Sunday, March 26, 2023

Animation Celebration Saturday - My Little Pony: The Movie (2017)

Lionsgate, 2017
Voices of Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman, and Tabitha St. Germain
Directed by Jayson Thiessen
Music and Lyrics by various

The original My Little Pony toy line ended in the US by 1992. It returned twice, unsuccessfully from 1997 to 1999, and later as part of a series of direct-to-video animated specials from 2003 to 2009. By 2010, Hasbro was ready for another relaunch...but this time, show creator Christy Marx aimed for the same kind of quality animation, music, and writing that could be found in many of the best cable animated shows of the time. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic was a surprise hit, not only with the core audience of 8 to 12 year olds, but adults too, male and female. The show was such a smash, talk began of a feature film version early as 2012. Is this generation of ponies deserving of our trust? Let's begin in Equestria as the Ponies prepare for their big Friendship Festival and find out...

The Story: The Friendship Festival is invaded by an army of monsters commanded by Tempest Shadow (Emily Blunt), a unicorn with a broken horn. She manages to transform three of the four Princesses into stone. The fourth, Twilight Sparkle (Strong), flees with her friends Rainbow Dash (Ball), Pinkie Pie (Libman), Rarity (Germain), Applejack (Ball), Fluttershy (Libman), and Spike (Cathy Weseluck) the dragon to the desert city of Klugetown in the hope of finding the "Queen of the Hippos." What they find is Capper (Taye Diggs), a con-cat who nearly sells them into slavery. Fleeing him, they first encounter a group of bird pirates, then the "hippos" themselves, Hippogriffs who now live underwater. Pinkie Pie manages to befriend the Hippogriff princess Skystar (Kristen Chenowith), but they're thrown out when Twilight is caught trying to steal Queen Novo's (Uzo Aduba) magic pearl.

Twlight Sparkle thinks all is lost when she's captured by Tempest Shadow and her master, The Storm King (Liev Schreiber) after a fight with her friends. Tempest thinks friendship is childish and it's impossible to trust anyone, but Twilight knows better. She and her friends teach everyone in Equestria a lesson in trust when they're the only ones who can stop the Storm King's biggest cloud yet.

The Animation: Colorful and attractive, yes, but some care was put into it. It's not Disney's best, but it does have some nice effects, especially with Rainbow Dash's "Sonic Rainboom" we see when they're doing the number with the bird pirates and the underwater sequences with the Hippogriffs. If nothing else, each character manages to look different from one another and it lacks the problems with continuity that plagued the first film. 

The Song and Dance: Charming tale encapsulates the show's message of friendship and how to maintain relationships, even when things aren't going well. In fact, if you're a fan of the show, you'll probably love this for the most part. The guest cast is nearly as impressive as the one in the first film, with Blunt and Aduba the stand-outs as the unhappy unicorn who thinks the Storm King is the only one who cares about her and the stern queen who would rather hide her people than face the King's wrath. Strong also does well as Twilight Sparkle, especially towards the end when she's trying to make Tempest understand about friendship. 

Favorite Number: We open with a re-written version of the 80's Go-Gos hit "We've Got the Beat" as the Ponies prepare for the Friendship Festival. Twilight insists "I've Got This" when she assures her friends that she has everything under control...even when she really doesn't. Capper insists "I'm the Friend You Need" when the Ponies are lost in Klugletown. Rainbow Dash encourages the Bird Pirates to "Be Awesome" and defy the Storm King during a huge chorus number on their ship that ends in her Sonic Rainboom. 

Pinkie reminds the Hippogriffs that "One Small Thing" can mean a world of difference in an elaborate chorus routine underwater, complete with Busby Berkeley kaleidoscopes. Tempest challenges Twilight to "Open Up Your Eyes" and see the world as she does, a world where trust only gets you hurt and you're the only person you have. The film ends with Pony pop star Songbird Serenade (real-life pop star Sia) performing about how a "Rainbow" will bring everyone together. 

What I Don't Like: Ironically, this has the opposite problem from the first movie. Here, it's the heroes (and anti-heroes) who are more interesting. Schreiber's Storm King is barely in the film, and when he does appear, he's a stock villain with little motive and really annoying dialogue. It's probably fitting that he's so easily taken out in the end. It does share the same problem of an unfocused storyline that's all over the place, and the new characters are neither terribly memorable, nor really do all that much until the very end.

The Big Finale: In the end, though this is better than the first film (it actually wound up being a minor hit in the fall of 2017), it's still recommended mainly for fans of the series, the toys, or the voice actors.

Home Media: As a relatively recent film, it's easily found on all formats. 

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