My Little Pony: A New Generation

image for My Little Pony: A New Generation

Short takes

Not suitable for children under 5 and parental guidance to 8 (scary scenes).

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for My Little Pony: A New Generation
  • a review of My Little Pony: A New Generation completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 1 October 2021.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not suitable due to scary scenes.
Children aged 5-8 Parental guidance recommended due to mild scary scenes.
Children over the age of 8 Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: My Little Pony: A New Generation
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes and scary scenes
Length: 91 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

In the seaside earth-pony town of Maretime Bay, researcher Argyle Starshine (voiced by Michael McKean) teaches his daughter Sunny Starscout (voiced by Vanessa Hudgens) about old Equestria, when earth-ponies, pegasi, and unicorn-ponies lived together in friendship and harmony.  The earth-pony townsfolk, however, believe that unicorn-ponies are earth-pony-eating, brain-zapping monsters.  With the help of the many anti-unicorn products built and sold by Phyllis Cloverleaf (voiced by Elizabeth Perkins), and the protection provided by Sheriff Hitch (voiced by James Marsden) and Deputy Sheriff Sprout (voiced by Ken Jeong), the townsfolk feel safe from the other races of pony.  One day, an unexpected unicorn guest called Izzy Moonbow (voiced by Kimiko Glenn) arrives in Maretime Bay, sending the town into a panic. Izzy and Sunny become fast friends but must escape the town before being captured by the Sheriff.  After discovering that the unicorn-ponies have lost their magic, Sunny leads them on a quest to find their magic and bring the three pony races together once more.  Along the way they befriend Zipp Storm (voiced by Liza Koshy)  a pegasi princess, join forces with Sheriff Hitch, and “borrow” the unicorn and pegasi magic crystals.  Meanwhile, Deputy Sheriff Sprout (and son of Phyllis) dubs himself ruler of the town and builds a machine capable of preventing the unicorns and pegasi from attacking the town.  The crew of ponies must convince the three races to come together in harmony and return their magic before it is too late.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Death of a parent; Friendship.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Sprout attacks Sunny’s lighthouse home with his machine to prevent the ponies from uniting.
  • Izzy is thrown out a window and nearly falls from a great height and the building crumbles leaving the ponies in a pile of rubble - no one is injured.
  • a military-style robot attacks defenceless ponies.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Ponies nearly falling off cliffs or out of second-story buildings.
  • Sprout builds a big machine that is designed to attack the unicorns and pegasi with green gloop - during this sequence Hitch and Zipp try to stop the machine, but are nearly hurt by its moving parts - this may frighten younger children.
  • Unicorns are depicted as evil by the townsfolk - they have sharp teeth and shoot lasers from their horns.
  • While Izzy and Sunny are walking through a canyon, a shadowy figure is seen following them and frightens the ponies - this may scare younger children.
  • Two characters are imprisoned in a (not very scary) dungeon.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Sunny’s dad is implied to have died - this may distress some viewers.
  • Sprout incites an angry mob to help him attack the ponies - this may distress younger viewers.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • None noted.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • None noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Smartphones
  • Well-known brands with off-brand names (e.g., Amplify/Spotify, Z-Mobile/T-Mobile, etc.)
  • My little Pony.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • The ponies enter a tea room that looks similar to a bar (but with tea).

Coarse language

There is some mild coarse language in this movie, including:

  • “Kick their butts”
  • Stupid.

In a nutshell

My Little Pony: A New Generation is an animated musical movie based on the My Little Pony film and television franchise.The movie has a simple story line, bright and fun characters, and strong themes of friendship, hope, kindness, and respect. Some scary scenes and visual images make it best suited to children over the age of 5.

The main messages from this movie are to stand up for what you believe in; to choose friendship over fear; and to be open and compassionate to people from different backgrounds or who have different beliefs. Much of the story can be seen as a metaphor for racism. 

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Working together as a team.
  • Getting along with others (despite differences).

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Sprout becomes a militaristic dictator and incites an angry mob to attack the ponies - he does to face any consequences at the end of the movie.
  • Critical consumption of media and messages from people - Phyllis sells products by ensuring the town are fearful of others.