My Little Pony: A New Generation / YMMV

For audience reactions pertaining to G5 as a whole, see My Little Pony (Generation 5).

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Is Sunny an idealistic and passionate crusader for a better world, or a daddy's girl desperate to prove her father wasn't the crazy kook everybody thought he was? Her lowest moment involves her packing away the toys he made her, toys symbolizing a brighter past, implying she no longer believes in his theories and that the townsfolk were right about him all along.
- When Hitch meets pegasi (Zipp and Pipp) and a unicorn (Izzy) for the first time outside Maretime Bay, he is not outright hostile and has a neutral attitude towards them at first. It's because he’s a nice stallion at heart, but he's also a smart stallion, and it's possible he doesn’t want to needlessly provoke pegasi he thinks are violent brutes and unicorns he thinks are super-scary maniacs who grind up earth ponies' hooves and eat them for breakfast. Especially since he's far from home, doesn't have Canterlogic's gadgets to back him up, and the only pony around for miles who he knows is Sunny.
- Did Phyllis Cloverleaf actually care about keeping earth ponies safe with Canterlogic's products (some of which just needed a few design tweaks), or was she a garden variety Corrupt Corporate Executive who just wanted to profit off of their paranoia with whatever junk she could crank out? The anti-mind reading helmet appears to be a solid piece of evidence for the latter — without an actual unicorn to help test it against mind reading magic (or even some piece of ancient literature discussing Anti-Magic defenses), there would be no way to know whether or not it offers any protection whatsoever. On the other hand, Phyllis appeared to sincerely believe the propaganda regarding pegasi and unicorns.
Angst? What Angst?: Pipp is rather quick to drop her angst over her family's reputation being ruined and becoming fugitives and being forced to work with those unwittingly responsible once she starts spending more time with Sunny and the others.
Anvilicious: Racism and misinformation are bad, and you shouldn't believe everything you hear without getting your facts straight. Since it's trying to convey this message to small children, the film doesn't let you forget it, with the Establishing Character Moment of Sunny, Hitch and Sprout setting the lesson up clearly.
Awesome Music:
- As befits a Villain Song, "Danger, Danger" is bombastic and catchy, with a rock backing none of the other songs have.
- Sunny's "I Want" Song "Gonna Be My Day" is an upbeat and optimistic song, as she swears to find a way to unite the three pony races once again, without letting prejudices hold her back.
- "Glowin' Up" demonstrates that, while Pipp's ability to fly is initially fake, her talent in singing is not.
- "Fit Right In" is a very catchy number that allows some of the main cast's vocal talents to really shine.
Canon Fodder: The movie left a lot of questions for fans to play with until the new series.
- What exactly caused the pony tribes to become separate and distrustful of each other and/or the Friendship is Magic era civilization to fall apart and be forgotten?
- What became of the Mane Six, the Young Six, and others/their successors whom would supposedly have tried to keep everyone from becoming separate?
- Where are/what became of the presumed immortal characters like Twilight Sparkle, Celestia, Luna, and Discord? And all the non-pony races for that matter?
- How have the fundamental things that required magic in G4 (e.g. raising/lowering of the sun and moon, cutie marks) continued to happen despite magic disappearing? And if magic disappeared due to the pony tribes becoming divided, why didn't it also disappear when they were divided in Equestria's backstory from "Hearth's Warming Eve"?
- What about the Equestria Girls universe, where time seems to flow slower, meaning it's possible for its characters to still be around? And with the loss of magic in Equestria, what happened to the portal between the two worlds?
- What's going to happen to Sunny now that she's an alicorn? To the pegasi royals now the lies and reasons behind their status have been exposed and no longer apply? To Sprout and Phyllis who have a lot of karma to own up to?
- What have all the other sapient species (who were never given the briefest acknowledgement in the movie) been up to? For those with magical abilities of their own (such as changelings whose shapeshifting and feeding on love would certainly require some form of magic), were they affected by whatever robbed the ponies of their magic?
Captain Obvious Reveal:
- There's a third crystal representing earth ponies. Even if a viewer wasn't already familiar with Friendship is Magic and the importance placed on the unity of the three pony races there, it's fairly obvious just from the fact there's a big hole in the center of the unicorn and pegasi crystals when joined together, making it reasonable to assume there should be something that goes between them. On top of that, the big window displaying the crystals is clearly missing a central panel.
- For those familiar with the previous generation the fact that the crystals would require the magic of friendship to be present between the different tribes to be in order to work is something that could be seen coming a million miles away, considering it's the exact same situation as with the Elements of Harmony.
Draco in Leather Pants: Sprout, despite being an idiotic, cowardly bully with almost no redeeming qualities to speak of, has a surprisingly strong fanbase that treats him as a misunderstood hero.
Fanfic Fuel: What if Hitch managed to drag Sprout along instead of leaving him in charge?
Fan Nickname:
- The pony who got carried off by the Balloon Escape Pack is only called "Balloon Pony" in the credits. The name "Ivory Cedar" started taking off for him in the fandom.
- The unicorn mare reciting poems at the Crystal Teahouse in Bridlewood who was simply called "Beatnik Unicorn" in the credits received the name "Gloomy Sonnet" from fans.
Fan-Preferred Cut Content: A draft of the ending had Sprout confronted by a mob of angry unicorns, and his mother making him apologise and telling him he wasn't a good sheriff. Many fans and the story artist find this much preferable to how their wrongdoing were ultimately glossed over in the movie proper.
Foe Yay Shipping: There are some fans who ship Sprout with one of the mane cast. Especially with Hitch and Sunny.
Hilarious in Hindsight: With his glasses, hair and muttonchop whiskers, Argyle looks a bit like Isaac Asimov. Not only that, but this movie premiered on Netflix on the same day that Foundation (2021) premiered on Apple TV+.
Les Yay: There is quite a bit between Sunny and Izzy — the two have a general lack of personal space around one another and grow the closest during the attempt to bring magic back to Equestria. The reveal that Izzy came to Maretime Bay because of the letter Sunny and her father wrote almost gives them the feeling of being destined to be together.
Love to Hate: Sprout is cowardly, idiotic, and extremely prejudiced towards other pony races, but many simply find him too hilarious to completely detest as an antagonist. Some also consider him a surprisingly complex villain despite being Played for Laughs. It also helps that his Villain Song "Danger, Danger" has been lauded as one of the film's catchier tunes. And also because some just find Sprout rather adorable.
Memetic Mutation: See here.
Moe: All of the Mane Five count in their own way, but out of all of them Izzy seems to get the word "cute" thrown at her the most, thanks to being a Genki Girl who tries to suppress her fear of being lonely.
Older Than They Think: The idea of the different pony races (Earth Ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns) living in separate towns rather than mixed towns was first featured in My Little Pony (G3), as well as in the backstory of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
Realism-Induced Horror: Sprout is objectively below the vileness and threat level of the Big Bads from the previous series and further deemphasized by the movie's Lighter and Softer tone. However, his being an otherwise irrelevant jerk thrust to a position of authority by a prejudiced and fearful population, then fanning up said fear and prejudice to establish a dictatorship and attempt a race war, is so much more grounded and precedented with real-life that he comes off as just as villainous.
Ships That Pass in the Night: There are a handful of fans who ship Izzy and Sprout together despite barely even interacting. The general opinion is that Izzy could be a good influence on Sprout's potential redemption and make him realize non-earth ponies are not all evil.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: A number of popular pairings involve Sunny and/or Hitch, so Sunny/Hitch shippers tend to get into conflicts with other shippers, particularly Sunny/Izzy and Hitch/Pipp shippers.
Special Effects Failure: The film uses prerendered cubemaps to create the illusion of environment reflections in its characters' eyes. However, it always uses the same cubemap of Maretime Bay, creating a very noticeable mismatch during close-ups. This is especially apparent when Zipp and Pipp are confronting each other in the alleyway during their getaway. You can clearly see the low-lying buildings and blue sky.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While the film didn't receive many professional reviews due to its low-profile Netflix launch, those it did get were generally much stronger than those of My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), highlighting a stronger narrative, improved pacing, better focus on characters, higher-quality animation, and comparative friendliness to those outside the fanbase. A New Generation also boasts higher audience scores than the 2017 film on both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb.
Suspiciously Similar Song:
- Sprout's "Danger, Danger" song sounds like a mix of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" as well as the theme song of Futurama, according to YouTube comments. It also uses the riff from The Offspring's "Self-Esteem". It doesn’t help that it has a choreography and green lighting similar to "Be Prepared", as well as one sequence similar to The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army".
- "Glowin' Up" seems to sound a lot like "Can't Stop the Feeling" by Justin Timberlake, pitch and all.
- "Gonna Be My Day" sounds a lot like "Couldn't Be Better" from UglyDolls, both in lyrics and music.
- "Fit Right In" has some similarities to "Welcome to the 60s" from Hairspray, both in music and in theme (both songs involve a character or characters getting a makeover with the help of the singer).
- Parts of "Looking Out For You" sound a lot like "Come Alive" from The Greatest Showman.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Pipp had a potential Break the Haughty becoming an outcast and fugitive, which could have given her major Character Development and made her befriending those responsible more impactful if she had to overcome her reasons to dislike them. But she's so quick to drop her angst that these moments are skipped right over.
- In the campfire scene, Izzy says meeting Sunny and the others is the best thing that ever happened in her life, and she doesn't want it to end. During Sunny's Heroic BSoD, Izzy doesn't get a chance to react to her leaving which could have provided opportunity to give Izzy character depth and add more weight to their reconciliation.
Viewer Gender Confusion: The blue pegasus guard Zoom Zephyrwing is taller than her male partner and has an ambiguous build, making her easily mistaken for a stallion in the pre-release screencaps. Her voice actress (co-writer G.M. Berrow) clarified on Twitter that she is in fact female.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The movie along with the franchise was seen as a reaction to political polarisation as ponies are divided into three species by the time of the series. An early press release describing the as-yet-unnamed main character as an "activist" and advertising themes of "diversity and inclusion" may also have been a contributing factor.

YMMV / My Little Pony: A New Generation

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