Psycho's Movie Reviews #274: Mlp: Equestria Girls: Friendship Games (2015)

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games, or simply known as Friendship Games, is a 2015 flash animated musical sports fantasy television film sequel to 2014's My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks, directed by Ishi Rudell and written by Josh Haber, It was produced by DHX Media's 2D animation studio in Vancouver, Canada for Hasbro Studios in the United States, as part of Hasbro's Equestria Girls toy line and media franchise, itself a spin-off of the 2010 relaunch of My Little Pony. The film received a television network premiere on Discovery Family, a joint venture between Discovery Communications and Hasbro, on September 26, 2015, with a home media release on October 13 that year; it also had a limited theatrical run in the United Kingdom and Australia beginning in late October 2015.

Like the first two Equestria Girls films, Friendship Games re-envisions the main characters of parent franchise, normally ponies, as teenage human characters in a high school setting. The film's story centres around a sports competition between the students of Canterlot High School and their rivals at Crystal Prep Academy, one of whom is Twilight's human counterpart, who has been investigating the magical activity around Canterlot High.

A fourth Equestria Girls film, subtitled Legend of Everfree, was released on Netflix on October 1, 2016.

Plot

The students of Canterlot High School prepare for the Friendship Games, an academic and sporting competition held every four years between their school's team, the Wondercolts, and the undefeated Shadowbolts from Crystal Prep Academy. Sunset Shimmer, who has been observing her friends' magical ability to "pony up" – grow pony-like ears, tails, and wings – whenever they play musical instruments, becomes concerned when Rainbow Dash transforms during a pep rally, seemingly at random. Tasked with finding the cause of this development, Sunset attempts to contact Twilight for advice, but receives no response.

Meanwhile, one of Crystal Prep's students, Twilight's human counterpart, investigates the magical activity surrounding Canterlot High. Twilight builds a locket-like device to detect and contain the magic for further study, hoping this will secure her application for Everton, a coveted independent study program. However, Principal Cinch threatens to revoke the application to blackmail Twilight into participating in the Friendship Games and maintain Crystal Prep's victory record.

Upon Twilight's arrival at Canterlot High, her device detects Sunset and her friends' magic and leads Twilight to them; as she approaches, the device inadvertently drains Rarity's magic when she "ponies up" after making uniforms for her friends. Sunset, initially mistaking Twilight for her pony counterpart, quickly realizes the misunderstanding and considers consulting Twilight in person. When Crystal Prep's Twilight follows her to the portal to Equestria, the device absorbs the portal's magic and seals it off. The device similarly affects Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy when they attempt to befriend Twilight, creating dimensional rifts to Equestria and giving Twilight's dog Spike the ability to speak.

Following Twilight's victory in the games' academic decathlon, the games continue with a "tricross relay", a relay race between archery, speed skating and motocross. Applejack transforms after advising Twilight, causing the device to steal Applejack's magic and create a rift that summons monstrous plants. Rainbow Dash "ponies up" to save the other competitors before losing her own magic, allowing Canterlot High to win the event, but causing Cinch to accuse Canterlot High of cheating due to their perceived magical advantage. Frustrated by her failure to keep the magic protected, Sunset furiously berates Twilight for endangering her friends, regretting it when Twilight runs off in tears.

Before the final event, Cinch and the Shadowbolts pressure Twilight into releasing the magic within her device to harness it against the Wondercolts. The magic instead corrupts Twilight, turning her into a winged monster who proceeds to destroy the statue portal and open more rifts that threaten to destroy the parallel world. As the Wondercolts and Shadowbolts work together to save their classmates, Sunset notices her friends' magical auras and realizes that their magic manifests when they exhibit the same traits as the Elements of Harmony. Gathering their magic with the device, Sunset assumes an angelic form resembling Princess Celestia, closes the rifts, and returns Twilight to normal.

Refusing to relent for manipulating Twilight, Cinch threatens to report the incident to the school board. When taunted that no one would believe her account of the magical incidents, however, she concedes to a tie that is celebrated by both teams. Reconsidering her Everton application, Twilight realizes she is happier at Canterlot High and transfers there, where Sunset and the other students welcome her as a new friend.

In a pre-credits scene, the Twilight from Equestria emerges from the portal with the counterparts of her friends gathered around it. She apologizes for her absence, explaining that she has just escaped from a time travel loop, before gawking at the sight of her own counterpart.

Production

A forest clearing, used both for the Friendship Is Magic episode "Bloom & Gloom" and for this film, was previewed in a background image shown online back in November 2014.

The third instalment was first teased by Rainbow Rocks co-director, Ishi Rudell on December 12, 2014. Brony Donald "Dusty Katt" Rhoades asked wondering about Rudell's silence on Twitter, and Rudell replied that he was "too busy working on #3".

On January 29, 2015, Australian home media distributor Beyond Home Entertainment stated via Facebook that they had obtained distribution rights for seasons 4 and 5 of Friendship Is Magic, in addition to Rainbow Rocks and the "third Equestria Girls. Further confirmation was given during Hasbro's investor presentation at the 2015 New York Toy Fair, along with other products in the Friendship Games lineup.

The concept designs for the film's ending credits were done by Katrina Hadley with Chris Lienonin and Jeremy Mah on the layouts.

This was also the first film in the Equestria Girls spinoff franchise not to be directed by Jayson Thiessen and written by Meghan McCarthy (as well as the only one not to involve McCarthy in any way) as they were both busy directing and writing the 2017 theatrical My Little Pony movie respectively, which was in production at the time, although Thiessen did direct the film's companion shorts and was consulting director on the film itself.

Music

Like the previous two instalments, the songs were composed by Daniel Ingram with lyric writing shared between Ingram and screenwriter Josh Haber; with the exception of "Friendship Games", "ACADECA" and "Right There in Front of Me" which had lyrics solely by Ingram. Even though it wasn't listed in Discovery Family's televised broadcast of the film's ending credits, "What More Is Out There?" can be heard in the film. Although "Right There in Front of Me" is listed in the credits, it is absent in Discovery Family's broadcast. Song production was done by Caleb Chan with vocal arrangements by Trevor Hoffman.

• "Friendship Games" – Sunset Shimmer, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and ensemble (voiceover)

• "CHS Rally Song" – Rainbow Dash and full company

• "What More Is Out There?" – Twilight Sparkle

• "ACADECA" (Academic Decathlon) – Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer and full company (voiceover)

• "Unleash the Magic" – Principal Abacus Cinch, Twilight Sparkle, and the students of Crystal Prep Academy

• "End Credits Song: Right There in Front of Me" – Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and ensemble (voiceover)

"Right There in Front of Me" plays over the closing credits on the film's DVD and Blu-ray versions. According to Rudell, the song "Dance Magic" is unrelated to the film.

One of the deleted scenes included in the Blu-ray and DVD set is an alternate version of the song "What More Is Out There?", featuring both Crystal Prep's Twilight Sparkle and Canterlot High's Sunset Shimmer. The song was originally intended as a duet for the two characters, but due to time constraints and the removal of a subplot involving Sunset questioning if she belonged to the human world or Equestria, it was ultimately rewritten as a solo for Twilight.

Release/Reception/Box Office

The film received a theatrical debut exclusively at the Angelika Film Center in New York City on September 17, 2015. William Anderson, Ashleigh Ball, G.M. Berrow, Josh Haber, Daniel Ingram, Brian Lenard, Andrea Libman, Ishi Rudell, Rebecca Shoichet, Tara Strong, and Cathy Weseluck, including Sarah Michelle Gellar from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and comedian Jim Gaffigan, were among those in attendance. Also in attendance was The Real Housewives of New York star Kristen Taekman, Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi, America's Got Talent host Nick Cannon, former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber, fashion photographer Nigel Barker, Sons of Anarchy's Drea de Matteo, and fitness guru Tracy Anderson.

Friendship Games had a limited theatrical release in select Vue Cinemas theatres in the United Kingdom between October 24, and November 1, 2015. The film had a limited theatrical release at various Hoyts theatres in Australia between October 31, and November 10, 2015. In México Cinépolis it had a limited theatrical release between October 9 and 18, 2015.

My Review

'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' is in my opinion one of the best animated shows in recent years. The first film based on it 'Equestria Girls' was an enormous disappointment and the complete anti-thesis in quality as one could get. Was apprehensive about watching its first sequel 'Rainbow Rocks' but was both pleasantly surprised and very impressed.

'Friendship Games' is a decent third instalment in the 'My Little Pony: Equestria Girls' film series. It is a step down from 'Rainbow Rocks' and is nowhere near as good as 'Friendship is Magic', but it is much better than the 'Equestria Girls' film (then again many things are better than that, and it takes a lot for any of its sequels to be as bad or worse). Its flaws are at least different to 'Equestria Girls', not being the "having the same flaws and amplifying them" sort of sequel.

It could have been much better. It has to be said though that there are a couple of improvements over 'Rainbow Rocks'. There is no forced or awkwardly written romance. Twilight is much more consistently written and is more developed and likable. And Flash isn't quite as bland. 'Friendship Games' does suffer from trying to do too much, there are too many characters and too many plot strands.

While the characters are fun and likable (though Flash is still a bit on the bland side, though not as much as before, and Principal Cinch is agreed too one note), the only characters that develop are Twilight and Sunset Shimmer. The film certainly isn't dull and the conflicts and dynamics are interesting, but some plot strands are better explored than others with a few under-explored and messily handled.

There could have been much more focus on the games too. The games themselves are very exciting, but happen too late in the film and the screen time for them is too short.

However, the animation is vibrant, ethereal and well-rounded, like 'Friendship is Magic' and 'Rainbow Rocks' and unlike 'Equestria Girls', with character designs that are appealing and don't send warning signs about potential bad messaging. The songs aren't quite as good as in 'Rainbow Rocks' but are still catchy and cheerful, they're easy to hum along to and the lyrics aren't too cheesy.

Much of the writing is fine too. Like 'Rainbow Rocks', there is a good balance of humour and emotion, with winning and amusing humour and poignant and never schmaltzy or mawkish emotion. The references are clever and naturally integrated and the messages are well-meaning and heartfelt and avoid being preachy.

Story here has its messy moments but still moves along nicely and it doesn't feel like an extended TV episode. Twilight and Sunset Shimmer are well realised characters, love what the sequels have done with the latter, and of the newer characters Sugarcoat (hilariously personality-wise the complete opposite of her name) is a sheer delight.

Voice acting is very strong, no talent wastes here. Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball and Rachel Shoichet are particularly good.

Although, decent second sequel but could have been better. 8.5/10

{... Meh, the song's in this one are just as good as in Rainbow Rocks; here's my Top 4}

{4# - 'CHS Rally Song' - Rainbow actual- hang on, No she's had a few solo songs in Equestria Girls... Well this her best song in my opinion}

{3# - 'Friendship Games' (Theme) - The best theme from any of the Equestria Girls films}

{#2 - 'Unleash The Magic' - I know what you're thinking... WHAT, PSYCHO'S NO.1 ISN'T A VILLAIN SONG? Yes, just because this one I didn't really like the antagonists too well yet they did well to have this banger of a song at No.2}

{#1 - 'ACADECA' - What's one thing better than a battle of the bands, a battle of the schools that's what. And boy, does this song deliver! It does well to contrast the hopeful, determined Wondercolts against the competitive, sly Shadowbolts}