My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (film) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jayson Thiessen
Produced by	Sarah Wall Devon Cody
Written by	Meghan McCarthy
Starring	Tara Strong Ashleigh Ball Andrea Libman Tabitha St. Germain Cathy Weseluck Rebecca Shoichet
Music by	William Anderson
Editing by	Mark Kuehnel
Distributed by	Screenvision
Release date(s)	June 15, 2013 (2013-06-15) (Los Angeles Film Festival) June 16, 2013 (2013-06-16) (United States and Canada)
Running time	73 minutes
Country	Canada United States
Language	English
Money made	$488, 232 (Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and United Kingdom)

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, or simply known as Equestria Girls, is a 2013 Canadian–American Flash animated fantasy musical film which is the first installment of Hasbro's toy line and media franchise of the same name, which is itself an anthropomorphized spin-off of the 2010 relaunch of the My Little Pony franchise. The film was written by Meghan McCarthy and directed by Jayson Thiessen, and was produced by DHX Media's 2D animation studio in Vancouver, Canada for Hasbro Studios in the United States. It premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 15, 2013, followed by limited release in the United States and Canada on June 16, 2013, with a home media release on August 6, 2013. It also commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of the original My Little Pony toyline.

The film re-envisions the main characters of parent franchise, normally ponies, as teenage human characters in a high school setting. Set between the third and fourth seasons of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, the film's plot involves Twilight Sparkle pursuing her stolen crown into an alternate world where she transforms into a human teenage girl. While learning how to behave as a human, Twilight encounters human counterparts of her pony friends, who help her in her search for her crown.

The film's critical reception was mixed, with most criticism directed towards the character design, writing, plot and characterization. The film was followed by three sequels – Rainbow Rocks (2014), Friendship Games (2015), and Legend of Everfree (2016) – all of which were more positively received.

Plot

Twilight visits the Crystal Empire for her first royal summit following her coronation as a princess of Equestria. Sunset Shimmer, a rogue student of Princess Celestia, emerges from a mirror portal and steals Twilight's crown, which contains the Element of Magic. After a chase through the castle, Sunset goes through the portal with Twilight's crown. The other princesses explain that the portal leads to an alternate world; as the other Elements of Harmony are unusable without the crown, Twilight is tasked with retrieving it from the other world before the portal closes for thirty moons. Despite Celestia's insistence that Twilight must travel alone, Spike follows her into the portal.

Twilight and Spike emerge in the other world in the form of a human teenager and dog, respectively. Twilight investigates the nearby Canterlot High School and encounters its human students and staff, several of whom resemble ponies in Equestria. Masquerading as a transfer student, Twilight defends the counterpart of her friend Fluttershy from being bullied by Sunset. Twilight learns that Fluttershy has delivered the crown to Principal Celestia, mistaking it for a prop meant for the elected "princess" of the Fall Formal. Determining that no one would believe her claims of being a pony from another world, Twilight receives Celestia's permission to run for Fall Formal Princess against Sunset to recover the crown.

While continuing to explore school life, Twilight discovers that the counterparts of Fluttershy and her other friends from Ponyville – Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash – have separated out of hostility. Sunset sends her cohorts Snips and Snails to record a humiliating video of Twilight behaving like a pony, which is posted online and viewed by the entire school. The counterparts of Twilight's friends come to her aid, only to argue among themselves, revealing the cause of their rift to be a series of treacherous text messages and emails they supposedly sent each other. Through a theory of Twilight's, however, the five girls realize that Sunset sent these messages to deceive them. Reconciling, the five help Twilight perform a public dance routine for her campaign, which improves Twilight's image.

In another attempt to undermine Twilight, Sunset has the formal decorations in the school gym wrecked and uses edited photographs to frame Twilight. Although Sunset's ex-boyfriend Flash Sentry proves Twilight's innocence, the formal is postponed to the night after the portal to Equestria closes. Twilight and Spike reveal their true identities to the other girls, convincing them of the situation's urgency. Under Twilight's direction, they rally the other students and successfully repair the damage in time for its original schedule, earning Twilight the school's support.

On the night of the formal, Twilight wins the election and the crown, but Sunset steals it back in a scuffle after kidnapping Spike and threatening to destroy the portal to Equestria. Upon donning the crown, Sunset transforms into a demon and hypnotizes the other students, revealing her intent to conquer Equestria with the students as her army. When Sunset attacks Twilight and her friends, their friendship activates the crown's magic, giving them pony-like ears, wings, and tails. The six girls use the magic to revert Sunset and their schoolmates to normal. Sunset is humbled by the power of the girls' friendship and apologizes for her actions. After celebrating at the formal and placing Sunset under her friends' care, Twilight and Spike return to Equestria with the crown as the portal closes.

Cast

• Tara Strong as Princess Twilight Sparkle, an "alicorn" (winged unicorn) who assumes human form in the alternate world of Canterlot High School.
• Ashleigh Ball as Applejack, a seller of apple cider; and Rainbow Dash, an athletic student who plays school sports such as soccer. Their counterparts as depicted in Friendship Is Magic also appear in the film.
• Andrea Libman as Pinkie Pie, who serves as head of the school formal planning committee; and Fluttershy, a timid and kindhearted animal shelter volunteer. Their counterparts as depicted in Friendship Is Magic also appear in the film. Shannon Chan-Kent provides Pinkie Pie's singing voice.
• Tabitha St. Germain as Rarity, a fashion designer; and Vice Principal Luna, Celestia's younger sister and counterpart of Princess Luna. Their counterparts as depicted in Friendship Is Magic also appear in the film. Kazumi Evans performs Rarity's singing voice.
• Cathy Weseluck as Spike, Twilight's dragon assistant; he becomes a talking dog in the parallel world.
• Rebecca Shoichet as Sunset Shimmer, a unicorn and renegade student of Princess Celestia who lives in the parallel world as the resident bully at Canterlot High School. Shoichet also performs Twilight Sparkle's singing voice.
• Lee Tockar and Richard Ian Cox as Snips and Snails, Sunset Shimmer's two cohorts in the parallel world.
• Nicole Oliver as Principal Celestia, the head of Canterlot High School. Princess Celestia, her counterpart as depicted in Friendship Is Magic, also appears in the film.
• Vincent Tong as Flash Sentry, a Canterlot High student and Sunset Shimmer's ex-boyfriend who falls in love with Twilight; his alternate counterpart, a pegasus guard at the Crystal Empire, also appears in the film.
• Britt McKillip as Princess Cadance, the alicorn ruler of Equestria's Crystal Empire.

The film features uncredited performances by Peter New as the counterpart of Big McIntosh, Applejack's brother; Michelle Creber, Madeleine Peters, and Claire Corlett as the counterparts of the Cutie Mark Crusaders (Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle); Kathleen Barr as Trixie; and Tabitha St. Germain as a counterpart of Mrs. Cake. Nicole Oliver also has a minor credited role as a counterpart of Cheerilee, a schoolteacher. In addition, the film contains cameo appearances by characters popularized by the adult fandom of My Little Pony, such as DJ Pon-3 and what is known among fans as "Derpy Hooves".

Merchandise and other media

The film is a part of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls toy line and media franchise launched by Hasbro, which was briefly mentioned in the media earlier in February and March 2013, and formally announced in May 2013 with this film and other media strategy. It was to be part of the 30th anniversary of the My Little Pony brand. Hasbro planned to produce related merchandise including toys, apparel, publishing and accessories. The human-based toys were developed to appeal to girls in their teens as a means to extend the My Little Pony brand. In addition, LB Kids published a novelization of the film, and Gameloft included a themed mini-game in its My Little Pony mobile game. IDW published a backstory of the characters in the alternative universe (including Sunset Shimmer) in a stand-alone issue.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was released on September 23, 2014, via the iTunes Music Store. "This Strange World" is absent in the album. On October 2, 2014 (chart of October 11), the soundtrack placed #15, where the "My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks" soundtrack was two weeks ago on September 18.

See also

In Spanish: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls para niños