Equestria Girls Movie Magic Review · 4:57pm Jul 1st, 2017
Like, wow! Turns out that "Dance Magic" was originally planned to be out before "Legend of Everfree", but scheduling caused it to be postponed, it's not known what the original draft was or how much changed to tie the short into "Legend of Everfree", but I think that worked out for the better. Anyway, this time around we move away from the high school setting and onto a movie set, with Noelle Benvenuti in the writer's seat. Noelle wrote "Maud Pie" back in Season 4, and also "Made in Manehattan" in Season 5, but was most likely absent from Season 6 due to her mother unexpectedly passing away in the Fall of 2014 (Season 5 was already in production at the time, so Noelle likely completed work on her episode prior to that point). And without spoiling too much, this is basically your typical "Scooby Doo" mystery type plot that we've all seen by this point. So, was this special able to provide something unique to that plot and avoid leaning too hard on its parent franchise like "Dance Magic" did with its plot, or did it ultimately fail? Well, let's find out.
We begin with a new Daring Do villain for the human world (neither Caballeron or Ahuizotl), and a director who seems to have his appearance styled after Steven Speilberg (who not only created such great works as Indiana Jones, E.T., and Jurassic Park, but was also responsible for Animaniacs and its spin-offs, rumors of a reboot have surfaced lately but nothing's yet to be confirmed). Rainbow Dash, being the fan girl she is, nitpicks to the point where she interrupts filming. But she's not alone, all the girls have arrived to be involved, specifically because of their hard work raising money for Camp Everfree. We're also introduced to the star of the show, a rather stuck up and demanding one, and the director's niece Juniper Montage who will go on to be the villain in the third special. She knows the entire set like the back of her hand and has keys to every room, thus in 60's Scooby Doo fashion she's the culprit no matter what (it was a rule of thumb in the old cartoon that the first noticeable person you saw typically ended up being the guy or girl in the suit).
Production keeps being set back by a series of unfortunate incidents, including a collapsing set and missing costumes, but filming grinds to a halt when a series of props approved by A. K. Yearling for the movie go missing. Pretty soon, a cloaked figure appears and Rainbow Dash gives chase using her magic. With Twilight playing the role of Velma, Rarity the role of Daphne (though thankfully not the damsel in distress variant), Pinkie Pie and Spike playing the roles of Shaggy and Scooby-Doo (always thinking about food), and I guess Rainbow Dash as Fred (minus the obsession with traps of his later incarnations), the girls eventually find their way onto another movie set and slipped into the costumes of the Power Ponies (with Sunset Shimmer being the Mane-iac). Admittedly, this feels tacked on at best, it doesn't really do much other than count as a nod to the original episode. Yes, they're utilized for the chase montage and for a little while afterward, but I feel like you could remove them and nothing would change. Anyway, the cloaked figure drops a net onto The Rainbooms, leaving only Rainbow Dash to give chase (think they could've added a line or two of dialogue where she considers helping her friends, but they tell her to catch the culprit and they'll break free on their own) and she does so without hesitation.
Rainbow ends up trapped in a closet when she discovers one of the missing costumes, and her friends follow a trail of pudding Rainbow stepped in to find her (Spike sniffing it out like Scooby Doo, all that's missing is for someone to offer him a treat). Twilight uses her magic to unlock the door and set Rainbow free (she basically casts Alohamora from the Harry Potter series), and then they set a trap for the villain. They have another scene be filmed for the movie, and when the cloaked figure tries to move the props, they successfully corner the crook. But there's no need for an unmasking, because the figure took the hood off, revealing herself as Juniper Montage. Her reasons for shutting down production of the film: she wanted the role and was hoping to make the star (a bird watcher) back out. Not to mention, she was mad with the star for stealing her favorite candy bars all the time. And she would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids and their dog. In a surprise turn of events, she offers an apology, and while the director does accept it, he still does the sensible thing and kicks her off the set! Definitely better than all those instances where the villain apologizes and gets forgiven.
The star comes along and apologizes for being so bratty, as she's now free to keep filming thanks to her agent shutting down what was a misunderstanding. And the girls get to be snuck into the film as extras, though Rainbow's excessive fangirlism ruins the take again.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the special? It clearly runs with its "Scooby-Doo" story and for the most part it utilzies it par for the course. There's some good comedy, and I appreciate the set-up and bits of continuity to tie this short to both its predecessor and successor, though Juniper was a blantantly obvious villain that they didn't even try to hide. I was worried this special was gonna be a rehash of "Daring Don't" and "Rarity Investigates", but thankfully that wasn't the case. My only major complaints would be Juniper's motives (she was too young and had no acting experience, nobody in their right mind would cast her, not even if the actress picked backed out, worst case scenario they'd have cancelled the movie and the studio would've moved onto another project or even shut down), Rainbow just leaving her friends behind to chase the villain (she did the same in "Daring Don't" but they gave her more of a reason even if admittedly the mane six got crammed into a story that really only needed Twilight and Rainbow Dash in all scenes after the library), and the Power Ponies costumes which were just hastily thrown in for an obvious nod to the parent franchise. It's not completely flawless, but it was nice to see Sci-Twi grow more comfortable with the role, so I give this special a borderline B+/A-, I'd say this shows the potential a spin-off series could have better than any of the movies, even if I feel like "Friendship Games" and "Legend of Everfree" had more going for them. Worth mentioning is that these specials, combined together, will have about the same run time as a full length "Equestria Girls" movie, but I think it's obvious that this is Hasbro testing the waters for a spin-off show that will hopefully get greenlighted.
Now, considering last week we had "Dance Magic", and this week we had "Movie Magic", I think it's a safe bet to assume that next week will have "Mirror Magic" air on Discovery Family, and then most likely new episodes will start airing (especially if they start airing early in Canada). So unless I'm wrong, join me back here next week when we look at "Mirror Magic", the third and final Equestria Girls special.
Yeah, I feel the same way:
It definitely fits between Rainbow Rocks and Legend of Everfree.
4588893 Well, guess I'll have to wait til they come out in Canada then. They could at least air episodes twelve and thirteen, we know those are finished.
I'm simply dreading to watch the last one.
I don't know what to say about this one.