Review em português no Portal 42.

96/100

[...] But there's a light

Shining deep inside

Beneath those fears and doubts

So just squash 'em

And let it shine

For the whole world to see

That it is time

Yeah, time to be awesome!

I think children entertainment is fascinating. These days, however, with the access to internet and the more teenage pop culture, few are the cartoons that carry the authentic purity of infantility. Most modern children's cartoons come with a certain dosage of malice and an all-out humor that sometimes works better for the adult crowds than the kids - your Adventure Times, your Uncle Grandpas, your new Powerpuff Girls. That isn't an inherently bad thing, after all the shows have to communicate with their generation, but every once in a while, an unpretentious and sweet little cartoon like My Little Pony is very welcome, aiming to teach children about values of friendship, union and their inumerous nuances. The series might've been originally created to promote Hasbro's toys - and with a goal like that, it could've been a soulless husk -, but creator Lauren Faust has put so much love in her work that it transformed into something valuable and important, touching several hearts, even out of its target audience, with its kindness and undiscriminated goodness. It may not be for every age's taste, but one thing is truth: it's impossible to hate My Little Pony. You just can't. It's something so harmless and kindhearted that you would have to be a really bad person to hate on it. The movie embodies with perfection all that good and graceful spirit of the show, applying a bit more of maturity in its speech and an awareness of how the values taught by it can be threatened by adult life.

In the story, the Storm King and his subordinate commander Tempest Shadow invade Ponyville, with the intention to conquer it and use the power of the Four Princesses to rule over Equestria. Being the last hope to save the land, the Princess of Friendship Twilight Sparkle and her friends leave Equestria in a journey to find someone who will help them save the kingdom from the Storm King's hands.

The plot isn't made of mindblowing plot twists - although there are a few things that we expect to happen in such a light film, but those end up not happening, implying that there are, indeed, consequences -, but that's not the point here. It's an easy story to follow, and what matters is how our characters are gonna face this journey, and will their friendship survive the not-so-shiny-and-cute situation they have been put in?

The film opens with Twilight suffering with the pressure of having to organize a big show event in Ponyville, and that's a key point in the character's arc: social pressure. My Little Pony has always disseminated its lessons of friendship in social contexts, and Twilight has met with heavy pressure a few times in the show, with the character she's become with those experience leading her here, carrying her own big responsibility to Ponyville, and being admired by its inhabitants by somepony who's gonna "make everything perfect". It's in this scenario that the flying ships of Tempest Shadow arrive, imposing on Twilight a much more crushing responsibility: to save everypony. Such pressure causes an impact on Twilight's psychological, leading her to make out-of-character decisions and use voice tones so grave that they sound scary coming from a pony who's usually so calm and adorable.

Tempest's arrival at this exact moment comes like a metaphor to adulthood, the very design of the villain portraying that; she's a bigger unicorn pony with more mature features, of much darker colors than what we're used to see in Equestria, with a broken horn and a scar in the eye. In Tempest's voice - Emily Blunt in the original, Mariana Rios in Brazil - there isn't the slightest sign of the infantility of the Mane 6. She's not an innocent and cute pony, she's someone who has been through some pain and that pain robbed her of her innocence. In other words, an adult.

As an adult with no true friends, Tempest is the yang to Twilight's ying. If we think back at the first episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, where Twilight repelled friendship and had an obsession with doing things her way, Tempest is what she could've become had she followed that path of her arc. Also like Twilight, Tempest's arc is rooted in social issues - I'm not gonna elaborate on which, since that might be a spoiler, but I will reinforce that Tempest is an unicorn with a broken horn, which makes her a disabled pony, and a big part of her arc is about getting over her handicap - and her musical number, Open Up Your Eyes, comes with an emotional charge and power that I wasn't expecting. It's easily the best animated villain musical performance since Scar's Be Prepared in The Lion King.

Through its antagonist, the movie shows some awareness of how adults may perceive its pure values; Tempest questions Ponyville's innocence, points its gracefulness as an naïve blindness to the real problems of the world, just like someone older may label the lessons of MLP as something too naïve when compared to reality - the way Tempest says with contempt "all this power wasted in parties" also sounds like an adult complaining about the younger generation.

To defend the cuteness of MLP against that point might be a little trickier than it looks like, after all we really can't ignore that the real world is indeed ugly, hard and painful, but through Twilight's arc - and her relation with Tempest -, the film does it with excellence, discoursing that even in the darkest corners of life, nothing is more valuable than friendship, and true naïvety is to think you're gonna go far on your own. Besides that, the movie dives in the various directions of the friendship theme to explore themes of self-confidence and acceptance. Twilight needs to find the right spot between believing in her own abilities, and accepting her friends' help, something that might not be so easy.

Expanding on acceptance, one of the film's most essential messages is to accept people for who they are, and accept yourself, however you may be. The cartoon is far from being interested in political dramas, obviously, and it's also not too keen on romance - Spike's crush on Rarity has always been something platonic -, but this lesson has a fundamental subjective value in it, and it does imply a LGBT conotation. We know that unicorns have become a LGBT icon, and not only is the protagonist of the movie an unicorn* whose color palette is, intentionally or not, literally the bisexual pride flag, but who leads the song Time to be Awesome - which talks about being who you are on the inside inspite of the conformities imposed by society - is Rainbow Dash, the gay flag incarnate. This idea is concluded by the film's theme song, Rainbow, performed by Sia, whose lyrics talk about "others seeing crazy where I saw love", and in the chorus says "I can see a rainbow in your tears as they're falling down", drawing back to another song of hers, The Greatest, which was a tribute to the LGBT community and the clip featured those iconic rainbow tears. Considering that cartoons for a tad older audiences like Steven Universe, Adventure Time and The Legend of Korra all have queer characters, it's fitting to think that My Little Pony might be promoting their acceptance amongst smaller children. However, I reiterate the importance of the subjective factor here - like I said, MLP is not keen on romantic interests, therefore the movie isn't talking directly about sexual orientation, but its cry for acceptance is universal, and that not only includes the LGBT community, but it's its biggest goal all the same.

And the visuals? Marvelous. The animation is beautiful. It's so rewarding to watch a 2D animated film in theaters when 3D has pretty much ruled over the market, all the more one made with such competence. These are simple traces, but rich in subtle details of expressions and characteristics, something that makes any artist thrilled to see - and Jayson Thiessen's direction breaks out of the platformed format of the show, exploring "camera" movements, frame depths and shots that you don't see on TV. The adventure is extremely colorful, and always pleasant, never visually tiring. Magic effects - some in 3D - are too very well executed when blending to the imagery, and the musical numbers are tremendously inspired, with sequences that are fabulous, shining and in times even kaleidoscopic.

The songs, on their end, are also great. Like I said, Tempest's song shook me to the point of almost singing along, but the remaining tracks of the soundtrack are also gifted with unique excitement, besides their adorable lyrics about union and acceptance. As a whole, the musical department here is highly well realized and executed, with iconic and epic themes, punctual leitmotifes - I highlight Tempest's theme again - and cathartic melodies.

I wish I'd watched it with the original audio, but for now I can only comment on the brazilian dub, which is quite enjoyable. The dub falls to the trap of changing some characters' voices to the musical performances - and with Rainbow Dash the exchange is colossal -, but overall all the dubbers do a good job here, even if the brazilian dub is far from reaching the naturality and authenticity of the original voice acting - with the sole exception of Mariana Rios as Tempest, who voices the villain with full comprehesion of Emily Blunt's original performance and succeeds in making the role right for her voice. She also kicks ass in her Open Up Your Eyes rendition.

I've said in my previous log that I watched this film in a theater full of grown ups. At certain point I was sure that I was the only one there utterly fascinated by the movie, and the biggest catharsis was when it ended and I found out that all the reviewers that were with me in my line had loved it too. It may not be for my age, or yours, but the beauty of this work is how powerful it is to break out of its target audience and touch the hearts of all kinds of people, without losing its purity. My Little Pony: The Movie is a lovely, genuine and pure movie, and I urge everyone to take their kids to see it. A colorful masterwork that promotes acceptance; may you be disabled like Tempest, hyperactive like Pinkie Pie, crippingly introverted like Fluttershy or at times succumb to insecurity like Twilight, believe in yourself, and accept the light that shines inside of you - but also, believe in your friends, and accept them however they may be.

*: Actually Twilight is an alicorn, right? When I wrote this review I didn't know there was a whole other name for unicorns with wings (I also hadn't got to season 3 of MLP: FiM yet), so, honest mistake.