Present Perfect vs. Equestria Girls Summer Shorts · 5:52pm Jul 31st, 2017
I have no idea what these are (I think FOME or someone said they aired between the movies on Discovery Family or something?), but they happened, so let's take a look.
Make-Up Shake-Up
Oh. Oh dear. I'm not thinking these are must-see material all of a sudden.
I had two thoughts while watching this: "This is someone's fetish", and "This is dumb". I'm pretty sure it takes place during the original Equestria Girls movie, because that doesn't look like Sci-Twi and I'm pretty sure those are their original Fall Formal dresses. (It's been a while.) Funnily, this could almost be a deleted scene, for all that it's just a single joke. I mean, if you've ever wanted a first-person view to human Rarity giving you a makeover, here's your simulator? Otherwise... This is not high-quality content. And I expect the rest won't be, either.
Let's watch it anyway.
A Photo Booth Story
All you really need to know is "No, no, nein!" Because if you dig any deeper, you find that the show crew don't understand how cameras work. This is no better than the previous one, but it is at least a little bit amusing. I mean, it's just the kind of goofing around that you get from Dance Magic, and not nearly as long. Photo Finish is somewhat amusing. I was somewhat amused they recreated the entirety of the climax of Sonic Rainboom with Queegees. If you like Pixel Pizzazz or whatever her name is, she's here. Again, not high-quality content; more "keep your child glued to the screen for three extra minutes with flashing colors".
Raise This Roof
And you thought the last title made me facepalm. 
This was excruciatingly stupid. (The 'plot': country vs. """hip-hop""" dance-off.) And I'm still weirded out that this is all taking place during the first movie. Especially since the animation is really off somehow. The only thing I was amused by is how they apparently couldn't pay the child VAs, so the CMCs don't talk in any of these. Wait, no, nevermind, this has no value whatsoever.
Steps of Pep
Oh kill me.
Okay, this at least seems to take place at an undefined time, which instantly makes it better. Even if the animation being off is now on full display. But yeah, this is like... the opening of Sonic Rainboom (do the show staff think that's the best episode ever too?), if the opening of Sonic Rainboom was vapid and tiresome. Humanized Ponytones at least? This has some value, but it's so dumb you guys.
Ugh, one more.
Mad Twience
...Wait, really? My heart is beating fast, could this be...
Okay. If you're going to watch any part of this shitshow, skip ahead to time mark 11:00 on the video and make it this.
This is just a music video, but fuck. It stars Sci-Twi. She's looking great, doing science stuff. The song is decent, like 80's Cyndi Lauper fare. It's not quite a take-off of Mad Science, but it's close. And some people are going to be mad that Twilight has a framed picture of Spruceboy from the fourth movie, not to mention it seems like she's trying to make herself a boyfriend with science! But... that's not what's going on. And the ending kind of left me flabbergasted, in a good way. Overall this is so cute and just does not belong in this collection of utter dreck.
At least it was all worth it.
Yeah, these were aired as time filler since one movie ended at 8:45 PM. And it kind of shows. Personally, I found them enjoyably dumb.
These barely pass as Equestria Girls Minis videos.
Speaking of which, WHERE IS MY LEMON ZEST EQG MINI, HASBRO?!4619224
I mostly just found them dumb. :B The music video is totally worth it though, like I said.
Am I right in thinking this was not done in conjunction with DHX? Like, that might be why the animation was so odd?
And why they had huge boobs I mean what4619238
Yeah, these were done by an Irish studio. The name escapes me at the moment. Though I think DHX did Mad Twience.
Hey, for some of us this is the highest value to be achieved in art.
You know what?
The Appledash dance-off short reminded me of the “You Got Served” episode of South Park where Kyle challenged those kids to a dance-off by doing “Achy-Breaky Heart.”
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I caught it on the copyright card at the end of the shorts. Boulder Media Limited in Dublin. I think?
Also, here's the lesson I got from the music video. Fur-Real pets make crappy playmates for pets. Instead make them a Battlebot playmate 🙃
Yep, the animation is very off. Like someone said (most likely Crowne Prince) - Double Rainboom is not looking like an episode of MLP because the author just copied the show art style and not the ponies movements. The same could be said here - it uses easily detectable smear frames (Applebloom and Scootaloo spinning in the dance-off). Like Lullaby for a Princess the shorts use heavy shading with the only difference being the fact that Lullaby for a Princess uses an original art style. The shorts are also most likely made with higher frame rate than we are used to which make the animation feel more fluid but unnatural to someone and they are feeling more 3D than normal ponies/EQG. I also think that the studio used a different animation software than Adobe Animate (Flash).
These are just my few bits regarding the animation.
My main problem with the otherwise fun song is how terrible the sound reproduction is. I had no idea Twilight was supposed to be singing "P-E-R-F-E-C-T" until I read that in an EqD comment; it sounded like "E-R-Z-E-T" or something to me. Also, there's a line near the end that's officially "I pinch myself" that sounds like... well, something else. :P
The animation bothered me for the first couple of minutes, but not really thereafter. I hope it won't end up in the show though, as it probably would bother me there.
Remember three years ago, when we all saw Rainbow Rocks for the first time and thought, "That's our Wrath of Khan"?
Well, it's better we have these than our version of Enterprise, I guess.
This does kinda sound like something Cindy Lauper would roll out for an 80s movie about making your dog a robot
matefriend. "Doggie-5... alive?"4619368
Ditto on having to replay the part were she says "pinch myself." A lot of the lyrics are muddled but that one had me and the Mrs. do double takes and a mandatory rewind to make sure it wasn't what we heard the first time.
As someone who would under normal circumstances be one of those people, it's actually really hard to be mad when all sects of the fandom appear to have agreed that Timber Was A Mistake. :3 (Seriously, as many bad opinions as this fandom pumps out on an hourly basis, no jury will convict me for not seeing this development coming.)
Hopefully dhx will realize they're practically alone on this one and roll it back, but if if not, the Sciset faction alone is enough to drown out canon's past... erm, boo-boos.
/Still trying to work up interest to watch dance magic.
WHY DID YOU NOT SAY THERE WAS RARIJACK, I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS.
The first few of these look like an animation test. Like some shorts they did while they were still getting used to the new puppets and movement style for EqG. Do we have a definitive date they were actually made, that would refute that?
The branding on the last one is different, and the animation much better.
Overall a load of forgettable filler, but I do admit that music video sold me harder on Sci-Twi than two movies put together.
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I definitely noticed the higher frame rate and shading. The rest of this post is insightful, thank you. :)
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Oh yeah, I heard that too and forgot to comment on it. XD
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Dance Magic is pretty dull. Movie Magic is great. Mirror Magic is... silly. I still need to see it in English.
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It's not enough to combat the awful. D:
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I get that reference!
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I am glad I wasn't the only one that noticed that.
I liked the Rarity, Photo Finish, and Sci-Twi ones all right. The others... eh.
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I'm guessing not. Based on the credit slide things, it looks like they were done by people in Ireland, which I assume isn't DHX.
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Also is it just me, or did they really increase the size of Twilight's butt in the Weird Science one, especially when she was bent over?
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Not a butt guy, wouldn't have noticed. :B
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You know, it occurs to me the Rarity one would have made a good "don't try to 'fix' others, they're beautiful already" episode with 20 extra minutes. Bit mature for the show, so alas.