October 10, 2010 on the American television channel The Hub (which is currently called the Discovery Family), the premiere of the new children's animated series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
In Russian, the first season came out 2 years later - on January 2, 2012, the first episode was shown on the children's TV channel Karusel. The name was officially translated as "My Little Pony: Friendship is a Miracle."
The first season included 26 episodes, and then no one could suggest that the show would become so cult: despite the fact that the cartoon My Little Pony was originally aimed at young girls aged 4 to 6-7 years, it attracted a wider audience and got a lot of admirers of adults.
Currently, the series consists of 7 full episodes, most of which include 26 episodes. The exception is only season 3, in which there are only 13 episodes.
Several full-length cartoons were also released and an official game for mobile devices was created.
History of creation
The animated series about ponies was released in 2010, but the story of the entire franchise begins much earlier. In 1983, Hasbro began producing plastic toy ponies, which later became prototypes of the modern My Little Pony characters. The design of dolls has changed from time to time, and now they can be divided into 5 generations. For more successful sales, several cartoons were also created.
In 2009, the company bought back most of the shares on the Discovery Kids television channel, and it was decided to release a new series on the old series of toys. The main role in the creation of the show was played by the animator and screenwriter Lauren Faust, who before that also took part in the development of cartoons that became successful.
Faust wanted to create something new and unusual that does not fit into the standards of typical cartoons for girls. The main ideas that she intended to implement in a new project were not a primitive plot and realistic "imperfect" heroes.
After the success of the first season, Lauren Faust took part in the creation of the cartoon for a very short time - when developing the second season, she held the position of producer-consultant, and then left the project.
World structure
My Little Pony characters live in a magical land called Equestria, where everything is subject to magic. In addition to the ponies themselves and other ungulates, this world is inhabited by griffins, manticores, dragons, as well as ordinary animals - cats, dogs, rabbits, squirrels and others.
According to Wikipedia, all My Little Pony characters (meaning ponies as the main characters) can be divided into 3 types: unicorns, pegasuses and ordinary (terrestrial) ponies. There are also alicorns that combine the features of a unicorn and pegasus, but there are only a few representatives of this species.
Mostly the action of the cartoon and the game My Little Pony takes place in a small provincial town called Ponyville, but other locations were also shown: Canterlot (the capital of the country), Clouddsdale (the heavenly city standing on the clouds), Mainhattan, Appleluza, Las Pegasus, Crystal Empire and others. From this we can conclude that Equestria occupies a very large territory.
main characters
The main characters of My Little Pony can be considered 6 heroes. It is noteworthy that among them there are representatives of all the existing races of ponies - 2 unicorns, 2 pegasus and 2 earth ponies.
The plot is built around the unicorn Twilight Sparkle (in Russian translation - Twilight Sparkle). She is one of the best students of Princess Celestia, diligently studying magic. Twilight loves books more than communicating with other ponies, and, wanting to fix this, Princess Celestia entrusts Sparkle with an important task. Twilight should go to Ponyville and follow the preparations for the summer festival.
In Ponyville, she meets new friends - the unicorn Rarity, the Pegasus Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, the earth ponies Applejack and Pinkie Pie. Each of them has its own unique character, but despite the fact that they are so different, ponies find a common language, and a real friendship arises between them. Together, these My Little Pony characters save the world from an attack by Nightmare Moon (Moon Pony) - the main antagonist of the first season.
Minor Characters
The universe of the animated series is huge. In addition to the main characters, the list of My Little Pony characters includes more than a hundred minor characters.
In almost every episode, Princess Celestia appears - the ruler of Equestria. She gives the heroes various tasks and helps them if something went wrong. At the end of the series, Twilight writes a letter to the princess, in which she tells what friendship lesson she learned for this episode.
Relatives and friends of the main characters also often appear. For example, members of the Applejack family - Big Macintosh, Appleblum, Granny Smith and others (My Little Pony character names are usually associated with their mission and talent, and in this case farming and growing apples).
As you progress through the story and the release of new seasons of heroes, more and more. The list of My Little Pony characters is constantly growing, and gradually the viewer gets acquainted with the other inhabitants of Equestria.
Idea
As the name implies, the main idea of ​​this animated series is friendship, and everything connected with it. In each episode, the characters face a problem that they can solve only by teaming up and making joint efforts.
Together with the characters, young viewers - the target audience of the cartoon - learn the ability to be friends, find a common language, empathize and provide assistance to those who really need it.
All ponies have different characters: one of them is erudite and well-read, the other is elegant and knows a lot about fashion, the third is a little shy and loves animals, and so on. This was the main goal of Lauren Faust - to make each heroine truly unique, but not an ideal person.
Franchise
In addition to the cartoon, the My Little Pony franchise includes a series of toys, the official mobile game for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, comics and even books.
The first book on the fourth generation of toys was released on the day the series premiered. It was a 24-page picture book that described all the same events that occurred in the first two episodes. Complete with the publication were two toy ponies.
Subsequently, books were published several times a year, and many of them also included toys.
Comics on the pony universe began to be released some time after the start of the second season. Issues, divided into story arches, talked about the adventures of heroes not shown in the show.
Game from Gameloft
On November 8, 2012, the official game My Little Pony: Princess Magic was released, developed and published by Gameloft. Initially, the application was available only for iOS and Android, but later appeared in the Windows Phone store.
By definition, a game is “shareware.” This means that you don’t have to pay for downloading and most of the options, but you can make real money in the game, which will allow you to purchase special items and bonuses in mini-games.
The list of characters in the game “My Little Pony: Princess Magic” contains the same characters that appear in the original series: Twilight Sparkle and her friends, Princess Celestia, the Apple family, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, and others.
In the story, Nightmare Moon managed to capture Equestria and plunge it into eternal darkness. Only Twilight Sparkle managed to escape - she and her dragon Spike have to free the country and help their friends.
The principle of the game “My Little Pony: Magic of Princesses” is a standard “farm”: the player needs to build buildings, collect income, buy characters, play mini-games and discover new territories.
Full length cartoon
On October 4, 2017, the premiere of a full-length cartoon about a pony called My Little Pony: The Movie premiered (the official translation into Russian is “My Little Pony in Cinema”). The picture received the slogan "Meet the new generation of heroes."
According to the plot, the full-length cartoon is practically not connected with the series. A new antagonist appears - the King of Storm, which captures the capital of Equestria Canterlot with the intention of depriving all ponies of the opportunity to use magic. Even Princess Celestia cannot stop it. Twilight Sparkle and her friends are the last hope of the whole country: only they can stop the King of Storm and restore peace and tranquility to Equestria.
In the cartoon, a new race was shown - sea ponies. When developing their appearance, the creators were inspired by mythological creatures called hippocampus - these are sea horses with fish tails and have some similarities with mermaids.
"Equestria Girls"
Ponies hit theaters long before the release of “My Little Pony at the Cinema” - on June 16, 2013, the cartoon “My Little Pony: Equestria Girls” (Equestria Girls) began to be shown in the USA and Canada.
Unusually, the main action of the cartoon takes place in the human world, where Twilight Sparkle travels to find his princess crown stolen by Sunset Shimmer.
Having passed through a mirror acting as a portal, Twilight Sparkle enters the world of people, namely, Canterlot High School. When moving, the pony's appearance changes, and now she looks like a teenage girl.
In high school, Twilight meets characters very similar to her pony friends. Here has her own princess Celestia, who is called the director Celestia. Sparkle also re-meets her friends - more precisely, girls who look like them.
A year later, the second part of the cartoon "Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rock" was released. Twilight Sparkle is once again sent to the human world to solve another problem - the leak of Equestrian magic, which can cause irreversible consequences.
Cartoon Fans
Immediately after the release, the cartoon was successful, receiving positive reviews from critics and parents.
As mentioned earlier, the animated series about the pony won the hearts of not only children, but also more adult audiences. A certain culture of cartoon fans formed, who called themselves “armor” (which is a combination of two words - “brother of a pony”).
The series turned out to be so high-quality that its ideas turned out to be close even to adults who loved the characters and waited for the release of a new episode even more than the target audience - the children themselves.
Armor began to create their own creative work on the series - stories, drawings, video clips, independently translate the recently released series into other languages. Fans share their work on special resources.
After some time, the Bronikon was organized - a meeting where cartoon fans gather and chat, share their impressions and have a good time.
Next Season Out
At the moment, 7 full seasons and half past seven have been released. All characters of "My Little Pony: season 8" will be able to see again in August 2018. The title of series 14 is Marks for Effort.
The season 9 of the animated series was also announced - the premiere is scheduled for October 1, 2019. The name of the first episode is currently unknown.