lunalovitt
Marking this as spoilers just in case something I say could be construed as such.I think at this point the writers for the show and movies are doing a far better job at creating more likable and interesting side characters than main characters. If I could have a movie or series based solely off of the redeemed villains and their adventures and struggles to overcome their differences and learn how to deal with life after their periods of evil, then I'd gladly take that over another "Look here at Princess Twilight! Isn't she great? WORSHIP HER." movie. At this point I feel like Twilight is being shoved down everyone's throats in the MLP movies and show and I dislike her even more now than ever. Her character traits only cause more problems than they solve and this movie is no different. She's just so unlikeable now that I was rooting for the bad guys to win the whole time just to end the Twi-fest. For once I'd like to see someone else take center stage for an MLP: FIM movie because so far no version of movie or TV Twilight (including in Equestria Girls) has any redeeming qualities or character development.That all being said, the animation was very good. It had the feel of the show, but on a higher level and I'd like to see another movie done in this style. The voice acting was great as well. The songs were generally decent and the singing was good. Overall forgettable tunes, to be honest, with the exception of Tempest's solo though. The addition of the new species and kingdoms was a huge plus as there was a great range of new characters and something other than ponies to look at for once. Going off of that, the character design aspect of all the new characters was on point, and, and maybe it's just me thinking this, but bold for an MLP piece. The decision to actually scar a pony and give them a physical alteration as a result of trauma is something new to MLP, but the story behind it as well as the overall character development because of it was spot on. Tempest, by far, is one of my all time favorites now up along with Sunset Shimmer. I was a little disappointed that she didn't get her horn back, but to be fair even without it she is a completely capable character with the ability to literally kick butt on a level that no other character has ever been able to accomplish before. It's sad to think we'll probably never see her again.Overall my lower score is due to Twilight, pure and simple. She was just so unlikeable and really taught no lessons in this movie. So much focus was put upon her when really she was practically useless and was the central cause of many of the arguments, downfalls, and stress of the story. Yet for some reason we're supposed to treat her like some kind of god character that is integral to everything and who is the only one who can ever solve any problems. It's so aggravating at this point that only she is is made out to be the competent hero when clearly there are others who better deserve the spotlight. For example, Pinkie, Dash, and Rarity given that it was their contributions that led to the alliance of characters that successfully managed to save the kingdom in the end while Twilight did NOTHING other than go against the very thing she is a princess of, that being friendship. It's actually kind of sad that it was the other characters who went out and made friends and won the day while the "princess of friendship" only resorted to mistrust and thievery to try and accomplish her goals. While the former does make sense given the early betrayal by Capper, the latter is uncalled for given what she is supposed to stand for.Anyway, rant over. The only redeemable qualities about this movie were the visuals, the side characters and villains, and the soundtrack.
sapphirescales
I absolutely LOVE the TV series. The characters are well thought out, the writing is witty and fun. But this movie? Seriously...WTF is this? This is NOTHING like the TV show. The plot is horrible, too slow in some places, too fast in others. They don't do ANYTHING to make me actually CARE about ANY of the characters. The new characters help the ponies, yet they have no real reason to. Their motives aren't explained. The motives behind the main antagonist (Tempest) are lame, and only explained near the end like an afterthought. EVERYONE is so out of character it's like a badly written fanfic. Each one of the main ponies has flaws, but in this movie they intentionally exaggerate these flaws and make the characters super annoying and un-likable. And the animation? It's passable, but pretty bad compared to the show. It has more detail, yes. But the animation isn't smooth at all, and the characters have no SOUL to them. I seriously feel like I'm watching a plastic toy instead of a living, breathing pony. Which is weird to say because the TV show's animation isn't exactly realistic. The songs didn't fit in at all with the movie. Most of them weren't pony songs, but rather ripoffs of other songs just stuck in there EVERY 10 MINUTES. A large budget does not a good movie make. Once I heard that Hasbro outsourced the creation of this movie to another studio, this disaster of a movie finally made sense. This was obviously made by someone that has NO idea what ponies are really like. They probably watched an episode and a few fan compilations and called it good. They blew off/shirked their responsibility because they knew they'd get paid anyway (gee, where has this happened before?) and Hasbro paid the price. Next time Hasbro, do your own work. I don't care if the movie is in flash, and I seriously doubt any 6 year olds will either. You could have saved a TON of money and had a BETTER end product.All in all this movie was a MASSIVE let down. If they make another one, I'm going to make sure that it's actually MADE by Hasbro otherwise I won't even bother seeing it. This movie added NOTHING to the show or the MLP universe. We saw a few places, but where they were really didn't matter. Everything might as well have happened in Twilight's bedroom for all the importance the setting had to the plot. If there was one word I could use to describe this movie, it would be TrainWreck! I'm a brony myself, and I can guarantee you that most of these reviews are just other bronies that are in denial about how bad this movie really is.NOTE: The season 7 finale would have made a MUCH better movie than this. The season 7 finale was a 2 parter (about 40 minutes), but there was just so much potential there. They could have easily made it into a full length movie. Instead we got this steaming pile of crap from a third party studio. WTF?
Omar Alikaj
"My Little Pony: The Movie" is a good send-off to the TV series, "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic", but it also has some weaknesses as well.Putting the more advanced-looking art style aside, and the great soundtracks, I'll be talking about the plot primarily, which is still good as a whole.Being the conclusion of the current MLP chapter, we look at whole of Equestria, especially Twilight Sparkle, preparing for the " Festival of Friendship", which was disrupted by an invasion by the Storm King's minions and henchmen. Naturally, everyone is enslaved, and all the princesses but Twilight are turned to stone. The latter is needed so that the Storm King, an ape-looking main villain of the movie, may use the alicorns' powers for himself.The main characters (Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack) manage to escape Canterlot via a waterfall and decided to find help. Twilight overhears Princess Celestia, her mentor, trying to summon the "Hippos", but this misunderstanding led to a series of events that came too quickly. The show took its time, usually two or more episodes, to look at each problem, villain, or new characters, so seeing characters like Capper, who tries to sell the ponies, allegedly taking them to the wrong hippos, on purpose to pay off his debts, all the way to meeting Griffin pirates working for the Storm King, against their will, felt a bit rushed.By the time both Capper and the pirates decided to purposely stall for time, so Twilight and friends can escape from the pirate ship, since the Storm King's minions showed up, the ponies finally find the real "hippos"... or "Hippogriff", horse creatures with fingers, wings, and beaks like birds. I thought that this part of the plot was interesting, especially with Twilight trying to talk to Queen Novo into helping the ponies take down the Storm King with her orb, to fooling her friends to keep Queen Novo busy so to secretly steal the orb... only for the friends, feeling betrayed, going on a shouting match with Twilight on the gloomy-looking sea side.With the ponies in bad mood, going their separate ways, Twilight is easily captured, with another weakness of the plot shown. Tempest Shadow, a bitter helper to the Storm King, is just another Starlight Glimmer, the TV series main villain from season 5. Both Tempest and Starlight had rough childhoods at the cost of their friends, grew up feeling bitter towards the idea of making any new friends... only for Twilight to put some senses into their heads, and welcome them to Equestria's growing circle of friendship. Otherwise, Tempest could have had the opportunity of being a memorable MLP villain.But, the main villain is, of course, the Storm King. It turns out that he dislikes everything about the ponies or "friendship", but very interested in obtaining the princesses' powers for himself. Even though he can now control the day and night, the movie doesn't go into details as to why the Storm King is the Storm King, or why he wanted the powers so badly, even lying that he'd be able to fix Tempest's broken horn. The Storm King, not just based on how he looks, feels like another Lord Tirek, the TV series villain from season 4 finale; they both hate ponies, but love their powers.And also, we have three Pegasus with Twilight and friends, that, from walking into the desert (half-dying) to falling from the pirate ship, you'd be screaming "But some of you guys can fly, or have magic!".Honestly, we could have more serious villains than what we got, especially when looking back to those of the 1980s era of My Little Pony, but, otherwise, everything else about the story was good. From Twilight and the princesses planning the Festival of Friendship to successfully pulling it off, and even welcoming Tempest, were pleasant to watch, and a welcome addition to the overall FiM canon.They were also moments I did laugh out loud over, from Twilight and friends being themselves to Queen Novo of the Hippogriffs telling her daughter that she's grounded.Sure, the movie won't be nominated for the best animated movie of the year, and it admittedly reuse some concepts from the FiM series, but, if you don't have anything else to watch, or you have young kinds, this movie is still worth watch, most especially to fans of the series.
