When we last left Canterlot High School, the students had successfully defeated The Dazzlings, the credits rolled and then, during a post credit sequence, we finally got a brief glimpse of this world’s version of Twilight Sparkle and her dog Spike.
The Friendship Games picks up shortly after the events of Rainbow Rocks and we quickly learn that the human form of Twilight Sparkle is a smart, bespeckled, inquisitive and curious bookwormy type girl (even more so than Ponyville’s Twilight) who attends an elite private school called Crystal Prep Academy. Twilight is the top student in her class, but prefers to work alone and thus doesn’t really have any friends. She wants to transfer to an independent study program at a prestigious research facility, but in order to get in, she’ll need to get Crystal Prep’s evil Headmaster, Abacus Cinch to write her a recommendation letter. Needing Twilight’s help to guarantee a win The Friendship Games against their rivals Canterlot High and keep their prefect winning streak alive, Cinch blackmails Twilight into participating in the games in exchange for the letter. Reluctantly Twilight agrees, but also sees it as a good opportunity to investigate the recent string of strange, magical happenings at Canterlot High.
Meanwhile back at Canterlot High, Sunset Shimmer is trying to figure out what is causing the gang to periodically invoke their residual Equestrian magic and “pony up”. She needs to help them keep it under control so they don’t accidentally trigger it during the games and get accused of cheating.
When Twilight and the rest of the Crystal Prep Academy team (who are not particularly fond of Twilight) arrive at Canterlot High, everyone there is super friendly to Twilight and strangely seem to already know her name (mistaking her for Ponyville’s Twilight). Confused, but still determined to figure out the strange, magical occurrences at Canterlot, Twilight uses her homemade detection tool (sort of like a Ghostbusters PKE Meter) that she wears around her neck. Unbeknownst to her, the device is stealing the Mane Six’s magic each time Twilight gets close to one of them while they are ponying up. She even accidentally closes down the magic portal to Ponyville and Sunset Shimmer’s contact with the other Twilight. Sunset caches onto what’s happening, but thinks that Twilight is doing it on purpose and the two come to blows.
The titular event plays out with both teams fighting hard to win the games and much like the first two films, the movie ends with another big magical (and musical) showdown.
The Friendship Games was beautifully animated with great cinematography and interesting camera choices which help give it a real cinematic feel. It’s really a shame they didn’t do the one-night theatrical release for this film as well. The storyline was interesting and entertaining, and there are several catchy and memorable new songs by Daniel Ingram (the soundtrack gets played a lot during car rides).
Twilight and Sunset Shimmer get much of the focus in this film, but Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy all have their moments. I wish we had gotten to learn more about the Crystal Prep Academy girls. Instead we got just a brief introduction to them near the start of the film and it looked like they were going to have some interesting personalities which directly clashed with the Mane Six, but then they kind of just faded into the background and we never really got to know them further, they just sort of become generic mean girls.
The verdict as to exactly where The Friendship Games ranks among the other two titles in the Equestria Girls franchise was a bit mixed in our household. My daughters (ages 6 and 8.5) thought this was the best one yet, while a couple of their friends as well as my wife and I preferred the first two films over this one.
Both of my daughters love My Little Pony, but my younger one (who just turned 6) is especially obsessed. Even before seeing this film she already had a number of the Friendship Games dolls (mostly Crystal Prep Academy characters) and was delighted whenever one of her dolls made an appearance in the film. For months she’s been asking when the film was coming out and has already watched it multiple times. We were fortunate enough to get an early review copy, so we surprised her with a first family viewing of it on her birthday and earlier today each of my daughters had separate play dates specifically to each have a friend come over and watch it again, the day before its actual release. They’ve also started playing through the Equestria Girls iOS game as well, which covers the events of all three films.
We received the Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Download combo pack of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games for review, and the picture quality is fantastic. The DTS 5.1 surround sound is rich, especially during the action sequences and musical numbers. As with the previous film, Rainbow Rocks, there is a rather entertaining commentary track, this time with Brian Leonard (Executive Director of Hasbro Studios), Josh Haber (Screenwriter), Rebecca Dart (Art Director), Daniel Ingram (Songwriter), and Jayson Theiessen and Ishi Rudell (the Director and Co-director of the film). Again, I’m not really sure how much this particular bonus feature will appeal to younger kids, but I found it fascinating.
Other extras include 5 animated shorts, 3 sing-alongs for the songs “Friendship Games”, “CHS Rally Song” and “What More Is Out There?”, as well as 4 roughly animated (unfinished) deleted scenes, including an alternate ending, available both with and without commentary. The deleted scenes interestingly show a completely different path the filmmakers could have taken with Sunset Shimmer’s character in this film and there is a beautiful alternate duet version of the song What More Is Out There? With Twilight and Sunset that you should definitely check out. I’m also happy to report that this time around the shorts, deleted scenes and sing-alongs all feature “Play All” buttons.
If you have a choice, the Blu-Ray combo pack really is the best way to go as it gives you the most possible viewing options. However, aside from the Blu-Ray Combo Pack, the film is also available on just DVD (to save you a little money) or if you don’t already own the first two films yet, Shout! Factory is also offering a special DVD Box Set containing all three Equestria Girls titles with all the extras that were on the separate releases.
What’s Included:
Film: (72 min)
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Blu-ray:
- 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
- Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio
- 480p / Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1
- Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
- Closed Captions
- Downloadable Digital Copy
DVD:
Digital Copy (Redemption Deadline 10/13/2016):
Extras:
- Audio Commentary
Feature commentary by Brian Leonard (Executive Director of Hasbro Studios), Josh Haber (Screenwriter), Rebecca Dart (Art Director), Daniel Ingram (Songwriter), and Jayson Theiessen and Ishi Rudell (the Director and Co-director of the film). - Deleted Scenes (9 min)
Four roughly animated (unfinished) deleted scenes, including an alternate ending, available both with and without commentary. - 5 Animated Shorts (12 min)
- Sing-Alongs (8 min)
Sing along to “Friendship Games”, “CHS Rally Song” and “What More Is Out There?”.
Final Thoughts:
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games offers MLP fans another entertaining visit to Canterlot High with some delightful new songs and an engaging story. While our family couldn’t quite agree on whether or not this was the best Equestria Girls film yet, we all certainly agree that it is definitely worth picking up. Even though there were no after the credits teasers this time around, we hope this is not the last we’ll see of the Equestria Girls. My daughters are big fans of this version of the ponies and are excited to see more adventures in this alternate pony universe.
