The new My Little Pony: A New Generation movie was a pleasant surprise for fans. Many had their doubts about the stylistic change and the concepts leaked before its release on in September of 2021, but it proved to be an engaging and complex movie that shattered expectations.
There is so much to unpack from the movie that many little details get lost in a first watch, and not just that sometimes eyebrows don't match a pony's hair color or how sometimes a pegasi's wings don't match their coats at the base.
10 Phyllis Cloverleaf Gets A Stylistic Boost
At the very beginning of the movie, Sprout and Hitch are visiting Sunny and foreshadowing how their characters will eventually turn out. Sprout's mother, Phyllis Cloverleaf, is even shown blatantly fearmongering to those around her.
What is more subtle about her though is that in the flashback, she has a simple necklace that has only a single pearl. After the time skip, she has a full pearl string and a pair of pearl earrings, a little hint at just how much she has been profiting off of the fear she's spreading in the past twenty moons.
9 Sprout Uses A More Feminine Model
Sprout is a strangely unique character. He's shown to really value what his mother tells him and buys into it wholesale. He also has an extreme drive to get attention and to be in charge, so much so that he gets a big head, stirs up discord, and rallies the Earth Ponies of Maretime Bay into offensive action.
What's even more interesting though is hidden behind his appearance. He is shorter with a more rounded forehead and muzzle than most of the other stallions, including the background ones that are softer than Hitch, Argyle, Alphabittle, and Toots. The only significant difference he has stylistically over mares is that he has much thicker eyebrows and a more masculine voice, but even that is higher-pitched than the other male speaking roles.
8 The Map Is Significantly Different
Older fans or those with a quick eye might notice something peculiar about the pair of maps that can be seen throughout the movie. Hanging on the wall in Sunny's house, Argyle has an old map framed that shows Equestria as it was during Friendship is Magic. However, when Sunny pulls out her journal and suggests that she and Izzy go to Zephyr Heights, the map looks significantly different.
Even when comparing it to the expanded map during the later stages of the old series, it's hard to place just exactly where A New Generation takes place in the continent and why Twilight Sparkle clearly had a hoof in distributing the crystals to the three pony kinds. Perhaps the series will expound upon the map and make it clear what happened and why it seems that ponies are now stuck to such a small chunk of a formerly massive map.
7 Queen Haven Only Loses Her Composure When She's Worried About Her Kids
Queen Haven spends a lot of her life in the spotlight, especially with Pipp being a social media influencer. On top of that, she's royalty and must keep up appearances for the betterment of her subjects. That gives her a stuck-up, antagonistic sort of vibe on a first gloss over, one that also ends up with her being overdramatic and a bit snooty.
However, there are a few moments where she drops her carefully manicured paparazzi persona, but it only shows up when she is fretting about her children. She has a mild panic on screen when she is warning her kids to save themselves in the few seconds she gets to speak. Then, she breaks out of jail in order to hunt down and ensure her children are safe. When she finds them, she's both panicked and visibly relieved to find them safe and sound.
6 Pipp & Zipp's Wings Disappear Under Their Cloaks
Typically, Zipp has long, sleek wings that have tips going past the base of her tail. Her cloak doesn't go that far back, nor does it go down far enough to suggest she's holding them downward.
Pipp's extremely fluffy wings usually have her holding them differently than the rest of the pegasi. The joint faces down instead of forward, lifting the ends up higher over her back instead of going straight past her tail. However, when she is wearing her cloak disguise, it lays flat on her back. Even though her cloak is bigger than Zipp's, it's still a little strange that they can lay so flat when usually they are so much bouncier. This is all even more strange than the pegasi all keeping the backs of their manes either short or pinned up, despite the fact none of them can fly and thus there's no reason to worry about them getting in the way of their wings.
5 Queen Haven Is Always The First Side Character To Help Other Ponies
Queen Haven really doesn't get enough recognition for how complex her character really is. Most fans get stuck behind her snooty, regal persona that fits in with a more stereotypical celebrity.
However, she is always the first of the background ponies to put others before herself. She even directly states that she's fine lying if it keeps her subjects content and happy, even if that means she has to fake being able to fly for them. She even throws a royal celebration that seems to not limit who can attend, considering how packed the room is. When Sprout is attacking in Sprouticus Maximus, she's the first one to step forward and state that they are not willing to fight, and she's shown actively saving Alphabittle when all other ponies were trying to save themselves. Then finally, she is the first one to step up to offer a hoof of friendship and fix the frame of Sunny's broken photograph after her speech.
4 All Ponies Have Hearts On The Bottom Of All Their Hooves
The fact of the matter is that ponies have always been extremely marketable, and therefore their shows have to reflect something that can be sold to kids. Hasbro loves to put little things on the bottom of their hooves in their toys, but usually it's only one heart here and there.
In A New Generation, every single one of their hooves have perfect heart shapes on them and make perfect heart prints. What is unbelievably shocking and takes multiple watches to confirm is that this is not limited to only mares. Even the stallions have hearts on all of their hooves, which is just adorable and a subtle way to unify all of them.
3 Unicorns Have A Lot More Subtlety To Them Than Might First Be Evident
All of the unicorns outside of Izzy have dulled colors for their coats, manes, and tails. This is even vaguely commented on by the rest of the cast. All of them have crystalline white horns too, which is not mentioned despite the fact that Izzy made all of their fake horns brightly colored. After the return of their magic, all of their colors brighten up to match the vibrancy Izzy has, and it appears that at least some of the horns take on their coat colors as well.
Additionally, not one of them has the base of their horn exposed. They are all covered by hats or their manes which is probably to cover up any strange blending that might happen with the significant color differences before their magic comes back.
2 Friendship Is Magic Cameos Pop Up More Than It Seems
While there are some obvious cameos such as Friendship is Magic's mane six in the introduction, Sunny's figurines, her buttons on her bag, and the sticky notes and flags with their cutie marks around her house, there are more subtle cameos around the place too. such as a DaVinci style diagram of Twilight Sparkle and a painting of Starswirl the Bearded.
These include a DaVinci style diagram of Twilight Sparkle, a hidden painting of Starswirl the Bearded, and Grogar's Bell. There is also a picture of Twilight Sparkle styled like her stained glass window in the pile of pictures Sunny scoots out of the way when realizing there is a third crystal, as well as a depiction of Celestia and Luna in their hyper-stylized look, except that one has different colors than in the original.
1 The Shining Rainbow Hoofprints At The End Are Only Left Behind By The Earth Filly
At the very end of the movie, Sunny has brought together the three pony breeds and everyone seems to be getting along. The whole movie ends with three children, one of each breed, playing and running off with the little Earth filly shouting at them not to use their magic that time.
There is then a cute stylistic choice to have some glowing heart hoofprints left behind for the camera to focus on just before the credits roll However, an eagle eye will note that it was only the Earth filly who left them. This has some fans hoping that Earth Ponies also have a form of magic that will get explored once the series launches in 2022 and not just be a little stylistic note to end a movie with.