Spoiler-licious-ness: Episode 2 - The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: Equestria Girls

Well then. don't this wonderful? I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to follow the jolly trend. Ladies and gentlemen, I won't watch the upcoming addition to the My Little Pony franchise: Equestria Girls. For those of you that don't know yet, Equestria Girls is an animated movie made by DHX Media due to be released on the 16th of June. It’s ponies turned into humans and then sent to the “human” world. From what we saw in the trailer (video below) it’s a stereotype fest filled to the brim with high school drama.  We all know this is going to end well.

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Spoiler-licious-ness

Episode 2: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Equestria Girls

Hosted by Admujica - Edited by Eli Gonzales

Featuring content from BronyCurious and Equestria Girls

Presented by

The Problematic Network

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What better way to break down Equestria Girls by the Good, the Bad, and Ugly? It’s not too original but better to not fix what’s not broken, right? Anyways....

The Good

Don’t mind me. Just delivering credit where it’s due. Firstly, many people claim that voice acting was excellent and “brought the characters to life.” Thank Celestia this remains true. I haven't seen the main cast, such as Tara Strong, cast for it, but the voices sound good to me in the trailer. Look on the bright side, instead of truly not caring for what is essentially a huge money grab, Hasbro went out of their way to have excellent voice acting.

Secondly, the animation continues to remain as top notch as it was in the show. From what we saw in the trailer, it’s smooth and very detailed. That’s always a leg up because this movie needs to live up to the standards already set in the show. Many (including me) were scared  when they saw the absolutely atrocious concept art.  

Equestria Girls Concept Art - Source: Equestria Daily

Human Twilight - Equestria Girls
trailer

Sorry to torture your eyes. However, I was quite satisfied with how the came out in the trailer. Come on. It doesn't look too bad. I mean, for one, she still looks like Twilight. Yet they removed all pony features from them. I’m sorry, but if I saw someone with wings, a tail, horse ears, and a strangely cartoony tattoo on their cheek, I would definitely run in the other direction. What would be the plotline then? The Mane 6 turn into human-pony hybrids and try to fit in? Brilliant....

Concluding The Good, what we see here is that Equestria Girls is going to be high in production value; successfully meeting the standards of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Voice acting and animation are going to be gorgeous. Not to mention the brilliant Daniel Ingram, the man behind the music of Friendship is Magic, is going to compose the music. That should calm some concerns.

The Bad

This is where I am concerned for Hasbro and the inevitable pitfall the company is going to take unless enough people see Equestria Girls. In a matter of months, Equestria Girls went from a straight-to-DVD television-movie to a full on theater release. It’s pretty obvious that Hasbro has misjudged the target audience. The fans of Friendship is Magic are not little girls anymore.

“Only a quarter of the Herd has ever attended a meetup, reinforcing the image of Bronies as a largely online phenomenon”

- 2013 State of the Herd Report

Answer this question: do you expect me, a part-time working young adult who spends most of his free-time on social media and/or hard at work on fan fiction reviews, to get up and go to my local theater? Let me not waste your valuable time and answer that for you: “NO!” Unfortunately, most of the Brony community just so happens to have the same perspective.

The Ugly

You don't have to be a New York Times best selling author to understand what this trailer hints at. As said in the introduction, the trailer indicates that Equestria Girls going full blown high school drama. The ponies turn it into “awkward gangly girls adjusting to their new bodies.” I know, it hurts. To top it off, we have an ignorant, popular teenage female bully beating on our beloved Twilight. Houston, we have a stereotype.

In all seriousness, the antagonist seems to play the role of “evil prom queen” and we all know where this usually ends up going. The trailer is horribly vague but such suspicions are sound. Meghan McCarthy is behind the wheel and while she is an extremely talented writer, the concept of high school drama revolving around the malicious prom queen has been done to death. Not to mention Twilight’s suspected love interest.

“[Friendship is Magic] goes to great lengths to make even its visual representation of this culture to feel different from our own.”

- BronyCurious, Renowned Brony Critic and Analyst

BronyCurious was of course talking about the differences of the Friendship is Magic world and ours. Pony society values friendship instead of the core values of our human world. Those being money, status, and of course lust. My Little Pony Tales, or Generation Three of the My Little Pony franchise, failed because it focuses on the corrupted values of our world. Friendship is Magic excelled because it “exhibits a culture that holds relationships extremely valuable; not to exploit the relationship but to treasure it.” Doesn't Twilight crazily chasing down a jock over a crush essentially break that image?

In conclusion, Equestria Girls displays excellent production value but faces huge obstacles with its suspected stereotypes. It’s a brand new direction to take the franchise and one that I believe will be of great difficulty. Not because of it being a rushed movie, remember we have already established that the movie will live up to the standards already set forth in the show, but because of how it will break the culture of said show. Instead, it will mirror the culture of your average high school. A culture revolving around the importance of status and lust; as BronyCurious puts it “the anti-FiM.” Celestia help us. Keep an eye out for more Equestria Girls news commentary here on the Problematic Network. I'll see you guys next time and as always, thanks for reading.

“My Little Pony Tales is the Anti-FiM” produced by BronyCurious can be found here.

The Equestria Girls trailer can be found here. Credit to the Round Stable news group.

Source: All Equestria Girls news from Equestria Daily can be found here.

Source: The State of the Herd Report 2013 is licenced in the Creative Commons Licence.

Source: The Daily Dot: Why "My Little Pony" fandom is freaking out over "Equestria Girls" can be found here.

My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and Equestria Girls is copyright Hasbro 2010-2013. The Problematic Network does not claim ownership to Hasbro, the Daily Dot, BronyCurious, and Equestria Daily’s content. All content is owned by its respective creator(s).

Side-Note:

This episode is a bit more informative than anything because I am planning to send this to Equestria Daily as an editorial. Also, it will be used on my resume for a internship at the Houston Chronicle. I want this to at least be on Equestria Daily then aim for an internship with the Chronicle. Wish me luck, right?