That's the idea for this FAQ - a quick way to get up to speed with the gist of what's known. Read it all, after the break.
- What is Filly Funtasia?
Filly Funtasia is an upcoming show all about Magic, Spells and Fun. It's a 3D animated show about horses called Fillys attending a magical school in the land of Funtasia.
- When will it air?
The latest word is autumn 2015, but this is so far only an estimate. The show has been in development since the summer of 2012, and the first public trailer appeared in October 2013.
- Where will it air?
There is an article suggesting it will air in Spain on Clan TVE, but that's the only named channel so far. We do know that they want to reach audiences in many countries and that the show is confirmed to be available in at least Spanish, German and English.
- How many episodes will it have?
26 half-hour long episodes are confirmed currently.
- Who is creating Filly Funtasia?
Filly Funtasia is being created by Spanish animation studio BRB Internacional. You don't know them? Well, they created David the Gnome. You don't know David the Gnome?
The show is based (pretty closely, it seems like) on the Filly IP created by Dracco in 2006 and basis for numerous Filly toys.
Additionally, there's a list of confirmed writers here, though the original source article seems gone now.
- What is the setting?
Besides the school which the show focuses on, it's also set in the wider Filly World. Previous Filly material depicts it as consisting of a number of different kingdoms. They all have their own unique style of magic, as described in our Magic Guide.
- Isn't Filly Funtasia all about monsters stealing cupcakes?
Well, no. The episode depicted in the very first trailer (assumed to be episode #1, but we're not sure of that) does seem to be about a lie about a cupcake-stealing monster spiraling out of control and the consequences that brings, but the monster itself doesn't seem to be real.
The plot of episode #5 (we're a bit more sure of that) which is depicted in trailers #3 and #4, seems to be about some sort of magic crystal falling from the sky, which is pretty different. You can read more about that episode's plot in our trailer #4 recap.
The plots of the other 24 episodes are mostly unknown, but it's unlikely they'll all be about cupcakes.
- Who are the characters?
Rose is the show's main character and a Unicorn Filly from the island of Amoria. She's the "friendly" one in the group, and loves art.
Will, or "Willow" is a Fairy Filly, and the "trickster" of the group. He's known for being acrobatic.
Bella, or "Isabella" is an Elf Filly from Emoica. She is the "loyal" one in the group and has the ability to speak to birds.
Cedric is a Princess Filly from the Castle of Sirona, and is the "intelligent" one.
Lynn is a Witchy Filly, an "adventurer", and a Wind Filly. She's convinced that her green Wind cape has no power (the Witchys derive power from their capes), but thunder appears whenever she is in a bad mood. She dislikes being in the center of attention and wishes to be able to do proper magic.
Battiwigs and the Wizard of the Dark Mirror seem to be the main villains - their goal is to steal all the magic in the kingdom. We don't know that much about their personality yet, but I personally hope for a "Pinky and the Brain" type of relationship between them. That would be the best.
- Is this a show for little girls?
Yes, and there's nothing wrong with that.
- What's with the crowns?
Well, the Swarovski crystals in the crowns is a major selling point for the toys, which is why Fillys are always depicted with them. What's the justification in the show? Currently unknown, but maybe the "crystal powers" in the show description could be related to the crystals in their crowns? Who knows!
- Why are all the characters princes and princesses?
They're not! We've got sultans, emperors, duchesses, baronesses... But it's true that "Princess" is a kind of Filly, which seems a bit weird at first.
The abundance of royalty is probably related to the crown thing. The early history of the Filly toyline is poorly documented, but the "Filly Princess" line seems to have been intended as some kind of reboot of the toyline as "Filly Princess" is often used as a collective name for all Filly toys, even those that have nothing to do with that particular line, and since the "proto-Filly" lines before Filly Princess seem to have been dropped from the current canon.
"Princess" Fillys are called just that even in German, while those with the title princess are referred to as prinzessin, which makes matters less confused there. Something like "Filly Royals" would probably have been a better name when exporting it abroad, since that's what those Fillys all seem to be - while the other Filly kinds have plenty of characters without any known title.
- So, what's the deal with this website?
I'm glad you asked, hypothetical person.
This is not in any way an official website, it's a fansite by a person with an interest in fantasy horses. (among other things...) Yes, I originally used a joke name, but my interest in this show is genuine and the information on this website legit, to the best of my knowledge. I elaborate a bit more on this in my anniversary article.
If you need to get in touch with me, feel free to throw an email to [email protected]
You can also reach me on twitter, the article links posted there are automated, but I do log in to the twitter account to check what people write to me reasonably often.
- So, is this just an MLP G3 ripoff?
This is going to be less of a fact and more of a lengthy personal opinion, but here goes:
Not really. I'm not an expert on MLP G3 (I ought to get around to watching all of it some day), but the settings do not seem overly similar to me. Naturally, when you make a fantasy-oriented girls' cartoon about magical horses in a low-tech land without humans, there's going to be some similarities - but that is expected when you're making shows within such a narrow genre. If you're looking within the spectrum of what one might expect from such a show (looking at the horses of mythology is quite a natural idea), I do not feel the details are so similar, they cannot be something you've arrived mostly independently to.
The most significant similarity is probably that MLP G3 and FF both seem to be placed squarely in the "classic fantasy setting, but cute and with horses" territory while MLP G4 has moved towards schizo tech territory over the seasons. The castles in Unicornia and whatnot aren't too far off from the castles in each Filly kind's territory, while MLP G4 started off with much less castles - though they're making up for it now a bit by plopping an incredibly out-of-place looking one in Ponyville. On the other hand, Filly's focus on highly personalized magic for many characters (possibly all of them, as all we have of some characters are short bios that do not mention magic at all) seems unmatched in the MLP franchise - and the characters' unique magic is likely to be pretty important in Filly Funtasia.
The character designs are also accused of being similar. I didn't use to understand why, but I think I know now. MLP G4 ponies barely have any noticeable muzzles while MLP G3 ponies and Filly Funtasia horses have short muzzles. MLP G4 muzzles are completely invisible in frontal views and some other poses.
 |
| And I have a lattjolajbanlåda to prove it. Also, that difference in nostril size. |
That's not exclusive to MLP G3 and Filly Funtasia, though. Any depiction of "cute" or chibi-like horses tends to have faces with big eyes and a shortened muzzle.
 |
| Source: http://www.ponybox.com/news_details.php?id=2262 |
Besides, I don't really think the MLP G3 character designs are bad, besides a few cutie mark designs and some color schemes which really could be better, but MLP G4 has those too. (Blossomforth really hurts my eyes.) And what I've seen of the animated MLP G3 material itself (again, I'm not an expert, since I haven't seen all that much of it) wasn't really bad either, so I don't know why it keeps being used as a boogeyman so very frequently.
I suspect that most people who invoke MLP G3 that way haven't really seen it. Or maybe they've seen some of the worse parts of MLP G3.5 (Which is considered separate from MLP G3, I think? Please enlighten me if I'm wrong, MLP G3-senseis.) and think that represents all of MLP G3. Or they've done like in the MLP G3 watchalongs I've seen by bronies and gone into it with the opposite of an open mind.
Lastly, it's natural to look at what other people in the same genre have done for inspiration when making something new in it. This isn't just something done by poor mockbusters - some of our most iconic game series started off as ripoffs. If the Filly creators did indeed pilfer some ideas, that doesn't automatically make their work bad.
Well, that's all the questions so far! I hope this cleared some things up! If not, you can ask away in this comment section, and you'll hopefully get a good response. And if you've encountered some other frequent comment or question about Filly Funtasia which you feel deserves a place in this article, feel free to contribute that too. This article is intended as a work in progress which can be updated as new questions/comments become common.
