PONY.MOV
| PONY.MOV | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Parody Animation Black comedy |
| Created by | Max Gilardi |
| Starring | Max Gilardi Kira Buckland Arin Hanson Kimlinh Tran Various voice actors |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 3–8 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | YouTube |
| Release | October 11, 2011 – February 20, 2013 |
| My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic |
|---|
 |
PONY.MOV is a fan-made animated adult parody web series based on the animated television show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Created by Max Gilardi (also known as HotDiggedyDemon),[1] the series ran from October 2011 to February 2013 and gained notoriety within the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom for its deliberately crude and subversive take on the source material. The series consists of six episodes, each focusing on one of the main characters from the original show.[2]
Overview
[edit]The PONY.MOV series reimagines the characters from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic with deliberately crude and subversive themes in the style of John Kricfalusi's Ren & Stimpy.[3] Episodes feature exaggerated, grotesque versions of the main characters that invert the original show's values of friendship and harmony in favor of violence and gore, cruelty, drug use, and dark humor.[4] Each episode focuses on one of the main characters from the original series as a distorted version that retains recognizable traits while being taken to extreme degrees.[3]
In 2014, PONY.MOV was given a cease and desist letter from Hasbro.[5]
Reception and analysis
[edit]Ashleigh Ball, the official voice actor for Rainbow Dash and Applejack in the original series, described the PONY.MOV videos as "really twisted and pretty cool" during a May 2012 interview with Everfree Radio.[6][7]
In a collection of essays on Friendship Is Magic and its derivative works, author Jen A. Blue analyzed PONY.MOV as an example of carnivalization within fan culture, arguing that the series functions as a grotesque inversion of Friendship Is Magic's core values. Blue wrote that the series presents exaggerated versions of familiar characters that retain recognizable traits while being distorted to monstrous extremes, creating what she described as textbook grotesque art. Unlike other dark parodies of the franchise like Friendship Is Witchcraft, Blue argued that PONY.MOV works as a direct parody of the source material itself rather than fan expectations, with its carnivalesque approach calling into question the fundamental principles of friendship and harmony presented in the original show. Blue suggested that the series reflects cultural anxieties about masculinity among the show's adult male fanbase, particularly in its portrayal of violence as masculine and friendship as emasculating. In addition, Blue commented that the companion Ask Jappleack blog evolved beyond simple parody that ultimately embraces the values of the original series: an "inversion of an inversion" that carnivalizes the entire genre of violent Friendship Is Magic parodies.[3]
PONY.MOV has been described as an example of a disturbing YouTube video disguised as a children's cartoon.[8]
Meredith Woerner, writing for Gizmodo, described the web series as "disgusting... and most certainly NSFW".[9]
See also
[edit]- Clop
- Friendship Is Witchcraft
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Music of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fan fiction
References
[edit]- ^ "PONY.MOV". TV Time. Retrieved 2025-05-29.
- ^ "Pony.Mov". IMDB. Retrieved 2025-05-29.
- ^ a b c Blue, Jen A. (2016-01-20). My Little Po-Mo: Unauthorized Critical Essays on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Season Three and Derivative Works. pp. 222–227.
- ^ Stohs-Krause, Hilary (2013-05-13). "'Brony' Fandom Carves Out Space For Young Men To Enjoy Friendship ... And Cartoon Ponies". Nebraska Educational Telecommunications. Archived from the original on April 21, 2014. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
- ^ Strike, Joe (2023-08-29). Furry Planet: A World Gone Wild. Apollo Publishers. ISBN 978-1-954641-11-2.
- ^ Ball, Ashleigh (2012-05-02). "Interview: Ashleigh Ball" (Interview). Interviewed by Draft, Final. Everfree Radio. Retrieved 2025-05-29.
- ^ Scotellaro, Shaun (2012-05-02). "Ashleigh Ball Interview". Equestria Daily. Retrieved 2025-05-29.
- ^ Lee, Natasha (2017-07-09). "Disturbing videos masked as kid's cartoons on YouTube". Yahoo! Lifestyle. Retrieved 2025-05-29.
- ^ Woerner, Meredith (2012-06-26). "Incredibly messed-up short gives My Little Ponys's Pinkie Pie a sex tape". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2025-05-29.
