My Little Pony: The Movie (2017)

During our effort to (re-)review the Equestria Girls tetralogy, we decided to round out our My Little Pony experience with My Little Pony: The Movie, released theatrically in late 2017. Due to our feelings on the franchise at the time, we didn’t see it during its original run. However, we were surprised to find that we could stream it for free through Amazon Prime and jumped on the opportunity. I’m actually glad at this point that I didn’t spend any money at the theater, since the incredible traditional animation does nothing to make up for the painfully average story.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Legend of Everfree

Note: This review contains spoilers for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Legend of Everfree.

After having watched and reviewed the first three My Little Pony: Equestria Girls spin-off movies, we decided to watch the fourth and final movie, Legend of Everfree, in order to have a full opinion on all four of them. However, when trying to watch the movie, we saw no convenient way to legally stream it, mainly since we aren’t Netflix subscribers and didn’t want to waste the free trial just to watch one movie. This necessitated us to instead take advantage of our Amazon Prime membership and purchase a physical copy of the movie, opting for the DVD version in order to spend as little money on the endeavor as possible. All that said, Legend of Everfree did present some good ideas with its story and characters, however it wasn’t entirely executed as well as it could have been.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Friendship Games

Note: This review contains spoilers for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games.

The year after Rainbow Rocks released, Hasbro released a follow-up, Friendship Games. This release coincided with my personal disillusionment with the Brony fandom, so I didn’t get to actually watch it until about four years later when I remembered I had recorded the TV version on a DVR. The long wait to watch it was actually a blessing, since I was able to view it more objectively. With that in mind, I feel that compared to Rainbow Rocks, this film took one step forward and two steps back.

Second Look - My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks

Note: This review contains spoilers for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks.

Back in 2014, I had reviewed My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks based on a limited theatrical screening. With the passage of time, however, I’ve come to dislike my original review. I didn’t take the review seriously enough and I realized that I was overly harsh due to a negative experience with particularly overzealous “Bronies” (Friendship is Magic’s adult male fans) at a theatrical screening. After about five years, I decided to take another look at this film, alongside the original Equestria Girls, to see if I felt any differently and look at any of its flaws more objectively. I turns out that I warmed up to it a bit more, but I still felt that at least one change could have improved it dramatically.

Second Look - My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

Note: This review contains spoilers for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls.

Over the course of its nine-year lifespan, the inexplicably popular My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon had a short-lived spin-off series of films, collectively known as My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, which was made to into a toyline designed to compete with Mattel’s popular Monster High series and its ilk. When I first saw the original Equestria Girls film in 2013, I came away with a largely negative opinion of it, which I admit was partly influenced by having initially seen it in a theater alongside an audience with some particularly obnoxious members of the “brony” community, which, for those who aren’t aware, consists of the Friendship is Magic cartoon’s periphery demographic of adult males. Though I eventually stopped caring about the Friendship is Magic cartoon after 100 episodes, only tuning in later to watch the series finale, I wasn’t entirely satisfied with how my original review of the first Equestria Girls movie turned out, and so decided to revisit it in a context entirely divorced from my original experiences. Though not quite as bad as I remembered it, there were still some issues I had with the final product.