Review of My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) by Richard C — 20 Nov 2017

As a fan who as followed this show since first discovering it and watching it out of curiosity, I am more than happy by how far this series has come and that it finally has this opportunity to be presented as a feature film.

This film has much to offer for anyone who follows the show. The animation has stepped up in quality compared to the show, the character, creature, and background designs stand out spectacularly, the celebrity guests had great roles, and the songs are most enjoyable.

However, stepping outside from my emotions as a fan I have noticed that this film is being held back by some problems. The main 7 characters were introduced on the show with a decent amount of time to get to know each of them and to be invested in them.

And you're introduced to this world by learning its lore and history. If you're not a fan of the show or just a parent taking your kids to see this, you're probably going to be a little lost.

Not only are there 7 main characters to manage from the original cast, there is also a large celebrity cast. While these characters are fun to watch and I cannot imagine this film not having them, some characters have less time to shine and stand out than others, which leaves you wanting more from them and from the locations and settings.

That being said, this is not a bad movie. It's clear a lot of love and work into making this movie. Given that the show it is based on has characters, stories, humor, music, songs, and fantasy settings that are refreshingly well-rounded, deep, relatable, and fun, it's an understatement to say it must have been no easy task to try to translate that experience to film.

The success of the show and its fanbase was unexpected and surpassed all expectations. As a fan, I greatly enjoyed this movie, I appreciate that it exists at all, and I do hope for a bigger and better sequel.

At the same time, I feel it could have been greater if the number of celebrity cast voices and locations were cut in half for the sake of a story with full time for new audiences to get to know and love the original cast and their world as the fans of the show have.