g1 (tales) Thoughts on Tales?

[SUPERFOX5 385]

I recently started watching Tales on DVD from Shout! Factory, and I can't believe I missed out on this one back in the 90's.

It has some interesting characters, even though it seems kinda cheesy, but I still like it somehow, despite being a 26 year old male.

The theme song is very catchy for me, believe it or not.

What does anyone else think of this show?

[Fhaolan 4,468]

Sweetheart is best My Little Pony Tales Pony, especially in later episodes where her niceness covers a bit of a cruel streak.

It's not as bad as some say, providing you keep in mind the time period involved. It's very definitely an early 90's cartoon show, with all the cultural baggage that goes along with that. It was produced very specifically as a girl's cartoon, so most of the boy characters are often portrayed as incompetent and 'bad boys needing fixing by a good girl', that kind of thing, but at least it *has* reoccurring boy characters, which is weird for MLP. And it's also a far more grounded series than the other MLP cartoons before and after. The setting is very specifically a contemporary Southwest United States, something like Arizona or New Mexico, and the fantasy elements are very rare and somewhat jarring because of it.

[SUPERFOX5 385]

19 hours ago, Fhaolan said:

Sweetheart is best My Little Pony Tales Pony, especially in later episodes where her niceness covers a bit of a cruel streak.

It's not as bad as some say, providing you keep in mind the time period involved. It's very definitely an early 90's cartoon show, with all the cultural baggage that goes along with that. It was produced very specifically as a girl's cartoon, so most of the boy characters are often portrayed as incompetent and 'bad boys needing fixing by a good girl', that kind of thing, but at least it *has* reoccurring boy characters, which is weird for MLP. And it's also a far more grounded series than the other MLP cartoons before and after. The setting is very specifically a contemporary Southwest United States, something like Arizona or New Mexico, and the fantasy elements are very rare and somewhat jarring because of it.

Had to read this a few times, and I agree, it seems that 90's girl-focused cartoons had boys viewed that way, and I cannot blame the creators for that, after all, it was a different time then, and there was no fandoms or bronies...

Back then, we had boy cartoons, and girl cartoons, but nowadays, any audience can enjoy whatever they want, despite any judgement from the public.

This somehow feels to be my current favorite non-FiM MLP series, considering that I like slice of life series, like Crayon Shin-Chan and Lucky Star.

This series feels like a winner, to me, at least!

[dakotadarkhooves 46]

Okay so Tales was a bit before my time as a kid but when I was little there was a pony site that had all the episodes uploaded, and my younger sister and I would watch them on repeat while playing with our ponies. I think we had all the songs memorized haha. Our fave episode was The Tea Party. Although there are lots of...ahem...weird spots of dialogue where they put lines over the wrong pony's mouth movements, I thought it was interesting and I still enjoy going back and re-watching them on occasion. It was sort of a novelty, since I grew up with G3s, to see male ponies. I wasn't really fond of the clique-ish behavior of the other ponies besides Sweetheart but at least she actually stood up for what she believed in and didn't allow them to push her around too much.

And I had a tiny bit of an obsession with Teddy...okay no, that's an understatement. I had a huge obsession with Teddy. I drew lots of fanart of him and Sweetheart. I was kinda heartbroken when I realized they hadn't made an official pony of him, and I used to spend hours looking for pics of customs of Teddy, Ace, Lancer, etc. I still wanna make my own customs of them someday.

[Fhaolan 4,468]

2 hours ago, SUPERFOX5 said:

This somehow feels to be my current favorite non-FiM MLP series, considering that I like slice of life series, like Crayon Shin-Chan and Lucky Star.

I can understand that. My only real complaint about the series was a couple of poorly thought through morals, and one episode where they tried to bring in actual fantasy stuff that was more than a bit incongruous for me. I don't know how far along you are, so I'm not going to spoil it for you though.

[KarentheUnicorn 218]

I don't remember ever watching Tales on TV; it's possible I may have seen an episode on the disney channel but honestly I don't really remember sitting down at a certain time watching it on tv.

I got online back in 1997 I think, 6 or 7. I found a website called Dream Valley (it no longer exists) but this was probably the first time I was ever exposed to really knowing about Tales ponies, since the toys were produced overseas and not inside the USA. At that time the Dream Valley website had a chatroom where a lot of collectors were for the first time really able to communicate with other people who also liked MLP. There were other sites poping up and messageboards around that time. It was probably around 1999 when a lot of us collectors got together for the first time at a fellow collectors home.

So I don't really remember tales ponies through the cartoon, it was exposure of getting online and learning about all the toy ponies that were made overseas outside the usa that hasbro never sold here.

[Moony the Cat 3,697]

My Little Pony Tales is my favorite Mlp Show, i even enjoy it more than Fim. Its a cute and funny Teenage Drama sort of show and for me as a furry, having a Cartoon in which the Cartoon Characters act like humans, even more than in the other shows, gave it a really special feeling.

I dont know similar Shows ( well, except for actual live action series of this sort, which i dont like ) so it felt unique. Also i enjoy the drawing and Animation style quite a lot and the german voice acting was also really good. I wish they would make a german rerelease, we only got Vhs Tapes but i have never found all of them. I currently have 3 out of 6 Vhs Tapes. I found the fourth one but the other 2 are still missing.

[Crimson storm 1,826]

My little pony tales was I best show on tv back then each episode had a moral like don’t spread gossip and face the Consequences of your actions I think my little pony tales made me a old school brony

Edited November 1, 2018 by Crimson storm

[Leave a Whisper 703]

I revisited a few eps earlier this year. Some of it was cringy because how hamfisted Hasbro can get moralizing, but other then that, its held up pretty well. The animation is still lovely, Sweetheart, Patch, Lancer and Clover are still my favorites, I was reminded about what a fun character Melody could be and I got a nice dose of childhood nostalgia. 💖 

[Splashee 28,537]

Clover's episodes are adorable. Especially the one where she gets jealous of her big sister Meadowlark for being talented and famous (Ep: Send in the Clown). Also the "ticket master" episode from G4 is based on one episode where Clover got tickets and had to choose a friend (Ep: And the Winner Is).

[simba86 1,541]

It's one of my favorites of the older generation

[Latecomer 438]

I've heard it said that while OK, one could just swap out all the pony models for humans and nothing would change - is that true, people who've actuallu watched it? 

[Fhaolan 4,468]

On 5/8/2020 at 2:38 PM, Latecomer said:

I've heard it said that while OK, one could just swap out all the pony models for humans and nothing would change - is that true, people who've actuallu watched it? 

Yeah, that's not far off. It was very much a standard 80's kids show, set in a standard cartoon version of the 80's.

There were a couple of moral lessons that were very much 'of the time' as well, that wouldn't fly now-a-days. A few 'girls *have* to have boyfriends to be complete' and the like that is a bit jarring now.

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

I liked the characters in it but the songs were really pitchy and weird

[Splashee 28,537]

I got involved in MLP because of Tales. I had some very fun past stories to share about it, at one point. One being the fact that I bought the last part of the videos from Australia just so that the rest of the world could enjoy them (back when Youtube allowed you to upload stuff, basically before 2013), and sadly, those videos were used to mock the show (thank you Bronies )

[HeebieJeebies 23]

It's weird. The animation sucks. The morals blow. I don't understand it. Everyone in it acts ridiculous.

It's my favorite MLP tie-in show.