---Summary:
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is the widely popular MLP cartoon that premiered on the Hasbro channel, otherwise known as The Hub. Combining memorable characters with cute and whimsical animation, it's a really well put together cartoon of the modern age. It's apparent by its popularity, and it's ability to turn neighsayers into fans, that something is most definitely magical about this show.
---Writing:
The show has a very basic theme; Friendship. Its episodes each tackle a challenge or fact that one will run into when dealing with friends. Twilight Sparkle starts out as an antisocial, friendless girl who is given a duty to arrange a party in Ponyville, when she meets new ponies along the way that she eventually befriends. It's a fairly simple concept, but considering the franchise in question, there's more writing going on than one would expect.
If there's one thing I'll say about the show, it's that its cast is a solid bunch of memorable characters. Each of them has a personality that is unique to themselves and something about them makes you remember who they are. Perhaps it's because of the silly names. All I know is, once I watched the two-parter pilot, I knew all of the characters by name and personality. They did a nice job of engraving these characters into your head.
While the episode plots, as far as the friendship lessons go, are pretty basic, I think the way they come about executing them worked out nicely. The writers did a good job of utilizing this world that they built to make it as whimsical and fun as possible. Something kids can enjoy, and something I can smile at once in a while. If there's one thing that needs to be said about this show, it has heart. It knows how to strike a chord now and then.
---Animation:
The show is one of the (in my experience) more excellent uses of Flash animation. As someone who has been using Flash for 5 years, I can see it, especially when watching it in HD. This show was made in Flash, but was not hindered by it. The animators knew what they were doing. Not only that, the art is just adorable. Some might say too cute, but I think it's just right. And if you watch the show, there are some pretty amusing expressions that come up here and there. Top notch stuff.
---Voice Acting:
All of the main cast has some great voices. They do a nice job of, once more, making each character unique, even when two are voiced by the same person. There's not much to say apart from that. I do think there's a few parts where the delivery of the lines are a little off from what I would expect, but it's still just as good as the other things in this show.
---The Impact:
This is a show that I think deserves some mention of how it was received. While I'm not exactly in contact with tiny girls to receive their opinions on it, unless you're living under a rock, you've probably noticed how popular this show is among people on the Internet. People who range from teen to adult and vary in gender.
It's a show that, despite being basically aimed at a target girl audience, has become a favorite of many. Including myself. With other Hasbro franchises on The Hub - such as GI Joe and Transformers - it's a surprise that THIS seems to be the real winner of all of them. Though as a personal aside, Transformers Prime isn't too shabby. Definitely worth reviewing.
MLP has definitely sparked a fandom that it probably wasn't expecting to receive, that much is certain.
---Final Thoughts:
There are a noticeable amount of people who show a bit of disdain for the show. There's the classic mentality, "I'm so sick of hearing about it so I don't even want to give it a chance." While I do think that some may hype it for more than it really is, I can honestly say it's worth giving a shot at least once. If you can stand cuteness, that is. It's an excellent cartoon that feels like it has heart, which some may argue is lacking in cartoons of today. I think there's some gems out there, though, and this is definitely one of them.
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