Equestria Girls Review

Last year when the movie came out in 2013, I watched a movie that questioned my insanity and intelligence. Yes that's right; I watched the movie, Equestria Girls. The My Little Pony gang becoming humans. The trailer reveal caused to much controversy....mainly to the Brony community, and it got me concerned. I first thought I would not watch it in theaters, but seeing the writers, animators, and the original VAs from the Friendship is Magic seasons, I gave it a chance and watched with me, my friends, and a crowded/filled up theater room full of families (20%) and Bronies (80%). And I have to say the movie......was pretty good....

Now before you start yelling at me that I'm probably still in shock from the idea of Equestria Girls or a particular friend of mine brainwashed me into liking this movie because he's evil.....but in reality this movie was not that bad of a movie.

It was pretty shocking that we saw the original Mane 6 in their pony forms in the beginning and the end of the movie. But knowing the writers, that was a pretty good idea because it explains WHY we end up with the high-school MLP students. Apparently, a former student of Celestia named Sunlight Shimmer steals Twilight's Magic Crown and escapes to a magical portal and Twilight must go through the portal and retrieve the crown back in order to keep the Elements of Harmony strong. Both Twilight and Spike end up in the Human world (high school) and now not only will they need to retrieve the crown, but also fit in with the environment around her while trying to take down Sunset who rules the school before the portal closes and Twilight will be stuck there for 30 moons (not that bad since it's basically 2-3 years stuck in the human world and NO contradicting me. They are in the Human world so this all applies on Earth so don't argue with me)

Now first I will say there are many good things about this movie. First is obviously the writing which I give credit to the writers for making the movie more unique and not the typical high school cliches (all the time). Sure there are high school cliches in this movie, but it's not enough to make this movie bad. For example, Twilight needs Rainbow Dash's help to help her win the Queen of Canterlot High (don't ask) which the crown is the Element of Magic. Twilight needs to beat Dash in a soccer match up to 5 points. I thought it was the typical Dash is up 4-0 and suddenly Twilight makes a comeback and beats Dash 5-4. But, Twilight gets crushed 5-0 in humiliation. But despite Twilight losing Dash still ends up helping her because of determination to win, even it was executed horribly)

Another good portion of the movie is the villain: Sunset Shimmer. She's a very interesting character to look at. She is a former teacher of Celestia before Twilight and Sunset ends up leaving because everything's not going her way (aka the Veruca Salt Syndrome). It was great to see her first in her pony form and not the we don't see her face until Twilight goes inside the portal. It helps us reveal the relationship between Celsetia and Sunset prior to this. Plus she has that bitchy personality (where most instantly hates her) and being the one to rule the school and ruining everyone that stands in her way. But she ain't no Regina George (Regina >>>>>>>>>Sunset). Sure her personality is just a one-note, but her transformation from a bitch to slowly making her more and more psychotic and eventually becomes a demon from hell (I'll get to that later) being power-hungry is just so interesting. And in the end it's the rise and fall of Sunset Shimmer being emotionally broken and forced to pay the consequences (aka clean the school up and NOT send her to prison with no cops or army involved....I mean where the fuck were they seeing a....nevermind girls' cartoon logic in the process)

We also have another element in the movie that makes it likable: the comedy. I know you're wondering why....but the comedy in this movie is pretty good and much better than I anticipated. It's not the comedy I was expecting like the bad puns and the cliche jokes used in high school movies, but the comedy was pretty funny. And some can debate the comedy involving Twilight trying to fit in with the school and not acting like a pony being funny, but it was amusing (like Twilight using a door without her magic XD). Another part of the comedy is seeing all the other characters as humans compared to their counterpart. Seeing Celestia and Luna as the Principle and Assistant Principle was pretty funny. Also seeing Granny Smith as the Lunch Lady was funny and clever at the same time. And of course Trixie was in it and her part was just hilarious (The Great and Powerful Trixie.....would like to have a peanut butter cracker..) Plus in their human forms we get to see characters like we never seen before. Like for example, we never saw Cheerilee get very frustrated before until now where she is mad that Twilight can't even type on a computer (yes there's technology, but that will come later) and the CMC's disturbance in the Library listening to their song on a Youtube site (don't ask). It shows a bit more dimension from them and could be used in future episodes.....

The characters (Mane 6) were spectacular as usual, keeping their personality the same, but in their different forms and adapting to this new environment. It felt that they were the same characters I know and love. It's mainly because of the original VAs from the show playing their roles perfectly despite the new situation. And seeing how Sunset is this world's evil Twilight and breaking the Mane 6 apart from friendship is just interesting especially seeing there's no original Twilight and Spike in the human world.

And of course I have to applaud the writing team for the climax because I did not see any of it coming. How it went is that the Queen of Canterlot party is going to announce the winner and I fully expected Sunset to rig the votes and have her claim the crown; however, that didn't happen and Twilight wins it which was a sigh of relief. But what did Sunset Shimmer do? She gets Snips and Snails to kidnap Spike, lure the Mane 6 to the the portal, and Sunset appears with a sledgehammer. I though she would use it to hurt Spike, which is kind of messed up and brutal, but she actually threatens to break the portal having no chance for Twilight to return to the Pony World. I kind of liked that because Sunset is willing to sacrifice everything just for the crown and shows how power hungry she will get just to get what she wants. And once Sunset gets the crown....oh my god.....this movie turned all dark and she LITERALLY turns into a flying raged red demon spawned from hell being corrupted by the Element of Magic which is very interesting because it can show how the Elements of Harmony can also corrupt a user and turn evil depending on the person. She turns Snips and Snails into demons and for a bigger shocker, she destroys half the school and turns all the students into mindless zombies and planning to invade Equestria. Yes, that was something I was not expecting in this movie. And the best part was that Sunset was willing to kill the Mane 6 instead of imprisoning or enslaving. She's willing to finish them off (especially when she yelled at them to Die) and that's crazy yet interesting for a villain to be willing to kill someone just to get in their way. That part was very enjoyable to watch.

However the movie does have flaws though. First is the animation, it's better than I expected, but you can tell the animators still have to improve on their human animation. But the opening animation to the movie was very spectacular and very colorful that is very impressive. But it didn't help that their skin colors were like their pony counterpart and it still bothers me. It's like Doug where almost all the characters have irregular radiation skin colors and that really bothers me. Don't know why that was a good idea, but that's my pre-movie problem.

Since this is a high school-movie you will be expecting cliches that will make you groan: awkward girl struggling to fit in, get blackmailed/embarassed, typical school bully (queen), prom, fashion (that's a guys perspective), and the uniting school cliche. About the uniting school cliche, one of the songs, it just so......cheesy + cliche and it's showing the unite together. It really makes me cringe a lot and makes the idea of high school being very unrealistic (I know it's a girls cartoon movie but still.....).

Let's talk about the songs/music. I admit they were pretty good, but I felt there were too many songs in this movie and didn't balance much to the point of the songs being very irritating and distracting. Along with that, most of the songs were pop-centric and has no variety of songs. No villain song, no sadness song, just the happy and get-together songs. As much as I love Daniel Ingram's music, I felt the songs could have more variety to it.

Another part that bothered me was there were scenes that were completely pointless. It was just shown to add in more time to the movie and is felt unecessary. An example is when Twilight gets accused of sabotaging the school and is about to get suspended and Flash Sentry (aka Brad) jumps in and says that the pictures used were photoshopped which keeps Twilight in the running for Queen of Canterlot High School. That part was way too rushed and too easy to get out of this situation. It also made the sort-of romance between Twilight and Flash Sentry a bit forced.

About the romance......it was pretty weak. Sure we see both Twilight and Flash Sentry having some sort of feeling, but I felt it could have expanded and have it develop more. We could have a bit more seconds with them and have some sort of character development. It could be shown in Season 4, but the writer, Meghan McCarthy, said Flash Sentry is NOT going to be in S4, so the entire romance between both of them is completely POINTLESS. But then again this is a spin-off so could make sense, but still. The romance ended up being forced. Flash Sentry wasn't that helpful other than saving Twilight from suspension. The rest of the time, he was just there and got brainwashed by Sunset Shimmer near the end. So kind of useless? I don't know...

One last complaint.........oh god this idea was so stupid and kind of embarassing. They activate the elements of harmony....and *sigh*. FURRY POWERS ACTIVATE! Yes the Humane 6 turns half-anthro where they grow pony ears and their pony tails. That was very unnecessary and they could have taken that part out completely. It would have just been okay to just have them just change clothes and include their element of harmony on it, but the ears and tails were just distracting and made me facepalm that ending completely. I'm not against Furries, it's just that addition had no reason to be there.

But overall, the movie was enjoyable to watch. The movie does have bad moments, but it also has it's good moments. I probably might watch it a second time, but it's definitely NOT even close to Movie of the Year (lol as if)

Final Score: 7/10