A Brony Tale

Bronies are weird. Mostly. I found some of their stories interesting, particularly the military guy and the "manly" guy, but other than that the rest are guys in rainbow wigs. On top of that, the fandom is noted online for their creation of hardcore pornography based around the show. That's not touched on at all in the film. The film serves more as a biopic about Ashleigh Ball, and to that it does its job. But it's not a tale about bronies... not as they are in reality.

Being as I'm a brony myself, I went ahead and had a look at this documentary. Managed to endorse the whole thing and best off, it was never boring. I even saw some familiar faces in there! Would be good for the whole family to watch; just has some thematic material so it would've most likely gotten a PG-rating by the MPAA (as the movie's not been given such a rating).

Like the one Ashleigh Ball said: "As long as My Little Pony exists, there will be Bronies."

Despite not being a Brony myself, I found this documentary to be extremely uplifting. In keeping with the good vibes of the fandom, it tries to accentuate the positives without mentioning the more sinister connotations that detractors have associated with supporters of the show. And while that means this isn't a balanced cultural analysis, it does make for ninety minutes of feel good entertainment that made me smile, if only for the reason that the show brings together people who might otherwise feel lonely and marginalized. Don't underestimate the importance of that.

As a documentary it was very well made. The will she/won't she go to the conference storyline with Ashleigh Ball was a bit contrived but gave the film some forward motion and structure. The cinematography was surprisingly good and they captured a lot of interesting, varied footage from around the country on what must have been a fairly meager budget. The way they weaved in news clips, interviews with creators and fans, scenery shots, the analysis of the psychologists...it gave the film variety and it never felt stagnant or boring. The scenes with the ex-military brony added a sense of deepness and soul and were definitely the emotional centerpiece, especially the interview in the car on the way to the convention which was actually quite inspiring and didn't feel forced or scripted.

The art direction was cool and stayed true to the show, with bright block colors adding to the positivity. All in all it was a very natural, enjoyable documentary and at the very least will serve as a fitting historical reference point for this bizarre yet strangely inspirational fandom.

Saw this surrounded by cheering, cool, nice (maybe a bit too talkative) people who describe themselves as Bronies. They were cool. Nice and true to themselves without a heir of pretension.

Wish the same could be said about the focus of "A Brony Tale."

She's a voice actress (and friend of the director), blonde and bland. Her band sucks.

A more interesting character appears, tells us of his boredom. Never feeling part of something. A loner. A true soul. A depressive state took over after serving in Iraq, with which he found relief in drawing ponies. Little Ponies.

Friendship Is Magic!

Facts to know: I love this cartoon, I love the art community and fanworks around it, being a part of it is really and always a great experience. but then there's bigmouthes with an ego the size of the moon who want to make the fandom a part of their lives, and take everything about it seriously.

That's not the state of mind of MLPFIM's philosophy to begin with, and from what I watched, it's like the brony doc : awkward teenagers dancing and bragging about their "redefining masculinity" bullshit.

This is so awkward, one must have courage to still look at a little pony after watching this.

I'm sorry Ashleigh.