User blog:Thomperfan/My thoughts on My Little Pony: The Movie

Well, guys. Here it is! My first review of 2018! (squeal) This took me a pretty long time to make, but it's finally here. I hope you guys enjoy it!

Hey, guys, It’s me, Thomperfan (Nolan), and today, I’m going to be giving my thoughts on my first movie: The My Little Pony Movie!

Now, I should start off this review, by saying, I’m a brony, but not the kind of brony that’s full-on obsessed with show and likes to do creepy weird fanart or makes really gruesome or gorey fan-videos of it, but just a guy who generally really likes this show for the characters, for the environment, for the songs and for the lessons it tries to teach. It really is a sophisticated TV show for kids, and this is a franchise that started out as just being one of those generic TV shows that only existed to sell pony toys, but Hasbro took it and turned into in awesome show that anyone can watch, regardless of gender or age.

Now, I think it’s time, I tell you how I first got into the show. Back when we were living in maryland and I was still 6, 7 or 8. We still had the Hub. I saw a trailer for the series, and I was really intrigued. And then after I saw a few episodes, I was hooked. I started getting more into it. My Dad and Uncle weren’t fans of this show. And I remember this one time, I played a trick on my Uncle and showed him a My Little Pony video. As the show went on I loved it more and more. And now, I even know one of the writers on the show. So when I heard that they were making a movie of this show. I was so excited. I begged my mom and dad to let us go see it. They thought it would be best if we saw it on my birthday, but somehow, we managed to get it pulled up to the upcoming friday. And so you may be wondering: Is the movie really good? Is it worth my time seeing? Well, to answer that question, let’s take a look at it.

Also, heads up, this review contains MAJOR spoilers, so if you don’t like spoilers, than you might wanna stop reading now. But if not, read on at your own risk.

So the movie starts with a really great opening scene, with a spark of light soaring across the logo while a cheery upbeat version of the theme song starts playing. Sorry if I sound bias, but I just loved that opening scene. It just made me feel so happy inside, but the music then changes to a pony version of “We Got the Beat”. It’s not bad but I would’ve just preferred it if they just let the rest of the music from the logo play, I really would like to hear that full version of the theme. But that’s probably just me nitpicking.

So, the actual movie starts with some great overhead shots of Equestria and we see that the town is preparing for a friendship festival. We then see Spike the baby dragon and only boy of the 7 main characters carrying some important documents for Princess Twilight Sparkle.

''Pony: Are you kidding?! She’s smart, organized and cool under pressure! There’s nothing she can’t handle!''

I have nothing to say about that except that pony clearly doesn’t know Twilight.

So we cut to inside the castle, and Twilight is of course freaking out, because she wants to ask the other princesses for a favor. Spike comes in and gives her a pep-talk and they go inside, to meet Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Cadence. So apparently, Twilight’s plan is to have Celestia and Luna tinker with the sun and the moon, so a pony named Songbird Serenade who’s performing at the festival, will have the perfect lighting. The princesses kindly tell Twilight that each of them use their powers to help Equestria in a different way, and that she already has all the magic she needs, which is a polite way of saying no. Well that didn’t go as planned.

We then cut to outside, where we’re introduced to the other 5 main characters, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity, who are all doing their part in getting ready for the festival. And I really love this scene, because it does a great job of showing us who these characters are and what their personalities are like. Twilight comes out and tells her friends what happened and then starts freaking out because she doesn’t think she’s ready. Pinkie Pie then aggressively tells Twilight that even though this is the biggest celebration ever, and who she is depends on this event, she has her friends and to stop worrying. And then we get our first song, “We got this together” and I LOVE it. It’s just so upbeat and catchy, and the message it’s trying to send is really nice, that message being that you don’t have to worry about big tasks, because you have your friends and family to help you. Not only that, but it lets all of these awesome side characters get a chance to be on screen. You’ve got the Wonderbolts, Zecora, Bulk Biceps, Photo Finish, DJ Pon3, Trixie, The Apple Family, Sassy Saddles, Coco Pommel, even Cheese Sandwich makes an appearance. But we also have Starlight Glimmer, who just had a cameo. And this is probably my biggest problem with the movie. Get ready for a long speech, because here one comes.

Now for those of you who don’t know who Starlight Glimmer is, she was a pony who was introduced in the season 5 premiere, “The Cutie Map”. She built a village in a small part of Equestria and used her very powerful magic to take other ponies cutie marks and place them in a vault and replace them with equal signs. Yes, she actually took away what made each of them different and unique and made them the exact person. Of course Twilight and her friends figured out Starlight was doing and put a stop to it. This caused Starlight to run away. Then we saw her again, in the season finale “The Cutie Re-Mark”. Starlight travels back in time with Twilight and Spike close behind. She went to the time Rainbow Dash was young and performed her famous Sonic Rainboom that got her and the other 6 their cutie marks. Starlight stops Rainbow Dash from doing her Rainboom, and sends Twilight and Spike back, but everytime they do, they come back to their world and find out that it was taken over by one of the many villains of the show. It’s not until 7th time where Twilight takes Starlight with her and shows her the consequences of her actions. And then Starlight tells us what happened that led her to want everyone to be equal. He best childhood friend Sunburst saved her from being squashed by books and he did some magical trick and got his cutie mark. His family noticed his talent and he gotted shipped off to Princess Celestia’s school in Canterlot. So Starlight when all equal-crazy, because she lost a friend. Yeah, I know. That sounds pretty petty and stupid, but Twilight does manage to convince her to stop and actually takes her in as her student. So that means Starlight became a part of the main cast. And that’s the problem I have with this movie. It just shoves Starlight to the sidelines and I don’t think that’s right. And I know what some of you are gonna say: But that would be a spoiler and no one likes those. Um, you might be forgetting that Twilight is an alicorn princess, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo all have their cutie marks and Trixie is not bad anymore, so I don’t think having Starlight as one of the leads would be that bad. And I also know that some of you are gonna say: But she already solves the problem in so many other episodes. But she doesn’t have to solve the problem in this movie, you can have to focus still be on Twilight and still find a way to incorporate Starlight in. And I guarantee you, she would add some great moments to the movie. And I’ll touch on that more later. I think that’s all I have to say about this, so let’s get back to the movie.

So after the song finishes, and Pinkie Pie blasts a cake out of her confetti cannon. We see Songbird Serenade, who’s voiced be Sia. (whoever that is.) But then, suddenly out of nowhere black smoke plumes the sky and a big blimp crashes down, and we’re introduced to our main villain: Tempest. She’s a badass pony with a broken unicorn horn. And she is actually a really convincing and nice villain and she does do what she wants to accomplish. But I really like her henchman, Grubber, because he’s pretty funny, and he loves food. Just like me. So Tempest comes out and says she wants the ponies to surrender, which of course they refuse. So Tempest has the other henchmen come out and get the 4 princesses using these balls that turn things into stone. They get Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence and accidentally Derpy. (Poor Derpy. ☹️)But Twilight manages to escape along with Spike, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy. And the 7 of them fall of a collapsing bridge, and go over a waterfall. So at the bottom, our 7 heroes take some time to take in the situation that’s happening. Twilight remembers something about Celestia telling Luna to go south and warn the queen of the hippos, and she deduces that since the other princesses are frozen, she has to warn them, her friends agree to help her out and head south, leaving Equestria to save it.

We then cut back to the castle where Tempest has got the other princesses in place, and she calls her boss the Storm King. So apparently the Storm King wants more magic for his staff so he can make a big storm, and he needs the 4 princess’ magic to do so. Also, in exchange for doing what the Storm King wants, he’ll restore her horn, but Grubber reveals that one of the princesses got away. So, Tempest has all of her minions go with her to track Twilight down.

We then cut back to the Mane 6 and Spike who are in a dessert and very tired and messy, and they have some funny lines. But then they see a road that leads to a town. But once they get there, it’s revealed that the town is not very nice. Twilight tries to tell her friends to lay low and not to draw to much attention to themselves, but Pinkie Pie ignores this and announces to everyone that they need help. Ugh, Pinkie Pie’s heart is in the place, but the aim of the mission is to not draw attention to themselves, it’s just asking for them to get caught. So what you would expect happens and they get surrounded by people who try bidding on them.

Lizzard: How much for the giant gecko?

Spike: (offended) Who you calling a gecko?!

(laughs) OK, I’m sorry, that part gets me every time.

So it looks like our heroes are in a tight spot, until a cat named Capper shows up and lies that the ponies are diseased and that gets everyone to run away and leave them alone. Capper introduces himself and then the next song starts. This one’s called “I’m the friend you need”. And it’s also a really nice song that introduces Capper and his character. So Capper takes our 7 heroes to his house, and while the other ponies mingle with him, Twilight does some poking around and finds out that they were looking for the wrong queen. They were actually supposed to be looking for the hippogriffs. But just before they can head out. It’s revealed that Capper was planning to sell them to some rich guy. But then Tempest comes and tries to take them, but luckily the ponies and dragon escape in a really exciting and visually interesting way, and then hop on board a departing ship. When Tempest ask him where the 7 heroes went, Capper, who feels guilty about trying to sell them earlier, lies and tells them that they went east to Black Skull Island. Tempest buys it, but drags Capper along with him.

Meanwhile on the ship, our 7 heroes get found out by a bunch of workers on the ship, and they’re about to throw them overboard, but then they realize it’s time for a lunch break. So they invite Twilight and the others to join them. During that time, we learn that these workers weren’t always the way they were, and that they’re under storm king’s orders to do what they do. And we also learn that they actually used to be…

A. Firefighters

B. Cops

C. Pirates

D. Constructions Workers

If you said C, pirates, then you’re right! I mean, come on, this is a kid’s movie, we have to have pirates in there somewhere. And that leads us to the next song “Time to be Awesome”, and much like the other songs I covered, I really enjoyed it. It’s upbeat and cheerful and it has another really nice message about how you shouldn’t something keep you from who you really are inside. So the workers decide to pirate again, and the mane 6 join them, except for Twilight who tries looking at the map again. And this is another place where Starlight Glimmer could do something in the movie. She could help Twilight with the map. But, it all comes to an end as Rainbow Dash without thinking about the situation, does a Sonic Rainboom and gives away their location to Tempest. Yep, this marks the second time Twilight’s friends have done something to draw attention themselves and get found out by Tempest. You gotta feel the pressure Twilight’s under.

So the workers have our heroes hide under the ship and Tempest comes on board and asks them where they are. While that’s happening, Twilight hatches up a plan, she takes a few things, opens the escape hatch, she and her friends drop down and Twilight makes a hot air balloon to carry them across the land. Tempest finds out what happened and destroys the worker’s ship and leaves Capper there for lying to her.

It then reveals that the air balloon Twilight and her friends used crashed at the bottom of a mountain top. And after climbing up the stairs, they find themselves in a deserted town. They then hear singing coming from a cave and decide to investigate. They find out it’s coming from a mysterious figure, who runs away as soon as she sees them, and when the others give chase, they get flushed down the drain and almost drown, but luckily they recieve air bubbles that allow them to breathe underwater, and then we’re introduced to another new character Princess Skystar. She takes them to see her mother Queen Novo, who doesn’t like their intrusion. Twilight tells her that they need to find out what happened to the Hippogriffs. And Skystar tells them the story. So apparently the Hippogriffs did live on land, but the Storm King wanted their magic, so to keep it safe Queen Novo went and hid the whole city and its citizens underwater so that means she and the others are the Hippogriffs. The ponies question how they did that and Queen Novo shows them that it’s all because of a pearl they have and she uses the pearl to turn the mane 6 into sea ponies and Spike into a… puffer fish. For some weird reason. I guess whenever the main characters in this universe get transformed into something else, Spike is always gonna be turned into something inferior. But when Twilight says they can use the pearl to turn the other ponies into something powerful to defeat the Storm King, but Queen Novo refuses because she thinks that he could end up getting it. So that means their search was pretty much useless. But Skystar wants them to stay and have some fun with her, and we find out she’s like Webby from the new Ducktales reboot. She’s socially awkward and doesn’t really have any friends. Pinkie Pie wants to spare Skystar’s feelings and stay for awhile and Twilight actually agrees to that and tells Pinkie and the others to let Skystar show them around, but not for the reason you think.

So then we get to the next song of the movie “One Small Thing”. And I’m probably gonna say the same thing I said about all the other songs in this movie so far, but I can’t help it, I LOVE this song, it’s just so upbeat and catchy, and while I was in the theater, I could tell some kids agreed with me because they seemed to be enjoying the song too. And sure, some might say this is ripping off the Little Mermaid, well if it is, it’s a really awesome ripoff. So after the song, The princess and queen seem to want to help the ponies but when they go back to the throne room, it’s revealed that Twilight was actually trying to steal the pearl. And I’ll talk about this in just a few minutes. The queen obviously feels betrayed after seeing this and turns our 7 heroes back into their normal forms they get up to the surface and then… Let’s just say, sparks fly.

''Twilight: I never would’ve done it, but this isn’t Equestria! We can’t just dance around with con artists, make rainbooms in the sky and expect things to work out! It’s not enough! We are not enough!''

''Pinkie Pie: No, Twilight. WE stuck together! WE were gonna get the help we needed! The only thing that stopped us, was you .''

''Twilight: Well, I’m doing the best I can! It’s all on me! I’m the one Tempest wants! I’m the last princess!''

Pinkie Pie: You’re also the only one who DOESN’T TRUST HER FRIENDS!!

Twilight: WELL, MAYBE I WOULD’VE BEEN BETTER OFF WITHOUT FRIENDS LIKE YOU!!!!!

(Pinkie Pie gasps and walks away sadly)

Twilight: Pinkie… I…

Pinkie Pie: (heartbroken) I just can’t talk to you right now.

(Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack all follow suit, and look angry.)

MY REACTION: (Cuts to a clip from the Fish Hooks episode “Break up, Shake Down”.)

''Oscar: Heh. Wow. Well you can cancel the 4th of July this year, cause we just saw the fireworks! (laughs and then sighs awkwardly)''

Yeah, and so I basically have to talk about this scene right here. This was the most heartbreaking and most scary of the entire movie, and here are my thoughts on it. I actually think Twilight was totally justifiable for snapping. I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying her trying to steal the pearl was excusable and what she said to Pinkie Pie was harsh and you would’ve never expected her say it, but it makes sense why she did. She was was under the most pressure that she’s EVER been under in her whole life, everything was going wrong, and when they finally did get where they needed to go and talk with who they needed to talk to and it wasn’t successful she obviously felt like it was every species for themself. And then we have the fact that Twilight’s friends are looking like the badder people in this situation, ever since they started going on the mission, Twilight’s 5 friends (not counting Spike) have constantly jacked things up for her and made the mission more hard, and they never stopped to realize the pressure that Twilight was under, and that whole scene with Pinkie Pie yelling at Twilight and blaming her for everything makes them look even worse, because none of the other 4 ponies take the time to realize and acknowledge the fact that they’re ALSO the ones at fault. They should realize that Twilight is right, that this isn’t equestria and all the stuff they did was not gonna work. And walking out on her, while kinda understandable makes them look even worse because it makes it perfectly easy for Twilight to get captured. This whole scene just put Pinkie and the others in a really bad light. But that’s enough talking about this scene, let’s get back to the movie.

So while the other 5 ponies walk away, Spike stays with Twilight, who’s gone to a cliff, and tries to comfort her.

''Spike: Twilight? It’s okay. You’ll figure it out.''

OK, you gotta admire how great of character Spike is here. He’s the only one who stays with Twilight and tries to comfort her when she feels the worse she’s ever felt before. This is also a good way to incorporate Starlight in the movie, she could stay with Twilight, along with Spike and also try to comfort her. But anyways, what you would expect happens and Twilight gets captured and this brings her face to face with Tempest. Twilight tries to reason with her, but she;ll have none of it, and this brings us to the next song “Open up your Eyes”. Now this song isn’t like the other songs I’ve talked about. It’s not upbeat, It’s not that particularly catchy, and it seems more serious, but I think that was the point. And for what it’s trying to accomplish, it does a pretty good job, and we also get an interesting backstory about Tempest. We learn that she did have 2 friends when she was a kid, and when they were playing ball it went into a bear’s cave. So Tempest went to get the ball, came face to face with a bear and tried to defeat it, and it sliced off her horn. (Although to be fair, this wasn’t really about depending on others, it was about knowing what's safe and what’s not safe.) But, seeing her friends turn on her was pretty sad.

So we cut back to the others who are deciding it’s time to talk to Twilight, when Spike rushes up to them and tells them what happened. The ponies want to go and help Twilight, but they’re not sure they’re up to it, but then Capper, the workers/pirates from the ship and Princess Skystar all come and say they want to help, and I really liked that scene.

''Spike: That’s it, right? We didn’t make friends with anypony else?''

No, Spike, I think that’s about everyone.

So we cut back to the town where everypony else has been captured and then Twilight is seen taken up to the tower, so she can join the other princesses and get the magic sucked from her, the storm king comes and absorbs the magic and it works, the storm king can control the rising of the sun and the moon and he does it in a really funny joke. So we cut to outside the kingdom, where our heroes are planning to sneak in by disguising themselves as servant ponies bring a cake, but then they get caught and have to ambush they;re way to the tower and this fight scene is really awesome, all the characters get a part to play and Fluttershy’s is the most funny of all because she actually tries therapy on one of the minions. So the heroes continue to make their way up to the castle, but just then the storm king starts making a giant storm that’s impossible to go through, but Pinkie gets an idea. Meanwhile, Tempest reminds the storm king about their deal, and how he said he would restore her horn. But the Storm King reveals that he was never intending to fix her horn in the first plays. (sarcastically) Oh wow. The big bad guy betraying their servant. Wow, Haven’t seen THAT before.

So the two of them have a face off and it looks like Tempest is about to fall into the storm, but luckily Twilight saves her and says that’s what friends do. We then cut back to Pinkie and the gang, and it reveals her idea, is blasting them in her canon, and that will cause them to fly through the storm, and it works. Twilight and her friends reunite and make-up.

''Pinkie Pie: I’m sorry too. Friends mess up sometimes, but we never should’ve-''

''Rainbow Dash: Uh, make up later! This isn’t over!''

God dang it, Rainbow! I wanted to hear what Pinkie had to say! But anyway, Twilight realizes she has to get the staff before the Storm King does, and she and friends decide to accomplish that by making a chain of themselves (Another way Starlight could’ve been useful.) Twilight does manage to get the staff, but she ends up getting caught in the storm with the storm king, but just when it seems all hope is lost, Twilight floats down with the staff and our main characters hug it out. But the Storm King is also alive and is about to throw another ball to make Twilight and her friends freeze, but Tempest actually goes in front of the characters and takes the freeze for them, but it also makes the storm king freeze and he falls off and shatters into pieces, and I applaud this show for giving a villain a fair and honest death, but Tempest is fortunately save and brought back to life by out heroes. And so everything gets fixed just in time for the festival, and pretty much like you expect, everyone is united and has a good time. Twilight has a moment with Tempest, and says she wants her to stay. And Tempest actually uses her magic to create a firework show for the performance. When Pinkie Pie compliments Tempest, Tempest tells her that’s not her real name. Tempest’s real name is “FizzlePop BerryTwist”. Well, who'd've thunk?

And then the movie decides to end on my to favorite songs from the movie “Rainbow” and “Off to see the World”. I just love these two songs so much, they’re upbeat, catchy, they’re sung really well, and it’s just a perfect way to close off this movie.

And that was My Little Pony: The Movie. And what do I think of the movie? It’s freaking awesome!! This movie was just such a treat to watch, it gave us everything My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is known for for great characters, beautiful environments, catchy music and a really nice feel-good message. Sure it does have its flaws, but none of them are that major and not enough to ruin the movie for me. If you want to see a really good movie or trying to get into My Little Pony, I would reccomend this movie. It’s totally worth it, and you won’t have wasted your time. And I can't wait to see what season 8 of the show has in store for us.

I’m giving this movie a 9/10

It’s an Awesome movie

Wow. What a way to start off my reviewing series, huh? I really feel I picked a good movie start off on. And don’t worry, this is just the beginning. I’m gonna be tackling a lot more awesome and even amazing stuff in the future. So stayed tuned. Anyway, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you guys next time! Bye!