So earlier tonight I was sitting in my room, not-so-silently having a bit of a panic attack over stuff that shouldn't be inducing panic attacks, when my friend presented me with the following question:
"Have you heard of the term "bronys?""
Almost jokingly I replied by asking if that was some type of pony. At first I thought my response to be completely off the mark, as we had previously been discussing RSS feeds and Tumblr and other various blog-related boring things. I was under the impression that a "brony" was going to be some kind of directory or utility. Nope. Turns out I nearly hit the mark!
So while I was never quite told what a "brony" was, I was told of a very strange and mysterious show taking college dorms by storm. Particularly the dorms of twenty-something males. This show is not at all what you would expect it to be. There are no talking blue jays, no shape shifting dogs, no psychic boxes of French fries, and no cross-dressing alien hermaphrodites. No, what this show has is:
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| PONIES! |
That's right. I was surprised to find myself face to face with the brand new reimagining of yet another toy brand franchise spin-off, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Now, like you, I was beyond baffled by the sudden turn in topic. Of course I'd heard good things about the show on various message boards, and had recently been thinking about ti in the middle of English class for no real reason at all, so perhaps this was some cleverly disguised form of diving intervention.
At first I was thinking "you're kidding, right?" I continued to think such poor, uneducated thoughts as my friend sent me a YouTube hyperlink. Hesitantly I dragged my mouse over to the gaggle of glowing letters and lowered my volume just incase the unmistakably embarrassing theme song decided to ring out through my home. One last boggling moment before I clicked the link and was greeted with...
And that clip will be with me FOREVER. If it doesn't do the same to you, you might want to check into your local asylum, because you have no soul. I wasn't quite sure why, and to tell you the truth, I'm still baffled as all hell, but that clip was one of the single most enjoyable clips I've ever had the pleasure grace my computer screen. Out of some newfound curiosity, or perhaps visually administered nicotine, I looked up the first episode.
The first episode is largely an introduction to the series and introduces what I assume will be the core cast as well as our heroine, Twilight Sparkle, the semi-gothic inspired pony who reminds me way too much of Princess Azula. I swear she secretly plots to burn all of Equestria into a very fine pixie powder. She also seems to be some furry version of Stocking, which is one-hundred percent okay in my book. Of course, we all know how that turned out.
While the episode felt overly childish, or perhaps I'm still being far too unwilling to fully accept that I enjoyed it, it was an over-all nice experience. There are funny moments, and there are moments that will make you blush from the sheer corniness of it all. And to be fair, the target audience is about sixteen years younger than I am, so let's be putting this all into perspective. People who enjoyed Dragon Tales as a child will definitely find My Little Pony to be a good, or at least amusing, watch as it really feels like a modern take of Dragon Tales.
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| Take three parts Dragon Tales, one part Powerpuff Girls, and one part Adventure Time and you get My Little Pony in a nutshell. Well if you want the shell, you need a nut. |
But I hope you get the picture. Not all of the characters are likeable, nor do they even feel needed (I'm looking at you, Rarity) so the show does feel a little cluttered at first. I'm also not too sure how I feel about Spike the dragon at this point, as he just feels totally out of place, but I'm assured it will make sense soon enough. The other characters, however, are all really well characterized and feel like part of a tightly woven cloth. As friends I talk to on AIM can attest, although I will continue to claim they are on drugs, I have already changed my buddy icon to Fluttershy, because she's adorable.
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| There's really no better way to describe it. |
The only kind of gimmicky quirk the show has, thus far, is the tendency to replace words like "everybody" with "everypony" which feels a lot like the Smurf's habit of putting their name in front of every other word. It really isn't that frequent, however, and can probably be overlooked.
My end verdict of the night is that if you haven't gotten over yourself by now, you're committing a great disservice to you and everypony around you. Get your bald scalp out of your butt and watch My Little Pony. You won't regret it.
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| Seriously, she's adorable. |
