Movie Thoughts: Mia and Me: The Hero of Centopia (2022)

• Released: May 26, 2022
  
• Directed by: Adam Gunn
  
• Running time: 1 h 25 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

Mia teams up with Mo, Yuko, Onchao, Phuddle and their new allies Iko and Stormy to try and put a stop to the evil creature Toxor, who has escaped and is threatening to turn all of Centopia into a decaying wasteland.

My Thoughts

Finally getting to this one! I've been anticipating this movie for a while, however it has as of writing this been almost a year since this movie's first release and there has still been no English (or Dutch) release of the movie, with as far as I know it only being released in Germany and maybe a few other regions of which I do not speak the language. I first wanted to wait it out until it got an English or Dutch release, but after nearly a year I'm done waiting, so I got the German DVD instead. Luckily I speak all three languages, so it's not a problem for me. I just usually try to watch things in English, and Dutch is just my easiest go-to language because it's my first language. But German works, too! Anyways, let's dive in.

For a slightly more elaborate plot synopsis: Mia and her grandfather are visiting the house she used to live in as a kid before her parent's death. They clean it up, but soon enough Mia is called to Centopia where she unites with her old friends as well as a new elf called Iko. He is from the Lotus Isle, and recently on his island there was an outbreak of the old villain Toxor, who has a decaying breath that can turn plant-life into molding bulges and other creatures such as fairies and unicorns into his dark minions. Mia figures out that in order to stop Toxor they will need three magical stones, including the blue one on her bracelet. She meets up with the Storm Unicorn named Stormy, and she and her friends soon set off on a journey to the Lotus Isle to put a stop to Toxor. During all of this Mia will have to follow the oracle and also discover a deeper truth about herself and her late parents.

Okay, so despite anticipating this movie I knew better than to truly hype it up for myself and expect it to be perfect. Mia and Me is a fun show and it is good, but never really great and it does have its lesser moments and characters. The movie is pretty much of the same quality as you'd expect from the show, to be honest. It's pretty good, that's what I'd call it. I do like the slightly bigger story, lore and cast we do have this time around, it does make things feel more epic. But this isn't anything much better (or worse) than the usual show episode, just a lot longer.

Which is fine, to be honest! I just don't have that much to say about the film other than that there's some interesting lore tidbits regarding Mia and her parents (not going to spoil it here). Story-wise it's a very basic quest story where friends unite against an enemy, and of course it has an arc of Mia doubting herself and eventually overcoming that. I will spoil that (as anyone can probably figure out), the titular Hero of Centopia is of course Mia. 

It's also nice to see that Toxor got a redemption arc. He's definitely a bad guy throughout the movie but even then he's not that awful compared to some of the other villains we've seen. And there's already a few scenes early on hinting that his heart isn't completely into being a villain, plus he does have some fun interactions with his minion Glitch whom he eventually befriends. It's not an amazing or really unique redemption arc or anything, but it's also far from poorly-written. I just wish that Toxor's redeemed design didn't have those scary giant anime eyes, honestly I preferred his design back when he was evil and didn't have those. 

The animation of the movie also isn't really all that much better than in the series. Granted, it is better than season 1, which has a slightly different look animation-wise from the other seasons. But the movie doesn't really stand out that much animation wise. Heck, I looked up some clips from season four and they barely look different than the movie. I think the only things the movie really upped visual-wise is the amount of detail and variation in the landscapes and settings, and the effects of stuff like water and sparkles. Those do look a tad better from the show. The lighting is also slightly more cinematic, but aside from that it's not all that distinct from the TV series.

Surprisingly, however, the hair textures strangely look worse in this movie than in the show? Like they gave Phuddle fur, which looks good, but the hair of the elves looks quite a bit cheaper and even in the early TV show seasons the hair looked better than here (and in season four, seemingly). Before they looked like legit hair textures, and in this movie and the season four clips I've seen they have a far less realistic and more clay-like texture to them. Which just feels off, I genuinely wish they'd improved on this because it looks a bit off.

The movie also does have a lot of characters to balance, however I think it does it fairly well. Most of the movie focuses on Mia, Iko, Onchao, Stormy and to a lesser extent Phuddle as they go on their journey, however Yuko and Mo also have their own subplot and Raynor and Mayla also have a decent amount of screentime. The only characters I feel didn't get a lot of use were Onchao and Phuddle. Phuddle is mostly there for generic comic relief, but one of his fuck-up inventions does end up saving the day so he's still plot-relevant to an extent. Onchao meanwhile is just...kind of there. Like he does go on the mission because he's one of the signature characters of the show, arguably even more than Mo or Yuko, but he doesn't really do much? Sure, he's present, but in the story he serves little to no purpose other than to go along for the mission. So like, I get why they put him there (it'd be weird to have an adventure in Centopia without him, of course), but at the same time I wish they utilized him more. Maybe there could've been some special connection between him and Stormy, since they're both winged unicorns (a rarity)? I don't know.

To address the horse in the room...yeah, Stormy. Honestly I don't vibe much with his execution. Iko was also a new addition to the cast, but he wasn't obnoxious and had a pretty good arc and chemistry with Mia (though thankfully no rushed romance or antying). Stormy is just...mostly annoying. I also don't know why they have him in his large horse form in all of the posters when he's mostly the size of a tiny pony in the movie. His deal is that he feels lonely and is insecure about himself, which causes him to physically shrink down. An okay concept, but in execution he was just mostly annoying and a lot of big talk with no delivery. 

Speaking of which...yeah, he talks. Which just goes against the lore of Centopia as far as I know. It has been previously established that the unicorns just speak their own language (neighing and all), one which cannot really be learned or understood by anyone except for Mia. The only exception of them being actually able to talk is on that rainbow island inhabited by Flare they visited a few times in the show.

But now this movie basically throw all that out the window to establish that Unicorn is just a language that can be learned and all unicorns can learn to speak any language. Which goes against canon and also just makes everyone's connection to Onchao and the unicorns in the show a bit flimsy. Can you imagine the amount of trouble they could've saved in so many situations if even only a few of the unicorns bothered to learn to speak Elf? Or vice versa, a few other elves than Mia learn to speak Unicorn? Get a little interpreter system set up between the two races since they're so bound to one another. 

So, yeah, not a fan of this turn of events. Especially when they could've easily given another reason why Stormy can talk (just have it be magic. It's a magic land. Nobody bats an eye if it's magic). It also kind of makes Mia's special ability to talk to unicorns a lot less unique knowing that they very well could just learn to speak Elf if they bothered to.

Overall I'd still say this is a good movie, though. The movie does end pretty bitter-sweetly with it being heavily implied that Mia can never return to Centopia by using her crystal's last magic to travel back home, but the final shot also implies that it does still work. And there's a season four so, mystery solved, I guess. If this was a true finale I would've been okay with it, though.