Best My Little Pony cartoon

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Davey E

New member
6 months ago I never would have done a thread like this. Is someone asked me this question, I would respond who cares? But with the latest MLP series and the latest Pony feaver, I ask the question, which is the best My Little Pony cartoon?

I say cartoon, not series since I discovered one of the generations only animated representation is a bunch of DTV movies.

I am loving the latest series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. As for the other series, the only one I am familar at all is the original and I remember hating it as a kid. Don't know how I would feel now if I did a watch through today. Out of curiosity I did watch a couple of episodes of the original recently on line, my review is mixed. Though the songs were inferior to the songs on FIM in my opinion. I know the original had regular villains and was more action adventure oppose to FIM which is more comedy.

FIM gets my vote.
 
Friendship is Magic gets my vote as well. It's got everything over the original series, from the writing to the fact that whenever a character breaks out into song, they get called out on it. Like someone said in one of the talkbacks, 'FiM' is the spiritual successor to Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

The Original Series wasn't bad, and if you ignore the subpar, and sometimes ear screechingly bad, songs, it wasn't a bad show and was a far cry from a 'little girl's' cartoon given the hellish forces the main characters had to face on a daily basis.

I never saw the CGI G3 dtvs so I can't comment on them.

My Little Pony Tales however, was mind numbingly horrid and like G.I. Extreme was a dark, dark, period for the franchise.
 
Friendship is Magic by a whole arm and a leg. Beneath that disposable cutesy veneer lies one of the most brilliant self-parodies in the history of animation.
 
Despite being, you know, male, the original MLP cartoon was one of my favorite shows as a very young child. So for nostalgic reasons, it will always remain my favorite part of the MLP franchise. Going back and looking at it now though i can of course see that it's... well, an 80's cartoon, with all that comes with that. However, it's mostly very decent for an 80's cartoon, with the villains being a little bit darker and the adventures being a little bit more imaginative than what was the standard in cartoons at the time.

I also loved My Little Pony Tales as a child and so of course also has nostalgic fondness for it. Trying to evaluate it objectively though, i suppose it's not a particularly good show, but not downright terrible either. Just sorta bland.

And of course in terms of objective quality, Friendship is Magic has to win with a landslide. But what else can you expect when Lauren Faust is involved.
 
I'll admit, I used to watch the original. It was the only cartoon on during it's time slot, so it was either that or leave the TV off.

I remember it having some surprisingly good plots, though I could never keep track of which pony was which. I don't think I ever thought of them in terms of their names.

Tales was horrible. I could think in terms of the characters, but now they didn't do anything interesting. It was just a kids' sitcom where everyone wore a pony suit.

Didn't bother with G3 I was long past the age to care. Plus...the videos I occasionally saw playing on store displays sucked.

Friendship is Magic is just awesomesauce, though. Lauren Faust's designs are adorable. I mean, really adorable. The old designs were clearly trying to be cute, but they were trying too hard and failed miserably.

I can now actually remember which character is which, the writing is hilarious, and the animation is some of the best I've seen in Flash. I sort of wish it could have more awesome villains like G1, but at the very least it manages to do what Tales tried and failed at. The fact that the animators remember that they're ponies helps.
 
At least FiM at least explains how they get things done without hands. The original series did too to a certain extent, but Tales... like TheGunheart said, it was like actors in suits using their hands (although you couldn't see it) as they did everyday things.
 
How exactly is it a self-parody? I think you're reading into it too much and are seeing things that aren't actually there. Lauren Faust loved the original series and she isn't trying to mock it. Regardless, Friendship Is Magic is the only one that I've really seen, but it's a great show so that's what I'm going with for this thread.
 
The only self parody I see in FiM is when they break into a musical number and (Usually Pinkie Pie) gets called out on it. Everything else (The Rainbow of Light's appearance, Spike's role, etc) have all been improvements over the original.
 
I've only seen Friendship is Magic. I think I might have watched an episode of the original as a kid, but it was only one episode, and I didn't see the appeal in it. But FiM, it's pretty clever show with some pretty neat characters settings, and songs. I practically like all of them equally, and the stories for the most part are nice, though I don't really care for the shoe-horned "Knowing is half the battle-esque" message they do at the end.
 
You can still love something and parody it. Like Tobias said an example of self parody is the music numbers when they acknowledge that they are going to into a music number. There is two kinds of parodies, there are tribute parodies and mean spirited parodies. FIM is not mean spirited. It is just harmless fun.
 
Lord Dalek seemed to imply that the parodies – if you want to call them that – were rather extensive. I don’t believe that to be true. The series isn’t an internet sensation because it’s a self-parody; it’s an internet sensation because it’s a damn good show. I don’t believe that the series was meant to parody.
 
I think virtually everyone is going to choose FiM over the previous three series. It's pretty amazing that a group of grown men (and women, sorry I can't tell if there are women posting in this thread) are having a serious discussion about My Little Pony. Friendship truly is magic.

...

Sorry, I couldn't resist.
 
Oh, I understand that. I just don?t believe these really qualify as parodies. As I said, Pinkie Pie is just a rather strange pony. If they poked fun at some of the other ponies for singing, then perhaps I would be more willing to see it as a parody, but several songs so far have been played completely straight ? and have actually been very enjoyable. An oddity, for me, as I usually loathe musical numbers in animated programs.
 
Friendship is Magic by a landslide.

I used to watch the original My Little Pony 'n' Friends (yeah, it was cheesy as all get out, some of the songs were ear pain and the animation wasn't always spectacular, but it was the only semi-entertaining thing on at the time), I would just never tell anybody I watched it. FiM is the first My Little Pony series that won't make anyone who isn't a little girl cringe by watching it.

FiM delivers on so many elements: it actually gives the Pony franchise a set cast of characters, as opposed to the syndicated specials, the first movie and the G1 series, where all of the characters were pretty much a revolving door of blank slates except for the human kids, Spike and the Moochick (sp?). My favorite FiM characters so far are Twilight Sparkle, Applejack and Rarity. Pinkie Pie has her moments, but a little Pinkie goes a long way, I find.

Here, the character of Spike actually has a job and serves a purpose; on G1 he was just kind of there. I prefer Spike's design and voice here as well.

There's genuine humor in FiM also; I agree with the statement that Friendship is Magic is the spiritual successor to Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. The only thing about the stories that I'm not crazy about are the little "why friendship is awesome" moral lessons tacked onto the end of every episode, but I'm guessing that those are network imposed, so there's not much that can be done about that. Thankfully, they don't bring the show down too much.

I can't comment too much on My Little Pony Tales, as I barely saw it. (We didn't receive the Disney Channel at the time). I saw 1 episode of Tales during a free preview of Disney Channel, and the only original animation I saw was the opening title sequence; the episode itself was a rerun of a My Little Pony 'n' Friends episode.
 
I found it odd that Disney did that. They had like 33 half hours of MLP'n'F, and 13 half hours of MLPT, and used the 'Tales' opening for the whole package. Except for 'Revolt of Paradise Estate', which somehow got away with the original MLP opening from the syndicated series.
 
I dont know, the very first "episode" of the original MLP series, Rescue From Midnight Castle (which is actually a standalone TV special) has some quality to it as well, possibly enough to hold the attention of an older viewer till the end credits roll. It's an 80's action cartoon of course, with all that comes with that, but it's without a doubt more dramatic than the average episode of for instance He-man or Thundercats.
 
As far as what I said about the songs in the original and the FIM, in that the songs in FIM is superior to the original series. I take that back a bit, while overal FIM songs are still the best, I think the Call Upon The Sea Pony song from Escape From Midnight Castle is great also. I don't know anything the current generation toy line and if the Sea Ponies are part of it, I doubt it. But if it was possible, I would love is if FIM did a remake of the Call Upon The Sea Ponies.

If you want compare songs, I think the Call Upn The Sea Ponies song and Winter Wrap Up are 1 and 2 in terms of greatest MLP songs ever. I probably give the edge to Winter Wrap Up.
 
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