Here is the trailer for the upcoming film My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
This does not please me.
While the trailer may just be misleading (to make it look more "hip"), I feel like the themes in this film go against why I was attracted to MLP in the first place.
Why should Twilight Sparkle--the hero of Equestria who's been to hell and back several times, initiated by a demi-god, and reborn as a lesser diety herself--be reduced to a high school student who just wants to look pretty, be prom queen, and get the boy?
In other words, a central theme of MLP is showing that the hero's journey is not just for men, but women can become heroes too. Not "heroes in their own right" but true legitimate heroes. The TV series shows the process of Twilight Sparkle metamorphosing from quirky young person into a leader. Throughout the series she takes on responsibility and learns how to consider the benefit of the group ahead of her own. This process ultimately culminates in the death of the young irresponsible aspects of her character and her rebirth into the new role of royal alicorn (complete with transformation sequence and pegasus wings!)
The real beauty of MLP was how it showed that this hero's journey is not just an experience for the male part of the population, but actually a reflection of every human's life regardless of gender.
This trailer (at least) does not seem to keep to those themes. Instead we get the same ideas that have been hashed and rehashed a million times in every tween girl flick ever made. Instead of trials and descent into the abyss we get a trite conflict between catty girls. Instead of learning to lead the people around her Twilight must get a makeover to be the prettiest. Instead of initiation to a higher plane of existence by the moral authority Twilight is initiated into the presence of some teenage buffoon.
Incidentally, romance has only ONCE been a theme in MLP and it was as a joke. Is getting the attention of some dude really the central idea around which we want our women to live their lives?
Anyways, some people will say I'm thinking too hard about this. My response is that those people aren't thinking hard enough. Stories matter: they are the expression of our desires, fantasies, and values.
Is this really what we value? It's not what the MLP TV series values, and this trailer is not cool with me.
I imagine the people at MLP had a conversation like:
ReplyDelete"Hey, [Generic Name], since we're using these people-personalities, why don't we just make the characters people and appeal to a more mature audience?"
"What about our bronies?"
"They're a fluke anyways. Point is, we can overcome people's aversion to MLP as a little girls' show if we make it about actual girls."
"Good idea."
I figured it was Hasbro being like, "How we sell a new line of toys?"
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