My Little Pony: The Movie

“My Little Pony: The Movie” is an animated musical fantasy based on the TV series, “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.” If you’ve been to Walmart, Target or other stores lately, you’ve probably seen the various toys and merchandise based on the film, including clothing, bags, hats and towels.

The story is basically a showdown of good versus evil. As you may have guessed, the friendly and colorful ponies are good. The bad guy is the “Storm King” (voiced by Liev Schreiber), a villain who wants to steal the ponies’ magic and use it for selfish purposes.

But wait, there’s a purple and pink pony named Tempest Shadow (voiced by Emily Blunt.) Tempest used to be a good unicorn, but her horn got broken. Now she’s joined forces with the Storm King in hopes of getting her horn restored. Yes, she made a deal with the devil. If he would restore her horn, then she would serve him. Tempest assumed that the Storm King would keep his end of the bargain, but she quickly discovers that isn’t the case.

Let’s backup to the beginning of the story, with the “Mane 6” ponies: Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity. They live in a magical place called Equestria, which is inhabited by friendly ponies and other talking creatures, such as griffons and dragons.

Interestingly, there are no humans in this movie. Like “Zootopia,” this movie is an anthropomorphic tale about ponies (and other animals) talking and acting like humans.

Leading the pack is Twilight Sparkle (voiced by Tara Strong.) She is Equestria’s Princess of Friendship, and is responsible for spreading friendship and harmony across the kingdom. Twilight is a beautiful pony, but she lacks confidence, and is often unsure of herself.

One day, a dark and menacing “air boat” comes down from the sky. It turns out to be the Storm King, a character who appears to be part demon (with horns coming out of his head) and part bodybuilder (extremely fit and muscular.) He also looks a bit like the “abominable snowman” from the old Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer movies, but that’s probably just a coincidence.

The Storm King commands a fleet of air boats to hunt down the ponies, with the intention of capturing them and taking their magic away. The Storm King’s main henchman is Tempest Shadow, a purple and pink unicorn with a broken horn.

As soon as the Storm King arrives in Equestria, the ponies run for cover. In town, the ponies meet “Capper” the cat (voiced by Taye Diggs.) Capper helps the ponies escape onto a passing air boat, which turns out to be run by pirates. At first, the pirates want to report the ponies to the Storm King. However, the ponies convince the pirates to defy orders and escape to a nearby island.

On the island, the ponies meet Queen Novo (voiced by Uzo Aduba, ) who is the leader of the underwater sea ponies. The Queen is very strict and doesn’t tolerate any nonsense. She uses a giant pearl to transform the ponies into fish, giving them fins and tails, so that they can breathe and swim underwater. Yes, now they are sea ponies, and are powerful enough to fight the Storm King’s army. It will take everything they have to overcome the Storm King, who wants to take away their magic powers, so that he can use it for his own selfish purposes.

Some may wonder if the movie has occultism overtones. There are no spells, incantations, omens or fortune telling. In the film, pony magic is a total fantasy that seems to be defined in terms of kindness, being friendly and helping others.

You might be wondering what the film’s effect is on children. I attended the screening with friends, including a mom and her 5-year-old daughter. The little girl watched the movie clutching her little stuffed pony, and became frightened during some of the chase scenes. She crawled up into her mom’s lap and covered her face during the brief scary parts of the movie. There are scenes where the ponies are chased and hunted down by the villain and his henchmen. However, there is very little violence in this movie. What’s scary is the thought of someone capturing the ponies against their will, and stripping them of their powers.

For the most part, the little girl enjoyed the movie. She loved the film’s brightly-colored ponies, especially one scene where the ponies unleash a “sonic rainbow boom” and sing and dance. “I like it when the ponies get along and are nice to each other,” said the little girl.

The animation is hand drawn, and retains the look and feel of the Little Pony TV series. Actually, the movie kicks the animation up a notch. It adds rich color plus creative music that’s fun and upbeat for children. The animation style is contemporary, and switches between 3D and 2D. Certain scenes are entirely three-dimensional, and give the impression of stepping into an alternative universe. The 2D animation tends to be a bit too flat in comparison, at times, but is used to express the character’s feelings, and even flashbacks, such as Tempest Shadow reflecting on how her horn was broken.

One thing that bothered me about the animation were the extreme close-ups. Occasionally, the camera zooms in so close that we’re looking at the ponies’ eyes and ears. I mean, the entire movie screen is covered with this extreme close-up. It is way too big and too close for my comfort. I wished the animators had stepped it back a bit; it would be easier on the eyes. (If you see the film, you’ll understand exactly what I’m describing here.)

Message of friendship

The movie has a message of friendship, and of working together to overcome obstacles. One of the main characters, Tempest Shadow, eventually realizes the err of her ways. She used to be a part of Equestria, but didn’t have a positive experience like Twilight Sparkle and her friends. When Tempest’s horn broke, she blamed the other ponies and teamed up with the villain. She assumed that the Storm King would make good on his promise. Later, Tempest realizes, “friendship didn’t fail me, I failed friendship.”

The film may be a springboard for discussion with your children. The Bible says, “Bad company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33), and that’s what happened with Tempest. She was corrupted by the Storm King, but later realized that he was leading her astray. This realization caused her to part ways with him and makes amends with her pony friends.

Violence: Moderate
Profanity/Vulgarity: Minor
Sex/Nudity: Minor—involves a lie about there being a color infection that makes body parts fall off—the story causes a male character to immediately cover his crotch

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

• Positive
• Neutral