For everyone who ever wanted to know how the My Little Ponies tick (or trot?) and take a peek behind the scenes of the phenomenally successful television show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic… here’s your chance, and you’re going to neigh for joy when you see it.
Mary Jane Begin’s lavishly illustrated book is the definition of gorgeous, packed with lush full-colour artwork featuring all the characters MLP fans know and love – and we do mean ALL the characters. Anyone who still thinks My Little Pony is only about sparkly-eyed candy coloured fillies will get a very big surprise. There’s an interview with Friendship is Magic showrunner Lauren Faust, storyboards, episode breakdowns, a fascinating look into the show’s evolution from a line-up of, let’s face it, pretty uninspiring plastic toys to the animated pop culture phenomenon My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has become, and even a quick class into how to draw a My Little Pony of your very own.
And did I mention the piece about pony fashion (because once you’ve drawn your pony you’ll want to dress her/him up, right?), the interview with a proud card-carrying Brony (for the uninitiated, a Brony is a male MLP fan who is… let’s just say… a little older than the show’s core demographic) and there’s even a pretty cool section about Equestria itself with detailed views of Ponyville, Cloudsdale, Sweet Apple Acres, Canterlot… so many places it’s making our hooves sore just to think about it. And finally the book ends with a selection of jaw-dropping artwork submitted by fans to the MLP design contest. There are some very talented MLP buffs out there.
What can we tell you? Mary Jane Begin, an award-winning illustrator and children’s author with a few MLP book titles already under her mane, has done a phenomenal job collecting all of this together and her affection for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the creatives behind it shines through on every page.
Is this a book for young fans? We’d say not, because give it five minutes and they’ll have ripped all the pages out and pasted them on their bedroom wall, which would be a terrific shame. This is a book not just for older admirers of the series but for animation fans too. True, the text is pretty spare once you get past the opening chapters and MLP: The Art of Equestria doesn’t go deep into the technical nuts and bolts of how an episode is made, but there’s still plenty here to admire. This is essentially a loud proud coffee table book and it’s the artwork that makes it special. We’ve got a feeling that a lot of people are going to enjoy this, not just the MLP fanbase.
Pass us a sugar lump and call us Pinkie Pie, we can’t recommend this highly enough!
MY LITTLE PONY: THE ART OF EQUESTRIA / AUTHOR: MARY JANE BEGIN / PUBLISHER: HARRY N. ABRAMS INC. / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
