If you've never read the book, the movie might come across as new and heartwarming. I read this book almost every night, and what's just a fun story about a pony pretending to be a unicorn and being famous, the movie takes that and is fully bloated of a new plot of her desperately wanting to be in a band and be a singer that's known well, which takes away from the aspect that she just wanted to be a unicorn in the book for the feel of being a unicorn. So my kids didn't like it, and I hate how every kids movie has to be a musical of some sort, it just feels overdone, and the movie comes across as a weird merge of 70s Hollywood with modern technology, which just makes the film odd to me. Thelma tries way too hard to be trendy and aim at kids. And the voice actress does a tremendous job, I guess it just feels off from what the book shows you, it just doesn't feel like Thelma.

That was cute. Love the animation style and the quality which reminds me of many other Netflix's Animation Original Movies. A great number of characters and I love the world building aspect of this movie.

For me, Otis was the most likeable due to his few beautiful dialogues with Thelma. But Thelma was undeniably the main character of this movie and can relate to many people as she was feeling insecure despite being so talented.

The storyline and progression itself were cute and very family oriented. The mood setup was bright and very welcoming to watch. Few references to the LGBTQ+ community, which were cute and appreciated.

Great original songs and kudos to the voice casts for their compelling performances. Recommended.

As a huge fan of Aaron Blabey's original books it keeps the core messaging of "be yourself" but changes how Thelma is revealed which is no where near as touching or meaningful as the original story.

The extra characters are funny and the secondary story of the rival singer feel like filler vs actually being a pivotal plot point which again takes away from the power of the core message the books conveyed perfectly.

On the whole is modern and bright and my kids loved it so it gets a pass for the underlying "just be yourself" but I would have preferred it more aligned to the books.

Alas Aaron Blabey signed off so it is what it is.