So back in February in my MLP Season 3 Roundup article, you may have recalled that I had mentioned that a leaked picture has been surfacing online of the mane six from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as humans, and that Hasbro had previously secured the licensing rights to the name “Equestria Girls”. While it was still up in the air on the legitimacy of the picture at the time, the more and more info that came out proved that this was indeed set to be a reality.
So, Hasbro is spinning off the franchise in a whole new way, how are the bronies reacting to it? Other than the more level headed ones just shrugging it off, for the most part this adds fuel to their continued claims of “ruined forever”, “this isn’t what Lauren Faust wanted” and “Hasbro is the devil”. But then again, that may just be /mlp/ in a nutshell.
It’s not hard to see the reasons behind this drastic decision. In the toy world, right now the most dominant toy like is that of Monster High, a series of Bratz style dolls withe the characters representing different types of monsters and mythical creatures. This has been accompanied with DVDs and specials which have all sold strongly. Strong enough for Hasbro to want to get into the ring and brawl back. But instead of going with a new brand, or something original, they decided to use their most popular girl’s toy right now in My Little Pony. And they were going to trump Monster High by releasing an animated movie with a 200 theater release.
On the night of May 12th, after months of speculation from the bronies on how bad or good this was going to be, even with a leaked synopsis, the trailer was finally released online.
And of course, the bronies raged. The main issues being as follows.
Not only has the show furthered Twilight Sparkle’s accension into Mary Sue territory with the complete subtraction of her real pony friends and adding otherworld counterparts that just happen to act like her friends.
Some people have found issues with the animation and designs of the characters, feeling that their weird multicolored world feels really unnatural.
The franchise going into stereotypical girl’s media with the character in high school, Twilight having a love interest, the main villian being the popular girl who is also the prom queen year in and year out. It feels an awful lot like everything we’ve seen in these types of cartoons, and lacks the far more original ideas that the show was giving us before Hasbro began to sink their claws deeper into the writing of the show.
Also, Spike’s now a dog. How demeaning.
So, that is mainly the major issues that the brony community have. What are my thoughts? Well, with only a trailer right now to go by, it’s hard to know just where this movie will fully go. Right now, it looks like it hits every stereotype of supposed “high school life” that you see in many kids shows nowadays. Making this feel more like 6teen than Friendship is Magic. But we’ve only seen about a minute long trailer that was supposed to hit the expected beats of the story. We know nothing of what fills up the rest of the film’s hour plus tale, and what could be there could be pretty solid.
I actually really like the humanized designs. Sure, this universe of multicolored humans a’la Doug seems really strange, but the designs of the familiar characters all look really good humanized. Characters like the “mane six”, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and even Vinyl Scratch look and feel like their pony counterparts. Hell, even Snips and Snails look decent humanized. And it will be interesting to see what other ponies show up. Maybe Cheerilee as a school teacher, or Big Macintosh as the lovable jock?
My only issue honestly with the whole thing is the fact that Twilight and Spike are the only ones to go to this world, and not her friends. In my eyes, that massively devalues the entire point of the series, and devalues the mane six other than Twilight, who continues to be treated as a poorly handled Mary Sue by Hasbro. If it was all six of them in this world, trying to cope with their new bodies, that would make for some interesting ideas and would help pad the special into something a bit more entertaining. For example, like how would Rainbow Dash react to the lack of wings? Or can Pinkie break the fourth wall in this world? At least we’ll have these elements from Twilight, but still. And having five characters that are “just like Twilight’s friends, only humanized” seems like such a massively foolish cop out. Even for a mirror world.
So, for now my real feelings on the matter is a massive “eh”. There are definitely flaws to this whole thing, and I don’t really see the need of putting it in theaters. But do I think this will be the ultimate death knell to the series, and the beginning of the end of the bronies? I think people are definitely overreacting on that end. Lots of franchises have done countless spinoffs that have held little bearing to the original vision,and for the most part, many of them turned out to be pretty decent. Another thing of note is that none of what happens in this special will affect the show as a whole, and will not be the premiere plot of season 4. While it’s true that season 3 left a lot to be desires, and many of the decisions made have made many a fan shake their heads at Hasbro’s seemingly brony shaming business decisions, in the end Hasbro still somewhat realizes that this franchise is still their cash cow, and the backbone of the popularity of The Hub. And while this doesn’t paint a pretty picture of their business choices as of late for many, one can still hold hope that they will be smarter in handling the fourth season of the show when it arrives this winter.
Since I live on Prince Edward Island, where there will be no film screening of Equestria Girls, I will have to wait for the DVD release this Summer. And when I get it, I will give my full review on the movie, as well as my pros and cons. Hopefully my slightly more optimistic route toward this whole situation rings true, but we’ll wait and see this Summer.