haunting villain song Open Up Your Eyes, is a sad anti-friendship song. The rousing number Time to be Awesome is my personal favorite of the tracklist. The singer Sia contributed a number sung by her character, a singing pony named Songbird Seranade, which concluded the film. 

So is My Little Pony: The Movie a yay or a neigh?  It's an obvious yay. It's a well-defined tale of good vs evil that doesn't solve things with fisticuffs. The characters are fun, the tone is affable and the ending is predictable but satisfying. It's a fun ride for ponies of all ages.

It opens with an animated short for Hasbro's newest girl-centric toyline, Hanazuki: Full of Treasures. I didn't really know who the characters were but the ending was pretty nice.