This review was planned to be published two weeks ago, but the lack of reviews I received meant I had to continually hold it back. Now, I'm finally publishing my review for
! This will be no ordinary review; usually, in my reviews, I'm the only person who writes on these reviews. This time, however, I'll be adding in some opinions from a few other
reviews from season 16 onwards. This will also serve as a template for when I review
season five and all future seasons. And on that note, let's get to it!
When the season three finale,
Magical Mystery Cure, made it's initial airing in February 2013, it was met with mixed reception from the fandom; some people liked it, some people hated it, and I'll be sharing my thoughts on the episode in December. A few months later in June, the movie
Equestria Girls premiered in select theaters and was released to DVD in August. Like
Magical Mystery Cure, it was very much marmite; love it or loathe it. Who do I side with?
My Little Pony Equestria Girls
Written by Meghan McCarthy
Produced by Sarah Wall and Devon Cody
Directed by Jayson Thiessen
In all honesty, I really enjoyed the film. Meghan McCarthy can do no wrong when it comes to being headwriter for
My Little Pony, very much like Andrew Brenner with
Thomas and Friends. Ever since Lauren Faust left the show, Meghan and the rest of the writing staff have given us some of the best episodes we've ever since from the show such as
Too Many Pinkie Pies,
Rarity Takes Manehattan,
Keep Calm and Flutter On,
Equestria Games, and of course,
Twilight's Kingdom. As for
Equestria Girls, let's see...
THE SYNOPSIS
The basic plot is that Twilight's crown is stolen by a former student of Princess Celestia, Sunset Shimmer, who escapes through a mirror with the crown. Twilight is sent to go to the other world and is joined by Spike, where he becomes a dog and she becomes a human. In this other world (Canterlot High), Twilight encounters human students and staff resembling the ponies back in Equestria, including the rest of the Mane Six.
Twilight and Spike discover that the Human Five have been split up, apparently caused by Sunset Shimmer some time before Twilight's arrival. As Fluttershy found the crown and gave it to Principal Celestia, mistaken as a prop for the upcoming Fall Formal, Twilight runs for Fall Formal Princess against Sunset, who sabotages her campaign by uploading a video meant to humiliate and by wrecking the decorations in the gymnasium. However, Twilight's new friends, including Sunset's ex-boyfriend Flash Sentry, help in countering Sunset's devious ploys and Twilight's popularity to the students is secured.
By a landslide, Twilight is the winner, but Sunset, refusing to admit defeat, steals her crown and turns into a demonic creature, enslaving the rest of the student body to invade Equestria. Twilight's new friends stop her by evoking the crown's magic which gives them pony-like attributes and the magic of friendship reverts Sunset back to normal, breaking her spell. After a brief celebration at the formal, Twilight and Spike return to Equestria reuniting with their friends, while Sunset stays behind being looked after by the Human Five.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
To start off with the positives,
Equestria Girls has character development, and a lot of it goes to Twilight Sparkle. She's very self-conscious about being a princess, and has reluctance when it comes to wearing her crown. Upon entering the human world, she struggles to adapt to her human form, but soon enough she gets used to it. By the end of the film, she learns to accept herself for who she is; a princess of Equestria.
And speaking of Twilight, you'll rarely see her without Spike. Very much like Annie and Clarabel are to Thomas, Spike is there for Twilight when she needs support, almost like a guardian angel of sorts. Meghan showed that in the most brilliant way possible, and I bet she really understands Spike very well.
I love Sunset Shimmer; she is easily the best villain in all of
My Little Pony history, Queen Chrysalis coming in a close second. Sunset's design is brilliant, both pony and human, and it's a bit ironic that her voice actress Rebecca Shoichet also does Twilight's singing voice. However, I have a slight qualm with her wearing a skirt, which I'll cover later.
Here, Snips and Snails play the roles of Sunset's bumbling henchmen. I don't mind their roles, but personally, I think her cronies should be Trixie and Lightning Dust. After all, both were opposed to at least one member of the Mane Six, right? On the other hoof, Sunset's relationship with Snips and Snails almost reminds me of Diesel 10's with Splatter and Dodge from
Thomas and the Magic Railroad; both involve magic, portals to other worlds, a villain with two bungling henchmen, and six major characters from the original show. In fact, I may do a follow-up blog comparing the two films in the future.
I may get a load of stick for it, but Flash Sentry is easily my favorite male character in the franchise overall, Spike coming in a close second. Like Sunset, I also like Flash's design, and I like how he's one of few to support Twilight throughout the course of the film; he's patient, understanding, and he cares for her. Rather than go into detail about the hate he gets from the fandom, just
read this blog post and you'll understand why.
Onto the songs, all of them are fantastic. The remix of the theme song for the movie's intro was pretty well done (nice transitions, by the way!) It almost reminds me of the intros in Thomas' CGI specials from
Hero of the Rails onward.
This Strange World is Twilight's first encounter with the humans at Canterlot High. The intro is very reminiscent to Carly Rae Jepsen's
Call Me Maybe, and the scene with Twilight in the boy's restroom almost makes you want to laugh out loud.
The
Cafeteria Song has got to be my favorite song in any
My Little Pony production. With the intro beat very similar to
We Will Rock You by Queen, I find myself listening to it many times and it never gets old. Plus, Flash's guitar bit is kickass.
Time to Come Together shows how much the various student groups of Canterlot High have put aside their differences to repair the damage done to the Fall Formal at the gymnasium, and get things back on track once again.
This is Our Big Night has the Human Six (and Spike) preparing for the Fall Formal. Rarity putting Rainbow Dash in a girly costume was pretty humorous, as was Spike with a mustache and
Twilight doing a crazy dance, which is a callback to
Sweet and Elite, also written by Meghan McCarthy.
The end credit song,
A Friend for Life by Jerrica Santos, is a ballad to Twilight and her five pony friends. As an Easter Egg, we get human Derpy dancing with a muffin in her hands.
Like every other movie,
Equestria Girls does have its share of problems. One of them, according to fans, is that Twilight could've asked Principal Celestia to give her back her crown. Why would she have done that? Had she done so, the movie would've ended too soon, and Twilight would've learned nothing. Plus, would Principal Celestia be convinced that the crown was Twilight's? I hardly think so!
That was barely a plothole at all in my opinion, but there are bigger problems; among them being Sunset smashing the portal with a sledgehammer. Yes, it might have gone through and probably bonked somepony on the nose, but I believe she meant that she was smashing
AROUND the portal,
NOT the actual portal itself. Then again, Sunset was bluffing about smashing the portal, so what's the point of complaining about that? She's not stupid, you know!
In
Magical Mystery Cure, Twilight was able to fly perfectly, but in the film, she has trouble flying. Again, why bother complaining? It had
NOTHING to do with the main plot! That is why I will not be discussing the Cutie Mark Crusaders in high school, Rainbow Dash not knowing what hands are, and Twilight being voted Fall Formal Princess despite not being a student. All these points did not have any contribution to the main plot; the main plot was Twilight trying to retrieve her crown and return to Equestria, but she needed help on the way.
Which brings me onto the balance of the worlds; Sunset said she was going to use her zombified army to invade Equestria, whilst earlier in the film, Princess Celestia said that having the entire Mane Six go would upset the balance. Put it this way; if the Mane Six had gone with Twilight and Spike, how would their human counterparts have reacted? Horrified, I imagine. (This was referenced to in
Rainbow Rocks, by the way.) Had Sunset gone through with her plan, Equestria would most likely be in ruins.
In all honesty, they're just minor niggles that have absolutely no connection to the main plot, and the fans are complaining and over-analyzing for no reason at all. The biggest problem I have has nothing to do with the movie itself, but how the fandom react to it.
Magical Mystery Cure aired in February 2013, and the next episode,
Princess Twilight Sparkle, aired in November of the same year - that's a nine month gap between two episodes! (By contrast, the gap between
Twilight's Kingdom and
The Cutie Map was eleven months,
The Best Night Ever and
The Return of Harmony was four months, and
A Canterlot Wedding and
The Crystal Empire was seven months.) My theory here is that
Equestria Girls was produced after season three was done, and season four was held back while the movie was being made, which could explain the gap - same thing with
Rainbow Rocks. I don't know why they get so much stick; at least be thankful we had something
My Little Pony related in between seasons, and besides, would you rather have both movies or bad episodes like
Putting Your Hoof Down or
Dragon Quest? I know what I'd pick...
Plotholes and fandom issues aside, I'd like to talk about the designs of the human ponies. I don't like how Rainbow Dash and Applejack got skirts; I mean, have you seen a farm girl or an athletic girl wearing skirts? I haven't. I would give Applejack jeans and Rainbow Dash track shorts. That sounds much more fitting in my opinion.
I have no qualms with the designs for Rarity and Fluttershy; they suit their human counterparts perfectly.
Pinkie Pie and Twilight, on the over hoof, I imagine could be a little more neutral. I can understand Twilight dressed like a schoolgirl, given that she's a bookworm, but I'd like to see Pinkie with shorts.
Getting back to Sunset's human design, I like her black jacket as it makes her look and act tough, but why a skirt? To me, a skirt is the
LAST thing a tough girl would want to wear. Maybe if she had jeans, it wouldn't be a problem. With Flash's design, again, I have no qualms with at all.
Spike as a dog was a bit odd in my opinion; granted, dogs can be a man's best friend, and likewise, a baby dragon can be a pony's best friend, but Spike the dog having a crush on Rarity the human... do I need to mention why it would reek of zoophilia? Then again, that's probably nitpicking on my part.
Principal Celestia's design looks pretty cool; I like how her shoes are similar to her pony counterpart's shoes, and her clothes match color wise. Vice-Principal Luna's design was a bit meh to me; maybe something more similar to her sister's?
Cheerilee's design was pretty surprising; her skin and hair/mane colors were swapped around. Why is that? Despite this, her attire was pretty good too.
Snips and Snails' designs were fairly nice as well. But for others like the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Big Macintosh, Trixie, Photo Finish, Vinyl Scratch, Diamond Tiara, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, etc., let's say that some designs were fitting, others were not, and some were in between.
I'm actually surprised that some designs were not based on pre-existing background ponies. I sort of like this as it gives fans an idea to speculate what their pony counterparts could be like. For instance, I imagine
Watermelody as a Pegasus and
Mystery Mint a unicorn. On a sidenote, the drummer's (voiced by Peter New) reaction to Spike the dog talking gave me a good chuckle (
"Did that dog just talk?").
The animation is just brilliant and amazing like it always has been for the actual show, along with the music and voice acting. As always, the best voice actress there was Tara Strong; she really brings life to our favorite adorkable princess, as do Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman, Tabitha St. Germain, Cathy Weseluck, et al with their respective characters. Like I said about Rebecca Shoichet as Sunset Shimmer, Vincent Tong pulls a great performance as Flash Sentry; I hope we hear (and see) more of him in season five!
Oh, and on a slight tangent, Twilight's scream when she realized she wasn't a pony anymore gave me chills when I first heard it.
FANBASE REACTION
ChipmunkRaccoon2 (DeviantArt)
It was pretty funny seeing Pinkie Pie go into a ball, and then we hear the classic Transformers transforming sound effect when she goes back to normal. ^^
It was nice seeing the names of some of the cast of the film during the opening credits.
Also nice hearing a little bit of Sunset Shimmer's history before Twilight goes to the other world to retrieve her crown, with Spike tagging along.
"Strange New World" is a good musical number.
Noticed a bit of a reference to the first episode of MLP FIM where the other world's Fluttershy whimpers while trying to introduce herself to Twilight.
Another reference I noticed was of course the Grand Galloping Gala.
Interesting interaction between Twilight and human AJ and Pinkie, particularly the stuff Pinkie does in the background.
My only complaint is the fact that they made human Snips and Snails Sunset's "minions". Doesn't seem right to me for some reason.
I DO like that Rarity finds Spike as a dog kinda cute. I figure he deserves it.
Nice that Twilight was able to get the five back together.
Nice Flash SentryxTwilight Sparkle moments, human or otherwise.
The Cafeteria song is very catchy, as well as "This is Our Big Night".
Human Pinkie summarizing that Twilight is from another world is hilarious, particularly the reactions from the others-
Applejack: Wait a minute! Lemme get this straight. You're a pony?
Rarity: You're a Princess?
Fluttershy: You're from another world?
Then...
Rainbow Dash: That... Is... AWESOME!!
The final battle against Sunset Shimmer was definitely something to see, for me. Seeing Sunset turning into a raging she-demon, and her voice in that form suits her. At least they were able to change her back and save Equestria from that evil.
In the end, it was quite amusing seeing the other Ponies teasing Twilight about having a possible crush on Flash Sentry, and Pinkie summarizing what went on.
Twilight Sparkle: How'd you know that?
Pinkie Pie: Just a hunch. (smiles)
Lastly, for me, it's interesting that they got Rebecca Shoichet, the singing voice for Twilight Sparkle, to be the voice of Sunset Shimmer. It'll be nice seeing a much nicer Sunset this time around.
Rachel (TobyandMavisforever on Deviantart)
Twilight Sparkle is having trouble trying to be in her role as princess. Things turn for the worst when Princess Celestia's Ex. Student, Sunset Shimmer, shows up and steals the element of magic. Twilight has to retrieve her crown with Spike, but the other main 6 girls remain in Equestria. However, Twilight runs into human counterparts of her friends and together, they unite against Sunset to try and save the school from sudden doom.
Ok, this movie, when it 1st came out, left a pretty good impression on me. The girls were quite a bit of fun to watch in both the pony world and the human world, but sometimes the resemblance to the episodes of the show were like "Huh, Huh? Do you get it? It's just like when it happened the other time." And it came sometimes be annoying. And Flash sadly didn't get enough screen time. (That doesn't stop me from shipping TwilSentry, though.) But, I was satisfied by the movie.
8/10
James Riddle (jriddle41/sodormatchmaker on DeviantArt)
I thought it was a rather fun little movie. Taking the gang from Friendship is Magic and doing a little moment of them being in human forms. And we also got to meet some new faces such as Sunset Shimmer, the main antagonist, and Flash Sentry, a love interest for Twilight. There were also some clever references to the show such as Twilight's meeting with human Fluttershy, the Cutiemark Crusaders' music video, Twilight's silly dance from Sweet and Elite, and many other things. Along with the references, we got some cameos from some fan favorites of the show such as Vinyl Scratch, Trixie (who likes peanut butter crackers), and Derpy, whom was also in the end credits dancing with a muffin in her hands. Silly Derpy.
But there were also some parts of the movie that could have been better. One of them is giving Flash Sentry some more character and screen time. He would just pop up when needed and not be seen again till later. I didn't like that they didn't give him a larger role in that movie. That might be why some fans don't like him. Another part I didn't like was how Snips and Snails were bad guys in the film. I could have seen Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon as Sunset Shimmer's helpers, but why these two? I know I already mentioned it earlier, but it still bothers me.
But in all honesty, I think Megan and the rest of the crew did a fun job at making this movie. And I bet they had fun making it too. So I'll give this movie 9/10. And I can't wait to see how their sequel Equestria Girls Rainbow Rocks turns out. Hopefully it'll give Flash some more character so people won't call him bland Gary Stu. Not only that, but we'll see how Sunset Shimmer tries to redeem herself for her mistakes.
This has been a review by James.
Cameron Stevens (LGee14 on DeviantArt)
First up, it started when James (sodormatchmaker) showed me a link while I was at college two year ago, at first I was a bit uncomfortable at the idea at first, but I eventually got comfortable with it, so no need to worry about it now.
First off, the thing about Twilight Sparkle going to the human world to recover her stolen crown, I guess it was tough to see her going through it alone.
The only thing that appalled me when she arrived there was how they made Spike as a dog. Why not make him a human too? Just think, we could see some RarityXSpike moments if they’d gone through with it. ;)
But the one thing that made me excited was Rainbow Dash’ first appearance. I absolutely loved it when they made her as beautiful and as awesome as ever. XD
The rainbow hair, the boots and the blue jacket and skin colour on her, she was absolutely enchanting. That was one of the reasons why I fell in love with her.
Also, the parts with Pinkie Pie made me smile too, because of her attire, her happy attitude and the smile and that “breaking the fourth wall” thing. At times I sort of dislike that at most films except for Monty Python and the Holy Grail
. XD
With that said, seeing both Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie and their attires, they actually did a good job on the character designs for both girls, maybe because of the colours and where they’d put the cutie marks.
Now, the fact that they introduced new characters like Flash Sentry into the franchise to make him as Twilight’s former crush, I would seem to think many Twilight fans might be annoyed with that idea.
Also, the second character they introduced, Sunset Shimmer, she was acting like kind of a jerk to me when she held a grudge against Twilight Sparkle. It just seems foolish of her, and that was the reason why I didn’t trust her in the first place because of a bad attitude.
And finally, the part at the final battle was kind of epic as well, seeing as how the Mane Six earned their ponyfied ears and wings, (They look good on Rainbow Dash X3) and defeating Sunset Shimmer, made me cheer seeing as how an antagonist deserves what’s coming to her.
But I’m pretty sure you can argue that she didn’t really deserve that, but for me, she just needed help and some redemption by being hit on the head, because the more likely they’re in pain, the more likely they’re redeem themselves after thinking what they had done. And it’s not supposed to be offensive.
I sort of have to stand well back from that Twilight SparkleXFlash Sentry shipping because a friend of mine Francisco (MK315) mentioned in one of his pics that he never even helped Twilight Sparkle find the crown anyway, so... what’s the point of shipping them together when he did nothing to help her? But I'm not one of those people that deeply hate it, I respect the shipping, but that fact about him that didn't help her never crossed my mind.
And now for the final part: Seeing Twilight Sparkle reunite with her real friends back in Equestria, made me smile, even though I couldn’t think of anything else to say about this emotional moment, but I sure as heck can try, if I can.
So with all of that of this review said, I would give out 7/10, because of the songs, drama, character and background designs.
FINAL VERDICT
Based upon some opinions I have read on DeviantArt, it's very much a film you'd either love to see or won't bother with. I go with the former, as
Equestria Girls was an incredible film in every way possible, and it may have been that I watched it with an open mind. Wonderful animation, voice acting, and soundtrack all work together to make a brilliant movie, and its huge props once again to Meghan McCarthy. Since
Equestria Girls was a good movie, I definitely went to see
Rainbow Rocks in theaters on September 27, and all I can say is that it'll be a movie worth reviewing next month.
8.5 out of 10
Next Month: Equestria Girls 2: Rainbow Rocks
