Greetings newgrounders from Newgrounds. Today's post is WAY longer than usual, so if you're only interested in knowing how C. Crashing a Wedding is doing, feel free to skip to that part, if you want to kill time, or if you're interested in what's next, read the whole post.

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Well, I come here to tell you my thoughts (actually more like an in-depth analysis) about...yup; you guessed it, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. First of all, I wanted to tell you how I got to watch it, but it's a long story...let's just say that I stumbled upon PonyCraft 2 after watching a Starcraft 2 trailer and it got me interested.

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At first I had doubts, I thought it would be girly and annoying, but still I decided to give it a chance because no other cartoon had ever got my attention like that.
I watched the first episode, and I was like "I was so wrong, this is a great quality cartoon." I started to watch more episodes...Three days after, I had finished the whole first season (second one is not out yet), 26 freaking episodes in three days! That has to be the series I've engulfed the fastest, it was almost scary.

Note: On the comments of the videos, I realized most of the watchers were actually 18+ year old males, so think about that if you've wanted to watch it, but you're scared of what others may think. Give it a chance; don't judge a book by its cover.

As I wish to be a professional animator in the future, I decided to analyze the series. What does it have that made me watch the whole thing so quickly? Knowing that would help me create better work in the future, so I broke it down into pieces and here are my thoughts:

STORY/WRITING

Yes, that's the first thing that got my attention, it has a story, it's not complex, but it works perfectly. I'll explain it shortly: The main character, Twilight Sparkle, has a task given by her mentor (Princess Celestia), and that is to write her letters (reports) about the things she learns about friendship every day. Easy to follow, and it's perfect, because that way, the moral is clear but not annoying, check an example (I made it up, it's not extracted from the show, but that's the "format"):

Right (MLP): "Dear Princess Celestia, today I've learned the importance of sharing, not only being generous, but also being open to what your friends have to offer. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."

Wrong (others): "See kids? That's why it's important to shaaaaaaare...*annoying laugh*

See the difference? The creators found a way to make the morals clear without shoving it in your face like other shows do, that's a huge thumbs up from me.

CHARACTERS:

Simple rule: characters that are appealing make a show good, annoying characters don't. There are six main pony characters, and all of them have very different personalities. By having very different characters there's lots of potential for jokes (see the characters from any comedy series if you don't believe me), and I bet there's at least one character that will remind you of yourself.

MUSIC/VOICE ACTING

Another important thing, from the main theme to the background music, songs have to be top quality and catchy. MLP does a great job in here. "Winter wrap-up, winter wrap-uuuup, cause tomorrow spring is heeere~!" Oh darn, still got that song in my head, sorry.

About voice acting, you must have voices that fit with the characters personalities. MLP does that very well too. Every character has a very special way of expressing itself. One can be smart and calm, another one timid, and another one cheerful and happy, and the voices fit those personalities perfectly.

HUMOR (well, jokes...)

Oohh... trying to do this one well can be a true pain in the flank. Good humor can be decisive in a kids cartoon, because kids won't like something that's boring, but what kind of humor do you need? Simple stuff, like somebody slipping on a banana peel may be fun for kids, but not for adults, and complex jokes are fun for adults but kids won't get them, what's the solution?

It's the balance of simple humor for kids, and puns, hidden jokes and references for adults, which is fun for children, and also for the older brothers/parents that watch the cartoon with them (That's why this show is so popular with men). If you notice, the most successful cartoons are the ones that can balance kid and adult jokes correctly. *cough* Animaniacs *cough*

ANIMATION/ART

It looks like the show was animated in flash, I'm not sure, but that's another thing that got my attention. The backgrounds are colorful, the characters are simple, but they're very well drawn and animated, lip syncing is good too. (Wow, how ironic that the thing I focus on the most is the one I have the least to talk about, huh?)

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Are you still reading this? Wow! You must be really bored, good to know, 'cause now it's time for the conclusion.

If I had to rate the show, I'd give it a 9.5 or maybe a 10, just because it does something most cartoons made to teach kids could never do: being appealing to both kids and adults. Alright, that's it for now; comment if you want to tell me your opinion about this.

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And now for the ANIMATION UPDATE:

Hope you're happy to know that since the last post, I've worked a lot on C. Crashing a Wedding, and that I now have over one minute of animation done! Still, I have no idea when it will be out, but please be patient, I'll promise it will be worth it. I'll see you in the next post.