I opine, re. Pony Life and also other cartoons for children · 4:02pm Jun 22nd, 2020
The first two Pony Life episodes are out in the wild, and I have witnessed them. It is a complete bastardisation of everything I have ever held dear and now I am going to stab myself in the heart in a fit of spurned rage while vomiting uncontrollably.
That's a joke. Not a hugely funny one, but funnier than most anything Pony Life cracked...
Nonetheless, I laughed while watching. Some of the visual humour amused me in a warped way (pic attached related), but mostly I suppose it was incredulous laughter at its stupidity more than anything. It's early days yet so it might shape up, but while MLP:PL isn't nearly as uncomfortable to watch as G3.5 Newborn Cuties1, the gravity of which it understandably wished to escape, it's no Unikitty either despite plainly aspiring to that. (I love Unikitty, btw -- It's cracked out insanity played out by a bunch of toddlers who are also Legos and it's hilarious to me)
Regarding the content, I haven't that much to say about the plots because there's not an awful lot there that the synopses don't cover. Spoiler tags over general observations anyway, just in case: Scootaloo is cast aside forever, her adoration of Rainbow Dash now supplemented with that of a chubby blue child's. Ponyville appears to be a coastal town now, presumably to allow the animators to imitate the Teen Titans tower whenever they draw Sugarcube Corner. Potions are a dumb contrivance, surprising nobody, and no, Zecora is nowhere to be seen: I guess Pinkie Pie is a pusher now. They don't say "everypony" anymore and that's the single worst thing they could possibly have omitted. Applejack appears to be the fourth-wall breaking character now rather than Pinkie Pie? Weird flex but alright then! Honestly the most enjoyable thing about it so far is the theme song. It's just a sugar-high toy commercial jingle but it hits just right and SWEET! MAGIC! FAST! POSH! CUTE! FUN! PONY LIFE!!!! It's mindless but I can dig it
More seriously, and more generally relating PL to FiM: Friendship is Magic works for me precisely because it is very absurd, but also takes some breathing space to take itself seriously once in a while. It's a balance thing and Pony Life's pacing is entirely incompatible with that -- besides everything being geared towards minute attention spans it definitely has none of the wider scope of FiM's Equestria, which from the first episode felt like a window into a living, breathing, magical realm of cute talking horses. I don't need to explain on Fimfiction of all places why that's appealing, surely?
To paraphrase Scott McCloud in "Making Comics"2: if FiM inhabits an environment, PL figuratively places a backdrop behind the characters, which in a more literal sense seeks to emulate the squiggly style of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends'3 style. It's fairly cheap in look and effect, but I guess it fits the tone they're going for, for better or worse. Nevertheless, it's enough to bring home the point that this isn't trying to be a continuation of the show I fell in love with and is more a stopgap until G5 that also gets the FiM voice actors another paycheck, and in a way I kind of appreciate that... but it won't tickle the imagination the way FiM did, not even close. That said, I still like the idea that the whole thing is Discord's snowglobe pocket reality where he reconstructs the adventures of his old pony friends, thousands of years after they've all passed on!4
I'm not entirely against MLP:PL's existence, it's good stupid as hell but it's inoffensive, at least so far. If I want a cheap laugh and also to hear the ponies say new stuff I'll catch up with it whenever, or maybe not, who cares, my care is wrapped up in the S10 comics. My recommendation is to give Unikitty a shot instead if you haven't -- it's kinda like Pony Life but its jokes land a lot better. Besides, Tara Strong voices the title character anyway and constantly sounds like Twilight Sparkle on the verge of a panic attack. Now that's what I call !!!hecka funny!!!
1. That's a low bar alright, no kidding the MLP franchise needed a revamp bad after that. Faust delivered
2. I'm a comics nerd, deal with it
3. A show I do not like, btw: I'm so over "the characters are dicks to each other constantly because that's funny!" you wouldn't believe it and that show is mired in that, I don't care if it was Lauren Faust's big thing before MLP:FiM. Also oh my god I hate "Cheese"; for all the wigging out about Derpy Hooves' named appearance in S2 back in the day, Cheese was WAY more insulting to special needs kids than the cross-eyed pony who demolished a building with her butt
4. I realise that's morbid, but no more than "Twilight will outlive her friends", so whatever!
