So it’s never easy following a massively popular act, but the new heroes starring in Netflix’s My Little Pony: A New Generation film manage to make a fun and sweet first impression. A decade ago, the Hub/Discovery Family MLP series Friendship is Magic drew in wider demographics than ever to the franchise through some unexpectedly good characterization, witty inside jokes and songs, and a sharp animation style that had callbacks at times to both classic anime and American cartoons.
The movie opens with the Mane Six and Equestria serving as the ancient times for this new pony-world, in a cute “passing the torch” moment that probably wasn’t all that necessary, but understandable given how much said show had a surprisingly big effect on people. For someone like me who enjoyed but still drifted off from the series after the fourth season or so, I was regardless pretty impressed by what the new crew’s pulled off here.
This next incarnation luckily feels distinct in their own way, and the kind of lead heroes I’d be fine following for the occasional half-hour. Vanessa Hudgens plays Sunny Starcourt, a plucky and optimistic earth pony from Maretime Bay who wants to help her new unicorn friend Izzy (Kimiko Glenn) recover her and the rest of her world’s missing magic, and possibly bridge some divides between the different breeds of horses.
Helping them out are Maretime’s Sherrif Hitch, voiced by James Marsden with the same kind of eager kindness he gives Tom in the Sonic film, and the pegasus princess sisters Pipp (Sofia Carlson) and Zipp (Lisa Koshy), who are looking for a way to help the pegasi get their flight power back.
There’s problems back home while Sunny and friends are away though, as the deputy sheriff Sprout (Ken Jeong) starts power-tripping, to the point where he’s building giant pony-bots with the help of her mom Phyllis’s (Elizabeth Perkins) pony security technology and dressing like a pony version of Ghadafi. He’s an enjoyable, if overly comedic villain when compared to the likes of Tirek or Nightmare Moon. We also get some funny bits from Jane Krakowski as the pegasus queen, constantly obsessed over how she looks for the press.
Using an animation direction that’s very expressive within its budget (it isn’t on the level of Disney or Pixar clearly, but it’s well above something like Food Fight), New Generation utilizes a good anti-prejudice and unity message without horseshoe-horning it on too badly (dad joke alert). I especially found it interesting how there was a huge 21st-century technological jump in the horse society from Friendship is Magic.
That prior show had the ponies living in sort-of traditional fairy tale villages and kingdoms, with the occasional update to add context, whereas G5 still has those whimsical fantasy bits, but then it gives them robotics, HD screens, city streets, Instagram, Dance Dance Revolution, and their own version of CBS.
On a meta kind of level, this also extends to the soundtrack, with traces of modern Broadway, hip-hop, and radio pop music than the more “90s animated feature” style previously. Some of the laws are a little weird though- at one point the pegasi queen is arrested, and so she has like no diplomatic immunity? It’s not in the name of the Crown and they can just book her easy, god damn.
For those worried about a return to the brainless talking-down babble that the “Newborn Cuties” thing was trying, this relaunch still has a slight edge and levels of deprecation to its humor. Most of the jokes can work for all ages, to where I doubt many adults will be groaning. They maintain the sincerity and sweetness behind the message, yet the writers don’t take anything too seriously- the ponies are allowed to act a little stupid on occasion. Not so dumb to derail the story, more that they can show a bit of denseness that keeps the comedy accessible. The fact they’re carrying around things like smartphones will likely lead to more pop culture nods down the road, as FiM was pretty prolific with its inside jokes and nods to things like The Big Lebowski, Doctor Who, etc.
Aside from the opening, one can find references to the prior gen throughout the movie if you squint. Izzy sadly glances a what I think is a Wonderbolts poster in one scene and I swear to god, Sprout looks eerily close to if Big Macintosh went on an apple sabbatical and was on a diet. His song to rile up the earth ponies has such hilariously, obviously wrong advice but the delivery is so fun and only enhances the joke (watch for a brief White Stripes reference).
Much like G4, MLP G5 is something I’d easily recommend for your young kids regardless of gender because of how well-made it is, and those part of the die-hard horse fandom likely won’t be driven away here. This is thankfully packing enough attitude to keep parents along for the ride. If you’d streamed it on Netflix, let us know your feelings on it on FAN’s social media as always!