My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

[skyp1e]

I think I finally found a really likable episode. After writing the above wall of text, I did a youtube search on "funny my little pony". Probably should have done that at the start.

Nearly all of the video was clips that, although were amusing weren't really funny, but at the end they showed only clips from an episode featuring fluttershy as a fashion model. Now THIS was funny. I don't think I laughed out loud at any of it, BUT I don't always actually laugh when something is funny.

Okay, so if anyone else beside me in the same boat as "I don't get it" (looking at you Instantdeath), let's check this whole episode out.

Green Isn't Your Color

I'm going to watch it now and report back when I'm done.

[DerLindwurm]

Have you seen Feeling Pinkie Keen, SkyPie? I still think that's the best (and funniest) one yet, though all the giggling at the very end seems a bit forced after the rest of the episode.

[skyp1e]

Have you seen Feeling Pinkie Keen, SkyPie? I still think that's the best (and funniest) one yet, though all the giggling at the very end seems a bit forced after the rest of the episode.

Okay so I watched both of these episodes (the Green one and the Pinkie Keen one). The fashion show one was cute, I was entertained by it enough and the funny parts from the montage video that drew me to it were still funny parts in context.

The "Feeling Pinkie Keen" episode was better and I can't quite help feeling that it is kind of apropos for this discussion. I expect that those of us like myself that are trying to pin down the appeal of the MLP show are the "Twilight Sparkles" of this thread. Well played if that was your intention.

[DerLindwurm]

The "Feeling Pinkie Keen" episode was better and I can't quite help feeling that it is kind of apropos for this discussion. I expect that those of us like myself that are trying to pin down the appeal of the MLP show are the "Twilight Sparkles" of this thread. Well played if that was your intention.

No, I'm not that clever. But, yes, it is. I just thought it was a particularly funny episode where I first began to realize that the characters actually have pretty complex personalities (in some episodes, anyway.)

[Gowienczyk]

Fantastic execution (i.e. great animation, fleshed out characters, good writing, etc.) is not enough to sway me into liking something,

This sounds so absurd and headscratching to me.

[skyp1e]

This sounds so absurd and headscratching to me.

Not really hard to grasp. Something can be technically proficient, but if it lacks in something as fundamental as "being entertaining" then it's not going to do it for me.


Whereas as a counter example I offered up shows like Regular Show, Adventure Time and Southpark where on the technical end of the spectrum they are hardly Disney quality, but still I love these shows in spite of such subjective flaws.

That help any?

Maybe I should offer another example of excellent animation where outside of the gloss there's nothing there for me to enjoy?

I'll submit the movie Pocahontas as such an example. All the glitz is there but I couldn't sit through it.

Or maybe Up might be a good example? The voice acting is great, Pixar is probably my favorite production company, but the movie leaves me feeling flat. It simply doesn't grab me at all. Not because of technical flaws but simply because it's missing a hook for me.

[Gowienczyk]

Good writing, character development and fluid cinematography/animation should be entertaining alone and a formula for enjoyment, honestly. But iunno.

[skyp1e]

Good writing, character development and fluid cinematography/animation should be entertaining alone and a formula for enjoyment, honestly. But iunno.

Perhaps I was too quick to add "good writing" in the list. I realize that if I think writing is good the rest should follow. In the episodes I previously viewed, I couldn't really say the writing was "good".

The last two I've seen since making the statement you're quoting was admittedly better.

Still if I hadn't seen the Green Is Not Your Color or the Feeling Pinkie episodes, I'd still stand by all I said.

I think I included "good writing" so as to do my best not to offend the fans of the show. I didn't want to call the writing "bad", but essentially I'll have to admit that if I found the writing good, I would have to like the show based on that.

In as much you did catch me.

[jibjqrkl]

In as much you did catch me.

Gowi uses Ultra Ball!
Wild SkyPie (lvl. 63) was caught!

(btw, i'm naked)

[DavyinaToga]

Wow, apparently this thread exploded (relatively) over the past week or so.

Throwing it out there, does anyone else enjoy Youtube CC for these episodes? I've come across some fantastic mistranscriptions, which are even better when youtube takes one subject and goes wild with it throughout the entire episode.

EDIT: After reading through the last couple pages of posts, there's a few things worth mentioning:

- I'd venture to say that even the first five episodes can't do justice to the series as a whole. However, if you're not already a fan of TV cartoons going into this, you're likely not going to stick around. Don't worry about it.

-A lot of FiM's appeal does come from it's out-of-the-ordinary status, in half a dozen ways. Most of it revolves around its status as a little girls' show. Compared to any other sickly frou-frou junk usually associated with the term "girls' show" (like Sailor Moon, Strawberry Shortcake, and earlier revamps of MLP), the show has very well-written, humanized characters; more nuanced stories, and a helluva lot more action and humor. Seriously, no one would ever expect a show like this to have belching, roundhouse kicks, and ****ing wendigos.* I mean, the show is still super saccharine, but it's not like being super saccharine is ALL the show is.

- FiM's animation is extremely high-quality, especially for Flash-based animation. It outclasses Williams Street cartoons and Johnny Test; and completely destroys anything on Newgrounds.

- Holy crap, the acting is fantastic. Tara Strong, Richard Ian Cox (look up their bodies of work, you will not be disappointed), and freaking Tabitha St Germain. Seriously, just watch any Rarity-centric episode and tell me that is not the voice of someone who absolutely loves doing this show.

- I want to slap everyone who, when watching SSCS6k, instantly thinks "Monorail" from the Simpsons and doesn't realize that is based on this song from the Broadway musical The Music Man.

- Feeling Pinkie Keen and Over A Barrel were both written by Dave Polsky, who's very limited credits include writing for a couple episodes of South Park. Polsky is absent in S2, but is expected to make a return to writing for FiM for S3.

- The S2 episodes that are similar to those S1 Polsky episodes (Mysterious Mare-Do-Well, Hearth's Warming Eve, Putting Your Hoof Down, and Dragon Quest) were written by Merriwether Williams, who not only wrote a good number of great Spongebob episodes**, but also supervised scriptwriting for a couple seasons.

*Wendigo - a mythological creature from North America; a fearsome beast transformed from a human that has practiced cannibalism.
**Band Geeks, Karate Choppers, Rock Bottom, and Survival of the Idiots first come to mind, but there's many more.