My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) - Reviews/Reactions/Discussion Thread

[Ganondox 899]

11 hours ago, Jeric said:

If she tried and failed, what does that serve though? Seriously. At that part in the film what does that do that makes the narrative better other than to sadden a scene that is meant to have an uplifting message. A message that an eight year old who was with me got. 

In writing that's called bad tonal consistency. 

It would resolve the ambiguity regarding her horn state and not make Twilight look like donkey. Whether or not it saddens the scene and if it's uplifting depends on how they play, they already had a bittersweet moment regarding it at the end as it is. Of course they had a choice to make and any one they do there is a tradeoff, but I feel the way they played it left us with a glaring (though of course not nonredeemable) plot hole. 

[Jeric 46,851]

3 minutes ago, Ganondox said:

It would resolve the ambiguity regarding her horn state and not make Twilight look like donkey. Whether or not it saddens the scene and if it's uplifting depends on how they play, they already had a bittersweet moment regarding it at the end as it is. Of course they had a choice to make and any one they do there is a tradeoff, but I feel the way they played it left us with a glaring (though of course not nonredeemable) plot hole. 

Ambiguity is the hallmark of narrative symbolism and metaphor. You yourself have preached that. Agree to disagree I suppose. I'll take art over a walkthrough any day. 

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,489]

So, I know I have been bringing up the critics a lot in regard to this film. Main reason is the fact that I feel some critics are absolutely tearing this movie apart unfairly.

Look no further than this review by some dumbass at the Hollywood Reporter. This is the caliber of some of the reviews we have at Rotten Tomatoes.

Yes, this man actually says that the MLP Movie might be WORSE than the Emoji Movie and this review IS on Rotten Tomatoes. Notice a huge issue in this whole thing? He has the nerve to say it could be worse than the pile of shit Emoji Movie, but then not ONCE describes what he liked or didn't like, other than him basically making it clear that he just hates the franchise. This is what we are dealing with when it comes to some of these negative reviews and I am already sick of it.

Some might think I could be taking the review a bit too personal, but the way I see it, the movie is good. Not spectacular, but very solid and it is clear a lot of work went into it. Then we have snarky 'critics' like this that think they can just shit all over it without providing any real feedback on anything. It is appalling.

If there is a way I can report this review on Rotten Tomatoes, I am gonna do that.

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

Just now, Kyoshi said:

So, I know I have been bringing up the critics a lot in regard to this film. Main reason is the fact that I feel some critics are absolutely tearing this movie apart unfairly.

Look no further than this review by some dumbass at the Hollywood Reporter. This is the caliber of some of the reviews we have at Rotten Tomatoes.

Yes, this man actually says that the MLP Movie might be WORSE than the Emoji Movie and this review IS on Rotten Tomatoes. Notice a huge issue in this whole thing? He has the nerve to say it could be worse than the pile of shit Emoji Movie, but then not ONCE describes what he liked or didn't like, other than him basically making it clear that he just hates the franchise. This is what we are dealing with when it comes to some of these negative reviews and I am already sick of it.

Some might think I could be taking the review a bit too personal, but the way I see it, the movie is good. Not spectacular, but very solid and it is clear a lot of work went into it. Then we have snarky 'critics' like this that think they can just shit all over it without providing any real feedback on anything. It is appalling.

If there is a way I can report this review on Rotten Tomatoes, I am gonna do that.

If you find a way, please let me know

[Ganondox 899]

10 minutes ago, Jeric said:

Ambiguity is the hallmark of narrative symbolism and metaphor. You yourself have preached that. Agree to disagree I suppose. I'll take art over a walkthrough any day. 

As I said, there would be tradeoffs. Ambiguity in and of itself is neither good nor bad, it depends on what you're going for, so resolving is adding something as well as taking something away. The bigger issue is it makes Twilight look like a donkey for blatantly ignoring Tempest's one wish.  

9 minutes ago, Kyoshi said:

So, I know I have been bringing up the critics a lot in regard to this film. Main reason is the fact that I feel some critics are absolutely tearing this movie apart unfairly.

Look no further than this review by some dumbass at the Hollywood Reporter. This is the caliber of some of the reviews we have at Rotten Tomatoes.

Yes, this man actually says that the MLP Movie might be WORSE than the Emoji Movie and this review IS on Rotten Tomatoes. Notice a huge issue in this whole thing? He has the nerve to say it could be worse than the pile of shit Emoji Movie, but then not ONCE describes what he liked or didn't like, other than him basically making it clear that he just hates the franchise. This is what we are dealing with when it comes to some of these negative reviews and I am already sick of it.

Some might think I could be taking the review a bit too personal, but the way I see it, the movie is good. Not spectacular, but very solid and it is clear a lot of work went into it. Then we have snarky 'critics' like this that think they can just shit all over it without providing any real feedback on anything. It is appalling.

If there is a way I can report this review on Rotten Tomatoes, I am gonna do that.

I'm just glad that in the comments everyone points out how much of a BS review it is. 

10 hours ago, Kyoshi said:

 

The Storm King: His betrayal to Tempest is obvious from a mile away, but I liked him a lot as a villain. He had lot's of personality and I really liked that his goal was not to acquire power that goes to himself, but rather to a weapon that he controls. That was different.

 

I think the Storm King is the first villain who had not inherent magical ability, he was just a power-hungry tyrant. 

Edited October 6, 2017 by Ganondox

[BastementSparkle 20,326]

20 minutes ago, Kyoshi said:

So, I know I have been bringing up the critics a lot in regard to this film. Main reason is the fact that I feel some critics are absolutely tearing this movie apart unfairly.

Look no further than this review by some dumbass at the Hollywood Reporter. This is the caliber of some of the reviews we have at Rotten Tomatoes.

Yes, this man actually says that the MLP Movie might be WORSE than the Emoji Movie and this review IS on Rotten Tomatoes. Notice a huge issue in this whole thing? He has the nerve to say it could be worse than the pile of shit Emoji Movie, but then not ONCE describes what he liked or didn't like, other than him basically making it clear that he just hates the franchise. This is what we are dealing with when it comes to some of these negative reviews and I am already sick of it.

Some might think I could be taking the review a bit too personal, but the way I see it, the movie is good. Not spectacular, but very solid and it is clear a lot of work went into it. Then we have snarky 'critics' like this that think they can just shit all over it without providing any real feedback on anything. It is appalling.

If there is a way I can report this review on Rotten Tomatoes, I am gonna do that.

This review is so awful, he couldn't even be bothered to remember the character's names. He calls Fluttershy "Shutterfly", like seriously? If you can't even bother to remember the character's names, which you could easily find with a google search even if you did forget, then you shouldn't be doing a review on it.

[Ganondox 899]

7 hours ago, Yamet said:

Presumably because Hasbro wanted to release the movie worldwide, even in countries that haven't aired all of the seasons yet. 

The actual reason is much simpler: the draft for the script was written during Season 4, and it wasn't worthwhile to rework it so that Starlight Glimmer would play a major part. The fact Starlight Glimmer is a background character is already spoilers for later seasons. 

[Black Sabbath 2,486]

22 minutes ago, Ganondox said:

The fact Starlight Glimmer is a background character is already spoilers for later seasons. 

Is it though? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't she reformed the same season as her first appearance?  

[BastementSparkle 20,326]

6 minutes ago, Yamet said:

Is it though? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't she reformed the same season as her first appearance?  

She's reformed at the very end of Season 5, so someone who's still say, in the middle of that season might notice her and be a bit confused at why she's there, maybe figure something is up. The bigger spoiler though is that the CMC have their Cutie Marks, which somebody could easily notice.

So, I'd definitely just suggest anyone wanting to watch the movie to at least finish up to the end of Season 5 first if they haven't already.

Edited October 6, 2017 by BasementSparkle

[Applejack1989 35]

Celestia above, can we please stop quoting the review? It isn't in spoilers ad thus takes up a lot of space.xd

[VeroxVitrus 70]

MLP Movie Review

My Little Pony: The Movie is a mess that hides itself under the well drawn backgrounds and locations of the movie. Like I predicted from seeing the trailers, this movie was going to be beautiful but the story would doom it to low ratings. The first issue I have with the movie is that it feels like an extended MLP episode, everything in the movie could of been covered in 21 minutes but the film has filler and unneeded lackluster musical numbers thrown in to extend the running time. 

Another thing that the movie does badly is the story, it's too basic. I'm not saying it needs to be lord of the rings or the matrix but the writers could of been more risky with the plot. I have watched all of the mlp episodes to date and I'm pretty sure the writers could come up with something less cliche than this. You have this GIANT world filled with lore and vast amount of creatures and you stick to a plot line about some villain trying to takeover the world?

Speaking of cliches this film is filled to the brim with them, everything you see in a typical movie is in this. The obvious evil villain, the plan to dominate the world, the villains sidekick just there for laughs, the sudden moment of hopefulness and the bad guy being defeated. Like I said before the writers can do better than this, they're playing it too safe. When the films not trying to throw everything but the kitchen sink at you it does have some unique moments to it, but the problem here is that they're only on screen for a couple of minutes before we move on to the next creature that bumps into the mane 6 on their quest.

One minute we are with a cat called capper who wants to use the mane 6 to wipe away his debt (Bioshock Infinite anyone?) and then the next minute we are on a ship with pirates working for the storm king and then after that where in an underwater city that screams bargain atlantica with a mermaid like creature. It's like the mane 6 rented the locations for 5 minutes and needed to get through filming as quickly as possible, because of this the film can't develop the new characters properly and they just become so forgettable at the end of the movie. 

When the film is trying to make undeveloped characters it's also rendering some of them completely stupid, take the storm king for example who was shown to be a powerful king who set cities on fire and forced people to work with him in the comics only to be turned into a big stupid oaf in the film that's at threatening as a teletubby. And if you thought maybe tempest could redeem the film a bit you're wrong, Tempest it just another bland villain with an uninteresting backstory that only gets hit by the stupid reform cliche my little pony has a thing for at the end. 

This film is Garbage, the only thing I can give it points for is it's beautiful art style.
3/10

[caseyastevens 49]

2 minutes ago, VeroxVitrus said:

MLP Movie Review

My Little Pony: The Movie is a mess that hides itself under the well drawn backgrounds and locations of the movie. Like I predicted from seeing the trailers, this movie was going to be beautiful but the story would doom it to low ratings. The first issue I have with the movie is that it feels like an extended MLP episode, everything in the movie could of been covered in 21 minutes but the film has filler and unneeded lackluster musical numbers thrown in to extend the running time. 

Another thing that the movie does badly is the story, it's too basic. I'm not saying it needs to be lord of the rings or the matrix but the writers could of been more risky with the plot. I have watched all of the mlp episodes to date and I'm pretty sure the writers could come up with something less cliche than this. You have this GIANT world filled with lore and vast amount of creatures and you stick to a plot line about some villain trying to takeover the world?

Speaking of cliches this film is filled to the brim with them, everything you see in a typical movie is in this. The obvious evil villain, the plan to dominate the world, the villains sidekick just there for laughs, the sudden moment of hopefulness and the bad guy being defeated. Like I said before the writers can do better than this, they're playing it too safe. When the films not trying to throw everything but the kitchen sink at you it does have some unique moments to it, but the problem here is that they're only on screen for a couple of minutes before we move on to the next creature that bumps into the mane 6 on their quest.

One minute we are with a cat called capper who wants to use the mane 6 to wipe away his debt (Bioshock Infinite anyone?) and then the next minute we are on a ship with pirates working for the storm king and then after that where in an underwater city that screams bargain atlantica with a mermaid like creature. It's like the mane 6 rented the locations for 5 minutes and needed to get through filming as quickly as possible, because of this the film can't develop the new characters properly and they just become so forgettable at the end of the movie. 

When the film is trying to make undeveloped characters it's also rendering some of them completely stupid, take the storm king for example who was shown to be a powerful king who set cities on fire and forced people to work with him in the comics only to be turned into a big stupid oaf in the film that's at threatening as a teletubby. And if you thought maybe tempest could redeem the film a bit you're wrong, Tempest it just another bland villain with an uninteresting backstory that only gets hit by the stupid reform cliche my little pony has a thing for at the end. 

This film is Garbage, the only thing I can give it points for is it's beautiful art style.
3/10

Nope.  I thought it was pretty awesome movie.  8.5/10

[Ganondox 899]

2 hours ago, Yamet said:

Is it though? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't she reformed the same season as her first appearance?  

Yes, but not in the same episode. I think there is a wide enough gap from the start to the end of the season to consider it a spoiler. 

Edited October 6, 2017 by Ganondox

[Black Sabbath 2,486]

2 minutes ago, Ganondox said:

Yes, but not in the same episode. I think there is a wide enough gap from the start to the end of the season to consider it a spoiler. 

Eh, she just shows up in the background a bit. And considered that she did so in several episodes of season five as well, I'd hardly call that a spoiler. 

[Ganondox 899]

1 minute ago, Yamet said:

Eh, she just shows up in the background a bit. And considered that she did so in several episodes of season five as well, I'd hardly call that a spoiler. 

But in the episodes she was being sneaky in the background, here you can seem she's clearly on good terms. 

[bluseymoe 258]

15 hours ago, Widdershins said:

  Well, maybe I'll come back to this thread later as memories of it pop back up or when I get around to bloggin' about it or something. Do I... do I really need to spoiler tag? Like, whole thread is tagged as spoiler anyway. Eh, Will do anyway as I see it as the single biggest thing in the movie that surpasses even the world building.

  Hide contents

DITZY-DOO TOOK A BULLET FOR TWILIGHT! 

  I mean, really, at this point, if you didn't like the character before, how could you hate her now? If you liked her before and wished she could have more screen time or bearing on anything... then you really do have to just clam up in amazement now! You literally cannot not ask for anything more than saving the last remaining bastion of magical power! This whole movie cannot have happened without Derpy-Doo's quick thinking and caring! And all without having to actually point to her as a character still! Absolutely, unbelievable, clever writing there!

 

  Oh, and one other thing. Hippogriff Kingdom, eh? I can imagine a certain Silver Quilled reviewer being absolutely ecstatic about that! 

   Still incredibly incensed, as a mythology buff, that they dared muddle Hippogriff with Hippocampi... 

 

Spoiler

Watch the scene again closely. It was Rainbow Dash who saved her. You see a streak of rainbow flash by right before Twilight get's hit. Rainbow is the one we hear shouting her name as well. Derpy was just the unlucky one who happened to be in the blast zone as she was running away. The position she was frozen in clearly shows that she wasn't trying to push anyone out of the way. She was just trying to run away. She's an unfortunate victim. Not a hero.

 

[Castle Bleck 19,361]

Who else noticed...

 

...Discord...

...'s cameo in the end credits?

Edited October 6, 2017 by The Artist Formerly Known As A.V.

[Ganondorf8 11,310]

[Spoiler Warning]

Well... I watched the movie a short while ago and I certainly have a lot to say about it--not too much though as I do have other things that need doing--but suffice to say, the movie was okay but the obvious flaws really do drag it down. I'm not going to do a summary as there's no point and others are sure to do it so I'll start with some of the more obvious flaws and praises. 

First of all, the other princesses were once again relegated to the sidelines. I really wished they hadn't done that as it comes across as simply being lazy not to mention spitting on their characters. We've had this time and time again in the show so seeing it here in the movie was a real disappointment. On the positive side, at least they were given dialogue and not just standing around waiting for something to happen. The princesses aren't the only ones who were treated in such a manner. Some of the movie exclusive characters unfortunately were given the same treatment. I can understand wanting to introduce a slew of new characters yet clearly they didn't take into account the time constraint--ninety-nine minutes isn't as long as you might think.

The Storm King is a perfect example of this. We see him during the beginning in one scene and then he completely disappears until the final conflict occurs. I was hoping to get a lot more from him as he's supposed to be the main villain but instead, he is completely overshadowed by Tempest, who arguably should have been the main antagonist given she has so many scenes. I'll get to her in a moment but back to the Storm King. I loved his comedic attitude mixed together with a power-hungry persona. Usually, villains in MLP are strictly the latter so it was nice getting something different in a villain. Despite his limited screen time, he definitely made the most of what he was given though he needed to showcase more of his own natural skills as opposed to using magic. Without a doubt, the Storm King is one of my favourite movie characters.

Tempest... We all could see the reformation bit coming a mile away and once again, time constraints meant that it was rushed, but unlike Sunset and Starlight, they made sure to provide us with her backstory much sooner and through song no less--I'll talk about the songs later. Her bluntness was a charming quirk combined with her intense fighting style and no nonsense attitude made her very memorable. Granted, she had way more scenes than the other movie exclusive characters but I can look past it simply because she had an impact every time we saw her. Again, her reformation was rushed but it's one that I liked because she had done everything for the Storm King only to be brushed aside--it was obvious he would backstab Tempest--and she risked her life to save the Mane Six. 

The other movie characters were either hit or miss for me. Songbird Serenade only had a few scenes though I was expecting more given the advertisements were really pushing the fact that she was voiced by Sia, but other than her song at the end, she's one of those miss and you blink characters. Queen Novo is the same except she just had one big scene and a brief appearance at the end, another missed opportunity. Princess Skystar was okay though her voice and personality did make me cringe after a while. Maybe her voice actress needed to tone it down a bit but I do appreciate her more quirky nature that mirrored Pinkie Pie a little bit. Capper is cool, end of story. Yes, I know that isn't much but I really grew to like him even though you could tell he was being deceptive the moment you first see him. I really wish he could have more scenes but what he was given was very good.

Grubber was perfect as comedy relief especially with some of his wisecrack lines. Granted, he didn't get to do much and he was written out towards the end but he was an excellent foil to Tempest and his obsession with cake was never once annoying. Finally, there is Celeano, who doesn't get many scenes either and aside from fighting, showing off, and having a nice voice, I didn't really get much from her, but perhaps I need to look back and see her scenes again.

As I suspected, the plot of the movie is very predictable in that you know what's going to happen before it actually does. I understand that the movie was made for its target demographic--you all know what that is--but it could have used some more unexpected twists rather than taking a playing-it-safe style of mentality. It felt like watching one of the season finales over again only with more content thrown in. Basically: random festival-like event, evil force shows up, Mane Six have to find the magical McGuffin to save the day, go to a new location, meet a new face, repeat a few times, find said McGuffin, ends up being a different McGuffin, Mane Six go back home, villain defeated, reformation thrown in, festival resumes. I liked the final conflict against the Storm King despite how obvious it was that both he and Twilight would survive the tornado but it did have me on edge as with the Storm King's nature, who knew what he was capable of doing and again he didn't disappoint. The entire underwater kingdom sequence made me cringe the entire way through and I definitely didn't like the scene where Twilight was trying to steal the orb. It was predictable that she would do that not to mention she acted out of character for me at that moment.

The pacing was very erratic in that it goes by way too quickly and even jumps about awkwardly here and there. Essentially, if you blink then you will miss something either obvious or cleverly well-hidden so perhaps they should have slowed down a little. It starts off slow for a while then picks up at a rapid pace, slows back down again, speeds up, and so on until the end credits. Adults will be fine with this yet young children may lose interest. I loved all of the new locations especially the desert area seen early on--I'm very biased towards deserts--and are worthy additions to the MLP lore that we've come to love over the years. I hope some of them appear in the show because it would be a crime if they remained exclusive to the movie and not be allowed to be implemented and expanded upon later.

Animation... Loved it though it took a while for it to grow on me. The initial trailers showcased poor animation but clearly improvements were made over the following months resulting in what the final version presents. They definitely pulled out all the stops here what with the special effects, the beautiful locations, and the fluidity of all of the characters. If there was an award for best animation in an animated movie, the MLP Movie would definitely be a contender and would probably win it as well. I tip my hat to the animators for going above and beyond. No doubt the animation will be talked about for years to come. Toon Boom has proven it can be very effective.

And now I come to the songs. Honestly, there were way too many of them thrown in with some coming at really awkward moments. Only a couple of them really stood out for me with the rest being either cringe-worthy or completely unneeded. Tempest's song was perfect and I would highly recommend watching it as often as possible, the same with Capper's song, but the rest were as I said, cringe-worthy or not needed to be present. I honestly was expecting the Storm King to sing a song but he didn't which was slightly disappointing but perhaps it was for the best as a song would have taken away from his overall presence. The music of the movie once again shows Daniel Ingram at his best though the song lyrics in most of them needed some improvement as they aren't what I would call memorable.

Lastly, we have the Mane Six and other characters we've known for years. It was weird how the opening scenes basically re-introduced us to them but I suppose this was intended for those who have never seen the show before. I'm not going to fault the movie on this but maybe it could have been handled a bit better in one or two places. Each of the Mane Six behaved as expected though there were times where I cringed because they did something so stupid resulting in the villains finding them or in Twilight's case, causing her to have a falling out with her friends. While that scene in particular didn't cause me to cry, it was very emotional and shows that even friends have issues that can tear them apart. However, unless you're familiar with the show and its overall premise, you might end up getting confused with some of the Mane Six's more quirky ticks so to speak. New fans or those who want to see what it's all about are bound to be confused to the point of being hopelessly lost yet those familiar with MLP won't have any problems. This would be one of those cases where your mileage will vary depending on your prior experience.

Did I like this movie though? It was okay though the flaws did drag down the overall experience. Loved the animation and some of the new characters but the story was predictable, the pacing was awkward, the songs--excluding Capper's and Tempest's--often disrupted the overall flow, and the time constraints meant having to resolve certain things too quickly or leaving them unresolved. I did chuckle at some scenes while remaining stoic with other scenes and I did cringe from time to time. I'm going to be frank and say that I do prefer the Equestria Girls movies but I will give this movie prompts for wanting to do what it did even if the end result didn't quite work out.

I give this movie... 70%

[caseyastevens 49]

Saw the movie again and I still love it.  The fast pace didn't bother me this time around which I thought would happen.  Characters, songs, animation, and story are all still great.

Edited October 6, 2017 by caseyastevens

[Azureth 687]

So I asked this before but never got an answer: Had Twilight managed to get the seapony orb thing just how was she planning to use it to save Equestria? From what I could tell all it could do was turn Ponies into seapony's. Was she planning on turning everypony in Equestria into seaponies? 

One other question: Is there any in-universe reason why they never thought to have Discord for help? Seems having an all-powerful demi-god would have came in REAL handy!

[Castle Bleck 19,361]

4 minutes ago, Azureth said:

From what I could tell all it could do was turn Ponies into seapony's.

 

It turned Spike into a pufferfish, too.

[caseyastevens 49]

4 minutes ago, Azureth said:

So I asked this before but never got an answer: Had Twilight managed to get the seapony orb thing just how was she planning to use it to save Equestria? From what I could tell all it could do was turn Ponies into seapony's. Was she planning on turning everypony in Equestria into seaponies? 

One other question: Is there any in-universe reason why they never thought to have Discord for help? Seems having an all-powerful demi-god would have came in REAL handy!

I believe the orb is just a magical artifact that can do many different things and twilight wanted to use its power against the storm king.  I don't think it only changes ponies into seaponies.  Also there isn't a reason for Discord being absent.  He's most likely doing his own thing.

[Azureth 687]

5 minutes ago, caseyastevens said:

I believe the orb is just a magical artifact that can do many different things and twilight wanted to use its power against the storm king.  I don't think it only changes ponies into seaponies.  Also there isn't a reason for Discord being absent.  He's most likely doing his own thing.

But that just begs the question as to why they chose to use the power to turn themselves into seaponies and hide instead of using it against the storm king in the first place.

[Crimson Fire 30]

5 minutes ago, Azureth said:

But that just begs the question as to why they chose to use the power to turn themselves into seaponies and hide instead of using it against the storm king in the first place.

Perhaps they felt that since the Storm King assumed they were all gone, they could hide and not worry about him coming back. And maybe something about starting a new life underwater as Sea Ponies.

[caseyastevens 49]

4 minutes ago, Azureth said:

But that just begs the question as to why they chose to use the power to turn themselves into seaponies and hide instead of using it against the storm king in the first place.

Maybe they didn't want to fight back in case of them losing and having some of the hippogriffs being taken prisoners.  So instead, they fled to their underwater kingdom instead so they would be safe.