My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (2013)

A lot of fun.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

When I watched it for the first time, it was weird and mind cringing when it comes to seeing a pony going to another dimension in becoming a human being in order to retrieve the crown from the villain, Sunset Shimmer. As for Spike the dragon, when he enters into the other place that Twilight entered, he becomes a dog. He may be adorable; I don't like the way how it is to him doing some scene stealing. As for the music, it's kind of like high school theme and perhaps catchy. For the characters, we all know of Twilight's friends from Equestria to their counterparts and the style of their clothes and also their personalities. Sunset Shimmer is the main antagonist in this film and all she wanted was power. Due to her dishonesty and unkindness, she doesn't like anybody standing her way. I remember when she puts on the crown, which is the Element of Magic, it transformed her into a demon making her ruthless and dangerous. Yet one thing that she can't wield is the Magic of Friendship, something Sunset never has until she was defeated by Twilight and her new friends with the Elements of Harmony. After that, everyone was free from her control. I understand that she wanted to rule Equestria, but due to what she had become, it was her downfall. After her defeat, she was reformed and didn't know anything about friendship. Yet, Twilight assured Sunset (former enemy and new friend) that her friends can teach her about it.When Spike cheered the main characters, one of the students was like "Did that dog just talk? Whoa! Weird!" and Spike was not happy about that a talking dog is weird. Well Rarity thinks of him adorable as Twilight smiles at her friends. That smile that Twilight did made me uneasy nor unpleasant. Then Principal Celestia returns the crown to Princess Twilight as everyone cheered her. Which is why that movie is not that great except its sequels and specials.The two lessons in this movie are: (1) seeking friends or forever alone and (2) a true princess would never force anyone to bow, but to be inspired. It's true to seek friends, which may be not easy. Can't force anyone to bow as well.Everything in this film seems like that of a Barbie movie along with any other teenage girls films. Other than that, it's all too weird and mind cringing.

Since its launch in 2010, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has been critically acclaimed as one of the greatest shows of the modern era. It's fantastic line up of characters, good morals, and good comedy made for something really magical. While the show itself has hit some big bumps here or there, it's still going strong. With all of this success, Hasbro decided that a TV movie series was needed about Twilight being in another world. That world, of course, being the human world and her being in high school. A simple question has to be asked in regards to this whole thing: Why? With all of the creativity in FiM in both the show and fandom, why choose something so generic and bland as the high school setting? My only guess about that was because Hasbro wanted to compete with Mattel's Monster High series. Even with that said, I feel that something like this was bound to be not as good as FiM, but I was willing to give it a fair shake.The story is simplistic. Twilight Sparkle has her crown stolen by Princess Celestia's former student, Sunset Shimmer. Twilight has to chase her through a magical mirror that takes her to an alternative world where every pony is actually a human. Now Twilight must race to get the crown back and bring an end to Sunset Shimmer's dark reign over the school.The story itself is just a complete and total bore. I know this is a kid's movie and the plot shouldn't be complex, but FiM has taken some predictable story lines and spiced them up. This story is pretty much paint by the numbers about how things go. From the story about Sunset never losing the Fall Formal, to Twilight being the underdog in the competition for the crown, it is very simplistic and predictable. It feels like they were playing it too safe with this movie. There's nothing really about the story that stands out.The writing is okay for the most part. There are a few good lines here and there and, while the jokes about Twilight fitting into the human world are predictable, some of them are pretty decent. There are some pretty good moments such as Twilight and Spike in the library, or really just any scene with Twilight and Spike talking with each other.The writing also manages to nail down the characters in their human forms to the best extent. You can all look at the human forms of the Mane 6 and see how similar they are to their FiM counterparts. Their designs overall are decent at best. All the characters have their own unique design that stand out well.The other characters are alright at best, bar for one. The villain, Sunset Shimmer, is a pretty good villain, but not as good as some of the other past villains from FiM. I did like how much of a polar opposite she was to Twilight, and I generally enjoyed any of the scenes with her and Twilight. She honestly ends up being the best thing about this movie.Then we have the "romance" interest. I say romance in the lightest form possible because this has to be some of the worst romance writing ever. Flash Sentry is pretty much a stock tool. He ultimately has no character to him whatsoever. The only thing we do know about him is that he just plays a guitar, and that's it. Yet for some reason, Twilight falls for him. There's no buildup to it, no real interaction between them aside from some really awkward dialogue, and ultimately feels very forced. Simply put, this is some of the worst romance I've ever seen in any form of media.The songs are honestly a bit of a mixed bag. They're pretty decent for what they are, but nothing amazing to be honest. The only one that I enjoyed was the one about the Humane 5 encouraging the students to help Twilight win the crown. For the most part though, the songs are decent at best and forgettable at worst.The final battle is okay as well, but nothing too exciting. In a way, it kind of reminds me of the series opener's final showdown with Nightmare Moon. Twilight uses the Elements of Harmony from each of her human friends to ultimately wipe out Sunset and "reform" her. The problem I have with this reformation is that it feels rushed. She's blasted with the Elements, and then suddenly turns good. It feels off and confusing. I kind of wish they added a bit more of Twilight and Sunset trying to duke it out with each other instead of them constantly doing a predictable chase after the crown bit. The ending does leave the door open for a sequel, and surprise there were three (soon to be four) sequels to this movie.Equestria Girls isn't an awful movie, but the problem is that this movie really reeks of blandness in almost every way. It's story is not very generic, but the human world really has nothing about it that stands out at all. The characters, aside from Sunset, Twilight, and Spike, are kind of bland as well. The romance interest, as I said, feels awkward and forced. The final conflict feels pretty short lived and I felt Sunset's turn to good was a little too quick.Every once in a while, it does have a decent scene with Sunset, Twilight, or Spike, and a few of the songs are okay, but they can't save this movie. There's not much to say about Equestria Girls because of how much it just feels so stale and predictable. Unless you are a die hard fan of the high school drama stories, you are probably better off skipping this movie.

Who even thought this was a good idea? Was there really someone who thought that My Little Pony would be better if it were humans in a high school? I feel kind of weird criticizing a cartoon for little girls, but I'm not sure if this was made for little girls. The TV show knows what it wants to be: a well-made animated series for children and their parents. This movie could just as easily be made for teenagers, or bronies, or to attract new fans. Since it can't choose its audience, it fails to appeal to any of them. Don't get me wrong, I can see why some people would like this, but I wasn't personally a fan. The characters still seemed to be keep in character with the show… while making horrible decisions. The animation was amazing during the pony segments… but was awkward in the human world. Meanwhile, the villain was bland, the romance was forced and never went anywhere, and the entire movie just felt like a mess. At least they somewhat improved it in the sequels, but I'll get to those at another time.

As much as I like friendship is magic, I am not really fond of this one. Sadly, this just feels like a cop out to sell more products then something that actually works with the series. It brings me a bit of disappointment that they would do something so low as to give in to the marketing ploy. It feels like they tried to make 'Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen' again. It's just how Barbie made 'The Barbie Diaries'. Just a school life story. It's a bit sad since it doesn't have the same feeling that went along with the TV show. Sure it has a bit of the 'be yourself' but then the characters seem a little like they are not being themselves next to what they were in the pony world.Anther thing that bothers me is that they never explain where Twilight lives after going through the mirror. I understand if she was there for a day but she is there for a while. There are little details like that that seem to mess with my head although maybe not for children. They also add a character that wasn't in the TV show just for romance aspect.The animation feels very wonky, with stiff characters, proportionate bodies, and even the strange color choices for the characters. For example, Twilight has purple skin. I have nothing against people with purple skin mind you… but um, you get what I'm saying? It's a very unnatural look and just makes it look like it was forced. There were so many other things they could do to make it look like Twilight, her hair, her personality, the cutie mark… anything but that! And while I'm at it, why do all the girls have to wear dresses? Even the tomboys wear dresses like Rainbow Dash. It just feels like they messed up there. Characters who are rather sporty do not normally wear skirts every day. I know this for a fact that. It just feels old fashioned then. It works when they have parties and stuff, just not for school. Every character wears short skirts is what I got from it.The voices and music were good and pretty much just like the TV show. That's the one thing I thought was good about it. They made it the same on that scope. The music was catching and new beat, the voices were not fully annoying and matched the characters that they needed to sound like. Not much else I can really say there. The script it what seems a little forced in my mind. It just feels a little unnatural at points.