MyLittlePony Live Action Movie: A Hate Fuelled Rant

Since the initial announcement of the next MLP movie I've been internally losing my mind about it. So, instead I've decided to pour all my thoughts out into a blog post instead of internalizing it all. I will try to keep this as organized as possible, though this blog is more so just me expressing my feelings rather than a well laid-out essay like I usually try to do. So, please be mindful of that before reading this.

I am sick of companies ruining the things I love. It may not seem serious to others and it may appear as a "non-issue" (God I hate that word), but it matters deeply to me. Seeing them milk their assets dry for every dollar they have left hurts so much to watch. I've loved MLP since I could remember, regardless of generation. I have so many memories surrounding it and it was such a core part of my development growing up. It's what inspired me to even bother to start drawing in the first place. Without it I'm not sure where I'd be regarding art. Sometimes I wonder whether I would've even pursued it at all if it wasn't for MLP. I loved listening to low quality videos with the framerate of a rock of Lauren Faust at Brony conventions explaining her process on how she came up with the next generation of MLP. It is genuinely so inspiring to hear her go into such detail. Looking at the original bible pitch and early concept art was amazing too. I can't even begin to imagine how she must've felt when she was forced to leave the show, and I certainly can't imagine how she must feel upon hearing this recent news. If she HAS heard it anyway. 

Upon the debut of MLP G5 I quickly started to get the hint that Hasbro was just not in their right mind. The movie was fine. I don't have much else to comment on other than that. It wasn't impactful and it didn't have you on the edge of your seat, it was just fine. Because it was the very first piece of G5 content to drop I was of course lenient and willing to engage with it further to see where it went. Though after seeing the YouTube series and the Netflix series Make Your Mark I quickly stopped trying altogether. I was honestly convinced that they were just gonna keep pumping out episodes until they were forced to stop, but seeing them announce the cancellation of G5 was extremely surprising. Through an Instagram post of all things as well. Though it was saddening for the artists and Voice Actors who worked on the show, it was the best direction they could've possibly taken. After hearing further news that no new MLP content will be made until 2026-2027 to take the time to come up with new plans, I was even more surprised. I was pleasantly surprised, actually. I was glad to see that Hasbro caught the obvious hint that G5 was not well received and in response were heading back to the drawing board on how they could fix that. I was looking forward to seeing what they'd manage to come up with. So, after seeing posts talking about the recently announced MLP live action movie I didn't believe it. When I first saw it I genuinely thought it was just a hoax or a meme, but upon seeing more and more people reposting that same post and hearing discussions of it, my heart sank. 

I'm really upset, to put it lightly. I've already had a strong dislike towards live action remakes to begin with, but seeing it now happen to something I love on such a core level incites a whole new set of emotions.  I'm disappointed that Hasbro didn't stick to their initial statement on taking time to plan what's next for MLP, I'm upset at seeing one of the things that defined who I am as a person be turned into corporate slop, and I'm furious at the mere idea of the characters I hold so close to my heart soon be assigned celebrity voice casts that sound nothing like them and have their personalities be completely torn apart and destroyed. The most upsetting part is that we don't have a say in it. Not one single person asked for a live action MLP movie. Who on Earth would want that???

This might be an insane opinion but I truly believe they should have ended MLP as a franchise with G4. I wish they continued to make merch, keep releasing the episodes on DVD, keep pitching the show and movies to streaming services, etc. I cannot describe to you all how jarring it feels to walk into the toy section of a store and not see a single MLP toy. You can't resort to buying them online second hand either because all the scalpers have tripled the price of them. I'm not kidding, the other day I went on eBay to try and find a normal brushable Rarity (She's the only one I'm missing out of the Mane 6) and I could not find a single one that was under fifty dollars. It's Rarity. One of the main characters of the show. Why are resellers acting as though she's a once in a lifetime item that is impossible to find anywhere? I've reached a point now where I've had to resort to Aliexpress for my MLP merch which is so embarassing to admit. On a positive note, I am glad to see companies like Miniso taking charge and producing merch. It looks great too. I desperately want to get a RainbowDash and TwilightSparkle plushie from them so I can make them kiss. #Twidash4ever

But yes, this is how I feel. If anyone's reading this please feel free to leave a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts and be able to discuss this with other people. All your opinions and feelings matter.