My Little Pony: The Movie Film Review (2019)

Attention The emoji movie. your status as worst animated feature of the year might well be in jeopardy when my little pony the movie trots theaters this weekend. At best it a dead heat between the former and this numbingly generic issuance from allspark pictures hasbro movie unit whose raison detre can be immediately traced to its sparkly rainbow hued poster bearing an unmistakable resemblance to trolls another production taking its cue from a sucessful line of toys. Despite attracting a top drawer voice cast including emily blunt uzo aduba and liev schreiber the production remains as cloyingly plastic as the equine toys with the outsized keane peepers.

Though grumpy male critics are obviously not the targeted audience, it remains to be seen if the Lionsgate release can lure sufficient numbers of female preschoolers to something that has been readily available for viewing in one form or another for the better part of the past 30 years. Perhaps the results won’t be quite dazzling enough to greenlight a Beanie Babies: The Movie anytime soon.

 

 

For the record, it isn’t the first time the four-legged denizens of Ponyland have sung and danced their way onto the big screen. In 1986, ahead of the debut of the TV series, the inaugural My Little Pony: The Movie, featuring the voices of Danny De Vito, Rhea Perlman, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman and Tony Randall, grossed just shy of $6 million for De Laurentiis Entertainment Group and Marvel Productions.

Cut to MLP:TM 2.0, which finds the Mane 6, as Princess Twilight Sparkle Tara Strong, Applejack Ashleigh Ball, Rainbow Dash also Ball, Rarity Tabitha St. Germain Pinkie Pie and Shutterfly both voiced by Andrea Libman are collectively known, busily preparing for their annual Festival of Friendship. But their party is crashed when a dark force descends upon Equestria courtesy of the villainous Storm King Schreiber and the grudge-bearing Tempest Shadow Blunt, who’s determined to make somebody pay for her busted horn.