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Smashology


Welcome to my world, my mind and my own Wonderland. Writer, Analyst, Critic, Movie Buff, Gamer, Researcher, that's who I am.

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Nov
4th
2019

The problem with Equestria Girls · 8:30pm Nov 4th, 2019

There's a reason I haven't talked about Equestria Girls at all (with the exception of a couple of stories): This series only proves that any good show can become mediocre overnight with the wrong influence.

When they announced the concept of “Equestria Girls” and what it pretended to be, I won’t deny it: I thought it was a stupid idea. And yet, I wanted to watch the final result. I wanted to see how the staff could handle this types of topics and themes, which were clichéd by nature. And without me and the rest of the original staff involved, it was the perfect challenge to make an extra effort, to demonstrate that “My Little Pony” was not a lab accident... I didn’t see that effort.

Honestly, I can't face this product without being able to take it seriously (or even as a joke), the product arrived just after the critical moment of the show (Twilight's coronation) and when it didn't have a fixed course and had doubts about going on, to be honest, sometimes us can be very blind to look for quality where there is none. All its content is built by situations that remind us of another previous product, generating this kind of nostalgic empathy that feels infallible to please but is far from falling in love. The content is there, but it feels empty and repetitive

In addition to supporting things that are so aesthetic in the end, (music videos are good and they have impeccable animation and catchy songs but unfortunately they don't stand out in something that hasn't already been seen in the series) the biggest sin are the characters. They don’t have six or seven main characters, they have one main character and a ton of supporting characters with too many dialogues. They want every single one of them to share screen time and that sole main role. I don’t know how they do it, but the characters ended up as bland and pathetic. I mean, the characters are not that complex, but they were tridimensional in comparison.

Not to mention the high amount of fanservice in all the movies. Look, I don't mind fanservice as long as it doesn't sacrifice story or leave the rest of the audience lost. I expected them to copy some elements from the original and to have some mistakes, but I never expect them to jump the shark when it comes to the original premise. MLP's positives will never be the story, it's the writing and the characters' chemistry what keeps together the entire show.

If I have to make comparisons, let's look at Winx Club and W.I.T.C.H. (some people comparing Equestria Girls to Monster High and Ever After High, but I have no intentions of watching them, so let's stick to the point):

Their main concept was planned since the beginning, their main roster is divided in groups and each group has its own sub-plot that has development until the last third, where everything will make sense. In Equestria Girls, all 7 are in the same group sharing the spotlight. Well, with one exception...

The only original character for this idea, whose song "My Past is not Today" represents her in the best way. She was born from the ashes of the first film, from being the worst character to being the best because she's the only one who has growth.

But you know what? Nothing I've said is relevant for anything.

The worst part of a sell-out concept is that it wins no matter what. A sell-out concept doesn't care about reviews, doesn't care about awards and doesn't care about being a good product overall, it only cares about making money. And for that it only needs a good marketing campaign, with one side of the battlefield represented by fans, who will always consume, share and defend what they like for a blind love they have, and the other side represented by critics, who create morbid curiosity about said product, no matter what good are the arguments we use to destroy it. We get to a point where we can't recognize where was the lowest point.

Remember what happened to this movie? "Hated by all, yet viewed by all".

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