My Little Pony: The Movie (2017)

My Little Pony: The Movie is a 2017 Canadian-American animated family musical fantasy comedy drama film based on the popular television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic created by Lauren Faust, which was developed as part of the 2010 re-launch of the My Little Pony franchise by Hasbro. it is the overall sixth feature film in the franchise, as well as the fifth film in the fourth generation and shares the title of the first film.

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 the United States and Canada through Lionsgate.

Why The Friendship Can Still Grow

1. Very stunning animation, which is a huge step-up from the series and was made with Toon Boom Harmony instead of Adobe Flash like in the television series and Equestria Girls movies. The movie feels as if the movie was made by Walt Disney Motion Pictures, or Warner Bros. Pictures from the last few decades, before this film.
   • It was also great to revive traditional-animation movies as it was overshadowed by computer animation and never used for many years.
2. Amazing and talented voice acting, due to not only having all the cast from the show reprise their roles, but also new actors like Liev Schreiber (who would later play Wilson Fisk/Kingpin in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse) and Micheal Pena (who was also the actor for Luis, the character from the Ant-Man movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.)
3. Many likable and entertaining characters, including Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Skystar, Spike and a whole bunch of others.
4. It introduces new characters that are interesting and haven't been seen before in the show and the IDW comics, and had later appeared in Season 8 (the latter being mentioned in the show and later appearing in IDW Issue 67-68 and in the Season 9 finale).
   • Hippogriffs, who are a race of bird-like ponies that can turn into mermaid like underwater creatures called sea ponies.
   • Tempest Shadow, a unicorn (who had her horn broken as a filly) who had starts out evil, but, after getting betrayed by The Storm King, then sides with the Mane 6 after realising the true meaning of friendship.
5. It does very well to follow the TV series directly as it's from the same people who made Friendship is Magic.
6. Great, heartwarming or tear-jerking moments such as Tempest losing her horn as a filly.
7. The musical numbers are very good, especially "We Got This Together" and "Time to Be Awesome".
8. Funny scenes, like a hilarious scene with Fluttershy during the climax. Spike and Rainbow Dash have some of the most entertaining scenes in the film.
9. The score of Daniel Ingram is really good in this film, and the theme song "Rainbow" by Sia is also pretty good and well-crafted too.
10. It has better storytelling than in other Hasbro films like G.I Joe or even in any Transformers film (mainly the Michael Bay ones).
11. The climax is sort of creative and fun with the help of the Mane 6, Spike and the new characters.
12. It comes with a cute short of Hasbro Studios' (now eOne) web series, "Hanazuki: Full of Treasures", which was unfortunately put on hiatus after 2018 and leaving the show's second season unfinished, and sparking an ongoing petition to revive the series, which garnered 2,561 signatures as of February 7, 2022.
13. The world of Seaquestria is amazing and has cute Sea Ponies, something that the show didn't do until Season 8.
14. This film surprisingly has a pretty dark tone for My Little Pony standards, due to the PG rating.
    • Part of this includes that the fact that they actually kill the Storm King, especially when you consider how extremely reluctant writers and parents are these days about showing death or any other comeuppance.

Bad Qualities

1. The Mane Six's portrayal in this film, like all of their character development, was sucked out as they seem to be more aligned with their portrayal of the first three season in Friendship is Magic. It causes a few of them to act out of character in a few scenes that go against how they've been built up as characters for seven whole seasons.
   • The scenes where Twilight gets her friends to distract the sea ponies so she can steal the sea ponies pearl, gets enraged at her friends while telling Pinkie Pie that she'd be better off without having her as a friend is the main highlight of this.
2. There are some things in the film that don't follow the TV series. Like Canterlot's description as it's portrayed as some stereotypical happy pony paradise instead of a city that had well descriptive socioeconomics, and it featured a lot of upper-class cultures.
3. Despite the very stunning animation, there is some poor CGI in places, especially for Captain Celaeno's ship.
4. The Storm King gets little screen-time despite being the "Big Bad," and he only appears in conversation with Tempest and at the climax. However, he was one of the biggest threats to Equestria, even putting the majority of the pony kind into slavery.
5. Some of the characters like Grubber, Tempest's sidekick, and Songbird Serenade (Sia) are pointless.
6. The story does suffer from being cliché and predictable, unlike the show itself.
7. Some of the characters do lack chemistry, such as the Storm King himself.
8. Some of the main and supporting characters in the show don't appear in the film:
   • Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lunamoon only get a couple of appearances: A scene of them together during the "We Got This Together" song number, and the end credits.
   • Discord only makes two cameos via a balloon animal Pinkie Pie makes and the end of the credits.
   • Other characters including Princess/Dragon Lord Ember, King Thorax, Shining Armor, and the Pillars of Equestria don't make an appearance as well.

Reception ​

Box office

As of December 3, 2017, "My Little Pony: The Movie" has grossed $21.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $30.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $52.3 million.

Critical response

Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film received positive reviews from audiences, particularly from My Little Pony fans, because they were promised a feature film that would make it more entertaining for the fans of FIM. And as of October 2020, it holds a 47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The critical consensus states, "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." The film has an IMDb rating of 6/10.

Trivia

• The movie makes references to Hasbro properties like a sound effect from "Transformers" and characters saying Easy Bake Oven and Hungry Hungry Hippos.
• After the film released, the show was overhauled in Season 8, with additions such as the updated Celestia and Luna throne, the addition of locations such as Mount Aris, and names being mentioned like Tempest and The Storm King.