My Little Pony: The Movie is a 2017 animated musical fantasy film based on the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which itself is part of the fourth incarnation of Hasbro's My Little Pony toyline and franchise. The film was directed by Jayson Thiessen, written by Meghan McCarthy, Michael Vogel (all three of whom are Friendship is Magic veterans), Joe Ballarini, and Rita Hsiao, and produced by Stephen Davis, Brian Goldner, Marcia Gwendolyn Jones, and Haven Alexander. The plot follows the alicorn Twilight Sparkle, her five pony friends – collectively known as the "Mane 6" – and her dragon friend Spike embarking on a quest to save their home of Equestria from an evil conqueror while gaining new friends along the way. The film stars the show's regular voice cast of Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman, Tabitha St. Germain, Cathy Weseluck, and Nicole Oliver reprising their roles and the guest voices of Emily Blunt, Kristin Chenoweth, Liev Schreiber, Michael Peña, Sia, Taye Diggs, Uzo Aduba and Zoe Saldana as new characters.
The film was produced by Hasbro's Allspark Pictures and animated at DHX Media's DHX Studios Vancouver, using traditional animation created with Toon Boom Harmony. It premiered in New York City on September 24, 2017, and was released on October 6, 2017 in the United States by Lionsgate, and in Canada by Entertainment One Films (which had Canadian rights to Lionsgate titles at the time).
Plot[]
The ponies of Equestria prepare for their first Friendship Festival, overseen by Princess Twilight Sparkle in Canterlot. The festivities are interrupted by an army of monsters commanded by the unicorn Tempest Shadow, who is ordered by her superior, the Storm King, to capture Equestria's princesses and empower his mystical staff with their magic in exchange for restoring her broken horn. Tempest uses magical orbs to petrify the princesses except for Twilight, who escapes with her six friends: Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and the dragon Spike.
Following incomplete instructions from Princess Celestia, Twilight's group sets out to find the "queen of the hippo" beyond Equestria. They arrive at the desert city of Klugetown, where they accept an offer by a con artist feline named Capper to escort them to the "hippos", unaware as he intends to sell them to settle a debt. As Capper begins to develop a genuine friendship with them, Twilight discovers an atlas that reveals the "hippos" to be hippogriffs, exposing Capper's treachery. When Tempest arrives in pursuit of Twilight, the group evades her aboard a delivery airship run by birdlike pirates, whom Rainbow Dash persuades to take them to the hippogriffs' kingdom on Mount Aris. However, she accidentally gives their location away to Tempest with a Sonic Rainboom, forcing the group to reach Mount Aris in a makeshift hot air balloon.
While exploring the hippogriffs' deserted kingdom, Twilight's group is led by the seapony Princess Skystar to her home of Seaquestria in an underwater cavern. Skystar reveals her kind to be the hippogriffs, transformed by a magic pearl used by her mother, Queen Novo, to hide from the Storm King. When Novo denies them the pearl to use against the Storm King, Twilight – frustrated by her friends' mistakes throughout the journey – desperately attempts to steal it while letting her friends unknowingly distract the seaponies. Her plan backfires when she triggers an alarm shortly after Pinkie persuades Novo to give them the pearl, resulting in the entire group getting banished to the surface. After arguing with her friends for her actions, a remorseful Twilight is kidnapped by Tempest, who gains Twilight's sympathy upon revealing how the loss of her horn caused her own friends to shun her for her volatile magic.
Twilight's friends return to Canterlot to rescue her with the help of Capper, the pirates, and Skystar, who have followed them after being inspired by their friendship. Using the princesses' magic imbued into his staff, the Storm King conjures a storm against the group and betrays Tempest. Twilight saves Tempest and reconciles with her friends, who help her take the staff and end the storm. The Storm King hurls a magical orb at the group to petrify them, but Tempest jumps in his way, turning them both into stone. The Storm King falls and shatters, while the group uses the staff to revive Tempest, who returns the stolen magic to restore the princesses and repair the city. The Friendship Festival resumes with the ponies celebrating alongside everyone Twilight's group encountered on their adventure. Encouraged by Twilight, Tempest joins in by producing a fireworks display with her broken horn, and accepts the group's friendship.