Born of internet mecca 4chan, the “Brony” phenomenon is a flourishing community of adult, mostly straight, male fans of the children’s cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Brent Hodge’s documentary surveys the members of this surprising subculture, framed by the journey of Ashleigh Ball, one of the show’s voice actors, embracing her unexpected fan base.
How did you become interested in the Bronies, and how did you find your interview subjects?
I was friends with [voice actor] Ashleigh Ball before the project. She’d booked the characters Applejack and Rainbow Dash on “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.” We were out for dinner, and she said that guys had been emailing her who really liked the show, really liked her characters, and called themselves “bronies.” I was completely shocked. And I just said, we have to start filming this. You have to send me these emails as they come in. And the emails started coming in a lot. At one point she told me she’d gotten a really funny email, and said I should come over and film her reading it out loud. It was her getting an invite to BronyCon. And I wanted to go and explore the brony pheonomenon. I started getting ahold of the guys from those emails. One thing let to another, and it just snowballed. I was in with the brony crew as the movement was growing. That first BronyCon was around a thousand people, and I think the latest one was eight thousand. This year they already they have ten thousand confirmed. It’s insane.
What was your reaction when you first started seeing these emails?
I was interested. I wanted to know more. I wanted to look this stuff up online. I just didn’t get it. I didn’t understand what these guys were about, and why they liked a little girl’s show. I found it really fascinating. I actually got surprised along the way by how much access I got. I got to go to the brony dj rave, I got to hang out with [Dusty Rhoades, also known as] the “world’s manliest brony.” I couldn’t stop. I interviewed one, and he would tell me about another guy, and that guy would tell me about another guy who does fan fiction. And I wanted to meet all of them. I was definitely weirded out at the start. It’s a weird concept to get your head around. But as we went through, it started to feel normal. And I could understand what these guys were doing.
Did they ever worry that you were out to get them?
That started to come up, because as I was filming this, the media started to poke fun at them. Fox News did a piece, and Jerry Springer, and Howard Stern. And the bronies became a little more wary about me coming in with cameras. But I always had Ashleigh on my side. When you’re doing a documentary with the biggest voice actor from the show, the bronies want to be a part of that. I think if I didn’t have Ashleigh, I really wouldn’t have had much access. She was like my bodyguard. I could say “Oh, I’m with Rainbow Dash. I’m with Applejack. I’m with the voice, don’t worry. I’m allowed to be here.” Then I became friends with some of them. And they introduced me to their friends, and then we were all friends.
Why do you think the bronies like the show so much?
That was always the first question I would ask. And I would always get, “Oh, the animation’s really good,” or, “The character development’s really good,” or, “I relate to this type of character,” and I would just think, okay, we got through that bullshit answer, let’s get to the real stuff. Really, why are you into the show? You told me the same thing that everyone else did. A lot of the time I would ask some of their history, and some guys had had some rough goes, and some tragedies. So they were resorting back to a show that’s simple and kind and fun and about friendship, and is easy to watch. But the thing I heard the most was, it was never really about the show. They all said the same thing: I came for the show, and I stayed for the community. There was a sense of belonging. These people were finding something that might not be normal, but that was okay, because there were a lot of people there, and they were into it.
Do you think the film dispels any stereotypes?
There are a lot of stereotypes about what it means to be a man in our current culture. What I found with the bronies was, just because they’re into something that men supposedly shouldn’t be into, that didn’t make them less of a man.
The film features two psychologists who discuss various statistics about the bronies. Were there any that surprised you?
Going into this, you’d think a lot of them would be gay. And that wasn’t the case at all. Almost none of them were.
Do you think that being a brony requires a high level of security and self-confidence?
When you’re a brony, you’re associated with the idea that you’re so confident you don’t care what anyone thinks. I mean you feel for a couple of these guys in high school, because they get picked on pretty hard. There was one student with a “My Little Pony” lunch bag, and the school actually told him to stop bringing it in. But then there are guys who are in their mid-twenties and older, and they’ve started to really find confidence. They know who they are. They don’t care that it’s a little girl’s show. And that’s pretty cool.
You’ve mentioned that a lot of the media coverage of the bronies has been contemptuous. Do you hope your film will play some part in changing that?
I never really set out to make a doc that expressed an opinion about bronies. I wasn’t trying to make them feel good, and I wasn’t trying to make them look ridiculous either. I think the film is positive, and it shows them in a good light. But it only shows them in a good light because that’s what I saw. It’s definitely way better than half the media coverage that’s coming out about them. But I hope people take away what they want. If they still think the bronies are odd, then that’s fine. I just hope the film entertains people.
Do you hope to stay involved in the brony community?
Absolutely. As Ashleigh says in the film, as long as “My Little Pony” exists, there will still be bronies. And that’s how I feel too: As long as bronies exist, I’ll probably have some kind of involvement in the community. I’ve made some friends there. I’m not a brony. I don’t love the show. I watched it critically to see what I liked about it, and it didn’t really click with me. So I don’t think I’ll get too in depth in terms of going to conventions and coming up with fan fiction and remixing videos or anything. But I’ll definitely stay connected with all the friends I’ve made.
Read the interview at IndieNYC.com
David@IndieNYC.com
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