For a few years after about 2003 there was a dry spell of great cartoons. The likes of The “Animaniacs,” “Tiny Toons” and “Hey Arnold!” had since been taken off the air. Every once in a while one would pop up but it was buried under a mountain of mediocrity. Then around the 2010 mark, a new wave grew and since then we have gotten well made, funny cartoons like “Adventure Time,” “Regular Show,” “The Legend Of Korra” and “Dan Vs.” These marked the end of an era where animations were made to sell toys. There was one cartoon that did stick out however, “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.” A show based off a toy line which wasn’t a sell out. This is partially down to the creative mind of Lauren Faust who got rid of the series’ awful history and gave it a new look. What resulted was an adored show with an incredibly large fan-base. However, since Hasbro owned it and it was a cash-cow, a movie was inevitable. This movie was called “My Little Pony: Equestrian Girls.”
Right away it looked as if the film wasn’t going to be terrible, because if you look at the writer’s credits they are behind some great shows. However, the movie was produced by Hasbro Studios, the proprietors of “Battleship” (seriously, who gave the green light to that mess?), and unfortunately it was never going to be perfect.
The story follows a pretty simple narrative. Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy have to go to the Royal Kingdom in the Crystal Empire. Can I just apolgise at this point because the character names don’t get any less ridiculous. They are to attend to royal business with Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance. While resting in the castle an intruder appears and takes Twilight’s magic crown and brings it to a magic mirror that leads to the human world. The villain is revealed to be named Sunset Shimmer, (the most evil name you’ve ever heard), who jumps through the portal and escapes. Twilight then goes after her with her pet dragon, Spike.
The team ends up in Canterlot High with each pony from the pony world having an anthropomorphic counterpart and Spike being a dog for some reason. It then follows Twilight’s attempts at getting the crown back and meeting all her friend’s counterparts in the human world. She does this by trying to be princess of the Fall Formal. While just reading that may put you off, it’s really not as bad as you would think. That’s also a phrase I would use to describe the entire film.
Let’s start with the problems I’ve had with this film. This plot has been done a thousand times. Think back on every “ugly-duckling” retelling on The Disney Channel. It’s clichéd to hell. The high school setting is very hard to do without falling into the trap of the cliché, but it can be done well. Look at “The Breakfast Club” for an example. The film itself fells like an overlong episode. In my review of “Serenity,” I talked about how the transition for a TV show to a film is very difficult to pull off. “Firefly” to “Serenity” was quite a success.
For the most part however, in “Equestria Girls” this is a failure. Certain scenes felt rushed and others felt very long. It couldn’t decide on a pace for itself and ended up hurting the film. It left me with a number of questions, like why isn’t there a human version of Twilight if there is for everyone else? In which case why were the girls friends before if Twilight was never around? These gaping plotholes might not be noticed by children, but that’s not an excuse to not try and at least kind of explain them. All these problems are pretty bad, but the biggest one by a mile is the sheer amount of deus ex machina used in the film. A lot of times I sat there thinking, “why did they do that?” or “well how can that be?” It’s fine for a movie to do once or twice to explain a difficult plot point, but the amount of times it happens in “Equestria Girls” comes off as almost lazy. Yet, for all these problems, I can’t help but laugh in fanboy-ish delight when some of the film’s signature dry humour comes into play.
This is the part of the review where I question myself for taking an animation about anthropomorphic ponies and talking about how great it is. Let the figurative “de-pantsing” begin. I fu$@ing love this film. This is a genuinely good film that will entertain the kids, please fans, and most importantly won’t make parents want to rip their eyballs out. While some of the dialogue is very hit and miss, when it hits you will know it. This isn’t a reference-filled mess but a well written script with great humour. Some of the visual jokes fall a little flat, but when the characters act borderline sarcastic or even just mock the film’s own stupidity, I laugh as hard as if I was watching an early episode of “The Simpsons.”
As far as the animation goes, they have done a remarkable job considering the film used Flash Animation. Flash often comes across as stale and emotionless, but here I can see every character’s expression and see exactly what they are feeling. I thought the colour scheme was a little off, but other than that a really solid job done by the animators. The voice acting is top notch with giants of the industry such as Tara Strong and Tabitha St. Germain being heavily featured.
Overall, “Equestria Girls” definitely has its flaws but makes up for them in so many ways. It holds the simple morals of too much power can corrupt and never abandon your friends. It succeeds in appealing to every member of the audience regardless of age or gender, and that’s something you would rarely see outside of Disney/Pixar. A flawed but great film.
– by Paul O’Connor
