My Little Pony: Adventures in Ponyland

My Little Pony: Adventures in Ponyland is a American animated series based on Hasbro's My Little Pony toy line, developed by Bonnie Zacherle. This series emerged from a television film entitled The Dragon Awakens, shown on December 24, 1993, Christmas Eve, as part of Disney Channel's programming that day. Dragon Awakens served as a gauge to pave the way for the launch of the series then, in March 1994, as the public was pleased, the series was actually released.
This series featured a new model for TV animations, an episodic format, divided into 7 parts, parts of which were shown twice a week. This format required production agility to deliver at least two episodes of a story arc in time for the end of the previous arc, although it was not the first series to adopt this format, it was the one that most popularized it. In the 8th season, in 2001, the format of the series was changed, and the arcs had been abandoned, and the series began to be produced in singular episodes, which had different stories.
The expenses were worth it, and Adventures in Ponyland was an advertising, commercial and audience hit, making Hasbro and the other companies involved profit around US$270 million at the end of each month and more than US$3 billion at the end of the year, that's only counting sales in the US, if one were to count the global market, My Little Pony could be considered the most profitable and valuable toy in the world for those seeking to obtain its brand during 1990s and early 2000s, with US$25 billion in sales worldwide. 
The series ended in 2002, at the will of developer Brenda Appleyard herself, as she decided not to renew her contract as series developer. Later, Brenda would state that she withdrew because she was looking for new productions and was already fed up with the series.
== History ==
My Little Pony G2 began in 1992, following the success of the G1 series. That same year, Hasbro Entertainment, Hasbro's television productions subsidiary, underwent a variety of reformulations in its group of developers, removing some names present in the old series, and new scriptwriters, producers and directors came in, in this wave of renewal, Brenda Appleyard and Howard "Howy" Parkins came, Brenda was 30 years old and Howy 25 years old, Brenda had arrived from DIC Entertainment, where she was already a strong figure in the company, unlike Howy, who had not done so much work. influence until then, Hasbro, knowing Brenda's potential, gave her carte blanche for a series, which would seek to increase or preserve the popularity of one of the company's brands, Brenda then asked Parkins for advice, about which of the toy lines to series should be inspired, that's where Parkins decided to give his opinion in favor of My Little Pony, which was very much stuck in children's memories due to the success of the G1 series, and was the one with a more immersive world open to fantastic adventures. Brenda was convinced of the idea, and invited Parkins to direct a pilot for which she would develop the script.
=== Pilot production ===
In November 1992, production began on the pilot episode of the series, with the provisional title Revisiting the Ponies, a team of 70 animators was brought together to produce this, which would be a TV film, and had a preview of release on June 13, 1993, Children's Day, the initial story differed from what was seen, according to archives that Hasbro itself published in celebration of the series' 20th anniversary, in 2014.
In February 1993, a new member joined the production team, Russian screenwriter Sergey Andrenov, who considered the premise weak, and created a second script, which Hasbro and Brenda accepted without many, this would end the plot of the final version, already titled The Dragon Awakens, in this plot, Sergey abandoned the encounter between the three races plot, with the main plot revolving around the hunt for the mythical Sleeping Dragon, in addition, new characters were brought in, and Darkwing Flyby would no longer be the villain, and would also be related to Sky Brightness.
Although Sergey created the script, Brenda was still credited as writer of the pilot episode for improving and adapting it to the format that the series would have, in addition to making a few changes. With the sudden change of script, the release was postponed until the New Year festivities, after an agreement reached with Disney Channel to show the TV movie, it was also agreed that the pilot would be longer than 60 minutes, which made the team animation increase and race against time.
The film reached its final stage of production in October 1993, which required a heavy workload, as well as ready-made scripts with no risk of alteration, in November it was the voice actors' turn to enter the scene, with 8 dialogues dubbed per day, and in December the final adjustments ended, with the pilot episode being shown on Disney Channel on December 24, Christmas Eve, at 8:30 pm.
=== Pilot ===
My Little Pony: The Dragon Awakens is a 1993 TV film produced by Hasbro Entertainment and aired in Disney Channel on 1993 Christmas Eve. This film served as the pilot episode for the series My Little Pony: Adventures in Ponyland, was written by Brenda Appleyard in its original plot, with changes by Sergey Andrenov, and directed by Howard Parkins.
==== Plot ====
In Ponyland, there are a multitude of mystical beings, Griffons, Breezies, Unicorns, Pegasus, among others, who live in communion with common Earth ponies. Cheerful Clover, a very curious and fearless Earth pony, hears from her grandmother the story of the Sleeping Dragon, this myth says that almost 1000 years ago, a dragon sleeps underground in the land of Ponyland, he is huge, with scaled skin like a fish, with a back with several spines, sharp as a pin, making any rear attack impossible, and above all, only fireflies that emit a purple light may be able to point out the place where the sleeping body of the beast is. 
The legend stirs Clover's reckless and adventurous spirit, who brings together her friends, Sky Brightness, Flow Moonshine, Clover Sprout and Magnus Twilight in search of the mythical purple fireflies, the two males (Sprout and Magnus) are skeptical about the situation, which leads the two not to follow it seriously, but this skepticism is what leads them to be the triggers for the discovery, when, involuntarily, they lie down in a cocoon of purple fireflies, which leads to the insects smelling the dragon, leading the quintet directly to the location. 
After discovering the dragon, everyone is somewhat surprised, as it was not a leviathanic being as it appeared, but a short, stupid and quite charismatic dragon, called Spike, in addition, he has actually slept for more than 2500 years, which according to him, means that he was "a little overdone". Therefore, a chaotic situation unfolds, where everyone, through Sprout, discovers that the "fearsome" dragon has woken up, and all of Ponyland enters a state of panic, and Clover and her friends, being indicated as those who awakened the being, are hunted to be lynched at all costs, meanwhile, Spike remains hidden in the basement of Clover's house.
The plot, in addition to featuring the five protagonists, also features other prominent characters such as Granny Orange Cake, King Darkwing Flyby, Queen Borealis Light, the Fruitpie Twins and Candy Golden
==== Reception ====
With the audience pleasing, reaching over 2 million viewers, a series was ordered based on the pilot, kicking off the series in early 1994.
== Production ==
=== Format ===
The series adopted a format that would become a trademark of the My Little Pony franchise, with the episodes being told through story arcs, which led to them all being divided into seven parts. The series was shown twice a week, making each arc last about four weeks each. The fact that the episodes were made up of arcs led to longer work hours for the animators, since towards the end of an episode, two parts of the following episode should have already been completed. The first episode of the first season, Spike, The Friendly Dragon, had already been produced when the pilot was shown, and its exceptional length, as it was also prepared to be a TV movie, was what made the arcs be adopted, to adapt the film to a series episode length.
The series followed this model throughout almost its entire run, the model would be abandoned in the 8th season, in 2001, at the request of Brenda Appleyard herself, developer and executive producer of the cartoon, who responded to the request of some animators, and ended up with the arcs to reduce the workload, and also to increase the number of stories per season. The episodes, from 2001 onwards, became singular.
=== Animation ===
The series was animated by Nest Family Entertainment, in conjunction with Entertainment One, the series' animation director was Arthur Rankin, Jr., this being also his most acclaimed work and last work. Rankin was also a screenwriter, having written episodes between 2nd and 6th seasons. The profits that the series generated also brought benefits and structure to the animation companies involved, this being the turning point for Nest Family Entertainment, which would, over time, become a majority televised media production company. From the 2nd season onwards, computer animations were also used, following the profits generated by the first season. Critics often point out the similarity between the quality of animation from studios such as Disney, Dreamworks and Universal in the 1990s and the quality of the series' animation from the 2nd season onwards. 
=== Screenplay and writing ===
The main screenplayers of the series are, in addition to Brenda and Sergey, also Arthur Rankin, Jr., Stephen Perry, Bruce W. Smith (also Creative Consultant), George Arthur Bloom, Jim Ryan and Linda Woolverton; the group of writers is notable for their curriculum, many have written screenplays for Disney films, such as Linda (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King), others have written other successful animated series, such as Bruce and Stephen (Thundercats), and others have even been present in other productions of the franchise, such as George and Linda. Brenda had been the creative director and showrunner throughout the series, and it was through her that episode scripts were approved, edited and discarded.
=== Voice cast ===
The series' voice acting director was Alice Playten, she had a lot of authority to form the main cast. Kelly Sheridan, Bettina Bush, Russi Taylor, Tristan Rogers and Scott Menville voiced the five lead characters, other recurring voice actors also included Janet Waldo, Frank Welker, Walker Edmiston, Nancy McKeon, Moira Kelly, Dom DeLuise, Tony Randall, Linda Larkin, Candace Hutson among others. 
=== Music ===
The themes and incidental tracks were composed by Steve Rucker and Normand Roger, the series was one of the only ones that gave up its own track for each episode, having composed several themes that played in several episodes, including incidentals, character themes (instrumentals and vocals), varied versions of the characters' themes (emotional versions, for example) and local themes.
== Episodes ==
Seasons	Seasons 	Episodes 	Chapters 	Original transmission	Original transmission
Seasons	Seasons 	Episodes 	Chapters 	Start 	End
 	1 	12 	84 	 	
 	2 	12 	84 	 	
 	3 	12 	84 	 	
 	4 	12 	84 	 	
 	5 	12 	84 	 	
 	6 	12 	84 	 	
 	7 	12 	84 	 	
 	8 	39 	39 	 	
 	9 	34 	34 	 	
 	New Year's Special	New Year's Special	New Year's Special