Tabs Studio V4.7.3 For Visual Studio 2010-2019
Karren Katon
Animated in Flash, the series aired on Discovery Family (formerly The Hub) from October 10, 2010, to October 12, 2019. Hasbro selected animator Lauren Faust to head the show. Faust created deeper characters and adventurous settings, seeking a show resembling how she had played with her toys as a child, and incorporated fantasy elements. However, due to a hectic production schedule and a lack of creative control, she left the series during its second season.
Friendship Is Magic became one of the highest-rated productions in The Hub's history. Despite its target demographic of young girls, the series attracted an unexpectedly large following of older viewers, mainly adult men, who call themselves "bronies". The series gave Hasbro new merchandising opportunities. A spin-off franchise (My Little Pony: Equestria Girls) was launched in 2013 and ran alongside the series for six years. A feature-length film adaptation based on the television series, My Little Pony: The Movie, was released in October 2017 in the United States. My Little Pony: Pony Life, a spin-off comedy series, premiered on Discovery Family in November 2020.
Hasbro has produced several incarnations of the My Little Pony franchise, often called "generations" by the toy line's collectors.[10][11] With many brands, including My Little Pony, the company uses a multi-generational plan.[12] The Transformers film (2007) inspired Hasbro, since it helped to increase sales of the Transformers toy line; the company wanted to retool the My Little Pony franchise to appeal to the young-girl demographic.[7] According to Margaret Loesch, CEO of The Hub, revisiting properties which had been successful was an important decision; it was somewhat influenced by the network's programming executives, several of whom were fans of the shows.[13] According to Hasbro senior vice president Linda Steiner, the company "intended to have the show appeal to a larger demographic"; the network was trying to create shows that parents and children would watch together.[14] Central themes Hasbro sought for the show included friendship and cooperation, determined from market research in how girls played with toys.[15]
Faust said that Hasbro's positive response to non-traditional elements inspired her as she gave the company more ideas for the show. Although she pitched a balance of adventure and relationship stories, she de-emphasized adventures and focused on exchanges between characters for pragmatic reasons. The show incorporated creatures intended to frighten children, such as dragons and hydras, but emphasized friendships among the characters which were leavened with humor. When the series was approved, Faust had developed three scripts.[7]
The visual collaboration brought a unique style to Friendship Is Magic. Pennsylvania Dutch design, steampunk fantasy art, European fairy tales, and Bavarian folk art influenced the original pony world.[22] Designing the settings, Faust sent photos to artist Dave Dunnet. Ponyville was based on German cottages, with a fairy-tale quality and equine elements such as horseshoe-shaped archways, hay bales, and troughs.[30][31] Canterlot was based on castles and cathedrals, giving it a European feel;[32] its location on a mountain and its purple-and-gold palette conveyed royalty and aspiration.[33] Fantasy inspired elements of the series which were modified to suit its setting, story, and target audience.[34] After seeing the initial version of the pitch bible, Hasbro requested more character designs and hired Dunnet and Lynne Naylor to refine the background and characters.[7]
After the pitch bible was completed, Hasbro and Faust evaluated animation studios. Studio B Productions (renamed DHX Media Vancouver on September 8, 2010)[35] worked on Macromedia Flash-based animations and shows featuring animals. Faust felt that the studio would be a good fit, and agreed that Jayson Thiessen should direct the series. Faust, Thiessen, and James Wootton (who later became series co-director) presented a two-minute pitch to Hasbro, which approved the production. Faust estimated the time between being asked to develop the show and its approval at about one year.[7] The foundation of the series took roughly two years.[23]
Faust's initial writing staff at Hasbro Studios included several with whom she had worked on other shows and were approved by Hasbro, such as Amy Keating Rogers, Cindy Morrow, Meghan McCarthy, Chris Savino, Charlotte Fullerton, M.A. Larson, and Dave Polsky.[7] McCarthy accepted Faust's invitation due to her dedication.[36] Composer William Anderson presented a blind audition to Hasbro for Friendship Is Magic; the company admired his incidental music, and selected him.[37]
After the first season's finale aired, Faust announced that she had stepped down as executive producer to become consulting producer. Her involvement in the second season consisted primarily of story concepts and scripts, and she left after that season.[38] In an interview with New York magazine, Faust said that her reasons for leaving were a combination of hectic production schedules and a lack of creative control.[39] McCracken said that Faust's departure was due to its being a toy company-driven show, and there was "still some frustration" with being unable to bring some of her ideas to the screen.[40]
Initially scheduled to work on its fifth season, McCarthy gave up most of her work on the series to write My Little Pony: The Movie (2017).[41] After Thiessen also left to work on the film, his co-director Jim Miller became supervising director with animation director Denny Lu taking Miller's spot as co-director. During season six, layout supervisor Tim Stuby was also appointed as co-director to assist Miller and Lu before leaving during season 7, leading to Mike Myhre taking his spot for the rest of the series.[42]
Writing began with the premise and "getting a nugget of a story to build upon" at Hasbro.[43] Faust and Rob Renzetti conceived broad plots for each episode, and held a brainstorming session with each episode's writer to flesh out scenes and dialogue. They worked with the writer to finalize the script and provide basic storyboard instructions. Hasbro was involved throughout the process, laying down concepts for incorporation into the show. Examples included Celestia as a princess instead of a queen; a fashion-focused pony; and toy sets in the story, such as Rarity's boutique.[7][17] Hasbro sometimes asked for a setting, allowing Faust and her team to create its visual style and basing a toy set (such as the Ponyville schoolhouse) on it. As Faust adhered to the educational and informational standards which Hasbro required of the show, she found creating situations more difficult; having a character call another an "egghead" was "treading a very delicate line", and a character's cheating was "worrisome to some".[7] When DHX Media went into the design phase of an episode, scripts were finalized.[43] Each episode generally included a moral or life lesson, chosen to "cross a broad spectrum of personal experiences" and not just aimed at children.[14] Because intellectual-property issues had caused Hasbro to lose some rights to the original pony names, the show included a mix of original characters from the toy line and new characters developed for the show.[16]
Hasbro and Faust planned for episodes to be 11 minutes long before the series was approved, and Faust observed the limit in "The Ticket Master" (her first full-length script). Faust preferred 22-minute episodes, however, and Hasbro eventually agreed. Scripts were written around the episode runtime, and Miller said that most editing removed supplementary dialogue and action.[42] Initial production stages were tight, requiring a schedule twice as fast as Faust had previously experienced. Communication between the Los Angeles writing offices and the animation studio in Vancouver was frequently remote. The two teams sometimes held "writer's summits" to propose ideas for characters and situations, at which the animation team provided suggestions on visuals, body language, and characterization.[7] Larson said that his writing often used "ridiculous shorthand" for conciseness, and he referred to other works.[44]
The series' background music and songs were composed by William Kevin Anderson and Daniel Ingram, respectively.[37][45] The production team identified parts of each episode where they wanted music cues, allowing Anderson to provide the music.[7] The score was composed after each episode's initial animation, and was reviewed by Hasbro.[43] Ingram worked with Anderson's compositions to create songs which meshed with the background music and fleshed out the show's fantasy setting.[46] Ingram's songs usually began with a piano and a basic melody. The creative team received the song and provided input; background voices and instrumentation were then layered before the lead singer's vocals.[47] Writers sometimes suggested lyrics and overall musical themes, including two songs written by Amy Keating Rogers.[48] Music composition substantially preceded the broadcast of an episode; songs for the series' third season, which began airing in November 2012, were composed in 2011.[46] Ingram thought the songs from previous My Little Pony shows were "a little bit dated", and decided to bring more-modern work to the Friendship Is Magic series.[49] Changes included songs with more emotional depth than those typical of children's animation, which could also be enjoyed outside the episode.[49] Ingram said that his songs had become "bigger and more epic, more Broadway and more cinematic over time",[45] and Hasbro endorsed the effort to try "something groundbreaking for daytime television".[46] "Putting it Together" from the musical Sunday in the Park with George inspired "The Art of the Dress" in the first-season episode "Suited for Success", and "At The Gala" from the first-season finale was based on Into the Woods.[45][50][51] A musical number in "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" paid homage to "Ya Got Trouble" from The Music Man.[45]
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