It has finally arrived, the movie event of the year, well for some anyway. Full disclosure here, we have a seven year old in our household who has been fully invested in the Equestria universe for the past four years and whose far more relevant review is included below. So, back to business. My Little Pony was rebooted in 2010 by Lauren Faust, the brains behind the Power Puff Girls and since that time it has steadily gathered legions of young female fans along with a more niche following of older “bronies”. The TV show, along with this film, is aiming to please them all and largely, it succeeds. We are introduced to a beautifully rendered Equestria, preparing (of course) for a friendship festival, headed by our hero Twilight Sparkle (Tara Strong), the princess of friendship. The preparations are disturbed by the arrival of the fleet of the Storm King (Liev Schrieber), led by the fabulous Tempest Shadow, a new character voiced by the excellent Emily Blunt. The Storm King imprisons the leaders of Equestria in order to gain control of the weather, why he wants to do this is unclear! Our heroes, known to fans as the “Mane Six” must travel beyond Equestria to get help, gathering friends along the way in the form of Capper (voiced by Taye Diggs), a Lando Calrissian style cat character, parrot pirates (try saying that quickly) led by Captain Celaeno (Zoe Saldana) and some hippogriffs and merponies (voiced by Kristin Chenoweth and Uzo Aduba).

 The film doesn’t waste time zipping around locations and all of this is interspersed by some decent musical numbers, the standout being the Bond-esque “Open Up Your Eyes”. The main voice actors do great work as always and comic relief is plentiful mostly thanks to the eternally hyperactive character of Pinkie Pie (Andrea Libman) who proves to be a bit of a savant. You are thrown into it from the start so it may be a bit confusing for the uninitiated but for the young female audience I watched it with it proved to be a hit and there was just enough plotline to keep parents going for the 99 miunute running time. Definitely recommended for your mid-term trips.