Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

My Little Pony Equestria Girls Blu-ray Movie Review

Will you want to pony up for this Blu-ray?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 26, 2013

I have two teenage sons and I have told my wife I frequently feel like I’ve wandered into a chapter of Sir James George Frazer’s legendary work of anthropology The Golden Bough, where I’m the “old king” patiently waiting around to be slaughtered by the young contender (or in this case, contenders). Having sons can definitely be a challenge, but it at least has kept me immune from the wonders of the My Little Pony franchise, and so fans of this multimedia enterprise will have to cut me a little slack as this review is being written decidedly from the viewpoint of a neophyte. I frankly wouldn’t know how to properly differentiate a Twilight Sparkle from a Sunset Shimmer if my life depended on it. The good news here is that the equines of My Little Pony morph into humans, which ostensibly provides some of the humor of this outing. My Little Pony Equestria Girls could therefore be thought of as a “horse out of pasture” offering, with main character Twilight Sparkle having to journey through a magical portal, becoming human in the process, so that she can recapture her stolen crown. What ensues is a gentle piece of moralizing which is meant to teach the simple lesson that the power of friendship is more magical and efficacious than any old silly black sorcery.

Twilight is a newly crowned Princess who hasn’t quite adapted to her royal role. She is in fact feeling completely unworthy as she arrives for a summit meeting of sorts and confides her fears to her friends and to Princess Celestia. Twilight’s worries kind of quickly go by the wayside, however, when a midnight thief breaks into her lodgings and attempts to steal Twilight’s crown. The thief trips over Twilight’s dragon Spike’s tail, however, waking everyone up. Twilight gives chase, only to see the thief and the crown disappear through some kind of magical mirror.

Celestia reveals that she recognizes the thief as Sunset Shimmer, a former student who has gone over to the “dark side”, as it were, and who has stolen the crown in order to keep the so-called Elements of Harmony, of which this crown is one, from functioning properly, leaving Equestria open to attack. That means that Twilight needs to venture forth into the mirror to retrieve her crown from whatever alternate universe lies on the other side of the portal. While Twilight’s pony friends want to accompany her, Celestia puts the kibosh on that idea, saying so many people traveling to the other side will upset whatever precarious balance exists between the two worlds. And so Twilight is on her own—or at least it seems so, until Spike impulsively runs through the mirror as well.

Twilight and Spike find themselves morphed into a human girl and dog, outside of a large high school they initially mistake for a palace. Twilight soon interacts with the nasty Sunset, who is kind of an animated “mean girl” who bullies the rest of the student body but who, either because of or in spite of that bullying, remains insanely popular. Twilight learns from Fluttershy that the crown has actually been delivered to the school principal, who wants to use it to crown the yearly prom queen, a title which of course has been won exclusively by Sunset for several years running. Can you guess what Twilight’s gambit is to regain her crown?

Twilight ultimately gets to know human versions of many of her pony friends back in her home world, and she slowly forges friendships with these, helping her to overcome Sunset's increasing machinations to win the crown for herself. The finale here is a bit hyperbolic, especially for younger tots, who may in fact be slightly frightened by the demonic presence that Sunset briefly becomes before order is restored and friendship wins the day.

My Little Pony Equestria Girls is obviously aimed at a pretty young female demographic (although one of the supplements shows much older—like mid- to late teen—girls making themselves up as the various characters, so what do I know?). Its simple story spiced with equally simple humor and some decent knock off pop songs will no doubt appeal incredibly to that group, but even those kids are probably going to be able to guess just about every plot move this exercise offers, long before it actually does so itself. The moral is simple but effective, and the style is breezy enough to probably easily entertain the youngest fans, but my hunch is anyone over the age of eight or nine or so may find this to be the worst possible sin imaginable, namely “lame”.

My Little Pony Equestria Girls Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

My Little Pony Equestria Girls is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The animation style here owes a lot to efforts like Power Puff Girls, with lots of angular designs and intentionally flat, two dimensional renderings. The color palette here is quite bright and vivid, exploiting both primaries and (especially) some lush pastels. Line detail is sharp and well defined throughout this presentation, though there is some noticeable banding, especially in rapidly fluctuating lighting changes.

My Little Pony Equestria Girls Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

My Little Pony Equestria Girls features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 that fully springs into surround action in the song score, which is derivative (think The Go-Go's or The Bangles) but enjoyable on its own small scale terms. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and the occasional foley effect is also very well rendered. Fidelity is strong and dynamic range is fairly wide, though not overwhelmingly so.

My Little Pony Equestria Girls Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Through the Mirror Includes:

  The Movie (1080p; 12:24) features interviews with some of the cast and crew discussing how this film is different from all other My Little Pony enterprises, while maintaining a connection with the franchise.

  
  

  The Look (1080p; 5:56) focuses on the animation style.

  
  

  The Music (1080p; 4:17) centers on the music and songwriter Daniel Ingram.

• Ponify Yourself (1080p; 1:07) is a short promo interspersed with real live girls making themselves up with added hair color to emulate their heroines. At least, I think that's what this is.


• Karaoke contains:

  Cafeteria Song (1080p; 2:46). Be advised that this particular song's title does not light up on the main supplements menu, and so you need to just press "Enter" when you're between Ponify Yourself and the next song.

  
  

  Friends for Life (1080p; 2:33)

• Hanazuki Preview (1080p; 00:34)


• Printable Poster

My Little Pony Equestria Girls Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My Little Pony Equestria Girls was originally designed to be a straight to video release, but then actually received a limited theatrical exhibition, where it did surprisingly well, proving that there's still a rather healthy market for this franchise. The film is undeniably sweet and colorful, but it's also awfully predictable. No doubt lovers of this franchise are going to adore seeing their favorite equines as humans, but that's a rather short-lived thrill, as the characters don't change, simply their forms. Younger viewers will no doubt get a big kick out of this offering, but adults will probably want to let this video be a baby sitter while they attend to more weighty matters about the house. This Blu-ray offers excellent video and audio and has some decent supplementary material.