pony fan update

...given all the furore over Derpy Hooves voice, it's interesting to hear that the voice actress has stated in an e-mail conversation with someone that she had been under the impression Derpy was a boy pony...and she never even got a picture to look at to plan the voice! (I thought that was standard in voice-over work, that someone had a drawing of the character in front of them).

She said she based the voice on a neighbor boy in pre-puberty, who was growing rapidly, clumsy, ate a lot, and "spoke at the speed of a tree."

And you know...that makes sense. Thinking of the resemblance some people noted to the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer voice (also voiced by a woman trying to sound like a pre-pubescent male). Other people had claimed the odd voice was "proof" they were going to make Derpy a developmentally-disabled pony (which made me cringe, given how clumsy they made her - it just would seem to reinforce bad old stereotypes). I have to admit the "I thought Derpy was a he" simplifies things a lot...(And I still maintain that I didn't hear the "Developmentally Disabled" quality in the voice some people were ascribing to it)

What I hope DOES NOT happen? That the people working on the show decide, "Screw it, we don't have enough boy ponies anyway, let's make Derpy a boy" because I can imagine a lot of adult fans getting mad about that. And I'd have an awfully hard time re-imagining the whole "backstory" I had made up for her with her as a boy. (I might have to rename my amigurumi Derpy as Ditzy Doo or something else)

(Yes. I still make up stories about "characters" in my head, just like I did as a kid. I'm embarrassed to admit that but I will say it allows for me to do things like stand in long lines at the DMV and such without getting irritated at people)

I will admit I decided that I can reconcile the "Derpy voice" from the cartoon with the "Derpy voice" I had imagined in my head by merely telling myself that Derpy had a very bad cold that day, and the congestion was affecting her speech. (Maybe it also affected her balance/flying ability as well; I know that my balance is off when I have a cold).

(I wonder though, if they might be considering re-dubbing the voice...it would not be that difficult, I think, for the same actress to do the same lines, just as a more girly voice. I'd rather like that. I won't be upset if it doesn't happen, though).

I never know how the people on Deviant Art feel about people copying/pasting/sharing their images on their own website (so I won't copy the image here unless I specifically see that it's OK), but I will say that TavoGDL's drawing of Derpy is very sweet - no angst, no worrying about "what's wrong with this pony?" Just a funny little Derpy leaning on a storm cloud.