My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - "Dance Magic" Special (SPOILERS) · 4:03pm Jun 24th, 2017
In which the Rainbooms and the Shadowbolts get their music video groove on.
The Rainbooms are raising money to pay for repairs to Camp Everfree (because apparently the concert they threw at the end of the movie didn't raise enough to do more than pay off their debts), but all their fundraising efforts--doggie day care, bake sale, car wash--have only raised half the money, and the deadline is approaching rapidly. Rarity tells the girls to meet her in the music room, where she will reveal her "piece d'resistance" fundraising scheme. Spike calls her out on having nothing. By chance, while freaking out over what to do, Rarity learns of a music video contest and signs up for it.
While signing up for the Chance to Prance contest, Rarity runs into the Shadowbolts. They're signing up for the contest too to raise money for the yacht Principal Cadance (HAH!) is agreeing to let them rent for the Spring Dance.
In order to put together everything they need for the contest, they need to use the money they've already raised--risking all their hard work on a chance to win double what they need to fix Camp Everfree.
Dance practice turns into a cringeworthy disaster, moreso when Rarity learns how skilled the Shadowbolts are at dancing. Worse, they've stolen her video concept, which she foolishly shared with them at the mall.
Rarity tries to get her friends to back her up on confronting the Shadowbolts, but Twilight's the only one who has her back. The Shadowbolts are still kinda bitchy, and they're also hyper-skilled at dancing. They laugh Rarity and Twilight right out of their dance studio.
Ultimately, the Rainbooms need to come up with an entirely new video concept to enter into the competition. This leads to a montage of...ideas? None of which are really...music video ideas. But all of which are accompanied by Littlest Pet Shop style imagine spots that the girls all interact realistically with. With the girls screwing around wasting time, Rarity finally loses her shit and reams them out for screwing around.
While drowning her sorrows in ice cream, Rarity overhears the Shadowbolts discussing their own problems: they made it seem like they have their shit together, but they have no original song to submit for their video, and they're afraid of letting their classmates down. Rarity realizes that the best way for everybody to get what they want is for the Rainbooms and the Shadowbolts to work together to win the contest and share the prize money. Their video, "Dance Magic", wins the contest; Camp Everfree gets fixed up, and Crystal Prep gets to have their dance on a yacht--with the Rainbooms as the live band.
So this really, REALLY feels like it's meant to be a pilot for the Equestria Girls series we've been wanting for years, and as such, it does a very good job. We got a lot of neat new set pieces here, Twilight's got a new outfit again and it's a pretty good outfit, and there are some obvious influences borrowed from Littlest Pet Shop, which makes sense and works in this setting. While ultimately I can only give "Dance Magic" an 8.5/10 on its own merits, I'm hoping this and the next two specials earn a strong enough approval rating that we'll get a proper series out of this.
I personally found this special to be kind of dull, with okay comedy at best.
Heck, having seen the other two specials already, I can honestly say that this is my least favorite thing to come out of EQG so far.
The SONG "Dance Magic", however, is in my top 5 EQG songs.
Well, I have to ask- do you plan to revise Scattered to make Cadance the principal of Crystal Prep in that?
I think that the fact that these shorts were originally supposed to be Netflix Exclusive (until Discovery Family caught wind of the plan) is a strong indicator that they're testing the waters for that spin-off series Equestria Girls is begging for at this point. And to that I say, come on already, it'll help make those hiatuses between seasons a lot more bearable!
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I hold out hope that if Discovery Family doesn't go for it Netflix will.
Indeed, we absolutely need a EQG series after this. And considering the fact that two extra songs that weren't used in the other specials, I'm guessing that they have plans for more....
4581863 I think that these specials were supposed to be Netflix Exclusive, so Hasbro could see about maybe making an Equestria Girls Netflix Exclusive series. And I hope they still do, next year. I know that right now their resources are stretched thin due to the movie, but with a new studio making new cartoons for Littlest Pet Shop and Rescue Bots (it won't be Studio B from DHX), hopefully that'll free up DHX assets and talent to make that spin-off series, which could hopefully be used to tide over the wait between seasons.
Never saw LPS. I take it the interactive imagine spots were common there?
In any case, this was certainly fun, and it was nice to see the Shadowbolts again, even if they felt a bit more generically bitchy than before.
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apparently the 2 songs that were leaked are actually part of 2 of 3 shorts they plan to release at some point.
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. I did read he was around the background of the last special, but I didn't pay attention back then
Not to mention the lack of
Our favorite waifu thief
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Yeah, Muppet Babies-style imagine spots were a staple of LPS.
well it was pretty good also it was awesome to see them wear shoes other than boots for a change, (ya i know i got foot fetish but their has to be others who agree with me) the song was good and it was great to see the shadowbolts again....but im hoping we get to see the dazlings again next year if they decide to do more equestria girls specials next year which i think mlp fim will be around for five more years i know its not confirmed but once mirror magic makes its deput youll know why i think theyll still be around but im not going to spoil anything
Where did you watch the EQG special? Was it in English?
Lord help me if someone puts a 10-hour loop of Rarity's "*sobsobsob* *nomnomnom*" bit on YouTube. I might never be able to look away.
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On cable, like a normal person. And since I live in America, you can generally assume it was, yes, in English.
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The specials are also supposed to be on Netflix too some time I believe.
Argh, I forgot to record it (my MLP series record doesn't include the specials). Guess I gotta catch the rerun next week but set up the record for the next special already at least. It'll probably end up on Netflix eventually anyway.
I miss Muppet Babies, that was a great series (which will unfortunately never make it to DVD due to rights or something).
I wonder what the chances of a EQ TV spin-off are at this point. I'd love to see more Sunset of course, but the Shadowbolts are fun too.
I feel so cynical disliking things others liked.
I wanted to like this special, but I found Rarity’s role superficial and think the story would have worked so much better if Twilight were the focus, if she was the one that Crystal Prep stole their idea from and Twilight brought the two groups together.
Also, really didn’t feel the Shadowbolts here. Sour Sweet’s mood swings were heavily downplayed, Sugarcoat didn’t motor mouth anymore, Sunny Flare failed her second attempt at the “have a personality” test, Lemon Zest just didn’t get anything to do, and Indigo Zap is just inexplicably not here. To reuse the joke I’ve said before, they were the Diet Shadowbolts. Same characters, half the personality.
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You have been a bit of a turd in the soup lately. But, to each their own and all.
And like I said, this was more like a test to see if an EG series is even possible than anything, so I give it a pass on a lot of things because pilots always have flaws.
Eh, it was an okay special, and 4582080 pretty much covered the bases. On the pro side, the visuals were satisfying and the song itself is still pretty damn catchy. And nice to hear Cinch got the boot.
Coming up next: movie refs, movie refs everywhere. Hopefully these lead into a series in due time. Even if short-lived, the world-building will be glorious.
They said that Indigo was on vacation.
So...what month of the year is it there?
It was okay. Some good gags and the song was generic pop enough that it didn't offend or get annoying. I did like the idea of the two groups working together to cover the deficiencies the other had.
I'm not personally sold on a EQG series.... but then my mind may change in the next couple of weeks.
Also was it just me or did a a few of the girls sound slightly different from their pony-selves?
MythrilMoth, this might be of interest to you:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/6/25/1471005__safe_dance+magic_equestria+girls_friendship+games_legend+of+everfree_spoiler-colon-eqg+specials_gillian+berrow_g-dot-m-dot-+berrow_ishi+rudell.png
Edit: Here is the link to Ishi Rudell's Twitter. The two most recent items should be of interest.
So, first off, Fluttershy had a black butterfly outfit. That's a little too perfect, isn't it?
I'm operating under the assumption that Indigo Zap is dead, and the Shadowbolts are secretly raising money for her funeral. I'm pretty sure Spike the Dog was seeking revenge for the bullying Twilight endured and ended up gouging her throat out. Almost positive that's what happened.
The episode itself was alright. Not great, but got some laughs out of me. Seeing Spike snark at Rarity is surreal and wonderful. But what strikes me is that this is a Rarity-centric story featuring the Shadowbolts. And yet Sunny Flare, Rarity's counterpart (by default, really) barely gets any lines. No, it's Sour Sweet who gets the most focus of the group. Really? Sunny Flare needs a personality, do something about that, people.
Rainbow Dash's outfit with the backwards hat is cute as hell. I wish to see more of it.
Pinkie Pie rapping without it being a joke. Not awful, but I could do without.
Nitpicks aside, I enjoyed it. I wouldn't mind watching it again.
Bring on the series. I liked this first special, and I liked their song at the end. Can't believe Indigo Zap wasn't there.