My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic...Wait, What?: YMNK #5

This is an episode I've a hard time deciding whether or not I wanted to do it. Not because it would be hard to do, but because it is a subject that probably won't win me any fans. But I've decided that if this one article can stop someone from reading the rest of my blog, than they're not the audience I want to read to my work. So, today's YMNK is not just on a show, but also on a community and the reaction to it. Today's YMNK is...

  We begin with Hasbro and the success of the Transformers movies. Hasbro sees this and decides why not redo all of their toy lines, like G.I. Joe and My Little Pony, for a new generation. So Hasbro created the children's T.V. channel, The Hub. Now with the creation of a new channel comes new and old shows to fill up time slots. Who'd they call? Lauren Faust, who had a big hand in the animation on "The Powerpuff Girls" and a big hand in the stories of  "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends", all of which are highly acclaimed shows by critics and fans alike. She came to Hasbro with the idea of creating a show based on her own creation "Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls". Hasbro declined, but asked her to develop a new version of "My Little Pony" instead. She accepted and went into this project with the intent of creating a new show based on her adventures with her ponies as a kid. She also had the more important intent of making a show that was made for "little girls", but could be enjoyed by their moms and maybe even their dads. Faust then got together the animated TV show dream team of some of the best animators, writers, and voice actors in the business. This all went into creating "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (FIM)"...what...why are you laughing? Is it the title? (sigh), alright get it out...ya good? good.


  FIM premiered on The Hub on October, 10, 2010, and the FIM crew went back to making new episodes for the rest of the season. As the show went on, something weird started to happen, something no one saw coming. The show started attracting a fan base of teens and adults 13-35, the demographic one of Hasbro's Transformers movies would have pulled in. While this fan base was a mix of girls and boys, the biggest focus was on the male side, which were coined the name "Bronies". Everyone was shocked. The internet, the FIM crew, Hasbro, even Faust herself. Then something else strange happened. The people who worked on the show, Hasbro, and Faust started talking with the community and getting to know them. This also led to something that everyone saw coming, ridicule from all sides. The internet hated Bronies, creating fan pages all about hating this group, Fox (big surprise) ran a story about bronies, making fun of it while openly admitting in the same sentence that they've never seen the show.

This is Derpy, her eyes do that sometimes, as in all the time.

  But you know what? The fan base just kept on growing, and it has never stopped. This community is not about hating or arguing, but about the lessons which are taught on the show about friendship and forgiveness, while still being nerdy. This community has spawned thee different conventions, two Comic-Con panels, animations, music, remixes of the music on the show, remixes of the fan made music, art, fan fiction, celebrity mentions, table-top games, video games, a documentary about bronies funded by bronies and directed by John De Lancie, a little girl's ongoing medical operation funded by bronies as well, and dozen's of fan made characters, with detailed back stories and everything, that have made several cameo appearances of the show, the most famous being "Derpy", a crossed-eyed pony that has almost become the symbol of Brony culture.


  Now if you haven't left yet, you're probably wandering "What is it about this little girls show that these men like?", well let me start by explaining the basic plot. The show follows six main characters, Twilight Sparkle, a unicorn who is mastering her magic and is seriously OCD, Applejack, a pony who's apart of the Apple family business, which is a business of selling Apples, Rarity, a unicorn who is obsessed with fashion and being prim and proper, Pinkie Pie, a crazy, random, party loving pony that usually makes the best jokes, Rainbow Dash who is very cocky, tomboyish, and the fastest pegasus in the world, and finally there's my personal favorite, Fluttershy. She's a pegasus who's shy, soft-spoken, and prone to anxiety. All six of these friends go on adventures and learn lessons about friendship, hence the name. 


  Now I'll explain what people like about the show in kind of a unique way. I'm going to tell what people like about the show in the order of what catches their attention. Let's start with the animation and visual style. What catches everybody's eye the second they look at an episode is the animation. The animation is done with Flash, which is a cheap, quick, and easy to use animation software that tons of people use to make crappy cartoons on a weekly basis. But the animation company, DXH, has been experimenting and perfecting Flash and have made it look almost if not just as good as hand-drawn animation. Also, Lauren Faust is the master at adorable characters and she doesn't disappoint here. 

Pinkie Pie is famous for her Fourth Wall breaking jokes

  With a mix of cute designs and amazing animation, the show then excels in the art of Comedy. The show has all types of humor, physical humor, pop-culture, puns, forth wall breaking, and many more. Because of the animation, they can get some hilarious facial expressions that can happen in a split second. They also have great timing and rarely have a joke fall flat, but most of the time it's the puns that fall flat.


  
  After the comedic writing, people usually notice the writing itself, the plot lines and dialogue. The stories, while a bit cliched at times, are never "Let's make a cake!" and then they make a cake...no conflict or lesson, they just make a cake. There's always a conflict, whether it be normal or paranormal, they always find clever situations that make sense with that character. The show even does what few other shows can do on a regular basis, keep continuity. What I mean is that characters rarely do things just because the plot tells them to, most of the actions happen organically. This also means that they're are references to older character developments, like if one character has an episode where they discover a love for reading, they can be seen in another episode reading a book. 


  Then there's the voice acting. This show has some of the best voice actresses that, because of this show, have become somewhat famous. Tara Strong is probably the most recognizable, who plays Twilight Sparkle, seeing as how she's played as all of your childhood memories. Her characters include, Timmy Turnner, Bubbles, Raven, Batgirl, and many, many more. The stand-out and maybe best voice actress is Tabitha St. Germain who plays Rarity. She holds a British accent the whole time and has a lot of comedic range, making for some of the best lines or jokes in the series. 


  All of these elements are what catches peoples attentions, at least that's what caught mine, but then there's the community. The Brony community has been fully embraced by the people who work on the show. The most notable being Tara Strong, who's been in full support of the fans. Her Twitter feed in someway involves ponies everyday, she even created the term "Twilightlicious" which was a funny little saying that has sense been turned into t-shirts, bracelets, and even a day called Twilightlicious Tuesday where you tell someone who probably has no idea what it means that they're Twilightlicious.


All in all, I hope this has enlightened you a bit on this show, the community, and why people not apart of the core demographic could like this show. I'm not asking you to become a Brony or that you even have to like the show, I at least want you to give it a shot. If this article has not convinced you to watch the show, that's fine, just don't criticize someone for liking something you've never seen. If you are interested in watching the show, well you have a ton of options. Every episode has at least 10 different posts on Youtube, you can watch both seasons 1 and 2 through Netflix instant streaming, the show comes on the Hub at about 11am EST,  and you can buy the episodes through iTunes. The episode guide I've found to be the best for newcomers is the first two episodes of Season 1, Sonic Rainboom, and Party of One, all of which are Season 1 episodes. The season premiere is not the best, but it's needed to get the gist of these characters, and the other two episodes are character centered episodes that both involve the character going crazy. If you don't like it, that's also fine, just don't rag on people because they like it. Either way, this is a great show with a great and unique community. I'll end this with a quote from the creator herself, Lauren Faust.

Click on the image to enlarge it.