Review of My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) by Carlotta 4 — 05 Feb 2018

I watched this film as a "have seen about 3 episodes so have a basic understanding of the characters" ... and I was left wondering why this was a theatrical release instead of what it was clearly trying to be--a nice film for fans of the show. Someone who HADN'T seen any episodes would have no clue who any of these horses were or why it was important that they accompany Twilight on her journey. In fact--they should have cut everyone but the pink one because while annoying, she was the only party member who contributed to plot points. Now I'm sure to a fan that would seem like heresay because gotta have everyone's fav's there, but if they serve no purpose I say cut 'em! They could have gotten encased in stone as well if there had to be a "reason" to explain their absence.

It's a story about Twilight and the purple villain horse and that part is actually done alright. Everything else just seems like a distraction, though. Party member horses, cat dude, parrots, hippos, "main" villain? Come and gone. Who were they? Meh, we don't know. They weren't really important. The only important characters who actually have arcs are Twilight and purple villain horse.

Anyway I digress, tv shows-turned into movies often have this problem of wanting to constantly introduce new things (aka, all those merchandise fluff characters) and simultaneously stretching out one tv episode's worth of content over an hour or two. It was perfectly fine for a straight to video release for the fans of the franchise. I didn't even mind it as a "have seen about 3 episodes" viewer. But as a THEATRICAL RELEASE I can totally see why the general audience was kind of meh. XD My kids enjoyed it though, and isn't that mostly the point since it's clearly focused for kids? I didn't really hate it as an adult, either but you kind of have to have a bit of tolerance for rainbows and pastels.