They talk about various things in the culture. I can't really tell how negative it actually is. A few things in the article might spite some of you a bit, otherwise it's relatively tame.
I was going to save this for the nightly, but it seems there is enough interest to drop it here.
You can find their website, with the article, below!
Men Who Love "My Little Pony"
Also a bonus Side Article
Thanks to Dan for the scan.
84 comments:
First?
ReplyDeleteNeat!
ReplyDeleteSorry everypony, I couldn't help it :P
ReplyDelete10 million views on EQD? Nice try, but you were off by about 26 million.
ReplyDeleteIts a good article. Not really negative.
ReplyDelete12th
ReplyDeleteNewspaper man! Y U No put bestpony rainbow dash in picture?!
ReplyDeletePretty good article, kinda annoyed that they said the animation was more important that the voice acting, that was one of the major appeals of it for me.
ReplyDeleteThere needs to be more focus on the actual show than the people who watch it
ReplyDelete@rikvb9olp Post says over 35 million. Get it right.
ReplyDelete"more powerful than the FBI" Oh yeah!
ReplyDeleteSeemed pretty objective to me except for the tea joke. There was only one even refrence to tea in the show and Celestia trolled the crap outta the Cakes. I have NEVER seen a brony talk about pretty pony tea parties...*shivers* I love this show but NO...absolutley not lol.
ReplyDeleteIt's these type of things that make living on this planet so awesome.
ReplyDeleteSoon, we shall encompass all.
"Pretty pony tea parties."
ReplyDelete...Ex-motherf*cking-SCUSE ME?
@IkusaGT
ReplyDeleteThis.
"Men who love My Little Pony"
It shouldn't be really be a big deal,especially right now.
Its... Okay...
ReplyDeleteNot that negative but...
"Pretty pony tea parties"
Wut.
Uhh..."pretty pony tea parties?"
ReplyDeleteyeah, no.
Silly author. Ponies don't have tea parties. They go out and kick a dragon's ass.
ReplyDeleteThe only complaint I have about the article is the timing. You would have thought they would have made at least one reference to the fact that season two starts in just a handful of days. I think Seth hit the nail on the head; this feels like something that has been floating around their offices for a couple of months, and only now is seeing the light of day, because it feels very outdated to me.
ReplyDeleteTea Parties aside, I've got to disagree with this article in one fundamental way: Does Hasbro want to sell toys? Yes. Everypony else working on the show? As far as I can tell they don't give two bits about selling toys. Part of what makes this show so good is that the team working on it actually cares about the show itself. Cynically profit-driven as it's origins may be, it is as superb an example of "creator-driven" cartooning as we have seen in the past 20 years! Why is it that almost none of the articles realize this? IkusaGT said it best, there needs to be focus on the show itself, as well as on the periphery demographic...
ReplyDeleteDefinitely check out the follow-up article linked below the article (or here: http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/09/07/ponies-do-sondheim/ ).
ReplyDeleteThe author definitely has a positive attitude about the fandom :)
Ponies are pretty. Tea is good. And every one loves parties.
ReplyDeleteSo what's the problem with "pretty pony tea parties" now?
Ugg, Macleans. Do not want. I don't know if I should read this or not.
ReplyDeleteMy Little Pony was quoted to be more powerful than the FBI. Either the FBI does absolutely nothing or we are now one com the most powerful organizations in the world.
ReplyDelete"Yet unlike other cartoons with grown-up fans, My Little Pony makes almost no concessions to them."
ReplyDeleteReally? What about the 'Benny Hill chase scene'? The various Looney Tunes references? The show makes more nods to the adults watching than any of the shows they compared it to.
Men who love ponies and the women who love them
ReplyDeleteMLP fandom now attributed to classic lines from the show such as "Are you sure about this, Scootaloo?"
No tea parties. CUPCAKE PARTIES.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite magazine and my obsession...
ReplyDeleteThis is the best article I think I've ever seen.
@Torchman
ReplyDeleteTransitive property, my friend. 4chan beat the FBI, and bronies beat 4chan. Connect the dots, and discover the true power of the ponies.
@Natron77Follow up is awesome, fixes quite a bit... taken together it is a great set... though my prior statement stands, I think.
ReplyDeleteJeez, everypony. They mean the tea parties that little girls have with stuffed animals. Like you see in other cartoons. I think we have enough politics everywhere else, can we keep it out of the ponies? Besides, who wouldn't want to have tea with Twilight?
ReplyDeleteSounds like the writer of this hates ponies but tried to make it sound as unnegative as he/she could.
ReplyDelete"Pretty pony tea party"...that sounds nice actually
ReplyDeleteI'd have tea with Twilight right now, and I'd bring the tea! :D
ReplyDeleteDespite being a box with no apparent organs of any kind and a borderline unhealthy obssession with the Great And Powerful Trixie, your words ring clearly and honestly in your quotes. I am glad knowing you are a representative voice of bronies everywhere. I would also be glad knowing you were a representative face of bronies everywhere, but I would first need to figure out which side of your cubic form is which.
ReplyDeleteProbably one of the best articles on MLP:FiM so far, really. Yeah, the Tea Party thing is pretty inaccurate, but along with the follow-up article at the end, this was pretty good. Spot on from my point of view.
ReplyDeleteI liked that text. In fact, I think that's one of the best articles coming from an non-brony guy about MLP:FiM. Of course he made some mistakes, like "pretty pony tea parties"? Hell no! But this guy seems like very well informed about the fandom and does not seems a hater, which is a positive thing.
ReplyDeleteMaclaen's?
ReplyDeleteShit. You know your fandom has publicity when Macleans has an article about it.
Yes, it does seem like the same generic "Men watch MLP!" article we've read a dozen times but it will help further the awareness of FIM and attract new recruits to our fandom.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand their comment about poor animation. Have they seen an episode for themselves?
ReplyDeleteFiM has almost constant movement and dynamism, every time I rewatch an episode I notice some new detail or animation I overlooked.
@ToonNinja I laughed so hard at that, but other than that I thought it was an alright article.
ReplyDeleteI give the author props, he seems to have actually researched this and even watched some episodes. A very positive and well written (but brief) article. I was glad to see the author actually put in the time to post a followup, which is more then 99% of the authors out there.
ReplyDeleteThe animation style is one of the first things that caught my attention. The characters were the second, and now I just love the whole show.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing about the pretty pony tea parties that I don't like is that I haven't been invited to a tea party with the pretty ponies yet. While I doubt AJ or RD would be willing to show up to one, and Fluttershy might be too scared to show up if I did, I'd settle for the other three, and whoever else shows up for that matter, especially if Pinkie Pie brings some scones from Sugar Cube Corner with her.
ReplyDelete@Benschachar
ReplyDeleteIt's not poor, but it is simple. It relies on tweening far too much rather then cel animation, but that is the nature of animation these days and I'm ok with it.
Is it the greatest animation ever? No. But, it is some of the most entertaining and well laid out and that makes up for a lot.
Another article about men liking MLP
ReplyDeletenevermind the fact that there are women who hated MLP prior to FiM, and we're just as enthusiastic about the show as you guys are =\
If this is another one of those articles demonizing men for liking it though, I really feel bad for y'all.
either way I'm uninterested and shan't be reading it, just thought I'd toss my feelings into the mix as well.
In this day and age, you would figure that men opening up to new ideas would be accepted. Hopefully that is indeed the case here as well.
ReplyDelete"Pretty pony tea parties."
ReplyDelete*BUZZER*
Nope.avi
"Made by Hasbro to convince children to buy the toys it's based on."
.....*BUZZER*
Lauren Faust made it.
"Poor animation."
*BUZZER*
Check again, dipshit.
"My little pony is more powerful than the FBI."
*Ding*
Damn straight.
well, that sure was interesting to read
ReplyDeleteAnother great pop-culture reference was Pinkie's "Have Gun, Will Travel" nod. I swear I nearly fell over backwards when I heard that, Richard Boone as Paladin was one of my childhood heroes!
ReplyDelete@Whistle-tall
ReplyDeleteI agree, I'm glad Seth is the one who reporters tend to talk to, because he seems to know how to handle them.
Thanks for running the site and serving as a fandom representative, Seth. I don't know how you keep all this stuff organized and under control.
The one thing that sucks about loving this show is the cliches people say to try and describe it, like when they can't remember the mane 6's names and have to resort to horribly girly and butchered versions of them, or in this case, make up summaries of what goes on based off of the extreme tea party and pink hearts attack everyone thinks of when they hear My Little Pony.
ReplyDelete/Rage
It could have been a lot worse though, so yay.
@Nightbreak
ReplyDeleteYou are correct.
MacLeans to Canada is like Times to the US. This is a hilariously awesome!
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to see people commenting on it.
ReplyDeleteFor an article not bashing the fanbase, it's still kinda bad, if only cause of the poor journalism on their end.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like they watched an episode or two at best with their 'bitter' goggles on and didn't feel like giving it a second chance.
so we are a cult now? good to know
ReplyDeleteExcept for maybe one or two.. discrepancies here or there, I liked the article and think it was decently well done overall.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, they did come back and revise some of their earlier perceptions, so that can be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteHhm... I like my analysis better.
ReplyDeletehttp://specter-von-baren.deviantart.com/journal/43848232/
The beginning and ending paragraphs were kind of insulting I think. I also dislike how they focus on how this is a show based on a toy franchise and how that it's corrupting society. Where was I hearing this when the Transformers movies came out?
*sigh*
Hmm...not bad, a little monotone. Unfortunately though, it seems like nopony has a great idea of the show outside the fanbase. No brony journalists, MacLeans?
ReplyDeleteBut the only beef I really have with this is that they didn't say "They gave the team enough freedom to really make it about 20% cooler" at the end there.
OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH! I send this in and it got it's own space outiside nightly wrapup. SQUEE!
ReplyDeletecba
ReplyDeletei stopped paying attention to north american news some time ago
Read it and... It doesn't seem to be ''negative'', though the first half makes me wonder a bit, but I'm not quite sure about what ?
ReplyDeleteAlso... did they interview Setisto (always though, for some reasons, that it was Sephisto ?), because they keep saying : ''Setisto said this'' - ''Setisto said that'' ?
I don't think they interviewed Sethisto. They probably grabbed posts from here to supplement their article.
ReplyDelete"...like an instantly famous cartoon of an old Looney Tunes character screaming, 'Confound those ponies! They drive me to drink!'"
ReplyDeleteI'm just going to assume that animation isn't this author's strong suit. The Dover Boys of Pimento University (the source of "Confound those Dover Boys") was developed under the Merrie Melodies moniker. Not Looney Tunes.
"Even Sesame Street, which parodies shows like Mad Men, tries harder to please adults."
I'm also going to assume that the author is very deeply ingrained in a small bubble of pop culture, and just assumes that since they cannot pick up on the pop culture shout-outs in MLP that they simply don't exist. Dr. Whooves for example. Or the fact that the songs reference a lot of Broadway musicals for influence and style. While unconfirmed, the exclamation "Let's do this!" while the colt charges onto the stage in Sonic Rainboom could be a shout out to Leroy Jenkins. And do I even need to do any more to evidence the show's spatial awareness than simply say "Derpy Hooves?"
"So why are grown-ups fascinated with the southern accent of the cowboy-hat-wearing pony Applejack"
What in the-huh!? What!? Is the author just padding out filler now? I think the comments above have gotten the "pretty pony tea parties" pretty well covered as an egregious nonsensical statement on the author's behalf, but this too? Are you kidding me? What is this, journalism or band wagoning?
"The animation may be as limited in movement as the ’80s cartoons"
Somebody obviously didn't watch the fashion show sequence from Suited For Success. Or the climax of Sonic Rainboom. Or the musical numbers for "At the Gala" or "Winter Wrap Up." Unlike the 80's cartoons, the characters DO have an advantage in their range of motion; a team of skilled veteran animators who have been doing this for decades.
I dunno, I'm in disagreement with a lot of folks above saying that this is a well-researched article. I'm sure they put some effort into asking around and getting their information, but when it comes to putting the information on paper, ya know, it just comes off as being quite ignorant. Maybe it's just the bias I feel, the price I pay for investing way more time into following the fanbase than the average onlooker...
Oh, it's obviously poorly researched. The mane article, before the update, has several glaring errors that would be noticeable to anyone who has watched more than one or two episodes of the show. Then there's the easy access to information. Five minutes here or at Wiki regarding MLP:FIM would have corrected some of those errors. I think it was just a puff piece. Still, it had some nice things to say in some regards, and I prefer to see that.
ReplyDeleteEducation by communication. Every day there is a new brony, and every day is a chance to show people that MLP is more than just what it seems to be. Optimism, hope, happiness, friendship, all of these things still exist, and one can have them without giving up anything that makes them who they are. That is the gift of MLP:FIM. That is the gift of being a brony. :D
ReplyDelete4chan took on the FBI and won...
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, in reality, only the FBI public website was down for a little while and 'anonymous' from all over the planet were arrested for involvement with attacks on a.o. PSN.
Reminds me of Wimp Lo who they trained to think losing is winning.
So much lulz.
I actually read that magazine on occasion...
ReplyDeleteO_O
Pretty Pony Tea Parties?
ReplyDeleteWhat are these and why have I never been invited!?
I thought we were all friends here!
Don't care, watched pony.
ReplyDeleteThis was the paper AJ was stealing
ReplyDeleteIf we are bigger then the FBI then we need to put a Brony in the white house. Teach them how to manage the budget like Applejack does the farm, teach them to care and STUFU like Fluttershy. Send the congressmen to small town libraries to make friends with the common person like twilight. Let the military do it's job like ponyville lets Rainbow do her job. Party durring christmass and tell the athiests they can be party poopers at their own homes and let other ponies party like Pinkie pie would. And have someone like Rarity tell the freeking fashion industry that stick figure is a cop out not a fashion statment.
ReplyDeleteOh bravo... Maclean is full of it again. Sometimes that magazine is just full of derp.
ReplyDeleteThis article is so harmless.
ReplyDeleteSeriously guys, compared to the FOX incident, this is not even a breeze. I am actually happy to see they did an extra-article to fix the things they got wrong. Good for them!
There has since been an update to the article based on responses people have given to it.
ReplyDeleteLike it or not.. ponies got into Macleans. And not as a side note to something else.. but an actual article.. with a followup. That in itself is a big deal.
ReplyDeleteMan it was so cool going to work one night, getting a Post hot off the press and seeing ponies. Best night at work evar.
@The Lotus Tea Dragon
ReplyDeleteThat's *Maclean's* for you... They always do that kind of 'job'. And, they often end up making a lot of people 'angry' at them.
Ponies in my Macleans? YES!
ReplyDeleteFrom the follow up its clear that the author actually watched a few episodes, and he seems to have a positive view of the show.
Next up, ponies on the front cover :)
WEll, *Ish a canadian brony* Macleans usually was kinda tame on tabloid issues like this, they deliver it in as minimally biased as possible manners, but for the negative points, i apologise on behalf of them conservative canaderpians -.-
ReplyDeleteTea party ponies? Really? Only like once or twice did they have a tea party. Come on really?
ReplyDeleteI liked the follow up article. Nissl's explanation of the show's appeal to adult audience's was thorough without being too nit-picky.
ReplyDeleteProblem FBI?
ReplyDeleteAs you see, we're going to conquer this little world, be prepared haters >=3
(don't feel like a brony, but i like the show, i'll conquer this too xD)