yes, that's it

An interesting, long-format interview from "Big" Jim Miller, who is now the supervising director for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

He SEEMS to be hinting in a couple places ("as long as the show continues") that there's going to be something on beyond Season 6 (which may just be me hoping, I don't know, but I bet they have more stories to tell). He goes into some interesting discussion; one of his comments is some dismay about how a small fraction of the fanbase has a tendency to be "cruel" (his word) and I admit that is partly why I sort of sail around some of the edges of the fandom without going into it very deeply.

One thing he said that I really agree with was in answer to a "why do you think the show has been successful?" question:

We may all be cynical b*stards in our everyday lives (I’m speaking primarily of myself here), but there’s no place for that cynicism in this show. We love to add in jokes and fun stuff, but we never undercut a sincere emotional moment with a joke, a snide eye roll or smirk to the camera. We want the audience to feel what our characters are feeling in that moment. And I think that helps to set it apart from some of the other cartoons out there.

THAT. YES. There's way, way too much cynicism (I think) in modern entertainment - too much skating over the surface of actual emotion, too much ironic detachment and playing like you're too cool for the situation, and MLP goes against that. The emotion in it IS genuine and sincere.


I said recently - and I stand by it - that Amending Fences is one of my favorite episodes of the show, and I think it is that the emotion in it is genuine. Twilight is genuinely chagrined to realize that her blowing off that party had such a bad effect on Moondancer. Moondancer is genuinely resistant to Twilight's attempts at reconciliation, and, finally, she lets it out as anger and tears - telling Twi exactly what effect her failure to attend the party had. And then, at the end, the last few moments, where there's some sweet accordion music (it sounds like the old French "Musette" style) over a scene where she goes out to play something like polo with her new friends....and there's a real and genuine sweetness to that. Even Minutette's goofy cheery enthusiasm isn't played as a joke, it's genuine.


And I think that's a big part of why I love the show - that lack of cynicism, that unwillingness to "undercut" the emotion of the moment, to just let it happen and not worry if it's a little sentimental or "corny." There's a place for sentiment.

Edited to add: the last five minutes or so of the episode, including the very adorable very end: