Equestria Girls - Review · 2:30am Jul 1st, 2013
Despite how incredibly flawed My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is, I actually kind of liked it.
As a brony, when I first heard of the idea for this, I thought that this was an awful concept. My fears were justified when I saw the first stills of the characters as humans, and when I saw the trailer, I thought that it was going to ruin, or be the downfall of a wonderful TV show. Despite my trepidations about this film, I decided to go into this with an open mind, like I did when a friend first convinced me to watch the show.
For starters, I liked the amount of effort that the animators and staff took into making this film. And despite the awkward animation at points, the animation had some quality cinematic moments (ie when Sunset Shimmer finds out who Twilight really is). The backgrounds looked pretty decent, as well as the voice acting was top notch as expected. I thought it was interesting to see the ponies use modern technology, such as vending machines, cell phones & computers. I would say that my favorite point of this film was all of the shoutouts for the fans that were cleverly inserted (especially an extreme fan favorite that I won't name here for fear of spoiling), mainly concerning the background and tertiary characters. Pinkie Pie, had some extremely funny moments, as did Rarity. And like the show, there was a decent balance between quality storytelling and the inevitable cutesy crap that you'll find with My Little Pony. Concerning, the plot point, with Twilight learning to be human, I think this film worked well as a fish out of water story.
What did I find flawed about Equestria Girls? To begin, the fact that Spike was demoted to a dog really kind of annoyed me (In the show I always saw Spike as Twilight Sparkle's little brother rather than her pet). Sunset Shimmer as a villain, I think, will not be that well remembered or liked by the brony community. She was no Discord or Queen Chrysalis, I'll say that much. The animation of the walk cycles was really awkward, and I wasn't crazy about the character designs as humans, especially the color scheme, which I'm sure will remind everyone of the Nickelodeon classic Doug. Also, I thought the songs in the film were exteremly bland and unmemorable. The romance between Twilight and Flash felt extremly forced, and I would argue that the subplot and the character wasn't necessary at all. I guess they put in a love interest because they felt they had too. Perhaps what bothered me the most about Equestria Girls was the environment that was portrayed. The high school experience that was portrayed in this film was incredibly simplistic and stereotypical. I just wish that they would have tried to think more outside the box when it came to designing the experience of high school. Despite every high school having cliques, I didn't think that high school groups were that cleanly segregated (and I don't mean race segregation).
Overall, while this may not be for the general movie going audience, I think that My Little Pony: Equestria Girls will entertain bronies and pegasisters of all kinds. If you haven't seen all of the episodes of the show, please do before seeing this film as it takes place after the finale of season three. Star rating: 3/4 stars
When did you see Equestrian Girls just last week?
Eeyup.
downloaded it ;D