My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is a 2013 Canadian–American animated fantasy musical film produced by DHX Media's 2D animation studio in Vancouver, Canada for Hasbro Studios in the United States. The film is a part of Hasbro's toy line and media franchise of the same name that launched in the same year, which is itself an anthropomorphized spin-off of the 2010 relaunch of the main My Little Pony franchise, and also commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of the original My Little Pony toy line. Written by Meghan McCarthy and directed by Jayson Thiessen, the film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 15, 2013, followed by limited release in the United States and Canada on June 16, 2013, with a home media release on August 6, 2013.
The film re-envisions the main characters of parent franchise, normally ponies, as teenage human characters in a high school setting. Set between the third and fourth seasons of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, the film's plot involves the pony Twilight Sparkle pursuing her stolen crown into an alternate world where she transforms into a human, teenage girl. While learning how to behave as a human, Twilight encounters human counterparts of her pony friends, who help her in her search for her crown.
Other films in the franchise include a sequel, Rainbow Rocks, which was released on September 27, 2014, at various theaters across the United States and Canada, a third film, Friendship Games, which premiered on American and Canadian television a year later on September 26, 2015, and a fourth installment, Legend of Everfree, which was released on Netflix on October 1, 2016.
