Psycho's Movie Reviews #271: My Little Pony: The Movie (2017)

My Little Pony: The Movie is a 2017 animated musical fantasy film based on the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which itself is based on the fourth incarnation of Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise. The film was directed by Jayson Thiessen, written by Meghan McCarthy, Michael Vogel (all three of whom are Friendship is Magic veterans), Joe Ballarini, and Rita Hsiao, and produced by Stephen Davis, Brian Goldner, Marcia Gwendolyn Jones, and Haven Alexander. The plot follows the alicorn Twilight Sparkle, her five pony friends – collectively known as the "Mane 6" – and her dragon friend Spike embarking on a quest to save their home of Equestria from an evil conqueror while gaining new friends along the way. The film stars the show's regular voice cast of Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman, Tabitha St. Germain, Cathy Weseluck, and Nicole Oliver reprising their roles and the guest voices of Emily Blunt, Kristin Chenoweth, Liev Schreiber, Michael Peña, Sia, Taye Diggs, Uzo Aduba and Zoe Saldana as new characters.

The film was produced by Allspark Pictures and DHX Media, using traditional animation created with Toon Boom Harmony. It premiered in New York City on September 24, 2017, and was released on October 6, 2017 in North America by Lionsgate, and in Canada by Entertainment One Films. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with some praising the female representation, while others criticized the script and pacing. The film was a box office success, grossing over $61 million worldwide on a $6.5 million budget, and becoming Lionsgate's highest grossing animated feature to date.

Plot

The ponies of Equestria prepare for their first Friendship Festival, overseen by Princess Twilight Sparkle in Canterlot. The festivities are interrupted by the army of an evil conqueror called the Storm King, led by his second-in-command, a unicorn named Tempest Shadow, who is under orders to capture Equestria's princesses for him to harness their magic to empower his mystical Staff of Sacanas in exchange for restoring her broken horn. Tempest uses obsidian orbs to petrify Twilight's fellow princesses; Princess Celestia gives Princess Luna incomplete instructions to seek help from "the queen of the hippo" beyond Equestria before they both get petrified. Twilight escapes Canterlot with her six friends – Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Spike. The group then set out to find the "hippos" to save their home.

The group travel to a desert city named Klugetown, where Pinkie blows their cover. A feline con artist named Capper offers to escort them to his house, secretly intending to sell them to settle a debt he owes to local mob boss Verko, however Capper begins to develop a genuine friendship with them after Rarity generously fixes his coat. Twilight discovers an atlas that reveals the "hippos" to be hippogriffs. They begin to leave, but Verko arrives to buy them, exposing Capper's treachery. When Tempest arrives in pursuit of Twilight, the group evades her aboard a delivery airship. Tempest brings Capper to guide her to them, but he deliberately misdirects her to atone for deceiving the group. On the airship, the group encounter five parrot pirates, who have been taken into labor by the Storm King. Rainbow Dash persuades them to defy the Storm King and take them to the hippogriffs' kingdom on Mount Aris, which they do. In celebration, Rainbow Dash performs a Sonic Rainboom that accidentally gives their location away to Tempest, forcing the group to reach Mount Aris in a makeshift hot air balloon.

While exploring the hippogriffs' deserted kingdom, the group are saved from drowning in an underwater cavern by the Seapony Princess Skystar, who leads them to her undersea home of Seaquestria. Skystar reveals her kind to be the hippogriffs, transformed by a magic pearl used by her mother, Queen Novo, to hide from the Storm King. When Novo denies them the use of the pearl to fight the Storm King, Twilight desperately attempts to steal it while letting her friends unknowingly distract the Seaponies. Her plan backfires when she accidentally triggers an alarm before the others can persuade Novo to give them the pearl, resulting in Novo furiously kicking the entire group out of Seaquestria and back to the surface. Twilight and her friends get into a heated argument over Twilight's actions, ending with Twilight angrily denouncing them for their irresponsible behaviour throughout the adventure. After the falling out, Twilight, deeply remorseful over her actions, gets kidnapped by Tempest, who gains her sympathy upon revealing how the loss of her horn as a filly after an Ursa Minor attack destabilized her magic and caused her own friends to shun her out of fear, which also caused her to see friendship as a foolish notion. Meanwhile, Twilight's friends, upon learning from Spike that Twilight was kidnapped, return to Canterlot to rescue and make amends with her with the help of Capper, the pirates, and Skystar.

In Canterlot, Tempest delivers Twilight to the Storm King, who absorbs the princesses' magic, including Twilight's, into his staff, empowering it. After witnessing Twilight's friends and their new allies successfully fighting off his army, the Storm King conjures a powerful storm against them, betraying Tempest as well, revealing he only used her and that he was never going to hold up his end of their bargain. Twilight saves Tempest from the storm, and just when the Storm King is about to destroy them both, Twilight's friends blast themselves from Pinkie's giant party cannon to get through the storm and knock the staff right out of his hands. Twilight and her friends reconcile and they help her take the staff and end the storm. The Storm King hurls an obsidian orb at the group to petrify them, but Tempest, who saw the true act of friendship between the group, takes the hit, turning them both into stone. The Storm King's body falls and shatters, while the group use the staff to revive Tempest, who returns the magic to the princesses, de-petrifying them and restoring the damaged city.

The Friendship Festival resumes, and the ponies celebrate with all of the allies Twilight and her friends have made on their adventure, Novo showing up as well. Encouraged by Twilight that she's perfect the way she is with or without her horn, Tempest joins in the festival by producing a fireworks display with her broken horn, and happily accepts the group's friendship.

Production

Development

At San Diego Comic-Con International in 2012, Friendship Is Magic head writer Meghan McCarthy commented on the possibility of a feature film based on the series, saying that it was not in her control whether or not the film would be made. The film was announced on October 20, 2014, with Joe Ballarini attached as screenwriter and McCarthy as co-executive producer. Hasbro Studios president Stephen Davis said of the film that "I think it gives us an opportunity to tell a bigger story, that maybe we [can't] tell on television" and that "it's also an opportunity to broaden the franchise". The film was one of the first produced through Hasbro Studios' self-financing film label Allspark Pictures, which also produced the live-action adaptation of Jem and the Holograms. During PonyCon AU on February 22, 2015 alongside fellow writer Gillian M. Berrow, McCarthy said that the movie would be unrelated to the Equestria Girls spin-off franchise, and that the crew was "going all out on it, to make sure it doesn't just feel like an extended episode".

Series supervising director Jayson Thiessen was confirmed to be directing the film while McCarthy was announced to be writing the film. McCarthy was supposed to work on season 5 of the series, but left to write the film while Thiessen announced on Twitter that after the finale to season 5, he would be stepping down as supervising director of the television series to work full-time on directing the film. Michael Vogel signed on as co-executive producer alongside McCarthy, with Davis and Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner signing on as producers. Vogel, Ballarini, and Rita Hsiao were later announced as co-writers alongside McCarthy.

On April 30, 2016, concept artwork and other information was officially revealed at PonyRadioCon in Moscow; the panel included additional plot details such as the main characters' transformation into "sea ponies" for a portion of the film.

Casting

The initial Lionsgate announcement listed the principal voice cast of Friendship Is Magic – Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman, Tabitha St. Germain and Cathy Weseluck – reprising their roles alongside actress Kristin Chenoweth as a new character. On February 12, 2016, it was announced that Emily Blunt joined the voice cast. By April 27, 2016, actors Michael Peña and Uzo Aduba were in negotiations to join the cast. On May 16, Liev Schreiber and Taye Diggs were confirmed additions to the cast. On June 20, Ball stated through Twitter that she had begun recording for the film's songs. At San Diego Comic-Con in July 2016, singer Sia was announced to be portraying a new "pop star pony" character called Songbird Serenade. On January 11, 2017, it was reported by Variety that Zoe Saldana had joined the cast. Friendship Is Magic voice actress Nicole Oliver confirmed via Twitter on January 23 that she would also be a part of the film's cast, reprising her role as Princess Celestia.

Animation

On April 2, 2016, Michel Gagné, after receiving an email from Thiessen, both of whom having worked together on Insanely Twisted Shadow Puppets back in 2004, took an eight-month hiatus from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and joined the film as special effects lead. In early October 2016, Gagné reported that Nik Gipe was hired onto the film's staff as his assistant. He also mentioned that the film was being animated using Toon Boom Animation's Harmony software rather than the usual Adobe Flash animation software used in the television series as apparently, it was too cheap-looking to be used for a theatrical film. Several crew members, including Thiessen, Gagne, art director Rebecca Dart, storyboard artist Joclean Thiessen, Thiessen's wife, and creative consultant Kevin Munroe, who was also a storyboard artist on the film, said they wanted to add "simple yet impactful changes" to the designs for the big screen, such as depth and shadows for the characters' eyes and ears, and the impression of heart-shaped indentations on the bottom of their hooves, while still keeping the look and feel of the show, which using Toon Boom enabled them to do. Like the series, the animation for the film was outsourced to Top Draw Animation in the Philippines.

According to cinematographer Anthony Di Ninno, the crew used 3D modeling in Autodesk Maya to determine camera locations, lens, angles, rough lighting, character, and prop placement, and which way the characters would be looking and expressing while the comp crew used Toon Boom and Adobe After Effects and the background paint was done in Photoshop. The pre-visualization crew were able to use the 3D backdrops, which became more detailed throughout the film's development, to integrate the 3D character models and test the Toon Boom animations on top of these scenes using the placement established by Maya, speeding up the production.

Music

The film's official soundtrack was released on September 22, 2017 by RCA Records.

The film's songs and score were composed by Friendship Is Magic songwriter Daniel Ingram, instead of the songs being composed by Ingram and the score being composed by William Anderson. Ingram first announced at GalaCon 2015 that he would be collaborating with a live studio orchestra for the film. On his song writing for the film, Ingram said, "I had to challenge myself to push beyond what had been done in the TV show; to write bigger, more epic." It was stated through the PonyRadioCon panel that the film would have a total of eight original songs. On November 17, 2015, Background score orchestrator Steffan Andrews, who left the series after season 4 ended, announced via Twitter that he would return to work on the film. The tweet in question was deleted in November 2016, meaning he didn't return to work on the film after all, but was given a special thanks credit. At Hasbro's Toy Fair investor presentation on February 17, 2017, it was announced that there would be seven songs. Around 5,800 pages of sheet music were created for all orchestral parts of the score. Recording for the score began at Nashville on June 5, 2017, performed by the Nashville Scoring Orchestra and conducted by David Shipps, and finished on June 11 with additional music by Joseph Magee, Caleb Chan, and Trevor Hoffman.

Sia contributed an original song to the film, "Rainbow", which was released as a single on September 15, 2017. A music video for the song later released by Entertainment Weekly on September 19. The video was directed by Daniel Askill and features a dance performance by Maddie Ziegler, a previous collaborator with Sia, intercut to scenes from the film. Danish band Lukas Graham also contributed an original song for the film titled "Off to See the World", which was used in the film's first trailer and played over the closing credits. Other artists included in the album are DNCE and CL. The score for the film was released on Spotify on October 7, 2017. It features a song cut from the film titled "Equestria" that was originally going to play in the beginning, but was cut in favour of Rachel Platen's "We Got the Beat".

The film's production wrapped up on July 29, 2017, as announced by Thiessen.

{Bet ya can't guess who plays big bow mcgee here!⬆}

Release/Reception/Box Office

On August 7, 2015, Lionsgate announced that they would distribute and market the film worldwide except in China. The film was showcased at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on May 10 along with eight other Lionsgate features to help sell the film to international distributors.

The film was originally scheduled for release in the United States on November 3, 2017, but it was subsequently moved up to October 6, 2017. Theatrically, the film was accompanied by a 5-minute animated short from Hasbro Studios' web series Hanazuki: Full of Treasures. A private premiere screening was held in New York City on September 24, 2017, twelve days prior to the nationwide release date.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 47% based on 66 reviews and an average rating of 5.10/10. The critics consensus reads: "Charming and sweet, My Little Pony: The Movie will please its dedicated fanbase, even if it's unlikely to encourage non-devotees to gallop along for the ride." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 39 out of 100 based on 13 critic reviews, indicating "generally unfavourable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

RogerEbert.com's Christy Lemire gave the film one and one half stars out of a possible five stars, criticizing the screenplay: "Meghan McCarthy, Rita Hsiao and Michael Vogel share screenwriting credits... the narrative itself is all over the place, with a multitude of underdeveloped, crammed-in characters. Plus, every once in a while, the various animals burst into song, but not in any particularly memorable way."

The Hollywood Reporter listed the film as "the worst animated movie of the year", with staff critic Michael Rechtshaffen saying, "Attention The Emoji Movie: Your status as worst animated feature of the year might well be in jeopardy when My Little Pony: The Movie trots into theatres this weekend." IGN notably gave the film the lowest rating received for a film in 2017, a 3.5 out of ten, criticizing the script and animation, and saying "The design philosophy of the show is completely subverted for the purpose of introducing new characters who aren't necessary to the story, and read like self-insert fanfic characters."

Katie Walsh of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a negative review, saying: "Truthfully, this film feels like four episodes of a cartoon strung together, and there are times, especially during some of the latter musical numbers, where it truly drags." She also criticized the film's animation, saying that it "embraces the flat, colourful, Saturday-morning cartoon look and feel". Josh Terry of Deseret News panned the film, saying that parents should "put their money into some new My Little Pony toys" rather than into seeing the film.

Gwen Ihnat of The A.V. Club gave the film a negative review, and criticized the music in the film, noting, "the ponies’ odes aren't likely to make anyone rush out to get the soundtrack; even the Sia song fails to stand out."

Some critics praised the film's female representation, however. Elizabeth Weitzman of TheWrap wrote positively of the film, saying that the film, "Like its television predecessor, is all dressed up in bubbles and cupcakes and rainbows. But it's so jam-packed with rousing girl power, it passes the Bechdel Test with (literally) flying colours." Amy Nicholson of Variety called the film "at once clichéd and exceptional", praising its female characters and "emotionally wise" story.

My Little Pony: The Movie has grossed $21.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $39.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $61.3 million on a production budget of $6.5 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film was expected to gross between $10 million and $17 million from 2,528 theatres in its opening weekend. It made $3 million on its first day, including $290,000 from Thursday night previews. It ended up opening to $8.9 million finishing 4th at the box office behind Blade Runner 2049, The Mountain Between Us and It. Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew stated that – despite the opening being considered a disappointment – any reasonable return from the film would be seen as positive by Hasbro because it is tied to the toy line. The film dropped 54% in its second weekend, making $4.1 million and falling to 9th.

Its biggest markets outside North America are China with $7.4 million, the United Kingdom with $5 million, Germany with $2.4 million, and Russia with $2.3 million.

Budget $6.5 million

Box office $61.3million

My Review

'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' is in my opinion one of the best animated shows in recent years. Despite always liking 'My Little Pony' better than most, 'Friendship is Magic' was one of those shows where there was uncertainty as to whether it would be good and it turned out to even greater than that.

Can certainly understand why it is loved by a surprisingly wide audience and do think the fan-base are unfairly over-criticised. Sure there are some passionate, overly-defensive fans out there but not all of them are like the way that is made out by the detractors. Am a fan myself, a young adult and a female, but wouldn't dream of doing any of the things that "bronies" are constantly being accused of doing by the detractors, who in my mind are in absolutely no position to complain of the fan-base being condescending when they do exactly the same thing and to worse effect in their reviews of the show (some of which are not really reviews at all but mostly attacking the fans).

Anyway, back to talking about 'My Little Pony: The Movie' expectations were mixed before going to see it earlier today. The 'Equestria Girls' sequels, also based on the show, were surprisingly good (disliked the first film), so there were hopes that 'My Little Pony: The Movie' would be as good. The mostly mixed to negative critical reaction so far, the audience and fan reaction is mostly less negative (though there is some disappointment), also made me nervous, being somebody who respects critics far more than most on the internet and one of the few here to resort to critic bashing.

Luckily, 'My Little Pony: The Movie' was a good one. Not quite great, and there are a few not so good elements, but it's highly successful in many areas and a lot of effort and passion clearly went into it. There have been times where my views on a film have gone against the grain, like liking a panned film or not caring for an acclaimed one (mostly I and the critics are on similar pages, and when we're not their views are always respected), 'My Little Pony: The Movie' is one of them.

For my liking, starting with the faults, Fluttershy is underused and given too much short shrift in terms of character development. Much more could have been done with the Storm King, to me for a villain he was incredibly bland, despite good voice acting from Liev Schreiber. Sia's involvement in the film added very little.

Story-wise it's mostly well done and makes for a very pleasant ride, but it does suffer from a lack of originality and it being too thin for the running time. Most of the songs are very good, but the least memorable and well-placed is the Hippogriff's song which to me was also a bit cheesy.

However, for a film based on a TV show, 'My Little Pony: The Movie' doesn't fare badly at all. There are far worse around that make a mockery of their respective shows and manage to be lacking on their own. At least 'My Little Pony: The Movie' treats the show with respect and tries to stay true to it, while having enough to make it its own and being good on its own terms. Visually the film looks wonderful, making a more than welcome return to the much missed 2D traditional animation style, full of rich background detail, vibrant colour and the character designs are smooth and don't send warning signs about bad messaging.

With the exception of one song, the songs are catchy and cheerful. The music score is whimsical and fits beautifully with the action. The script has the sly and witty humour, heart-warming charm and poignant pathos that can be found in 'Friendship is Magic' and the story is charming and sweet that should put a smile on one's face and uplift, entertain and move. The messaging inspires and is clearly well intended, without being overly-didactic in its approach.

Not all the characters work, but most do with the film maintaining the fine character development that is a large part of 'Friendship is Magic's' appeal with a great mix of the old and new. Pinkie Pie and Twilight are the most well-developed and likable, particularly the former, but a big shout has to go to Tempest, one of the most interesting and layered 'My Little Pony' villains.

Voice acting is uniformly excellent, with a mix of prolific voice actors and not-so-prolific. A standout is Emily Blunt's superb Tempest, both menacing and heartfelt.

Overall, could have been a little better but it is well worth galloping along for the ride. 7/10

{Like other particular films whose music I particularly favour, I shall rank my Top 6 Favourite Songs from this film}

{#6 - 'We Got This Together' - As far as Mlp songs go it's pretty average, but still good though}

{#5 - 'One Small Thing' - Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie she loves throwing a party, and boy does she start one here. It's a little forgettable, buuuut it's one of those songs your happy to hear again and bop and sway along to. Unfortunately I'm not a big fan of Kristen Chenoweth sorry}

{#4 - 'I'm The Friend You Need' - Man did Capper make an impression in his debut... I mean he's never been seen or mentioned again in the following seasons of G4, but still he's one of the more memorable characters in this film... besides the ponies we've all come to know and love}

{#3 - 'Time To Be Awesome' - This adrenaline pumper song is exactly what everyone needs to listen to when their off on an adventure. Plus, we get to here Zoe Saldana (Gamora) sing (how they got Zoe in this film I have no idea)}

{#2 - 'Open Up Your Eyes' - I'm sure you've come to realise that I'm a villain song lover, I'm sorry Liev Schrieber but Emily Blunt stole the show in this film. (Again, I have no idea what Emily Blunt is doing in an MLP film). This song describes completely a tormented, misunderstood, desperate soul who one can sympathise with, yet love to hate. Sure she gets reformed by the end of the film, buuut Tempest Shadow is a way better character than the main antagonist, The Storm King}

{#1 - 'Rainbow' - It's a no brainer... I keep asking this... HOW ON EARTH DID THEY GET ONE OF THE GREATEST SINGERS OF ALL TIME IN A FILM ABOUT PONIES?!?! Like it's SIA. Of course she got the number one spot, her music is awesome!}