Friday, June 17, 2016

Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony (2012)

Director: Laurent Malaquais

Writer: Nat Segaloff

Composer: David O

Starring: John de Lancie, Tara Strong

More info: IMDb


Plot:  Profiling the cross-demographic fanaticism for the ostensibly girl-orientated television series, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010).



My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Fans of MLP are going to LOVE this.  The word around the campfire is that John de Lancie (who voices the bad guy, er pony, on the show MY LITTLE PONY) wanted to make this film in response to all of the negativity lobbed around at males who enjoy the show to the point of fandom.  He wanted to show them in a positive light so that nay-sayers would hopefully shut the fuck up.  If a dude wants to play with his ponies then let 'im.  I work comiccons (about ten a year I guess) so I'm used to seeing cosplayers of all sorts.  A couple of years ago I got shit from some young males (mid-teens) for what I had to offer in My Little Pony stuff.  They wanted the Friendship Is Magic (newer MLP) and all I had was old school stuff from the 80s. They walked away in a huff of disgust.  Well excuse fuckin' me I thought.  That's when I looked into this MLP: FIM (that's generation 4 for you laypeople) and realized where I went wrong.  I still thought they were twats for the way they behaved.  But they're kids and I let it go.  Cut to last year when this doc was on Netflix (it's not anymore).  I fired it up and had a good time with it.  Having John de Lancie walk you through the whole experience helps.  It's funny, interesting and sometimes touching.  That's right.  I said it was touching.  While this is specifically about guy fans of a show that's perceived as a show strictly for girls, you can substitute any show or thing that people are into that the mainstream population disagrees with.  It's about outsiders finding acceptance.  de Lancie LOVES his fans and that alone is a big reason to love this guy.  He's fantastic with them and it's inspiring.  All celebrities that do these shows should be as gracious.  

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