My Little Pony Equestria Girls

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is an animated feature film starring characters resembling the main cast of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic as teenage girls. Princess Twilight Sparkle's crown, which is the element of magic, is stolen by Sunset Shimmer who disappears into a mirror that leads into another world. Without the crown, all the other Elements of Harmony will have no power to protect Equestria, so Twilight and Spike go through the mirror to chase after the culprit to retrieve her crown. They discover themselves in a new world where Twilight is a teenage girl and Spike is a talking dog, and find friends that resemble their friends from Equestria. Twilight works with her friends to become Princess of the Fall Formal to win her crown back from the human Sunset Shimmer and to "change the destiny of these two parallel worlds."

Development
Jim Miller's LinkedIn profile lists his experience as a storyboard supervisor at DHX Media from November 2011 through September 2012 "Working on MLP:FIM season 3, as well as the MLP: Equestria Girls DVD."

In April 2013, Daniel Ingram was asked regarding Equestria Girls "You doing songs for it?" and answered "sure am" then replied again "and I Might have heard Will's terrific score as well."

On May 14, 2013, it was confirmed by Meghan McCarthy that the film is written by her, directed by Jayson Thiessen, and features the same voice cast from the show. On May 20, she further tweeted that the script for the film was locked in March 2012.

Daniel Ingram stated in a Facebook post that he wrote six songs for the movie in a more modern pop/girl band style that would fit the high school/urban setting. He also stated some of the crew who worked with him: Trevor Hoffman for vocal arrangements, David Corman and Sam Ryan for production, and collaborating with McCarthy on the lyrics.

Summary
Twilight Sparkle is still fretting about her recent coronation to a princess (in Magical Mystery Cure) as she and her Ponyville friends travel to the Crystal Empire for a celebration. While there, Sunset Shimmer, a former and bitter student of Princess Celestia, steals Twilight's crown, one of the Elements of Harmony. In the tussle, the crown falls through a magic mirror, and Sunset follows it through. Princess Celestia informs Twilight and her friends that the mirror leads to a different world and that Twilight alone must cross over to retrieve it, else the Elements of Harmony will fail to work to protect Equestria. As Twilight crosses over, Spike jumps in after her.

The two find themselves in a different world outside of a large school; Twilight has become a teenaged human girl, while Spike has become a dog. The two are confused about this new world, but Twilight starts to recognize several of the schoolmates as similar to her Ponyville friends - Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity - and quickly befriends them. Meanwhile, she discovers that Fluttershy has found the crown and turned it over to Principal Celestia, much to Sunset Shimmer's annoyance. Principal Celestia, unaware of the power of the crown, deems it the prize for the upcoming Fall Formal, and Twilight decides she must vie for Sunset to win Princess of the Fall Formal to gain the crown. She meets Flash Sentry, Sunset's former boyfriend, who opts to help her along with her new friends to win the Formal. Sunset tries many ways to humiliate Twilight, such as releasing videos of Twilight struggling to get used to the human world, but her friends help to counter these ploys and help improve her popularity.

At the Formal, Twilight is named the Princess and given the crown, but Sunset steals it with the help of two other students, Snips and Snails. When Sunset dons the crown, she transforms into a demon-like creature and quickly uses her newfound powers to brainwash the other students at the school, including Flash Sentry. Twilight and her five new friends are able to recover the crown, but Sunset remains as a demon. Twilight is able to evoke the Element's power, temporarily transforming the six into pony-like humans and wielding a power through their friendship that is able to excise the demonic form from Sunset and revert the rest of the students to normal. As everyone recovers, a repentant Sunset asks for forgiveness, and Twilight asks her friends to become Sunset's new friends, something she hasn't had before. Then the principal of Canterlot High, a human version of Princess Celestia, gives the crown to Twilight. After the Formal, Twilight and Spike say their goodbyes. After talking to the 6 human versions of her friends, the vice principal, a human version of Princess Luna, gives her a tool to rebuild all the destruction she had caused. Finally, Twilight and Spike return to Equestria with the crown. Twilight is relieved to be back in her own world and with her friends, and less reluctant about her royal duties.

Cast

 * Tara Strong: Twilight Sparkle
 * Ashleigh Ball: Rainbow Dash and Applejack
 * Andrea Libman: Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie
 * Tabitha St. Germain: Rarity, Princess/Vice-Principal Luna, Mrs. Cake, and others
 * Nicole Oliver: Princess/Principal Celestia, Cheerilee
 * Cathy Weseluck: Spike
 * Rebecca Shoichet: Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle's singing voice
 * Vincent Tong: Flash Sentry
 * Britt McKillip: Princess Cadance
 * Lee Tockar: Snips
 * Richard Ian Cox: Snails
 * Peter New: Big McIntosh and lacrosse player
 * Michelle Creber: Apple Bloom
 * Claire Corlett: Sweetie Belle
 * Madeleine Peters: Scootaloo
 * Kathleen Barr: Trixie
 * Shannon Chan-Kent: Pinkie Pie's singing voice
 * Kazumi Evans: Rarity's singing voice

Trailer
The New York Times published an article on May 12, 2013, covering the film's future release and other details in its development. The article included a trailer which was later uploaded in HD to the mylittlepony YouTube channel. The trailer features a song which was not created by Daniel Ingram and does not appear in the film.

Early publicity
Equestria Girls was announced in Kidscreen magazine's February/March 2013 issue, which was both distributed at the 2013 American International Toy Fair and released online. An article which covers Hasbro's 2013 plans mentioned that "A new companion series called Equestria Girls is set to air this spring, sending the pony heroes on a mission to a new world where they take on human form", and an image included by the article is captioned "As My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic reaches the 65-ep mark, the series is set to spawn spin-off Equestria Girls, in which the ponies take on human form". Between the issue's Toy Fair distribution and online release, the editor of Kidscreen stated that Equestria Girls is a completely separate show that will have no bearing on My Little Pony Friendship is Magic.

At the beginning of March 2013, The New York Times News Service/Syndicate listed an image of the six main characters each as a pony and as a human, all under a My Little Pony Equestria Girls logo, and The New York Times itself published an article both online and in print, mentioning that Hasbro "plans to introduce a new extension this fall called Equestria Girls" to celebrate the My Little Pony brand's thirtieth anniversary and including the image without the logo.

Branding
On December 17 and 18, 2012, Hasbro filed trademarks of "EQUESTRIA GIRLS", the first for "Toy ponies and accessories for use therewith" and the second for "Entertainment services, namely an on-going animated television series for children" and "Dolls, doll clothing, and doll accessories".

Film festival
The Los Angeles Film Festival held the world premiere of the film on June 15, 2013. The festival provided in the month prior to the screening a few promotional images of the main characters with pony-like ears, tail-like hair extensions, and in one image wings for Twilight Sparkle and the characters who look like Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

Theatrical
My Little Pony Equestria Girls will be distributed to theaters in limited release on June 16, 2013. The following synopsis is given on multiple official websites, sometimes without the first sentence:

"My Little Pony Equestria Girls is a brand new full-length feature introducing an exciting new dimension to the incredibly popular My Little Pony brand. When a crown is stolen from the Crystal Empire, Twilight Sparkle pursues the thief into an alternate world where she transforms into a teenage girl who must survive her biggest challenge yet... High School. With help from her new friends who remind her of Ponyville's Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy, she embarks upon a quest to find the crown and change the destiny of these two parallel worlds."

The Australian DVD of Equestria Girls includes a slightly updated synopsis: "When her crown is stolen from the Crystal Empire, Twilight Sparkle pursues the thief, Sunset Shimmer, into an alternate world where she finds herself turned into...a teenage girl! To regain her crown and return to Equestria, Twilight must learn how to fit into this strange new world and defeat Sunset Shimmer in a competition to become crowned Princess of the Fall Formal at Canterlot High. Luckily, she'll have the assistance of Spike and five teenage girls who remind her of a certain group of ponies back home."

A list of participating U.S. theaters is available on Screenvision's website, and participating Canadian theaters can be found on Cineplex Entertainment's website as well as Empire Theatres' website. On May 28, 2013, Shout Factory and Hasbro Studios signed a deal for the film's international distribution, which is set for sometime after its limited theatrical run in the United States. In Australia, Village Cinemas lists the film for an August 24, 2013 release date.

Home media
My Little Pony Equestria Girls is scheduled for an August 6, 2013 release on DVD and Blu-ray.

Television
The Hub lists the film for its television debut sometime in Fall 2013.

Merchandise
Five "MLP EQUESTRIA" merchandise releases have been listed at Müller in Germany.

A chapter book titled My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Through the Mirror by G. M. Berrow is scheduled for October 1, 2013. Its synopsis reads: "Get an exciting longer story in our first Super Special chapter book for MY LITTLE PONY. In an effort to regain her stolen crown, Princess Twilight Sparkle steps through a magical mirror, into a completely new world where some things have changed, but true friendships remain magical!"

All quotes from the first trailer

 * Twilight Sparkle: I am excited, but I'm a little nervous too.


 * Princess Cadance: Twilight!


 * Princess Celestia: You'll soon know more about this place than even I do.


 * Twilight Sparkle: Whoaaa! Aah! Ahhhhhhhhhh! [looking at her reflection in glass] What am I?


 * Flash Sentry: Whoa!


 * Flash Sentry: You okay?


 * Sunset Shimmer: You must be new here.


 * Twilight Sparkle: My magic isn't working!


 * Twilight Sparkle: My name's Twilight Sparkle, and... Pinkie Pie?


 * Human Pinkie Pie: You're officially up for the coveted Princess of the Fall Formal Crown!


 * Sunset Shimmer: Where is this Twilight Sparkle?


 * Pinkie Pie: Ooh! I'm so nervicited!


 * Applejack: You do realize that's not a real word, right?

All quotes from the second trailer

 * Flash Sentry: Princess Twilight Sparkle!


 * Princess Celestia: We have so much to discuss.


 * Rarity: You are a princess now, embrace it.


 * Twilight Sparkle: She's got my crown! Stop!


 * Princess Cadance: Retrieve your crown. Without it, the other elements of harmony have no power and Equestria is left without one of its most important means of defense.


 * Princess Celestia: You understand the importance of your task?


 * Twilight Sparkle: What does the rest of me look like?


 * Spike: I don't think that's how the new you is supposed to...


 * Twilight Sparkle: What am I?


 * Twilight Sparkle: My magic isn't working!


 * Sunset Shimmer: You must be new here.


 * Spike: They do remind you of your Ponyville friends.


 * Twilight Sparkle: You're right, Spike.


 * Twilight Sparkle: Looks like if I want my crown back, I'll have to become Princess of the Fall Formal.


 * Spike: How do you exactly plan on doing that?


 * Twilight Sparkle: I have no idea!


 * Twilight Sparkle: The magic of friendship doesn't just exist in Equestria. It's everywhere.


 * Spike: Those are my girls! Woo-hoo!


 * Boy: Did that dog just talk?


 * Spike: The talking dog is the weird thing about all this?