"My Little Pony: A New Generation" Review - A Surprising Kid's Film for Everypony (Even Adults) to Enjoy

Unironically funny, heart-warming, and surprisingly intellectual, Netflix’s “My Little Pony: A New Generation” reboot film offers a colourful, and entertaining film for youngsters, and a hilarious referenced-packed and surprisingly intricate film for parents (or any adult) to enjoy as well.

The film followers Sunny (Vanessa Hudgens), an Earth Pony who is the sole believer that she can unite the varying types of ponies, who have become distant and discriminatory to each other in the time skip since the last generation: “Friendship is Magic” (airing from 2010 to 2019). When she meets a fun-loving Unicorn called Izzy (Kimiko Glenn), she is forced to leave her hometown as it becomes led by her power-hungry friend Sprout (Ken Jeong) and must find all the crystals to return the magic of friendship to Equestria.

The film is undoubted aimed at children, with bright pastel-coloured animations, adorably relatable characters (mixing up the stereotypical female main cast of the 2010-2019 series with a male character and a tomboyish Pegasus in its main friendship group) and of course the message of friendship being key throughout.

However, the film surprisingly mixes in several underlying complex themes including racism, media manipulation, and fascist dictatorships. This, along with several pop culture references, serves the purpose of entertaining the parents who may be begrudgingly watching with their children, as well as the strong fan base of adults who have grown up with the previous series. Having this backdrop that children will not understand, but is clear to adults, adds a brilliantly intricate layer to a film about talking ponies.

From the Earth Ponies having adopted following the powerful CEO of a defensive weapons manufacturer to the Pegasi’s use of faked celebrity social media appearances to distract the populous to Unicorn conspiracy theorists who believe magic isn’t real, the writers are truly diligent in their application of political satire to this fantasy world. The references aren’t limited to political situations either as the film uses pop culture background jokes to hilarious effect. Some highlights are a theatre showing a poster for “Judgement Neigh” (with a pony-ified Arnold Schwarzenegger as well) and one of the music videos referencing “Seven Nation Army” by “The White Stripes”. This isn’t even mentioning the jokes actually designed for children which doesn’t treat its target audience as dumb idiots (like the overused [insert fart joke here] script writing of most kids’ films) as seeing the Sheriff return a child to a parent, who then yells “This isn’t my kid” as the Sheriff runs off saying “You’re Welcome” is excellent comedic subversion.

Despite it still being just another marketing promotion with a new line of Hasbro dolls to be on a kids Christmas list, “A New Generation” diverts from the basic formula that was all it technically needed to be. The writers Gillian Berrow and Tim Sullivan put genuine care into the comedy and heartfelt plot, whilst the directors Matt Fattibene and Cecil Kramer add an awe-inspiring visual world perfect for children and adults alike. This is definitely a film for everypony.