Here we go.

The very first episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which came out exactly one decade ago.

Well, not exactly a decade ago, since the first part of the episode aired on October 10, 2010 and the second part aired 12 days later.

GEEZ! Can you imagine how the kids at that time felt when waiting for the second part to come out? Their frustration levels must've beeen over 9000!

Well, anyway, since the second part came out ten years ago today, I'm reviewing both parts as one episode. So, let's talk about whether or not it actually holds up since its release all those years ago.

First of all, I think its rather creative that the show named its pilot episode after the latter half of its title instead of just naming it, "Pilot", like so many other shows do. Also, it makes sense that the episode was written by the creator of the show itself:

LAUREN J. FAUST

She is definitely one of the biggest names in animation history. In fact, she was famous even before her work on My Little Pony. In the 90s, she worked as an animator in three popular Warner Bros. animation films:

* Cats Don't Dance
* Quest for Camelot
* The Iron Giant

Then, in the early 2000s, she helped her husband Craig McCarken develop both The Powerful Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends; two widely successful Cartoon Network shows that are still beloved to this day. It wasn't long before she created shows by herself: Super Best Friends Forever, DC Super Hero Girls, and of course, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Having grown up watching the Generation 1 cartoon and worked on several successful animated projects beforehand, she was obviously a pretty good choice to helm Hasbro's latest reboot of the popular animated series aimed to sell toys to young girls. Was her attempt at laying the groundwork for the show a success. Let's find out.

The episode begins with a young unicorn named Twilight Sparkle (voiced by the veteran VA Tara Strong) reading about the legend of the two royal sisters who maintained balance in the land of Equestria by raising the sun and the moon respectively each day. She then discovers a prophecy that says the younger sister, who was banished to the moon for trying to cover the land in eternal darkness due to her jealousy of her older sibling, will return on the 1000 year anniversary of her banishment. Turns out that day is the very next day and so, Twilight tries to warn her mentor and the older sister in the story, Princess Celestia (voiced by Nicole Oliver). To Twilight's dismay, Celestia dismisses her warning and instead, sends both her and her dragon assistant Spike (voiced by Cathy Weseluck) to help out with a celebration in the small town of Ponyville and requests that she makes some friends while there. Twilight, being the introverted bookworm that she is, doesn't hold friendship in high regard and decides to check up on the celebration as quickly as possible and spend the rest of her time doing more research on the legendary evil princess. But, she still makes the acquaintance of five ponies with very distinct personalities who are in charge of preparing the festival:

A headstrong and hardworking farm pony named, Applejack (voiced by Ashleigh Ball), atomboyish athlete and thrill-seeker named, Rainbow Dash (also voiced by Ball), a ladylike fashionista named, Rarity (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain), a timid nature enthusiast named, Fluttershy (voiced by Andrea Libman), and last, but certainly not least, a hyberactive party planner named, Pinkie Pie (also voiced by Libman)

Even though Twilight initially gets annoyed by each and every one of them, it's not long before the prophecy is fullfilled and the party is crashed by the evil princess known as, Nightmare Moon (also voiced by Germain). After making a pretty damn impressive entrance, she reveals her evil plan is...

You guessed it. TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

This forces Twilight and her aforementioned companions to go on a journey through the dark and mysterious Everfree Forest to retrieve the Elements of Harmony, six magical artifacts that Celestia used to banish her corrupted sister all those centuries ago. Along the way, they face several challenges, meet some interesting creatures, and it all leads to one final confrontation with Nightmare Moon inside her old castle.

If you haven't noticed yet, this story contains a whole lot of familiar elements (no pun intended). I mean, it includes numerous cliches and tropes that we have seen in dozens of fantasy adventure stories:

* A dark and mysterious entity returns from an eons-long absence to wreak havoc
* It can only be defeated by using or destroying a certain magical object
* The chosen one embarks on a quest to find the said magical object along with a few friends
* They encounter several monsters and side characters along the way
* Their strength and bonds are continuously tested
* The final battle with the villain is in a creepy or partially destroyed castle

Now, does this make the episode bad? No, not at all, actually. It's perfectly fine to repeat a common trope or cliche, but you have to either repeat it in a unique way or put a new twist on it. The best examples of this are Disney's animated classics and Marvel Cinematic Universe films. They also repeated a lot of fantasy story tropes and adapted pre-existing stories, but they also put new and clever twists on them so that audiences wouldn't get bored. As a result, they made a ton of money in the box office and they have millions of fans around the world.

So, does Friendship is Magic do something similar with its tropes? Well, I wouldn't exactly call the twists clever, but they're certainly funny and rather sweet, especially during the parts focused on Fluttershy and Rarity. Even though both of them feature a giant monster that's normally portrayed as a dangerous threat, the ponies use unique methods to deal with them. This certainly got a chuckle out of me and even warmed my heart a bit.

As for the other characters, while they're not as interesting as they would be in the later seasons, they're still pretty likable. Aside from Rarity and Fluttershy, the main standouts are Twilight and Nightmare Moon. I identify with the former a lot, because I was also an introverted bookworm as a kid. So, watching her development on this journey did remind me of the struggles that I went through when trying to make friends. Also, her voice actor is the most recognizable one out of the entire cast and it does make sense that Tara Strong would lend her voice to another project developed by Lauren Faust. As many of us know, one of her most iconic roles of all time is Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls.

Nightmare Moon, meanwhile, is a pretty underrated villain, in my opinion. Although her motivation isn't very strong, it is something we can all identify with in some way: attention. In fact, she is a lot like the MCU version of Loki; a powerful individual who was never truly appreciated for her talents and got tired from being compared to her older sibling. In a way, she is a lot more sympathetic than most of the villains that we have seen in the show. Plus, her design is awesome, her powers look pretty cool, and Tabitha St. Germain does a great job providing her voice.

The only major problem I can find with the episode is its technical aspects. The animation, while not bad at all, does feature a couple of errors here and there. Yes, I know one of those errors led to the creation of one of the show's most popular characters, but they do get a little annoying after being repeated several times. Also, I hate to say this, but the Laughter song has not aged very well. It does have nostalgic value for being the very first song of the show and Pinkie Pie's singing voice Shannon Chan-Kent is a really good singer, but aside from those aspects, it's still cringey to listen to. Thankfully, both the animation and the songs got much better later in the series.

So, does the series premiere of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic hold up after all?

Yes. Yes, it does.

Is it a perfect introduction to the show and its characters?

Well, not exactly, but it's still an enjoyable experience overall. Even though it features a lot of cliches that we have seen a million times, Lauren Faust has put pretty funny and heartwarming twists on them, and this trend would indeed continue in the later episodes. The characters are all likable and the villain, while not very complex, does have an understandable motivation and a really great design. I know a lot of people complain that her reformation was rushed and while I do agree with that to a degree, I do find her acceptance by her sister and subjects really sweet. With that said, I wholeheartedly agree that we should have gotten more episodes about her reformed self during the first season. The one we got in the second second season was pretty good, but we'll talk about that later.

As for this episode, the negative aspects were its animation errors and the song featured in it. You could also argue that both the plot and the characters could have been more fleshed out, but as a cartoon intended to sell toys, they're perfectly fine. Besides, we now have a fanfiction website where everyone can rewrite the story in a different way without having to worry about the restrictions imposed by Hasbro and wouldn't you know it, dozens of people already has. These stories are all set in different universes, feature different sets of characters, and include major changes to the original story. There is Lunaverse, Cadanceverse, Sunsetverse, Shimmerverse...

Hell, there is even a SONATAVERSE story and although it doesn't have multiple sequels like the others, it's actually really great! I hightly recommend that you check it out when you have the time.

So, anyway, I give the episode an 8 out of 10. It may have some flaws, but it sure is an impressive start to a franchise that was about to explode.

7362801
Nice review.

7362876
Thanks. More will arrive in the coming weeks.

7362899
Good to know. To bad mine aren't getting any reviews since I made this group.

7362926
Don't give up hope just yet.

7362938
I'm holding on, I just don't know for how long.

7362980
As long as you can.

Like a lot of pilots for TV shows, this pilot was written by Lauren Faust and aside from being a co-writer on “The Ticket Master,” she hasn’t proceeded to write any further episodes since, also like very many creators of TV shows. Given how bad the Powerpuff Girls episode “Equal Fights” was received from feminists, I was skeptical when approaching this episode. Did this episode succeed in drawing people in? I’m pretty sure the bronies would tell you so, but for me, this pilot episode has several problems.

First and foremost, the episode starts off with this exposition dump about how Princess Luna became jealous of Princess Celestia, and her jealousy consumed her, turning her into Nightmare Moon. Because of this, Celestia had no other choice but to banish her sister to the moon for a thousand years. Unfortunately, the exposition doesn’t stop there. Whatever story the writer seemed to be trying to tell here just seemed to put on hold so that the characters could spout more exposition. Here’s the problem with that: prelude and exposition are not story.

While it may seem as if I’ve been nitpicking so far, I really can’t do anything else. The story elements of this pilot are so insignificant and so disjointed that any comment you make about them is going to seem like nitpicking. I say this because there’s no story here; it’s just exposition. In fact, if you think about it, this whole pilot was entirely exposition. It’s like:

"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon."

"There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said, the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters."

"The book said: when the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed."

I mean, it just goes on and on like this right to the end. I don’t understand why they decided to cram all of this exposition into two episodes. This would have been a lot better had the writer made this a season-long story arc. Each character could have their own episode, discovering the Element of Harmony that they represent along the way, and then for the finale, they could all come together to take down Nightmare Moon. Hmm, come to think of it, that would probably make for a good fanfic.

Another problem with the pilot is that a lot of things just felt contrived, from the Summer Sun Celebration being held in Ponyville to all of the future bearers of the Elements of Harmony being in Ponyville and Twilight meeting all of them within one day. I can buy all of them knowing each other seeing as how they all live in Ponyville, but what are the chances that they would all become best friends and learn that they all represent an Element of Harmony? That’s a lot to buy, especially for a pilot.