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

[Twitchy-Tremor 288]

It wasn’t as good as I was hoping. Twilight seemed really out of character for most of it.

[PerlsteinProps 26,490]

After another re-watch two years later, I have a lot more positive view of this movie. It's been a long time since I've seen it and especially since I watched it with some good friends of mine on Discord - I really liked it. My main issue with it was that it felt like it could have been longer, but I am nowhere near as critical of it as I once was. 

[Evil Pink One 13,485]

1 hour ago, Props Valroa said:

After another re-watch two years later, I have a lot more positive view of this movie. It's been a long time since I've seen it and especially since I watched it with some good friends of mine on Discord - I really liked it. My main issue with it was that it felt like it could have been longer, but I am nowhere near as critical of it as I once was. 

Ditto i wanted more.... i blame transformers for shortening its budget.

 

[cheesy boy 20]

Wow, this movie was completely abysmal. It was horrendous. 

Maybe I'll review it later. 

[Otaku-sempai 257]

I thought the 2017 MLP movie was pretty good as family films go. I would have used the original opening number rather than the ponified remix of "You've Got the Beat". But the film expanded the world and gave us some interesting new characters. The Storm King was a bit disappointing; I thought he should have been more threatening and less comic. At least he got a pretty definitive end. He wasn't sent to Tartarus, from where he could have escaped for a sequel story. 

Edited Wednesday at 08:38 PM by Otaku-sempai

[Finding_Marty 254]

I loved it but I wish it had a happy ending 

 

[cheesy boy 20]

Ah this is gonna take a while to write.

A few months back when I first watched the mlp movie I was shocked of how bad it was. A few days back I watched the movie again and I tolerated it better but still thought the the movie was sh*t. 

Now I have done extensive reading and studying around the movie and i am ready to write my review (Basically i read other peoples' reviews of the movie)

this review will absolutely contain spoilers (for the movie and the show)

the animation:

I am definitely in the minority here. I hated the movie animation mostly character design. Animation is not one of the main reasons I hated the movie but it greatly decreased my enjoyment of the movie. 
I think the characters eyes are too big and the glitter in their eye just makes their appearance more distracting also they look too "cute".

They also look kinda 3D which I don't like and I think they look really really better in their show animation, also spike in this movie felt a bit off and looked too "chubby".

movie vs show character animation:

Also Cadance's eyes are too big (I really needed to say that or I would had trouble sleeping knowing I didn't mention this  ):

Background animation was good and colorful and vibrant Celestia's palace especially looked very good. But when they escape Canterlot and reach to "Beyond Equestria"

most of the background designs lose their appeal. 

backgrounds movie vs show (shadow play) :

 

All and all I think show's animation is more natural and movie's is not as good as most of the animated movies.

Mane six characterizations:

two of the main six literally contributed nothing to the movie Fluttershy and Applejack. Did Fluttershy even speak in this movie?  . She once said yay  and once said cute and probably had like two more lines in the movie, like really ?

Rarity: She barely impacted the movie. She "generously" repairs Capper's coat that takes 10 seconds of the movie and that's basically all she does.

The rest of the mane six are more in this movie but oh boy, is their characterization bad !

Rainbow Dash : RD is not an idiot. She is egotistic and uses words like awesome and sometimes she makes bad decisions but she is not an idiot. The way she "sonic rainboomed" and  revealed the place of their ship was just so stupid and dumb, enough said.

pinkie pie: Out of all of Twilight's friends she was the most present in the movie she was the one who confronted Twilight when she betrayed them. Aside from that scene she was badly characterized. In the movie she is an absolute idiot. She was oblivious to the world her and put others' lives in danger.  . Don't believe me OK I'll show you :

• She runs after an "out of control balloon" scaring Fluttershy's birds
• She lunches a cake with her enormous party canon on Twilight's head embarrassing her in front of Songbird Serenade 

  now those two aren't two bad but it gets worse:

• In the part escaping Klugetown Pinkie happily jumps on the rope which leads to the pirate ship endangering others and causing her to almost fall to her death and after Twilight saves her she says "best escape plan ever" and then Twilight says "what?".  Yes what the hell pinkie. You were not an idiot in the show you were a complex character that know when to act serious and when not to you just wanted to act goofy and fun most of the time to make yourself and your friends "smile"  
• When going back to Canterlot pinkie is pulling the wagon with the cake and pirates on it But she is constantly smiling it's not like that she is acting that she has been enslaved. Its like she doesn't understand how to act sad . Wow pinkie pie here was oblivious to situation there where in and put their plan in danger.

The mane character Twilight sparkle

Here she was OOC, really really out of character. I'll talk about the story and talk about her along the way

The story

So, in the beginning Twilight is preparing a friendship festival. She wants to talk to the princesses and she is worried I bet something important. Well no. She is worried that "the princesses" will decline her offer to move the sun and the moon so the stage in the festival is bright. At the first viewing of this scene I was thrown off by it. I thought it disregarded character development for twilight in episodes like Lesson Zero and It's About Time, I still think it does but it's not that bad 

then they sing a song that showcases everypony's talent. This would've been fine if their talent's we're used -only rarity's generosity was used- or if the song was good.

Pinkie lunches a cake on Twilight and she meets Songbird Serenade and then Tempest and the crew show up and we meet Grubber. Why does he exist? As a comic relief he is not funny like at all and non of the things he says is funny, also you don't need a comic relief when Pinkie freaking Pie is in the movie.

Grubber introduces Storm king as this "evil evil" guy. What kind of introduction is that? 

Then Tempest comes and turns the three princesses into stone with some green ball thingy. This feels weird and villain victory does not feel earned, it just feels lame. Can anyone come with those balls and conquer Equestria that easily? also princess Luna and Celestia know how to teleport but they don't and instead Celestia tells Luna to find the "hippos".

The mane characters escape the city and Twilight tells others that she most find the "hippos" . This is bad because Twilight has always saved Equestria with her friends. In the Return of Harmony she says that if they stay together they can face off anything and In the Cutie remark she says This is too big to handle one our own we must find our friends. 

I let this slide because it takes four seconds for her friends to say they are coming with her too.

 

This movie takes place between season 7 and season 8 so the ponies have made quite a bit of allies, Discord, yaks, dragons, changelings, Crystal empire tree and the elements of harmony and finally the pillars. You think they should call them for help instead of going to someplace out side Equestria seeking out for help. This is actually a really big plot hole in the movie. For example  ponies can summon discord at will (ep Princess Twilight Sparkle) and he will wipe out the entirety of the storm army at the snap of his fingers.

It would have been better if mane six and spike split up and each go to a different place seeking out for help one of them gets captured and reveals their plan to Tempest and most of the plan fails but some of it works and the ending fight would be between some of the allies they've made and the Storm king's army. This would have been better and felt a lot more like mlp but still doesn't address the problem of discord not helping and the other problem is that it would look more like a fan fiction than well, mlp. This is not game of thrones to end with and contain a big fight this is mlp, most of the problems are solved with friendship, redeeming villains and using the elements of harmony.

We see Tempest saying "All this power waster on parties". It would've been great seeing what Tempest wants to do with magic power or what her philosophy is, but this never comes back. Tempest is a good villain for like 2 thirds of the movie before her backstory and "redemption".She looks and acts intimidating and has a no BS attitude.

Storm king calls and every one is scared of him. Now that is a good introduction to a great villain, only if the storm king was not such a big joke. He is not intimidating at all and when he gets power of all princesses (I guess flurry heart doesn't exist in the movie), he just messes around with it and the most he does is making a giant tornado. His story is very similar with Tirek (It's lord Tirek ) : 

• He has a powerful henchman that does most of the job for him. check 
• He wants the magic of princesses. check 
• He has come from a faraway land to conquer Equestria. check 
• He betrays his henchman which ultimately leads to his demise. check 
• He even looks like Tirek.

So after that ponies are in a desert and pinkie and spike say some stuff -I think they are meant as jokes, really bad jokes- and we reach Klugetown.

The problem with that place is :

1.we don't know how much time has passed between Canterlot invasion and reaching Klugetown 

2.we don't know how far away actually Klugetown is and we don't get a clear map of Equestria and Klugetown and we don't know how far our heroes have traveled. I tell you why we were not shown a map: Because Klugetown is south of Canterlot and Ponyville is also south of Canterlot so writers in order to keep the story simple didn't add the map.

Fixing these problems wouldn't have saved the movie but simply improved the experience of the viewer.

3. Klugetown looks like it's from a totally different TV show. There are furry cats there and hybrids and anthropomorphic moles and so on. This I think is a big problem ,as the sentient and intelligent species that we have seen in mlp were limited and most of them lived together like tribes. what I mean is every race had their own settlement and lived far away from other races. For example diamond dogs lived in gem caves, griffons griffonstone and dragons lived in dragon lands. I think we see more races in this movie than all of show combined.

So they meet Capper and he sings a song to them and everyone starts to trust Capper. Everyone except Twilight. Capper wants to sell mane six but tempest shows up and mane six escape. In the escape twilight doesn't once use her teleportation spell which is really weird because it's one of the mane spells she knows and in season 8 finale she teleports mane six from freaking Tartarus to school of friendship.

When pirates find them they say : we should tie' em up/ clip their wings/ scar them (emotionally). And then in the song they say they were treasure hunters. Hmm  movie are you sure they were not full blown pirates. 

Instead of throwing them abroad they invite them for lunch and say storm rules only allows them one break a day. So who exactly does ensure that they take one break a day?You know what they say: when there is no police there are no rules.

RD sings a song and the one who opposes the song is ,you guessed it, it's Twilight.

It takes less than one minute of singing until pirates decide to abandon their way of obeying Storm kings' rules and continue being pirates.Are you sure?You're serious buddy? what is the probability of this happening huh ? it's zero, absolute zero. Think about it you're obeying some powerful king's rules and if you don't you get severely punished but because some ponies sing a song to you reminding you of your great past, you abandon your new way of life. What? (angry noises )

So everyone in the ship is having fun except Twilight. is this Twilight the same Twilight that we have seen throughout the series? Twilight was never anti fun. She was never a party pooper. The movie does nothing to show that Twilight is friends with the five other ponies she travels with. RD flies up in the sky and Twilight panics, What now Twilight  everyone is having fun why aren't you ? Oh RD performs a sonic rainbow. What ? So you're telling me that no one except twilight realizes that this was a bad idea and their location is revealed to Tempest and villains? what a load of (flushes toilet :somebody once told me ....)

Tempest finds the ship, heroes escape, and Tempest blows the ship off. While jumping off the ship Twilight tries to save her friends alone  at least you could've used RD or Fluttershy's help.

Mane six goes to mount Aris and get turned into seaponies ! Was this movie a fan fiction ?

We meet daughter of queen Novo . she takes ponies to the queen and explains to the audience mane six what happened to the hippogriffs. Queen Novo is like no don't tell them and her daughter is like lol i'll tell tell them anyways. Voice acting for queen Novo is off because she was voiced by a celebrity and not by a professional voice actor.

Mane six seek out out for queen's help and queen says "lol, Heck no. Have a nice day". Twilight tells others to cheer queen's lonely child up ,a shitty musical ensues and Twilight is caught stealing the pearl of the hippogriffs. Wait , What? What happened ? let us analyze this thoroughly:

Twilight tells Pinkie and others to have fun, distracting queen Novo and others so she can steal the pearl of the hippogriffs. What ? What just happened? Twilight not only wanted to steal the pearl but also betrays her friends' trust and doesn't tell her "friends" her plan. This is something very low, even season one (ep 1) Twilight wouldn't do such a horrible action. She wasn't even under stress in that situation.She was at the place she wanted to be at the start of the journey and instead of talking to seaponies or planning something with her friends, She just betrays the trust of everyone. Even the audience is shocked at this betrayal.

They are turned into their normal form and Pinkie and Twilight start arguing. 

Pinkie says "You are also the only princess who doesn't trust her friends"

Twilight says "Well maybe i would have been better off without the friends like you."

I know you are angry twilight but holy sh**. After all of this adventures together how dare you say something so bold. You have the audacity to yell at your "friends" and tell them this. Wow.

It was not your friends' fault that queen Novo didn't want to cooperate. It was not your fault that you didn't trust your "friends" and your half-assed plan didn't work out. Yes it was all your mistake Twilight. Sure RD revealed location of the ship to Tempest (causing you to be thrown off the ship) But she was also the one befriending the pirates and stopping you from getting thrown off the ship. Sure Pinkie pie was an idiot throughout the movie but she did nothing stopping you from reaching your goals and finding hippogriffs. 

Is this Twilight the same Twilight from the TV show? I don't think so. 

even if Twilight was angry and it was not completely out of character for her to say this things, Even then this scene and the third act break up would have been at the very least completely cliche. I'll give some credit to the movie that at least Twilight regretted saying that and started crying.

Twilight gets captured and Tempest sings the only good song (by good I mean catchy) in the movie. But the song is one of the reasons that Tempests backstory feels so rushed.

So we see Tempest as a filly and she lost her horn fighting the Ursa Minor (therefor implying that she lived in Ponyville)

also we see unicorn applejack:

After she lost her horn she could not levitate stuff and therefor could not play with her friends. Her friends get scared of her magic and leave her. and we see her angrily walking off the screen.

This is a very bad backstory. Throughout the movie Tempest's problem was not that she hated friendship or that friendship had failed her. Her problem was that She was a freaking villain for god's sake. She wanted her horn so badly that she would kill and hurt people to get her horn back, her problem was not friendship, it was "having no moral values". 

Also she didn't show any affection towards her friends and losing them (friendship failing her) didn't leave an emotional impact on her or the viewers. Her backstory shows that because of her "disability" she couldn't play with her friends anymore, but here's an easy solution to the problem :play with earth ponies.

Also I think both Starlight's backstory and redemption in the show were handled better than Tempest's .

Spike tells remaining five that Twilight's been captured. Then Capper and Pirates and daughter of queen Novo come to help them. Why exactly? I don't know. The hippogriff helping them was fine I guess because she is a dumb child. But Capper and pirates I don't know. Pirates' only ship was broken because they listened to the advice of rainbow dash, and Capper had no reason to help too other than "well rarity fixed my coat so I need to help her"

Now with this group (of seven creatures) they have collected they sneak into Canterlot and they break through. Wait what ? This group of 12 creatures break through Canterlot that was occupied with a dozens of storm creatures. So Storm king's army which defeated Canterlot with thousands of citizens and probably with guards was defeated by a group consisting of 12 creatures? this makes the journey a waste of time -and resources- and completely worthless. I bet if our heroes gathered an army from Ponyville they would have gathered an army bigger than this.  I can't emphasize enough how terrible this plot point is.

Then storm king comes and creates a storm and they defeat him and Tempest sacrifices herself and I'm too tired to talk or write about this movie anymore.

Tempests redemption feels forced and out off place because 

• She says to the storm king that if he restores her horn she would use her magic to help him. So the change in her attitude is not because she wants to be a good guy or anything but because storm king didn't do as he promised
• She has done too many bad things to be redeemed. She was the mane villain for the first two thirds of the movie.And she didn't regret the actions that she did. If Storm king had restored her horn she would have done those things again

Compare it with Starlight's backstory and redemption :

 In The Cutie Remark we actually time travel to when Starlight lost her friend. The voice actor of Starlight actually sounds very sad and sounds like she is about to cry "Because he got his cutie mark, He got his and I didn't. He moved on and I didn't" But here we learn about Tempest's backstory through a song and it doesn't look like that  she gives a sh**.

In Starlight's backstory we actually get that why she started her village and why she acts the way she does and we sympathize with her. In Tempest's we learn that she wants her horn back but we knew that before the backstory.

In Starlight's redemption Starlight sees that what effects her actions have on the world she wanted to take a revenge on Twilight and show her how hard it is to live without friends she didn't want to end the world and she slowly accepts that changing time is a mistake. In Tempest's redemption she does not get her horn back and becomes angry with Storm king. After that she is saved by twilight and basically owes her life to her. If the Storm king didn't betray her she would have remained evil. 

End of the Story

The comedy 

The comedy in this movie actually sucks. 

Here's some of the jokes 

Spike "But remember the most important thing"

Twilight "Smile?"

Proceeds to make this face:

Pinkie plays I spy with my little eyes . "I spy something orange" me "It's Applejack isn't it" Yes it was Applejack could've seen it from a mile.

Applejack :"You just abandoned your city and fled?" Skystar:"We didn't flee we sway you know, in order to flee"

what would have made the movie better?

• A better world ending story. I think the "we need to gather an army to defeat some villain" story is not suited for mlp at all. I think To Where and Back Again and Shadow Play's stories are better and instead one of them should have been made into a full blown movie (They even could've used Tirek or Grogar or Chrysallis)
• GlimGlam (Starlight) actually would have made this movie a lot better because she is the only mane character to not completely obey Twilight's commands and sees herself as smart as her
• A simpler story actually. If the movie had one villain the movie would have been focused on mane six a lot more
• More mane six interaction. From halfway through the movie mane six didn't interact with each other in a meaningful kind of way
• Less going from one place to another making the movie feel episodic
• An actually threatening villain not the unfunny and lame Storm king 
• Simpler character animation
• a good villain backstory
• Coherent locations 
• Jokes that are actually good 
• other things 

In conclusion 

i wasted to much time writing this review 

have a nice day