Equestria Girls

[Esk 201]

Personally, I can't say too much on Equestria Girls. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either.

There were some aspects I enjoyed, like how Spike acted as a moral support for Twilight, giving him an important role and another good quality for him, being a character who doesn't get much character development compared to the Mane 6. Also, Sunset Shimmer's backstory and motivations raise some interesting questions. Like, why did Celestia choose her? What did Sunset want that she couldn't have? And she does make some pretty valid points when she asks Twilight, "Do you know what happens when you take an Element of Harmony into another world?" Has something like this happened before in Equestria? I mean, the magic mirror is an interesting concept....

 

but out of all the places you could take Twilight, you choose some run-of-the-mill high school swamped with cliches and segregated cliques? I'm sorry, this is really off-putting. The designs don't help, especially on the teenagers in the background that appear constantly throughout the film. And the ending....sweet lord, that makes it even more confusing. 

 

At least it had some good moments. But the setting and the cliches surrounding it set the film back from unveiling its full potential, in my opinion.

[NavelColt 22,879]

What do you think needs to be discussed in the movie, and what do you think of the movie? Did you like the movie.

 

Heyo :3 Your topic, '*Spoiler* EQG Thoughts/Reviews Final Thoughts on what needs to be discussed' I feel is a bit of a hybrid, with the sum of its' parts being identical to that of 'Equestria Girls Post Reactions & Reviews', which you'll find pinned at the top of this forum. All reviews and afterthoughts should go there, and as such, I've merged your topic with it. As for specific discussion of sequels or other things, those themselves could make separate topics more easily. I'd check around this forum to see if they already exist though, ahead of time ^^

 

Good old @~Chaotic Discord~ is probably gunna merge this thread...I can smell him.

 

[Ficta_Scriptor 165]

OK, it looks like I've got an unpopular opinion. When I first saw the Equestria Girls trailers I didn't really think much of it. It didn't interest me that much so I just kind of ignored it. Then all these sparkling reviews came pouring in and I got really excited. And so, I spent ages searching for a place to watch it online. (It's not playing in theatres nearby) And so I did. And... I was disappointed beyond belief.

 

I don't want to spoil too much for anyone who hasn't watched it, but my main gripes are as follows. Firstly, I very quickly got sick of all the references to previous episodes and fandom 'shoutouts'. It's not funny, it's not clever, and it stinks of lazy writing. And sticking as many humanized ponies in at various points isn't entertaining. Are bronies really expected to 'squee' when Trixie shows up and starts spouting her 'great and powerful' line for absolutely no reason, or when Granny Smith is shown to be working at the school? Seriously!?

 

Anyway, my next problem is the plot. Any and all whiffs of confrontation and struggle are solved so quickly and so easily, (and that deus ex machina... Someone needs to educate McCarthy on that issue) that it ends up playing out as predictably as you'd expect.

 

As for the jokes, I laughed maybe twice in the entire movie. Once during a little Spike/Rarity moment and again at a scene where the CMC were in the library. In fact, the CMC scene is pretty much an example of how the movie should have played out IMO. They didn't reference anything from the show. They didn't call Scoots a chicken. They didn't call Applebloom a dictionary. There was no mention of cutie marks or equivalent. Just the CMC acting adorably funny. I wish we saw more of that, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.

 

As for the rest, I thought the songs were pretty forgettable, and I was left confused by how little spotlight time the Twilight/Flash romance thing had. Nothing really happened, and the movie made no effort to spell out any real reasons why they may have liked each other other than 'ERMAHGERD CUTE'. At least the animation was OK.

 

And now I feel kind of sad. I see a lot of comments from people saying "So now those people who hated on it will see how wrong they were," and yet, I feel the complete opposite, and I'm left wondering what it feels like to have enjoyed it. I wanted Equestria girls to be good. The glowing reviews got me excited, got me ready to have my expectations shattered. But in the end, my opinion is that the movie was awful. Not 'good but not great', not 'OK I guess', but just plain awful. And given just how many people out there loved it, saying that makes me feel alone.

 

And to make things clear, I'm not trying to insult anyone who actually enjoyed it, neither am I posting for flame-bait, or trying to make any kind of comment about either Hasbro or DHX. I'm just posting my opinion, just like you all have.

[Capt. Snuggle Gruff 101]

I have to say at first I wanted to burn the movie and all who dared to watch it.  But after seeing it I completely changed my mind.  I thought that it might ruin the original show but I think it added on to it in a great way.  Can't say, however, that I liked how EVERY character had short skirts.........that was just kinda weird.......they could have used Faust's designs.  But oh well not that big of a deal. Also I did think that the end transformation of Sunlight Shimmer was a bit weird, I mean come on........a dragon human crossbreed thing?  I guess It just makes as much sense as ponies turning into humans.  But all in all, I really did enjoy it a lot!  Really great movie. I also loved the Transformers reference from Pinkie Pie 

[Batbrony 16,053]

OK, well, I saw it... finally.  Just last night, on YouTube.  Um, spoilers ahead, but I think that's irrelevant at this point.  So, before I get into the review proper... let's go back to late winter/early spring, when Season 3 ended and we first heard about... this, in order to fully understand how all of this happened.

 

So just as Season 3 was ending (I mean, just days before "Magical Mystery Cure" aired), certain art started circulating the Internet.  Humanized art of the Mane 6.  This would generally be unremarkable, especially seeing as the art was generally considered subpar at best, except for one thing; it was heavily rumored that this was concept art for a humanized pony project.  So what did the fans do?  WE FREAKED!!!  And, as it turns out, for good reason.  The coming months we were served one of the most atrocious marketing campaigns I've ever seen.  For most of it, all we had was poor concept art; next, we got even worse concept art.  It was only until about a month before the movie released that we were FINALLY given a 1 minute trailer.  Said trailer split the fans a lot more.  Some remained convinced it wouldn't be good, others thought it would be awful, many remained indifferent, but about, I want to say, two-thirds of the fans at that point became optimistic that EQG would actually turn out decently.  "Trust the writers" became the most common-heard phrase once again, and that was reinforced by the second trailer's release.  Myself?  I remained skeptical throughout this whole thing, and somewhat cynical.  But, at the same time, I was not willing to pass final judgment until it came out.

 

So, marketing covered, let's look at my theory on how this thing got made, I mean, what the process exactly was.  Here's what I think happened; going back to Season 3, we know that DHX partially designed it the way it did because they were uncertain as to whether or not they'd be renewed for a fourth season.  "Magical Mystery Cure" is at its heart supposed to work as a series finale, if it came down to that.  We know from what writers like Meghan McCarthy have said that DHX did not learn they'd been renewed for a fourth season until very shortly before the season finale of Season 3.  My theory is that it was JUST around when they learned they'd be renewed that DHX was simultaneously handed Equestria Girls by the suits at Hasbro, hence the reason it took so long to get a trailer out.  So, let's take the circumstances under which they were given Equestria Girls all into account: (1) they were given at best about a 4-5 month time span to develop this movie, (2) this was a HORRIBLE concept to begin with, in my opinion, and even if you don't think it was a bad premise, it certainly could not have been one that DHX was planning on working on anytime soon, (3) the sole purpose that Hasbro had for bringing this concept to the big screen was painfully obviously for marketing reasons, to open up a whole new market of toys (although I still can't imagine who they think is going to buy those dolls considering they look quite hideous), (4) DHX had to develop something they probably didn't even want to work on while simultaneously beginning development of Season 4, something I'm sure they were far more motivated to delve into.  Basically, what I'm getting at is, looking at all of these theoretical factors, from the start EQG was being developed under the worst circumstances possible.  The only upside it had going for it was that it had a very good studio and voice actresses working on it, but that's it.

 

So then, it got released... and I watched it... and what did I think?

 

Well... it was far more entertaining and likable than it had any right to be.  So, let's get the pros out of the way first.

 

The voice acting was great as usual.  The best I've ever heard from the girls?  Probably not.  But they just own these roles at this point, they slip into them SO naturally that they don't even really have to try, and you could tell they were trying their darnedest!!!  All of them were in character as far as tone and expressions go, and some really shone.  Highlights for me include Twilight (which is good, considering so much focus was put on her), Spike (who probably had his best role since "The Crystal Empire"), Principal Celestia (who struck a nice balance between similar and different enough from her Equestrian counterpart), and... PINKIE PIE.  Oh my gosh, did I love Pinkie Pie!!!  Pinkie Pie... just never stop being you!  She was hands down the best human counterpart of all of the HuMane Six, she was completely random and unpredictable, but at the same time actually felt like a character, something I could not say for the rest of the HuMane Six.

 

Next, animation.  The pony animation was hands down the most gorgeous in the movie, DHX has simply mastered it at this point.  As for the human world, the environment was colorful enough, I certainly liked that.  The human models could've been worse, and for what they were, they weren't terrible, but ultimately I didn't like them that much.  Will talk more about them later.

 

Music.  I despise teen pop, but Daniel Ingram and William Anderson somehow managed to pull off a strange hybrid of the show's usual musical feel with a more urban, poppy feel that, musically at least, was very enjoyable.  The "Equestria Girls" song was insanely catchy and hands down the best song of the movie, but all of them sounded pleasant enough.  That said, I will have more to say about the music later.

 

Finally, the plot.  Well... no, not much good to say about the plot.  I will say that, if this were a longer feature with less subplots, or even just the same length and less subplots as it was, it could've been executed FAR better.  But, it's time for the cons.

 

Well, might as well talk about the big one first.  The plot.  Oh me, oh my, this story was a mess.  The overall story was straightforward enough.  Twilight's crown gets stolen, she needs to get it back for the sake of both Equestria and the human world.  But the execution was... shoddy at best.  My favorite part (besides anything in Equestria of course) was honestly when Twilight first showed up, because not too much was happening, and so the movie felt like it had a nice pace going.  She and Spike had some fun interactions, and some of the jokes during that section really worked.  In fact, the movie frequently made me laugh plenty, and kept me plenty entertained.

 

The problems came in wrapping it all up, for two big reasons: (1) pacing, and (2) subplots.  Oh my gosh, were there A LOT of subplots!!!  But first, the pacing.  In hindsight, for a 70 minute feature with as many subplots as this, that aforementioned section when Twilight first shows up should've been much shorter, or at least featured the rest of the HuMane Six much more.  The second half was a complete and utter mess!  Events building up to the fall formal and showing Twilight getting to know and befriend the HuMane Six happened WAYYYYYY too quickly, and the pacing of the overall story was constantly thrown off by the subplots, some of which were completely unnecessary.  So yeah, no point in avoiding it, let's talk about those subplots.  All told, I want to say there were about... seven subplots total?  Some of them got far too little attention, and so didn't really feel like they even got resolved, like the cliques at the high school or Sunsent Shimmer's motivations.  Others got FAR MORE attention than they should have even though they were simultaneously really short, and so felt both completely unnecessary and pointless and also blown out of proportion (i.e. Flash Sentry, actually, buck that, I'm calling him Brad Pony subplot and the STUPID AS BUCK Vice Principal Luna subplot which was a conflict for about 30 seconds, not even joking!).  What we got as a result was this: lots of plot holes, poor pacing, unnecessary plot points, and a BUTT TON OF PLOT CONTRIVANCES!!!  So that leads me to my next con: the characters.

 

Dark Qiviut put this really well in his excellent review of EQG when he said that just because the girls were in character DOES NOT mean that the HuMane Six were 3-dimensional characters.  The only ones who really felt like that for me were (1) Twilight and Spike (but that's only because I knew they were the established Equestrian characters), and (2) Pinkie Pie, who as I said earlier they wrote fantastically!!!  The rest, if it weren't for the fact that they were technically NOT the Mane Six, would've felt soooooo OOC.  At the best of times, they did things that we'd expect of their Equestrian counterparts, but the reasoning/personal motivations behind such behavior remained elusive.  At their worst, they were stereotypes of their Equestrian counterparts (again, like DQ said, and please don't hate me for this DF, RD said awesome at least one too many times) and really behaved, for lack of a better word, just really, really DUMB.  There was absolutely no good reason that they had fallen for Sunset's messing with their friendship, and they seriously never thought of asking their friends of many years about one-time alleged betrayals?!?!  THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS DO!!  No wait, scratch that, THAT'S JUST WHAT ANYONE WITH HALF-A-BRAIN DOES!!!!!!!  It was so contrived and so unbelievable that it just felt like they were wasting our time with creating any conflict between this group in the first place.  Instead, they should have introduced them far earlier on and had them help Twilight adjust, instead of force Twilight to bring them back together as friends in order to give them a reason to befriend her, because it all just felt so forced and contrived!!!  Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity were pretty much all in character, aside from being dumb there just wasn't anything to their characters, but Rainbow Dash?  Rainbow Dash was... *braces for RD fan hate* KIND OF A DOUCHE!  She didn't show up that much, she felt like more of a stereotype of her character than any of the other HuMane Six, and that soccer subplot was COMPLETELY IDIOTIC AND DOUCHEY!!!!!!!  Even though she didn't know that Twilight wasn't used to walking on two legs, she could easily infer that she wouldn't be any good at soccer.  Twilight had already helped bring her and AJ back together as friends, so really, it's BS what she said about Twilight having to prove she was worth befriending/helping out.  Plus, she didn't even explain that until AFTER she'd schooled Twilight!  So it really came across the whole time (which was thankfully only about two minutes) as just a really mean-spirited, petty, and utterly useless and unnecessary bit of ego stroking that's arrogant and bombastic even by RD's standards!!!

 

Next, supporting/background characters from the show.  Snips and Snails were HORRIBLY written and portrayed.  I honestly think the only reason they were even used here was because DHX loves the two voice actors who voice them, and I don't blame them for that, I like those voice actors as well and I think those two characters can be really funny.  These guys... they weren't funny.  They were bullies and evil and very OOC.  It just wasn't the two dimwitted colt residents of Ponyville that I love and I have no idea why they went with that portrayal beyond "oh, Sunset needs some cronies!".  Principal Celestia as I said earlier was pretty bearable, but Vice Principal Luna?  OH MY GOSH, SHE WAS A MORON!!!!!!!  As I mentioned earlier, her 30 second subplot, tied with the soccer subplot, was probably the most useless subplot of the entire movie!!!  She seriously thought that Twilight trashed the gym after being given pictures of a paper cutout of Twilight glued onto another picture?????????? 

 

 

Seriously, A FIVE YEAR OLD COULD FIGURE THAT OUT!!!!!!!  And it doesn't matter anyway, because the "subplot" gets resolved about 10 seconds later, not even joking.  It was completely and utterly pointless, and it made human Luna look like an idiot!!!  As for any other background ponies that showed up, their cameos were cute enough.  I spotted Cloud Kicker, Photo Finish, Vinyl, Derpy (which was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!  ), the CMC, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, Twist, maybe Pipsqueak, Big Mac, Granny Smith, and Trixie, and all of their appearances were harmless enough.  Some of them, like Derpy, Trixie, and the CMC were absolutely hilarious, and even though not all of them made sense, like taking Vinyl's glasses off in the EQG song for no apparent reason other than, "Hey bronies, look, her eyes!!!", they were harmless and didn't feel too much like pandering.  And yeah, if I'm gonna be honest, that Trixie cameo may have been so dumb, but it was SO AMAZING!!!!!!!! 

 

Finally, the new characters.

 

*sigh*  The new characters... where do I begin?  Guess we'll start with Sunset.

 

Sunset Shimmer was... absolutely wasted.  Hands down, she's the worst villain the show's had yet.  Every other villain thus far has had (1) clear motivations and (2) come across as a real and dangerous threat.  Sunset had neither.  Her motivations were not revealed until the VERY end of the movie, and since her background was very poorly explained as well, we just got a villain who I had no bucking idea why she was doing ANY of what she was doing other than to be a jerk, which DOES NOT make for a threatening villain.  All we got was a bully, and a really cliche bully at that.  On top of that, she has one of the worst plans I've ever heard of!!!  She basically planned on taking over Equestria with, if I'm being really generous, 50-100 zombified minions, who wouldn't have even been that much of a threat even if they were turned into hellspawn like Snips and Snails.  Here's exactly what she said:

 

"I want Equestria!  And with my own little teenage army behind me, I'm going to get it!!!"

 

...

 

...

 

...

 

"My own little teenage army..."

 

"TEENAGE ARMY!!!!!!!" 

 

That's the stupidest, most unthreatening line and plan I've EVER heard!!!!!!!!!!  Sombra was more threatening with his crystal fetish!!!!!!  And it's such a shame, because I absolutely LOVED Sunset's pony design!!!  It was very different from what we'd gotten in the past with villains, and she as a whole had a lot of potential to be a good villain.  Two students of Celestia face off, that should've been AWESOME!!!  Instead, she was LAME!!!!!!  Just utterly lame, stupid, and cliche.  Her rushed redemption at the end, which made Trixie's look like it was balanced and drawn out, did not help, since it was too fast and poorly explained.  Overall, I'm very disappointed in how Sunset turned out.

 

Next, Brad Pony (no, I refuse to call him Flash Sentry, that's a cool name, something he is not!).  I'm not as mad about how he turned out just because I always had low expectations about him, but that doesn't mean I'm happy he exists.  He was... worthless.  He literally contributed nothing to the plot or helping Twilight out EXCEPT for resolving the aforementioned STUPIDEST SUBPLOT EVER with Vice Principal Luna, which was basically thrown in just to get him 30 seconds more screen time with Twilight.  He was cliche, there was no character to him whatsoever, his being Sunset's ex-boyfriend didn't affect the plot in the slightest, and most importantly, the romantic subplot was both unnecessary, poorly developed, and made NO SENSE!  He and Twilight probably share at most 5 minutes of screen time together.  For only 3 minutes of that screen time do they even engage in conversation, if it can be called that.  The rest was blushing, awkwardness, blushing, dancing, more blushing, and more awkwardness.  Did I mention the blushing?  Yeah, there was no good reason that he and Twilight had any chemistry at all!!!  If anything, the fact that he dated Sunset Shimmer raised the uncomfortable possibility that he's just a really shallow guy who dates girls because they're hot, seeing as Sunset had no magical powers without the crown and so I doubt influenced him at all (plus maybe this was just me but I thought that, uh, "flirty" look he kept shooting at Twilight was creepy as heck!!!).  Whatever the case, there was just no justification for the romance (especially considering Twilight should not really be finding any humans attractive when she's only in their world for three days and has no prior experience with them and so no real reason to even find any of them attractive by her equine standards) or even his existence, and I pray that DHX doesn't retain him for Season 4.  There could be romance in MLP, I've never been opposed to that, but THAT'S not the way it should be pulled off!

 

Well that wraps up characters, so let's tackle a last few tidbits.

 

Things about animation I didn't like: the humans.  They were pulled off far better than they could've been (especially judging by the early concept art), but still, they felt very mechanical compared to the pony models, and there just wasn't any personality from any of the BG characters like there was with the ponies.  They all looked too similar, they all wore the same clothes, had very similar designs, and just didn't really jump off the screen.  For what they were, they were fine, but nothing exemplary.  Oh yeah, and the useless equine/human transformation at the end was POINTLESS (and also kinda terrifying)!!!!!!!!  Nothing, I mean, NOTHING came as a result of the girls getting wings and... pony ears, I think, EXCEPT Rainbow Dash flying with Scoots on her back and THAT... WAS... IT!!!!!!!!!!!  That happened for one reason, and one reason only... BECAUSE HASBRO WANTS TO MAKE TOYS!!!!  Ughhh... and seriously, those designs when they transformed were kinda terrifying, and NO ONE WAS FREAKING OUT ABOUT THE MAGIC OR THE TRANSFORMATIONS AT ALL!!!!!!!!  Really, best line of the movie might've been Spike going, "The talking dog is the weird thing about all this?!?!" just because it was so delightfully meta!

 

Oh yeah, and boots...

 

EVERYONE WEARS BOOTS IN THIS MOVIE, EVEN DEMON HELLSPAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

As for the music, the only thing I didn't like about it was, well, the lyrics.  Aside from "Equestria Girls" the other songs had really forgettable and repetitive lyrics, and I could tell that Daniel Ingram wasn't giving his all in that department (which further reinforces my theory that he and the rest of DHX were not looking forward to doing this and just trying to get it over with, or just short on time).  Besides that, no other real complaints; like I said earlier, I liked the sound of the music, it's just the lyrics usually didn't work (but seriously, "Equestria Girls" is catchy as heck!!!).

 

So time for final thoughts.  For many, this was a project that had a lot of potential from the beginning.  Me, I'm more of a realist/cynic; I was always skeptical because from the start the circumstances seemed to be really bad.  Little time to develop this, a bad concept to begin with, really cliched, and... it basically turned out like I thought it would.  Is it fandom ending or going to destroy MLP, of course not, it's just a little bump in the road is all.  To its credit, DHX and the VAs made it FAR more entertaining and likable than I thought it would be.  I was plenty engaged, laughed plenty, and just loved, loved, LOVED the voice work!!!  BUT overall, the story and characters were poorly handled and executed, the animation and music in some respects were subpar compared to their MLP counterparts, and ultimately this was just a bad movie, not even average, but pretty bad objectively.  That doesn't mean I didn't like things about it, because I did, and that's to DHX's credit, but there's no denying there was A LOT of bad in this thing, and that's all on Hasbro.  I think the biggest thing we can all take away from this is that, no matter how good the studio and the team, even the best of teams cannot overcome the worst of circumstances if they're dealt a very, very bad hand, and that's what I think happened here.  So no, I'm not worried about the quality of Season 4 as a result of this.  I'm quite optimistic about Season 4 and excited for it, and if anything I think DHX is excited to get back to focusing solely on ponies as well.  Plus, they have already been working on it and will overall have at least twice as much time to develop it as they did EQG, so really, I think we've got a great season ahead of us.  So, with nothing further to say, those are my thoughts on EQG.

 

Final Score: 5/10

Edited June 28, 2013 by Batbrony

[I Love Derpy 10]

I watched the movie Equestria Girls like three times already 

Not bad I rate it a 7 out of 10

Me and my friends were looking for hidden characters and Easter eggs and such.

I mange to find the PSY  gandam style guy in Equestria Girls!!!!

Derpy I it as well!

granny smath gained some weight 

Rainbow Dash became Mexican 

Big Mac turned into a ginger 

Luna Does not even look like luna

And what the hell is up with Spike and rarity (Bestiality going on?)

Kids Movie?!!?

I think not, Sunset Shimmer turned into a flipping Demon!!!! 

But overall I think it was alot of fun to watch and I enjoyed the music (Very catchy)

[Dreadmallon 353]

   Yeah, I suppose it's an alright film. I have some trouble swallowing certain aspects (The FlashLight subplot (had high hopes prior to watching; disappointed), Sunset Shimmer, and more), but nothing that will say it's the worst film ever. 
 

P.S I believe this thread has a misleading title.

[Raiden21 804]

Here's Psy. I think I saw this gif on /mlp/. I found it pretty funny. The movie Equestria girls wasn't as bad as I expected, but still pretty bad.

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

@@I Love Derpy,

 

Hello there. We happened to have a pinned topic for the purpose of giving and discussing reviews and impressions about the Equestria Girls movie, and as this was the subject of your thread, it has been merged with the older one.

[Party Cannon 876]

@@I Love Derpy,

 

Hello there. We happened to have a pinned topic for the purpose of giving and discussing reviews and impressions about the Equestria Girls movie, and as this was the subject of your thread, it has been merged with the older one.

 

AH! I should have taken into account you ! While @~Chaotic Discord~ strikes hard, you strike swiftly, moving posts and topics in ten seconds flat.

 

[DJRainbowDash 724]

The movie was overall pretty good, nothing too special or out of the ordinary in those type of movies. I enjoyed how Twilight was able to reunite old friends and use that to stop Sunset Shimmer, even as cliche as it was overall.

 

Spike's role in the movie as almost emotional support for Twilight was done extremely well, and I commend the writers for making him one of the enduring parts of the whole movie. For once, I actually enjoyed everything Spike did. Bravo!

 

I think each mane 6 human counterpart was done well, with the exception of Applejack. Don't get me wrong, I think they did the character justice in design and how she acted, but she seemed to be the lone character in which the writer's didn't seem to know what to do with. She was just there for the sake of being there at points, and even though I'm not a huge AJ fan, I wish she could of had a more concrete role or presence. She didn't seem to have any sort of group she belonged to. 

 

The ending seemed... random if anything, with Sunset Shimmer's transformation and all. I didn't really see the point in doing that when they did. 

 

The songs were catchy and nicely done, and I especially enjoyed Pinkie Pie's human counterpart, and I'd say she was done the best, 2nd would be Fluttershy.

 

Overall, 7/10 for me.

 

And here is an extra clip from the movie. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN7uq3ABPOQ

[Vermillion 613]

Holyyy shit nipples...i watched this last night and guess what it was actually goood !

i was sooo surprised the voice acting was great...as always

the animation was good but i didnt like the style of it 

and the thing that surprised me the most was....i liked the storyline  

[NoOneInParticular 49]

I just got done watching this movie; I posted my thoughts on it here (Note: this post was accidentally deleted a long time ago and it's gone forever, so I removed the link). My main point is:

 

I liked the movie, it definitely retains the spirit of the show proper, but some parts could have been done better.

Edited December 11, 2015 by NoOneInParticular

[Orablanco Account 3,707]

Here, have my review:

 

http://mlpforums.com/blog/722/entry-5591-citruss-opinion-on-equestria-girls-a-movie-review/

 

In short, meh. Could have been a lot worst, but also could have been much better, even with the dumb premise.

[Megas 27,594]

Reposted from another thread since this one was more approriate

 

 

Finally caved in and saw it 

 

What I didn't like:

Flash Sentry sucks(the human version, for some reason I didn't mind the pony version)

Disappointed in Sunset Shimmer(they didn't explain her enough, not very developed, had a lot more potential)

The overuse of modern tech(i.e. texting, cellphones, etc.,). A minor nitpick, but for some reason it just bugged me

The fact that Snips and Snails had more screen time than two of my favorite mane 6

The climax and Sunset Shimmer's Heel/Face turn

Did I mention Flash Sentry sucks?

 

What I did like:

Twilight 

Pinkie Pie

I still managed to like Sunset Shimmer

Spike was at his best

The other mane 6 were great as well

Fandom shout outs

Despite my opinions about the technology, the CMC moment in the library was funny

Had some genuinely funny moments

Trixie had some great moments too

 

Overall, I give it a 6-7 outta 10, not the greatest thing ever, but there was still I enjoyed. However, I think only fans would be able to like this

[NoOneInParticular 49]

One thing I really thought was clever in this movie was all the callbacks to the actual series, such as RBD doing the "so awesome" face complete with a soundbite from that episode.

[Budding Night 1,043]

Not in my country. Just finished watching the full movie online. Four Words: ALL OF MY YES

I'm just so full of yes right now, all the references, ponies from the show and the way they did everything was PERFECT in my opinion.

Just.. Just... All of it! Some parts did seem like they went by too quickly, but I don't care, new favourite movie.

Also, Flash x Twilie OTP <33 I'm not sorry

Edited June 28, 2013 by Budding Night

[Meirno 550]

In a nutshell, this movie was all I expected it to be. A new taste of our amazing ponies. A new experience to entertain us and hold us over till season 4. The animation wasn't so great, the art was alright at best. But it was good. It was worth the hour and 14 some minutes. People over reacted to this movies way too much for what it is. Most of this isn't even Friendship is Magic canonized. We'll be lucky to even heard about it in season 4. The music was pretty good, compared to the majority of MLP songs though it was about mid pack. 

 

The ending got really weird, though. I'm sure they could have redone that, because it almost felt like a crunch decision. They were running out of time and needed to do something. So I wasn't a huge fan of the end. As well as some parts felt a little out of character. Also, the part where Demonized Sunset Shimmer said "Twilight has interefered with my plans one too many times. She must die." is extremely over the top for being My Little Pony.

 

Also; Sailor Moon reference with the transformations? Any one else pick up or feel like this?

 

The fan service was very much there, and I'd say a perfect quantity. Being a movie, they had a bit more freedom. I respect them for it.

[YoshiDash 21]

the movie itself was pretty good and I liked it, I think that EG don't air in Finland so... I watch latest news from the web and one more thing...

[Snowdream 221]

I really want to see this movie now!  Sadly, there are no theatres anywhere close by that is showing it for either dates that it's shown!    I think I'll just have to wait until it releases to DVD.

Here, this is a link to the full movie uploaded onto youtube

 

EQUESTRIA GIRLS MOVIE IS ON YOUTUBE!!!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ade-VyDI2cw

 

So now everyone who is posting they can't watch it because it isn't playing in their area have a way to watch it

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,379]

So, I watched the movie again with much better quality and sound and half of the screen was not blocked!

 

All I have to say, I friggin' LOVE this movie! The animation, again, is SUPERB and it looked better in this particular video. The songs are incredibly catchy  and fun, the Helping Twilight Win the Crown song being my favorite. Sunset Shimmer is actually a damn good villain in my opinion, she is just very intimidating, especially later on, where she is scary! (By the way, did I really hear her say "That is why Twilight must die!"? That is, AWESOME) Plus, the ending was quite emotional with Shimmer, in my opinion. Call me a wimp, but it almost made me cry. The overall tone and message of the film, which is of course that Friendship is Magic, but also the concept of being who you are. That was done so damn well.

 

There are just so many things that I love about the movie that my wording is really sucking here. I know I am not listing them all and that I already reviewed the film, but seeing it a second time and in much better quality made me love it even more. 

 

Plus, Derpy.

[Jep the Sea God 5]

just watch Equestria Girls first time with my friend, i must say it could be one of the most touching movie i ever watch an it touched my heart so deeply it not even funny

[Bhending the Rules 697]

I previously posted my abridged take in this topic, but that wasn't enough. Here's my video review of the movie. (Note: mid-point has clearly marked spoilers. If you don't want those you can still watch the first ~3 minutes.)

 

[Dark Qiviut 22,388]

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is the semi-blockbuster for the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic franchise. The fourth generation has garnered hype and popularity since its inception on October 10, 2010, with the help of the target audience (families), market audience (families and families of little girls), and periphery demographic (everyone else — the teenager-and-up bronies, for example). However, unlike Friendship Is Magic, Equestria Girls's market audience is adolescent girls — ages ten to fourteen. With the premise revealed and controversy surrounding the spinoff, how does the movie itself hold up?

To answer several questions and thoughts before I write the official commentary:

• If you watched the
  , you'll notice one segment where Twilight has trouble flying, a retcon from Magical Mystery Cure's ending. The clip in the commercial came from this movie.
• Flash Sentry, who was featured not that much and didn't have much dialogue, was a love interest. In passing, Rarity said Flash Sentry and Sunset were a couple, but broke up. Twilight gained a crush on him, and the two mutually respect each other.
• Derpy is featured at least thrice in the movie, once deep in the credits dancing to the tune and the second during Equestria Girls (the song) twice. In the latter, she appears walking in the lower-right-hand corner in the school cafeteria and dancing in the background as the song closes.
• There was a common question about why Twilight didn't stealing the crown back before retreating as fast as she could to the portal. Spike queried Twilight why she didn't ask Principal Celestia where it was, but that was the closest it came to this idea. Twilight didn't bother searching for it at any point in the movie.
• In the back of Sunset Shimmer's toy packaging, she's referenced as a former student for Celestia. In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, she was Celestia's former student who later abandoned her studies.
• Twilight Sparkle, while in her human form, didn't attended classes (at least on screen).
• At no point is the word "human" even uttered.
• If you wish to see the plot summary, head to its wiki page here.

Now to my standard review.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls markets to adolescent girls via the content within, but DHX and Meghan McCarthy are responsible for animate and write the movie. On one hand, there is plenty of material to attract the parents and periphery demographic with the wit and humor. On the other, there is so much, from the little details to the characterization to the overall concept, that is extremely patronizing to the periphery demographic to the point of segregating them from the rest of the audience. It has the potential and shows it occasionally, but on the whole, it's one gigantic clunker.

First, there are strengths:

• The animation of the animals is extremely fluid. To repeat, one element from the series that is often overlooked is the quality and improvement of the animal animation. Instead of using Flash as a cost-cutting measure, DHX uses it as a crucial tool to develop the animation and make it as useful as handdrawing them, akin to a full-length Disney animated picture. The same can be said for Spike as both a dragon and dog. The way both designs move demonstrate no noticeable hitches or glitches.
• In the alternate world, the environmental graphics are solid. It's school, but it feels like a lively school, with bright colors, land, shadows, and many other nuances. In front of Canterlot High is a horse statue that contains numerous details to make it look polished and beautiful. You can see, pause, and observe the details in that statue.
• There are no complaints for the excellent voice work. Whenever they talked, the dialogue, reactions, and exclamations didn't sound fake or poorly acted. When Twilight was anxious, she appeared anxious. When Spike was concerned or snarky, he sounded exactly that. The tones were believable. Sunset Shimmer was a bully, and her aggressive voice (as a human, pony, and bitchy demon) fit her personality.
• Like the episodes themselves, one crucial point in the series is both the background musical score and song score.
  
  a. Once more, William Anderson performed well. Each time his score came into play, the mood resonates and correlates. When the situation was calm, the score captured that feeling of calm. When Twilight was anxious or panicking, Anderson's tunes captured that panic. During the lone fight scene, the score revved up to represent adrenaline and urge, and it matched the scene well.
  
  And if you are a Star Wars geek like I am, take a listen to the score once Twilight opens Principal Celestia's door open with her head. You'll notice a tiny bit of a Star Wars-esque tune before it switches into something more fitting to Celestia.
  
  b. Daniel Ingram is responsible for the song score, and what he did really harnessed the feeling of youth. The songs are teen pop, which tends to be upbeat, young, and urban in its music. According to Ingram, this is something very foreign to him, which he did quite well in two (three?) songs:
  
  i. A Strange New World: This is the most unique of the songs in terms of tone. In the other songs, you can really notice the similarities in the drums, symbols, and rhythm. In this one, however, the mood is much more different, which means a change of pace in the music. It's lower and doesn't have as much adrenaline compared to the others.
  
  ii. Equestria Girls: The second the song begins to plays, there's a tribute to Queen's We Will Rock You. It's by far the catchiest song in the entire movie, and Ingram's upbeat, high-paced score (akin to a song played at a baseball game during a road team's mound conference) revs up tremendous adrenaline, starting small and then climatically ending on a continuously high note.
  
  iii. The instrumental theme for the characters' transformation. If you're going to give this moment any impact, it's important to put in a great score for it. Ingram (Anderson?) did exactly that, combining the teen pop genre with the feeling of magic and majesty in the instruments.
• The characterization of the humans is rather decent. Twilight's misadventures as a human really fit her, for she transformed from a pony so suddenly. As for the other humans, their dialogue fits their personalities and roles (Principal Celestia, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, etc.).
• But there's one human who stole the show in some capacity: Pinkie Pie. If you love Pinkie Pie, you'll love her glorious performance. For almost the entire movie, she was extremely in character and random, but didn't behave like a mindless clone from Too Many Pinkie Pies. Whatever she was going to say, you had no idea when or where. But whenever she did, it fit her so well. She wasn't random for the sake of it nor was she random during very crucial, dire moments. If she was serious, she was. When she was surprised, she was surprised. When she wanted to surprise someone with her hilarious antics, you had no idea how, whether it's her "hunch," breaking the fourth wall, or hanging upside-sown with a megaphone in her hand. She was fantastic here and gave her character so much justice.
• A little detail, but Principal Celestia shone early in the movie. Her sassy, snarky expression once Twilight entered her office was funny, and she showed both patience and impatience. In that small clip, she displayed a bigger sense of character than her pony counterpart: her strength of wisdom, but a psychological flaw of greater importance and not wanting to waste time participating in needless conversations.
• When Spike is well-written, he is a tremendous character, and he was excellent here. The design choice of him being Twilight's dog is still stupid because it relegated him to a pet instead of Twilight's surrogate brother, but he was the levelheaded figure of the duo. He was intelligent, witty, and the wiser of the two. He sometimes said something that was hilarious and not as smart as he hoped, but he knew Twilight very well and guided her whenever she got stuck, lost, or anxious. DHX, this is how Spike SHOULD be written: not a comedic butt of jokes, but a character who's worth his screentime and attention to the audience. Suffice it to say, it's his best role since The Crystal Empire.
• Twilight Sparkle was adorkable, but not the same Twilight compared to season three. All of the character growth from the pilot to Magical Mystery Cure was retained: nervous, mature, and capable of quickly regaining her composure. Her leadership, which isn't highlighted as much as it should, played a role in many parts of the movie, from making her human companions of her friends again to being the one who helped clean up the mess in the hall to leading the chase in the end.
  
  (That said, I expect Twilight to grow more and make her change to an alicorn princess worthwhile so Magical Mystery Cure does not come off as a more haphazard disguise for the toyline than it already is.)

That said, there are many issues, some small, some quite big.

• One big issue in many of season three's episodes is the pace, either because it's too fast or too slow. This issue is evident here on many occasions.
  
  a. Twilight was transformed into a human and had to adapt in order to retrieve her Element of Harmony. In what is a seventy-minute movie, Twilight had to adapt to being a human in only three days. Transformation from one species to another is not as easy to adapt as you logically think. Think about a baby walking. When a baby tries to walk the first time, he or she will stumble and fall down. Eventually, the baby will walk, but it won't happen right away. It takes plenty of time to adjust, and this example applies to Twilight. She's smart, but isn't going to go from acting like a four-legged mammal to a human who's capable of wiggling her fingers and walking on her two feet in a couple of days. Getting used to having different anatomy takes plenty of time to adapt, and it's too quick.
  
  b. A common issue in the series: explaining a villain's backstory with as little detail as possible. Sunset Shimmer is the main villain in the entire movie, and Celestia didn't explain her history as thoroughly as she should. If given one or two more minutes to explain her past more, then Shimmer's transformation from a confident student to a dishonest, egotistical bully might've made more sense. Instead, Celestia's explanation was rushed and only opened up more questions about her past. Sunset's flimsy excuse following her defeat didn't close the door on these questions, either, but rather left them just as open, if not more.
  
  c. Twilight's crush, Flash Sentry (a.k.a., Brad), is boring and flat. As a character, he has very little personality. Sure, he's supposed to be kind and gentlemanly, but when he spoke, there was so little to demonstrate something from him that stands out and make him thoroughly three-dimensional. Any physical, psychological, and emotional flaws that make the characters thrive are absent, and he had so few roles to make him verbally stand out. Basically, he was a tertiary character.
  
  d. The mutual respect for both Flash Sentry and Twilight resorts to three common clichés: Flash helping Twilight to her feet; Flash and Twilight bumping into each other, having a "crush-y" moment, and Flash being Sunset's ex-boyfriend.
  
  The latter cliché is such a major copout for two reasons: It creates unnecessary conflict (which never got brought up following the revelation), and it's a cheap excuse to hook Twilight and Flash up. If you want to write genuinely good quality cruses and romance, don't fall for these stupid traps that intellectually insult your audience.
  
  Furthermore, the family-friendly romantic feelings were implausibly developed. At one point, they met. The next, Twilight developed a crush. The third, Flash and Twilight developed mutual respect for each other. There was so much going on, no time for them to mutually communicate was given.
  
  e. From the beginning to the end, the plot crammed way too much information for it to flow plausibly. This is a seventy-minute movie that featured several plot points, and it's up to McCarthy and the rest of DHX to have everything flow smoothly and plausibly: Twilight learning how to be a human, regain the crown, team up with her Human Five counterparts, defeat Sunset Shimmer, develop a crush on Flash Sentry along the way, and return home all in three days. What was given the ample opportunity to develop everything well was cut for the required time given for the movie. When you're forced to cut corners to cram so much detail, you risk greatly diminishing the quality of the story. That's exactly the case here, with the plot going, "too much information, too little time." If anything, this movie should've been longer.
• While the animation of the ponies and other animals is fluent, the humans are very subpar. With the exception of the twirling during Equestria Girls, the humans don't appear fluid at all. For one, the squash and stretch (an important principle in animation) are missing most of the time. When they walk and run, it doesn't have that organic motor of their legs. When the characters walk, run, pose, or throw, it's as if I turned on a machine. Instead of using Flash as a crucial tool to produce high-quality animation, it comes across as a crutch to cut corners.
  
  While nitpicky, Snails carried that wheelbarrow full of bricks as if it was empty. One brick alone is extremely heavy, and he's pushing at least a dozen. That's about two hundred pounds of bricks. For a team that takes its physics very seriously, DHX slipped up here.
• The cause of the division of the Human Five is out of character. While teens are extremely naïve, the Human Five are extremely intelligent, and they were all friends when they went to High School as freshmen. When Sunset Shimmer sabotaged their friendship with questionable messages, in-character beings of themselves would've gone to the supposed messengers and ask if they genuinely sent them. If they weren't friends to begin with, then that's not a problem, but it's very problematic and doesn't make sense.
• While the callback to the pilot with Fluttershy being shy to Twilight is fine as a concept, it doesn't make sense as she communicated with Sunset Shimmer. Following the confrontation, Fluttershy wouldn't have been as shy to talk with Twilight, who helped her and saved her from getting any more verbal abuse. If Fluttershy was quiet and meek while communicating with Sunset Shimmer, then the correlation wouldn't have been a problem.
• The periphery demographic is segregated from both the market and target audiences, relying on constant current pop culture and brony references to retain attention. While it's fine to reference the brony fandom in the form of Vinyl Scratch (with and without her shades), Trixie, Photo Finish, and Derpy, it's important to balance everything out with well-written plotlines, intelligent dialogue, and thorough characterization; this movie forced itself to divide the demographics.
• I called this out way too many times, particularly in my editorial.
  
  The human character designs are extremely formulaic, both male and female (with very few exceptions [i.e., Snips, Snails, Celestia, Granny Smith]).
  
  What makes the ponies stand out is how individual they all look even from either a basic silhouette. The pony base design is so strong, a mane and tail are all needed to create a character in a basic shape. With the humans, however, the hair immediately recognizes who the characters are, but that isn't enough, especially if going by a basic template (and to replicate well-recognized characters). Here, you need to really make the clothing varied to make the characters individual, and altering clothing like the skirts or boots just a little bit isn't enough. You need extreme variations in the height, anatomy, clothing, and so on to make them recognizable in a basic outline. For the Mane Six, besides Rainbow Dash's athletic pants, they're so similar; you can swap the completed designs from one to another, and they'll still fit.
  
  I repeated this in my editorial, so I'll copy and paste it:
  
  

  The perception that Flash can't handle complicated, varying anatomy is untrue today. Five to seven years ago, Macromedia Flash was much more primitive and couldn't handle animation as smoothly as it does today. But with Flash run by Adobe and receiving several huge upgrades over the past couple of years, it's since become an important application that can literally program animation akin to hand-drawn ones from Disney.

• While Equestria Girls is both well-sung and well-composed, the other songs' lyrics are extremely repetitive. A Strange New World used the same message over and over again, while This Is Our Big Night (both the original and reprise) continued the same lyrics and tune. The latter is short, but it could've used much more variety to make the lyrics much more interesting. The creative genius that we normally see in the lyrics and song score is lost in its repetition and lack of necessity.
  
  The song played during the credits, A Friend for Life, albeit interesting and brings back the implied message My Little Pony: Equestria Girls sends, is very forgettable. It doesn't have catchy lyrics nor the bouncy rhythm that makes Equestria Girls intriguing to listen and see.
• Although the Human Six are in character, with the exception of Pinkie Pie, Spike, and Rarity (to an extent), the dialogue comes across as stilted. What makes great, three-dimensional characterization isn't merely having them be in character, but also not being able to predict somewhat what they're going to say. Whenever Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Applejack spoke, I honestly expected what they were saying. It doesn't have to be an exact match, as long as the message correlates. Pinkie's characterization was great because you didn't expect what she was saying, but you can here with almost everyone else.
  
  It isn't only the Human Six, either. Sunset Shimmer, Snips, Snails, Vice Principal Luna, and Flash Sentry have the same issue, too. As they each spoke, I could predict what they were about to say.
  
  Rainbow Dash, despite being in character, has the worst dialogue. Her lines are not only way too stilted, but also too simple and limited in her vocabulary. Review the movie and see how much she says the word, "awesome."
  
  There's a big difference between in character and a combination of in character and three-dimensionality. Most of the characterizations leaned to the former rather than the latter.
• For a character who is supposed to replicate wisdom and intelligence, Vice Principal Luna shows none in her brief appearances, especially while interrogating Twilight in her office. Instead, we got someone who couldn't recognize a blatant cutout. The picture of Twilight causing the mess in the gym isn't a photoshop. It's an image with Twilight cut out and glued on the front to make it look like she caused the mess. Any vice principal with an ounce of intelligence would immediately recognize the ploy. Paper has texture, and you can feel the image being cut out immediately. The real Vice Principal Luna would notice this immediately, find Sunset Shimmer, and interrogate her rather than rely on a semi-Deus Ex Machina to get Twilight out of trouble.
  
  Simply put, Vice Principal Luna is an atrociously out-of-character idiot.
• The story's extremely predictable; it plays way too safe. While Friendship Is Magic mostly developed the characters conservatively, the writers aren't afraid to throw a curveball to make the plot interesting and accessible, sending a message to families (of little girls/teens) that good quality, fresh entertainment is available out there. But instead of throwing a great curveball that makes the audience whistle by how nasty it broke, Uncle Charlie lazily hung in the middle of the strike zone. This movie doesn't play fresh one iota. Instead, it sticks to the common clichés in high school with nothing genuinely interesting or faithful to the main series to keep things interesting. It's the typical "newcomer-arrives-at-High-School-meets-new-friends-gains-her-bully's-ex-as-a-crush-kicks-bully's-ass-and-the-story-ends-happily" plot, only with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic slapped on the front to make it appear related. It's extremely formulaic; I felt like I honestly saw or read the same plot in another book or show.
• Snips and Sails are extremely unrecognizable as characters. Sure, their faces, bodies, and voices exist, but there's a difference in seeing them visually and seeing, hearing, and identifying them. Snips and Snails spoke, but they're not them.
  
  In Equestria, Snips and Snails are innocently minded characters. While they tend to say and do stupid things, they're not evil. In the alternate world, they're evil! They're villains, and that's NOT them! They're a dumber version of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, but as males instead of females. "Alternate Universe" is no excuse for disrespecting the original characterization and making them different characters with "Snips" and "Snails" slapped on the obverse.
• Sunset Shimmer is a TERRIBLE character! There was so much criticism for King Sombra for being flat and boring, with nearly nothing to make him a full-fledged, developed character. However, Sombra still has plenty of potential to become such a dastardly villain that Discord would squirm.
  
  Sunset Shimmer is just bland and uninteresting. As a personality, she is the typical, high-school-clichéd, one-dimensional bitch. What could've been a highly manipulative, calculative, cocky, greedy, proud villain is relegated into a cardboard with the typical bully, with bright colors and a black jacket dressing her. Swap the shared "personality" Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had from One Bad Apple into Sunset Shimmer, and you have the same characters with only a different character designs and voices to separate them.
  
  Also, if she was interested in obtaining magical genius while studying under Celestia's tutelage, then why would she decide to venture into Canterlot High, a place where magic is much more obscure and difficult to conjure, in the first place? Instead, wouldn't she venture to another area to study harder, like a restricted section in the school library or another school where she feels she can study to her very best? Celestia describes Shimmer as hardworking to a huge fault, greedy, and thirsty to be the best sage. Greed and pride describe Shimmer fantastically, but it wasn't used properly for her because the concept of the alternate world suppresses magic, and she behaved dimwittedly. Instead of shutting down her perceived intelligence to make Twilight and the rest of the characters better, use her intelligence to make both Twilight and Sunset equal rivals, and use Twilight's own intelligence to problem-solve.
  
  For that matter, how the hell was Sunset Shimmer able to know where Twilight's crown was located, anyhow? That wasn't explained, and there was one perfect place to reveal how and why: their encounter under the broken light. If she explained how and why she knew the crown was there, chances are it would've made more sense.
  
  Her "master plan" to turn every student in Canterlot High's Fall Formal into a zombie army is stupid. If they were all monsters like Sunset Shimmer, then chances are I could give the plan the benefit of the doubt. But once they cross into Equestria and encounter Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and the rest of the Mane Six, they'll be transported back where they came from.
  
  Then there's her excuse why she became cruel and dishonest:
  

  Sunset Shimmer: Uh. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't know there was another way.
  
  Twilight Sparkle: The magic of friendship doesn't just exist in Equestria. It's everywhere. You can seek it out, or you can forever be alone. The choice is yours.
  
  Sunset Shimmer: But... But all I've ever done since being here is drive everyone apart. I don't know the first thing about friendship.

  Her reason for becoming so evil is flimsy and shallow, making her a flatter, dumber character, and inorganically shoehorning the Magic of Friendship in the canon. Her cruelty needs to have much more basis than this. If she's going to be evil, don't throw in a rushed two-liner. Give her evil a basis to make her evil solid, logical, and empathetic. In the ending, Sunset is at her most vulnerable. Show us why we should feel sympathy for her. That throwaway line doesn't give her character justice. Instead, this bullshit stomps on any remaining integrity her concept once had.
• The ending is awful and makes no sense.
  
  a. Like the rest of the plot, the climax is way too quick. There was so much to deliver, explain, show, and tell, but the whole battle was crammed into five minutes.
  
  b. A second Deus Ex Machina blooms. Flash showing up to get Twilight out of trouble was the first. The second came here when Twilight and her human friends harnessed the power of the Elements of Harmony. While the Elements of Harmony were definitely going to impact the movie somehow, Twilight was able to activate its power without the tools necessary to activate the Magic of Friendship. If the physical tools were unnecessary, then why did Discord steal them in Return of Harmony, and why did Twilight have to safeguard them from Keep Calm and Flutter On to Magical Mystery Cure? The DEM handwaves the purpose of having the tangible objects to begin with (using that "intangible tangibles" cliché), creating a big plothole that the universe didn't need having.
  
  c. As funny as Twilight was in the dance, her going to the Fall Formal at the end is completely out of character of her. She's running on time, and she barely entered through the portal before the clock ran out. What if she went into the Formal and didn't make it on time? She would really regret doing it. It would've been best for the plot if Twilight went on to say, "no," say goodbye to her friends, and leave for home.
  
  d. The fact that Twilight went back to her world this quickly is just plain stupid! This event is a very big change for her to adapt. High School and the Fall Formal are completely foreign environments, and it's up to her to adapt as well as she plausibly can and survive. But to be there from the beginning of the movie to returning to her own world makes no sense for two reasons.
  
  i. It shows right from the get-go that this movie's primary purpose is to sell toys. The plot is second-nature, and it shows how much how DHX has to try to cram such a dumb concept into the plot in order for the alternate dimension to make sense professionally and canonically.
  
  ii. It's such a huge mea culpa and exemplifies why converting Twilight from an alicorn back to a unicorn is such a stupid idea. It tells the audience that DHX spits on the concept and wants to do whatever it can to "rectify" an idea that's so unfaithful to Friendship Is Magic's roots. But this plot point is so cheap and admits to the audience that the movie shouldn't have been made, period. DHX and Meghan McCarthy are implying, "This movie conceptually sucks, and we'll do whatever it takes to get out of it." It's as if McCarthy ran into Writer's Block and sifted through The Generic Book of Generic Clichés just to escape. It takes whatever "soul" — or lack thereof — Equestria Girls already "had" and destroys it.
  
  If DHX wants to disguise this blatant toy promotion more convincingly, have Twilight not be able to return during the movie. As in, the only way to get back to Equestria is to wait for the next thirty moons or have Twilight adapt in High School, better expand the Magic of Friendship to Sunset Shimmer, battle through rough times in High School, become triumphant, and graduate. But this canonical method is cheap and lame: It tells the audience that DHX and Hasbro don't desire to explain and expand this world further.
• Finally, this movie as a whole has absolutely no soul. Just because there are patches of great work doesn't mean the passion is exactly there. It's very possible to churn high-quality work just for the sake of it. The movie's concept is extremely typical, but McCarthy and the rest of the crew didn't do something to make it stand out and make it not only differentiate from the rest of the typical High School plotlines, but also faithful to the roots of Friendship Is Magic. The concept is old to the core, but McCarthy could've still done something to make My Little Pony: Equestria Girls refreshing and not fall into the samey plotlines that have killed many movies (both blockbuster features and home videos).
  
  But Equestria Girls didn't dare to take chances and slapped in many brony references to capture the periphery demographic's attention. Too much was crammed in simultaneously, forcing the movie to hold its breath until the credits rolled. Like a furious and impatient conductor rolling through his or her notes, Equestria Girls speeds through one page after another and cuts corners to fit everything into one package. It's completely different to Magical Mystery Cure, where the path wasn't linear. Here, it was very linear with no thoroughly great characterization, poorly done character development, and the overall impression that DHX and Hasbro didn't care for the overall quality and performance of the movie at all. Executive meddling is no excuse for giving My Little Pony: Equestria Girls a Dementor's Kiss.

———

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is a spinoff with the ability to expand the universe into more uncharted, interesting territories. Despite a concept that doesn't stay faithful to the core of the main series, the Next Big Thing for Friendship Is Magic provided ample opportunity for Hasbro and DHX to take it and make something fresh and good out of it. There are patches of high-quality characterization (primarily in Pinkie Pie and Spike), music, and overall potential. Instead, the story is safe; the humans' animation is inorganic; the lyrics are often repetitive or forgettable; and the overall script quality is sacrificed for time.

In what could have been a great way to sidestep executive meddling and send a message to families, adolescent girls, and the overall periphery demographic that the High School concept can show a breath of fresh air, the clichés deliver the opposite, disappointing message and further prove that the concept just doesn't work. Although the potential is there, what is executed instead is mostly a convoluted, lazy, soulless mess. Overall, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is a terrible movie.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Dark Qiviut

[Okie Dokie Lokie 24]

Before: This film is gonna be terrible, I mean come on anthropomorphizing the ponies is a terrible idea.

After:OMG OMG OMG This film is so epic (totally not an epic fail), it's filled with references to the show, the story was pretty good and there was not a moment when I was like "BOOOOOOOOORING". I dunno but I though this film is GREAT and I really regret hating this in the past. I'd recommend any MLP fan to give this a go.