Haru's Hard Reviews: My Little Human~ My Little Human~ Ahhhhhhhhh~

So yeah, My Little Pony's 4th generation of animation gets so popular that it eventually gets a movie. But it's not what you think: they become HUMAN in this one. So then, why is it attached to the name "My Little Pony" at all? Well if you keep reading you'll find out, trust me.

First off, ain't it interesting how this is my first official review on anything related to My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic despite how big on the series I am? I blame the flow of entertainment I've been flooding myself with as well as my procrastination in going over the series' current 3 (to be 4) seasons of episodes. Perhaps a review will be done when the show officially ends, hmm? As such, I'm going to go into this with the notion that if you're reading this you already know a bit about the series so all exposition aside (from the show anyway), let's dive into the premise.

Twilight Sparkle has just become a princess after officially graduating under Princess Celestia's tutelage and moves onto the next step of her own growth: leadership. Now packing some wings with her body (making her an alicorn) she now has a whole new list of responsibilities and things to go over as they will be discussed when she (and her 5 pony friends Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy) arrives in the Crystal Kingdom. Reunited with not only Princess Celestia, Twilight meets Princess Luna and Cadence once again, as her presence is announced by an unusually non-crystal pony guard within the castle...only to be shown to her (and her friends') rooms for the evening. Before going to sleep Twilight discusses a bit of her own concerns about being in any sort of major leadership over a kingdom/city/village/etc with her friend and fellow scribe Spike....which may be a little welcoming to the overly cautious and judgmental Brony fandom. Known for overreacting to so many things, Twilight is the series' first canonical character (and reasonably so) that isn't entirely sure she's up to this sudden shift in her life...but she'll have to think about that a little later as in the middle of her sleep a thief shows up to try and steal her crown.

Catching her in the act, a chase starts up in where Twilight Sparkle discovers this unknown pony is actually Sunset Shimmer: the student that came before her who also studied under Princess Celestia. She is, for all intents and purposes, the archrival of Twilight and is in every way meant to be as smart ('intended' is the key word here), cunning, and sporting almost every kind of skill she does. Her only goal is just to steal the crown but after a tackle in some mysterious room that hasn't been explored in an unexplained amount of time, the crown goes flying into a mirror/portal to another dimension. Sunset Shimmer bids a quick fare thee well to our purple smart pony, and disappears right along with the crown into the mirror.

Celestia, fearing that any more than one or two beings from their own world entering into the other would upset any balance it already has, tells Twilight she has to retrieve the crown so that the Elements of Harmony are still in sync. If she doesn't for the limited time the portal between worlds is open (which appears to be 2 or 3 days: in this movie it's assumed to be 3 days), she will have to wait "30 moons" to even try and come back. If you also then consider that by the time Twilight arrives in this other dimension, some time has already passed, we can apply the "Dragon Ball Z Hypobolic Time Chamber" theory to this and assume every few minutes in the 'Pony' universe equals a few months in the other world.

...AND NOW WE HAVE OUR PREMISE.

Entering into the other world turns Twilight and her friend Spike (who jumps into the portal at the last second) into different beings than they were before: Spike went from dragon to a dog (which works because Spike is a common, cliche name for a dog) and Twilight Sparkle to a human girl.

The rest of the story revolves around Twilight going through a similar growth compared to when she first arrived in Ponyville in the TV series: she is basically lost as she slowly figures out what exactly she needs to do in order to move forward in the context of a time-sensitive event and in the process, meets 5 other people and becomes close friends with them. It's not until we actually meet the first actual 'human' equivalent of a character that we then come to a conclusion: this mirrored dimension hosts one of everybody in this world and they all share the same name, personality, quirks, flaws, etc.

Pictured here are the scenes in which Twilight essentially "re-meets" her old friends from Ponyville, but in the human environment of Equestria High School: everybody that you came to love from the series is here sporting exactly what makes them unique from their original dimension.

There's only a few discrepancies that exist though for anybody loyal enough to the series to take note: for one, here in the human dimension Fluttershy hasn't undergone any major event to have her up her own low self esteem, Rainbow Dash has already obtained what would have been her goal in Ponyville because she is the captain of EVERY single sports team, and Applejack is seen wearing a skirt.

Not exactly sure how that works considering she's a cowgirl but...oh well.

But here I think I'm going to run off what I believe are some of the highlights here other than the fact I listed every character is here and true to form. For one, just like from the show the writers/producers/staff behind the movie insert a lot of Easter Eggs to discover throughout the film. Be it a reference to another Hasbro property like Transformers, a background character being shown some screen time, and that I actually had quite a fun time with the new songs performed. For a movie that has not only a higher production budget behind it but also a different vibe (going from ponies to teen girls), I found myself really enjoying the new tunes. To be fair, they do not have the same catchiness or perky attitude put from some of those from the show....but they don't have to anyway: it's for a movie and I think it works. Only critique would have to be for towards the end of the movie there's one song that consists of one or two lines repeat ad nauseum. One more thing I enjoyed was just how damn funny it was: the humor that floods the show was here in the movie...thought for the writer of "Lesson Zero" I expected to find myself laughing out loud anyways.

As far as the bad well...there's a few things though I am going to be short and to the point.

Problems come quickly and constantly for Twilight but are then fixed JUST as quickly...almost as if the build up to those conflicts were merely just filler. Flash Sentry, the supposed love interest that probably set actual fire to some part of the internet when revealed in the trailer, never ended up being more than just "a guy that bumps into Twilight who magically has her falling for him after a few meet-ups". For a good writer and team that is able to develop characters so well everywhere else, Flash felt awfully flat. We know absolutely nothing about him other than his appearance within the movie, he -might- be a jock since he hangs with them, plays guitar, and has a tendency to not notice where he's walking. The idea that Twilight Sparkle would even fall for someone like him seems awfully silly and not like her at all.

If we're to believe that this ONE GUY from another world who bumps into her a few times and defends her when he can is able to swoon her, then what exactly is stopping Big Macintosh or any other colt within the MLP universe from having her fall for them considering how much more they've done? His inclusion, and let's be honest, everything Flash ever did in the movie at all COULD have been done by someone else. His backstory about somehow being an ex boyfriend to Sunset Shimmer (and the possible drama that could have come with that) is so shoehorned that it doesn't go anywhere. The only contribution he actually gives the entire movie's plot is that he proves Twilight's innocence to Vice Principal Luna during an interrogation scene. Outside of that he's just...there.

However thankfully as such as this is a flat area for a new introduced character, Flash Sentry's connection to Twilight never went anywhere and thus the fandom can sleep soundly. The end of the movie pokes a joke at it though because it's revealed that the non-crystal pony guard within the castle that was seen earlier is..well...let's just say he ended up bumping into Twilight Sparkle as well.

There's also the fact that Sunset Shimmer doesn't seem very focused of a villain. On the highschool side, she does a good job being an absolute bitch who has 2 seemingly average guys follow her every beck and call (What IS IT with Snips and Snails following terrible women by the way?) but as a villain? Not so much. She's enough that she herself is memorable to me, but she's no Nightmare Moon.

IF YOU ARE A PARENT....you will want to pay attention mostly to my summarized thoughts next.

This is a definite recommendation because if you have a child that's already a fan of the MLP it does exactly everything it needs to do. It establishes it's in the same humorous light as the TV show, it has the same voice actors, it has the same characters, it has a premise you'd expect from a two-part episode, and despite its high school setting it has enough of an understandable plot that it won't go over their heads. The music is enjoyable, characters are still colored like their pony versions of themselves so they are IMMEDIATELY recognizable in human form, there's a lot of in-jokes from the fandom as well as the show itself, and just like a well written MLP episode it just leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy. I am perfectly aware that the movie could have had more polish in the way how things are paced, and I even take note of how the conflicts are short lived....but damn it I like it too much to have that tear my mood and overall opinion down.