Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony (2012)

Just when you thought that "A Brony Tale" didn't meet too many expectations, this documentary will go down a treat. It heavily relies on the bronies and the convention, rather than being slow- burned and relying on ONE person making part of this fandom possible: Ashleigh Ball. Would recommend for the whole family. In spite of some profanity - the movie would've been given a PG- rating either way.

I should start by stating categorically I am NOT a Brony. I've never watched the show, never bought the merchandise, never read one of the comics.I've also never understood Bronies, so when I saw this documentary available on Netflix, I popped it on, hoping to get an insight into these weirdo targets of derision I've heard about.I was simply blown away. I'm still not a fan, but to me, this documentary isn't about the show OR the fans, its about our ability to accept people who have different views or interests to us. It really made me question my assumptions about Bronies, but also my assumptions about myself and my identity as a liberal, accepting person. Namely how can I stand against racism, against homophobia etc if I still have an irrational dislike of Bronies? In all honesty, it reminded me of being a Trekkie back in the day. Comic Cons may now be a multi billion dollar industry and suddenly everyones calling themselves a "geek", but I remember times when the mere mention of a Sci Fi convention would get you into trouble at work, get you punched in a bar and a guaranteed life without sex.I spent decades as a Sci Fi outcast waiting for the rest of society to catch up and I see a lot of common touch points in the adversity the Brony community faces today.Slight spoiler - the effect a Bronycon had on a young man with Aspergers really did move me to tears and the work John De Lancie did helping a father accept his sons Bronyism was just astonishing. I'd give this 8 stars if it had "converted" me. The fact it managed to move me deeply, but still stay objective enough for me to not be converted bumps it up to a 9.

Wow. Just wow. This documentary is created with the intent of showing off the good side of the brony fandom. The way it tries to do so is by gathering bronies all around the world and telling their various sides of the story.However what they do is tell only the good sides of the bronies (it depends on whether you view the attributes of the fandom mentioned in the film are good) and in doing so boosting their egos but at the same time worsens their own image to non bronies. How? Basically they tell us stuff about how watching this show is daring because they're not the target demographic and they believe this show is the best ever and get this, believe all the previous incarnations are worse than this generation. And once just once cloppers are mentioned and the moment they are mentioned they immediately go onto some thing else. This movie is just something special, it strokes the fandom's ego but at the same time degrades the brony fan base image. Now THAT is Oscar worthy

Overall, I enjoyed this film. It follows some good individual stories, and I really enjoyed the original animation created for it by JanAnimations and others. One of the things I enjoyed about this film isn't even in the film itself - it's how responsive the filmmakers have been to input. The film was funded through Kickstarter, and all through the production process, backers were given details about how things were going, and the crew took suggestions and feedback. Not only through Kickstarter, but through their Twitter accounts, YouTube replies, and e-mail.I look forward to the day that this film becomes available on Blu-ray, film festivals, and perhaps more! Go buy this film now at their website if you're curious, or wait a bit for those other methods of distribution! /)