My Little Pony Friendship is Magic

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a Canadian-American children's animatedfantasy television series created[7] by Lauren Faust for Hasbro. The series is based on Hasbro's My Little Pony line of toys and animated works and is often referred to by collectors as the fourth generation ("G4") of the franchise. The series premiered on October 10, 2010, on The Hub cable channel (which was renamed as Discovery Family in late 2014), and ended on October 12, 2019. Hasbro selected animator Lauren Faust as the creative director and executive producer for the show. Faust sought to challenge the established nature of the existing My Little Pony line, creating more in-depth characters and adventurous settings; she left the series during season 2, to be replaced by Meghan McCarthy as showrunner for the remainder of the series.

The show follows a studious anthropomorphic unicorn pony named Twilight Sparkle as her mentor Princess Celestia guides her to learn about friendship in the town of Ponyville. Twilight and her dragon assistant Spike become close friends with five other ponies: Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. Each of the ponies represent a different facet of friendship, and Twilight discovers herself to be a key part of the magical artifacts known as the "Elements of Harmony". The ponies travel on adventures and help others around Equestria while working out problems that arise in their own friendships.

The series has become a major commercial success, becoming the most highly rated original production in the Hub Network's broadcast history and leading to new merchandising opportunities for Hasbro, including books, clothing, collectible trading cards, and comics. Despite the target demographic of young girls, Friendship Is Magic has also gained a large following of older viewers, mainly young and middle-aged men, who call themselves "bronies". Portions of the show have become part of the remix culture, and have formed the basis for a variety of internet memes.

A feature-length film adaptation directly based on the TV series, titled My Little Pony: The Movie, was theatrically released on October 6, 2017, in the United States. A spin-off franchise, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, was launched in 2013. The first two films, Equestria Girls and Rainbow Rocks, were shown in limited theatrical screenings prior to television broadcast and home media release.

## Premises

Friendship Is Magic takes place in the land of Equestria, populated by varieties of ponies including variants of Pegasus and unicorn, along with other sentient and non-sentient creatures. The central character is Twilight Sparkle, a unicorn mare sent by her mentor Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, to the town of Ponyville to study the magic of friendship. In the show's opening episode "Friendship Is Magic", Twilight resents this assignment, as she is more concerned about the foretold appearance of Nightmare Moon, the evil sister of Celestia. When Nightmare Moon does appear, vowing everlasting night and causing Celestia to disappear, Twilight sets off with five other ponies – Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity – to obtain the Elements of Harmony and defeat Nightmare Moon. Before Twilight can activate the Elements, Nightmare Moon appears and shatters them. In a flash of inspiration, Twilight realizes that each of her new friends represents one of the Elements of Harmony (Honesty, Loyalty, Laughter, Generosity, and Kindness), and that she herself is the final piece, Magic. The magical power of the ponies' friendship reverts Nightmare Moon to a repentant Princess Luna. Celestia reappears, reunites with her sister Princess Luna, and decrees that Twilight shall stay in Ponyville to continue studying the magic of friendship, much to the happiness of Twilight and her new friends.[43]

Later episodes follow Twilight and her friends dealing with various problems around Ponyville, such as interpersonal problems between friends and family, as well as more adventurous stories involving creatures like dragons and griffons, and having to save Equestria from evil villains. At the end of each episode, Twilight sends a report back to Celestia explaining what she learned about friendship from these adventures. This part of the formula is abandoned in "Lesson Zero", the second-season episode in which Twilight is convinced to be less rigid in her perceived duties; after this, all the main characters contribute reports, although the formality is disregarded when appropriate. In the fourth season, with the request for reports no longer applicable, the six resolve to keep a collective personal journal in which they record their thoughts about life for posterity.

Another focus of the show is the Cutie Mark Crusaders, a trio of much younger mares consisting of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, who are obsessed with finding their "cutie marks", an iconic symbol that magically appear on a pony's flank once they have discovered their special talent in life.[44]The show regularly features episodes centered on the Crusaders, who have yet to receive their cutie marks and are teased by other young ponies as "blank flanks". In response, they desperately hurry to try to discover their talents and receive their own cutie marks, often doing so in comical fashions.[44]

Although the episodes are designed to stand alone, the series features continuity and overall story arcs, with several key elements of the series changing; one such change is the evolution of Twilight herself, who spends the first three seasons learning about friendship and is subsequently granted wings by Celestia to become an alicorn and a princess in the season 3 finale "Magical Mystery Cure".[45] In the season 4 finale "Twilight's Kingdom", she discovers that she is the Princess of Friendship and starts living in a magic castle after the destruction of her library home by the villain Lord Tirek. Other crucial events impacting the series are the Cutie Mark Crusaders finally obtaining their cutie marks in the season 5 episode "Crusaders of the Lost Mark"; the same season's introduction of Starlight Glimmer, a villain who redeems herself and becomes Twilight's pupil in the season finale "The Cutie Re-Mark"; and Rainbow Dash fulfilling her lifelong dream of joining the elite Wonderbolts flight team in the season 6 episode "Newbie Dash".

Each season typically has a theme and overall story arc: a theme throughout the first season, for example, is ponies' preparation for the Grand Galloping Gala that occurs in the final episode of that season. In season 4, the Mane Six must find six keys to a mysterious box revealed after they relinquish the Elements of Harmony to their original source, the Tree of Harmony, to save Equestria; in the season finale, it is revealed that they had already obtained the keys, in the form of gifts they received during the season from people they helped.[46]

## Cast and Crew

The show revolves around the adventures and daily life of the unicorn pony Twilight Sparkle (voiced by Tara Strong), her baby dragon assistant Spike (Cathy Weseluck), and her friends in Ponyville, colloquially referred to as the "Mane Six":[47]

Rainbow Dash (Ashleigh Ball), a tomboyish pegasus pony who helps control the weather, and aspires to be a part of Equestria's famous flying team, the Wonderbolts;Rarity (Tabitha St. Germain), a glamorous unicorn pony with a flair for fashion design;Fluttershy (Andrea Libman), a shy and timid pegasus pony who is fond of nature and takes care of animals;Pinkie Pie (Libman), a hyperactive pony who loves throwing parties;Applejack (Ball), a hard-working pony who works on her family's apple farm.

Other characters include the Cutie Mark Crusaders, consisting of Applejack's younger sister Apple Bloom (Michelle Creber), Rarity's younger sister Sweetie Belle (Claire Corlett), and Scootaloo (Madeleine Peters). The two alicorns ruling over Equestria, Twilight's mentor Princess Celestia (Nicole Oliver), and the younger Princess Luna (St. Germain), also appear regularly; another alicorn, Princess Cadance (Britt McKillip), is introduced in the season two finale "A Canterlot Wedding" and oversees the northern Crystal Empire alongside her husband Shining Armor (Andrew Francis), a unicorn who is also Twilight's older brother. The season five premiere "The Cutie Map" introduces Starlight Glimmer (Kelly Sheridan), an antagonist who subsequently becomes Twilight's pupil in the season finale, "The Cutie Re-Mark".

Many friends, family members, and other residents of Ponyville appear frequently, including Applejack's older brother Big McIntosh (Peter New) and grandmother Granny Smith (St. Germain); the Crusaders' teacher Cheerilee (Oliver) and nemeses Diamond Tiara (Chantal Strand) and Silver Spoon (Shannon Chan-Kent); the town's mayor, Mayor Mare (Weseluck); and the muscular pegasus Bulk Biceps (Michael Dobson). Notable characters outside of Ponyville include the self-proclaimed "great and powerful" traveling magician Trixie (Kathleen Barr); the eccentric zebra Zecora (Brenda Crichlow), who lives in the nearby Everfree Forest and dabbles in herbal medicine; the Wonderbolts Spitfire (Kelly Metzger) and Soarin (Matt Hill); and Pinkie Pie's older sister Maud (Ingrid Nilson), who rarely expresses emotion and is obsessed with rocks.[48] The Mane Six also face several antagonists; one of them, the chimera-like trickster Discord (John de Lancie), is introduced in the season two premiere "The Return of Harmony" and subsequently becomes a recurring character of the show.[49][50]

The show also features an extensive cast of over 200 minor background characters. Several of these background ponies became fan favorites, leading to them having their roles expanded; the show's one-hundredth episode "Slice of Life" focuses almost entirely on some the most popular of them.[51]

Many creatures and races exist besides the ponies, including griffons, dragons, and changelings. These creatures live far away from the ponies, and need to be taught the meaning of friendship.[52]

## Production

The show is developed at Hasbro Studios in Los Angeles, where most of the writing staff is located, and at DHX Media Vancouver in Vancouver, British Columbia, for the animation work and most of the voice acting.

Faust's initial writing staff at Hasbro Studios included several writers who had worked with her on her previous shows and were approved by Hasbro. These included Amy Keating Rogers, Cindy Morrow, Meghan McCarthy, Chris Savino, Charlotte Fullerton, M.A. Larson, and Dave Polsky. The writing process began with Faust and Renzetti coming up with broad plots for each show. The two then held a brainstorming session with each episode's writer, allowing the writer to script out scenes and dialogue. Faust and Renzetti then worked with the writer to finalize the scripts and assign some basic storyboard instructions. Hasbro was involved throughout this process and laid down some of the concepts to be incorporated into the show. Examples of Hasbro's influence include having Celestia be a princess rather than a queen, making one of the ponies focused on fashion, and portraying toy sets in relevant places within the story, such as Rarity's boutique.[13][18] In some cases, Hasbro requested that the show include a setting, but allowed Faust and her team to create its visual style, and Hasbro then based the toy set on it; an example is the Ponyville schoolhouse. Faust also had to write to the E/I (educational and informational) standards that Hasbro required of the show, making the crafting of some of the situations she would have normally done on other animated shows more difficult; for example, Faust cited having one character call another an "egghead" as "treading a very delicate line", and having one character cheat in a competition as "worrisome to some".[13] Each episode also generally includes a moral or life lesson, but these were chosen to "cross a broad spectrum of personal experiences", and not just to suit children.[15] Because intellectual property issues had caused Hasbro to lose some of the rights on the original pony names, the show includes a mix of original characters from the toy line and new characters developed for the show.

Completed scripts were sent to Studio B for pre-production and animation using Macromedia Flash Professional 8. Thiessen's production team was also allowed to select key personnel subject to Hasbro's approval; one of those selected was art director Ridd Sorensen. The Studio B team storyboarded the provided scripts, incorporating any direction and sometimes managing to create scenes that the writers had believed impossible to show in animation. The animators then prepared the key character poses, layout, background art, and other main elements, and send these versions back to the production team in Los Angeles for review by Hasbro and suggestions from the writers. Thiessen credited much of the technical expertise in the show to Wooton, who created Flash programs to optimize the placement and posing of the pony characters and other elements, simplifying and economizing on the amount of work needed from the other animators.[26] For example, the ponies' manes and tails are generally fixed shapes, animated by bending and stretching them in curves in three dimensions and giving them a sense of movement without the high cost of individual animated hairs.[17] The storyboard artists and animators also need to fill in background characters for otherwise scripted scenes as to populate the world. According to writer Meghan McCarthy, many of the small nods to the fandom, pop culture references, or other easter eggs were added at this point by the studio.[27] Once the pre-production work was approved and completed, the episode was then animated. Though Studio B performed the initial animation work, the final steps were passed to Top Draw Animation in the Philippines, an animation studio that Studio B had worked with in the later part of season one and beyond.[28][29]

The voice casting and production is handled by Voicebox Productions,[30] with Terry Klassen as the series' voice director. Faust, Thiessen, and others participated in selecting voice actors, and Hasbro gave final approval.[13] The voice work is performed prior to the animation, with the animators in the room to help provide direction; according to Libman, this allows herself and the other actors to play the character without certain limitations. Libman noted that for recording her lines as the hyperactive Pinkie Pie, "I learned that I can go as over the top as I want and they [the animators] rarely pull me back."[31]

## Critical Reception=

The series has received positive reviews from critics. Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club favorably noted its "sheer and utter joyfulness" and lack of cynicism, unlike many other shows that garnered a cult following of parents and adults. She complimented the characters' stylized appearance, the stories' relative complexity for children's television, and the solid jokes which make the show enjoyable for parents as well as children. She gave the series a B+.[44] The show has been critically praised for its humor and moral outlook by Brian Truitt of USA Today.[111]Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club later commented that Friendship Is Magic is an example of a show that, while considered "girly", has been able to tap into the nerd culture to allow it to gain wider acceptance than other comparable forms.[112] Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media, an organization focusing on the parenting aspect of children's media, gave the show a rating of four out of five stars, emphasizing its messages of friendship, tolerance and respect, but advised parents to be wary of the "influence the characters might have on their kids' desires, since it's rooted in a well-known product line of books, toys, and just about everything in between."[113] Liz Ohanesian, for L.A. Weekly, said that the show is "absolutely genuine in its messages about friendship but never takes itself too seriously".[114] Matt Morgan, writing for Wired's "GeekDad" column, praised the show for having "rebooted the long-time Hasbro property while managing to lace it with geeky undertones" and being one of the few "girl-focused shows that a geeky dad can appreciate with his daughter".[115] Los Angeles Times critic Robert Lloyd called the show "smarter and sassier and more aesthetically sophisticated" than any of the previous My Little Pony cartoons, and praised its ability to appeal to both children and their parents, in that it is "smart and sprightly and well-staged, and never horribly cute".[116] TV Guide listed Friendship Is Magic as one of the top sixty animated shows of all time in a September 2013 list.[117] Other praise for the show included its style, stories, characterisation and discussion of feminism.[118]

Kathleen Richter of Ms. believed that Friendship Is Magic did little to change the nature of older animations for girls, which she considered "so sexist and racist and heteronormative." For example, she suggested that, through the character of Rainbow Dash, the show was promoting the stereotype that "all feminists are angry, tomboyish lesbians." She also considered that the only darker-colored ponies shown to date were in positions of servitude towards the "white pony overlord."[119] Lauren Faust responded to these claims by stating that while Rainbow Dash was a tomboy, "nowhere in the show is her sexual orientation ever referenced" and "assuming [tomboys] are lesbians is extremely unfair to both straight and lesbian tomboys", and further stating that "Color has never, ever been depicted as a race indicator for the ponies."[18] Amid Amidi, writing for the animation website Cartoon Brew, was more critical of the concept of the show, calling it a sign of "the end of the creator-driven era in TV animation". Amidi's essay expressed concern that assigning a talent like Faust to a toy-centric show was part of a trend towards a focus on profitable genres of animation, such as toy tie-ins, to deal with a fragmented viewing audience, and overall "an admission of defeat for the entire movement, a white flag-waving moment for the TV animation industry."[120]