Review of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (2013) by Mike R — 23 Jun 2013

There's some guilty enjoyment to be had here, especially if you're a fan of the "Mane 6", but all the cheap gags and character interactions aren't enough to justify this movie's sloppy existence. From the pacing to the animation to the writing, I expected something a little better from the team that brought us Friendship is Magic, but with the departure of show creator Lauren Faust and story editor Rob Renzetti, it looks like this pony plane is pitching into a nosedive.

Before you blame Hasbro for this, consider the following: Hasbro is a toy company first and a media company second. It delegates the duty of producing shows like My Little Pony to a third-party: DHX Media. Under Faust's guidance, and with her hand-picked crew, DHX's Studio B produced a show that went above and beyond what we'd normally expect from a toy commercial for little girls. It turned what would've been a bland and uninteresting toy commercial into a genuinely decent show that respects its audience, disregarding age and gender. Chances are if Lauren had more creative control of the show, it could've been more comparable with Disney films in the writing department (although probably not involving as much tragedy?).

TL;DR, it's Hasbro's job to make toys. It's DHX's job to make cartoon shows. Hasbro may be run by near-sighted dinosaurs, but they're not the ones writing the scripts for the show or this movie. They just have veto power.