I am lodger in a family home and one of the children living there is a five year old girl. Let’s call her Twinkle Bum for the sake of anonymity. She likes the kind of things you would expect a five year old to like, such as colouring in and jumping up and down on my bed when I’m trying to get ready for work in the morning.
One day I noticed a poster for the My Little Pony movie in her bedroom and foolishly said “Hey, I can take you see that when it comes out!”
A well known film critic had implied it was a hot mess of sound, colour, and incomprehensible storylines so I began to wonder if there was any way for me to get out of it. But a promise is a promise and Twinkle Bum was so excited about it so there was no way I could turn her down.
The shocking thing was, I actually really enjoyed it. Whilst the plot was thoroughly predictable for adults, it held up and had a good message behind it. Friendship is important. As is making sure everyone is included. The only way to defeat the bad guys who invaded their land was for all the different animals (Ponies. Cats. Birds. Mer-griffins?!) to work together. With Trump, Brexit, lack of free press in the UK, and a Conservative Government – it was a message that felt very relevant!
The songs were ACE and Twinkle Bum & I danced all the way through the end credits. We sang anything we could remember on the bus back home and then we watched the videos of the song lyrics on YouTube for about another hour later that afternoon.
But one thing that really tickled my pickle was the queer subtext.
Rainbow Dash is probably one of the more well known ponies and the easiest to link to LGBTQ symbolism but I’m actually more interested in Twlight Sparkle. Look at the picture below and you’ll see why.
The photo shows an image of Twilight Sparkle; a purple My Little Pony with wings and a dark blue mane and tail. There are also purple and pink stripes in their hair.
Now as Twilight Sparkle is a purple pony (or unicorn, seeing as they’ve got wings and a horn) with a bisexual coloured mane and tail I’m going to make a bold statement here: this must be a movie with a bi character in the leading role – who is also the protagonist! A rare occurrence in cinema!
Later on in the film the ponies have just fled from the baddies’ clutches yet again and made their escape by hiding on an airship that flies away. This leads to the ponies singing a song which encourages the crew to the free roaming pirates they truly are, rather than the cargo transporters they’ve been forced to be.
But take a look at the lyrics of Time to be Awesome. Here’s a few extracts:
“But there’s a light shining deep inside. Beneath those fears and doubts, so just squash ’em. And let it shine for all the world to see.”
“You’ve no idea how hard it’s been. This dull routine we’ve been forced to do.”
“Don’t let them rob you of who you are. Be awesome, it’s all up to you.”
“I feel the light stirring deep inside. It’s like a tale still yet to be told”
They could easily be singing about how hard it is when you can’t come out and have to keep up the straight facade here. And that your sexuality is special and amazing – and so are you!
Just in case the subtext wasn’t clear enough already, Rainbow Dash gets overexcited and flies in circles around the airship making spirals of rainbows around it.
At the end of the movie, the song by the pony based on Sia (a bisexual singer), who is actually voiced by the songwriter herself, is called ‘Rainbow’. Lyrics here.
The photo shows ‘Songbird Serenade’; the pony based on the singer Sia. They have the same black and white fringe that covers the eyes like Sia does and a multitude of rainbow -coloured hearts on their side.
So this has been a blog post I never thought I’d write! But that’s just one of the many joyous surprises that living with a 5 year old brings. And do I recommend that you watch this film? Well maybe, if you have children in your life or normally love this genre of movie. : )
Some of the songs are so damn catchy. As with Moana I’ll be singing the soundtrack for a long time to come. I’ll definitely take Twinkle Bum to the cinema again in the future but you’ll have to excuse me for now, it’s time to go and be awesome…
