When
Rainbow Rocks revealed a post-credits scene featuring the human world's Twilight Sparkle, that got people excited - what was going to happen next? And then
Friendship Games was announced and people (well, those that are willing to accept absolutely anything post-Faust, that is) were looking forward to it, and so was I. Did the trailers and prequel shorts actually help to fulfill the film's premise? Was the film even better than
Rainbow Rocks?
THE FILM'S PLOT
We begin with Rainbow Dash calling up the rest of the Human Six (including Sunset) because she needed to replace a guitar string to she could pony up in front of the Crusaders? Considering some past reviews, that's not a good way to start the film; it's kinda pointless, even though it sets up the plot to a certain extent. The plot really gets off the ground when Sunset spots a mysterious person around the statue in front of Canterlot High, but she doesn't know who it was since she ran off.
Yup, it's the human world's Twilight Sparkle - or, as we'll call her in this review, Sci-Twi, just to make things easier. But why was she here in the first place? After the opening credits, she makes... some kinda amulet.
Back at Canterlot High, in the library, Sunset comments on the mysterious person (that isn't really mysterious) checking around the portal, and Rainbow Dash suspects it's a Crystal Prep student - Crystal Prep Academy is Canterlot High's biggest rival, and for every Friendship Games event, Crystal Prep always wins. Could've been nice if they even mentioned the events of
Pinkie Spy, but... nope.
Later, there's an assembly about the Friendship Games, but no one is interested since they lose every event - yeah, I did actually chuckle at Flash Sentry's remark (
"You mean other than us losing?!") - but Rainbow Dash gives them motivation through song, and I get to that, as well as other aspects, later on because I just want to focus on the plot. So far? No major issues as far as I'm concerned.
After Rainbow Dash ponies up, to prevent implications of CHS cheating, Sunset is assigned to keep the magic away from the Games as much as possible... however, she doesn't know what, and I don't think what happened in
The Science of Magic helped her either. Still, at least said short had relevance to the film, and she writes to Princess Twilight, hoping for an answer.
Meanwhile with Sci-Twi, she's figured out how to pick up magic from CHS. Dean Cadance comes in and tells Sci-Twi that Principal Cinch wants to see her, all whilst mentioning her dog allergy and that being around people isn't such a bad thing.
Sci-Twi shows up in Principal Cinch's office, and in there are also Dean Cadance and Shining Armor... I'll get to the characters when I get to them after I discuss the plot. Cinch tells Sci-Twi that since she's Crystal Prep's most highly ranked student, she wants her to partake in the Friendship Games to maintain Crystal Prep's reputation. Otherwise, she won't partake in the Everton Independent Study Program. Yep, that's blackmail right there; good luck trying to find someone who actually likes Cinch. It's like trying to find a live mammoth - impossible.
Whilst she's packing up, Spike (the dog, not the dragon) doesn't want Sci-Twi to go alone, so she brings him along with her. Later, she boards the Crystal Prep bus and gives off a... not too good speech for motivation.
Later, the Shadowbolts arrive at CHS and Vice Principal Luna helps to get them settled. Sci-Twi, meanwhile, runs into the CHS students and they somehow seem to recognize her - considering her Equestrian counterpart, I can totally believe why they'd mix up the two Twilights, although why did they not question her appearance? Well, Flash did notice she had glasses on, but his role? Once again, I'll be saving it for later. (On a sidenote - why is Derpy even here? Is she supposed to be a metaphor for something or what am I forgetting?)
Rarity puts new outfits on each of the Human Six, and she ponies up, only for her magic to end up stolen by Sci-Twi, who is just outside the music room. Sci-Twi enters, and we get into some confusion (not from the audience, of course) as to whether Twilight is Celestia's student or Cinch's student. Quite funny that Celestia doesn't even bother arguing Pinkie's comments.
We have a scene where Cinch tells Sci-Twi to focus only on the games and implies that Sci-Twi is being distracted by the CHS students (once again, refer to my comment on mixing up the two Twilights) to lure her away. Later, Sunset tries to head toward Equestria, but the portal's magic is taken by Sci-Twi's amulet, breaking up the connection between the human world and Equestria.
At the gym, there's an uneasy atmosphere between the two schools; Pinkie meets with Sci-Twi and the former decides to ramp things up to improve the atmosphere, but Pinkie's magic is taken as well. To make things worse, Principal Cinch stops the party and indirectly insults CHS's beliefs - to her, it's competition that matters, not friendliness.
The first event is the Academic Decathlon - chemistry, home economics, woodshop, spelling bee, and mathematics? Alright, this part of the review might seem ranty and, to some, nitpicky, but bear with me on this.
The name of the big event is the Friendship
Games. None of those events even qualify for an Olympic event! It feels as though they've mixed up an actual Academic Decathalon with the Olympics! Nobody wants to watch students try to get the best grades; people want to see students kick one another's asses! (I don't mean actually kick their ass, but you get my point.) Say what you want about
Equestria Games (arguably Spike's best episode to date), but at least the events in question were actually Olympic scale events!
Also, what was the point of even having Flash Sentry, Sandalwood, Micro Chips, Lyra, Bon Bon and Derpy be part of the Wondercolts Team if they were eliminated in the first round? Same thing applies to Jet Set, Upper Crust, Neon Lights, Suri Polomare, Trenderhoof, and Royal Pin for the Shadowbolts Team - why even bother featuring them in the first place? And no, this is not me overthinking or over-analyzing things - that's really their problem - they're only part of their respective teams just to be eliminated, therefore rendering
All's Fair in Love and Friendship Games pointless!
Back to the plot; the Shadowbolts win the first event by a fair margin, although the Wondercolts have done amazingly well. Sci-Twi meets up with Fluttershy, who lets her pet... Angel Bunny, I guess? And that causes Fluttershy to also pony up, and her magic is taken away from her as well, and not to mention that Spike goes through a portal and gets caught in the magic stream and... talks?
This causes Sci-Twi to freak out and Spike catches up with her. At least Cathy Weseluck has something to say. Cinch confronts Sci-Twi once again about the "nice girls" and suggests that she know them better; once again, Sci-Twi is stuck.
With the Human Six, they deduce that Sci-Twi is stealing magic from each of them, and they find out the next event - the Tri-Cross Relay in three parts - archery, speed skating, and motocross. Yes, archery and speed skating are Olympic events, although motocross is arguable. Remember that the first event does not feature sports you would see at the Olympics; and how long are we into the film at this point? Roughly 47 minutes, give or take. Keep in mind that
Equestria Games was 22 minutes, and the games themselves began within the first ten minutes! So there really is no excuse to pad out a film's length with a first event that's very much pointless to begin with.
CHS is off to a great start when Applejack and Fluttershy complete the archery round, giving Rarity and Pinkie Pie a strong lead. Sci-Twi keeps missing - much to the frustration of Sour Sweet - and when Applejack advises to fire where the target will be, and Sci-Twi does, Applejack also ponies up, and - you guessed it - gets her magic stolen.
Sci-Twi's amulet breaks free and ends up on the track. Crystal Prep catches up, but the amulet starts to spread magic across the playing field as the motocross round begins. Sunset falls off her bike trying to dodge the vines, but Rainbow Dash goes back to help her... and I'm sure you can guess what comes next. However, RD's magic isn't stolen... not yet, at least. Instead, she fends of the vines, and the Wondercolts win, tying the score. And yes, her magic is stolen as well.
This little action causes Sunset to snap and yells at Sci-Twi angrily for almost getting her friends killed (seriously), and that causes her to run off in tears. Not too far away, Cinch accuses Celestia for cheating and insists on the games continuing.
And now comes the final round - Capture the Flag, and again, this shows that there is a difference between activities you play with friends, and competing with others in an Olympic event; now can we please stop forcing me to separate fact from fiction? Principal Cinch suggests that Sci-Twi unleash the magic, and egged on by her and the other Crystal Prep students, Sci-Twi does so... with disastrous consequences.
Sci-Twi becomes Midnight Sparkle and opens up several dimensional rifts into Equestria, resulting in both schools putting their rivalry aside to help one another. Sunset tries talking Midnight out of her rage and says that true magic comes from honesty, loyalty, laughter, generosity, and kindness. The Rainbooms regain their magic after Sunset destroys the amulet and she gains a new alter ego - Daydream Shimmer.
When Spike calls out to Midnight, she's distracted, giving Daydream the advantage and in a white void, after taking Midnight's hand, they return to normal.
Principal Cinch is furious and demands that CHS forfeit, intending to bring this up to the school board, but everyone else counters that no one will believe her, even the Shadowbolts. That's rich; they're mad with Cinch for forcing Sci-Twi to unleash the magic, and yet they did the exact same thing! Making them helpful despite their rivalry and turning on Cinch is not enough to make them less hypocritical. In the end, everyone's a winner.
The next day, Sci-Twi decides to learn about friendship by transferring to Canterlot High, to which Celestia agrees to the idea. I wonder how Cinch reacted having to lose her best student? :P And finally, Sunset realizes how magic works in the human world - the Rainbooms pony p when they display their truest part of themselves - turns out she didn't need Princess Twilight's help after all.
Oh yes, out of all the plot threads in the film, this needed some finality. Princess Twilight shows up, apologizing for her late replies and then notices her human counterpart, and then the film just... stops. Okay then...
You know what bothers me about the ending? This came before
The Cutie Re-Mark! With the first two films, they at least at the sense to have both
Equestria Girls and
Rainbow Rocks come
after seasons three and four completed their respective runs! With
Friendship Games? It aired two weeks after season five had just resumed airing! Why the hell could they have not held back the film until November 28 at least? Or better yet, why couldn't they have had season five air in one continuous, uninterrupted airing? Season four had aired continuously on Saturdays from November 2013 to May 2014... except for a two-week gap between
Testing Testing 1, 2, 3 and
Trade Ya! in April. I don't know how valid of an argument this is, but that's what really bothers me.
As for the plot on whole? It reeks of padding. Like, at least ten minutes' worth, particularly the first "event", are pointless; cut out the filler, and the plot might've been the same, possibly better.
THE CHARACTERS
Let's start with the film's leading antagonist -
Principal Abacus Cinch. Since the film came one, I've read several comments where people say she's one of their least favorite characters, and I can very easily see why seeing the film again for the sake of reviewing. Cinch was practically a detestable character, and she showed no remorse for her actions; at the same time, she's very dignified and wants to maintain a positive (if you can even see it as positive) image for her reputation. Honestly, would anyone take a story about flying students with wings and talking dogs seriously?
Despite how much she grinds my gears, believe it or not, I take Cinch far more seriously than five of her students. Let me explain.
I'm gonna say it right now; the Crystal Prep Shadowbolts (at least, those that aren't humanizations of pre-existing characters) are creatively bankrupt, personality wise. They're so one dimensional I have absolutely no feeling for them whatsoever. I get what they were going for; they wanted to give off an anti-Mane Six, but the execution of them is extremely weak. I think the only one that was actually distinct was
Sour Sweet with her bipolar personality... unless they've already given that to a character (can anyone fill me in and say she doesn't feel like a bland Fluttershy clone?)
Sugarcoat has some distinction with being blunt when it comes to telling the truth (very fitting for her name, I should note), but the other three? Does anyone even remember their names and what they even did? Nope. On whole, for new characters, we got a stuck-up principal character and a quintet of bland Mane Six clones.
Of course, that brings me on to
Sci-Twi, as I will still call her to avoid confusion with Princess Twilight. Just like the rest of the Human Five, she's pretty much like her pony counterpart, but with a difference - she's incredibly shy and has trouble making friends. Throughout the film's course, she tries to avoid causing trouble, but when magic is exposed, Sci-Twi can't help when her amulet opens up, and when she does so unwillingly, it turns her into a demon.
I have to say, with
Sunset Shimmer, she's come a long way within the span of three films, and if you ask me, she's Starlight Glimmer done correctly. At the end of the first film, Sunset feels remorse for her actions - sure it's rushed, but at least she wasn't given instant redemption, as evidenced in the second film; everyone else was angry with her and her past actions, but by the end, Sunset proves she's really changed when it came to stopping the Dazzlings, and in the third film, they've let bygones be bygones.
Much as I don't like admitting it, she's now my most favorite character ever, with Princess Twilight coming in a close second. Even if when the show ends and Sunset doesn't make it onto an episode, she'll have a place in my heart.
Speaking of heartfelt, given how small is role is,
Spike the Dog, even when before he begins to talk, actually has a nice part. He's there when Sci-Twi needs support most, and when she loses her self control towards the climax, Spike helps Daydream to bring her back to normal by getting Midnight's attention. Although, I do find it missed opportunity that they didn't play up Cinch's dog allergy - that would've been funny to see, and extremely satisfying considering her behavior.
Speaking of missed opportunity, you want to know whose role was the most redundant?
Shining Armor. What was his purpose to begin with? He only appears for one scene, says three lines of dialogue and that's it! And why the hell is his hair so short? Could they seriously not come up with a good role for him and just feature him for the hell of it? Flash Sentry had more relevance than Shining Armor did!
Ah yes,
Flash Sentry. Poor guy. He only gets seven lines of dialogue (including the one I mentioned earlier), only gets two scenes with Sci-Twi, and then that little sub-plot is tossed aside just to turn our focus to Sci-Twi. That's perhaps the worst thing they've ever done to him (and I do not count what the fans say about him, for the record) and it's tragic that fans can do more with him than the official writers have! (And I don't mean just myself, by the way.) Honestly, why not let fans write for the show?
Actually, with both Flash and Shining, that could've been a good use of fanservice - I'm serious! They could've had Shining Armor be the Shadowbolts' coach (a callback to
Games Ponies Play) and if he saw Flash with Sci-Twi, he'd get upset about that because they're rival schools. Then, after Sunset shouts at Sci-Twi, Flash could've comforted the latter and he wouldn't have cared less if they were from different schools. Shining could've then confronted them, and when everything's explained, he'll understand, but he's still wary of Flash until the end, where he decides he isn't so bad after all.
Considering what they'd done in season five, what was stopping the writers from giving a shout out to the TwiSentry shippers? There are so many aspects to the fandom, you know, and the aspect I'm part of are the fans that actually care about characters who deserve better (apart from Flash, there's also the likes of Princess Celestia). With both Flash and Shining Armor, they give us nothing, and it's a huge disappointment since Flash received a short centered on him, and had merchandise based on him, and yet does even less than he did in the first film.
To be fair,
Dean Cadance had a decent role when she got a couple of scenes with Sci-Twi, but otherwise, she didn't do very much.
As for
everyone else? They were just there before the plot demanded for it. It feels like the Human Five are being shoved aside for Sunset. The spinoff is called
Equestria Girls, not
Sunset Shimmer and Friends. Everyone else should have importance to the plot rather than just being there for the sake of a story. It feels like at the end, everyone's gathered in front of the school as if it were
Clue, gathered up to learn the true villain of the story...
Yes, it was you, Vice Principal Luna, in the gym with the amulet!
THE MUSIC
The songs were hit and miss. The opening song is nice, but it isn't as good as
Rainbow Rocks' opening song. The rally song was... alright, I suppose. Sci-Twi's solo song feels like it's been done to death when it comes to Twilight expressing her thoughts through song. The song based around the first event was fine despite the ridiculous outcome, and the villain song? Not as interesting as the Dazzlings' songs were. And the end credits song? It's kinda forgettable.
On whole, the songs were a weak batch. They were nicely performed, but they pale in comparison to the songs
Rainbow Rocks put forth.
THE ANIMATION & VOICE ACTING
On the other side of the spectrum, the animation really shines through; it looks as though it was cranked up to 11 here. Otherwise, I got nothing else to say.
As for the voice acting, I feel really bad for Vincent Tong - he seems to get the short end of the stick when it comes to characters. The characters he voices are either jerks (Blueblood and Garble), not well-liked by many (Flash Sentry), or they just don't do very much (Donut Joe and several guards). Can't the writers just give him the chance to extend his vocal range? If they did it in a short, they can surely do the same in an episode or a movie! Just because the show is aimed at girls, that doesn't mean they can't have a strong male character!
For the rest? Tara, Rebecca, Ashleigh, Andrea, Tabitha, Cathy, and Nicole are all very devoted to their respective characters (in some cases, more than one character), and they pull them off every single time. Iris Quinn did take me surprise - I think she's probably one of the most obscure voice actresses of all time! For those voicing the Shadowbolts, they could've been given more dialogue had time allowed them to, but... nope.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Was it better than
Rainbow Rocks? No. It wasn't. Hell, it was even weaker than
Equestria Girls!
Friendship Games had an interesting premise, but the execution was extremely weak. This was to
Rainbow Rocks the same way season five was to the fourth - a step backward.
You know what seriously bugs me about those talking about this and season five as a whole? Fans are only taking in the "shiny shiny" aspect, thinking that character appearances automatically make an episode good. No. It's not good enough for me. What makes an episode good is how well the story is written. In Friendship Games, the plot moved slowly in places, and even though there were moments where I smirked, it felt really, really dull. Sure,
Equestria Girls (the first one, of course) had the weakest premise, but at least it (and
Rainbow Rocks) kept my attention for how interesting and unique it was from the actual show. Actually, the third film felt like a rehash of the first, only much less interesting.
I didn't even bring up a deleted subplot - Sunset is homesick for Equestria. Would it have improved the film? Frankly, no. We already had a number of subplots in the film that were either pointless or led to nowhere. If they had featured it, they can't just forget that Sunset still hasn't yet made amends with Princess Celestia! Yeah, there was a moment between Sunset and the CHS principal, but keep in mind that Sunset comes from Equestria.
But you know what the film's biggest disappointment was? It had potential to be great, and instead, it was all watered down and suffered just like
The Cutie Re-Mark, which is ironic since both are written by the same writer - Josh Haber. Actually, I've a theory on the writers; Meghan McCarthy is a woman who is absolutely willing to take risks - just take a look at the battle between Twilight and Tirek in the season four finale, and how she brought forth new characters in the season two finale and a new location in the season three premiere. Basically, Meghan had it all, and it's a shame she missed out on season five and this film. Who knows how they could've fared with her at the writing helm...
With Josh Haber? He plays it safe -
far too safe for my liking. I know some people don't like risk taking, but... come on, man! Would it at least hurt to have given Flash more screen time?
I really don't know what to make of
Friendship Games. Whilst it had good moments, they were incredibly sporadic, and they weren't enough to salvage it. I feel blue for
My Little Pony's future. Certainly, if the concerns of many aren't taken into consideration, the show could slowly become a shadow of it's former self during season four and
Rainbow Rocks, when it was at it's highest peak. Those who are being critical should be taken more seriously - they have concerns and we can't just simply dismiss those with differing views.
Overall,
Friendship Games was very, very average, and perhaps the biggest disappointment to come out of 2015. It was a good idea, but it was executed poorly. If there were those of you who actually liked the film, good for you. And to those who didn't like either of the first two films, I don't think you'll like this one either.
Rating: 5 out of 10
