My Little Pony Friendship is Magic IDW Comics Review

As I look at the covers of the two MLP comic compilations, I immediately lament the fact of being a fan of a franchise meant for little girls. “Why is the logo covered in glitter?” I wonder as I inspect the cover art and the back. This seems like something an eight-year-old girl would do to girlify my comic collection. As I further inspect the outer layer of the comics, I see that both the books have no subtitle and the covers of both of them do not convey at all what the story within the pages will hold. Without removing the plastic covering, the only way you can tell that you didn’t buy the same book twice with different covers is that they are numbered on the spine and have a different summary and authors. As I opened the book and quickly flip through the pages, I glance at the last pages of the book at the art gallery. Most of the art in the gallery would have made a more superior choice for the main cover. I guess instead of having some cool art with some cool villain on the cover, they opted for something less offensive to better catch the eye of their target demographic, the eight year old girls of the world, instead of the real people who will buy it. The Bronies.

Let’s get away from judging the book by its cover and get into the nitty gritty.

Volume 1 is titled “ The Return of Queen Chrysalis “ which compiles the first four issues of the IDW My Little Pony Friendship is Magic comics. In this volume, Queen Chrysalis returns after her defeat at the end of season 2 to enact revenge on Twilight Sparkle by kidnapping Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. The main six knowingly adventure off to what they know is a trap to save the three fillies.

Volume 2 doesn’t have a title, but I’ll call it “Nightmare’s Revenge” for now which compiles issues five to eight of the comics. After the main six are all having insomnia from constant nightmares, Rarity gets kidnapped by the dark powers that once corrupted Princess Luna. It’s up to the main six five, spike, and Princess Luna to travel the moon to rescue Rarity.

The one I chose to read first was “The Return of Queen Chrysalis” which I chose based solely on the fact it had better art. Sure it doesn’t quite get Princess Celestia’s hair right but I do love how the line work venture’s away from the cold, perfectly drawn lines of the TV show to make something that looks more natural and better suited to the comic book format. Facial expressions are drawn really well, especially when you see Queen Chrysalis’ evil face in a few panels. The backgrounds are really well done, with lots of details and little things here and there which demands you to stop looking at the word bubbles to view the wonderful art. Although, this volume did have a lot of issues, little things like dialogue does fit the characters but in some sentences it’s like if the added or subtracted one word it would fit the characters better. Another one is what is up with all the crappy onomatopoeias? “JUMP”, “BETTER KICK”, “CRASH” etc? Seriously, was that on purpose or were they just feeling lazy? My biggest gripes are that background and fan favorite ponies show up in too many panels and too many references to pop culture. There’s even a troll who is such an obvious metaphor for bronies that I was kinda insulted. Mostly because it hits too close to home. All of these little details of references, fan favorites, nods to the fans feels like pandering basically. In the show, they knew that having some references and nods to the fans spaced out in between a few episodes was a good idea. Too much of that gets old and which is basically what Family Guy gets wrong. It ruins the flow of the story when you gotta stop now and again to look at art to get the reference. All of this just seems like something to distract you at how $#!* the story is. Characters don’t act seriously in serious situations in this story which is basically The Hobbit with ponies. They encounter a troll, fend off spiders in a cave, fend off the dangers of the forest as the travel through a landscape to reach their destination. They even have a map which resembles the journey Bilbo Baggins took to The Lonely Mountain. And it ends with what I consider the worst parts of the MLP FiM TV series. When Twilight defeats the big meanie by lecturing them about the power of fwendship. I guess Twilight always succeeds cause the villains willingly submit cause they’ll die from vomiting or audibly groaning too loud.

Volume Two “The Nightmare Strikes Back” doesn’t have art as good as volume one. It doesn’t get some colours correct but it does stick closer to the art style of the show and it does get Princess Celestia’s mane right. But some panel’s of the main villain looking menacing in her battle armour does win me over. Volume Two “The Nightmare Menace” does however win me over in where it counts the most, a tighter focus on story. Serious characters act serious in serious situations, no insipid little references to distract you from the story, and when certain background or recurring ponies do show up, it makes more sense and has a bigger impact on the story. The story delves deeper into the characters than volume one especially for Princess Luna. The dialogue even fits better than volume one. Although, this volume does seem to be written like a modern day action movie. You know, the kind of movies released after the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, where the heroes and the villains amass a huge army or a large group to square off at the climax of the film. You know, movies like Breaking Dawn part two, Deathly Hallows part two, Ironman 3, that Tim Burton Alice movie etc. The ending treads the line of friendship is the only reason they won, but the ending is rather more about facing your fears and looking past your own insecurities than the “friendship is magic” that I loath so much about some of the TV series’ episodes. But all in all, a good read.

Besides all my complaining, both these compilations are pretty good, one just okay, the other one better. Even though one of them kinda gets on my nerves and feels like too much fan service, it still has better writing and is more engaging than most MLP FiM episodes. If you’re a fan of the franchise, they are both good companions while you wait for season 4 to come around. And it’s certainly better than that god-awful Equestria Girls movie.

Soo Ugly – Deviantart Submission

For some reason, this little comic is getting alot of views.

My Little Pony Equestria Girls Review

Hasbro has reliably made a fortune from the people born in the 1980’s and 1990’s. I can’t wait thirty years down the line when they release the Megatron hearing aid, Littlest Pet Shop adult diapers, and GI Joe’s Guide to Recovering from Gulf War Syndrome.  From the recent years they’ve made mad money from this demographic by releasing a series of big budget movies, which have reliably been providing Internet movie critics something to rag on while they stay at home not looking for a real job. Although they didn’t expect this same demographic to be so enamored with a property that was supposed to suck money from their pockets by way of their female offspring. Hasbro seems kind of perplexed by this and don’t seem too delighted by the fact that man children are shoving money down their throats. Sure they’ll still take your money but they won’t give you a smile while they write down your credit card details.

So okay little girls of the world here’s a movie for you, which that fourteen year old boy at your school is probably more excited about than you are and who’s already got ideas for his next pony fan art submissions to deviantart.

I know this review sounds harsh towards Bronies, the group of males who worship this cartoon series more than Jesus Christ on Easter, but I am not ashamed to say that I too am a Brony. Although I am ashamed of this review because I have to watch My Little Pony Equestria Girls, a movie about a magical pony princess travelling into the human world to become a purple skinned Bratz doll re-enacting High School Musical. As a Brony myself, I’m a little peeved that this is the first thing Twilght Sparkle does after becoming a Princess. I was expecting her to have the peasants build a giant statue of Starswirl, pass a law that would sentence the death penalty to people who don’t read books, or give birth to a baby which the press will report on rather than the 500 prisoners who escaped from Abu Ghraib.

I hate the school setting it’s gone for. If you notice that the majority of good cartoons aren’t set in school. If they have kids who go to school then the show is mostly set during summer vacation, see Ben 10 and Phineas and Ferb. As an adult I’m so pass the point where I care about a bunch of snot nosed kids getting through high school. I’m much more interested in colourful ponies learning that friendship is magic.

So the movie starts out with her attending her first Princess summit all the while complaining that she isn’t used to her brand new wings. Well, now that you’re a princess, Twilight, you’ll have even less use for those wings considering you can have yourself pulled around a chariot all day. While going there she brings along with her her crown and it inevitably gets stolen. I bet no one saw that coming. Normally I would think, “what’s the big deal? It’s just some jewelry” But no, Twilight’s crown is one piece of the deus ex machina that they pull out of their asses when a big meanie shows up. You’d think she would be smarter to not bring it along in case she loses it, gets stolen, or a peasant coughs on it. Which makes me wonder, why is Twilight so special that she gets to carry around such a valuable artifact of power. You don’t see the big cheese that is Princess Celestia carrying around the Ark of the Covenant on her back. Even Princess Celestia was smart enough to keep it hidden for a thousand years. So to get the crown back, instead of maybe sending their bravest and most skillful warrior, they send Twilight Sparkle who ends up turning into a weak teenaged girl when she emerges on the other side of the portal.

Did I really say that this movie was rip-off of high school musical? After watching it fully, I’ve found that it rips its own TV series off. The plot is mostly a retelling of the first two episodes of Friendship is Magic, right down to Twilight befriending all her pony friends and even defeating the powerful villain with the groantastic magic of friendship. But instead of it taking place in a mystical world of dragons and sorcery, it takes place in the last place anyone would want to be, an American public high school. They even keep all the pony names of the human versions which is I guess they did not to confuse the drooling little girls, who are the target audience, but if they gave an explanation like it’s their nicknames would have been enough. Although that would kill the pacing if every character would introduce their names and their nicknames.

As a fish out of water movie, I found this movie kind of enjoyable if it wasn’t for all the tropes you see in all dumb high school movies. One of the ones I found the most infuriating is that Twilight gets a crush on one of the boys in the school. Ahh, the forced romance. Which made me remember that scene in Planet of the Apes when Charlton Heston asked if he could kiss one of the female apes but she replied “Ok, but your so damned ugly.” Wouldn’t Twilight be repulsed by his tiny muzzle and his lack of horse *&%#$? From the way she meets the pony version of this guy in the end of the movie makes me kind of hate season 4 prematurely.

Equestria Girls is the first theatrical movie to come out from the Friendship is Magic TV show and it feels like wasted potential. There was potential to make a more “epic” movie story. Heck, even the old 1986 movie had a more movie appropriate plot. In conclusion, you should give this movie a pass but if you’re a parent with an excitable young girl, you’re a brony, or you’re someone with a brony friend that’s trying to get you to see it then you’ve probably already seen it. If you’re not in any of those categories you’re probably indifferent to it and couldn’t care less but I’m surprised you’ve read this review this far. My opinion really won’t matter because you would have already made up your mind if you’re going to see this movie or not. So go ahead and watch/not watch this movie. I’ll be in the corner waiting for Pacific Rim to release.