Equestria Girls Holiday Unwrapped Review · 6:23pm Nov 2nd, 2019
Probably not too much of a spoiler considering thisalso got leaked early in English (though Hasbro eventually wisened up and pulled it down), but especially in the wake of the announcement that the Equestria Girls franchise had been cancelled and the end of Season 9 bringing about an end to the show, this "special" definitely flew under the radar. The fact is though that this is really just a bunch of holiday themed shorts all tied together. As of yet we don't know what each short is called or who wrote them. But I guess the Equestria Girls franchise decided that rather than maybe go out with one last big production, they'd end doing what they've been doing since their spin-off "series" was greenlit. But hey, everyone expected "The Best Gift Ever" to suck after Season 8 and were legitimately surprised when it turned out to actually be good. So maybe this'll be another case of something unexpected turning out better than hoped for? Well, let's find out.
The first short involves the Rainbooms waking up thirty minutes before a class that they have a test for. Because they haven't studied that well for it Rainbow Dash decides they should fake a snow day to get out of it (our heroes, ladies and gentlemen). They go about doing so by setting up a display, using blocks of ice, and creating a snowman out of peeled potatoes. That's really about it. We get a couple of things like Sunset touching a snowflake and remembering what it used to be, and Pinkie Pie tangling with a raccoon, but there's not much to it besides the Rainbooms trying to fake a snow day. It almost works, until Cranky Doodle exposes them and gives them detention.
The next short is probably the best of the bunch, the one the synopsis revealed. Pinkie Pie bakes a special soufle for Rarity and wants to give it to her when it's at its most optimal level of warmth and taste. Nothing particularly earth shattering, but it's actually something that fits in with Pinkie's character (albeit more pony than human as this is the first time we've seen her do any baking). The problem is that outside of Pinkie's house, there's a huge snowball fight going on with both sides having set up forts. They then decide to take the route of comedically exaggerating it, which is a true definition of classic comedy (take a simple story or event and exaggerate it for comedic effect). So the task is getting the soufle to Rarity before it stops being warm, and without it getting hit by a snowball. Sunset tries to stop the fighting, to no avail. The fight claims a lot of victims on both sides, and then Applejack prepares to bombard Sunset while making fun of her video games. Naturally, this offends Sunset quite a bit.
Sunset goes all out, only to get nailed by a snowball. Pinkie makes it to the end of the sidewalk but by then it's too late, the soufle is about to lose its warmth. However, it's at that very moment that Rarity shows up, and Pinkie gives it to her to try. Rarity enjoys it. But then Rainbow Dash bursts out of a snowman (she claims to have been inside it for two days) and tries to hit both Pinkie and Rarity with snowballs, only for Rarity to block them with one of her gem shields. Did I mention that Flash Sentry gets enlisted to help Sunset, only for him to quickly be taken out? Also, is it just me or did Vincent Tong sound more like Rumble and Sandbar than Flash Sentry here? Was he out of practice on Flash Sentry, or did the voice director tell him to change up the voice for some reason?
The third short is basically just taking the Flim Flam brothers plots from previous pony episodes and then making them human. Apparently they always con the Apples and ruin their holiday celebration. Why the Apples never report it to any authorities or even think to just get a restraining order against the brothers, I have no idea. Heck, the brothers are never given any reason why they keep doing it other than because they're that petty. However, Sci-Twi tries to out con them, and we get a series of gambits between her and the brothers as to who out smarted whom. It ends with Sci-Twi revealing that she never swapped the cider and set the clocks so the brothers would show up early and fall for her tricks. It's alright, but it being a humanized version of the Flim Flam brothers plot just makes it seem lazy. At least it's good to see that Sci-Twi is just as distrustful of them as her pony counterpart.
After that we have a short where the Rainbooms accidentally leave the key to a storage unit in Sunset's locker, and the school is locked up so they can't go in. They all take turns plotting a heist to get the key back, which Sci-Twi keeps shooting down because she explains that they'd be committing a crime. And her plan is simple: Just call Principal Celestia and ask her to open the doors for them. To think that her pony counterpart is zero for three on stealing and not getting caught.
From there we have a short that's basically a rehash of sorts of "The Best Gift Ever" except it's only Rainbow Dash who forgot to get a gift (and it's for Fluttershy). She finds really long lines everywhere, but Zephyr Breeze is willing to let her skip the lines at the store he's working at at the mall. After a bunch of gifts, he offers Rainbow an instant camera since Fluttershy's old one broke. It seems sweet, but then they decide to pull a twist by revealing that he already got her one last year and now she has two. I don't know why they couldn't just have it so that he wanted to get her one but couldn't afford it, and him working at the mall was his way of earning enough to pay for one. Still, at least he doesn't seem to be as aggressive on pursuing his crush toward Rainbow.
And our final short involves Applejack suggesting her friends join her in taking a photo to pose for a holiday card they'll send out to all their friends. Rarity decides to take over the dress up detail, even after learning it's coroncupia themed (Sci-Twi offers to do it, but her friends object since her theme for Halloween was a math equation). Sunset doesn't want to and looks for any way to get out of it, before her friends tell her that they're doing it for the sake of Applejack. They look ridiculous and have to get to the gymnaisum, which is complicated by their costumes weighing them down. After a dose of public humiliation, they arrive at the shoot only to learn Applejack wanted the theme but didn't want them to don costumes since that was just Granny Smith's idea from years past. The Rainbooms, undeterred, make Applejack dress up with them and Photo Finish shoots the video for the card. I should also mention that neither Wallflower Blush or Juniper Montage appear in any of these shorts.
And that's the story, so what do I think of this "special"? Well, to be honest, it's just a bunch of shorts all slapped together because they share a somewhat similar theme (Christmas/Holiday themed). But outside of the snowball fight they're all underwhelming, some of them even make the Rainbooms look absolutely horrid. Many of them feel like they second guessed themselves or wanted to pull a twist to not seem too predictable. But in doing so they ended up becoming exactly that. None of these would've worked on their own, but I think most of them didn't seem to really try. A lot of them just seemed to "borrow" ideas from their parent franchise and just slap them in because they thought it would look cool. But fanservice can only go so far to make up for lack of a plot or investment. It's definitely no "The Best Gift Ever", and it really just shows why the Equestria Girls franchise failed to live up to expectations, in addition to the lack of a clear vision and constant changing of the guard it never developed the characters besides Sunset Shimmer and maybe Sci-Twi early on. Everyone else was just the most basic version of their pony counterparts, except for when they would occasionally get a chance to shine. Any attempts to shake up the formula went nowhere. It really feels like Hasbro just ordered the spin-off because they knew fans wanted it, but didn't have the time or resources to fully commit to it and just shunted it to the wayside. For me, Equestria Girls will likely remain at its peak in "Forgotten Friendship" and even then it was because it was a Sunset driven plot. One good character sadly does not a good franchise make.
Well, I never understood the hate for Equestria girls. It's an interesting idea and an interesting thought how some characters could be. Like, if Canterlot is a school and Ceestia the principel, what about the Royal Guard?
Yeah, I watched the leaked version, and pretty much got bored by the end of the Flim Flam one.
Glad I didn't continue.
Uh that's not entirely true as while Wallflower Blush didn't make any cameo appearance in this special, Juniper Montage however did in one of the shorts, as seen here:
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Same for Gloriosa Daisy as well:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2019/9/1/2133774__safe_screencap_gloriosa+daisy_timber+spruce_equestria+girls_equestria+girls+series_spoiler-colon-eqg+series+%28season+2%29_cropped_duo_female_.jpeg
Yeah. Thanks for the warning/heads-up on this.
Of course, almost all of the series could fit in a separate "What If?" Volume (perhaps a Volume Twelve or Thirteen). This had a great deal of untapped potential that could have benefited greatly from a crew that actually had the time, resources AND heart to properly focus on it.
That is one of the beauties of fan fiction.
I see these shorts (like the 2014 Christmas Comic) as non-canon because I can’t imagine the characters being brought down so far in terms of morality and common sense.
Yeah, the special for me only ended up to mediocre at best. Boring at most parts, but I did very much like the little transformation sequence that Applejack showed off (It would have been a lot better if she was fighting monsters something. When I saw the promo, I thought she was starring in a Christmas action movie or something. Boy was I disappointed, but at this point, I should've known better than to hype up any EG specials like the mistake I did for Spring Breakdown.)
And Sunset can somehow use her mindreading power to, um, predict the weather? I don't know, it was just sort thrown in there for plot.
I am very disappointed that writers didn't make the Humane Five much different from their pony counterparts. (The writers did for Twilight's human version, so they could do it with the other five. ) Sunset and maybe Sci-Twi are the only reasons why I watched EG in the first place, while also hoping that they might give some character to the Humane 5 that differentiates them from their pony selves. I found a few things, but they aren't big enough not to overlook them. By the way, I excluded the ones that we didn't already know about them; Rarity being a fashion designer, Pinkie and Applejack being bakers, etc.
Humane Applejack:
Humane Rainbow Dash
Has a bigger ego than her pony selfHumane Rarity
Humane Pinkie
Humane Fluttershy
This is all I could find that made the Humane 5 a bit different from their pony selves, but it doesn't make them all that different at all. Such a shame since they have potential, but the writers just throw it away. We could've had a special focusing on how they met as Canterlot freshman or something of that sort, but since Holiday Unwrapped is as the promo said "the last set of adventures", we probably won't be seeing any of that.
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Now while the "special" was lackluster, I don't think Holiday Unwrapped went anywhere near the hole of unsenseless and idiocy that the horrid 2014 comic was. I was at least able to watch through the entire thing, while I couldn't even finish the comic on the first try.
5149664 I don't hate it, but stuff like this is just not the kind of content this spin-off needed to succeed. In the end it never quite moved past its trappings of underdeveloped characters and an underwhelming setting.
I loved this special. It was so much fun from beginning to end, and I had a big smile on my face throughout most of its runtime. It was illogical in places, and at this point it's clear the Humane 7 would be an elite criminal gang, but I don't really think that matters for something like this. It's just an anthology of wacky funny stuff happening. I think that's why you don't like EQG that much. You care too much about telling a tightly written, engaging plot when a lot of this stuff is just letting you sit back on your couch/chair and have a good time. Some of the EQG shorts haven't done that as well as others, but I loved all of these shorts, even the weaker ones.
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Yeah, sadly
If it helps, the MLP: FIM Wiki offered possible titles for each short.
1. Blizzard or Bust
2. Saving Pinkie's Pie
3. The Cider Louse Fools
4. Winter Break-In
5. Dashing Through the Mall
6. O Come, All Ye Squashful
5150224 I suppose they'll have to stand until we find out if those are the actual names or not.
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I guess you’re right. I’ve actually had a change of heart to my thoughts on its canonicity after looking back on my reaction to Spring Breakdown, now seeing it as soft-canon (some things about it are canon, but others are not). While they are magical super heroes, they’re still high schoolers, and high schoolers do dumb things. Life’s about learning lessons, and you can’t be mad at someone forever just because they did somethings that was not only stupid, but just pathetic in my opinion. Take a deep breath, and move on.
The snowball one was my absolute favorite
I enjoyed a couple of the shorts, but the rest of them aren't a good way for the EQG franchise to go out.
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Eeyup, that was one of the only shorts I enjoyed.
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How do you think they could have made a good Equestria Girls Christmas special then if neither the comic nor Holidays Unwrapped really cut it for you?
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I’ve actually softened up some on Holidays Unwrapped.
As for a Christmas Special, maybe just the seven of them making their individual preparations for a Christmas party? Maybe each one wants to add something to the party that reminds them of their own individual past Christmases? And by the end, they realize that their best Christmas memories are the ones they have — and will — share with each other? But that’s just my thoughts and opinions.