All Rise...

Judge David Johnson's Little Pony hates his guts. It's awkward.

Editor's Note

Our review of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Royal Pony Wedding, published September 22nd, 2012, is also available.

The Charge

Those ponies have some big-ass eyes.

The Case

This rebooted version of My Little Pony, a.k.a. Friendship is Magic, simplifies the animation, enlarges the pupils, weaves in a generous amount of social justice into its episodes, and boosts the sugary cuteness to levels high enough to instantly trigger adult onset diabetes.

Five episodes from the 2011 series, are headlined by the eponymous two-parter:

• "Friendship is Magic, Part 1 and 2"
The adventure kicks off with a some exposition, outlining a complex mythology involving rival magic ponies that controlled the moon and the sun, and then one of them turned evil and was banished to the moon. Now, unicorn protagonist Twilight Sparkle finds herself teaming up with some new pony friends to do battle against the evil moon pony. Along the way, she learns important lessons about friendship.

• "Over a Barrel"
Twilight and her friends insert themselves into a contentious political issue, when an indigenous bison tribe battles with pony devils over their land. Not seen: a bison shedding a slow-motion tear.

• "Hearth's Warming Eve"
Twilight and her crew put on a special play detailing the class warfare that gave rise to the kingdom of Equestria.

• "The Last Roundup"
Applejack, the cowgirl pony, sets off to participate in a rodeo and lets the competition get to her head. It takes a pony intervention to get her re-oriented.

Weird show. It's cute and syrupy, which My Little Pony has to be (I guess), but I just don't get the convoluted back story. It's like an Aztec creation myth, just far more complicated. Meanwhile, the Very Important Social Commentary is hilariously ham-fisted. I'm not the target audience, but I don't want my daughter wasting her time with this fluff.

The DVD: 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, Dolby 2.0 stereo, a bonus episode of the new Pound Puppies show, a sing-along, downloadable coloring sheet, and a "Meet the Ponies" featurette.

The Verdict

Guilty. Please don't call the pony version of the ACLU.

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