It’s been a little over a month since the movie came out. I was going to try to get my thoughts on it as soon as possible back when I saw it. But I decided to wait, and maybe at least get a general sense of how the fandom receives the movie first.

I will first say my general opinion of the movie. For what it is, it’s pretty good. It brings much of what we love about the show to the big screen. However, there are definitely a few things that hold it back. There are probably a decent amount of episodes I would say are generally better then the movie. I think there might of been a chance I had slightly too high expectations in some areas because I do feel that slight tinge of disappointment. But again, I’m not saying it failed at what it’s trying to do. I’m just one fan out of many after all and regardless of some of those feelings I did enjoy the film. Just I guess there were a few things I were expecting to be better then they actually were.

Let me get the best things of the film first, obviously the animation and the backgrounds/scenery is amazing. I almost want another film just for that alone, because it really does look great and smoothly animated. I believe for the most part the characters we know and love are characterized good enough. Tempest made for an awesome villain, her backstory alone felt like Starlight’s but executed much, much better (Losing a horn and having a scar that scares ponies could have other things like bullies making fun of her for having no horn). Most of the new characters were pretty neat, for the exception of Grubber who felt very much like the stereotypical comic relief minion. I also really liked The Storm King, some of his lines had me laughing real good.

But I should probably also say the things in particular that may have bugged me. The music wasn’t terrible but the only songs I was really into were Capper’s Song and Open Up Your Eyes from Tempest. From what Ingram was saying I thought we were going to get some of the best songs this franchise has seen. But there are so many songs from the show that I would pick over much of the music in this movie. Despite the movie being the longest running timeframe for one thing (I believe it is fairly longer then any of the EQG films) it kinda still falls for some of the same problems of kinda rushing through stuff and makes me kinda wish that this was instead expanded into a mini-series with more time given to scenes that could of used it. Imagine a dedicated each episode to each of the places they visit. An episode for Capper’s Village, an episode with the pirates, an episode with he seaponies, etc. as is they go through all of those a little too quickly. The seapony scene alone was what I was looking forward to most, but it really doesn’t last as long as I thought it would. Maybe blame the advertisement and marketing for that, but with how much push there was for that you would think that scene where the Mane 6 are merponies would be longer then it actually was.

It doesn’t exactly help that the scene I was looking forward to most is ended with the controversy of Twilight trying to take the pearl. I still don’t get what exactly Twi’s plan would of been if she had succeeded in taking it. All we knew about that point about the pearl was that it turned land creatures into aquatic creatures. I’m not so sure it suggests that it has some power that can defeat the Storm King. I get that Twilight was desperate as well at this point, but it still kinda bums me out that they had to have this scene to get that moment in the film that’s in a lot of kids films where the hero is at their lowest point because they did something that makes things worse for the cast. I wish instead that Twilight was there for Pinkie’s song so she saw that the Queen was being convinced to help out in some way. It would give the scene I wanted to see most more time and also explain why Celestia specifically asked to get the Hippogriffs for help. You could still get Twilight captured later and the Mane 6 gathering all the friends that helped them along. Heck, imagine if they had an army of Hippogriffs during that battle helping out. Just the whole thing is probably going to stay my least favorite thing about the movie, I just don’t understand what Twilight was thinking trying to take it. If there’s anyone who can kinda help explain it a little more who’s more fine with the scene then I am I’d like to hear it to make me feel at least a little better about it. But for now, I kinda hope Queen Novo and Twilight reunite sometime for some proper apologies. It doesn’t happen in the film at all, and whether it happens in the show or in a possible sequel film, I’d really like a little more closure on it.

Anyway, sorry if that was somewhat of a rant. But it’s something that’s really been on my chest that I need to release. Overall, tt’s a pretty ok film. I think mainly people who were already fans of the show and the younger target demographic are going to enjoy it most. Though it’s not going to do any wonders and impress those who never watched the show or casual animation fans and/or moviegoers. Though even for fans there are some things we certainly could critique.

I do hope we get another film in the near future though. Aside from how great the animation was, it could be a chance for Hasbro to maybe hear some of the criticism the first got and improve things for the next one. I hope we get something like what happened with Equestria Girls. The first Equestria GIrls was not good IMO, I’m not saying the MLP movie is as bad as EQG1. (I in fact think that despite the flaws it’s about as good as some of the much better EQG sequels) but they both do have their flaws that are pretty obvious. I really hope that if/when there’s a next film we get something akin to a Rainbow Rocks that absolutely blows this movie away in many ways. EQG1 was technically G4’s first thing in theaters albeit at a much more limited distribution compared to this one. So in that way I hope history repeats itself.

For now though I am at least excited that Season 8 will look to use a few things from the movie. I believe I’ve mentioned this before but it’s already confirmed we’ll be seeing seaponies again. If we get an episode fully dedicated in the seapony kingdom I may begin to not feel as bad as how short that part of the movie ended up being. I’d also like Tempest to meet Starlight for sure.

But anyway, yeah, for what it is it’s good enough. I definitely hope to see a little more then what we got in this film should there be another coming up. Because there are definitely things that could be worked on. Probably some I didn’t even mention. But if there is something specific about the movie you’d like to know my opinion on that I didn’t mention already just ask me and I’ll share. For now though it’s the end of any more pony released till’ the beginning of Season 8 (Not counting the weekly EQG shorts anyway) so a pretty big year for MLP has come to a close. I’ll sure to be there once Season 8 begins. Seeya!