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Equestria Girls Review

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(WARNING: MILD SPOILERS AHEAD)

I was originally planning on starting this review of Equestria Girls with a fake intro in which I immediately declare the film to be just as disastrous as many of its detractors have been saying it is since it was first announced, only to quickly pull back and say that I only did that because of my awareness of a number of people online who scout Youtube, message boards, etc. just to hear those words, and while the same thing can be said of those standing on the other end of the spectrum, it’s these people who get on my nerves the most. I ultimately decided not to do that because that idea came at a time in which I was willing to bend over backwards to like this film as part of my personal crusade to counterbalance the bile being thrown all over the place, particularly in the direction of DHX Media and MLP’s writers, and also out of a sense of empathy towards the show staff, including showrunners Meghan McCarthy and Jayson Theissen, who much like us, had EQG dropped on them and find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having a very vocal interaction with the fans, especially McCarthy, and therefore get their fair share of PR duties for the show and receive any criticism being thrown at it, which is a shame, considering how many fans would much rather attack a recognizable person rather than the abstract concept of a corporation like Hasbro. But for the most part the intro got shelved because it would basically be me being facetious.

It’s true that for some people replacing the setting of the show with a high school backdrop and making the characters human will take away an important element of what makes Friendship is Magic so special to them in the first place.  That being said, I didn’t have any particularly strong feelings on Equestria Girls one way or another back when it was first announced. While I admit I did have a less than favorable first impression when I first saw what I thought was concept art for the movie (which ultimately was the actual models for the human characters), I decided I would wait for more information to come out before making a solid opinion. I did have other hangups, such as the potential of scrapping any magical elements from FiM and replacing them with an ordinary high school setting, but there was still no way to know where exactly this was going. For a while, some said it was a spinoff that would air on The Hub simultaneously with the original show, some said it was just a new toy line, others said it was a one-shot DVD movie. If anything, my opinion on the whole thing only got better with time, particularly around the time the second trailer was released (which is good, because I maintain the first one had too much information with no real context). I became legitimately excited and optimistic for this, which worried me because I knew that before going into this movie, I would need a certain adjustment of my expectations so I could be prepared for anything. It could be kickass, it could be trouble, it could totally suck. I had admirably tried to avoid any spoilers before watching it so I could basically go into this only knowing the premise of the story and nothing else (I failed).

After having actually watched the film, the worst thing I can say about it is that it is strictly a fan only affair. While we do more or less get reintroduced to the characters and who they are, the movie isn’t particularly interested in reintroducing the world of MLP to the audience. As a result, certain elements of the story, particularly in regards to how things ultimately get wrapped up at the climax, will feel like they’ve been pulled out of thin air in order to advance the movie. It’s really hard to see anyone getting into MLP because of this movie, although I can’t help but feel that’s kind of the plan. I’m fairly certain there is at least one person at Hasbro who had the temptation to go guns blazing with an idea for an MLP movie and blow it up into a big budget tentpole release, only to watch it bomb at the box office because of a lack of understanding that while MLP is more popular than ever, it is still a niche property in the broader strokes of pop culture, especially a pop culture that is openly hostile to anything that doesn’t actively cater to the ever oh so important 20-something-white-heterosexual-male demographic and what the entertainment industry thinks the like. Instead, Hasbro gave the control of EQG to the staff of the show and gave it a modest, though well covered, release in theaters. The gamble was that the people that were already fans of MLP would be the ones who seek this one out and go see it (most shows I’ve heard about were sold out). The fact that all this happened in an era where everything is homogenized to be appealing to everyone and nostalgic franchises are put through the grinder without much care on quality or staying true to the source material (Transformers, Dr. Seuss, The Smurfs, that upcoming Ninja Turtles movie) is damn close to a miracle.  Make no mistake, Hasbro has been very open about saying that the main reason why EQG exists is to compete with Mattel’s brands like Monster High, so they are essentially cashing in on that market (the EQG dolls leave a lot to be desired), but as far as the media side of things is concerned, it did the smart choice of keeping MLP in the hands of people that would respect it the most. Seriously, sometimes Bronies don’t know how good they have it.

But still, is the movie any good? Well, it brings me back to that previous point I made. If you got into Friendship is Magic precisely because it’s a show about candy colored ponies learning to be better friends in the magical land of Equestria, and also actively opposed to the very concept of the project, I can only sympathize with you because you’re probably not going to like this movie. On the other hand, if you got into the series because of its solid writing, memorable characters, sharp animation, impossibly catchy music, and its very unique charm, you probably have everything you need for a good time. Warts and all, Equestria Girls is a rock solid piece of work that while not quite a movie and more an extra-long special episode of FiM, carries over a lot of what makes the series it’s based on so good, and it’s definitely far from the apocalypse that many bronies were declaring. If “Magical Mystery Cure” was the brony fandom equivalent of Y2K, “Equestria Girls” is December 21, 2012.

(Obligatory plot summary)

The story deals with Twilight Sparkle and friends visiting the Crystal Empire where she’s about to receive lessons on being a princess from her mentors (said role as a princess still being reserved for Season 4). However, everything is cut short when Sunset Shimmer, a former student of Princess Celestia, steals Twilight’s crown and escapes with it through a magic mirror. After a bit of a flimsy explanation for why all the Mane 6 can’t go through the portal, Twilight and Spike step through and find themselves in a human-esque dimension where Twilight is now a teenage girl and Spike is now a dog (for reasons that may or may not have anything to do with marketing). Their search for the crown leads them to a local high school where the crown has been found and is being held as a prize for a local dance called the Princess of the Fall Formal, a competition that has been dominated by Sunset Shimmer for years. Since she can’t just steal it (this is still a children’s show and also the movie would be over to quickly) or outright explain that she’s from a different world, she decides to compete to become princess. To do so, she recruits the help of five other girls who deeply resemble her friends from back home. The big hook of this alternate world is that it features an equivalent to all the ponies from Equestria, who while having the same basic look and personality, are still different people.

(Aaaaand done)

                I get the feeling that one of the biggest concerns regarding EQG was that the transition into a high school setting would cause the series to abandon its fundamentals and no longer feature the kind of stories we’ve become accustomed to this point and instead go for a typical high school kind of story dealing the kind of problems and plotlines that a setting like that would entail. Thankfully, that’s not entirely the case. At first, it does take a while to get used to watching the girls as humans and talking about using human stuff (like phones and computers), but I found myself adjusted fairly quickly to the setting. The meat of the story deals with Twilight not only learning to fit into her new surroundings, but also start learning what it means to become a Princess, and not just the high school kind. If she is to be a good Princess, she must uphold everything she’s learned about friendship, use it to help others and inspire them to stand for those beliefs along with her. All the arbitrary BS of high school social circles doesn’t really matter and shouldn’t stop you from being a friend to someone. This serves as the obligatory moral at the end of the film, and if at least one girl gets to make it through high school believing in this, the film will have done its job well. Yet, she can’t do this alone. Her friends are essentially what allowed her to become a Princess in the first place and she must lean on them to carry on. This helps answer on of the bigger lingering questions at the end of Season 3, namely what role do Twilight’s  friends need to fill now that she’s a Princess. She’s going to need them more than ever just as much as her friends need her.

                As far as the main cast is concerned, the characters haven’t missed a beat. If there’s one thing that the film absolutely needed for it to work, it’s this. There are a couple of small details that separate the human and pony versions of certain characters, but they are all still their very likeable selves. Director Jayson Thiessen doesn’t get enough credit for how well directed the animation is, and it really shows that a lot of the animators had fun working with the human designs. While I wasn’t a fan at first, they really began to grow on me over time, especially when I got to see them in motion. Some still work better than others and some of the background characters look a bit off, but the animation is as sharp as ever, and everything from body language to facial expressions really help the characters come to life. The Mane 6 are all very  cute, which I know is beside the point, and I appreciate a lot of the details that went into their designs, like how Fluttershy’s clothes are appropriately modest or how Rainbow Dash wears her track shorts under her skirt. Some would say there is an argument to be made about whether or not the characters are too sexualized, but I honestly don’t buy it, especially when you compare the animated characters to the actual dolls. As for Spike, I originally loathed the idea of him being a dog because I saw it as a degrading of the character, but this decision ultimately helps Spike continue his role of supporting Twilight and being there for her during her time of need without drawing too much attention to himself. It’s definitely a more convenient approach than, say, having a little brother following Twilight around school all the time. Thankfully, he can also still talk which is good because that means Cathy Weseluck doesn’t get to sit this one out. All in all, he gets to be one of the better parts of the film and I’m thankful for that because if there is a character that needs more loving, it’s definitely Spike.

                On the other hand, it’s with the new characters where the film stumbles a bit. Sunset Shimmer is an adequate villain, Rebecca Shoichet is good in the role as she dives into a mean girl role as she manipulates other to do her bidding, but I still feel there could’ve been more done with her. The plot point about her being a former student of Celestia could’ve had a stronger bearing on her character, but we never get to explore the story behind how she got to where she is or how things went sour between her and Celestia. We just kinda have to accept that she’s just a terrible person. Still, her exit from the film makes me wanna see her come back in some form in the future just to see where her story goes from there.

    There’s also been a lot of talk about Flash Sentry, who appears in the film primarily to give Twilight a potential romantic interest. Now, given how he has very little influence over the overarching plot of the film, could it work without him? Most likely, but given what we got, he’s really not that bad. He’s not particularly deep, he just seems like a really chill dude, but this isn’t his story so it doesn’t really hurt the film. The story’s priorities still revolve around Twilight and friends vs. Sunset Shimmer, with this particular subplot being only a small incident along the way. Flash’s screen time is much shorter than what I had originally anticipated so he definitely doesn’t overstay his welcome. A lot of fans have really overblown whatever damage they believe he does to the film. For one thing, the plot never really commits to the whole romantic interest thing (i.e. they don’t really hook up) and the last scene with Twilight and Flash together in the human world is a punchline. While it’s easy to see why he would be interested in Twilight, the same thing cannot be said the other way around. Flash’s motivation seems to boil down to him thinking that she’s great and wants to go with her to the dance, but Twilight becomes infatuated with him almost instantly, the excuse probably being that he was the first person to be nice to her when she arrives in this world. Ironically, this could’ve worked better if there had been more focus on it. That being said, I don’t hate the idea of giving Twilight, or any other character, a romantic interest as long as the series continues to remember what it’s really about, plus it’s still fun watching Twilight being adorkable and I do like the idea of watching the “geeky guy, hot girl” trope more or less turned the other way around, so I honestly wouldn’t mind if Flash shows up again in the future. According to McCarthy, that’s a big “if”.

                Speaking of which, this is probably my favorite thing written by Meghan McCarthy since at least “Sweet and Elite”. With her new position as story editor and showrunner(?), especially since she finds herself in the not-enviable position of pretty much filling in for both Lauren Faust and Rob Renzetti, and also having some of her episodes marred down by the presence of  Hasbro’s attempts to feature their latest playsets, it’s easy to forget that she’s the writer who gave us “Lesson Zero”, “Green Isn’t Your Color”, “Party of One”, the party cannon, and the changeling battle. She likes to keep the pathos and characters front and center with some good jokes spread around (also, she reeeeeeeeeally likes to write for Pinkie Pie). However, it’s in here where we find a number of small chinks in the movie’s armor, namely in the form of a few small plot points that don’t really go anywhere or aren’t fully explained: Flash being Sunset’s ex-boyfriend, the other girl who tried to compete with Sunset, the effects of using magical artifacts outside of Equestria, and the effects of said artifacts on certain characters.  Thankfully, none of these issues don’t hold the story back from being structurally sound and leading up to a climax which features a scene I have been dying to see in MLP for a long time, which is really kinda makes the entire thing work for me (“She’s got us”).

    For the soundtrack, composers Daniel Ingram and Steffan Andrews decided to strictly stick with a pop aesthetic, which is a departure from the more show-tune style of FiM, but it fits the look and feel of the high school setting well. They’re all pretty good even if they sound a bit similar, and yes, the cafeteria song is just as memorable as everyone has been saying it is. It’s insanely catchy and really makes you wanna get up and dance. And by that I mean “get up and make an ass of yourself”. It’s essentially what every good pop song should do. While it doesn’t have the same pathological response as some songs on the show, it easily ranks among the best in MLP so far.

                The film is chock full of references to the show, namely in the form of background cameos of recurring supporting and background characters and recreating certain gags from the show’s past. It’s fun in and of itself to keep an eye out for whoever may be standing in the background or watching callbacks to certain moments. Here’s where the film steps into the territory of fan-service, a concept that baffles me in regards to how some people react to it. For some, the very idea of doing it is a sign of the creators desperately pandering to the fans just so they can like them, but for me, this only becomes a problem when it gets in the way of the film, such as having the entire flow of the story come to a stop so that the film can make a reference. With the possible exception of two incidents, any character cameos in this are small background bits. There’s more than one way to do fan service right and this is one of them (also, the post-credits reveal isn’t quite the fangasm of watching Thanos for the first time, but it’s dangerously close).

                Any criticism on the film so far for me has been nitpicky at best and uneventful at worst. If there is one thing I truly hated about the film, is Snips and Snails. In the past, these two have been established to bend to the will of anyone with the higher power at any given moment, mainly because they’re kinda dumb like that, but in here they’re straight up villainous. Making matters worse, they don’t get a comeuppance for being associates of Sunsht and they don’t show any signs of remorse for the awful things they do at all. If anything, this makes them just as evil as Sunset. It says a lot how before EQG I didn’t think anything about them, but now they’re building a reputation as the worst characters on the show, which is a shame because Lee Tockar is one of the coolest and most vocal cast members when it comes to interacting with the fandom (speaking of which, can we get more Stephen Magnet, please?).  So all in all, the film is left wanting in the villain department.

                The issues present may hold “Equestria Girls” from being a truly great moment for the franchise, but they don’t hold it back from being a fun and memorable one. The heart of FiM still beats within this movie and I’m truly grateful for this turning out as well as it did, especially when you consider the many ways in which this could’ve all gone terribly wrong. It also says a lot that I wanted to immediately see it again, even if it’s just to look for other possible tidbits I might’ve missed. Once again, DHX and all the staff involved have walked the fine line between compromising their vision for the sake of a marketing plan and staying true to what they believe when it comes to what makes MLP so special to people and have come out winning. I definitely wouldn’t mind a return to this world; to only use all the assets of EQG once feels like kind of a waste, and it does have potential for more stories, particularly in terms of watching the two different worlds collide again (How will this world react to the presence of a portal to magical pony land?).  Part of me feels that too many spoilers before the film took away a lot of the “oomph!” behind certain moments, but that’s my own fault. The lead-up to this movie has been exhausting, so I find it very gratifying to know that I can feel good about enjoying this. It’s moments like this that make me grateful that I call myself and optimist.

 

TL;DR:  IT’S GOOD AND I WANNA SEE MORE

Now that the dust has settled, I figured I should put this out there.
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