What did you like about the MLP and Friends series?

[StarDragon]

Haha... when I was a kid,  I never thought it was cheesy. Maybe because I was really young, but I think in general kid's shows are a bit cheesy until you get to the pre-teens where it is less so, and etc.

Al-1701, I'd love to hear your opinions, that would be interesting. ^^ It was one of my fav episodes, so I am curious! I loved Return of Tambelon, too- especially the "where have the unicorns gone" song!

[LadyMoondancer]

I don't really remember any of the "Friends" segments from childhood, though I'm sure I watched some of them.

From seeing them as an adult, I don't like the Potato Head Kids and don't really care for the Glo Friends either.  I do like the Moondreamers, especially the episode about the Night Mare.

I really wish they'd swapped out Potato Head Kids for the Fairy Tail birds, who never got an animated anything as far as I know.

[Al-1701]

Al-1701, I'd love to hear your opinions, that would be interesting. ^^ It was one of my fav episodes, so I am curious! I loved Return of Tambelon, too- especially the "where have the unicorns gone" song!

Much of it is complaining about the slipshod production (even by 80's standards), how everyone was so stupid so Shady could be the hero, and how badly Porcena's heel face turn was handled.

[Elisto]

Al-1701, I was curious what your thoughts were too. I used to really like that story (probably because it was one of the only MLP tapes at our local video rental, but I have to admit, I was disappointed when I saw it again as an adult, for all the reasons you mentioned.

[hathorcat]

It was about ponies...so as a kid this was always a win for me and honestly that was pretty much all I needed. I sat through it, bouncing up and down with excitement and then ran off to re-enact the story with whatever ponies I would have to hand! As a kid I didnt have much opinion on it other than to love it and as an adult I am the same...I guess I am rather easily entertained!

[LadyMoondancer]

I liked the "ponies turned to glass" thing, that was genuinely creepy.  But all that fuss over making a new, fake cloak . . . Couldn't they have just . . . taken the old cloak?  And left nothing in it's place?  And been like, "Hey, do what we say or else!"?

I don't feel like its animation was that different from the other episodes, though.  I mean, Princess Primrose went through half of "Quest of the Princess Ponies" with a blue mane (correct) and a bright red tail (WTF?).

[Bag of Magic Food]

I really wish they'd swapped out Potato Head Kids for the Fairy Tail birds, who never got an animated anything as far as I know.

Maybe if there had been a third season...

[Al-1701]

I liked the "ponies turned to glass" thing, that was genuinely creepy.  But all that fuss over making a new, fake cloak . . . Couldn't they have just . . . taken the old cloak?  And left nothing in it's place?  And been like, "Hey, do what we say or else!"?

And let's not forget the Chekhov's misfire with Gusty's swine allergy.

Part 2:  Porcena is groping Gusty's mane and Gusty barely gives a sniffle.
Part 3:  Porcena can't get within arm's length of Gusty without Gusty sneezing her brains out.

Not to mention this was all so they could have another problem when they try to steal the cloak.

[scarletjul]

I don't recall much of MLP n'Friends as a child, though I can't imagine I didn't watch at least a handful of episodes - and the Potato Head Kids always seemed oddly familiar (I wonder if it ran against one of my favorite shows; I was always a loyal Saturday morning cartoon viewer.)  So, I can only give my adult feedback. 

Anyhow. . .

There are things about this show I genuinely do like.  Yes, it's cheesy.  It's the 80's; all of our cartoons were pretty cheesy (and a lot of the primetime stuff was, too.)  I think that show handles characterization pretty well, at least for the main characters.  I love that Truly gets to be the bossy Southern belle, that Gusty is always kind of grumpy and that Wind Whistler is smart but still popular.  I enjoy Shady's (and Sundance's) worrisome nature because some people (and ponies) are just that anxious.  I wish the boys had shown up in a few more episodes because I would have liked to see their characters explored as well.

I like the adventure storylines and "The Magic Coins" is a favorite episode of mine, as well.  I think the Moochik is fairly useless after Firefly's Adventure - he helps them a couple of more times, but they might as well of had a library and had Paradise research all the answers, since she's the resident historian.  Just saying.

The songs were usually fine.  I don't mind Megan in the specials and the movie, though I could do with less of her in the series.  There are a whole lot of animation errors but I don't think they take away from the storytelling elements in the better stories.  And I like Spike. 

[EStRanger]

Wow, the things you can find on the Internet. My opinion of Megan can be summed up by this remark I submitted to My Little Pony Monthly in November 1997 (I can't believe these archives are still online!):

I stopped liking Megan about the time she started wearing that blue and pink overalls outfit. She was great in "Firefly's Adventure" & "Escape From Catrina"-- but in "MLP: the Movie" and everything else she appeared in thereafter, her character acts too grown up and know-it-all!

I love how Megan was this sweet but scared girl who grew into her confidence, back when she was still wearing her much more appealing cowgirl gear. I still joke that hideous blue-and-pink outfit had a magic curse on it that turned her into an insufferable goody-goody know-it-all. I loved episodes of MLP & Friends where she never showed up.

MLP & Friends appealed to me because it was an adventure show, especially since most other girls' cartoons acted like girls couldn't handle adventure stories. I love MLP and Wildfire (hmm, two shows about magical talking equines....) for kicking that mess to the curb. I've never been into slice-of-life stuff...I *love* FiM for its smart wrting, but the non-adventure episodes aren't very memorable for me. I mean, I have to deal with crap like friend-drama in real life. I watch TV to get *away* from that stuff, so it makes sense I would be more into a show that favours the fantastical over the realish, and FiM is a bit too focused on real-world troubles like the aforementioned friend-drama.

For me, it's Rescue at Midnight Castle/Firefly's Adventure all the way! I recently got my boyfriend to watch Rescue, along with Escape from Catrina, to show him what ponies were like pre-FiM. He was very pleased at how mature some of themes of Rescue were, compared to the FiM series.

Then I made him watch the first part of "Bright Lights" to show him how awful the quality of the TV series could be--as well as to laugh at the unsubtly Prince/Michael Jackson pony. (I love MLP & Friends, but I will never deceive myself into thinking that it was quality television, haha!) He understandably did not want to watch the other parts. I watched the rest of the episode and a few others just to see how badly they aged for me, and while I had a lot of nostalgic entertainment value, yeah, many episodes of MLP & Friends did not age well. "Bright Lights" is definitely one of those.

Post Merge: July 08, 2012, 02:43:15 PM

[ember86]

I actually like "Bight Lights" because it's one of the few episodes that showed the mother and baby ponies together  plus I love the Flutter ponies song.

[Faerie-StarV]

MLP & Friends appealed to me because it was an adventure show, especially since most other girls' cartoons acted like girls couldn't handle adventure stories. I love MLP and Wildfire (hmm, two shows about magical talking equines....) for kicking that mess to the curb. I've never been into slice-of-life stuff...I *love* FiM for its smart wrting, but the non-adventure episodes aren't very memorable for me. I mean, I have to deal with crap like friend-drama in real life. I watch TV to get *away* from that stuff, so it makes sense I would be more into a show that favours the fantastical over the realish, and FiM is a bit too focused on real-world troubles like the aforementioned friend-drama.

Post Merge: July 08, 2012, 02:43:15 PM

THIS!  That's one of the things that I liked about MLP and Friends more than FIM is because of adventures. I too liked FIM but I was disappointed that the mane six rarely go out in adventures and just focuses too much on real life issues and slice-of-life junk that we already deal with in real life. I can understand season one FIM because Twilight Sparkle is learning on how to be a good friend since she doesn't go out much nor socialize so I let that slide but I was disappointed in season two since it barely have any adventures and just focuses on more slice of life stuff, repeating the lessons, and more character development on other mane six(why couldn't they do that on season one? Didn't they already done that?) and that's just getting old fast. Like you, I too like to get away from real life and friend drama myself but do we really need a cartoon show that focuses on real life issues that we wanted to get away from in the first place?

An example of an episode called 'It's about Time'. We get to see Cerberus, a three headed dog that is in charged of guarding the gates of underworld and he left the post for whatever reason(we never know why he left). Twilight Sparkle leads him back there but we never get to see it nor it's supposed to be the 'disaster of the future' that her future self warned her about. I was hoping that would be it and that the spirits got loose and attacked Equastria or even possessed the ponies or something cool like that but nope, it's just about Twilight Sparkle being overly worried over nothing. :\ If I could recall, Lauren Faust did try to convince Hasbro to make FIM more adventure themed like in G1 series did but Hasbro wouldn't allow it for whatever reason.

I just hope that season 3 will be adventure themed since now that season 2 already did more character development on the mane six, that is if Hasbro decided to make it adventure themed like Faust suggested before she left the production.

[Aienhime]

Oh I loved it as a kid Nowadays I have a bit more trouble enjoying it because the animation errors are soooo obvious But I still love it, even if only for the great memories

What I liked most were the adventures the ponies were having. I mean, they actually had to face danger! needless to say the episodes which were more slice of life, like the ep with the treasure hunt and the ep with the huge puppy, I didn't like so much. I loved the return of Tambelon, though, and of course the movie

I also loved the variety of characters and species in Dream Valley The Bushwoolies were absolutely fun, and so were the Grundles Oh and mr. Moochick, lol, he was so weird Yea, there was a lot of variety in the show, which I really enjoyed

Oh, and the songs, I loved the songs Yea so they were incredibly cheesy and I do think a bit off key at times But they were fun and I loved their messages.

My favourite episode was the Bright Lights episode and the Return of Tambelon. Oddly enough as a child I never cared much for Midnight Castle, but I love it now

[Mermaid]

MLP and Friends was my all time FAVORITE!

My favorite episodes were often the multi-part episodes. Magic Coins, Tambelon, Sonnambula! UGH love!

I loved that there were so many characters and that they all got to partake in adventure from time to time.

[Margos]

I don't really have nostalgia for the show, since I watched it... oh, maybe a year ago?  But I LOVE it.  It's cheesy and 80s-tastic, but a lot less... "girly" than I expected.  Seriously, I wasn't expecting them to be fighting eldritch abominations on par with NMM/Discord/Chrysalis (I watched FiM waay before Friends, and was shocked to learn that Friends had waaaay more fight scenes and (if you'll pardon my French, I'm just not sure how else to put this) complete and utter badassery.

I mean, look at Megan (I'll admit, I'm in the pro-Megan camp).  She sings a whole song about how she's afraid to be the "chosen hero" of Ponyland or whatever.  LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES LATER she attempts to PUNCH A DRAGON in the FACE.  I'm sorry, this girl is like, the Chuck Norris of little girl cartoon protagonists.  She pretty much spends the rest of the series as that one really competent D&D player (since the whole show runs like a D&D game) who is a clever person playing a Barbarian and figures out how to solve the puzzles without being too meta-game-y.

I also loved the ponies.  Wind Whistler is my favorite, just because she's so Spock and I love that!  My boyfriend and I declared her the Aspie pony (of G1 at least) and she was his favorite until he discovered Toola Roola.  But really, I love them all (even some of the ones who were jerks a lot of the time... why, yes, Truly, I am looking at you).  Some of them really surprised me.  Like Gingerbread.  She's like, the happy optimist who acts even more like G4 Pinkie Pie than Surprise ever did...  But she's also extremely agile and managed to acrobatics her way out of sooo many deathtraps.  Hidden talents, indeed.

Also, the fact that they got better at fighting over time.  I mean, did you SEE the way they utterly DESTROYED those Crabnasties (....ummm... even though they were the good guys, LOL)!?  Really, that show was pretty awesome.  In fact, my boyfriend and I think that if a fellow brony ever insults previous gens around us, we will promptly show them the Tambelon episode of Friends.  I mean, Grogar is one bad mo-fo. 

The villains?  Great.  Just... just, great.  I also think it's funny that Somnambula looks like, acts like, and has the same MO as Mother Gothel from "Tangled."  Wonder if Disney had a bit of inspiration, LOL?

Well.... I kinda babbled for a while...

But the point is...  MLP 'n Friends is the reason why I got into the pre-G4 ponies at all.  My boyfriend and I decided to watch it for the lulz, and were shocked to see that it was good.  And that's how we started collecting G1s.  And that's how I found the wider pony-collecting community!  And for all that, I have this show to thank.  Sure, it's not as well-animated or as well-written as FiM.  Sure, the characters aren't as well-developed, and the lore is completely a random, confusing mess.  But it's just So. Much. Fun.  And that's really all that matters when you're watching a really over-the-top 80s cartoon.  And that's why I love it.

EDIT:  Oh, and by "Friends" I meant the show in general.  IDK about the other cartoons, I've never seen Potato Heads/Moondreamers/the other things or whatever they were.  They just really didn't interest me; I was really only in it for the Ponies.