My Little Pony (2004 series)

My Little Pony is a American animated series based on Hasbro's eponymous toy brand developed by Bonnie Zacherle. The serie was first broadcast on January 12, 2004, in Discovery Kids (currently Discovery Family), following a different model from several other animated series, with divided episodes in 5 parts (chapters) that were shown between Monday and Friday, at 7 pm and repeated at 00:30 pm, at the midst of prime time, each week, a new episode was launched.

Due to this daring model, the series had to rely on a team of more than 180 animators, divided into 3 groups of 60 each from both SD Entertainment and Entertainment One, who took turns producing episodes. The series was directed by Vic Dal Chele, being supervised by Robert Wintrop and Margaret Loesch. My Little Pony followed the directly successful example of its predecessor, Adventures in Ponyland, from Generation 2, and inherited its model of division into chapters.

This is the longest-running work based on the My Little Pony toy line, having originally run for 8 years. The series ended in 2012, due to the budget cut for the production of this series in order to reduce expenses, but since the 3 animation groups did not conform to the salary, the end of the series ended up being the chosen path.

Early production
In early 2003, Hasbro started to manufacture the 3rd generation of the My Little Pony toy line, and along with this start of manufacturing, came the debate between making some production to promote the series or not, since G2 had failed to be successful due to the lack of a work to bring commercial appeal to toys. The idea of a production that promoted G3 ended up winning among the company's executive branch, and a feature film was initially designed for theatrical release, however, it was abandoned due to lack of interest from producers, so a plan B was orchestrated, which in this case was an animated children's series, which Hasbro executives found viable, as they already had subsidiaries to be able to animate it, and a channel where it could be displayed, Discovery Kids.

When discussing the format that the series would follow, another impasse occurred, as some defended intact episodes of 20 minutes, and others defended in episodes that were divided into parts, which would last around 30 minutes, and would be shown throughout the week. Those who defended the split episodes said that this would assure the audience through curiosity of what was to come in the later chapter.

Spending
To produce the first season of the series, Hasbro, SD Entertainment and Entertainment One spent, together, more than 27 million dollars, being the most expensive animated series to date, this was spent on equipment, contracts, salaries, production studios, marketing, editing, among others, in order to achieve a series that attracts audiences and critics alike.

It was discussed among the executives if there was indeed a need to raise more than US$20 million for a television series, key figures from both companies defended that this was in order to promote the company's product, and that if the series was successful, it would not be necessary to spend a lot of money for a second season, and that this was typical of a first season, and especially of a series that came to consolidate itself. Over the course of the series, the series actually had less funding, although it was still considered somewhat expansive, at around $17 million, with the 2010 season having a second high, at $26 million dollars spent.

Casting
Hasbro already had the right names to choose to voice the characters, Venus Terzo would voice the protagonist Rainbow Dash and Kathleen Barr would voice her double, Pinkie Pie, to voice the dragon Spike, Brian Drummond had also been selected, other voice actors were Tabitha St. Germain (Comet Tail), Britt McKillip (Tra La La La), Janyse Jaud (Desert Rose), Ashleigh Ball (June Rose), Teryl Rothery (StarSong), Alice Playten (Mochanut) and Kelly Sheridan (Wysteria).

In the middle of the 8th season, the series suffers an embezzlement with the death of Alice Playten, and her character Monchanut ends up being cut from the series, as a form of farewell and also as a tribute, an episode was produced in a hurry, uniting two of the animation groups, to justify the departure of the character from the series.

Other major characters such as Toola-Roola, Scootaloo, Cherry Blossom and Sweetie Belle, were only added in the 2006 season, with the idea of "diversification" proposed by Wintrop, executive producer of the series, thus, the series also gained the role of Rebecca Shoichet, Nicole Oliver, Kazumi Evans and Andrea Libman.

Music
The soundtrack for the series was composed by Dori Caymmi, the Brazilian musician was announced as composer of the music for the series at the end of 2003, when it was already ready, Caymmi was chosen due to having composed the soundtrack for a children's series consecrated by his country, Sítio do Picapau Amarelo, which had the same format as My Little Pony.

Caymmi was responsible for all the arrangements, compositions and musical direction as a whole throughout the series, and in 2010 he was nominated for a Grammy for the "Best Children's Album" award, with the release of the OST of the series in 2009.

Launch
The first episode of the series aired on January 12, 2004, on Discovery Kids, a channel belonging to Hasbro, at 5 pm, having obtained a considerable audience for the time slot, but it did in fact perform well in the rerun time, at 8 pm, during prime time. its premiere had a viewership, in millions, of 0.68, ratings that were encouraging, and which looked like the series could perform well for its time slot.

Early stage
Between seasons 1-3, the series was remarkably experimental, with many scripts, with various forms of script being tested, script with adventure, fantasy, comedy, and even drama and suspense were common in this experimental phase. Dal Chele even said in 2016 that experimentalism was so strong in this initial phase that a kind of "rotating direction" was thought of, in which Vic would have to reserve himself with another director around the command of the series, preventing continuity and autonomy of both, about which future the series should take.

The most remembered episodes of this phase are: Hunt for the Seventh Color of the Rainbow (2004), Spike, Your King (2004), A Very Pinkie Tale (2005), The Skates of Comet Tail (2004), Desert Rose Evenings (2006), The Particular Pill of Joy (2005), The Dreams of Monchanut (2006), June Rose as a Fairy (2005), The Princess Promenade (2004) among many others. The legacy of this phase is felt in the following seasons, in the consolidation and awards phase, in the late 2000s.

Consolidation stage
At the end of the 3rd season, the series goes through its great turning point, with the arrival of the new characters Scootaloo, Cherry Blossom, Toola-Roola and Sweetie Belle, who soon fell into the public's graces, thus Margaret Loesch achieved her main goal, to diversify the scripts for the series, bringing together these four novices, a range of other characters to be explored in the coming seasons.

In the 2007 season, these newest characters were gradually entering the plot route, the investment to make them attractive to the public was visible, the experimentalist phase was soon over since a direction for the series had already been found: well-elaborated scripts, diversified, and that was not totally dependent on any character, having multiple characters as operatives for the development of the episode throughout its parts.

In addition, the consolidation of the pillars of the series also occurred in the visual, with scenarios being increasingly elaborate, with the creation of a team responsible only for the quality of the backgrounds, improvement in visual effects, and sound effects, on the other hand, the expected goal was achieved, and the sale of toys was growing again, the toys of this generation of My Little Pony became famous for the slogan "maybe she doesn't appear in the series", as a way of convincing children to buy the toy and then be able to boast that the character the toy represents appeared in My Little Pony. The audience of the series was positioned well, with a share of 29%, in addition to the DVDs sold, which made the series a fever at the end of the 2000s, products such as clothes, shoes, and mainly apparent tiaras as StarSong used, generated an income of $230 million to Hasbro in 2008.

In 2010, Vic Dal Chele, in an interview with The Guardian, said that more was expected in the coming years, since the 7th season, shown that year, was the first to be shown in HDTV, had an improvement in animation quality, and also marked the passage from monaural to stereophone. In addition, it also featured the production of a new soundtrack, which was mostly an improvement of the existing one from 2004, added to the new themes introduced, the OST was also released in digital format; overall, this season was the series' second-most expansive.

It was at this stage that the period of immense nominations and awards emerged, with the first occurring at the 35th Annie Awards in 2008, where the series received 3 nominations: Outstanding Directing, for Vic Dal Chele, Outstanding Production Design, for Robert Wintrop and Margaret Loesch, and Outstanding Music, by Dori Caymmi, the series won only the second nomination, however, this encouraged more investment in quality for the 5th season. The investments paid off, and between 2008 and 2011, the series won: 5 Primetime Emmy Awards and 8 Annie Awards.

The most striking and remembered episodes of this phase are: The Feast of Toola-Roola (2009), Rainbow Dash and the Golden Beetle (2007), Cuckoo Cuckoo (2008), StarSong and the Runaway Notes (2008), Pinkie the Ant (2010), Cherry Baba and the 40 Thieves (2007), The Secret Garden (2009), The Monchanut Concert (2011), The Draconic Spell (2007), The Fearful Red-furred Bird (2008) among others.

Finalization
The ninth season was prudenced with a certain agility, and arrived on TV in 2011, having premiered on December 19, during the end of year festivities, this was generally good, the chapters shown on December 24 and 25 are used as an example; on these days, the series scored a share of 31%, and an audience score of 18.1 points, Discovery Kids' highest rating to date.

This start to the season was encouraging, but no one could have predicted what was to come in 2012, this year, Hasbro was faced with a crisis in the coffers, the high marketing and spending to make the series the phenomenon that it was came to take its toll, the first measure, almost instinctive, was to reduce the salaries of all 3 groups responsible for the production and animation of the series, the second step, was to decrease the duration of the episodes, thus reducing the overall expenses for the series, and finally, the third measure, was to reduce the marketing significantly, according to Brian Goldner, this was due to the fact that, in a One way or another, the series and the brand were already at the top, and reducing spending on marketing would not weigh against the fact that the series was already completely famous among the young audience.

Despite attempts, however, the crisis did not cease, but everything was disguised in front of the public, with the series continuing to trend, the brand continuing to be the second best-selling doll in the world, behind Barbie only, and with an outstanding fan community. However, a new salary adjustment ended up generating discomfort between the animation groups and the executives, and then, in fact, the series began to suffer a slight decline.

Hasbro executives tried in every way to reduce friction, but the animators were very clear, either fair pay for the years working, or it was better to cancel the series at the end of that season. The fact is that this dilemma was taken seriously, and in April 2012, the executive branch of the company met in order to discuss the direction of the series, and the decision to cancel the series stood out, since it was of greater interest to the executives of the company to recover from the crisis. As a result, the crew was let go following the end of production on The Halfhorn Unicorn, which would prove to be the last episode of the series, in May 2012, with the episode airing the following month.

Although it is the episode that ended the series, Halfhorn Unicorn does not indicate a series finale, which led Vic Dal Chele to say, in 2017, that it was better that way, since the series would appear to be a certain infinity, since nothing presents a parting moment of the series towards the audience.

Reception
The series was generally applauded by major critics, on IMDb, the three best placed in terms of score are the 1st season (8.9), the 4th season (8.3), the 3rd season (7.5) and the 7th season (7.2), the Season nine is the season that generally receives the most criticism, but one must take into account behind-the-scenes factors to understand this season's unattractiveness.

Episodes
Main article: My Little Pony (2004 series)/List of episodes