MLP: A New Generation Quick Thoughts
TLDR:,Can you believe it? It's been almost two years since the end of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I still remember crying my eyes out when I saw my favorite cartoon protagonists appear for the last time. Ah, the good ol' days...A little less than two years later, in the middle of a pandemic, and after being in a different job - again - I'm back watching animated ponies intended to be seen by little girls who could as well be my daughters.To be honest, my expectations were pretty low. I didn't like the ponies' new design - despite a fellow deviant being in the creative team - and the fact that the movie is fully CGI. I didn't like the premise either with the perfect ending of FiM destroyed by the pony races now being apart. But unlike with Pony Life, I decided to give the new generation of MLP a chance.And it's ok. Passable.Thankfully, the majority of the new main characters are fine. Sunny, Zipp, and Izzy are more than capable of driving the story, even though there are obvious traces of their predecessors, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie respectively, in them. Hitch is also a nice addition to the cast and it's a big plus that he is a stallion who is given a bigger role than anypony back in FiM.As for the story: it isn't that bad either. An optimistic earth pony who believes in the power of unity and friendship goes on an adventure, meets with unicorns and pegasi, to put together a McGuffin that turns out to be nothing more than a metaphor for the obvious ending that you could see from a mile. Yeah, it's pretty generic, but hey: if FiM was strong in something, it was selling generic stories.The problem is that the writers tried to grab too much from the pot and missed the mark a bit. I mean, why on earth did we need a villain? Especially an idiotic sidekick to Hitch who, all of a sudden, turns into Idi(ot) Amin? I get it, bigotry, racism, and such, but let's face it: bigotry and racism would have been enough. That's the driving force of the story that needs to be defeated. Why a villain? Also, I cannot stand Sprout.And I cannot stand Pipp and her mother. I don't know, they feel too snooty for me; way snootier than Rarity was back then. And Rarity was funny sometimes!Also: the semi modern setting just doesn't work for me. We have ponies with canned beans, pizza, streetcars, TV (?), smartphones (??), and Instagram influencers (???). C'mon; the world of Equestria worked so well because it dared to create a world of its own. Making it resemble more to our world, a sh*tty world, is a bad idea. By the way, didn't the Nostalgia Critic put it in his A Cat in a Hat review that "modernizing" classics - in our case, adding contemporary elements to a fantasy world - is why these movies will feel super outdated within just a few years?However, these are just all minor things. My biggest problem with A New Generation is that it doesn't even attempt to answer the biggest question of all: what in the f*ck just happened after The Last Problem. Why the divide between pony races? What happened to Twilight? Her friends? (Aside from a nice cameo at the beginning.) Why were we deprived of a perfect series finale by an artificial conflict? Why? What?! WHY?!Anyway, I'm glad that the new generation of MLP was kicked off with a movie that's passable. But it's only that: passable. It has to stand on the shoulders of its enormously successful predecessor without alienating fans of FiM and also gathering new fans. I don't know if the latter mission will be successful or not, but as for the former: I think we can all agree in giving My Little Pony: A New Generation a big ,3.5 / 5 (C+)[click here to rate the movie]...
EgonDaLatz
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