Animation Monday: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Season 4 Finale

By Nathan Young on May 12, 2014

If you happy and you know it clap your hooves, clap, clap! Last Saturday, the season four finale of the very popular show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic aired on the Hub Network, and wow!, what a season finale that was! Before I get started on the review, if you have not seen the Hub Network chat with Meghan McCarthy and Tara Strong, you need to watch it below! I asked questions about their favorite episodes, Equestria Girls 2, and people using social media during the new episodes. My questions were very good and if you avoided watching the chat to avoid spoilers, which I understand, watch the video below!

In the two-part finale called Twilight’s Kingdom, Princess Twilight Sparkle is still trying to figure out her role in Equestrian Royalty. Yes, having Princess Twilight come all the way to the Crystal Empire, just to untie and reveal a huge banner, is such a huge responsibility. And this brings Twilight down and somewhat doubting herself. The first song featuring all of the four alicorn princesses called “You’ll Play Your Part” explains Twilight’s situation perfectly. There was a lot of emotion in that song, and I thought Twilight gained some confidence after that song. Great job by Daniel Ingram and Meghan McCarthy for that song!

After the song, we see a new villain in Equestria. The villain is called Lord Tirek and why was that pony walking in a dark alley in the middle of the night, this is something you would never do in the hood. Anyways, Tirek stole the magic of the pony, which results in the cutie mark disappearing and the pony’s eyes losing most of their color. Most of the energy of the pony is also zapped after their magic is stolen. Here is what I mean!

Of course, the two Royal Sisters sees what Tirek has done, and after a great storybook illustration of Tirek, it’s been a long time since we have seen a storybook illustration, My Little Pony needs more of that, the princesses send Discord to stop Tirek, what a mistake that is going to be. I loved all of the different characters Discord was doing, from being Discord Poppins, military general, alicorn princess, breaking the fourth wall walking through a door, being a bird, police officer, harp player, and of course, having a desk of him and Fluttershy behind him. While the Mane 6 was figuring out how to open that chest, Tirek was turning Discord back to evil, and I loved how the writers handled that scene.

The Mane 6 figured out, the items each of them (except Twilight) got throughout season four was when they embraced their elements and made the right choice. So Pinkie Pie plays with Boneless for one last time, and the five items turn into actual keys, except Twilight’s key is missing. Meanwhile, Twilight is summoned back to Canterlot, while Tirek and Discord are on a tirade stealing the magic from the ponies in Equestria. The choice, have Princess Celestia, Luna, and Cadence give their alicorn magic to Princess Twilight! After the theme song again, Princess Twilight gets all of the alicorn magic, and the cutie marks from the other three princesses disappears. Soon the three princesses gets exiled to Tartarus, and Tirek goes to find Princess Twilight. I loved how serious the princesses sounded, good job with the voice acting!

We then see Princess Twilight with magic from four alicorn princesses into one pony body. Lots of sparks happen here, as well as that funny scene of Twilight lowering the moon and raising the sun! And I also loved how Princess Twilight was trying to handle all of that alicorn magic. I also liked how Discord redecorated all of those windows in the castle, sometimes chaos rules! The last two segments of season four was just freaking awesome! Lord Tirek goes and finds Twilight, but not before taking the magic from the rest of the Mane 6, and Discord too. I liked the voice acting of John de Lancie in this part, it was like The Next Generation voice acting days have reappeared in My Little Pony! Poor Fluttershy and her crying.

Lord Tirek finds Princess Twilight, and then we have this epic battle! Sadly, Golden Oak Library or Twilight’s treehouse was blown apart. But we got this epic fight scene which felt like something from Dragonball Z! I give huge kudos to the folks at DHX Media for their animation work. Some of the fight scenes and huge explosions had to take a lot of time to get it right, someone should give DHX Media an action cartoon to work on, they would be awesome! After the epic fight scene, Tirek gives Twilight a choice, the alicorn magic, or her friends, what a bad decision to make right there! Of course, Twilight chooses her friends, and Twilight loses her magic, and Tirek becomes a giant devil horse creature.

Discord gives Twilight a medallion, which is her key, and the Mane 6 goes to open the chest, which contains Rainbow Power, surprise! Well, it was not really a surprise, we knew Rainbow Power was coming for months. We saw the Rainbow Power toys, TV commercials, and the McDonald’s Happy Meal toys. That is the one thing I wish Hasbro would have changed. I would have acted like AMC and The Walking Dead and kept everything about the season finale under wraps, until the episode aired. That includes not releasing the toys until the episodes have aired. I hope season five will feature a season finale where we don’t know what the end result is going to be ahead of time!

The Mane 6 uses their Rainbow Power to defeat Tirek and return the magic to all ponies in Equestria. And the box that contains rainbow power suddenly goes into the ground, and what comes up is a castle for Twilight! (we knew this was coming) Princess Celestia proclaims Princess Twilight Sparkle as the Princess of Friendship, and I liked what Twilight said “As princess, I believe I have the power to spread the magic of friendship across Equestria. That is the role I am meant to have in our world! The role I choose to have!”

I loved seeing each of the Mane 6 and Spike getting their own throne, and seeing the ending montage showing all of the characters we have seen in season four. The last song of season four was “Let the Rainbow Remind You”, and it was a perfect song to end the season with. As the song says, “Let the rainbow remind you, that together we will always shine.” Everybody from the writers, animators, voice talent, producers, directors, storyboarders, support team, and everyone else who works on the show, deserves a huge round of applause for a great season four! (claps two hooves together)

Seriously, this was one of the best season finales of a cartoon I have seen in a very long time! The writers and animators did a wonderful job making this season finale, and the rest of season four. Bringing back Tirek from the past My Little Pony generations was a great move and the writers wrote him in as a great character. The season finale featured some laughter, emotion, lots of action, and a great ending to the season! For the fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic do not worry, there is going to be a season five with 26 episodes. I mean, you knew that was coming, since the show is super popular! The only bad thing, you have to wait until early 2015 for season five.

It’s not a bad thing fans have to wait over six months for season five, all great shows like The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and other shows have these very long gaps in between seasons, personally I can not wait for The Walking Dead to premiere in October! The next thing for the My Little Pony franchise will be My Little Pony: Equestria Girls 2: Rainbow Rocks coming out this Fall, and Equestria Girls has become a great series on its own along with the ponies in Equestria. And from what I have seen, mostly everyone who has worked on season four, is coming back for season five! For the folks who were afraid the show lost the original spirit after Lauren Faust left, don’t worry, this show is in great hooves! Enjoy the repeats until 2015 everypony! And I hope season five will feature a Christmas special episode, since all great animated shows eventually get a Christmas special!

I also wanted to show off one of latest SlideShare presentations called 21 Things Geek And Nerd Characters Do So You Can Be Successful In Your Life. It includes 21 very popular geeky/nerdy characters and some life lessons, and I have included Twilight Sparkle as number 5. I think the lesson of meeting new people makes sense, enjoy!