For the casual fan, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Keys of Friendship is great: five episodes jammed into one DVD disc. But for the more avid brony, the set is lacking, disjointed and very underwhelming.
The Episodes
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Keys of Friendship is a compilation of various episodes from the four seasons of the incredibly popular TV show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The majority of the episodes are pulled from the series’ most recent fourth season so if you’re not caught up, you might want to avoid watching this until you do so.
The episodes included in this DVD are “Rarity Takes Manehattan”, “Pinkie Apple Pie”, “It Ain’t Easy Being Breezies”, “Twilight’s Kingdom Part 1” and “Part 2”. Unlike other single-disc Pony releases that focused on just one pony for all the episodes, Keys of Friendship has three episodes focused on different ponies, followed by a two-part season finale that encompasses the whole gang.
The fact that none of the full seasons are available on Blu-ray yet makes My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Keys of Friendship that much more frustrating. Yes, you can stream the seasons on Netflix and own entire seasons on VOD, but for those physical copy enthusiasts, this disjointed compilation of a few of the episodes is the best thing they’re going to get. Personally, I would rather own full sets of the seasons in glorious HD instead of a mishmash of episodes set to a theme (this time, the theme of friendship).
Bonus Features
In the bonus feature department, this DVD set doesn’t deliver. Much like the other DVD sets, like A Dash of Awesome (watch our video review of that DVD here), there are no bonus features other than a short karaoke sing-along. I would expect more behind-the-scenes featurettes on a release of a full season, not a random 5-episode release like this, so in reality, it’s not that disappointing.
Final Thoughts
Unless you are dying to own and watch the season finale of season four, then you’re better off skipping this one. The friendship “theme” that ties these episodes together isn’t that engaging; personally, I think it would have been better if they had stuck with their previous character-themed releases and released a set about Applejack or Pinkie Pie (each of whom do not have sets devoted to them yet). You’re better off waiting until season 4 is released on DVD because this release is all fluff.
Purchase
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Keys of Friendship: Amazon
