Perhaps it’s unfair, but one has to wonder for whom the animated feature film “My Little Pony: The Movie” has been made. Ostensibly, it’s for young kids, who count for double the ticket money with their parents in tow. But there’s also a large market to be found in the “bronies” and “pegasisters,” young adults who have developed a cultish fandom around the animated series “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.” No matter who you might encounter in the theater, “My Little Pony: The Movie” signals that the unrelentingly positive pastel ponies have hit the big time.
My Little Pony is a brand that has been somewhat ubiquitous since the 1980s. A toy line from Hasbro, My Little Pony was the more popular younger sibling of the hard plastic full-grown My Pretty Pony. Like most kids merchandise, there was an accompanying animated series. And though a revival of the brand in 1997 was unsuccessful, the relaunch in 2010 has proved to be wildly popular, thanks to the bronies and pegasisters, and there’s a whole dissertation to be written about the cultural factors that may be at play in the brand’s contemporary success. But who can resist pretty pink ponies?
“My Little Pony: The Movie,” directed by Jayson Thiessen, has a remarkably retro vibe. The film is done in the classic 2-D animation style and embraces the flat, colorful, Saturday-morning cartoon look and feel.
Storywise, the stakes start out quite low. Princess Twilight (Tara Strong) wants to throw the best Friendship Festival in Equestria, and her pony friends support her by singing about it. But all too soon their happy kingdom is invaded by the Storm King (Liev Schreiber), an ape/ox hybrid beast, his army led by fallen pony Tempest (Emily Blunt), a unicorn who lost her horn many years ago.
