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.

The title of this film should have been, Ashleigh Ball: Attention Whore and other losers. It seems like the only people that they interviewed for the Bronies were socially inept, in other words, losers. They interviewed a "tough" mechanic and a man from the army in order to show how tough the fans are, however, both men seemed to ill-fit in a 'normal' crowd and both confessed, through their criticisms of what society expects from a boy, that they envy women and even wish they were women. Most of this I found mildly compelling. The interest ended there.

Most of the scenes in this film are of Ashleigh Ball, a voice actress who voices two of the Ponies in the My little Pony Cartoon. She bursts onto the scene, parading herself in various outfits and plugging her band. She talks about herself extensively and pretends that she thinks the Bronies are weirdos and that she thinks the interest in the show is bizarre, however, due to her poor acting ability, it is overwhelmingly obvious that this is her dream come true. She sees herself as the star of the show even tho all she does is provide the voice of two characters. She is not involved in the writing, or anything else to do with the production of the show, but she seems to feel like the most important person in the room whenever Bronies are mentioned and she reads about her characters and watches video and looks at fan made pictures for hours to feed her inner narcissism. If anything, this was a documentary about how entitled, connected and privileged Ashleigh Ball is.

I was interested to hear what the psychologists had to say until I realized that they were far from objective. Their own son is a Brony. Terrible work, No focus, hard to watch.

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!

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.

The film doesn't try to ride on the shock factor of 18-30 year olds liking My Little Pony and it doesn't push these bronies away as if they are a zoo exhibit to be looked and laughed at. You see these bronies and you see people who just happen to like a cartoon that is well made.

From the opening credits to the end credits the film is upbeat and it doesn't let up. We meet voice artist Ashleigh Ball, voice of Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who is just as shocked as the audience is to find out that there are dudes that like her show about intrepid, magical cartoon ponies. Ashleigh is invited to BronyCon, a yearly convention for bronies, and decides to go.

Along the way we meet bronies from different walks of life, while occasionally coming back to Ashleigh. Ashleigh is just fun to watch. We meet her band, Hey Ocean, who just knows how to make great music... there music is great.

The directing from Brent Hodge is fantastic, the soundtrack is amazing and the conclusion is satisfying. Definitely recommend checking this one out.