Equestria Girls: Friendship Games

Equestria Girls: Friendship Games was a direct to TV movie, so I didn't get to see it in theatres.  I didn't want to anyway, because it's focused on a competition, and therefore my least favorite.

The songs are not catchy.  The constant emphasis on competition makes me uncomfortable.  We have a whole other team of Shadow Bolts, but we never get to know them, like their names or anything.  Only one of them gets any consistent dialogue, and it's morose.

One feature I did enjoy was the deleted scenes.  They gave Sunset and Sci-Twi a little more story, and I liked that.  I would have loved to see Sci-Twi's song as a duet with Sunset Shimmer instead.

Oh yeah, and I didn't care for the animated shorts.  Unlike the ones for Rainbow Rocks, these didn't really add any context or even make much sense.

Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks

Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks is the second movie in the Equestria Girls spinoff series.  Yes, I saw this one in theatres too, and I had a great time.  Since the story is music focused, there's double the number of songs as the first movie, and they're lots of fun.

The new villains are the Dazzlings, a trio of horse sirens who sing to make everyone argue, and feed off the negative energy from the arguing.  They also have some powers of hypnosis with their voices, so they manipulate Principal Celestia to turn a friendly musical showcase into a battle of the bands.

The human characters summon Twilight Sparkle to come back and save their version of Canterlot.  But Twilight is worried she won't be able to do the thing, blah blah blah.  I didn't come here for Shakespeare.  I came here for cute cartoon girls singing songs, and Rainbow Rocks delivered.

Equestria Girls: Through the Mirror

As you can guess from the matching cover, Equestria Girls: Through the Mirror is the first book in their book series, and it's a retelling of the first movie.  Since it's a book, there are no musical numbers, and some scenes have been adjusted, some bits taken out, others added.  Naturally, there's no musical numbers, but more effort is put into narrating how Twilight Sparkle is feeling.

I'll be honest, I've been trying to read this book all week, since Tuesday, and it's Friday night now.  I can't do it.  It's an easy read, it's not difficult, but it's BORING.  I'm only halfway in, and I DON'T want to read any more!  I don't!  I'm bored!  And I'm not opposed to kids books. I have and have read every Ever After High book that was published!  This does not contend.  And the thought of forcing myself to read 8 more volumes of this?  Kinda killing my vibe right now.  So yeah, I'm removing the book reading portion from my Equestria Girls Summer challenge, for the sake of my own sanity.

Equestria Girls

Equestria Girls was a big deal for me in 2013.  I was unemployed, depressed, full of anxiety, and My Little Pony was giving me life.  So when Equestria Girls was in theatres, I went to see it in person, with a friend.  Surrounded by parents with kids, and a few other weirdos, it was a magical experience.

I bought the DVD, and I've rewatched it a few times, but I rewatched it today as part of my Equestria Girls Summer.  The intro song remix still gives me chills.  I still bop along to the songs, and I still got a little teary at the end.

Equestria Girls isn't Shakespeare by any means, but it makes me so happy.  It's not everyone's favorite EG movie, but it walked to the next movies could run.  It really made a successful spinoff to the My Little Pony IP, doing something no other MLP generation had tried!

2025 Progress Report 2: Equestria Girls Summer!

It's been an emotional year, which has made it incredibly hard to get things done as I'd like, so I think I need to reassess my goals for the rest of the year.  New plan, Equestria Girl Summer!