Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony (2012)

Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony: Directed by Laurent Malaquais. With John de Lancie, Alex Tibcken, Tim Star, Lauren Faust. Profiling the cross-demographic fanaticism for the ostensibly girl-orientated television series, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2010).

“I am not a Brony. I have never seen an episode of My Little Pony. Before seeing this documentary I was aware of the Brony phenomenon, but was relatively removed from it. I watched u0026#39;Broniesu0026#39; to try and learn a bit more about the people behind the fandom, and was hoping to find an unbiased account of Brony culture, warts and all. I think overall this documentary was successful in a few ways, but was mostly overshadowed by itu0026#39;s failures.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s a very self congratulatory piece of film; plenty of discussion of the community aspect, the creativity and fun of it all, the feeling of u0026#39;fitting in,u0026#39; but itu0026#39;s all at a very cursory glance. People say they like the morals and apply them to their lives? How about a few examples? You think the writing and animation are well done? Why not go a bit more in depth? There was very little that needed to be said by this documentary, yet weu0026#39;re consistently fed what feels like a party line. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf youu0026#39;re looking for an objective documentary, this is not it. There is superficial lip-service paid to the female fans of the series, but it comes in the form of a short musical number and one documentary subject who is never on screen without her male counterpart. For a fanbase which has taken up a decidedly masculine moniker, Iu0026#39;d expect some discussion of how it effects women who want to be involved. Additionally, there is no discussion of the darker sides of Brony culture, like the fan- produced My Little Pony pornography known as u0026#39;Clop.u0026#39; The documentary goes so far out of its way to avoid this subject, that it actually even includes a reference to u0026#39;clopu0026#39; in a musical number, but immediately changes the subject.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt feels at times like the documentary was never intended to explain Bronies to outsiders at all, but rather to be a celebratory exploration of the growth of Brony culture, to be viewed and enjoyed by Bronies themselves. This would be easily explained by the creative crew, and the Kickstarter funding. Thereu0026#39;s nothing wrong with this, but why phrase it as though it were intended for outsiders? Why even add the animated sequences with the professor teaching us about MLP history?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s not all bad, honestly. The creator of this documentary clearly knows how to pace a film. Scenes go as long as they need to, dialogue is generally moving the film along, and overall itu0026#39;s quite well shot. Some of the characters are quite compelling, and the creative side of Brony culture is very well represented. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI think if there was one major takeaway from this film, itu0026#39;s that people who like MLP are producing a lot of content for the fan community, and that creativity is a major tenet of Brony culture. The film is very successful in conveying that there is a strong community, and a lot of creative content being produced. Itu0026#39;s major failure though, and what causes the whole thing to fall flat is that it doesnu0026#39;t successfully convey why the Bronies become attached to MLP to begin with.”