Bumblejinks Reviews: My Little Pony: The Movie
SPOILER WARNING: This review contains super-duper spoilers to the movie in question, so if your sensitive to such spoilers, PROCEED WITH CAUTION!
Ponies on the big screen make me feel happy!
So, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has finally made it to the big screen. As someone who got into the series only last year, I have to say that so far, it's been hitting all the right spots with me. It has everything I love in a good animated cartoon, and helped to fill the void Disney left in my heart after Toontown Online's cancellation in 2013. Truly, Hasbro has a mega-hit on their hands, and it seems only logical that they'd want to follow up on it with a spin-off series AND a movie.
What surprises me most is how late in the series lifespan the movie came out. On October 10th, 2017, the series celebrated it's 7th anniversary. The show has been ongoing for 7+ seasons by this point. So why they waited this long to release a movie about it, I have no idea. After all, SpongeBob SquarePants got a movie after only the third season.
Nevertheless, the movies reception by the MLP fandom has been absolutely amazing, and I have to agree, this movie was absolutely AMAZING when I saw it. For a while, I thought for sure the movies art style and fantastic sound design was going to replace the TV show's art style and the like. The voice acting made me smile, the characters all played their parts well, it was just an overall enjoyable title for me.
...It's just a shame that the critics reception of the movie was less then stellar. All of them have cited the movie as being either "Mediocre", or worse yet, "Just plan horse trash", such as IGN.
Like with some of the reviews of The Lord of the Rings Online that I've seen over the years, I feel this is another case where the movie critics of the world are not giving credit where credit is due.
So, are the critics in the right to bash the movie like they do, saying how it's "Just there", and how only long-time fans of the series will enjoy it? It's time to find out. This is the first movie review segment on Bumblejinks Reviews, and somehow I doubt it's going to be the last.
Now, this being the very first movie review on this segment, it's obviously going to differ from the videogame reviews I've done up to this point. So, to not waste any time, I'm just going to be blunt about it and say that the same standard rules apply: The movie will be judged based on 5 categories: Plot, Visuals, Sound Design, Characters, and Appeal, all with a score from 0 to 10. At the end of the review, these scores are tallied up to find the movies overall rating, which can sit at anywhere between 0 to 50. Got it? Alright, let's get started.
Oh, and also, I will be spoiling this movie rotten from start to finish, so a SPOILER WARNING is now in effect. You have been warned.
First things first: The Plot. The movie opens up on princess Twilight Sparkle preparing for Equestria's first ever Friendship Festival. And right off the bat, we can see that she's worried everything isn't going to be ready in time, which leads me to wonder why they didn't start preparing this festival a week or so in advance. But then again, Twilight has dealt with more stressful situations before, so maybe this is nothing more then a minor thorn in the side for her.
She has a big plan to make the festival even better that involves the other princesses and their magic, but the other princesses are quick to shoot it down, saying how Twilight doesn't need their magic to make this festival a hit. This understandably leaves Twilight a little disheartened.
One ridiculous and lovable sing-along song later, something the show is very well known for having on a regular basis, we get introduced to the new pony in town: Songbird Serenade, who really only exists to exert one little joke with Twilight Sparkle, and then she kind of disappears for the rest of the movie, or at least until the credits. What was the point was of hyping up her appearance for almost two full months before the movie came out, if she's only seen in a couple of scenes at the start, and then the end of the movie? But maybe I'm looking to deeply into this.
But from out of nowhere, a dark, misty cloud of... something shows up, which none of the ponies, not even Rainbow Dash, can identify, and from within it comes a massive airship. And right away, I start getting Final Fantasy drawbacks, seeing as how the bulk of those games feature similar looking airships. I have to imagine that was a reference.
Anyway, we get comically introduced to the movies main antagonist: Tempest. A foul-tempered unicorn sporting a broken horn and a desire to steal the alicorn princesses magic.
She succeeds in capturing princess Celestia, Luna and Cadance, but Twilight and her friends make a daring escape down a waterfall that would put Daring Do to shame.
Right from the first half hour, the movie succeeds in reminding us of who the major characters are, their rolls in the MLP universe, and it also succeeds in establishing our main villain, whom Twilight and friends are going to be constantly dealing with throughout the entire feature film.
Sadly, while the rest of the movie succeeds in establishing more of the My Little Pony world to a fantastic degree, I always felt like it jumped from one part to the next a little to fast. This is a one and a half hour long movie, not counting the opening or the end credits. They could have cut the part in Kludgetown out, and it would have impacted nothing. Either that, or made the movie another half hour longer so they'd have more time to flesh out some of these areas.
They spent a good chunk of the past two months hyping up the whole pirate theme and the seaponies part, but when we actually get to those parts, they're here and gone in only about 20 minutes apiece. I seriously feel like the movie could have used another half hour to it's runtime to help make some of these parts truly memorable.
Now, that's not to say some of these parts aren't memorable as they are. No, far from it. I loved the part where the ponies band together with a bunch of sky pirates, something I haven't seen done successfully since Treasure Planet, and the ponies looks absolutely BEAUTIFUL as seaponies. Seriously, that part was incredible, and it still dazzles me to this day how they managed to pull this off.
And of course, we have the climatic final showdown with Tempest, and her "Boss", the Storm King. And I say that with quotes because partway through the battle, Storm King turns traitor on Tempest, prompting her to, in turn, turn traitor on Storm King and ultimately help Twilight defeat him. And you'll have to forgive me for sounding biased here, but by this point, in 2017, the whole "Villain turning traitor on another villain" setpiece was getting really old. So why they felt the need to do it again for this movie? I don't know, you think of something.
Overall, the movies plot is excellent, and really fits with the tone of the show, though it does feel a little rushed at times, and you'd wish they'd taken the time to flesh out some of these new characters and locations like in the show. And I don't know if it's just me, but a few points in the story either feel cliche, or just recycled from the TV show. So while this is a minor "ding" against the plot, it's not nearly enough to bring down the entire movie for me.
Well, that's the hard part of the review done, so what about The Visuals? Well, I think it should come as no surprise that the movie uses a different art style then the show does, and to be honest, it looks absolutely STUNNING. I couldn't believe what I was seeing the first time I saw it; It absolutely blew me away.
One common complaint I hear about the show ALL THE TIME is how the characters look too "Two-Dimensional" to be taken seriously. And honestly, that's an issue that doesn't bug me personally, and it's not something I would have noticed if someone hadn't told me to look for it. But the movie takes an entirely different approach to how Equestria and everything in it should look, and it pays off big time.
The ponies all look stunning, and their emotions have never been more accurately portrayed by their stances and facial expressions. The part where Twilight shouts at Pinkie Pie after the seaponies bit legitimately made me tear up, something the show has never been able to do except out of joy.
Rainbow Dashes Sonic Rainboom has never looked better then it does in this movie, and everything else looks simply stunning from my viewpoint. Truly, the new art style benefited the movie greatly.
Now, that's not to say the visuals are flawless. There are the occasional hiccups with how this or that looks here or there, and the ponies eyes could have been just a little smaller so as not to take up about half their head sizes. But honestly, I think I can live with it.
But the biggest complaint I hear about the movies visuals is the CG ( Computer Generated ) effects. I often hear people calling them "Cancer", and "The worst part of the movie". Well, I just watched the movie for the second time to give this review, and honestly, I don't see what they see. I've watched plenty of movies with questionable CG animation over the years, with Tommy Lee Jones "Volcano" taking the top of that list, and frankly, I could care less about how bad the CG looks as long as it fits with the tone of the TV show. While I do agree that the CG could have been better in some aspects, it's far from the worst I've ever seen, and it's much less of a problem then everyone makes it out to be.
Overall, the movies visuals do stumble every once in a while, but it definitely gets a gold star from me.
Now, what about the Sound Design? OH MY CELESTIA, this movie sounds absolutely AMAZING! The music, the sound effects, and of course, the voice acting.
There are quite literally NO FAULTS whatsoever with this movies sound design. All the songs were amazing, from the bright, cheerful playfulness of "We Got This Together", to the dark and ominous tune "Open Up Your Eyes", and perfectly fit the tone of the TV show. They're silly and playful at times, and dark, brooding, and scary at others. It's enough to give anyone a sense of "Holy crud, is this awesome!", especially for long time fans of the series.
As for the background music that plays throughout many of the scenes? Well, I'm just going to be blunt about it: Someone hire these people to compose the new music for the TV show! Seriously, the guys who make the music for the show now are good, but the people who made the music for the movie are even better! There wasn't a single track in this movie that I found dull, out of place, or just flat-out annoying. I loved each and every last one of them to death, and I'm so glad that the soundtrack for the movie has already been released. You can bet I'm going to snag it the minute I get the chance.
How about the voice acting? From the old familiar faces we've come to love in the show, to the new celebrity voice actors brought in to voice the new characters, there's almost nothing to discuss here. All the voice actors do their jobs flawlessly, but then again, what else would you expect from someone like Tara Strong? I loved her role as Raven in Teen Titans growing up, and I love how flawlessly she plays the role of Twilight Sparkle here. The rest of the voice cast do a fantastic job, too. They're silly, cartoony, adventurous, spooky, and downright CRAZY at times, and to me, that's how it should be.
There are those who say that the sound design tends to suffer in a couple of areas, but honestly, either these people are misremembering how the TV show sounds, or they're just not used to watching a cartoon movie meant for children, because honestly, I have no complains about the movies sound design whatsoever. Two thumbs way up from me.
So, on to The Characters. Honestly, this is where the movie starts to fall flat on it's face for me. Sure, the Mane Six are played perfectly, and their actions in the movie aren't to far out of the norm for their characters, but there are a few issues worth bringing up.
The biggie of which is the new characters. Like with the new locations, the movies limited hour and a half runtime kind of hurts the new characters as well. Because the movie spends so little time with each of these new faces, they're usually here and gone within about 15 minutes or so, and don't show up again until the films climax. At the expense of sounding like a broken record, I must ask: Why couldn't they have made this movie two hours long? The extra time spent developing the new characters could have gone a long way, especially if these characters appear in, or are referenced in the TV show at some point in the future.
And no, the Mane Six are not flawless in this movie as well. It always felt like every major character has their one moment in the movie where they shine brightly and truly do something that ultimately affects the ending. Rainbow Dashes was when she helped the sky pirates get their old "Mojo" back, Pinkie Pies was when she was staging a successful distraction of the hippogriffs in their underwater home, even if Twilight Sparkle rendered it entirely worthless just a few minutes later. And of course, Twilight being the main character, she has the most moments where she shines above the others.
However, it always felt like Applejack, Fluttershy and even Rarity never get their moments to shine. Applejack is just "There" from start to finish, never truly getting her moment in the spotlight. Same thing goes for Fluttershy. She's there alright, but does she ever truly get her moment to shine? Apart from some serious butt-kicking in the movies climax alongside Applejack, not really.
And while Twilight's behavior does tend to lean toward the "Unrealistic" side from time to time, honestly, she's messed up in the TV show as well, and everyone still loves her in the end, so it's not something that bothers me personally. Even if it causes Pinkie Pie to turn her back on her at one point in the movie.
And as for Rarity, well, she kind of does, but kind of doesn't at the same time. Oh sure, she helps out at the start of the movie with the preparations for the Friendship Festival, but past that, she spends the bulk of her screen time complaining about this and that, or being the overly dramatic drama queen we've come to know her as in the TV show. What happened to the awesome Rarity from Season 2's episode "A Canterlot Wedding", where we see her kicking flank and taking names alongside the rest of the Mane Six with no complaints? It's pointless moments like this that keep her from being my favorite of the main cast. That title goes to Twilight Sparkle, hands down.
Honestly, all the movies characters suffer from one problem or another, and it's really my biggest complaint with this title. But to be honest, it's still not enough to bring down the film as a whole. They still do a decent enough job with the characters that I can look past whatever faults there are and enjoy the movie as it is. I just wish they had taken the time to fine-tune the characters just a little more.
So, now we come to The Appeal. How good IS My Little Pony: The Movie? Honestly, this has to be one of the most ambitious films I have ever seen. It took a TV show that children have loved for years on end, and perfectly transitions it to the big screen. While it does tend to fall flat on it's face here or there for one reason or another, overall, it's a pretty good movie, and one that I'm glad I had the privilege of watching when it first came out, instead of a year or so after it's initial release. And you can bet that I'm eager to go back and see it again.
And honestly, it leaves me to wonder why film critics tend to put it down as "Just There" at best, and "Plain Awful" at worst. Either these people are misremembering how the show was or is, or they went straight to watching the movie without bothering to watch the TV show up to the end of Season 3. Clearly, this movie was meant for fans of the series. But is that a reason to put it down as "Cancerous", as some people have? IGN, I'm looking at you.
People also need to explain to me why it is that when The Pagemaster has plot holes up the wazoo that frequently cause it to make no sense, it's still considered "The best movie of all time!", but when My Little Pony: The Movie has ONE MINOR DING against it's CG effects, it's considered "The worst movie of all time!". Sounds like some selective reasoning to me, and again, I feel this is a side effect of going into this movie without having seen the show. Whether or not this movies CG is bad, the shaming and humiliation of it for such needs to stop.
I've heard it said many times that people agree this movies visuals and sound design should replaces the TV shows. Honestly, I like both of them, and while I do think that would be pretty awkward to see happen after spending 7 seasons with the same setup, it would be very interesting to see. Whether or not it's a good idea, I'll let you guys decide.
I better wrap things up here, because I'm just rambling at this point. Overall, this movie is great. It's not the best I've ever seen, but it's FAR from the worst. They were trying something new here with one of Hasbro's most beloved IPs, and it succeeds with flying colors. And if you have the time and the money, you should definitely go and see it. I don't care what the critics say, just go and see it. Whether your a fan of MLP or not, I could care less. Just go and see it!
** WHAT'S THE SCORE? **
Plot: The movies story fits well with the context of the show, even if it is a little far-fetched at times. It's definitely ambitious and it succeeds with flying colors. ( 8.9 )
Visuals: The movie looks fantastic, despite the occasional CG hiccup here or there, and it could definitely replace the look of the show. Many of the new areas are gone before their time, but they still look fantastic. ( 9.0 )
Sound Design: From the songs, to the background music, to the sound effects, and especially the voice acting, this movie is flawless in terms of it's sound design. A homerun hit with me! ( 10.0 )
Characters: There are plenty of faults with the characters, both new and old, but is it enough to bring down the entire film? Nope, but it's still an issue that makes itself known. Without question the movies weakest point. ( 6.5 )
Appeal: The movie stumbles here and there, but it's still a stellar hit, and one that I can recommend to both longtime fans of MLP and newcomers alike. If you have the chance, go and see this movie. You won't regret it. ( 8.4 )
FINAL SCORE: 42.8 / 50