So, I’ve seen it. And I am honestly surprised that it has NOT turned out horrifyingly terrible. Not good, and for me it was worse than the G4 Movie, but still not on the levels of bad I expected it to be.
Spoilers ahoy!
Positives are: nice animation, at least most of the time; good character designs; main characters themselves are pretty nice; Zipp was actually chill and cool, despite everything about her screaming sTrOnG wHaMeN character; there is ALMOST no woke moments; there is no M6 after the beginning scene; Sunny is not an insufferable activist, and her logic and reason are quite organically introduced.
Cons: Plot. It was mediocre. Not terrible, a simple quest for the artifacts trope, but I feel like some parts of the plot could be cut out without any impact on the story (more on that below). The most idiotic part was the fact that the characters never had even a slightest thought that their scheme will not work without the Earth Pony crystal. 3 pony kinds, but only 2 magical bullshit crystals? Well, color me shocked when nothing worked! Yes, I know, “it’s not the crystals…” but still, it was dumb to not even think of the third one, as well as the fact that the crystals have given the magic back in the end.
World-building: I really felt like this whole G4 connection makes many of the elements and choices of the story make zero sense. Like the magical bullshit crystals that are the source of the magic for some reason. They were never mentioned in the G4, why they are here? Speaking of the things never mentioned, where are the other species? I have not expected them to be here, but still, they are not even mentioned once! Why? To me, the best way should about this would’ve been that the whole G4 was just a bed-time story, but there are too many connections that ruin this theory completely.
Creatures: I know that this is likely a nitpick, but seriously, all non-pony creatures shown are the following: crab, bird, round bunny, flying dog, flying rat, and that opossum-like thing with a shell. I liked the G4 mainly because of this weird (in a good way) world filled with mythical creatures and talking pones. These look like a generic cute marketable critters, like something Illumination would do. I don’t hate them, but I find it quite disappointing. I know that the main critters in the G4 were animals from the real world, but even in the first two episodes we have seen a Manticore and that Serpent guy.
Sprout: this is the part of the plot that really should’ve been cut, and no one would care. The main storyline has not needed a villain, and it really shows. The character is horrible, his ark was terrible, he was “defeated” by the stupidest way possible, and he has never suffered any consequences for his actions. He has not even apologized for destroying the lighthouse! He is not menacing, he is not charismatic, he is not relatable. And his theme… I have a burning desire to shove the one responsible for his song into a Femur Breaker and activate it.
Speaking of songs. The starting song is fine, too pop-y for me, but passible. The duo song was okay, Fit Right In was IMO the most MLP-like song out of them all, and I liked it, even despite the rap part, I hate Sprout’s song with passion, I can’t remember Pip’s song, and I think that’s all. They are okay overall.
Pop culture references and technology: Honestly, I am starting to feel sick every time I see modern technology and pop culture in a fantasy setting. In my opinion it is lazy as hell. Pegasus town suffers the most with their overuse of smartphones, giant screens, and the whole theme of a current day town with bloggers and stuff. I think the most organic modern pony town is Mareton Bay (idk how it is pronounced correctly), and the Unicorn town was the most MLP-ish town out of them all (I really liked that mechanical Just Dance machine). If I had to choose, I would set the tech to Mareton Bay level max.
Oh, and also, Sunny becomes Alicorn it the end. Not physical (magical horn/wings), but still. Technically, this situation is very similar to Twilight’s, but it really felt off because Twilight was given this power by Celestia, while in this case it comes from the magical bullshit stones.
Overall, I would give it a 6-6.5/10. It was not offensive to the G4 (if you do not think about the implications too much), it was not a woke garbage, it was not an unwatchable mess. But IMO it could’ve been much better, should they just cut the G4 connection. Most of the time watching I was asking myself questions about continuity with the G4, and because of that to me it felt like it was a movie written by the people who just read some FIM wiki pages and said “It will be fine”.
