The Equestria Girls have returned for their 3rd special of the series, and this boat-themed special did introduce to a few newly unique discoveries. We're now into the perspectives of human Rainbow Dash and partly human Twilight and Sunset Shimmer, as they attempt to have a joyful time on a cruise during their spring break. However, their vacation brought some ups and downs along the way with Rainbow Dash's excitement of evil equestrian magic on the loose ending up ruining the trip for some of her friends, as well as discovering new areas along the way involving a pony or two.
The first half of the special was pretty simple, mainly involving the Equestria Girl's vacation life on the boat, but it seems like it's main intention was to show Rainbow Dash's but-ins as an ongoing predicament for the rest of the girls. That being said, I feel like the story somewhat lacked certain potential for character development, but then again there's only so much you can do on a boat for even the EQG's.
The second half of the special did bring in a pretty interesting twist to the series, as it was discovered that the mirror portal in Equestria and the statue portal in the human world were not the only two methods of transportation between worlds. Although it was great to see humans in Equestria for the first time and the interactions between Princess Twilight herself, I still felt that overused concepts were in place considering this isn't the first time Sunset and Princess Twilight have interacted with one another as such. I can understand why they wanted to hide themselves to the public, but it still didn't feel overwhelmingly exciting to see Equestria characters with human world characters considering they had already interacted well with one another in the past.
I do like though how the animation styles in these specials are beginning to seem a lot more realistic when it comes to facial expresssions (many times you couldn't help but crack a smile at), body and camera movement, and other background art such as animals and lightning. The storm scenes had a pretty interesting effect, and it also did leave you at times with the worry of safety for the passengers of the boat.
Most of the jokes and puns in this special were pretty humorous at times, and they never tended to give off a corny-styled joke or situation throughout the special. I did like how this special was pretty straight-forward as it never left you with a feeling of a meaningless scene since anything that was introduced was later referred back to in a joke style, or as a playing part to the main story.
Overall, another well-entertaining special of the Equestria Girls and their further adventures of dealing with magic from another world. Although it did lack certain potential at times, this is definitely a special which would please both the fans of Equestria Girls and Friendship Is Magic. And with the final season of Friendship Is Magic currently in progress, this special does help get back into the spirit of things for what's left to come in 2019.
