After 2 parts, it's time to the the final comparison to see if which one stands out more and I will use the newest of the 2 franchises to compare it.
For Equestria Girls, we have Equestria Girls: Friendship Games
For Monster High, it's Boo York, Boo York
After watching both movies and sorting out my thoughts for it. I have finally decided on how to write this finally finale. For all who were waiting for this, here is my Christmas gift to you, the conclusion to Monster High movies vs Equestria Girls.
First of all, I didn't expect Boo York to be a musical movie so I had a hard time of deciding whether to still compare it to Friendship Games or to Equestria Girls' musical movie, Rainbow Rocks, but there are enough songs in Friendship Games so it should be fine.
The Story
Friendship Games
For Friendship Games, this takes place where it left off in Rainbow Rocks, Sunset Shimmer has now been accepted again and the Rainbooms still pony-up from playing instruments while Sunsets wonders about how equestrian magic works here.
A mysterious girl shows up at the school one day to inspect the portal but gets found out by Sunset, that girl turns out to be Twilight as she is also trying to study the magic from Canterlot High to get into Everton's independent study program.
At the same time, the Friendship Games between Canterlot High School's Wonder Colts and Crystal Prep Academy's Shadow Bolts are coming up which has all of CHS frustrated since even though it's called the "Friendship Games", the two school can't get along because Crystal Prep keeps beating them at everything.
After the prep rally led by a suddenly ponied-up Rainbow Dash and with the Rainbooms still have their occasional pony-ups, Sunset has been asked by Luna to keep the magic in check to avoid Crystal Prep thinking that they're using magic to cheat.
Meanwhile at Crystal Prep, Twilight get essentially blackmailed into participating the Friendship Games for Crystal Prep by her principal, Principal Cinch, and prepares a device so that she can still study magic while participating.
She meets up the Rainbooms and the rest of CHS, including Flash Sentry, she's very confused why everyone seems to know her and act like friends around her. Suddenly, just like Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and AppleJack all have random pony-ups which Twilight's device sucks their magic up from them.
Twilight soon realizes what the stolen magic could do and that couldn't stop her device from taking it from her friends which upsets Sunset so Sunset leashes out on Twilight, telling her to not mess with things she doesn't understand if she can't understand the consequences. Sunset, feeling bad about yelling at Twilight like that, decides to make amends with her after the last event.
But Principal Cinch and the Crystal Prep team manipulate Twilight into releasing the magic inside her device, saying that watching what it would be would help her understand it better than any independent study program would.
The magic is released and Twilight gets sucked into it, transforming her a demonic alicorn form the fans call Midnight Sparkle. Midnight wants to break the barriers between their worlds to get to Equestria to understand the magic there but Sunset then uses the device to absorb some of her friends' magic to transform herself into an angelic alicorn form called Daylight Shimmer and they have a battle that reminds me of the battle between the two sisters. Finally Sunset convinces Twilight to give up since she has walked that path too and she knows that it wouldn't end well. Twilight apologizes and the Friendship games ends with a draw.
The two school finally get a chance to get along and Twilight makes the decision to transfer to Canterlot High to learn more about the magic of friendship from the Rainbooms.
Boo York, Boo York
For Boo York, it starts off with a reintroduction to Catty Noir and Catty now has writer's block since all the songs she sang before weren't songs she wanted to sing.
Meanwhile Ramses De Nile observes a crystal comet that is approaching and asks his daughter, Nefera to prepare to go to Boo York and to summon her sister Cleo to come with.
Cleo shares the news about going to Boo York for an exclusive gala opening to her boyfriend, Deuce. Deuce isn't sure about going as Cleo's date since Cleo's considered as royalty and he is inexperienced with high society doesn't want to embarrass her but Cleo reassures him that she wouldn't be embarrassed of him and that they are meant to be together and nothing could change that. She then breaks the news to her ghoulfriends who all want to go to Boo York too, so Cleo decides to invite all of them to go with her despite her father only allowing one or two, she said that as a princess, she has to give the people what they want.
After a travel and shopping montage, the ghouls meet Luna Mothews, an aspiring bloodway singer from Jersey,
and a street musician robot named Elle Eedee, which in my book is the coolest name this show has come up with.
Cleo soon finds out that Nefera invited Toralei to be her plus one and the sisters soon realized that they have to go meet their father for their meeting with Amucommon Ptolemy and her son, Seth.
They couldn't get a cab until Mouscede Kings helps them and directs them the fastest route to Ptolemy tower.
They arrive late but it is going somewhat smoothly until Deuce comes in and his informality, compared to the De Niles, disgust Lux.
At Monster High, Ghoulia notices that the crystal comet has been knocked out of orbit and that it is now heading straight to Boo York.
Back at Boo York, Ramses summons Nefera and asks that she and Seth would perform the promising ceremony at the night of the crystal comet since legend has it any promise made in the presence of crystal when the comet above becomes an real and unbreakable betroth, once made, it cannot be undone. With the promise ceremony uniting the Ptolemys and the De Niles, they would take over Boo York. However Nefera rejects being betrothed to Seth despite the benefits that come with it and decides that Cleo would take her place at the ceremony, but Deuce is their biggest problem
so Nefera has Mouscede plan a morning brunch for Cleo, their friends and the Ptolemys, but Deuce shows up severely late and under dressed, embarrassing Cleo.
Nefera then tells Deuce that their dish is on fire, to which Deuce freaks out over, trying to put it out and using a fire extinguisher on it. After that, Cleo explains to him that the dish is supposed to be on fire and storms out.
Nefera, playing the devil, convinces Deuce that they're too different to last and that if he does love her, he'd set her free for a better destiny. At Monster High, Ghoulia, joined by Abbey, hack into the satellite system to investigate the comet to which some monster inside it releases a signal back through the satellite in the form of music.
Back at Boo York, Deuce goes to Cleo who's having a hard time deciding which dress to wear for the gala, Deuce tells Cleo that they're too different and he breaks up with her, much to Nefera's delight.
Meanwhile, the rest of the ghouls meet a rapper called Pharaoh at the subway which Catty sings along to, not a good idea since they're instantly chased down by Catty's fans.
Pharaoh shows her his way of moving around Boo York, through the rooftops, kinda reminds me of Aladdin. At Monster High, Ghoulia and Abbey are still trying to stop the comet, but Heath and Manny think it's a video game after crashing a satellite towards the comet, Ghoulia and Abbey find out that it's a space ship.
Back at Boo York, Cleo is devastated about the break up and Nefera comes in acting shocked and telling Cleo that she would disappoint everyone by not showing up at the gala, Cleo decides to go to give the people what they want.
Catty and Pharaoh are talking about their shared passion for music as they climb up the Monster of Liberty, at the top, Pharaoh shows her the view of Boo York as well as the music inside the city.
She begins to write her music and she says that she hasn't been this inspired in a long time but Pharaoh says that he may never rap again after today, much to Catty's dismay, she says that she left everything behind to find her true music and she doesn't hope that someone who already has their voice would give it up. She leaves to get ready for the gala but she asks Pharaoh to reconsider his decision.
At the gala, everyone arrives as Amucommon Ptolemy explains the history of the crystal comet and unveils the legendary crystal comet shard. Nefera convinces Cleo to perform the ceremony with Seth since that's what the people want.
As Amucommon Ptolemy announce the future dynasty will be determined by Seth and Cleo, to the ghouls' surprise.
But Seth sees Catty in the crowd and decides to take off his mask to show his true self, Pharaoh. (to be honest were you surprised?) They sing their duet and run away together.
Nefera is furious and disgusted by this so she take the crystal comet shard and takes away their bond, their musical voices. Without their music, they drift apart, Seth/Pharaoh is summoned back and Catty is left empty. Mouscede sees Nefera give the crystal to Toralei for disposal. The ghouls find out and go after Toralei. At Monster High, Ghoulia is still trying to wake up the monster in the ship but nothing is working and it keeps getting closer into the atmosphere.
Back to Boo York, Toralei seems to have used Catty and Pharaoh's musical talent to hit bloodway so Luna and Catty step in to steal the spotlight and expose her as a fraud, they get the crystal back to head back to the tower, now with Deuce who wants to get Cleo back, to stop the ceremony. Toralei calls Nefera to warn her so Nefera uses an amulet to take out Boo York's power. Left with no other choice, the ghouls run through the rooftops, Frankie calls Ghoulia to tell her but Elle's malfunctions to the signal, which helps Ghoulia realize what to do.
The ghouls make it back in time to get Cleo and Deuce back together and give Pharaoh back his musical voice.
Soon Amucommon realizes that a dynasty isn't what her son wants but music is.
Ghoulia manages to wake up the monster inside in time and she places on the tower, introducing herself as Astronova and they end it off with a party.
Both are pretty basic set ups with their own magical twists but I do think that Equestria Girls pulled off their story better because it was managed to keep it's magical element throughout the movie. Monster High's one just feels like a typical teen movie until the third act, I just keep thinking to myself, does it really make a difference if everyone here were just normal people instead of monsters? But the third act picked it up and that makes it feel more like Monster High. Their powers and advantages being used to accomplish their mission, but there is one thing that pissed me off about it, the crystal comet is revealed to be a spaceship for Astronova, but why does shards of her ship allow wishes to become reality? They never explained it and I feel like that's pretty important.
The Characters
There are a lot of characters in both movies but this one goes to Monster High. For a movie introducing 6 new characters, they managed to give all of them screen time to develop a personality, maybe not Mouscedes but you get what I mean.
Not to mention that this is the best portrayal of Cleo I have ever seen, she isn't seen as an insensitive jerk this time, she's actually very nice to her friends and quite patient with Deuce, she also wants to be a crowd pleaser because of her status but she lets herself be manipulated into doing something she isn't happy with just because it will make others happy. This Cleo is interesting, she isn't just a nice mean girl, she's acting like a normal friend, a normal girlfriend and a normal princess would be and this makes her more likable and we feel all the more sympathetic when she agrees to go along with it to please the people.
Equestria Girls focuses so much on Twilight and Sunset that the Humane 5 barely have enough time other than their pony-up moments, I'm not saying it's a bad thing but with season 5 using so many background ponies, I was hoping Equestria Girls would use more background characters.
The Techincals
I don't know much about animation but I do like the animation for Equestria Girls more just because it seems more fluent and more impressive.
As for music, I'm sorry but Equestria girls wins this, for 2 reasons actually. the first one being that most of the Monster High's soundtrack sounds like a pile of auto-tuned pop songs, there are some that I liked like Stealing the show and Boo York, Boo York. But that leads to my second problem, some of the songs in this are kinda pointless. I know that it's a musical so there has to be a lot of songs but they can be put to better use, to introduce, to update, to set the atmosphere and to push the story along, but sometimes the story seems to halt for some of the musical numbers just to explain to us what we already know and that's not the best way to do it.
The Moral
Both of these movies set out to show what gives each of them their identity.
For Equestria Girls, it's to the power and the importance of the magic of friendship. Which not only does it show that but it also shows how it feels watching someone make the mistake you once made. Sunset is given the chance to act as a mentor to human Twilight just like how Princess Twilight was to her.
For Monster High, it's to accept and love yourself, freaky flaws and all. For Monster High, this movie is one of the best representative of this moral since Ghouls Rule. Catty Noir has lost her true self in more ways than one, she lost her self when others decided her music for her and she lost her purpose when her music was taken from her, but she learn how to find her music again in Boo York and accepting that she needs time and new ideas rather than just sitting in a music room scribbling. Pharaoh or Seth realizes that he shouldn't hide himself from the world and shows the elites and his mom his love of rapping when if she doesn't like it. Deuce learns more about how accepting Cleo is and how strong their love is. This is exactly what Monster High stands for.
In my opinion, I do think Equestria Girls does do a better job at what it does than Monster High but that doesn't mean it's bad or that my opinion should affect yours. They are both uniquely interesting and they set out to teach people something about themselves. Monster High can be much better if Mattel realizes that these movies can be used for more than just advertising their latest doll line.
That's all for this 3 parter. Feel free to leave your opinions below. I'm so sorry it took so long but I hope it will make you all happy. Merry Christmas.
See you next time.
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