Wonderful Movie

Too much of everything

Admirable film.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I may not be an mlp fan currently, but I absolutely loved this show a few years back and still have a respect for it as a great children's show. Fortunately, this movie lives up to the show's glory. Surprisingly enough, what impressed me the most about this movie was the animation. Not only does the budget seem overwhelmingly cheap at only 6.5 million, but it looks incredibly smooth and polished. With a fun cast of both original and new characters, you might enjoy this movie even if your not a hardcore fan of the show.

Call upon the seaponies again! I seen FiM since autumn 2011 under the early Brony heydays where Everfree Radio existed. Back in 2014 I think the first fan made non official MLP movie posters was made on the booru and deviantart. I waited for the MLP movie since the spring where the first teaser was out, and the wait was worth it as now the hype is fading. Awesome songs, music and animation. The Friendship Festival is like my fics becoming alive. I would not mind if the movie was 2 hours long to flesh it out. The movie did not make it to the Oscars for best animated feature, but a possible Oscar or Globes runners up for music or songs.Lukas Graham from my country Denmark made the song Off to See the World. The villain the Storm King dies, as Tempest becomes a fan favorite on MLP forums while there are a lot of visual gags in the end credits.

The story and screenplay of the movie will make you say something like, "Wow! My mind is totally blown!" It's epic to the point of suspense, dramatic to where you feel like crying, and funny to the point of laughter! The writers incorporated great messages in the story involving friendship, hope, and leadership. The story was written by veteran MLP writer Meghan McCarthy, and by newcomer and fan Joe Ballarini (best known for contributing to the Blue Sky Studios films "Epic" and "Ice Age: Continental Drift", and the Dreamworks film "Turbo"). The screenplay was also done by McCarthy, but also by veteran MLP writer Michael Vogel, and newcomer Rita Hsiao(best known for her work on Disney's "Mulan" and Pixar's "Toy Story 2").The animation was done by an entire team of animators lead by veteran MLP director Jayson Thiessen. One big thing they had to do was replace the equipment they used called Adobe Flash and instead use Toon Boom Harmony. With the new equipment, they were able to make the backgrounds of each scene look real, especially the water. The part where our heroes go underwater and meet the sea ponies is so realistic, you feel like your in the ocean. The character designs were amazing as well, especially with the characters with fur or feathers, such as Capper and Celaeno.On the directing, Thiessen does it again by making another winner to the franchise, and marking an excellent comeback to theatrical hand-drawn animation. The dramatic and comedy moments are also perfectly timed. The cinematography is colorful, and the camera angling to every scene is so engaging, you don't want to miss it even when you want to get more popcorn.The characters were wonderful! Each of them had a quality and personality about them that made them so interesting and lovable. The writers kept the current characters from the show the same. The new characters were well thought out and in all seriousness great!The voice acting done by the people old and new were top-notch. But the most intriguing performances come from Tara Strong, Emily Blunt, and Liev Schreiber. Their performances made their characters realistic with so much feeling and emotion.Tara Strong's performance as Twilight gives a sense of the conflicts she's going through, and how she's feeling in certain moments, places, and situations.And I know Tempest Shadow is a villain, but Emily Blunt's performance helps give great sympathy towards her character because of what she's been through in the past involving her horn. To top it off, she even sings!With Liev Schreiber, his performance as the Storm King delivered the best and most intense MLP villain by far! His character has a range of emotions and personality. He's sarcastic, comedic, enraged, delighted, and evil, all with a voice that chills your spine. The Storm King was made for him! It makes you wonder why he didn't star in a family or children's film before or become a voice actor in the first place!The music and songs made by veteran MLP musician Daniel Ingram will make you joyfully emotional. The lyrics are heartfelt, and will touch you deep down into your soul.Overall, by watching it and looking at it closely without falling into stereotypes about movies based on toy lines, you'll find that this movie and everything about it is one that is worth seeing. It delivers something that hasn't been seen for a very long time in the animation industry. A movie full of heart, passion, and commitment.

"My Little Pony: The Movie" is a good send-off to the TV series, "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic", but it also has some weaknesses as well.Putting the more advanced-looking art style aside, and the great soundtracks, I'll be talking about the plot primarily, which is still good as a whole.Being the conclusion of the current MLP chapter, we look at whole of Equestria, especially Twilight Sparkle, preparing for the " Festival of Friendship", which was disrupted by an invasion by the Storm King's minions and henchmen. Naturally, everyone is enslaved, and all the princesses but Twilight are turned to stone. The latter is needed so that the Storm King, an ape-looking main villain of the movie, may use the alicorns' powers for himself.The main characters (Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack) manage to escape Canterlot via a waterfall and decided to find help. Twilight overhears Princess Celestia, her mentor, trying to summon the "Hippos", but this misunderstanding led to a series of events that came too quickly. The show took its time, usually two or more episodes, to look at each problem, villain, or new characters, so seeing characters like Capper, who tries to sell the ponies, allegedly taking them to the wrong hippos, on purpose to pay off his debts, all the way to meeting Griffin pirates working for the Storm King, against their will, felt a bit rushed.By the time both Capper and the pirates decided to purposely stall for time, so Twilight and friends can escape from the pirate ship, since the Storm King's minions showed up, the ponies finally find the real "hippos"... or "Hippogriff", horse creatures with fingers, wings, and beaks like birds. I thought that this part of the plot was interesting, especially with Twilight trying to talk to Queen Novo into helping the ponies take down the Storm King with her orb, to fooling her friends to keep Queen Novo busy so to secretly steal the orb... only for the friends, feeling betrayed, going on a shouting match with Twilight on the gloomy-looking sea side.With the ponies in bad mood, going their separate ways, Twilight is easily captured, with another weakness of the plot shown. Tempest Shadow, a bitter helper to the Storm King, is just another Starlight Glimmer, the TV series main villain from season 5. Both Tempest and Starlight had rough childhoods at the cost of their friends, grew up feeling bitter towards the idea of making any new friends... only for Twilight to put some senses into their heads, and welcome them to Equestria's growing circle of friendship. Otherwise, Tempest could have had the opportunity of being a memorable MLP villain.But, the main villain is, of course, the Storm King. It turns out that he dislikes everything about the ponies or "friendship", but very interested in obtaining the princesses' powers for himself. Even though he can now control the day and night, the movie doesn't go into details as to why the Storm King is the Storm King, or why he wanted the powers so badly, even lying that he'd be able to fix Tempest's broken horn. The Storm King, not just based on how he looks, feels like another Lord Tirek, the TV series villain from season 4 finale; they both hate ponies, but love their powers.And also, we have three Pegasus with Twilight and friends, that, from walking into the desert (half-dying) to falling from the pirate ship, you'd be screaming "But some of you guys can fly, or have magic!".Honestly, we could have more serious villains than what we got, especially when looking back to those of the 1980s era of My Little Pony, but, otherwise, everything else about the story was good. From Twilight and the princesses planning the Festival of Friendship to successfully pulling it off, and even welcoming Tempest, were pleasant to watch, and a welcome addition to the overall FiM canon.They were also moments I did laugh out loud over, from Twilight and friends being themselves to Queen Novo of the Hippogriffs telling her daughter that she's grounded.Sure, the movie won't be nominated for the best animated movie of the year, and it admittedly reuse some concepts from the FiM series, but, if you don't have anything else to watch, or you have young kinds, this movie is still worth watch, most especially to fans of the series.