I watched this movie today, and all throughout as we saw what a terrible disjointed segregated place Equestria became, I felt more and more like I did when watching Star Wars - The Force Awakens. Except here, likely centuries passed instead of 25 years, but it does seem that nothing our heroes did for several years, all the hardships they endured, the friendships they forged, mattered. Twilight just thwarted a plot by villains to drive the three races of ponies apart in the last season... and now she is gone and her teachings of friendship forgotten, and earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi live apart, in fear of each other.
...Except, even this setting makes no sense. The earth ponies are terrified of the magic of unicorns and the flying pegasi. But we learn quickly unicorns cannot use magic anymore, and pegasi cannot fly. And neither did the three species keep in contact - none of the characters in the movie have ever seen another pony type in their lives. So WHY would they be so afraid of some invisible boogeyman that it dominates their lives, so much they build capture devices against unicorns and pegasi?
The crystals are another dumb retcon -pegasi can fly normally because, y'know, they have WINGS...? But nope, in this movie, that is magical too. So our intrepid heroes have to unite three gems. If you guessed that there would be a third gem for the non-existing powers of earth ponies, and there would be a third act "we failed, I am useless" cliche moment, you guessed right.
The characters are shallow copies of the Friendship of Magic ones. Sunny is Twilight once again - studious, curious, and shunned for being awkward. Except while Twilight spent long seasons truly understanding both friendship and magic, earning her status as princess... Sunny just states the obvious ("The power was in our unity all along!") and immediately becomes an alicorn princess.
The others aren't great either. Izzy is basically Pinkie Pie as a unicorn, with boundless optimism and laughter, but not much else (none of the quirky randomness that made Pinkie truly funny). Zipp is just Rainbow Dash, the athletic, daring tomboy, with even a similar mane style. Hitch is just mainly a foil for the female characters, placed there so he can learn his lesson and accept Sunny for what she is, and Pip is like every annoying internet celebrity ever, complete with her own tiktok videos.
The world makes little sense, with pegasi royals pretending they can fly via wires (no, they do not oppress the others, it is never really explained why this was a good idea, but it ends up getting them imprisoned when things fail). Unicorns are all emo slackers with weird superstitions.
Our villain is probably the worst, as he is more of an afterthought - a childish loser deputy who rises to the top by fearmongering, at the end declaring himself basically the God-Emperor of Ponyville. If the allusions were not clear enough, he even says "Those who scream loudest must be right" and "A million voices can't be wrong!" - I half expected he would also say he would make Equestria great again... At the end he builds a giant pony-mech but the final confrontation consists of him ramming a lighthouse and our heroes running around to try to place the macguffins in their sockets. Rather boring.
Also, there are songs. A lot of them. None very memorable.
The CGI is serviceable, not anything special. The character faces look way too similar, and it is hard to tell females and males apart.
If this was its own universe, I would say it is a harmless child flick seen and quickly forgotten. But because it basically says nothing that happened in 7 seasons of MLP FiM matters... I rate it lower than "meh".
...Except, even this setting makes no sense. The earth ponies are terrified of the magic of unicorns and the flying pegasi. But we learn quickly unicorns cannot use magic anymore, and pegasi cannot fly. And neither did the three species keep in contact - none of the characters in the movie have ever seen another pony type in their lives. So WHY would they be so afraid of some invisible boogeyman that it dominates their lives, so much they build capture devices against unicorns and pegasi?
The crystals are another dumb retcon -pegasi can fly normally because, y'know, they have WINGS...? But nope, in this movie, that is magical too. So our intrepid heroes have to unite three gems. If you guessed that there would be a third gem for the non-existing powers of earth ponies, and there would be a third act "we failed, I am useless" cliche moment, you guessed right.
The characters are shallow copies of the Friendship of Magic ones. Sunny is Twilight once again - studious, curious, and shunned for being awkward. Except while Twilight spent long seasons truly understanding both friendship and magic, earning her status as princess... Sunny just states the obvious ("The power was in our unity all along!") and immediately becomes an alicorn princess.
The others aren't great either. Izzy is basically Pinkie Pie as a unicorn, with boundless optimism and laughter, but not much else (none of the quirky randomness that made Pinkie truly funny). Zipp is just Rainbow Dash, the athletic, daring tomboy, with even a similar mane style. Hitch is just mainly a foil for the female characters, placed there so he can learn his lesson and accept Sunny for what she is, and Pip is like every annoying internet celebrity ever, complete with her own tiktok videos.
The world makes little sense, with pegasi royals pretending they can fly via wires (no, they do not oppress the others, it is never really explained why this was a good idea, but it ends up getting them imprisoned when things fail). Unicorns are all emo slackers with weird superstitions.
Our villain is probably the worst, as he is more of an afterthought - a childish loser deputy who rises to the top by fearmongering, at the end declaring himself basically the God-Emperor of Ponyville. If the allusions were not clear enough, he even says "Those who scream loudest must be right" and "A million voices can't be wrong!" - I half expected he would also say he would make Equestria great again... At the end he builds a giant pony-mech but the final confrontation consists of him ramming a lighthouse and our heroes running around to try to place the macguffins in their sockets. Rather boring.
Also, there are songs. A lot of them. None very memorable.
The CGI is serviceable, not anything special. The character faces look way too similar, and it is hard to tell females and males apart.
If this was its own universe, I would say it is a harmless child flick seen and quickly forgotten. But because it basically says nothing that happened in 7 seasons of MLP FiM matters... I rate it lower than "meh".