I gotta wonder if they’ll ever actually make a 100% full effort theatrical release Pony movie (and I don’t mean “release in 100 theaters to drum up excitement” i mean a damn movie that’s intended to make money on ticket sales).
Word of Faust, the show’s target demographic is everyone.
Obvious even without word of Hasbro, the franchise’s target demographic is anyone who has money, or who has pliant parents with money. If they can sell more toys catering to bronies than catering to children, then Hasbro will cater to bronies. But if Hasbro can sell more toys catering to children at the expense of bronies, then Hasbro will cater to children. However, Hasbro can sell toys to both little girls and older bronies – whether they’re the same toys or different toys for each demographic – that means they will wind up selling more toys overall. A.K.A., Hasbro wins.
I think that’s the problem; the very idea of AIMING for a demographic.
After EQG was made it was revealed the various reasons for it’s creation and all of them started with a marketing decision.
Now as a Hasbro product MLP will always be subject to marketing and toy ideas driving the show.
However, this thing is just grabbing every trope and hoping something will strike it big and that is not how you make a quality product.
FIM was not a huge hit because it appealed to grown ups, it was not a big hit because it was linked to a toy line. It was a big hit because it was a quality show with talented people pulling actual effort into making a good show.
EQG on the other hand has not had that luxury. The talent is there but the effort is not. It’s script could have made an okay episode but was padded to a movie length, the models were ugly (getting uncanny valley in places)and even the Songs felt like a downgrade.
So a sequal where the cast becomes the new “Jem” with 80’s hair to match isn’t the way to improve things.
There’s the show then there’s the merchandise. Hasbro’s merch has always sucked, that’s what I mean when I say Hasbro should pander to adult fans a little more. All we want is show-accurate toys and plushes. And not the overpriced, badly painted Funko ones neither.
