G5 movie review (Patreon)

So I generally don't do a lot of reviews, but I thought I'd try one for the new Netflix movie that came out today.  Pre spoiler, it was good and a lot of fun and worth a watch.  It's trying to set up a new setting and characters in the far future of Equestria and leans on a lot of G4 references to support the plot.  There's definitely some unexplained bits, but if you have 90 minutes it's a fine watch.  I think it needed an extra 10 minutes, but as is, it worked.

Spoilers ahead.

So the story's pretty basic and straight forward.  The pony races are now separated.  They live in isolation without magic.  Sunny wants to bring magic back.  A unicorn, Izzy, shows up and tells Sunny that the propoganda fear mongering is all wrong and that unicorns don't even have magic.  Sunny resolves to bring magic back.  Hitch follows to arrest her and leaves his deputy, Sprout, in charge.

They go to the pegasi and find out they don't have magic either.  The royal family is basically a sham using celebrity status and special effects to fool folks into supporting them.  Zipp's pretty smart and clever, and more than a bit sneaky.  She's not  a rainbow dash athlete.  Pipp is an 'influencer' to the core.  Zipp also thinks the 3 races lived together, and shows a ruin where there's all three races.  They hypothesize that if three magic crystals are brought together, magic can come back.  End act one.

Act two has them doing a caper to get the pegasus crystal, exposing the royal family as frauds.  Hitch catches up to Sunny, and they flee and go to the unicorn village in the woods.  After a long makeover scene and song, they find the unicorns are all in dire need of some anti depressants, find the crystal in the possession of a game obsessed unicorn, they have a dance off, and Sunny wins.  The unicorn's a sore loser, they flee and try to unite the unicorn and pegasus crystal, only to fail.  The pegasi and unicorns following them leave dejectedly.  Oh, and Sprout has become 'emperor sprout', turned the earth ponies into a mob, and got them making a weapon to take out the other two.

Act three has sunny return home dejectedly only to realize there was an earth pony crystal.  Sprout has unleashed a mechanical pony weapon and chases it back home where they try to put the three crystals together... but again, nothing happens.  Sunny and Izzy are nearly killed, and Sunny's home is wrecked.  The earth ponies kinda admit things got too hard, and that maybe working together might be better than always being afraid of each other.  The three crystal pieces reunite magically, and magical rainbows sweep out, Sunny gets glowing wings and a horn, and unicorns and pegasi get magic and flying back.  And earth ponies... are still earth ponies.  (Whatcha gonna do...)

So, basically this movie establishes we are in the far future, and that G4 Equestria is all but forgotten.  No windegos, but ponies weren't actually FIGHTING each other or exploiting each other.  Really at the end it was just Sprout vrs the Lighthouse.  So that might be one reason why.  Technology is all over the place, with Pegasi possessing modern media, Earth ponies with pre-internet technology, and Unicorns with... wood... technology.  From Izzy's song I expected unicorns to be all pretentious and with attitude but they're really all just... depressed.  I dunno what they were going for there.  Seems like a bit of a disconnect.  Was expecting high elves and got forest gnomes.

Sunny, Izzy, and Hitch are pretty well established character wise.  Zipp has a good scene, but it's never really her scene as it becomes more about the crystals than her.  Pipp is probably the weakest of the five.  She never really has a moment to matter to the plot beyond bringing the macguffin crystal to them when it was accidentally left behind.  I think if the unicorns had been stuffy and pretentious, Pipp's social skills would have had an opportunity to shine.

The songs were fine, but I really only remember one or two.  This movie was a lot less disney musical number than the previous pony movie.  Only one instance of the crowd breaking into song along with the character.  I think for kids it'll be fun but they beg for more serious remixes.

There's a lot of hanging threads and questions.  We don't know what happened to twilight or her friends.  She honestly might have died simply from old age.  No spike (no sign or mention of dragons, griffons, or any other races either).  Magic is back, and it's possible that artefacts like Grogar's bell or the memory stone might suddenly be in play.  No mention of Cozy Glow or Crystalis.  No Discord.  It's really leaning heavily on its own premise.

Thematically, the story talks a lot about fear keeping people apart, tribalism, and the importance of friendship (no surprise).  There's a lot of social media commentary from the pegasi.  Sunny MIGHT be an alicorn, but it might just be the usual 'rainbow transformation' that occurred in G4.  Flashy, but gone by next appearance.  The crystals ARE magical and reunited, but no clue what they mean, if anything.  No clue why magic went away or if it could happen again.  So I'm fairly sure the movie does give a firm enough foundation to build a story on.

So yeah, I recommend watching it at least once.  Just take it in as its own thing and it's fine.  It's not G4v 2.0.  It's G5v 0.9.  I think the next movie out in spring next year will determine how good G5 might be as its own series.

(If you liked this, let me know.  I've never done a review before, and might do more if folks like it.)