Movie Re-Review: Equestria Girls · 6:48pm Mar 23rd, 2021
It may seem hard to believe for some that the first time pony was released into theaters during G4 it was not with its own movie, but with the movie for what at the time was just a stand alone thing. With the apparent popularity of "Monster High" Hasbro decided, for some reason, to try and cash in on that with their MLP license. And they thought it was good enough to release into theaters. Of course, this would ultimately be the start of what became a surprisingly popular spin-off franchise, albeit one that Hasbro never gave the time of day and uncerimonusly pulled the plug on despite plans for at least a third season. But at the time and even since reaction to this movie has been little more than a shrug and a sigh since everyone prefers the sequel. Has this movie perhaps improved a little now that we know it was the beginning of something bigger? Or is it still just something not worth remembering? Well, let's find out.
The movie actually begins in Equestria, believe it or not. Twilight is being called to a royal summit in the Crystal Empire, her first such as an alicorn princess. She's apparently quite nervous about this and doesn't seem to have the best control of her wings. However, upon arriving at the summit Twilight gets a quick meet and greet in and then it's off to bed. She has trouble sleeping though because she can't tuck in her wings without them popping out.
The movie's "theme song" is just a dubstep remix of the show's theme song and a rather poorly mixed one at that. Not a good first impression to make. When the song ends, it's late at night and an unseen figure sneaks in and tries to make off with Twilight's crown (apparently a royal summit doesn't warrant any increased security despite all of Equestria's leaders being in one place). However, the thief trips over Spike's bed and gives themselves away, prompting Twilight to give chase. The thief turns out to be a unicorn since it sheds its cloak and teleports. A scuffle ensues and Twilight's crown tumbles through a mirror and disappears. Soon afterward, the thief does as well. Yet it isn't until the next morning that Princess Celestia reveals that the thief was actually a former student of hers, Sunset Shimmer. She mentions that Sunset became impatient when her studies were not progressing as fast as she wanted, but this as much of a backstory as we get and it feels very half-hearted, almost like an afterthought. Secondary media would try to flesh it out more, to varying degrees of success.
Sunset apparently tried to "replace" Twilight's crown (which also houses the Element of Magic) with a fake. Then we learn that the mirror is apparently a portal to another world, and it is only open once every thirty moons. Although not the first time moons has been used as a passage of time, here is where it becomes a real problem. They don't specify what moons measures, and when we see the moon every night it is impossible to determine what qualifies. Twilight is ready to go through and her friends are too, but Princess Celestia won't let them join Twilight for reasons not specified. So Twilight is basically asked to go through the mirror to another world all by herself with no knowledge of what to expect on the other side. And against Celestia's wishes, Spike runs in after her. They soon arrive in the other world with Twilight now as a human and Spike as a dog, which is kind of cruel on the part of whoever wanted it but then again we never learn how the mirror portal works or what the rules are. Naturally, Twilight's first instinct is to freak out and Spike calms her down.
Somehow, Twilight is okay with wearing clothes despite never having done so aside from special occasions in Equestria. And with a little bit of help from Spike she learns how to walk like a proper human being. She eventually clumsily makes her way into Canterlot High and we get the song "This Strange New World" which really seems like it's trying to imitate "Strangers Like Me". I mean, it's the same context.
When the song ends, Twilight encounters human Fluttershy being bullied by another girl. The girl turns out to be Sunset Shimmer, and apparently human Fluttershy spotted Twilight's crown and turned it in to the principal's office. Twilight manages to stand up against Sunset and we then get a rehash of the first time Twilight met Fluttershy in Equestria. Then Twilight goes to see the principal who is Celestia. Twilight pleads to have her crown back but Principal Celestia refuses because the crown is for whoever wins the title of Fall Formal Princess, basically the equivalent of homecoming queen. So Twilight decides to sign up instead of maybe trying to take back her crown at night or something. And when Spike asks Twilight how she intends to win in just three days' time (which is when the portal will close), she replies by basically admitting she has no plan.
The ones in charge of signing people up to run for Fall Formal Princess are human Pinkie Pie (who can take balloons off her skirt and actually inflate them) and human Applejack. Twilight signs up after human Pinkie Pie basically guesses who Twilight is and then passes it off as "Just a hunch" which isn't really funny and just seems to consist of "Lol, random". Human Applejack reveals that Sunset Shimmer is rather two faced about competition. First she acts all nice and sweet, but then she starts resorting to backstabbing and trickery, and then mentions how only human Rainbow Dash is worse for no reason at all. I guess someone who breaks a promise one time is worse than someone who always has to play dirty to win.
Sunset Shimmer soon learns from human Applejack that Twilight is running against her, and she sets out to "get to know the competition". But it isn't long before it's clear that she's intent on humiliating Twilight somehow. As for Twilight, she tries to figure out how to work a computer and we see human Cheerilee not as a teacher (which you think she would be) but as a librarian for the school (wouldn't Mayor Mare work better?). Then we meet the human Cutie Mark Crusaders (or whatever it is that they call themselves in the human world), who are obsessed with being internet celebrities on a discount YouTube of some kind. They even blare out the CMC theme song, which is selectively muted during the pony parts as Cheerilee even gives the reaction of "No, just no". So they're already admitting to a mistake, a pretty painful one at that.
And at lunch, Twilight learns that Sunset Shimmer has somehow managed to divide everyone in the school into various social groups and keep them apart so that no one can challenge her. So it seems they're trying to for some kind of mix between the popular girl and the mean girl, but the two don't mesh well together at all. Sunset later corners Twilight in a darkened hallway and vaguely hints at a plan that involves bringing an Element of Harmony to the human world, which is why she stole Twilight's crown in the first place. And for some reason she has human Snips and Snails as helpers even though we see a human Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and Snips and Snails were hardly bullies. The only reason their pony counterparts hung around Trixie is because they thought she was some all powerful magician. Diamond and Silver had, up to this point, a much more credible reputation as bullies and would've fit the role of underlings for Sunset much better.
The first night passes as Twilight is apparently able to sleep in the school library without anyone noticing (you'd think a janitor would). Before she falls asleep on a bed literally made of books, she is shown a picture of the human five when they were apparently friends due to having a group picture together (but without knowing any other context). The next day, Twilight finds herself the victim of online humiliation due to Sunset having obtained footage of Twilight acting like a pony (courtesy of human Snips and Snails), and even human Rarity can't disguise her well enough. The rest of the human five (except human Rainbow Dash) show up and start arguing, making all kinds of claims about how they promised to help each other but never did or how they were told something that wasn't actually true. Twilight snaps and points out how they used to be friends, which is enough to guilt trip them into helping her. They take her to see human Rainbow Dash, who even though she's a tomboy and an athlete she wears a skirt too. She agrees to help only if Twilight can defeat her in a soccer match, or rather just making Twilight goalie and having her block shots. Human Rainbow Dash wipes the floor with Twilight but promises to help anyway, meaning this wasn't some secret test of character she just wanted to beat up on a newcomer for no good reason.
Later, at Sugarcube Corner which is a discount Starbucks in the human world, Twilight bumps into someone and spills her drink. That someone turns out to be Flash Sentry who she learns used to be Sunset's boyfriend, but he broke up with her not too long ago. Human Rarity scolds Twilight and tells her "Don't even think about it", warning that Sunset Shimmer will go after Twilight even more if she finds Twilight with Flash.
Of course, Flash Sentry has absolutely no personality. He's completely bland and uninspiring, to the point where fans jokingly called him "Brad". And let's face it, you could rename him to anything at all and nothing would change. His character is non-existent, not even him being the love interest gives him anything. And by now it's become clear to the human five that Sunset Shimmer sabotaged their friendships, not through direct action or anything or even just word of mouth, but through text messages. And apparently, none of the human five ever bothered to bring this up or ask for clarification even when that's all it would've taken to solve the misunderstandings.
The next day, we get a song in the form of "Helping Twilight Win the Crown" as the human five unveil this former mascot of theirs: The Canterlot Wondercolts and stage a pep rally. The song is definitely catchy and bouncy, and it flows pretty well. Even funnier is that human Snips and Snails end up wearing the wondercolts outfits, much to Sunset's disgust.
So Sunset's next plan involves framing Twilight for destroying the gym where the Fall Formal will be held, using some very obviously edited photos. Yet Vice Principal Luna, who has a darkened office, believes Sunset and suspects Twilight until Flash Sentry comes in and reveals photo cut-outs that reveal Twilight is innocent. But this doesn't do anything to change his complete lack of a character up to this point. The only real development is that the Fall Formal will have to be postponed while the gym is repaired, and Twilight realizes that means she won't win the crown in time to make it back to Equestria before the portal closes.
At what I assume is Carousel Boutique, Twilight decides to come clean and confess to the human five. Except she doesn't need to because human Pinkie Pie guesses for her because again it's "Just a hunch", and again "Lol, random" does not automatically mean funny. This just glosses over what should've been a very weighty and important development, and the human five are completely okay with all of this. They then decide to clean up the gym, and several other students come by to help during the song "It's Time to Come Together" which is just a montage song. It does help convince the school to vote for Twilight to be Fall Formal Princess though, and Sunset Shimmer decides there's only one option left to stop Twilight. But we don't get to learn what it is, instead we have "This Is Our Big Night" as the human five and Twilight get all dressed up for the formal. The song's enjoyable, but the context behind it is really weak and a far cry from what FiM strove to be: This is the kind of stuff that previous generations of ponies, particularly G3 were stereotyped as: Girls doing girly things just because. During the montage we see Spike with a mustache, likely a nod to "Boast Busters" and how poorly received that episode was. But again, just admitting mistakes is not enough. And so far that seems to be more of what this movie is being used for.
Up to this point, things have been flowing fairly well. But now it's all about to fall apart in the third act. The human five and Twilight arrive at the Fall Formal and Twilight is crowned princess. Yet just as it seems everything will be okay, Spike is kidnapped and held hostage. This is to lure Twilight out to the statue where Sunset, holding a mallet, threatens to destroy the portal and even points out that she knows when it's about to close. You might wanna remember this, because the movie sure won't. Anyway, Twilight decides to endanger Equestria in favor of this new world rather than maybe try to capture Sunset and take her back with her. And human Rainbow Dash makes a face that, when pony Rainbow Dash did it was fine but when human Rainbow Dash does it it looks uncanny. Sunset, however, is quite furious about Twilight standing up to her again and it leads to a huge scuffle for the crown before it eventually ends up in Sunset's hands. She places it on her head and is transformed into a fiery demon, and turns Snips and Snails into demons as well. But the designs are beyond ugly. I have no idea how someone could look at them and say "This is fine."
Demon Sunset explains that she was bluffing about destroying the portal, in fact she intends to use it to conquer Equestria with a brainwashed army. My guess is, she intends to use the humans as a bargaining chip to make Princess Celestia surrender. But of course, when she tries to target Twilight Twilight is not harmed. She and the human five power up, gaining wings but not horns as they then join hands and defeat Sunset Shimmer not unlike the way Nightmare Moon was defeated.
Sunset Shimmer emerges from a crater and claims that she's sorry, begging for forgiveness. Twilight says that it's up to the human five to forgive Sunset and to help her reform, and then Twilight gets crowned Fall Formal Princess for real (though human Rarity mentions "payback for what happened last season", perhaps implying she was the last one to run against Sunset Shimmer). And then for no reason at all other than because she stays to dance with Flash Sentry, and at no point is there any indication that the portal has been kept open. This entire dance scene is unnecessary, wastes time and completely disregards the established continuity and timeline that was set up earlier. And all for the sake of having Twilight dance with some cookie cutter love interest that was not well developed. Yet Twilight still manages to make it back to Equestria and says that she left Sunset "in capable hands". Then she bumps into pony Flash Sentry, who is apparently a newcomer to the guards (at least in the Crystal Empire) and pony Pinkie Pie does exactly what her human counterpart does, because they haven't run that "Just a hunch" running gag into the ground just yet.
During the end credits we get the song "A Friend for Life" which is supposedly meant to be how Sunset Shimmer feels now that she has to begin her life anew in the human world. But it's worth mentioning that this was not the original plan, a much different song would've played when this was intended to be the very last thing FiM ever did. And I'm glad that was scrapped, this would've been an insult to everything FiM stood for if this had been where it all ended.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the movie? Honestly, it's just there. People accuse the 2017 movie of being just a toy commercial or a cash grab, but I feel like this is what selling out really looks like. Just trying to cash in on the popularity of "Monster High" by using every teenage high school cliche in the book without even bothering to try and do anything new or creative with them. The story isn't even new, it's just the story from the pilot but stretched out to about a seventy minute or so run time and even then they have to have lots of filler. At times, the human counterparts to their pony selves look better, but for the most part they just feel like poor man's substitutes. Spike is arguably the best thing about this movie, if only because he gets to be in a support role and be a satiliette character to Twilight. I feel like most people forget that Sunset Shimmer started off as a really bad antagonist because of how great of a protagonist she became, but at the time I don't think anyone came away impressed with her as either a pony or a human. The fact that this was meant to be the grand finale for the entire franchise of G4 only makes it worse, because what good there is gets drowned out by how uninspired and cliche most of it is. So ultimately, I give this movie a borderline D+/C-. Hard to believe a spin-off would emerge from these not very humble origins.
Well, now it's on to Season 4, the last of the classic seasons and we begin with "Princess Twilight Sparkle" which had some very big questions it had to answer.
For me, this movie, while definitely overshadowed by much of what comes after, is still kinda fun for what it is.
Though it definitely feels like it was just a bunch of like mini episodes stitched together, rather than one cohesive movie.
This was the first and only Equestria Girls Movie I own. Help Twilight Win the Crown was my favorite song out of the movie. From your raking, it sounds like it was a nice start to the spin-off. Even if there were a few mistakes you notice.
I actually enjoyed this movie more than I did Rainbow Rocks. The second had certain scenes that were just too cringeworthy to sit through.
And you mixed up certain events in this movie and put them in the WRONG ORDER. AGAIN. How can we take your reviews seriously when you can't even be bothered to get the order of events right?
And you judged certain scenes in the movie with a scary amount of cynicism without looking deeper into it. That really hurts this review overall. Take a chill pill sometime...
5481898 What is there to see deeper in this? It's clear that the intent here was more to admit to mistakes than to actually try to make this concept work. Nothing about it was unique, and the third act alone seems to indicate no one thought about anything. If I'm being a bit more critical, it's because the franchise this was a part of had attracted a reputation for being better than this, for putting real effort into its work.
5481899
I notice you completely dodged my statement about messing up the order of events.
Oh, and here's one example of how you overlook things: you forgot that we actually saw Human Cheerilee teaching in a classroom during A Strange New World. So she wasn't mischaracterized as just a librarian like you said here.
Oh, and apparently you ignore what has been actually SAID in the movie. Like with the soccer match between Human Rainbow Dash and Twilight. Rainbow Dash pretty much said herself that she was testing Twilight to see if she would be the right person to go up against Sunset Shimmer. She wasn't torturing her for kicks. Rainbow needed to make sure she would be helping someone who could actually bring the school together against Sunset.
Speaking of Sunset, she actually has the role of Queen Bee down pat here. Popular/mean girl, she hits the bulls-eye. The student body was so terrified of her, they wouldn't dare go against her. We don't know the full extent of how she bullied them, so you can't really pass judgment on how tight her grip was on the school...
And you said that Twilight "guilt tripped" the human versions of her friends to stop arguing and help her? What the heck?! She was getting them to WAKE UP and realize that the problems that tore them apart were because of that bully Sunset and not them!
As for the demon designs you called "ugly". Uhhhh DUHHHHH! That's kinda what they were going for? Imposing, intimidating, terrifying?
And for the end credits song you THINK was sung by Sunset Shimmer... you realize that Rebecca Shoichet used her "Twilight voice" to sing it, right? It's meant to be Twilight singing that to Spike. It's kinda obvious...
And your theory about this movie being the writers' way of admitting mistakes? That has no ground whatsoever...
And I'm not even going to delve into how you tear into Flash Sentry just because the writers made the mistake of not further developing someone who might've been a great match for Twilight...
So yeah, like I've been saying since you've started these re-reviews: try REWATCHING the freaking content, take off the cynicism glasses, pay attention to the underlying content, and read between the lines. Because you've been overlook simple conclusions and making soft mistakes that don't reflect well on you or your reviews AT ALL...
Whose idea was it to turn Spike into a dog?
Would you believe me if I told you some guy started hating Twilight after seeing this movie because he disliked the "Reason You Suck" speech she gave Sunset after defeating her? More specifically, this line:
Oh yeah, I'm not kidding. There is a person who actually hates Twilight Sparkle just because he didn't like seeing her mildly berate, or as he puts it "verbally chastise", one villain for her misdeeds, claiming that it was "out of line" and that he will "never forgive Twilight until she apologizes to Sunset".
5481918
Which is fine and all, but why did the "test" need to involve soccer? What exactly was the point of the "test" other than so Rainbow had an excuse to beat someone else at something? She never specified what she was "testing" Twilight on. And if no one's even bothered challenging Sunset for a while, why the need to "test" someone running against her if she's already been targeted by Sunset?
Except if that's the case, why does she keep winning things when no one likes her? She can't intimidate them into voting for her if the vote is done in secret. They never say she wins by default because she's unopposed. And how can one girl manage to gain enough control over a school to be allowed to divide students in a cafeteria without anyone batting an eye or raising an objection?
I didn't say Twilight guilt tripped them, I said that her pointing out they used to be friends made them feel bad and they decided they should help her out and stop fighting. She had no way of knowing at the time that Sunset Shimmer was behind it.
Really? Because I don't see how ugly is supposed to equal threatening. And if they were going for ugly why use demons which are associated not with ugliness?
I never claimed it was Sunset singing it, it was vague about who it was. It could be Twilight for all I know, but if it is I don't think she would be singing it to Spike. It could just be her own reflections on Sunset.
I'm not opposed to Twilight having a love interest, what I am opposed to is pairing her with someone who has no character, no personality and no development and is only relevant for one scene. Pony Flash is even worse because Twilight only falls for him because she reminds him of his human counterpart, which is a terrible reason to fall in love with anyone. It's not based on any kind of mutual feelings or appreciation, it might as well be entirely hormones.
I've done that before, in some of my re-reviews I've mentioned how intentionally or not some things ended up being what they are. I'm all for connecting the dots, but there has to be something to go on. Sunset Shimmer and the movie as a whole don't seem to have much beyond what is shown to us, and they don't bother to offer any real hints at anything deeper. I didn't even say I hate this movie, because I don't. There's far worse content out there. But armed with the retroactive knowledge that this was going to be the grand finale for all of FiM, that's something I have to hold against it. While I'm glad that's not what they did, the fact that they originally intended for something like this to be the last thing we ever saw of FiM doesn't bode well for it.
5481977
Wow, now your resorting to trying to gaslight me to get me to back down? A lot of what you said you DIDN'T say is written right there in the review YOU WROTE above the comments. You're only making yourself look worse...
Rainbow's test involved seeing if Twilight would persist in something even if the odds are stacked against her and seems impossible. Kinda like the situation with Sunset.
Bullies have their ways, even if most people don't know what they are. It's the fear of Sunset finding out somehow that keep the school under her grip for so long. Speaking as someone who was bullied in school, NEVER underestimate a bully. Especially one as cunning and smart as Sunset Shimmer...
And of course, there's your denial of your own written words that are RIGHT THERE in your review. Seriously, you need better arguments than just denial and gaslighting on par with politicians and my mother...
I fine this weird and not a huge fan of this EG but it a good way to bring in new character that fans love