My Little Pony: Generation 5 (MLP G5): What We Know So Far - Part 3 (July 7, 2021)

[Dreamstar Moonlight 44]

[Note: Here are the links to my previous entries. Part 1 | Part 2| Part 3]

[Edit 1: Updated on July 7, 2021 to include information on the singing Izzy toy, the new composer, Sunny's 'Alicorn' toy, movie runtime & rating and also added some new pictures.

Edit 2: Updated on July 12, 2021 to include links to the videos of the singing Izzy & Pipp toys. Also, because of the limit of 20 images per post, a few of the images and videos I originally had on my Tumblr post have not been included here. But you can check them out on my Tumblr.

Edit 3: Updated on July 13, 2021 to add new info about Hitch Trailblazer, and also updated the "Voice Cast" section.

Edit 4: Updated on July 18, 2021 to include time of release of the MLP G5 Movie]

Edit 5: Updated on July 25, 2021 to include the names of the Pegasi ponies from Zephyr Heights; and also to update information about the movie's theatrical release in Russia

Edit 6: Updated on September 23 , 2021 to include new info about the music, cast & characters etc.]

Welp, I don’t even know where to start. For a while it seemed as though we were never getting any updates regarding the G5 movie – then suddenly, the past couple of weeks have been nothing but updates! So much information has popped up - from G5 merchandise to VA reveals – I’ve barely been able to keep up.

I planned to make a timeline of sorts, but with the amount of stuff I’d have to cover, most of which contain the same information, it’d be an unnecessarily lengthy post. And besides, such a thing already exists. Here. Just scroll down the posts – the older the news, the further down you’ll need to scroll. Also, if anyone’s interested in a timeline of the appearance of MLP G5 merch, Overcast has got that covered. Just take a look at this superbly detailed spreadsheet!

So instead I’m going to compile all the info we have and categorize them in into 4 sections:

• The Title
• Cast and Crew
• The Characters
• New Locations

THE TITLE

On May 18, 2021, the Netflix Malaysia’s Twitter page posted a listing of titles for releases later this year. One of those was My Little Pony: Pony Tale. This seemed like a weird choice, because a previous generation of My Little Pony was so similarly titled.  The reaction to this title was…lukewarm. Some disliked it immensely, others were indifferent towards it, yet others maintained that it was probably just a region specific title for Southeast Asia.

As some fans noted, this ‘title’ diverged quite a bit from the book title we got some time back: “My Little Pony: A New Adventure.

Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait too long to know the actual title of the movie. On May 28, 2021, Boulder Media's own website, the folks behind the animation of the movie announced the official title of the MLP G5 movie - My Little Pony: A New Generation.

 

CAST & CREW

THE DIRECTORS & PRODUCERS

On February 24, 2021, Entertainment Tonight announced that Rob Cullen (Transformers: Cyberverse, El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera) and Jose Ucha (Bernard, Invizimals) directed the MLP G5 movie with Mark Fattibene; and that Cecil Kramer and Peter Lewis had produced it.

In an interview with Animation Magazine, Cullen remarked: 

“We wanted to make the movie accessible to people who probably aren’t familiar with the world of My Little Pony. And we’re also paying respects and homage to the older films and TV shows. We want fans to appreciate it and see it and for the comedy to be effective. There are Easter eggs in the movie as well for fans. But we definitely kept the DNA of ‘Friendship Is Magic.’ It’s still there in the presence of the main ponies in the movie as they go through the story. So, it was kind of a balancing act.” 

 

THE MUSIC

On June 27, 2021, thanks to our fandom’s sleuthing skills, it was discovered that a musician named Alan Schmuckler had listed up on his website the upcoming My Little Pony G5 Movie on Netflix as a project he both worked the lyrics and music for, along with another musician called Micheal Maher.

“We knew that we wanted to have an eclectic range of genres in the songs,” says Cullen. “We wanted to mix things up a bit and set out to make this as unpredictable as we can because some people might go into the movie with preconceived ideas. No one would expect a punk rock, Nirvana-esque song in this movie. We were so lucky because we have two fantastic songwriters, Michael Mahler and Alan Schmuckler. We just loved their lyrics, and they came in with brilliant, super catchy, airborne songs.”

 A piece of ‘Pipp Petals’ merch mentioned the title of one of the songs as Glowin' Up which Canadian songwriter Jenna Andrews later confirmed she'd composed. Jenna Andrews is a big name in the pop scene with credits with BTS and Noah Cyrus to name a few, and the song she wrote for Pipp is definitely…ahem, very much "pop"-styled, maybe overly so. 

Barely four days later, Equestria Daily reported that a fan called 'Horizon Spark Sunrize' had got their hands on a talking plush of Izzy which sings a snippet of a song called Fit Right In from the movie. They posted the video to their Instagram channel.

The full song Glowin’ Up (performed by Sofia Carson) was uploaded to the official My Little Pony YouTube channel on September 2nd. 

A snippet of the song Gonna Be My Day can be heard on Sunny Starscout's new "Sing and Skate" toy that was released on September 9th.

Over on another video website, the full Korean version of Izzy’s song Fit Right In was released on the 15th of September. The trailer song It’s Alright was uploaded by the singer Johnny Orlando to his YouTube channel on September 17th.

The full song Gonna Be My Day was uploaded to the official My Little Pony channel on the 20th of September.

The complete soundtrack for the movie was released on the 23rd of September. Following is the list of songs included in the OST:

• "Glowin 'Up" - Performed by Sofia Carson (Pipp)
• "Gonna Be My Day" - Performed by Vanessa Hudgens (Sunny)
• "I'm Lookin' Out For You" - Performed by Vanessa Hudgens (Sunny) & Kimiko Glenn (Izzy)
• "Danger, Danger" - Performed by Alan Schmuckler (Sprout)
• "Fit Right In" - Performed by Kimiko Glenn (Izzy), Vanessa Hudgens (Sunny) & James Marsden (Hitch)
• "Together" - Performed by Callie Twisselman
• "It's Alright" - Performed by Johnny Orlando

 

THE VOICE CAST

Way back in April 2020, Tara Strong announced in one of her Instagram live streams that she won’t be reprising her role as Twilight Sparkle in G5. More recently, in an MLP Voice Actor Q&A session hosted by Gabriel C. Brown aka Black Gryph0n on his YouTube channel on 29 May, 2021, Kelly Sheridan (who voiced Starlight Glimmer, Sassy Saddles, Misty Fly, Indigo Zap and a  bunch of other bits and bobs in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) went on record saying that none of the voice work for MLP G5 was being done in Vancouver, B.C. (where all of MLP: FiM was recorded).

You can watch the clips here and here.

Around 28 June, 2021, speculations about the High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens being involved in G5 popped up on Reddit when someone dug up this post from the actress’s Instagram profile.

On 30 June, 2021, Netflix finally announced the voice cast for the MLP G5 movie, along with a short video (which I’ve already posted here), besides officially confirming the release date to be September 24, 2021. 

However, despite Tara’s and Kelly’s claims that none of the original cast members were returning, audiences who either a) saw the early screenings in theaters or b) had the special privilege of being invited to an early special screening reported that the OG Mane 6 – Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity – make an extremely unexpected and surprising cameo appearance. The original VAs return to reprise their roles in a brief scene at the very beginning of the movie.

The Mane Six as they appear in the movie

• Twilight Sparkle – Tara Strong
• Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy – Andrea Libman
• Rainbow Dash, Applejack – Ashleigh Ball
• Rarity – Tabitha St. Germain

Other cast members include:

 

• Toots/Thunder/Jasper/Pegasus Guard – Arturo Hernández
• Sweets – Brooke Goldner
• Zoom – Gillian Berrow
• Sprout Singing Voice – Alan Schmuckler
• Dazzle Feather/Mayflower/Confused Mom – Heather Langenkamp Anderson
• Skye Silver/Commercial VO/Glitter Cupcake/Comet Tail – Will Friedle
• Sparkle Chaser/Rob the Pony/Wings – Robert Cullen
• Kid Earth Pony 1/Pippsqueak 1 – Laura Bailey
• Pegasus Fan – Kari Wahlgren
• Balloon Pony/Unicorn Father/Worker Pony 1 – Tony Matthews
• Beatnik Unicorn/Pegasus Concert Goer/Pippsqueak 2/Tram Driver – Lisa Linder Silver
• Announcer Pony – Thomas Rickert
• Bunnies – Inbal Elazari
• Unicorn Kid – Maggie Cullen

Notes:

1. Additional voices have provided by Will Friedle, Arturo Hernández, Heather Langenkamp Anderson and Lisa Linder Silver
2. All the actors seem to have been hired out of LA, except Mane Six VAs, Boulder employees, Maggie Cullen (child of director) and Brooke Goldner (child of Hasbro CEO).

THE LOGO

Plus, we got our first look at the sleazy new official logo for G5!

What’s curious is that this logo looks nothing like the one that appeared on some MLP G5 merchandise on Taobao way back in January, 2021 despite using the same font style.

Whether or not the MLP G5 series keeps the new logo or switches to the 'merch' version remains to be seen.

 

THE WRITERS

Following the MLP G5 VA reveal, Gillian M. Berrow (who had previously written several episodes for Friendship is Magic and most of the officially licensed MLP: FiM chapter books) tweeted that she’d penned the script for the movie with Tim Sullivan. You can find their tweets here and here.

 

MOVIE RATING & RUN-TIME

According to the film rating website, My Little Pony: A New Generation has been given a PG rating, similar to the 2017 G4 My Little Pony movie, for some ‘thematic elements’. The runtime for this movie was confirmed to be exactly 90 minutes by Netflix.

MOVIE RELEASE DATE & TIME

We've known the date for the MLP G5 movie for quite a while now, but Netflix on July 17, 2021 announced the exact time of release. Tune in to watch the movie on Netflix on the 24th of September, 2021 at 07:00 AM UTC, which would be

• 08:00 AM in BST (London) or
• 11: 00 PM in PST  (North America)
• 12:00 AM in MST  (North America)
• 01:00 AM in CST (North America)
• 02:00 AM in EST (North America)

Just use this UTC Time Converter to figure out what time the movie releases for you. (It's 12:30 PM GMT +5:30 for me, at any rate!)

Keep an eye on these fantastic countdown timers: Pony Station & Simple Ponyclock - these might come in handy!

Some Russian cinemas held early screenings of My Little Pony: A New Generation on September 18th. The movie will also get a full-blown theatrical release on the 23rd of September in Russia on the 23rd of September. Besides Russia, early screenings were also held in Hong Kong and Singapore on the 19th of September. A special screening was also held in London on the 20th of September.

THE CHARACTERS

On the 1st of March, 2021, Hasbro filed trademarks for the following names: Princess Petals, Pipp Petals, Izzy Moonbow, Hitch Trailblazer and Sunny Starscout. This day marked the first time the full names of the mane cast of G5 characters were revealed officially.

Sunny, Izzy and Hitch were previously officially revealed at the Hasbro Investor Event that was held on February 25, 2021, following the infamous ‘bedsheet leak’ (still can’t get over the fact that G5 hype began with frickin’ bedsheets!)

A vague blurry picture of Zipp had already been spotted on some merch, although we didn’t have conformation at the time that that was the name - the leaks were all we had to go off of. A plushie of Zipp Storm later appeared on the Chinese Taobao website on April 2, 2021. But it wasn’t until April 9, 2021 that Hasbro officially revealed Pipp Petals and Zipp Storm to the world in all their fluffy glory!

Check out this short animation below.

 

So there you go. Say hello to the Star 5 (or Mane 5, whichever term you prefer)!

Besides the Star 5, we got our first look at some of the supporting cast members on some G5 merch (more specifically, a blindbag in advent calendar form) listed up on the A.B.Gee website, one of UK’s leading toy distributors.

While the names for some of these supporting characters wouldn’t be revealed till much later, we did get little tidbits of information about the main cast from the tons of merchandise that have popped up over the past couple of weeks. Let me list them down below.

[Sources: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |]

Sunny Starscout

• Sunny lives in Maretime Bay.
• She owns a small business making smoothies.
• Her favourite hobby is roller-skating.
• A curious and courageous young Earth Pony, Sunny is an idealist determined to make the world a better place. Her tireless and sometimes hilarious efforts to spread the idea ofunity among all ponies led her to be considered strange by the townsfolk of Maretime Bay. But that doesn't stop Sunny from trying to bring friendship back to their fractured world.
• When Sunny was a young earth pony, her father Argyle Starshine told her stories about Ancient Equestria and Princess Twilight Sparkle who, with her friends taught everypony about the magic of friendship. They were the Guardians of Harmony.
• Sunny’s element is Hope.
• Quote: “We’ll do our part. Hoof to heart!
• Note:  There have been a couple of hints that Sunny may either temporarily gain Alicorn powers or permanently ascend to Alicorn-hood. Firstly, if you look at the video of the VA reveals, you’ll notice that her voice actress Vanessa Hudgens briefly skips across the screen in an Alicorn get-up, complete with wings and a horn (at the 0:45 mark). Also, a toy of Sunny listed on Hasbro’s website showed Sunny as an Alicorn, with a golden horn and yellow wings. The fact that the listing for said toy has since been taken down from the Hasbro website, and that Equestria Daily was asked to take down their post on the topic lends credence to the belief that that was something we were not supposed to see (or know), which means that Alicorn Sunny in the movie might be a definite possibility. You can still view the archived thread here.
• Edit: The rumour turned out to be true, after all!

 

Izzy Moonbow

• Izzy lives in the enchanted Bridlewood forest.
• In the calm forest of unicorns, Izzy can't help but stand out, not only with her sparkling horn, but also with her ingenuity and creativity. Her passion is to create beauty out of ordinary things.
• She is an energetic unicorn who and loves handicrafts (especially uni-cycling i.e. unicorn up-cycling) and taking care of woodland critters. She makes her own jewellery.
• Just like Sunny, she does not feel satisfied with the status quo and asks: “Is there something else beyond the familiar world?”
• She has the unique ability to read other ponies’ “luminescence” (or ‘sparkle’, as she calls it).
• Eternal optimism and enthusiasm sometimes makes Izzy feel a little lonely.
• When Sunny was a kid, she and her dad wrote a note addressed to unicorns and pegasi telling them they are welcome. They attach the note to a floating balloon and set it off which found its way to Bridlewood. It was this note that Izzy found and which prompted her to visit Maretime Bay in search of friends.
• Izzy's desire to find true friends leads her to Maritime Bay.
• Izzy’s element is Creativity.
• Quote: “We’re all in this together, right?”

 

Hitch Trailblazer

• Hitch is the caring sheriff of Maretime Bay.
• His favourite hobby is listening to music.
• Hitch and Sunny are foalhood friends. They played with Sprout when they were foals. 
• Hitch is a total critter magnet – they follow him wherever he goes!
• As sheriff of Maretime Bay, Hitch is a stickler for rules. He is driven by an incredible sense of duty and dedication, and he believes that the best way to keep everyone safe is to follow the rules. 
• When Sunny embarks on a dangerous and unknown adventure, his dedication to the law conflicts with caring for a childhood friend…and Hitch follows Sunny and becomes an unwitting participant in the most important task of his life. He has to cooperate with former enemies, work undercover and even find an unexpected ally in a mission that will question everything he once believed in.
• Hitch’s element is Kindness.
• Quote: “I’m here to uphold the law and keep everypony safe.”

Pipp Petals

• Pipp lives in Zephyr Heights.
• She is a talented pop star.
• Pipp is a triple threat -  singer, dancer and influencer!
• She has a flying Pomeranian named Cloudpuff 
• She treats the whole world as her stage. She performs not only in order to gain the attention of her many fans (who are called “Pippsqeaks”) but also so as to give vent to her inexhaustible cheerfulness. 
• She always has a microphone or her cellphone within hoof’s reach
• While the whole country of Equestria adores Pipp, she tries to get the attention of her older sister Zipp, who seems to be barely aware of the existence of her younger sibling. 
• Pipp’s element is Confidence.
• Quote: “Pipp Pipp Hooray!”

 

Zipp Storm

• Zipp Storm is Pipp's  sister and lives in Zephyr Heights.
• Her full name is Princess Zephyrina Storm.
• She’s a rebellious Pegasus princess that likes athletics and science.
• Princess Zipp wishes she could fly. But since the magic disappeared, the Royal family use wires to pretend.
• This dazzling daredevil would rather leave all the "princessy" stuff to her younger sister Pipp (with whom she seems to share nothing in common). 
• This adventurous pegasus has a sneaky side and she knows all the secret passages in the castle.
• Her parkour skills are so insanely good that they they almost make up for her inability to fly.
• Athletic, fiercely independent and stubborn, this thrill-seeking rebel thinks life in a palace sucks.
• Zipp secretly fears that she, as the heiress to the throne, does not have what it takes to one day become queen. It's a role she never asked for, and, Zipp is pretty sure, she never wanted. 
• Zipp’s element is Courage.
• Quote: “I can be pretty sneaky when I want to be.”

 

Argyle Starshine 

• Argyle Starshine is Sunny’s dad, as is evident from this screenshot where he’s seen telling Sunny stories of the OG Mane Six.
• He seems to be just as big of a fan of the OG Mane Six (aka the Guardians of Harmony) as his daughter Sunny, considering he wears a pendant with Princess Twilight’s cuite mark around his neck.

 

Phyllis Cloverleaf

• Proud and strict Phyllis is a chief/manager at the Canterlogic fabric. Canterlogic products have been keeping earth ponies “safe and stylish” for 20 moons.
• She doesn’t believe in magic or friendship between ponies.
• Sprout is her son.

 

Queen Haven

• Queen Haven is the leader of the Pegasi.
• Her majesty lives with her daughters Pipp Perals and Zipp Storm in a luxurious and modern palace.

 

Sprout

• He is the son of Phyllis Cloverleaf 
• Sprout he has a power-hungry streak in his nature
• He is a Deputy working under Hitch Trailblazer.

 

Alphabittle

• In the Crystal Tea Room works clever Alphabittle. He is a real trickmaster - he can win every bet.

 

Other Characters from the Movie

Some of the Pegasi ponies from Zephyr Heights include: the royal guard Zoom Zephyrwing, paparazzi pony Shutter Snap, TV host Dazzle Feather &  Skye Silver, and stage manager Ruddy Sparks.

 

NEW LOCATIONS

Maretime Bay

A Ravensburger Kinderpuzzle showed a picture of Maretime Bay in the background. Equestria Daily advertised said merch on the 23rd of May, 2021. A promo image for the MLP G5 movie included in a brand magazine also featured this location on the 8th of June, 2021.

 

Bridlewood Forest

 

Besides Maretime Bay, the Ravensburger Kinderpuzzle also featured a background of Bridlewood Forest. Home to the unicorns, Bridlewood glows with a gorgeous light from gemstones and bioluminescence.

Here’s a look inside Izzy Moonbow’s house-in-a-tree:

Zephyr Heights

Home to the Pegasi princesses, Zephyr Heights was first seen in the May issue of Toy World Magazine.

The official My Little Pony website also features colouring pages of all these locations.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Well!

That’s all I’ve got for now. Hopefully whenever they decide to release a trailer, we’ll get some more information!

Thanks for reading!

Peace out!

~~Dreamstar Moonlight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2021 by Dreamstar Moonlight
Updated information.

[Skylight Scintillate 2,031]

Yeah remember when some of us thought that they weren't going to say anything or something like that? I wonder when the speculation about minor characters is going to begin...

Edited July 6, 2021 by Minty Seabreeze

[Dreamstar Moonlight 44]

3 hours ago, Minty Seabreeze said:

Yeah remember when some of us thought that they weren't going to say anything or something like that? I wonder when the speculation about minor characters is going to begin...

As soon as Hasbro or Netflix releases the trailer, I'm guessing!

 

[Tom Gallagher 33,588]

Mate, your post layouts are incredible! 

[Dreamstar Moonlight 44]

1 hour ago, TomDaBombMLP said:

Mate, your post layouts are incredible! 

Thank you so much! That means a lot!

[Steve Piranha 29,424]

I’ve just realized something than makes sense: greater technology in A New Generation is a response to the loss of magic, DEFINITELY TRUE. Doc Hooves said so himself Equestria is stagnant on technology due to their reliance on magic 

[Landi 600]

Even if this Generation ends up bad, at least I've been able to have so much fun reading all the updates on it, and even speculating what it will be like .

From the character's, to the locations, to the annual, and even in the merch, there is a lot of info to fuel my speculations. For instance, Zephyr Heights, Queen Haven, and her daughters all make me think that pegasi will have a very grand kingdom, and the Izzy toy makes me think that there will be a whole scene where the characters disguise themselves as unicorns so they can fit in while in the Bridlewood forest. I'm eager to see what the next info drop will be.

[Dreamstar Moonlight 44]

On 2021-07-11 at 10:46 PM, Landi said:

Even if this Generation ends up bad, at least I've been able to have so much fun reading all the updates on it, and even speculating what it will be like .

From the character's, to the locations, to the annual, and even in the merch, there is a lot of info to fuel my speculations. For instance, Zephyr Heights, Queen Haven, and her daughters all make me think that pegasi will have a very grand kingdom, and the Izzy toy makes me think that there will be a whole scene where the characters disguise themselves as unicorns so they can fit in while in the Bridlewood forest. I'm eager to see what the next info drop will be.

Let's hope it doesn't end up being bad! The movie at least seems promising!