HOME | DD

Description

Review: My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic
Premiere Year: 2010
Category: Animated Television Series
Company: DHX Media Limited, Hasbro Studios

In this very gloomy time in the history of animated TV series, it’s very hard to find something animated that can really be considered good entertainment. Either the shows you come across are terribly written, or just plain ugly to look at. And that brings me to ”My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic”, which is niether of those things. It’s the exact opposite, wonderful and practically perfect in every way. Yes, I know My Little Pony is in essence a ”Girls’ Toyline”, but with this new TV series, I can’t help myself. This show is like a lonely snowflake on a dark and gloomy day… Small, but still lovely enough to brighten up the entire day. Yes, I am a boy… And No, I’m not sick and I’ve not gone crazy. I really like this show, and I’m about to get to why.

”My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic” is the latest television version of the well-known and loved pony toys made by Hasbro, and it is the result of the effect of the recent reboot of the Transformers franchise. After Michael Bay’s Transformers movies helped take the Transformers franchise into new heights of popularity, Hasbro wanted to do the same thing with the My Little Pony franchise, which together with Transformers, was one of the company’s flagships in the 1980s. And from what I’ve seen, I actually think that this new My Little Pony series works much better as a reboot then the Transformers movies, and that’s saying alot.

The show airs on The Hub, a TV channel founded by a cooperation between Hasbro and Discovery Communications, Inc., and is produced by Hasbro Studios, Hasbro’s very own entertainment production studio, and is animated by DHX Media Limited, which also animates the ”Littlest Pet Shop” TV series, another Hasbro toy-based series which also airs on The Hub.

Animator and writer Lauren Faust, who had previously worked on shows like ”The Powerpuff Girls”, was hired to create a pitch bible for the show, but she says she was ”extremely skeptical” about taking the job at first, because she had always found shows based on girls toys to be boring and unrelatable. So with this show, she wanted to show that a girls cartoon didn’t have to be all ”Cutesy-Whootsy”, and thereby incorporated into the character-designs and story elements that contradicted idealized stereotypes of girls, such as diverse personalities, messages like that friends can get into arguments but still be friends, and that girls shouldn’t be limited by what others say they can or can’t do. And I can say in all my honesty, that her plan has been… A Total Success!

The story is centered around the unicorn mare Twilight Sparkle (voiced by Tara Strong), who comes to the little town of Ponyville, sent by her mentor Princess Celestia, (Nicole Oliver), to study the magic of friendship. Twilight is not so interested in the task, since she’s more into books then friends. But then, when the evil Nightmare Moon appears, vowing eternal night and causes Celestia to disappear, it’s up to Twilight and five other ponies, the tomboyish pegasus Rainbow Dash (Ashleigh Ball), the fashion-crazed unicorn Rarity (Tabitha St. Germain), the shy and timid pegasus Fluttershy (Andrea Libman), the hyperactive and funloving pony Pinkie Pie (Andrea Libman), and the hard-working cowgirl pony Applejack (Ashleigh Ball), to find the Elements of Harmony to defeate Nightmare Moon. But after Nightmare Moon snatches and shatters the Elements, and Twilight realizes that she needs her new friends, she also realizes that each six of them represents one of the Elements… Rarity is Generosity, Applejack is Honesty, Rainbow Dash is Loyalty, Fluttershy is Kindness, Pinkie Pie is Laughter, and Twilight Sparkle is the most important element of them all, Magic. After defeating Nightmare Moon and turning her back into her original form, Princess Celestia’s sister Princess Luna, Twilight is assigned by Princess Celestia to continue living in Ponyville and studying the magic of friendship with her new friends. And that’s all just in the first two episodes of Season 1. But don’t worry, the rest of the series is just as good as those first episodes.

The show features a few songs, and they sound much better then any television songs Disney has made in recent years… Well, except for the songs in Disney’s ”Doc Mcstuffins” and ”Sofia The First” TV series, but the songs in this show are still better then most of Disney’s television songs nowadays, and that’s saying alot.

But the biggest surprise for me about this show though, is its animation, which is done in the computer programme Adobe Flash, which is almost like making traditional cel animation, just on a computer instead of with a pencil and paper. I might repeat this many times in the future, but… I hate Flash animation! I hate it, because the finished animation in Flash usually tends to move in an unnaturally quick pace, which gives every movement a very mechanical and nonorganic feel to it, plus that the images tend to look very flat, like cut-out figures pasted onto a background. But this show is nothing like that, and that’s the surprise, and a happy one at that. The animation in this show is very fluid and natural, and the characters and everything else really feels 3-dimensional, and that makes me one happy camper. Wow, Flash animation that I actually like?! Never expected that to happen within this millennium.

In conclusion, what makes ” My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic” a great show, is its wonderful story, colorful characters, beautiful songs, and the fact that it’s actually making a great contribution to the evolution of animation, by taking Flash animation, one of the worst animation forms in the world, and making it appealing, natural in movement and giving it a real 3-dimensional feel that other studios using this software usually doesn’t care about. You see, Flash is normally used as a cheaper and quicker alternative to traditional cel animation, and that’s why earlier shows produced with it usually tends to be terribly animated and generally have very awful stories. This show though… My god, it’s wonderful. I personally like the characters of Applejack, because of her cowgirl attitude and her southern american accent, and Fluttershy, just because she’s generally cute, with her shy way of speaking and all. But what really sells this show for me, is the fact that it’s not overly ”girly”, which people might expect from its title. Oh No, it’s just perfect to attract even a male audience, and it actually has got a strong male fanbase, as I’ve recently learned from Wikipedia. So I’m not the only male who likes this show, and that makes me very relieved.

My Final Grade: Thumbs-Up, Way Up!

Description

Review: My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic
Premiere Year: 2010
Category: Animated Television Series
Company: DHX Media Limited, Hasbro Studios

In this very gloomy time in the history of animated TV series, it’s very hard to find something animated that can really be considered good entertainment. Either the shows you come across are terribly written, or just plain ugly to look at. And that brings me to ”My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic”, which is niether of those things. It’s the exact opposite, wonderful and practically perfect in every way. Yes, I know My Little Pony is in essence a ”Girls’ Toyline”, but with this new TV series, I can’t help myself. This show is like a lonely snowflake on a dark and gloomy day… Small, but still lovely enough to brighten up the entire day. Yes, I am a boy… And No, I’m not sick and I’ve not gone crazy. I really like this show, and I’m about to get to why.

”My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic” is the latest television version of the well-known and loved pony toys made by Hasbro, and it is the result of the effect of the recent reboot of the Transformers franchise. After Michael Bay’s Transformers movies helped take the Transformers franchise into new heights of popularity, Hasbro wanted to do the same thing with the My Little Pony franchise, which together with Transformers, was one of the company’s flagships in the 1980s. And from what I’ve seen, I actually think that this new My Little Pony series works much better as a reboot then the Transformers movies, and that’s saying alot.

The show airs on The Hub, a TV channel founded by a cooperation between Hasbro and Discovery Communications, Inc., and is produced by Hasbro Studios, Hasbro’s very own entertainment production studio, and is animated by DHX Media Limited, which also animates the ”Littlest Pet Shop” TV series, another Hasbro toy-based series which also airs on The Hub.

Animator and writer Lauren Faust, who had previously worked on shows like ”The Powerpuff Girls”, was hired to create a pitch bible for the show, but she says she was ”extremely skeptical” about taking the job at first, because she had always found shows based on girls toys to be boring and unrelatable. So with this show, she wanted to show that a girls cartoon didn’t have to be all ”Cutesy-Whootsy”, and thereby incorporated into the character-designs and story elements that contradicted idealized stereotypes of girls, such as diverse personalities, messages like that friends can get into arguments but still be friends, and that girls shouldn’t be limited by what others say they can or can’t do. And I can say in all my honesty, that her plan has been… A Total Success!

The story is centered around the unicorn mare Twilight Sparkle (voiced by Tara Strong), who comes to the little town of Ponyville, sent by her mentor Princess Celestia, (Nicole Oliver), to study the magic of friendship. Twilight is not so interested in the task, since she’s more into books then friends. But then, when the evil Nightmare Moon appears, vowing eternal night and causes Celestia to disappear, it’s up to Twilight and five other ponies, the tomboyish pegasus Rainbow Dash (Ashleigh Ball), the fashion-crazed unicorn Rarity (Tabitha St. Germain), the shy and timid pegasus Fluttershy (Andrea Libman), the hyperactive and funloving pony Pinkie Pie (Andrea Libman), and the hard-working cowgirl pony Applejack (Ashleigh Ball), to find the Elements of Harmony to defeate Nightmare Moon. But after Nightmare Moon snatches and shatters the Elements, and Twilight realizes that she needs her new friends, she also realizes that each six of them represents one of the Elements… Rarity is Generosity, Applejack is Honesty, Rainbow Dash is Loyalty, Fluttershy is Kindness, Pinkie Pie is Laughter, and Twilight Sparkle is the most important element of them all, Magic. After defeating Nightmare Moon and turning her back into her original form, Princess Celestia’s sister Princess Luna, Twilight is assigned by Princess Celestia to continue living in Ponyville and studying the magic of friendship with her new friends. And that’s all just in the first two episodes of Season 1. But don’t worry, the rest of the series is just as good as those first episodes.

The show features a few songs, and they sound much better then any television songs Disney has made in recent years… Well, except for the songs in Disney’s ”Doc Mcstuffins” and ”Sofia The First” TV series, but the songs in this show are still better then most of Disney’s television songs nowadays, and that’s saying alot.

But the biggest surprise for me about this show though, is its animation, which is done in the computer programme Adobe Flash, which is almost like making traditional cel animation, just on a computer instead of with a pencil and paper. I might repeat this many times in the future, but… I hate Flash animation! I hate it, because the finished animation in Flash usually tends to move in an unnaturally quick pace, which gives every movement a very mechanical and nonorganic feel to it, plus that the images tend to look very flat, like cut-out figures pasted onto a background. But this show is nothing like that, and that’s the surprise, and a happy one at that. The animation in this show is very fluid and natural, and the characters and everything else really feels 3-dimensional, and that makes me one happy camper. Wow, Flash animation that I actually like?! Never expected that to happen within this millennium.

In conclusion, what makes ” My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic” a great show, is its wonderful story, colorful characters, beautiful songs, and the fact that it’s actually making a great contribution to the evolution of animation, by taking Flash animation, one of the worst animation forms in the world, and making it appealing, natural in movement and giving it a real 3-dimensional feel that other studios using this software usually doesn’t care about. You see, Flash is normally used as a cheaper and quicker alternative to traditional cel animation, and that’s why earlier shows produced with it usually tends to be terribly animated and generally have very awful stories. This show though… My god, it’s wonderful. I personally like the characters of Applejack, because of her cowgirl attitude and her southern american accent, and Fluttershy, just because she’s generally cute, with her shy way of speaking and all. But what really sells this show for me, is the fact that it’s not overly ”girly”, which people might expect from its title. Oh No, it’s just perfect to attract even a male audience, and it actually has got a strong male fanbase, as I’ve recently learned from Wikipedia. So I’m not the only male who likes this show, and that makes me very relieved.

My Final Grade: Thumbs-Up, Way Up!