OK, so i am now 21, but My Little Pony has just been released on DVD in New Zealand, and as it was my favourite cartoon from when i was a kid, i had to get it on DVD to relive the adventures of the ponies and their friends. But my adult mind sees several things wrong with this animated series.
So, the good and bad parts about this animated series: The ponies themselves are too cool. North Star, Whizzer, Paradise, Magic Star, Gingerbread, Masquerade and Ribbon were my favourite, but nearly all of them were good. They all had varying degrees of characteristics, some of the ponies were well developed, for example, Wind Whistler was always incredibly wise and remained calm at all times, a sort of leader for the group. Gusty was brash, brave and impatient. Fizzy was fun, excitable and a friend to everyone, while Hearthtrob was a true romantic. However, some ponies, while cool, were not that well developed in terms of depth. North Star mainly stood around looking posh. Whizzer unfortunately never got any main stories, except for being faster than everyone else - in flight and speech. Cupcake, well, Cupcake just got to bake.
One thing that was a let down was the amount of guest-characters that were "needed" to drive the story, which in my opinion just got in the way. Like the Grundles and Moochick who were just annoying, and one-off characters that the ponies meet on their adventures, like Puck. The human characters Meggan, Danny and Molly were pretty cool though, as was Spike the Dragon and the Bushwoolies. Various other ponies took up time too - like the decent Flutter ponies, the boring baby-ponies, the pointless Sea-ponies, the Big Brother ponies and the one-off Princess Ponies. I think more time should have been spent on the development of the ponies and less on the various guest stars. The villains though were fairly decent, like Grogar and Somnambula.
The animation was fairly poor. Plenty of mistakes occurred in terms of characters speaking but no open mouths, or the words coming from the wrong character. Also, the wrong ponies being shown at various moments plagued the series, for example if four ponies went on a mission, at one point a different pony would have been drawn in place of one of the correct ones. But there were plenty of bright colours and illustrative settings.
Continuity was terrible, in "Return of Tambelon" especially, the group of ponies who were not captured changed from episode to episode, a tragedy for what i believe the best episodes from this series.
The voices were great, particularly famous voice-actor Susan Blu as Paradise, Catherine Cavadini as North Star, Sarah Partrdige as Wind Whistler and Ellen Gerstell as Magic Star, Whizzer and Masquarade... at least i think she did all three, no where can i find a complete list of which ponies were voiced by who. Of course it is a well known fact that the famous Nancy Cartwright (Bart from "The Simpsons") played Gusty.
Some of the best episodes were those that allowed for more story, like the 10 part "End of Flutter Valley", 4 part "Return of Tambelon", 4 part "Magic Coins" and 4 part "Ghost of Paradise Estate". These longer stories allowed more screen time for various ponies, and were more fun to watch as opposed to singular or 2 part episodes. It would have been heaps better to have longer stories, but the show was shared with another 10 minute cartoon ("Glo Friends", "Moondreamers" or "Potato Head Kids").
Overall, this animated series is a fun watch, it has a great cast, fun characters, exciting settings and plenty of good stories with fun songs and has good morals, but is plagued with inconsistencies, errors, and goofs. A new series would be cool, but with the same actors and ponies, only having longer stories with more development in the characters. But then again, this series was aimed at kids, so maybe now i expect too much! 7.5 out of 10
So, the good and bad parts about this animated series: The ponies themselves are too cool. North Star, Whizzer, Paradise, Magic Star, Gingerbread, Masquerade and Ribbon were my favourite, but nearly all of them were good. They all had varying degrees of characteristics, some of the ponies were well developed, for example, Wind Whistler was always incredibly wise and remained calm at all times, a sort of leader for the group. Gusty was brash, brave and impatient. Fizzy was fun, excitable and a friend to everyone, while Hearthtrob was a true romantic. However, some ponies, while cool, were not that well developed in terms of depth. North Star mainly stood around looking posh. Whizzer unfortunately never got any main stories, except for being faster than everyone else - in flight and speech. Cupcake, well, Cupcake just got to bake.
One thing that was a let down was the amount of guest-characters that were "needed" to drive the story, which in my opinion just got in the way. Like the Grundles and Moochick who were just annoying, and one-off characters that the ponies meet on their adventures, like Puck. The human characters Meggan, Danny and Molly were pretty cool though, as was Spike the Dragon and the Bushwoolies. Various other ponies took up time too - like the decent Flutter ponies, the boring baby-ponies, the pointless Sea-ponies, the Big Brother ponies and the one-off Princess Ponies. I think more time should have been spent on the development of the ponies and less on the various guest stars. The villains though were fairly decent, like Grogar and Somnambula.
The animation was fairly poor. Plenty of mistakes occurred in terms of characters speaking but no open mouths, or the words coming from the wrong character. Also, the wrong ponies being shown at various moments plagued the series, for example if four ponies went on a mission, at one point a different pony would have been drawn in place of one of the correct ones. But there were plenty of bright colours and illustrative settings.
Continuity was terrible, in "Return of Tambelon" especially, the group of ponies who were not captured changed from episode to episode, a tragedy for what i believe the best episodes from this series.
The voices were great, particularly famous voice-actor Susan Blu as Paradise, Catherine Cavadini as North Star, Sarah Partrdige as Wind Whistler and Ellen Gerstell as Magic Star, Whizzer and Masquarade... at least i think she did all three, no where can i find a complete list of which ponies were voiced by who. Of course it is a well known fact that the famous Nancy Cartwright (Bart from "The Simpsons") played Gusty.
Some of the best episodes were those that allowed for more story, like the 10 part "End of Flutter Valley", 4 part "Return of Tambelon", 4 part "Magic Coins" and 4 part "Ghost of Paradise Estate". These longer stories allowed more screen time for various ponies, and were more fun to watch as opposed to singular or 2 part episodes. It would have been heaps better to have longer stories, but the show was shared with another 10 minute cartoon ("Glo Friends", "Moondreamers" or "Potato Head Kids").
Overall, this animated series is a fun watch, it has a great cast, fun characters, exciting settings and plenty of good stories with fun songs and has good morals, but is plagued with inconsistencies, errors, and goofs. A new series would be cool, but with the same actors and ponies, only having longer stories with more development in the characters. But then again, this series was aimed at kids, so maybe now i expect too much! 7.5 out of 10