It's a magical world, where everyone shines!note
Filly Funtasia is an All-CGI Cartoon show created by Danish brothers Jacob and Henrik Andersen for Dracco. The show is based on Filly, a Hong Kong-based line of pony dollsnote (which has been around since 2006). It was produced by Dracco Brands with assistance from Guangzhou Huamai Animation Studios in Hong Kong and B-Water Animation Studios in Spain. It was also formerly produced by the Spanish company BRB Internacional, who also made The World of David the Gnome and Around the World with Willy Fog, with outsourcing from Black Dragon in China. The brand as a whole has been subject to some controversy due to its similarity to the My Little Pony franchise.
The series is about a group of royal ponies, the Filly Five (Rose, Cedric, Isabella, Lynn, and Willow) as they attend a magical academy in the kingdom of Funtasia. As they study their crystal powers, Wranglum, the Wizard of the Dark Mirror, along with his minion Battiwigs, try to steal all of the magic inhabited in the kingdom. The show is (rather infamously) well known for going through Development Hell for 5 years, prior to finally being announced that it'd premiere March 11, 2019 on Frisbee in Italy.
In China, Filly Funtasia had a successful release on iQiyi on November 28, 2019 with a Mandarin Chinese dub, titled The Colorful Wonderland of the Little Fillys. In January 2020, Filly Funtasia was "renewed"note for a second season of another 13 episodes in October, and was officially released Christmas Day in 2020. Two other seasons are accordingly planned as well.
In early 2021, three episodes only in Englishnote were released on the free KidsFlix app, as well as the MyToonz
app, unannounced. The same episodes were also made available for viewing on the Airtel Xstream provider service in India, through KidsFlix. On March 3, 2022, the series finally saw its official English release on Channel 5 in Singapore, this time with a different, more polished English version, and a completely different episode order, mixing in episodes from both seasons.
A trailer for it can be seen here. Another one can be seen here, a third one here, and a fourth one here. The most recent English trailer with new voices can be found here. It has its own Equestria Daily style news site here.
Crystal mirror, show me some tropes!
- All-CGI Cartoon: Rather limited 3D animation at that, at least mainly within the show's first season, but it may be excused given the show's
Troubled Production. - All There in the Manual: Quite a few things are only explained via official material rather than the show itself, mostly because the show was meant to have two Made-for-TV Movies that were never finished.
- One of them is how Wranglum got trapped in the mirror to start with, which was apparently an accident made by two careless Fillys.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Being a My Little Pony-style show, this was a given.
- Anachronic Order: Thanks to the rampant Development Hell the show went through, 13 random episodes were picked to kick-start the series, while the other 13 were still being worked on. Thus, season one started off with a random episode about Bella eating Will's missing cupcakes. The rest of the season would continue as usual, but season two starts off with what should have been the first two episodes of the series, as it's a prequel that showcases Rose and her friends first arriving to the academy. Even besides that, the ordering of the episodes are uncertain, as some events should have happened before others.
- The English version broadcast by Channel 5 in Singapore decides to give all 26 episodes their own, likely intended, order.
- Animation Bump: The second season has noticeably improved animation. While the animation style is the same, it's more active, smoother, and expressive.
- Animesque: Not so much with the CGI art style (but perhaps a slice of this is existent in it), but rather the music, especially the end credits.
- Bag of Holding: Mirrors contain Hammerspace inside themselves, and can be used to store and retrieve objects, including other mirrors.
- Big Bad: Wranglum, the Wizard of the Dark Mirror, who tries to steal all the magic from the kingdom.
- Cool Board: Will is quite the daredevil with his skateboard.
- Cool Crown: Every single Filly has one. Justified for Rose, who is a princess and therefore actually has a reason to wear a crown (or, rather, a tiara).
- Cute Witch: Lynn, the Witchy Filly. Being a Witchy Filly in-universe, her cape is the source of all her magical powers.
- The Ditz: Bella is often this combined with Big Eater.
- Ending Theme: "From Now Until Forever".
- Fan Sub: As the show didn't get a consistent English release until 2022, fan subs remained a useful asset to the community. A fan had subtitled all of season one from the Italian dub, which had a positive reception among many. The first four episodes of season two subtitled by someone else, from the Hungarian dub; the rest were provided by a Ukrainian fan.
- "Fawlty Towers" Plot: In "The Cupcake Mystery", Bella accidentally overindulges on some important cupcakes trusted to her by Will. Fearing the worst from Will as well as her peers and teachers, Rose covers for Bella by concocting a story that a monster attacked her and ate them, with hilarious consequences.
- Gender Bender: Wranglum in "Wranglum in Disguise" uses a magic crystal that manages to free him into the form of a filly for a day. The catch? It changes him to a girl filly, and they end up referring to themself as Petunia.
- Great Offscreen War: Turns out one was waged against Wranglum and his forces in the backstory, both due to his attempted conquest of Funtasia and his desire to get the immensely powerful Dark Crystal to aid in doing so, which is how he was ultimately sealed away to begin with. Another one, or at least one battle in the larger war, was waged with Aquatica over the Aquamarine Crystal, which he decisively won.
- Hong Kong Dub: The original English version of Filly Funtasianote is missing lines, which leaves a few scenes where characters are saying something, but nothing comes out, among other issues. The dub itself is implied to have simply been a placeholder, as a vastly imrpoved English dub was later released.
- I Am What I Am: In "Farina, the Fire Dragon", Rose quite literally sings this nearly word for word as she comes to terms with who she is and that nobody else can define her. Strangely it's sung before she can learn that lesson, though.
- Instrumental Theme Tune:
- Inverted. In the Ukrainian version of the show, the Theme Tune is dubbed, however the Ending Theme is curiously not, leaving it as an instrumental.
- Zigzagged in the original English dub of episode 13, where both the opening and the ending theme are instrumental.
- Love Potion: In the upcoming episode "The Crush", Lynn neglects a potion that she was meant to pour out without spilling on anyone, but it accidently splatters onto Cedric, who starts to have an uncontrollable affection for her.
- Made-for-TV Movie: Was supposed to have two specials, "Filly Butterfly" and "Filly Stars", that were never produced because BRB dropped out. This explains why the show starts off with a random episode and expects you to know pretty much everything about it, with the only clue of whats going on at first being Rose leaving her home in the intro as a new student to the academy.
- Magic Wand: The magic mirrors everyone possesses (including the one Wranglum is sealed in) also function as these, allowing the characters to cast a variety of spells.
- Market-Based Title:
- In Ukraine and Hungary, the series is known as "Filly Fantasy", though the former gives it the added subtitle of "Academy of Magic".
- In the Czech Republic, the show's title was changed to "Ponies from Funtasia", and in Slovenia it's "Fillys from Funtasia".
- In Serbia it's "Foals from Fantasy".
- The title of the show in China is "The Colorful Wonderland of the Little Fillys".
- In Thailand, it's "Adventures in the School of Magic"
- Merchandise-Driven: The show is based on a Hong Kong-based line of pony dolls.
- Mirror Monster: Wranglum. He lives in the mirror whilst his full form is occasionally shown.
- My God, What Have I Done?: It's heavily implied Rose's ancestor Lily had this reaction to creating the Dark Crystal, especially given the outcome.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Not only does this show have the usual Alicorns, Unicorns, Pegasai, and standard Earth Ponies in terms of Filly species, but there are Fairy ponies, Elf ponies, Witch Ponies, and many more.
- Non-Indicative Name: In Real Life, a "filly" is a young female horse. In the show, however, every single equine character is called a filly, including the males as well as females that would be old enough to be called mares. Perhaps those who came up with the toyline in the first place were afraid that calling them "ponies" would get the company in trouble with Hasbro...
- Non Sequitur, *Thud*: In "The Cupcake Mystery."Battiwigs: Can I ride the carousel, mommy?
- Origins Episode: The first episode of season 2 explains the events of the series, including Rose and the Filly Five attending the school and explaining Wranglum's motive.
- Before this episode released, this was supposed to happen in any of the (now cancelled) TV specials.
- Our Elves Are Different: Bella is referred to in-universe as an Elf Filly, and she has Pointy Ears to match.
- Our Fairies Are Different: Very much different. Will in-universe is a Fairy Filly, which also explains his wings.
- Pegasus: Will. Though his wings aren't exactly typical for what you'd expect on a Pegasus. Then again, Will isn't your typical pegasus. Zach is a more straightforward example, having long feathered wings.
- The Place: Filly Funtasia.
- Pointy Ears: Being an Elf, Bella has them.
- Power Crystal:
- A major part of the setting's magic system: while a lot of spells can be cast with just a magic mirror, magical crystals are required to cast stronger, more complex spells. While it doesn't seem specific crystals are required for specific spells (though some do have unique effects well beyond the normal), spells have requirements for how much magic they draw from the crystals and more powerful crystals are equal to large numbers of weaker crystals. Principle Sparkle has a cache of extremely powerful ones in her office under lock and key. The spell that can liberate Wranglum from his prison for good requires a lot of crystals to use, so his plans largely resolve around trying to steal or obtain them.
- A particularly infamous and powerful one is the Dark Crystal, which Wranglum waged an entire war just to acquire. Rose's ancestor Lily created it from The Power of Hate.
- The Power of Hate: Rose's ancestor Lily created the immensely dangerous and powerful Dark Crystal from her bitterness and jealousy when Will's ancestor rejected her affections. This crystal was so powerful the Fillies and Wranglum waged a war over it.
- Precap: Each episode starts with this, sometimes spoiling the main conflict. Probably one of the only modern animated shows to have this trope. This is dropped after 9 episodes of the series, when the plot starts to get somewhat more serious, in favor for a traditional Cold Open.
- Pun-Based Title: Liar, Liar, Prance on Fire; Witchy Way Up; Where There's a Will
- Ship Tease:
- As Cedric has an unrequited crush on Rose, the two have had a few moments:
- Near the end of "The Evil Garden", Bella compliments Cedric and Rose by saying they work so well together. They both proceed to look at each other sheepishly◊.
- This is pretty much taken up to eleven in "Dream of Doom" where Cedric tries all his best to make sure Rose doesn't get hurt over a dream he had about her. He even locks her up in the equivalent to a basement and doesn't let her out when she pleads.
- Cedric's Big "NO!" once Rose falls down a hole thanks to a bunch of crows.
- Near the end of "The Evil Garden", Bella compliments Cedric and Rose by saying they work so well together. They both proceed to look at each other sheepishly
- In the season 1 finale, Will tells Rose that there's a special connection between them and "it's destiny" after learning that both of their ancestors had attended the academy before. Rose then responds that it's "fate, if anything, Will."
- As Cedric has an unrequited crush on Rose, the two have had a few moments:
- Shout-Out: In "Alone at Last" While in the forest, Lynn gives mocking faces and blows a raspberry at a tree with a creepy-looking "face" and delivers this interesting line:Lynn: Imagine being afraid of a forest, ever.
- Theme Tune: "Magical World".
- Two Girls to a Team: Inverted; Cedric and Will are the only males in the Filly Five.
- Unicorn: Rose, who is the mane character of the show.
- Voices Are Not Mental: Played with. The crystal that has the ability to change one's form does not change their voice, only their appearance. So Wranglum ends up having the same deep, gruffy voice when he turns into Petunia.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Wranglum is an absolutely horrifying creature who quite literally wants to burn Funtasia to the ground. He contrasts heavily with what you would usually expect of a cutesy, heartwarming feel-good cartoon about colorful ponies.
- Winged Unicorn: Zack is one.
- Wizarding School: The setting of the show.
- Wham Episode: In "The Magical Maze", the Fillies enter a magic maze that allows Wranglum to directly attack them, showing how dangerous he actually is and nearly killing the cast on multiple occasions. This is also the episode to start the series towards higher stakes situations and revealing Wranglum's role in the backstory.Wranglum: Did you forget how powerful I am?
