Movie Re-Review: Legend of Everfree · 2:20pm Jun 6th, 2021
Hasbro didn't even bother with fanfare for this one, they just dropped it on Netflix and that was that. Interestingly enough, this movie came out on Netflix before Season 6 had finished airing, kind of funny how that works. But there were no pony spoilers this time around so everything was all good. The Equestria Girls franchise was changing hands once again, this time passing to Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco who were just starting to come into their own as a result of "Gauntlet of Fire". This is widely regarded as the last time this spin-off had anything resembling an overall arch, and most seem to at least like it (though no one seems to consider this their favorite). Was this first (and only) movie to be completely free of ponies all together able to prove Equestria Girls had potential, or only prove that Hasbro was right to just leave it by the wayside? Well, let's find out.
The movie begins with human Twilight (Sci-Twi) getting ready for a trip with her friends, when suddenly it all goes wrong and Midnight Sparkle (now named in-universe even though she never called herself that before) shows up to take over. It turns out to be a nightmare, but Sci-Twi is worried that her dark self isn't truly gone for good. Meanwhile, we learn that this visit to Camp Everfree where the movie will take place is part of a class field trip (early promotional material suggested it would be more of a summer vacation kind of thing), a place Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna attended when they were younger. This leads into the title song "Legend of Everfree", though sadly the clever visuals of the past two films are gone and replaced by relatively generic background images. Oddly enough, Rebecca Shoichet is still not credited first even though by now Sunset Shimmer was indisuptiably the main protagonist of Equestria Girls. Anyway, the song ends as we soon get the obligatory "No offense, none taken" joke that was starting to get old by the time of this film's release. We also see that Sci-Twi has no interest in Flash Sentry, much to his dismay.
The camp is apparently run by a brother and sister duo: Timber Spruce and his sister Gloriosa Daisy. Timber's supposed to be the more fun loving one of the duo, but it seems like he clashes a lot with Gloriosa. Celestia and Luna briefly mention a sundial they worked on together, which Luna wasn't exactly onboard with (wonder if this is their equivalent of pony Celestia banishing pony Luna for a thousand years). However, before camp activities can really get underway there's a visit from human Filthy Rich to deal with. And he's pretty much every stereotypical evil businessman ever.
Once he leaves, the kids get divided up into pairs to sleep in tents (in the background we see Fluttershy talking to human Vinyl Scratch, so human Vinyl at least is not a mute) and Sci-Twi and Sunset Shimmer are going to be in one tent. The rest of the Rainbooms, meanwhile, have expressed their desire to get away from magical happenings as mentioned in an exposition dump earlier. They don't seem to be aware that this is making Sci-Twi feel uncomfortable, and she doesn't speak up in protest. We then have human Rarity's insistence on hosting a fashion show at camp, using the dock as a runway. And they're going to keep bringing this up multiple times even when it gets annoying. Interestingly, Timber Spruce seems to take an interest in Sci-Twi as a result of saving her from a fall and even Sunset Shimmer starts teasing her about it. But there's a bit of a problem. Assuming Timber is a camp counselor (which he probably has to be in order to be able to run the camp with his sister), he has to be at least seventeen years of age and he's probably a bit older than that. Sci-Twi, meanwhile, can't be much older than fifteen. Depending on where you live, the age of consent can be as young as sixteen or as old as eighteen. Long story short, the age gap is a problem now but in a few years it won't be. Anyway, all this teasing occurs in the tent right before Equestrian magic suddenly starts making everything float, freaking out Sci-Twi in the process.
This could've been an opportunity to sneak in some of the Sunset Shimmer homesickness that was cut from "Friendship Games", even knowing that we'd get to see Sunset go back to Equestria (temporarily) in "Forgotten Friendship". Anyway, the teens all gather at the dock to inspect it and find it to be in poor shape. Vice Principal Luna wisely suggests closing it, but Rarity is determined to host that fashion show of hers and proposes fixing up the dock during the trip, which is agreed to. Later on, everyone is making lanterns as Sci-Twi again fears she's losing control. This actually plays into the song "The Midnight in Me", which is a nice song but it ends very abruptly. Sci-Twi's fears aren't helped by her friends continuing to unintentionally mention the whole Midnight Sparkle incident like they were used to doing with Sunset Shimmer. Then, that night, Timber Spruce tells everyone a ghost story about a powerful spirit called Gaia Everfree. Apparently, Gloriosa and Timber's grandparents settled on the land that would become Camp Everfree, and Gaia Everfree didn't like that. I guess that's what happens when you mess with a Captain Planet wannabe.
They're far from subtle about Gloriosa being Gaia Everfree though, right as the ghost story ends Gloriosa shows up and scares everyone while claiming she was just doing something unrelated. And yet, whenever something strange and magical happens she's conveniently off-screen.
The following day, during camp activities, the Rainbooms start to develop magical superpowers: Applejack gets super strength, Rarity can create diamond shields with her hands (which can also repel anyone or anything that gets too close to her, as demonstrated by her accidentally knocking Applejack into the lake), Pinkie Pie can make things like sprinkles or glitter explode when thrown, Rainbow Dash has super speed (because what else would she have?) and Fluttershy can talk to animals (or at least birds), becoming just like her pony counterpart in all her wannabe Disney princess glory.
Sunset Shimmer is initially a bit disappointed she doesn't have any kind of magical powers, but she quickly decides to put that aside and tutor the Rainbooms on how to use their powers properly. Considering some of the things we've seen and will see, this kind of makes Sunset the Professor X of the group. And it leads into the song "Embrace The Magic" as the Rainbooms learn how to control their powers while repairing the dock.
However, Sci-Twi is still convinced all of this is her fault and that Midnight Sparkle is going to take over. So she decides to run away, though Sunset Shimmer follows after her into the woods. There, Sunset discovers her own magical power in that she can see people's memories when she touches their skin (either intentionally or accidentally). She fortunately is able to talk Sci-Twi out of running away and convinces her that she won't fall to the dark side, right before the two meet Timber Spruce who's wielding an axe.
Not to worry though, Timber isn't secretly a pyscho killer or anything. He's just out to get some firewood, though he grumbles about working at the camp and that there's been a proposal to redevelop the space into a mall. Sunset Shimmer thus suspects Timber is running a classic Scooby-Doo! plot with Gaia Everfree, making up a monster to scare everyone away so he can sell the land. Sunset is in fact so sure of this that she not so secretly stalks him to a meeting with Gloriosa.
When Gloriosa leaves, Sunset manages to avoid detection before she has a talk with Flash Sentry. He's more or less told that Sci-Twi isn't like pony Twilight, and he's now ready to "start over" with Sunset Shimmer. He claims it's as friends but it's possible he means something more. But I think he might be moving too fast, especially since we don't know how the break-up between him and Sunset went down. Fortunately, human Derpy is there to console Flash when he strikes out again (just like she did in "Friendship Games"). Sunset (along with Sci-Twi and Spike) eventually track Gloriosa to a small cavern hidden behind some rocks. There, they find a series of colored geodes, and Sunset is able to read Gloriosa's mind to find out the truth. All the crazy happenings at camp have been her doing, using Equestrian magic to try to make camp memorable. And this is because human Filthy Rich is going to close down and demolish the camp, mentioning that the camp is behind on its mortgage payments. However, he has opted to give Gloriosa a week or two to raise enough money to keep Camp Everfree from closing. And so this turns into the typical "We have to save the X from Y's greedy clutches" plot.
Despite the fact that she has no reason to turn on them now that they know, Gloriosa decides to imprison Sunset, Sci-Twi and Spike by using the geodes. She then transforms into Gaia Everfree proper, and this leads into the villain song "We Will Stand For Everfree" as she announces her intention to close off the camp to the outside world and trap the campers there forever. She at no point mentions going after human Filthy Rich to make him back off, and none of the campers include human Diamond Tiara which might at least somewhat justify this. All Gloriosa Daisy/Gaia Everfree is doing is targeting innocent campers who knew nothing of the camp's debts and most certainly would've been happy to help raise money for it if they'd known. I mean heck, given how fondly Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna talked about it early on, I'm sure all Gloriosa would have to do is mention the camp being in danger of closing down for good, and Celestia and Luna would gladly raise money to save it. Interestingly, the villain song is performed by Kelly Metzeger instead of Gloriosa Daisy's voice actor. No word on why that was, especially since it's not really a match. Maybe they were going for something more dramatic and menacing, like with "Luna's Future"?
Even Timber Spruce can't talk sense into his sister anymore, as it's revealed that he was trying to keep her from going off the deep end (why he didn't mention the camp's debts to anyone, I have no idea). Fortunately, Spike is able to free Sunset and Sci-Twi as they race back to join The Rainbooms (who have ponyed up). It's unfortunate that Sunset Shimmer doesn't get any wings this time, fiery or otherwise. But Sci-Twi does upon having The Rainbooms and Sunset all mentally encourage her to resist Midnight Sparkle's influence. Considering that Sci-Twi would become just a plain old unicorn upon visiting Equestria, her gaining wings here makes no sense. I mean, did they originally plan for pony Twilight for whatever reason? Anyway, the Rainbooms are able to defeat Gaia Everfree and take her geodes away, causing the vines under her control to fade away.
And seeing as Gloriosa didn't really do anything illegal (aside from tying up Sci-Twi, Sunset and Spike, but they escaped unharmed), all is forgiven. And The Rainbooms are more than happy to put on a charity concert to raise enough to save the camp, meaning there was really no need at all for Gloriosa to go crazy (take out human Filthy Rich and at least you could spin it as her grasping at straws and getting drunk on power). Then, while alone with Sci-Twi, Sunset Shimmer wonders how Equestrian magic could make its way out to a place like Camp Everfree as we see the statue at Canterlot High has been leaking magic from a crack as a result of the battle between Midnight Sparkle and Daydream Shimmer (weird how this is apparently never noticed). And what do we get for a post credits stinger this time? Human Pinkie Pie destroying the dock that the Rainbooms just finished repairing for the second time (Gaia Everfree destroyed it the first time).
And that's the story, so what do I think of the movie/special? Well, much like "Friendship Games" I'm glad they aren't piggybacking off of the parent franchise here. There's no pony involved at any point, really. There are some vague references, but ponies do not appear even the slightest bit. Equestria Girls finally got to stand fully on its own two legs here. Sunset Shimmer continued to delight with her character, showing how far she'd come since the beginning. And Sci-Twi began to quickly develop into something more than just her pony counterpart in the human world, though I'm not entirely thrilled with her getting top billing when it's just as much as Sunset's story. The Rainbooms do kind of develop a little bit here, mostly by virtue of Sunset helping them to see that Equestrian magic isn't always a bad thing and that they should stop teasing Sci-Twi over what she used to be. Gloriosa Daisy and Timber Spruce are nice, though I'm not exactly thrilled with Timber just becoming Sci-Twi's Flash Sentry and being paired up with her out of the blue (especially given the problematic age difference). However, they're far from subtle about Gloriosa being Gaia Everfree. And the existence of human Filthy Rich only serves to weaken Gloriosa/Gaia's motives since he's never targeted at any point and Gloriosa never mentions the camp debts or the threat of the camp being closed to anyone else. The insistence on a camp fashion show feels very tacked on, done solely for the sake of adding a cheap running gag of human Rarity insisting on calling the dock a runway all the time. And the post credits stinger, as funny as it is, serves no narrative purpose. In fact, by the end of this movie, only Sunset and Sci-Twi suspect that something must be up. And yet this will never be brought up again in any future specials or "episodes" of the franchise, it'll be completely forgotten even though you'd think tracking down the source of Equestrian magic would become a priority. Ultimately, this movie gets a B. It's kind of a shame that from here the Equestria Girls franchise would basically just spin its wheels and accomplish nothing aside from fanservice.
So now it's on to re-reviews of episodes from Seasons 7-9 (as well as the movie and two specials) that I want to do either because there are new points I want to bring up, or because new information has come to light about certain things that I feel are worth discussing. First up is a solo review of the first of two episodes bundled together as the Season 7 premiere despite having no connection to each other, that first episode being "Celestial Advice".
This is definitely my favorite of the movies, though it has been topped by some content to have come out later.
I don't think Gloriosa being a villaini really needs to be subtle. Not every villain needs to be surprising. Also of course Gloriosa wouldn't mention the camp debt to anyone other than Timber. She doesn't want to worry anyone, And I'm not sure what you mean by Filthy not being targeted weakening her motives? Do you mean she should've attacked him as soon as she got the powers? Because she probably was just waiting for him to come. Her motive isn't about getting revenge on who threatened her camp, it's about protecting it. And the post credits stinger being funny is enough I think. It doesn't need to be a main part of the movie as it's, you know, after the credits. This is probably my 2nd or 3rd favourite EQG movie, after Rainbow Rocks and maybe Friendship Games. I'd give it an A or A+. It's definitely the funniest of the movies and I thought the dialogue felt the most organic and natural. The songs are also really consistent and Gloriosa is a great well motivated entertaining villain.
Yeah, I remember when the Roundtable is Magic crew talked about this movie, GoldenFox said that one thing he didn't like about it was how it characterized Rarity into being obsessed with her fashion show. Also, Brawny Buck brought up in his review that there were several camp activities Rarity could've done: friendship bracelets, canoe decorating, flower crowns, leather work, basket weaving, and embroidery.
I liked this movie well enough. Sadly though, it's also the FiM-related material with a decent villain with truly sympathetic motives unlike the rest of the villainous cast from this point onwards