My Little Pony: the Movie

Pony fans can rejoice, as this My Little Pony movie is a good one. Indeed, this feature-length adventure that sees Princess Twilight Sparkle (voiced by Tara Strong) and her fellow "alicorns" (unicorn-winged horse-pony cross) go in search of help to fight off the invading Storm King and Tempest Shadow (Liev Schreiber and Emily Blunt), has most of the same strengths - and weaknesses - of a solid episode of the animated series. Obviously, the film-makers are fully aware of the franchise's passionate grown-up audience (male Pony fans are called "bronies"), so there's a hefty sprinkling of adult-skewed but never smutty jokes. Admittedly, there's nothing quite as droll as the infamous episode where the ponies find a Cultural Revolution-style authoritarian state that represses all individual talent. Even so, this instalment has all the sly wit and fine character development - once again effervescent Pinkie Pie steals the show - that die-hard devotees treasure so much. On the down side, the animators still haven't cracked how to draw convincing looking characters that aren't horse-shaped.