Filly Funtasia is an animated fantasy television series created by Jacob and Henrik Andersen for Dracco. The series follows filly Rose and her friends as they attend a magical academy in the royal kingdom of Funtasia. It is based on the Filly toy franchise. The series was originally produced by Dracco Brands, BRB Internacional, Screen 21, and Black Dragon Entertainment, but the latter three companies dropped out of producing the series around 2016, and the former dropped out in 2019. Guangzhou Huamai Animation Studios, B-Water Animation Studios, and Zhaolong Culture joined production much later and managed to complete what the other studios left behind.

After five years of development hell starting from 2014 when Filly Funtasia was originally supposed to premiere, the series finally premiered on March 11, 2019, on Frisbee in Italy. The series also premiered on November 28, 2019, on iQiyi in China.

The show was renewed for a second season that was released on iQiyi on December 25, 2020.

In early 2021, an earlier produced English version of the series started streaming on the KidsFlix and MyToonz apps in the United States for three episodes. On March 3, 2022, the series officially premiered with a finalized English version on Channel 5 in Singapore, with episodes being made available on their meWATCH VOD.

The owners of the franchise have repeatedly claimed that a third season would be released over the years, the latest of which being in 2025. However, there is no definitive status of its release, and it has been postponed for the time being.

Plot Filly Funtasia is about the adventures of Rose, a unicorn filly who attends the Royal Magic Academy in the kingdom of Funtasia. Her best friends – Bella, an elf filly, Lynn, a witchy filly, Will, a fairy filly, and Cedric, a royale filly, accompany her as they go to the extraordinary school to improve their magical skills, be it mixing unpredictable potions or casting spells. Rose also has to deal with everyday teenage school life while learning about the magical world around her.

Inside the basement of the academy lives Wranglum, an evil tree-like wizard creature who is trapped inside a "dark mirror", or a crystal prison. Battiwigs, a bat who is Will and Cedric's dorm pet, secretly works for Wranglum as his bumbling minion and carries his master around. Wranglum and Battiwigs plot various schemes to try and steal any crystals from the academy they can so that they can use their magic to rule over Funtasia.

Characters

Main Rose (voiced by Kelly Coalson, with singing mainly provided by Windy Wagner) is the main protagonist and a caring, young unicorn who tries to be good at everything she does. Bella, short for Isabella is a talented elf who loves nature and finds beauty in everyone. Lynn is a high-spirited witch from the Witchy Kingdom (Zimsala). Will, short for Willow is a daring fairy who likes to play pranks, and is friends with Lynn. Cedric is an intelligent prince, and an inventor. Wranglum (voiced by David Wills) is the main villain of the series. He is a tree-like wizard creature who is trapped inside a crystal prison that takes the form of a mirror. He is determined to rule Funtasia by any means necessary. Battiwigs is a bat serving as both Will and Cedric's dorm pet, and undercover as Wranglum's minion.

Recurring Miss Sparkle is the headmistress of the academy. Twilight is a fairy filly. She is one of the teachers and Zack's boss. Zack is the top student of the academy and Twilight's intern. Rose has a crush on him. Fabian is a new student at the academy. He is a lover of geology, and is often clumsy. Bijou the owl is the dorm pet of Rose. Zam and Zamie are two elf twins in the academy. They are normally seen causing trouble, especially for Will.

Production Filly Funtasia was created by Danish brothers, Jacob and Henrik Ranis Stokholm Andersen, who also founded the Filly franchise around 2006, and serve as the directors of the series. Development began during the summer of 2012, and Tine S. Norbøll, the developer of the franchise, wrote the story bible for series. She was also an art director for the show,https://dk.linkedin.com/in/norboell though her work is uncredited. BRB Internacional and their animation studio Studio 21 originally did the animation work, with some outsourcing from Black Dragon Entertainment in China.

Some notable BRB staff who worked on the show include Stevepeig, who designed some of the concept art and how scenes would act out, and Dani Canovas, who designed some of the main characters such as Rose and Will, and did the color script for some scenes, as well as the backgrounds.

On October 12, 2012, plans for an animated TV series based on the Filly franchise were announced, with the working title of "Filly", and the series was set to premiere worldwide in 2014. A teaser for the show was presented at MIPTV in April 2013. On May 29, 2013, the show was renamed to Filly Funtasia, and some of the writers for the show were revealed: Dean Stefan, Noelle Wright, Jymn Magon, Johnny Hartmann, and Sean Derek. BRB Internacional was to distribute the show internationally, except in Germany where Dracco would handle it.

A trailer for the show was uploaded officially by BRB to YouTube on October 15, 2013. Another trailer was released to Twitter on April 11, 2014, featuring clips synced to the show's ending theme, "From Now Until Forever". A third one was released on October 13, 2014, by Funtasia Daily, for BRB offered them the chance to release it to reach a wider audience. A fourth trailer for the show was presented at MIPCOM 2015 and was released on October 6, 2015, featuring clips from the show synced to the show's opening theme, "Magical World".

Two 75-minute specials of the show were announced April 4, 2016, at the MIPTV Media Market titled "Filly Stars" and "Filly Butterfly". Originally produced by BRB's 3D movie division, Apolo Films, no news has surfaced about the current state of the specials and whether they have been cancelled or not as of late. They were meant to be released before the show in order to explain the characters and the world, which explains why Filly Funtasia starts off with no proper introduction.

Later in 2016, BRB and Screen 21 stopped working on the show, and stopped publicly associating with it. It can be assumed that around this time, Black Dragon also quit too. Around 2018, Spanish company B-Water Animation Studios and Hong Kong-based company Guangzhou Huamai Animation Studios joined the production of the series, and worked to complete what the previous studios had left behind. A fifth trailer for the show, which would be the first Filly Funtasia material in a few years, would be released to Vimeo on March 23, 2018, by B-Water. It would also be the last trailer of the show to be released before its premiere one year later.

Filly Funtasia has gone through development hell five years prior to its release, and was delayed many times before it finally premiered in 2019. While the reasons for the delay remain unclear, it likely includes financial problems the Andersen brothers were facing, BRB and Screen 21 suddenly ceasing production of the series on their part, and Dracco initiating legal action against Simba Dickie Group. In the final version of both the English and Chinese credits, nobody from either BRB and Screen 21 or Black Dragon have been credited since those companies backed out of their involvement with the series.

While English is considered the original version of the series, it was not released officially anywhere until 2021; however, various English trailers were released prior. The latest trailers posted by Imira Entertainment in 2019 contain the finalized voices, while the previous trailers released by BRB in 2014 featured different voices. Irish actor Morgan C. Jones, who works for Telegael, has participated in voicing characters in one of these English versions. The final English version, which eventually first saw release in Singapore, was recorded in New York by the studio Audioworks Producers Group. Kip Kaplan was the voice director.

On January 17, 2020, the series was renewed for a second season that was released to iQiyi on December 25, 2020. A trailer for it was posted on November 2, 2020, on the show's official Weibo account. Dracco Brands dropped out of the show in season 2, to be replaced by Zhaolong Culture in 2019. Zhaolong would fund the production of seasons 1 and 2, owning the copyrights, distribution and merchandising rights, and so forth of the series. The series is mainly distributed by Imira Entertainment, which is owned by Toonz Media Group.

Several Chinese sources mentioned the plans on the third season of the show to be created and released in late 2021, which has since been postponed and delayed to release sometime in 2026. From 2023-2024, a couple of storyboard artists and character designers have since shared their progress on the third season, and merchandise of the franchise is still occurring in China.Data table (in Chinese)

Episodes Series overview

Season 1 (2019)

Season 2 (2020)

The second and final season of the series was released on December 25, 2020. The worldwide premiere for the season was on iQiyi, and unlike the previous season, all episodes were released on the same day.

Broadcast

Original release Filly Funtasia was originally planned to be released in early 2014, but was delayed to the fourth quarter of 2014. On March 30, 2014, the release date of the show was delayed again to 2015. It was announced that the show would air on Clan in Spain, and later on V-me in the US. The show was delayed again on January 19, 2015, for a 2016 release. On March 10, 2015, it was announced that Filly Funtasia would air on K2 in Italy. On January 16, 2018, the Andersen brothers discussed in an interview that the series was postponed once again for a 2019 release.

The series eventually premiered worldwide in Italian on March 11, 2019, on Frisbee in Italy. In China, the series was officially released with a Mandarin Chinese dub onto iQiyi, with the title The Colorful Wonderland of the Little Fillys, on November 28, 2019.https://weibo.cn/detail/4442563631643560 The show had reached more than 2800 viewers in under 24 hours. Later, the series would have its TV premiere on Hunan TV Golden Eagle Cartoon on January 20, 2020. Each of the 13 episodes are split into two 12 to 13-minute episodes, unlike how the show would be broadcast nearly worldwide; the episode order of season two is also specifically different than its intended order.

Worldwide release

In Ukraine, the series premiered on November 30, 2019, on PLUSPLUS with a Ukrainian dub. Filly Funtasia premiered on September 5, 2020, on Minimax in Hungary, the 7th in Romania and Moldova, the 16th in the Czech Republic, and October 3 in Serbia and Slovenia. Minimax premiered season two in 2021, with its premiere for Hungary on February 6, Czech Republic on February 11, and Serbia with Slovenia on February 15. In Romania, the season premiered later on April 18, 2021.

The series premiered on Arutz HaYeladim in Israel in November 2020, and the two seasons are currently available on the streaming service, BIGI. On February 15, 2021, the series premiered on La Tele Tuya in Venezuela in Latin American Spanish; season two premiered in early June of the same year; like China, season two was released by La Tele Tuya in a very different order as compared to the rest of the world. The series also airs in Latin American Spanish on Clan Internacional worldwide, including Latin America and the United States.

English release