Re: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Season 7 + The Big Damn Movie!
Finally got around to watching My Little Pony: The Movie from 2017 and it was okay. 5/10
What Worked
01: The Mane 6 and the Voice Acting. Tabitha St. Germain as Rarity & her overdramatic voice style really fit the 'epic movie' feel and the rest of the group was more than game to step things up in their line readings. It was clear that group was having a blast despite Fluttershy kind of getting ignored.
02: Some of the designs/art was really nice including the trek through the desert (Pinkie Pie and Spike in particular).
03: Lots of great lines from most of the characters and the interplay between Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie were all a highlight for the most part.
04: Some of the 'name' casting actually worked: Liev Schreiber as The Storm King (a pleasant highlight and reminded me of both Discord from the show and Kim Possible's Dr. Drakken character), Michael Pena as Grubber, and Taye Diggs as Capper. I also greatly enjoyed Kristin Chenoweth as Princess Skystar (the highlight of the names for me) and Uzo Aduba as Queen Novo.
05: I liked how 'dark' the movie was from some of the set designs to the pieces of plot development e.g. Aris. My favorite areas were the desert and Aris by far, shame the rest of the movie didn't feel like it hit that level.
06: The subplot of Twilight needing to rely on her friends to help her out, only to perform an act that betrays her friendship with the group was a solid idea but just very underdeveloped in the face of: We need to see the various places with interaction of new characters.
What Did Not Work
01: Most of the songs fell rather flat outside of "We Got This Together" and "Time For Being Awesome" for me.
02: The artwork in general. It was clear they needed the upgrade for the Big Damn Movie but at times it felt rather... off in many scenes and the stuff it did really work for was very few and far between. Almost too much of a clean feel/effect going on.
03: Fluttershy felt kind of shafted and a 'just there' background part of the group.
04: Emily Blunt as Tempest Shadow. Oof. Way too reserved and 'tried' to be sinister but got overshadowed by Liev Schreiber as The Storm King and Michael Pena as Grubber. A real shame too because that character archetype has been nailed on the show with Nightmare Moon, Queen Chrysalis, and Starlight Glimmer and Blunt just did not make that thing work at all.
05: The Plot. It felt like it got completely lost by the 30 Minute mark and was just an escape to have the group go to various landmarks. Tempest actually getting 3 of the 4 really, really hurt the plot's pacing because then it basically became The Chipmunk Movie just not nearly as fun or cool.
06: I liked Capper's character but he felt like a miscast and something out of say The Aristocats instead.
07: Way too many 'other' new characters to the point that it really felt like this was less a true Big Damn Movie that included the actual characters developed from the show and more an excuse to hire name actors to voice characters and try and get a fat payday from that by just slapping the MLP name/brand on the movie.
08: The end was so abrupt and while the Storm King turning on Tempest was obvious, as was Twilight saving Tempest and the self sacrifice to come, there was no foreshadowing or buildup or anything to make the viewer really care at all except that Tempest had a bad childhood... bleh.
