Special Re-Review: Equestria Girls: Mirror Magic (Magical Movie Night, Part 3) · 4:26pm March 16th
So it is that we come to the third and final act of this special, and what at the very least counts as the black sheep of the lot in the form of "Mirror Magic". Compared to the two previous specials, this one directly focuses on its villain, albeit one we've seen before. But hey, Queen Chrysalis' big return in "To Where and Back Again" seemed to be received quite well all things considered. And Meghan McCarthy demonstrated that reusing villains didn't have to be a death sentence given the way she handled Nightmare Moon and Discord in "Princess Twilight Sparkle". So who was in charge of writing this special? Well, it's half veteran and half brand new writer. The veteran is Dave Polsky, who had last been seen in Season 6 where he only did collabs and seemed to go back to his signature comedic style rather than stick with the writing metamorphisis he'd undergone in Season 4. If memory serves, this would be his last involvement with G4 to any capacity. As for the new writer, it was in the form of Rachel Vine, whose previous writing work included two obscure and not so stellar animated movies, but also included Wander Over Yander which Disney had just cancelled the year before this special hit the airwaves. Dave's collab with a brand new writer for "Newbie Dash" didn't go so well. But maybe with a writer who knew their way around animation that could change? Well, let's find out.
Well, right off the bat, the special aims to tie in with "Dance Magic". But the only connection is through the music video which just happens to be playing at the mall where Juniper Montage is working. She's working at a small movie theater within the mall as an usher. Juniper is still quite bitter with the Rainbooms for ruining her plans back in "Movie Magic" and wants to get revenge on them somehow, to the point where she's willing to slack off on her job. Then, by chance, she comes across a mirror that has been enchanted with Equestrian magic. When she holds it up, it shows her as a movie star, so she decides to purchase the mirror to keep fueling her ego.
We then cut to the Rainbooms at the mall, with Sunset Shimmer writing to Princess Twilight about how things have been rather calm as of late. Yet she runs out of pages in her magic journal before she can write more, and Sunset confides in her friends how she's worried that despite the calm, some new evil or magical incident will occur. Her friends tell her not to worry, which calms Sunset down. Then she gets a note from Princess Twilight telling Sunset she can just come back to Equestria to get more pages, even though it was Princess Celestia who gave Sunset the journal. And again, at no point do we learn that Twilight contacted Celestia, or that Celestia already knew Sunset would ask for more pages. Yet two seasons from when this special will take place, the show will try to claim Celestia always planned for Twilight to take the throne and thus intentionally let herself get captured. Even knowing that Princess Celestia would reunite with Sunset in the next special, her absence here feels rather galling, just like her utter lack of a presence in "Rainbow Rocks".
Meanwhile, Juniper continues to be vain and self-absorbed, all the while continuing to just slack off and ignore her job. Yet conveniently, she discovers that the mirror can suck things up and make them disappear. But then we cut back to Sunset Shimmer going back to Equestria. She emerges in Twilight's castle, yet Twilight isn't there to greet her. Instead, completely out of the blue, Starlight Glimmer is there. It's never stated once that she learned from Twilight about the mirror portal, she just happened to know about it and about Sunset because potatoes. And why isn't Twilight there even when she specifically invited Sunset to come back to Equestria? Well too bad, we don't get an explanation. The most we get is Starlight vaguely alluding to some sort of friendship mission, which also called away her friends. Yet apparently, this mission wasn't important enough to bring Starlight along. I remember a reviewer here on FiMFiction back when this special first came out who suggested that they swapped in Starlight for pony Twilight at the last minute. And I could definitely believe it if this is the best they can muster up for having Starlight and not Twilight. It's possible they were vaguely aware of the big theatrical movie coming out, but even then that can't be when this takes place given that the movie worked in a cameo of Starlight (along with Trixie). We get no further explanation for anything despite how confusing this must be.
So what do they decide to do instead of answering our questions about why Starlight is here and where Twilight is? They decide to have Starlight tag along with Sunset when she gets a new journal. Sunset at first is understandably hesitant, but then Starlight says that Twilight won't mind as long as she (Starlight) learns about friendship, even though at this point Starlight is supposed to have graduated from those studies. Maybe this was meant to take place during Season 6 at some point? Or maybe this was meant to tie in with the original planned Twilight map mission involving the royal sisters that probably got scrapped in favor of "A Royal Problem"? I'm sorry if I'm rambling on about these possible continuity questions, but they're something that need to be addressed. Anyway, Sunset is convinced by Starlight's statement, and tells Starlight it'll be okay since Sunset hasn't met a human Starlight yet. All she requests is that Starlight keep a low profile when they go back to the human world. And Starlight gets to tag along without even so much as needing to leave a note, meaning if Twilight comes back from whatever it is was she was called away for, she might panic or grow worried because she won't know where Starlight is. Or heck, what if one of Starlight's other friends come by looking for her and find she's not there? They might start to worry or panic. And this apparnetly isn't a concern for Starlight in the least. She just wants to run away to the human world because she can.
I will say that I at least like Starlight's human design, it definitely fits her. And at first, it looks as if she'll have a hard time adjusting to being human and being on two legs instead of four. But we won't even get a montage of Sunset teaching Starlight how to move and do things as a human. Starlight will just inexplicably master it all off-screen. Meanwhile, we cut back to the Rainbooms, who run into Juniper and are surprised to learn that she's working at the movie theater. She explains that her uncle got her the job after kicking her off his movieset, before of course snapping at the Rainbooms for ruining her dream of becoming a movie star. And then when she expresses her wish for the Rainbooms to disappear, the mirror obeys and sucks them all into it, trapping them in some kind of dimensional void.
As a result of Juniper's antics, Sunset starts to worry when she can't contact her friends. Starlight tries to get Sunset to calm down, but Sunset insists on trying to write to Princess Twilight for advice. Starlight, however, tells Sunset to just trust that things will magically work out. Much like telling someone to calm down when they're upset, that is actually the worst piece of advice you can give, because when someone's in that sort of state they're not going to listen to reason. Yes, you want them to calm down, but telling them to do so won't help. You need to instead show that you understand they're upset, then wait for them to settle down before you tell them things will be okay. Besides, considering how impulsive Starlight is and tends to be, and given how we've seen her suffer panic attacks before, she's the last person/pony who should be giving Sunset advice on how to stay calm when things start going wrong.
Conveniently for Sunset, she spots a barrette that Fluttershy wore, but it's now on Juniper's uniform. Suspecting something is up, Sunset tells Starlight to stay hidden and goes to talk to Juniper. Juniper feigns ignorance, claiming she doesn't know where Sunset's friends are. But Sunset, on a whim, grabs Juniper's hand and reads her memory, which makes you wonder why she bothered with formalities or with asking if she already suspected Juniper was behind the Rainbooms' disappearance. Sure enough, the memories reveal that Juniper is the culprit. And since Sunset has found out about this, Juniper decides to send her into the mirror as well, and does.
Sunset's arrival into the void actually ends up making things worse, because it causes the Rainbooms' geodes to start glowing. And their magic causes Juniper to grow into a fifty foot tall "monster". However, her "monster" design is impossible to take seriously. It looks like some kind of rejected doll from Barbie. And yet somehow, this is the most terrifying thing anyone's ever seen, because the mall patrons all run away in fright when they see Juniper like this.
And now, somehow, Starlight Glimmer is completely a master at being a human. She can not only walk and run on two legs no problem, but she can also do kicks and flips as she tries to wrestle the mirror away from Juniper, all the while suspecting that Juniper really just wants friendship and not fame despite zero evidence to suggest that. Starlight does briefly discover the mirror can grant wishes and tries to wish Sunset and the Rainbooms out, but nothing happens. Yet it only takes one speech to Juniper to get her to stop and set the Rainbooms free. So Sunset Shimmer and the Rainbooms were completely useless in the grand scheme of things. All Sunset accomplished was bringing Starlight over, which given everything else she inexplicably knew or could master on such short notice, I'm surprised Starlight didn't just "accidentally" stumble through the mirror portal all by herself. At least in "To Where and Back Again" she could make mistakes and had to sometimes rely on others to help her. Here, though, she's this perfect being who can do nothing wrong and can accomplish everything all by herself. She might as well be a deity.
They do lampshade how forgiving the Rainbooms are given what Sunset Shimmer and Sci-Twi did, and try to tie this back to Starlight Glimmer. But at no point did anyone in the human world ever know anything about Starlight, and at no point do we have any indication that she told anyone about her past, so this falls flat. Oh, and get this, Starlight isn't in any trouble whatsoever for disappearing without telling anyone in Equestria. Even Twilight isn't mad. She's perfectly okay with it and is willing to let Starlight stay in the human world for a while. Heck, Sunset even says that Starlight taught her something about living in the moment rather than worrying about what will happen or what has happened.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the special? Well, I'm not sure who was in charge of what or what they were required to do. But it completely dropped the ball on good storytelling.
The most obvious problem is Starlight Glimmer, who has no flaws, has no chemistry with anyone, and is able to do everything and anything with no consequences. She's perfect in every sense of the word. She never gets into any trouble for just up and deciding to go to the human world that she just now inexplicably learned about given that she was already around to greet Sunset Shimmer when she showed up. And yet somehow, this pony gets to be the one to save the day, saving not only the Rainbooms but also Sunset Shimmer from a villain who doesn't even really know how to make her magical mcguffin work.
Juniper Montage is insufferable as a villain. Even assuming she's meant to be a joke and meant to be pathetic, it's impossible for me to take her at all seriously. Watching someone self absorbed just slack off and whine isn't funny, especially when nothing happens to her because of her utter lack of concern. And her "monster" design is impossible for me to take seriously. There's nothing about it that conveys scary or threatening. She's just an abnormally tall human being with make-up, that's it. Demon Sunset Shimmer and Midnight Sparkle looked like credible threats, as did Gaia Everfree. I don't see how they could mess up so badly on designing a convincing monster form for Juniper. The rest of the Rainbooms are completely pointless to this special, they contribute nothing of substance other than just becoming damasels in distress. Their geodoes just power up Juniper because potatoes. In fact, that seems to be why almost everything in this special happens the way it does, because potatoes. There's no further explanation, no further thought. It just happens because it happens, regardless of whether it makes sense or not.
Maybe they were under time constraints, and perhaps they were told they had to include Starlight in this special and make her be the one to reform the villain. But if so, there had to be a better way to go about than by shilling Starlight so hard that it might as well be her show. What's even worse is that this is the only time Starlight Glimmer is involved in the Equestria Girls franchise in either pony or human form. She doesn't appear in any other specials or shorts, not even in "Spring Breakdown" when you might have expected her to make an appearance. Pony Twilight's inexplicable absence doesn't help either, because at no point during Seasons 6 or 7 is there a noticeable period of absence on a friendship mission that could explain why she couldn't be around for Sunset Shimmer. Supposedly, some believe this could've been during the "Cross referencing" part in "Shadow Play", but given that Starlight was present to translate Starswirl's horn writing that feels like a stretch. Pony Twilight was just inexplicably written out and they hoped no one would notice.
You know how this could've worked? Have the Rainbooms get captured earlier on and have Sunset find out. Then she could go back to Equestria to get help, and Pony Twilight could be there to suggest letting Starlight go back with Sunset. Sunset could then spend time coaching Starlight on how to be a human. And assuming Sunset had to be captured too, you could have her sacrifice herself to protect Starlight. Then all you'd need to do is make Juniper less whining and more strategic, even just going down the route they'd go with Wallflower Blush and have her get drunk on the magic mirror's powers, and that be what corrupts her and turns her into a monster for Starlight to defeat. Quite honestly, this special has all the hallmarks of the bad writing choices that would plague G5 in "Make Your Mark", especially in regard to Opaline. Yes, at least Juniper's personality isn't just "Mwhahaha, evil!", but it's still very one dimensional and shallow. It boggles my mind how with the exception of one or two villains, all the villains who came after Starlight Glimmer failed to be written properly, and even sometimes returning villains fell into the trap of "villain decay" where they ceased to be a threat. I doubt it was intentional to try to make Starlight's reformation look better. She was getting good at being an enjoyable character up to this point whenever the spotlight wasn't directly focused on her. "Rock Solid Friendship" showed how to utilize Starlight without having her completely take over the story.
This idea wasn't entirely bad on paper. With the right amount of thought put into it, it could've worked or at least could've been decent. This honestly feels like a first draft that was not sent back for revisions. I think it's safe to say that Dave didn't do collabs very well. And it's sad to think that this is how his time in G4 ended, in perhaps his worst writing endeavor since "Newbie Dash" even if that wasn't entirely his fault. Maybe they were going for comedic here, but if so there's so many little things that they clearly want me to take seriously that I cannot take seriously. And assuming they weren't trying to be comedic, the attempts at drama feel way too cheesy and the little things rob any scene of tension or stakes. The only good thing about it is human Starlight's design. Everything else is just downright awful, and makes me wish they had scrapped this and "Dance Magic" and just fleshed out "Movie Magic" instead. This special gets an F, it's hard to believe the Equestria Girls franchise would find a way to be even worse than this in the span of a year. "Magical Movie Night" as a whole is a disappointment: Its first act is bland and uninspiring, and its third act is beyond stupid. And when two thirds of the story are really bad, that's not a good thing.
Well, now it's back to Friendship is Magic. We already covered the second half premiere with the controversial critics call out that was "Fame and Misfortune", so we're jumping ahead to "Triple Threat" which is a Spike episode in which he accidentally invites Thorax and Ember to Ponyville on the same and tries to keep them from meeting. Sounds like another typical bad Spike episode, and yet surprisingly it won't be nearly as bad as some of the other ones we've had up to this point.
This is honestly my favorite piece of EQG material overall.
Everything about Sunset's and Starlight's interactions are perfect, and I love the comedy
I've said this before, and I'll say it again. One of the biggest problems with Starlight is that the show staff tried way too hard to make her as popular as Sunset in order to make up for the latter not being a part of the main series. I know I've said that I consider Celestial Advice to be the definitive "Shilling Starlight Glimmer" episode, but in terms of overall G4 stories this special takes the cake. Honestly, I think a lot of people could've forgiven the Humane Six getting captured if Sunset was allowed to team-up with Starlight to defeat Juniper. But no, to paraphrase Linkara from his History of Power Rangers video on Samurai; "It's all about how awesome Starlight is, and how everyone wants to friggin' marry her." I swear, you can practically feel the writers going "Do you guys love Starlight yet? Do you guys love Starlight yet?! Please tell us you love Starlight!"
Also, if you were to grade Magical Movie Night as a whole, what would you give it?
5772564 Magical Movie Night as a whole would probably be in the borderline D/D- range, maybe at best a D+. The second act being really good can only do so much to make up for the first and third acts being bad.
Personally, I thought all three specials were terrific.
"Triple Threat"
The moment when Thorax and Ember meet each other and of course it ends up something I despise.
And this is Spike's first (and only) time being called from the Cutie Map so of course that opportunity is ruined.
I'll just blame Twilight for that episode and move on (I suspect that she planted the seed of doubt that led to Spike's behavior in that episode).
Shame how disappointing this special turned out. Considering the concept of the two redeemed villains in their series interacting was a really good idea, it's a shame the Sunset and Starlight team up didn't work so well.
Considering you did bring up potential to improve the special, still wondering a possibility if you rewriting the special and some of the other EQG stuff?
Also considering you don't like Dance Magic (aka the first special that doesn't focus on Sunset or the two Twilights) and I get the vibe the specials later on aren't gonna fare better (Forgotten Friendship being the best one and that barely had the other 6 Rainbooms involved with Sunset taking most of the focus there), wonder if you may end up redoing the other Equestria Girls specials or outright make original stories that you feel with do a better job with the other 5 Rainbooms (Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy) than the canon show did?
To be fair, Forgotten Friendship does show Sunset was deliberately avoiding Celestia for a while due to guilt over her previous actions and thinking she wouldn't be forgiven by her so maybe that's why Twilight tried helped her to avoid Celestia for a while.
And it's not like Twilight wouldn't have figured out that Sunset would've eventually run out of pages in her magic journal. Like, do you think Twilight wouldn't realize that the magic journal doesn't have infinite pages and will run out? Starlight mentioning Twilight telling her to give Sunset a new journal does show Twilight realized the magic journal would run out pages. It is possible Twilight opted to just find another magic journal ahead of time due to not wanting to force Sunset to have to contact Celestia when she didn't want to.
Or at least that's one way of an explanation.
Honestly, this special could've easily been fixed with only 1 simple change: Cut Juniper Out.
She did not need to return both because she's an awful character (one of the worst, if not, THE WORST character of all of G4) but she hijacks a potentially great idea (i.e Sunset and Starlight meeting)
A lot of the Starlight saving everyone else would've not been nearly as potent as it was, these 2 were already enough to make a special with (and to its credit, it at the very least put that stupid notion that fans have about that debate to bed and finally confirmed that they're not alike as many people claim).