My Little Pony: Equestria Girls | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Jayson Thiessen |
Written by | Meghan McCarthy |
Based on | My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Series Developed for Television by Lauren Faust |
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Starring | |
Edited by | Mark Kuehnel |
Music by | William Anderson |
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Running time | 73 minutes |
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Language | English |
Box office | $488,232 (Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and United Kingdom)[1] |
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, known simply as Equestria Girls or EQG (sometimes as Through the Mirror),[2][3] is a 2013 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 animated in Adobe Flash, directed by Jayson Thiessen and written by Meghan McCarthy, 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 toy line.
The film re-envisions the main characters of the parent franchise, normally ponies, as teenage humanoid characters in a high school setting. Set between the third and fourth seasons of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic television series, the film's plot involves Twilight Sparkle pursuing her stolen crown into an alternate world where she transforms into a humanoid teenage girl. While learning how to behave locally, Twilight encounters the parallel universe 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 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.[4][5]