Special Re-Review: Equestria Girls: Holidays Unwrapped · 4:41pm November 2nd
Today is actually the five year anniversay of this special hitting the airwaves, making it the last official G4 content. And it has since come to light that this was not meant to be the grand finale for "Equestria Girls" as a whole. There were plans for a third season of the shorts series, which would've culminated with a special answering the nagging question of whatever happened to the human world Sunset Shimmer. And according to the details leaked later, it would've ended with the Sunset we'd known and loved going back to Equestria for good. While I don't entirely agree with that ending, it at least was a way to wrap everything up. So why didn't Hasbro go for it? Well, they decided to instead hastily greenlight "Pony Life", a 2D comedic slice of life show with two eleven minute episodes that was just a half hearted attempt to artifically extend FiM's lifespan. And keep in mind, this was before the Covid-19 pandemic threw everything out of whack, causing "A New Generation" to be pushed back to 2021 and ultimately air on Netflix. In retrospect, this was a cannary in the coal mine for what we could expect from G5, planned endings would be scrapped or altered in favor of half hearted attempts that no one wanted to see. But that's mostly irrelevant to this special, which is actually just a bunch of shorts all bundled together. The writer in charge of this "special" was Anna Christopher, who had previously written a few EQG shorts of her own. For what was the last thing G4 ever did, did it at least serve as a decent send-off despite not being planned as such? Well, let's find out.
The first short is called "Blizzard or Bust", and it involves Rainbow Dash convincing the Rainbooms to stage a blizzard in order to get school cancelled for the day. Why? Because they have to take a test, and even though they studied the night before they are unprepared. And even Sci-Twi and Sunset Shimmer are onboard with this idea.
It nearly works, until human Cranky Doodle happens to see through the ruse, and the girls are all caught and punished with detention. Then it turns out that human Rainbow Dash apparently was really using the snow as a way to prepare the girls for their test, which was on water vapor. But it doesn't really seem to have worked. It honestly feels like a very lazy attempt at a "Freudian Excuse".
Next up we have "Saving Pinkie's Pie", where human Pinkie Pie counts down the seconds until a souffle she's baking is ready by listing off all her friends in alphabetical order. Oddly enough, while doing this she lists off Aria Blaze, suggesting or implying that Aria is now a friend. Whether this means the Rainbooms and the Dazzlings patched things up is unclear, particularly given how their last encounter back in "Sunset's Backstage Pass" went. And no shorts after it showcased the Dazzlings at all. Anyway, Sunset Shimmer happens to be on hand, because Pinkie exposits to her about how she always bakes a souffle for Rarity, but every year the souffle deflates before it can be delivered. Never is it explained how Pinkie could just call Rarity to come over when the souffle is ready. Instead, human Pinkie has mapped out a delivery route to Rarity's house. But now there's a huge snowball fight going on right out on the front lawn.
The snowball fight is treated like a war zone, even down to people who get knocked down acting like they've been shot. Whilst braving this battlefield, Sunset briefly tries to enlist Flash Sentry's help. But for some reason, Vincent Tong is clearly using his Rumble voice here, and it's very distracting. I don't know if he was originally meant to voice someone else, or if he was for whatever reason directed to use his Rumble voice, or even just forgot what Flash Sentry sounded like. There's been no official explanation for it. I mean, human Rumble would probably work just as well for this scene, seeing as Flash Sentry utterly fails and Sunset is forced to scarifice herself so Pinkie can reach the driveway.
But seven minutes go by, and it looks as if Pinkie's plan will all be for naught. Fortunately, human Rarity shows up completely out of the blue, tastes the souffle, and enjoys it. Then, when Rainbow Dash pops up out of a snowman, Rarity uses her gem shields to block the attack.
Then it's on to "The Cider Loose Fools", in which Sci-Twi is recruited by Applejack to help her thwart the human Flim Flam brothers. Every year the Apple family has a harvest and holiday festival, and every year the Flim Flam brothers somehow manage to swindle the Apple family. And yet the family never thinks to just not invite Flim and Flam, or to decline any invitation from them. So they really can't complain if they keep giving the brothers chances to swindle them in the first place.
Fortunately, Sci-Twi develops what she believes is a fool proof plan to beat the brothers at their own game. All seems to go well as the brothers show up, pull a scam, and drive away. But then Sci-Twi reveals that the bottle she gave them wasn't really full of cider. Except then we get a lot of back and forth as the brothers and Sci-Twi try to claim how they knew what the other party was gonna do and somehow managed to outfox them. It all culminates with Sci-Twi having tricked the brothers into showing up earlier than when the party actually began, so the ruse was a success and the brothers got the fake cider bottle all along. Then, Sci-Twi and the Apple family all celebrate the party with the actual cider. As far as I know, this was never changed to "juice" for U.K. broadcasts despite the controversy that prompted "cider" to be changed beginning with "Where the Apple Lies" for U.K. broadcasts.
After that it's "Winter Break-In", with Sunset Shimmer being the star character. The premise is that Sunset had the key to a storage locker filled with toys to give away for what's basically the equivalent to "Toys for Tots", and she left the key in her locker at the school, which is now closed for winter break. The Rainbooms all begin debating and planning various ways to stage a heist and break in to retrieve the key, all of which get shot down by Sci-Twi because she points out they'd be committing a crime (breaking and entering).
So what's Sci-Twi's solution? Just call up Principal Celestia and have her unlock the school. And indeed, that's all it takes. But then later, Sci-Twi realizes she left some gift cards for the mall in her locker, and now she decides to start planning for a heist even though she already showed she could call up Principal Celestia at any time (and presumably might have other school faculty members on speed dial). It's like they forgot about their own resolution.
Up next is "Dashing Through the Mall", which is basically almost like an abridged version of Rainbow Dash's plot from "The Best Gift Ever", even down to the premise of her having forgotten to get a gift, and trying to find one for Fluttershy. Instead of Discord, this time, it's human Zephyr Breeze, who's working at one of the shops in the mall. He offers to let Rainbow cut in line and shows her various gifts to consider, including fidget spinners (which were a very big thing at the time). Rainbow is certain none of those things are what Fluttershy would want, and Zephyr Breeze then suggests a new instant camera to replace the one Fluttershy had which broke last year. Rainbow agrees, buys it, and races back to join her friends for their secret santa gift exchange. Except it turns out that Fluttershy already had her camera replaced. So Zephyr Breeze basically tricked Rainbow into giving up her money to buy something she didn't need to buy. Yes, I know it's the thought behind the gift that counts, but you'd expect Zephyr to remember having already replaced Fluttershy's camera. It felt like they threw that in just for the sake of having a joke or a twist, and it single handedly ruined what would've been a heartwarming gesture. It's a twist on par with Discord pretending to be Grogar all along, it's a twist that didn't need to exist.
Finally, the last short is "O Come, All Ye Squashful". Human Applejack invites the Rainbooms to take part in a family photo shoot for her family's upcoming harvest and holiday party. She even has a theme they can do, a curnucopia, and shows off photos of herself and her family dressed up in embarrassing costumes. She then leaves to get everything ready, as the girls all complain about having to dress up in costumes and be embarrassed. Interestingly, during this time, Rainbow Dash mentions Halloween when she talks about how Sci-Twi made them dress up as a math problem. Ultimately, Rarity makes the costumes for her and her friends, and they go to the shoot. But Applejack reveals that the costumes weren't necessary, the shoot wasn't supposed to be a costume shoot, and it was just a coincidence she showed them the photo earlier because it was Granny Smith's idea to do it last year. However, the Rainbooms decide to make Applejack dress up alongside them instead of changing out of the costumes, The short and the special ends with the Rainbooms all wishing the viewer "Happy Holidays".
And that's the story, so what do I think of the special? Well, even as a collection of shorts, it's honestly pretty forgettable. Aside from "Saving Pinkie's Pie", none of them are any good. All of them are ruined by either bad premises or very questionable endings. It feels like a lot of times they were going to go for something more wholesome or evne funny, and instead decided to change it last minute for something that didn't need to be added. Did we really need to ruin "Dashing Through the Mall" by having it be revealed that Fluttershy already had her camera replaced? Did we really need to end "Winter Break-In" by having Sci-Twi plan a heist for her locker after previously demonstrating a better solution first hand? And did we really need to have human Applejack reveal in "O Come, All Ye Squashful" that there was no need for costumes only after her friends all dressed up in costumes? No, we didn't. Sometimes, you have to let a joke die for the sake of having a better story.
"Saving Pinkie's Pie" understands the golden rule of slapstick: A simple premise milked for comedic exaggeration. And even that has a very abrupt ending, on top of the weird detail about Flash Sentry sounding like Rumble for some reason. Outside of the first short, all of the shorts in this special do appear to be loosely Christmas themed (though they never directly call it that), or at least based around winter break for school. But compared to "The Best Gift Ever", which took a premise we'd seen in countless Christmas specials and episodes before (a character or characters is waiting until the last minute to buy a gift for someone and wants it to be special) and for the most part actually did something meaningful and productive (aside from some questionable resolutions), even to the point of arguably doing plot points from Season 8 better, this feels very underwhelming. I wouldn't be surprised if these shorts were all going to be released separately originally, and then when Hasbro pulled the plug on Equestria Girls they decided to just slap them all together here with no central framing device. For the last thing Equestria Girls ever did, it's arguably better than the last two specials, which squandered interesting premises on poor characterization or plots that took too long to get to anything interesting. But it's still a far cry from even the level of quality of "Legend of Everfree". Equestria Girls ultimately went out not with a bang but with a whimper. I give this "special" a C+. Not bad, but not necessarily good either.
However, since I want this re-review session to end on a positive note (more or less) given how 2024 has been getting worse and worse for me ever since I came back from Florida, I'm closing things out next week with a re-review of "A New Generation". So come back next week to see whether it still at least partially holds up given all that G5 ultimately failed to do.
Is there any actual evidence they were ever planning to have Sunset to back to Equestria for good? From what I read in that pitch for a human Sunset special, the proposed third season would've been AFTER that special not before it. And there's certainly nothing in that pitch saying Sunset ever would've left the human world.
https://x.com/nickconfalone/status/1371156029229076481
I am curious, how would this special have ever been better?
Also given you aren't too impressed with this special and I doubt you liked that Equestria Girls 2014 Holiday Special comic either, how would you make a good holiday story for Equestria Girls?
First of all, I'd like to point out that you didn't give a letter grade.
Second, here are my thoughts on each short.
* Blizzard or Bust: I wonder how the people behind this short and Frozen II felt when they learned that both of their stories had a moment where the main character reads a snowflake's memories?
* Saving Pinkie's Pie: Being a parody of war films certainly makes this the most memorable of the shorts.
* The Cider Louse Fools: The most interesting thing about this short is that it's the only one not to have the entire Humane Seven in it, subsequently making Sci-Twi and Applejack the only characters to appear in all six shorts.
* Winter Break-In: I think the ending was an attempt at "Hypocritical Humor".
* Dashing Through the Mall: I'm sure there's at least one person on the writing staff who genuinely ships Rainbow Dash and Zephyr Breeze.
* O Come, All Ye Squashful: Kind of a torture porn for Applejack's friends, only saved by the ending with them getting back at her.
Finally, here are the first and last speaking lines of every original Equestria Girls characters who had a speaking role in at least two movies or specials.
Adagio Dazzle
Aria Blaze
Canter Zoom
Flash Sentry
Juniper Montage
Lemon Zest
Sonata Dusk
Sour Sweet
Sugarcoat
Sunny Flare
Sunset Shimmer