My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
My name is Richard Sharpe and I recently became a Brony. It’s often stated that cartoons aimed at girls are rubbish and this is mostly true. Having a 6 year old sister, I’m exposed to a lot of these and I’m hard pressed to think of a girl’s cartoon that hasn’t been condescending, inadvertently sexist, or just poorly written. I never thought I’d see the day when I would actively encourage my little sister to watch My Little Pony, let alone sit down with her and enjoy it.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the latest incarnation of the series developed by Lauren Faust, who previously worked on Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, for The Hub which is a joint venture between the Discovery Channel and Hasbro. Lauren’s influence is very evident within the show because it’s highly entertaining and has a broader appeal than would be expected. By that I mean that the series has received a large following of not only females of various ages but also male, hence the term Brony; a portmanteau of the words ‘bro’ and ‘pony’.
Getting into the show, the series follows the adventures of Twilight Sparkle and her friends (Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity). Each episode is standalone, often focusing on a problem of one of the main characters or an incidental character and wrapped up with a heart-warming moral. So far, so formulaic. But the reason it has gained such a following is a combination of its stylized design, solid character writing and fun jokes.
This article is obviously going to be too short for me to go through every episode of the 26-episode first season so I’ll just highlight a few episodes that I have found particularly fun.
Dragonshy revolves around a nearby sleeping dragon’s smoke causing problems for Ponyville and its inhabitants. The group set off to confront the dragon and convince him to move, relying on Fluttershy’s affinity with all creatures to aid them. Unfortunately, Fluttershy is scared of damn near everything and is a hindrance much of the way, ultimately abandoning her friends at the crucial moment. When the efforts of the other 5 fail miserably and Rainbow Dash’s brashness is about to get them killed, Fluttershy’s assertive side reveals itself and she gives one of the funniest verbal beatdowns I’ve ever seen.
Winter Wrap Up has my favourite song of the series and I found myself singing a couple hours later. Check it out!
Party of One is a really enjoyable episode about Pinkie Pie believing her friends don’t like her anymore and don’t want anything to do with her as they sneak around preparing her surprise birthday party. The highlight of this episode is when Pinkie finally descends into madness, her once bouncy personality is drained, along with her vibrant pink body colour and her hair loses it’s fluffiness making her look really emo. Her schizophrenic party is also pretty funny and surreal.
I cannot recommend the show highly enough. It’s funny, clever, really entertaining and it’s an audio-visual anti-depressant and I challenge anyone to prove me wrong. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to watch the Die Hard quadrilogy to earn back my man-card.