2012 documentary
Rating: 12/20 (Emma: 17/20; Abbey: dnf; Jennifer: dnf)
Plot: I was going to type something here, but it’s pretty much in the subtitle. This looks at several of the titular My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fans as they go to conventions with like-minded fans.
I took a break from Mario Bava Fest because my daughter wanted to watch this. Movies like Trekkies or those documentaries looking at obsessive Star Wars fans (or fans of role-playing games, or Tolkien, or whatever else a lot of people would consider geekdom) kind of set you up to think that this might poke fun at the unexpected adult fans of My Little Pony, but this is almost all positive and even has a few stories that you could describe as heartwarming. The tale of a young man with Asperger’s trying to make his way to a convention where he comes out of his shell was moving even if it did seem a little artificial, and I liked the scenes with a teenage Brony and his ultra-conservative dad who can’t figure any of this out. For all the interesting characters, you had to put up with boring subplots about 20-something Bronies (well, a Brony and a Pegasister or whatever the female equivalent is called) in love, a guy who makes techno music inspired by the show, and a kid making laser shows together. And voice actor John de Lancie who really got the ball rolling on this after discovering what kind of impact this show he voiced a villain for had on people. There seemed to be a lot of scenes in this with Bronies adoring de Lancie. And after a while, this just started to feel like a 90-minute advertisement created to justify the existence of Bronies and their conventions. And that kind of sickened me more than the good stuff warmed my heart. Some animated sequences explained the history of the various My Little Ponies incarnations if anybody actually cares about any of that. And if you need an explanation of how this show is a positive influence on its fans, that’s all spelled out for you, too. I understood this movement a lot better after watching this movie, so the documentary succeeds there. However, it’s not as entertaining as documentaries about other obsessive fans and does feel a little too much like propaganda after a while.
