Well, it’s arrived. What many have feared to be the most insulting, shark-jumping, character killing, brony repelling piece of media from My Little Pony. Equestria Girls has hit selected theaters around the US and Canada. And was this evolution of the beloved equines to humans really the worst possible thing?
My answer, and the answer of a lot of bronies, is a resounding no. In fact in all honesty, Equestria Girls was just as entertaining as the series itself.
I won’t go too in detail to spoil a lot of the story, but here’s the story in general. Twilight Sparkle and her friends are visiting the crystal empire. The newly christened Princess Twilight is still getting used to not only becoming royalty, but also those pesky alicorn wings. However, a bigger crisis is afoot when her crown is stolen by Sunset Shimmer, a former student of Princess Celestia. When Sunset Shimmer enters a mirror portal, Princess Celestia tells Twilight that she must enter a strange new world to reclaim the crown. With the elements of harmony in danger of no longer working without the crown, Twilight and Spike enter the portal, and when they come out, Spike’s turned into a dog, and Twilight has become human.
So, now Twilight has to get used to her new body while also dealing with the world of Canterlot High. She meets up with humanized versions of the mane six, who have had some sort of falling out that’s keeping them from being friends. She learns that the only way to get the crown back is to be miss fall formal, and defeat Sunset Shimmer. She also finds a supposed new love interest in the popular kid named Flash Sentry.
So, on the surface, a lot of the plot feels like it would tread too much into your average kid’s high school cartoon. And while it’s fair to say it does somewhat, it never gets too annoying. It still always feels like you’re watching any other episode of FiM, only now everyone’s a human. And I mean pretty much everyone. You’ll see plenty of cameos from some of your favorite characters like the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Vinyl Scratch, Cheerilee, The Great and Powerful Trixie. And yes, if you stay for the credits, a certain cross eyed character makes a special appearance. The humanized designs, for the most part, are all really well done.
A lot of the jokes in the movie rely on Twilight getting adjusted to her new body. From learning to walk on two feet, to even trying to use a computer, and for the most part, it all works great and gave me some honestly hard laughs. And while the movie has thrown in a love interest for Twilight, that also doesn’t take up too much of the plot. I did think originally that this was a foolish addition, but by the end, I honestly do hope we see more of Flash Sentry, be he human or horse.
There are several great songs from Daniel Ingram. Nothing that wouldn’t fit in the actual show. My personal favorite is the song with the six characters singing about how they need to help Twilight win the crown. The library of catchy music in this series just gets bigger and better with every new addition, and this continues that trend.
And the fear that this is “too girly” that most of the bronies concerned themselves over is really nothing major. It’s really about as girly as some of the show’s plots themselves. And even the parts like the characters preparing for the formal are still entertaining and well animated. In the end, it was a concern that was never a big deal.
If I was to give one complaint for the whole thing I still was not a big fan of it just being Twilight and Spike going into the portal. They give a solid reason as it would upset the balance of the world, and I guess all six of them trying to learn to handle human bodies would have been overkill, but it still soured the experience a tad for me. Also, there is one too many retreads of jokes from the first episode of the series, but other than that, everything was really not worth complaining about.
Equestria Girls was a solid movie that doesn’t hurt the show itself, nor does it show any sign of the “end of days” for the series itself. A lot of my concerns were relieved, and my expectations were blown away. Maybe it’s just the high of new official content as we still have a long way until season 4, but this gave me the same happiness that the show itself already does, and that’s a good thing. For a spinoff movie it worked great. Though with the possibility of a spinoff series in the future, it will be interesting how they’ll make that work.
If you have a way to watch it now, then definitely give it a watch. If you can’t, then you won’t have to wait too long, as the DVD will be released this August, and the movie will air in full this September on the Hub.