In 2010, a bunch of the internet’s time was spent sneering at the grown men who owned their enjoyment of a show aimed at little girls – My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I never saw it, not until my daughter was old enough to take an interest. Only then did I realise how misguided the internet’s collective disdain had been. The show is pure and joyful. It’s selling toys, yes. That doesn’t seem to ruin anyone’s enjoyment when it’s Star Wars or Avengers: Infinity War.
In 2017, they did a film version and it got middling reviews. The Guardian could barely muster the energy to notice the film, with Mike McCahill dropping tepid lines like this:
voiced by Emily Blunt, who must have really loved these toys as a child to have wound up in this vicinity.
He managed to spend three paragraphs on the film without really saying anything about it. Simran Hans, for the Observer, at least responded to the film in a meaningful way, though only through gritted teeth in a review that barely reached a paragraph:
At the chewy, candy core of this assaulting, shrill, Skittles-hued headache is a well-meaning treatise on solidarity and female friendship.
This is a peculiar failure of film criticism; it can take the MCU seriously but it can’t bring itself to engage with this as anything other than a sickly-sweet corporate product. Why? Are there more executives at Hasbro than at Disney?
There’s a character in the film, Tempest Shadow, who was injured as a child. She’s cast out, ostracised for her disability. She learns to hate the cruel and indifferent world, and does evil to obtain the power to heal herself.
By the end of the film she realises she’s being used and flips. With her help, the good guys win the day and hold the staff of ultimate power. But they don’t heal her, even though it would be trivial with the power they hold. She doesn’t even ask them to. She has realised that she doesn’t need to be fixed. She has realised that she is enough.
I think about that more than I think about anything that happened in Infinity War or Endgame.
This comment is typed just after the first paragraph, just so you know, so if I do comment on the rest (which I might or might not, haven’t read yet) it’ll be in a separate one or maybe sent direct (I wonder if you’ve got a feedback form or something for those who don’t want to leave comments publically, my commenting style can get quite long.
But I think you’re referring to the disdain shown to the “Bronies” or guys who like My Little Pony.
I think I agree that the disdain is unfair but also feels like a product of toxic masculinity and stereotypical gender (and age) norms of the time… which may still exist today, no kidding, but nevermind.
I haven’t watched a whole lot of the My Little Pony Friendship is Magic or much of the rebooted or different versions but I have watched some and they’re quite fun and good shows as they are. I think it’s not just the brony crowd vs. “you’re watching that?” though, I’m sure some older generations that may remember or have products from the earlier / original My Little Pony (I think a cartoon maybe in the 80s? Cannot recall, but there was merch there as well I think, most definitely) and not like the new style of things but I think the updated version has better story, development, and style for the current time. The earlier or classic version was not bad but certainly they were different ponies and I think it was the other way around — the cartoon came to market the merch and so was maybe written and drawn after the pony dolls were designed and manufactured.
As for the rest… I think you said it better so I have nothing additional to add. Good post.
I think I overstated my case, in hindsight. It’s not that the film was anything so profound. It didn’t really grow from the show very well – sort of a case of having to invent problems to spilt the group and then reunite them. But the heart was good. So I was curious to see if reviewers had thought of it more as a stand-alone film or more as an outgrowth of the show. But instead it was just this air of disdain. This was still a film that people worked on, poured love and energy into. It deserved to get a proper review, even if the score would be average.
I think that’s fair. Even without watching the show in full or with intent to give it rating. Also, I apologize to the blogwriter. I think my usual email (the one that you know) is full, part of a problem long existing only because people here seem to expect me to be flickr/500px hosting and do not realize that not only has GPhotos storage limitations changed but it’s unfair to expect me to continue to host photos that I already only intended to transfer to proper respective inboxes and then move off my account to begin with. This email should work, (it won’t be published in the comment, right? I think that’s what the form says so it shouldn’t) if you need me. But in March I think I need to settle the problems of the first one, so don’t mail that.
Any emails to there will probably bounce like a rubber ball.
Oh, one more thought to add: I didn’t watch the movie but the soundtrack is pretty fun and great so for a while that was definitely playing on my Spotify and/or youtube while I went about my day doing stuff.