ABOUT TIME SOMEONE TALKED ABOUT FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC!
*Is a brony
But all kidding aside and leaving behind the silly fandom and all the internet memes, Friendship is Magic is an excellent show once you realize its a merchandise/franchise driven show aimed at a young female audience.
The reason why is because unlike other cartoon revivals the creators took the franchise seriously. Rather than just creating cute characters and placing them in cookie cutter situations and conflicts, they instead created characters with distinctive personalities, conflicts that are much more interesting and they managed to make it very humorous.
In other words, they made it so that both kids and their parents could watch it together without one or the other feeling left out.
I mean, try watching the MLP G3 series. It's clear that they wanted to aim at JUST one audience type, and thus it becomes a near painful experience.
Then there's the art style. It's not the best style ever made (in fact, at times the designs of the ponies clash with the design of some of the other characters and creatures), but at least it has STYLE. Once again this is a merchandise driven show, and often companies want the show to look appealing so that merchandise is sold. It's amazing that Hasbro let the creative team be as unique in their interpretation of the MLP franchise.
In fact, it makes collecting the toys far more interesting.
I really like how it doesn't always take itself seriously, and actually pokes fun at itself and other moral driven series. Take this Pinkie Pie song for example:
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This is the type of song you would expect in an educational show. It talks about being friendly with people and sharing with them. But instead of leading to a cheesy scene where the morals are repeated over and over again... IT STARTS A WAR! I am surprised they got away with it since the moral of the story IS to learn and share your goods with other people.
A lot of people are wondering why are they loving the show so much. Well, Friendship is Magic is unlike any other cartoon show out there. In the "Worst children's show ever" thread, I mentioned how many of today's cartoon series lack a solid premise. Sure, they tell you what it is about and who stars in it, but most of the time they focus on being random for the hell of it, like Adventure Time. The show (for me at least) becomes less appealing as I want them to develop the characters and give us a structurally sound world we can believe in.
Friendship is Magic does that very well. You have well developed, interesting characters we can cheer for, you have this fascinating universe with unique creatures and a great mythos behind it all, and it is all cohesive. Yes, it can get very random at times (hence why Pinkie Pie exists), but it focuses on developing its stories rather than just being humor and gag based.
The series reminds me a lot of series like Arthur, Babar and even The Magic School Bus. They all were designed to appeal to a younger market and teach lessons they could use in their lives. But they told these great stories with very fun characters, so even when you watched them as adults you still got a kick out of them.
Friendship is Magic teaches lessons, some better than others, but it doesn't feel condescending about it and DOESN'T YELL AT US ALL THE DAMN TIME ABOUT IT.
I could easily go on why the show works. Its no wonder it has gained so much popularity.
That and Derpy Hooves, you can't go wrong with her...
