Immediately following the events of last year’s My Little Pony Equestria Girls – Legend Of Everfree, Shout! Factory’s latest Equestria Girl adventure, Magical Movie Night, is a brand new story told in three “magical” parts: Dance Magic, Movie Magic and Mirror Magic.

With the deadline rapidly approaching to raise the funds needed to complete the repairs on Camp Everfree, the Equestria Girls are brainstorming for new fundraiser ideas. Rarity comes up with a plan to enter a music video competition, but it requires the girls to pony up all the money they’ve raised thus far in hopes to quadruple their funds in the win. Unfortunately when Rarity mentions their plans to the Crustal Prep Academy girls, they try to steal the idea for themselves and it looks like the Canterlot High crew may just lose it all.

In the second adventure the Equestria Girls have been invited by reclusive author A.K. Yearling to visit the set of the upcoming Daring Do movie adaptation of her latest book. While there, the girls go on a Scooby-like adventure as they attempt to figure out who has been stealing the critical artifact props from the set. Using their super sleuth skills and occasionally their magical geode necklaces, they Equestria Girls figure out who the culprit is and recover the lost props so that the film can be completed.

Finally it’s time for the premiere of the big Daring Do movie, but the criminal from the second part of the tale (trying to avoid spoilers) discovers a magical mirror that allows them to exact revenge on the Equestria Girls. When the Mane 6 are captured, Sunset Shimmer travels back to Equestria and enlists the help of Starlight Glimmer to save the rest of the gang. The two travel back to the human world where the pony version of Starlight Glimmer transforms into a human, with humorous results. Can the these two former villains help save the Mane 6?

Though on the DVD, Equestria Girls – Magical Movie Night is presented like a single 1 hour and 6 minute animated film (with a solitary ‘play movie’ button in the menu), one can’t help but wonder if this was initially imagined as a new animated series. You can easily tell where one would put in the commercial breaks if it were airing on television, but thankfully the opening credits have been edited out from all but the first story and the end credits for all three stories are rolled at the conclusion of the film. I love this decision by Shout! Factory as it gave Magical Movie Night a much more cohesive and cinematic feel, lending itself beautifully to watching it straight through in one go.

While my girls’ (now ages 10 and 7.5) interest in My Little Pony has started to wane a bit, they are still very much into the Equestria Girls franchise. They absolutely loved this film and were completely captivated from start to finish. Less than 24 hours later, my younger daughter Claire was already interested in watching it again. Despite solving the mystery (themselves) early on, I think both girls especially enjoyed the Scooby-Doo style of the second story. They also were laughing hysterically when Starlight Glimmer was trying to ‘blend in’ and cope with her new human form.

Even though this was a DVD-only release (not the usual Blu-ray combo and/or digital release), the picture quality was quite good. The sound was also clear, with easy to hear dialog. We do miss having the digital copy as it was nice and easy to put it on my younger daughter’s iPod Touch for her usual plethora of repeat viewings. The only extra on the entire disc was a Sing Along to the song ‘Dance Magic’, which was featured prominently in the first part of this film. We were familiar with the song from the Friendship Games soundtrack, but I don’t believe it was actually in that film. I was disappointed not to see a commentary track, as I have really enjoyed the ones included with the prior Equestria Girls films.

What’s Included:

Film: (66 min)

• 480p / Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
• Closed Captions

Extras:

• Sing along to “Dance Magic” (3 min)
  

Final Thoughts:

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Magical Movie Night is a fun new adventure that will appeal to fans of the franchise. The story kept both adults and kids entertained for an hour and though the release is lacking in extras and a Blu-ray/digital release, the overall presentation is still quite good. It was a hit with our family and we certainly hope there are more Equestria Girls adventures in the future, whether that be in film or episodic form.