My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
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| My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | |
 | |
| Original Name | |
| Translation Name | |
| Created by | Lauren Faust |
| Region | USA |
| Classification | USA: TV-G |
| First broadcast | October 10, 2010 |
| Last broadcast | October 12, 2019 |
| Episodes | 222 |
| Studio | Vancouver Top Draw Animation |
| Directed by | Jayson Thiessen James Wootton |
| Written by | Lauren Faust Amy Keating Rogers M. A. Larson Meghan McCarthy Cindy Morrow Charlotte Fullerton Merriwether Williams Chris Savino Dave Polsky |
| Character design | Lauren Faust |
| Music by | Daniel Ingram William Kevin Anderson |
| Voiced by | Tara Strong Ashleigh Ball Andrea Libman Tabitha St. Germain Cathy Weseluck Nicole Oliver Michelle Creber Madeleine Peters Claire Corlett |
| Original network | The Hub Discovery Family |
| Licensed by | Hasbro |
| State | Finished |
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Japanese: マイリトルポニー〜トモダチは魔法〜 , Chinese: 彩虹小马：友谊是魔法/小马宝莉：友谊的魔力) is an animated series based on Hasbro's popular My Little Pony franchise. The show premiered on October 10, 2010 on Hasbro's The Hub channel, now known as Discovery Family as of October 13, 2014. It ended after nine seasons on October 12, 2019. This incarnation of the franchise is referred to as the fourth generation, or G4, of My Little Pony. The show was developed for television by Lauren Faust, who is known for her work on two of Cartoon Network's popular and critically-acclaimed franchises, namely The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
The series stars a unicorn pony named Twilight Sparkle, a student of Princess Celestia, the ruler of the magical land of Equestria. The princess gives Twilight the task of learning about friendship and sends her and her assistant, a baby dragon named Spike, to Ponyville. There, they meet some interesting ponies, including action-loving Rainbow Dash, glamorous Rarity, hard-working Applejack, timid Fluttershy, and hyperactive Pinkie Pie. Together, they go on adventures, solve various problems, and learn about the magic of friendship.
Contents
Staff
- Original Idea: Lauren Faust
- Director: Jayson Thiessen, James Wootton
- Supervisor: Lauren Faust (Season 1, 2), Chris Bartleman, Blair Peters, Kirsten Newlands, Beth Stevenson, Stephen Davis
- Screenwriters: Lauren Faust, Amy Keating Rogers, MA Larson, Meghan McCarthy, Cindy Morrow, Charlotte Fullerton, Merriwether Williams, Chris Savino, Dave Polsky
- Character Setting: Lauren Faust
"Moefied" version of character designer, Lauren Faust
Theme Song
- Depending on the season, the theme song sounds different.
- In the final photo from Season 1-3, the Main 6 appear.
- In Seasons 4-5, it's the main characters in Ponyville.
- In Season 6, Starlight Glimmer was added.
- In Season 7, Starlight Glimmer is now smiling.
- The opening theme animation for Season 8 has been newly drawn and will be used in Season 9.
Cast
- Twilight Sparkle: Tara Strong
- Applejack, Rainbow Dash: Ashleigh Ball
- Rarity: Tabitha St. Germain
- Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie: Andrea Libman
- Spike: Cathy Weseluck
- Princess Celestia: Nicole Oliver
- Princess Luna: Tabitha St. Germain
- Discord: John de Lancie
- Princess Cadence: Britt McKillip
- Shining Armor: Andrew Francis
- Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle: Michelle Creber
- Scootaloo: Madeline Peters
Main characters
| Name | Race | Introduction |
|---|---|---|
| Twilight Sparkle | Unicorn → Alicorn | Twilight Sparkle is the protagonist of this game, and she can be seen in every episode of the first season. She is a purple unicorn who is good at magic and likes to learn. She is the clue character of the entire animation. After the end of the third season, she was appointed as the fourth princess of Equestria and evolved into an Alicorn. |
| Applejack | Earth pony | Applejack is an orange earth pony in this cartoon. She represents "honesty" in friendship. Applejack is a country girl from the "Sweet Apple Orchard" and a member of the "Apple Family". She has a strong southern American accent. |
| Rainbow Dash | Pegasus | Rainbow Dash, with a bright rainbow mane and tail , represents "loyalty" in friendship. Rainbow Dash is a carefree athlete by nature, with a cheerful, lively, brave and informal tomboy personality. There was also a scene in Season 2 where Rainbow showed off her German. |
| Rarity | Unicorn | Rarity is a beautiful white unicorn who represents "generosity" in friendship. Rarity is a trend-chasing fashion designer and a workaholic who always likes to take in business that makes her collapse. Setting Rarity as a fashion designer is a bold attempt and breakthrough for this animated series, which brings the animation into closer contact with fashion. In the cartoon, Rarity will occasionally show off her French to everyone. |
| Fluttershy | Pegasus | Fluttershy is a yellow pegasus in this animation. She represents the "kindness" in friendship. Fluttershy is timid by nature, but she is full of care for everything around her, whether it is her friends or the surrounding flowers, trees, birds and animals. |
| Pinkie Pie | Earth pony | Pinkie Pie is a pink earth pony who symbolizes the "laughter" of friendship. Pinkie Pie is the most nonsensical character in this cartoon. She can appear anywhere and do any unexpected thing. Almost every other character has suffered from her. Of course, she is also the one who likes to sing the most. |
| Spike | Dragon | Spike is Twilight Sparkle's assistant, a small purple dragon. Spike has been following Twilight Sparkle as a helper since he was a child, and fell in love with Rarity at first sight after coming to Ponyville. |
| Princess Celestia | Alicorn | The ruler of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle's mentor, and makes Twilight Sparkle submit a "Friendship Report" to her at the end of every episode. The second season relaxes this restriction to all protagonists. |
| Apple Bloom | Earth pony | Applejack's younger sister who is as stubborn and honest as her sister. In order to obtain her "cutie mark" at any cost, she formed the "Cutie Mark Crusaders" with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. |
| Sweetie Belle | Unicorn | Rarity's younger sister who is best at singing. In order to obtain her "cutie mark" at any cost, she formed the "Cutie Mark Crusaders" with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. |
| Scootaloo | Pegasus | She is Rainbow Dash's biggest fan, and her specialty is scooters. Working hard to obtain her "cutie mark", she formed the "Cutie Mark Crusaders" with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. |
Setting
Races
Ponies are mainly divided into the following three races. The three races can be interbred and may produce different types of offspring through intergenerational inheritance. However, there is a high chance that the offspring will be of the same race.
- Earth Pony: It is an ordinary pony. When personified, it looks like a normal person or only has horse ears. They can grow crops and perform some heavy labor work, and usually only they can engage in agriculture. The strength is the strongest among the three races, so strong that it can pull a train.
- Representative character: Applejack
- Unicorn: It is a pony with a horn on its head, which may be accompanied by horns when personified. The horns can be used to perform various magics and perform delicate work. You can also use the horns to perform telekinesis, which is very convenient when moving items. The earliest records of unicorns can be traced back to the Old Testament of the Bible, and they can be described as mythical beasts. The horns of most unicorns in animation are short and straight, while the horns of Eastern unicorns are curved upward.
- Representative character: Starlight Glimmer
- Pegasus: A pony with wings. When personified, there must be wings on the back. Looks like an angel. It can fly, soar through the clouds and mist, and it's very fast. Even when running on land, he is not slow. Control the weather conditions throughout Equestria. If necessary, Pegasus can even gather clouds, causing an otherwise sunny day to rain soon after. Pegasus was originally a mythical beast in Greek legends.
- Representative character: Rainbow Dash
The following are other races:
- Alicorn: A pony with both wings and horns. Possess extraordinary magical powers. This race is almost godlike.
Alicorns do not come from ancient myths and legends, but are fantasy animals developed in modern times. ( Flurry Heart is the first pony to be an Alicorn at birth)
- Related characters: Princess Celestia, Princess Luna (leader), Flurry Heart
- Dragon: There are many dragons in Equestria. Most of them are Western dragons that live in caves or valleys and migrate collectively with the seasons. Some dragons have wings, and some dragons like to eat jewelry, but they all breathe fire. They have a greedy personality. If someone gives them something, they will keep asking for it and never stop asking for it. However, dragons can be tamed in this game. The current leader is Yu Yan.
- Related characters: Ember, Spike, Gable, Smolder
- Draconequus: It is a unique race set in this series. It combines the bodies of dragons, horses, deer, lions and other races, and possesses powerful magic power.
- Related characters: Discord
- The existence of this race is disputed. Discord cannot represent the entire race, and there are no other characters of this race appearing.
- Changeling: It is a unique race set in this series. Will change their appearance at any time. Like the alicorns, they have powerful magical abilities. They live by sucking love. The changelings before the sixth season are actually in the untransformed stage. When the changeling gives up robbing love and instead shares its love like a pony, the changeling will transform from black to a different color and the holes in the limbs will disappear.
- Related characters: Queen Chrysalis, Thorax, Pharynx, Ocellus
- Zebra: The specialness of the zebra in reality may be that humans have never tamed it. This game also shows how different it is from ordinary ponies.
- Related Characters: Zecora
- Bat Pony: they are a special race formed by changing the wings of Pegasus to those of bats. This race was officially recognized on August 20, 2013. If the wings of the ordinary Pegasus symbolize angelic purity, then the bat-winged Pegasus symbolizes the devil. In Season 4, Episode 7, Fluttershy became this )(Flutterbat). There is also a chapter in the official comics where the six protagonists become Batponies.
- The existence of this race is disputed. There are obvious differences in appearance between Fluttershy in the form of a bat and Princess Luna's soldiers. At the end of the fifth season, after Rainbow Dash became one of Princess Luna's soldiers, her wings also turned into bat wings. It is unclear whether they are just equipment.
- Griffon: Has the body of a lion and the head, beak and wings of an eagle. It is considered a very powerful animal. The legend of the gryphon can be traced back to Greek mythology. The griffin and the horse are feuding, but the hippogriff is the offspring of the griffin and the horse and is regarded as a symbol of "miracle" or "love".
- Related characters: Gilda
- Yak: An animal that exists in reality. Like bison and cows, yaks are intelligent creatures, but the difference is that yaks have their own sovereign country and are on an equal footing with ponies. This race is slightly conceited, and its citizens have a strong sense of national pride. Yak likes to smash and destroy things, and many yak festivals are celebrated by smashing things. Yaks live in Yakyakistan, the northernmost region of Equestria.
- Related characters: Prince Rutherford (leader), Yona
- Hippogriff: An imaginary race referenced in mythology. The Hippogriff has the head, talons, and wings of an eagle. The head is covered with different-colored feathers similar to the mane of a pony. The lower body is horse-shaped, has no cutie mark, and is covered with bird down. The Hippogriff is tall and closer to a Saudi Saddlebred than a pony. Hippogriffs gather at Mount Aires, and most of them are lively and love to sing.
- Related characters: Queen Novo (leader), Princess Skystar, Silverstream, Tramar
- Sea Pony: It is a race set in Generation 1 of My Little Pony. It can swim underwater, and its hind legs degenerate into fins. The Sea Ponies currently appearing in the show are all transformed into Hippogriffs. In order to avoid the invasion, Queen Novo and her tribe turned into sea ponies and hid under the sea. After the disaster, some Hippogriffs chose to continue to be sea ponies, and the current seahorse community was formed. The G4 sea pony is different from the G1 Sea Pony. The G1 version is closer to a seahorse. The G4 seahorse has a tail fin and forelimbs, and can breathe both on land and water.
- Kirin: Kirin is an imaginary race taken from mythology. Kirin is an artiodactyl creature with branch-like horns and the ability to use magic. It has scales on its back and a lion-shaped tail. It has a body shape similar to that of a pony and has a mane of different colors. It has no cutie mark. When the Kirin is angry, it will turn into Nirik . In the Nirik state, there is basically no difference in appearance. The body color will turn black, the mane and eyebrows will turn into flames, the mouth will be full of fangs, the eyes will glow blue, and the voice will also change into a thick one, this form is extremely dangerous.
- Breezie: An original race. A Breezie is only the size of a leaf. Its body is close to that of a pony but its legs are slender. It has transparent thin wings like a dragonfly and has antennae. This creature is extremely fragile and needs the breeze to fly. If the wind blows too much, it will be blown away and disoriented. Breezies have a migration behavior. Every year, a large number of Breezies come out from their hometown to collect pollen in Equestria and return together. The magic of Breezies can prevent the pollen from deteriorating. Breezies are intelligent creatures, but they generally cannot speak pony language.
- Nightmare: Already appeared in the first season, an inanimate conscious body (possibly related to the Dreamer) with unknown origin. Luna will merge with Nightmare when she loses control. Rarity was once possessed by Nightmare in the official comic.
Cutie marks
All ponies have a cutie mark on their rump. Like an identification card, the markings on each pony are different. Preschool ponies don't have any markings on their rump until they find their talent. The pattern of the markings usually hints at something the pony is good at. There is no way to force a cutie mark to appear on a pony.
Reasons for popularity
It is different from the shabby art style of previous generations. It is characterized by a rare American cute style. The performances and characters are very lively, and even maliciously show off their cuteness. Maybe because it's one of the first works of director Lauren Faust (writer of The Powerpuff Girls). The character design is excellent, the characters have distinct personalities, and the lore is also very well-elaborated.
Ponies everywhere
The show was originally aimed at a target audience of elementary school girls, but but G4 unexpectedly became popular and attracted a lot of adult men to watch. The sensation it caused on 4chan was no less than that of Panty & Stocking. It has eroded major otaku websites in Europe and the United States at an alarming rate. Traces of it can also be found on major fan creation platforms. Its related fan creations and secondary settings were also in full swing. It's so popular that even male viewers openly admit to liking ponies. Male viewers aged 12 and above who like ponies call themselves "Brony" and have dedicated forums. Female fans over the age of 12 are called "Sisquestrians" or "Pegasisters", but this is not as widespread as Brony.
The Brony group has an influence that cannot be ignored in the American social subculture and Internet culture. Time Magazine once listed "brony" as "one of the top ten words of 2012".
Bronies everywhere
It is worth mentioning that there are also many public figures in Europe and the United States who have publicly admitted or been proven to be horse fans, or have shown signs of being horse fans.
For example, Chris Evans (the actor who plays Captain America), Robert Downey Jr., Gabe Newell (the founder of Valve) , Markus Persson (the creator of Minecraft), Sergey Burkatovsky (chief designer of World of Tanks).
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton once answered all the questions about MLP correctly on a question and answer show (the difficulty level of the questions was low, so the evidence was considered insufficient), and he was ridiculed as a brony;
In mid-April 2017, the Vice President of Hasbro and Twilight Sparkle's voice actor Tara Strong jointly rang the opening bell of the NASDAQ Stock Exchange.
Gijinka
Due to the popularity of ponies, many fan artists try to draw cute anthropomorphic pictures of ponies based on their own impressions. It is also true that the same character often has many different versions. As the number of anthropomorphic pictures increases, everyone gradually forms a consensus, which is the so-called second hypothesis.
Eventually even Hasbro themselves jumped on the anthropomorphic bandwagon. There are only two types of personifications of ponies. One is completely anthropomorphic, without any horse characteristics. The other is semi-anthropomorphic, usually accompanied by horse ears, unicorn horns, and Pegasus wings.
Fully anthropomorphic Rainbow Dash
Ponytail, Pegasus Wings, and the official and original gijinka of Rainbow Dash
Ponyfication
Due to the popularity of ponies, many artists have also tried to turn other characters into ponies, covering a wide range of situations, from two dimensions to three dimensions. So much so that in the Brony section of 4chan, they changed Article 42 of the Internet Code to "Existence must be Brony" and tried to expand it into another "no exceptions" rule.
Most pony transformations are done in human form. If the character's godhood or divinity is very powerful (including goddesses), the pony will turn into an alicorn. Those who are good at superpowers or magic turn into unicorns. If the character is energetic and strong, they become a Pegasus or an Earth pony. If the character already has wings, the wings will be retained when transformed into a pony. There are also characters from ponies that transform into seahorses, phantoms, and other races.
Another important thing to look at for pony characters is their "cutie mark". The same character will have different cutie marks, despite being drawn by different artists. However, how to show the character's personality and talents in a pattern also tests the artist's creativity.
The following are pony versions of some well-known figures/works.
Staff members: voice actress Tara Strong, designer Lauren Faust and storyboarder Sabrina Alberghetti
The Legend of Korra
Princess Luna in Eientei
Ponified Nitori Kawashiro
Nue Houjuu as a Changeling
Lisa Imai in Season 9
My Little Pusheen
No Applejack?
Google Chrome-chan
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