From the New York Times, reports of a brand-new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic spinoff that reimagines the horses as teenage girls:
“We are responding to the desire by our fans to experience the brand in more ways,” said John A. Frascotti, Hasbro’s chief marketing officer. “They imagined themselves as which pony they would be or which pony they identified with the most.”
So Hasbro created Equestria Girls, a parallel world in which the My Little Pony characters were reconceived as teenage girls in high school. To maintain continuity, Hasbro retained the same creative talent, animation style and message of friendship.
The full-length animated movie version of these new ponies-turned-teens will be released in June. Click over to the NYT story for a picture of the fillies.
Obviously, the real question is: Will Bronies like this new universe? Or is this aimed at the original My Little Pony market of 5- to 10-year-old girls, who probably do identify with and imagine themselves as the characters? I can’t tell. I mean, I kinda hope that adult male Pony fans are imagining which pony they would be, and not, you know, a different verb. But I don’t know. I’ve mostly seen it go the other way, and a new hot teen version makes that suuuuuuuper icky.
Anyways, this is the actual world you live inside of, in case you were wondering, not a wacky Monday-afternoon asleep-at-the-desk dream. Real life! Brought to you by Hasbro.