Revelations from the Season 1 DVD commentaries!

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,695]

WARNING. SPOILERS. I am about to highlight the most interesting information the voice actors and show staff gave us on the commentary tracks from the Season 1 DVDs! Stuff you may have suspected but never confirmed, and some things you never would’ve imagined. If you’re buying the set and want to hear all this for yourself, read no further! Otherwise, enjoy. ^^

 

 

 

Commentators:

Andrea Libman, AKA Pinkie Pie & Fluttershy
Tabitha St. Germain, AKA Rarity & others

Nicole Oliver, AKA Celestia & Cheerilee
Cathy Weseluck, AKA Spike & Mayor Mare
Brian Leonard, Executive Director of Hasbro Studios
Robert Fuchs, Hasbro something-or-other
James “Wooty” Wootten, Episode Director
Jason Thiessen, Supervising Director
Dan Ingram, Composer
Red Sorenson, Art Director

 

 

RETURN OF HARMONY PTS 1, 2

--Each My Little Pony episode takes about three weeks to animate.

--Pinkie Pie’s original design was a Pegasus, but they decided her personality was active enough.

--They like the debates about “who’s faster: Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash?”

--Tara Strong came up to the Vancouver studios for the first episode, but did all the others from L.A.

--Fluttershy’s singing birds were not real birds, but they weren’t simulated on keyboards either. They were “professional whistlers.” ^^

--Somebody—either Brian or Jason—said he seriously lies awake at night worrying if they’ve forgotten to say “somepony” or “anypony” in the scripts.

 

WINTER WRAP-UP

--Andrea sounds a lot like Pinkie (sort of like how VA Yeardley Smith sounds almost exactly like Lisa Simpson). She says she just does her own voice as fast, loud and out-front as possible.

--The inspiration for Rarity’s voice was Audrey Hepburn. Tabitha altered it in the audition to make it a little more North American and got the job.

--The staff recalls having a whole debate on whether the non-pony animals (like bunnies and such) should be able to speak. I’m glad they settled on “no.” ^^ It makes the ponies themselves stand out and seem more like people.

--Someone: “This series really has some genuine heart to it. Not a lot of cartoons have that.”

--Dan Ingram wrote eight different versions of the “Winter Wrap-Up” chorus before deciding on one. He acknowledges that the instrumental version later in the episode is a base track, so that’s why some of us were able to hear distant singing in the background. xD

 

SUITED FOR SUCCESS

--The idea to throw a bunch of detailed dresses into “Suited for Success” was partly inspired by fanworks on DeviantArt. Lauren Faust wasn’t totally satisfied with what the designers came up with at first, so she stepped in and did some of the work herself.

--The staff actually considered two or three different singers (including Rebecca Shoichet who leads the theme song) to do “Art of the Dress” before settling on Kazumi Evans. (At least I think that’s what they said. It was hard to follow.)

 

THE SHOW STOPPERS

--Claire Corlett, the VA for Sweetie Belle, can apparently sing herself, but for whatever reason Michelle Creber does her character’s singing voice. Madeleine Peters (Scootaloo) is also a great singer, but did it as badly as she could for the talent show sequence. Even then she was still too good to be as funny as they wanted, so they edited her voice with an auto-tune program to make it worse.

--A few other details about the CMC voice actresses: Nicole and Cathy say they’re so clear and composed it’s “intimidating.” And don’t give Claire Corlett cookies.

--They wonder aloud where Scootaloo’s family is. Even they don’t know! Someone quoted Lauren as saying “if it’s not in the show yet, it’s not figured out.” They say the fans’ questions give them a place to go, because they don’t have all the details down either. And they agree that the CMC are looking for their marks based on what they want to do, not on what they’re actually good at.

--They refer to a hoof clap as a brohoof.

 

THE BEST NIGHT EVER

--They confirm that Equestria is in fact a matriarchy!

--Animating the ponies in costume for a whole episode was a tremendous challenge.

--The background singers in the “Best Night Ever” theme were an amateur community choir from Vancouver, of which Michelle Creber’s mother was a member! So that’s how they got them. xD They didn’t have the budget to bring in professional singers.

--Andrea couldn’t get Pinkie’s “I’m At the Grand Galloping Gala” ditty out of her head for five months.

--They seem to love the part where Rarity smashes the glass slipper as much as I did! “There’s a lot of girl power in that small gesture,” one of the guys observes. Yes, yes, yes!

Edited December 11, 2012 by TailsAlone

[Winona the Dog 1,984]

--Each My Little Pony episode takes about three weeks to animate.

 

Animation is no walk in the park. I actually had a friend of mine come to me and show how both Traditional and Computer aided animation works and quite honestly all of that information was overwhelming for me. Just goes to show how much appreciation you should have for the animators.

 

 

 

The other information was nice to read it was like a "Did You know?" sort of deal.

[Yellow Diamond 7,569]

These are pretty cool! I'm going to have to make time and watch the commentary episodes in the near future. Dumb fabric end of the semester stuff.

 

I only have one matter I wish to raise: Kazumi Evans does Rarity's singing voice. Did Tabitha actually sing "Art of the Dress"? That seems rather odd if such were the case.

[Akemi Homura 7,680]

 

--The inspiration for Rarity’s voice was Audrey Hepburn. Tabitha altered it in the audition to make it a little more North American and got the job.

 

So my suspicions were correct! I knew Rarity had a lot of Hepburn in her even though I've never seen the late actress perform before. There's actually a picture of Rarity donning her best impression of her somewhere, in fact.

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,695]

These are pretty cool! I'm going to have to make time and watch the commentary episodes in the near future. Dumb fabric end of the semester stuff.

 

I only have one matter I wish to raise: Kazumi Evans does Rarity's singing voice. Did Tabitha actually sing "Art of the Dress"? That seems rather odd if such were the case.

Then that must've been who they were talking about. xD  I didn't know who did Rarity's voice myself and just assumed it was Tabitha--guess not. (Amazing impression of her though.) I'll change that part.

[Yellow Diamond 7,569]

So my suspicions were correct! I knew Rarity had a lot of Hepburn in her even though I've never seen the late actress perform before. There's actually a picture of Rarity donning her best impression of her somewhere, in fact.

 

Tabitha confirmed this a while back when she made a panel appearance at a convention (I forget which one, but it was shortly after Bronycon). She mentioned Hepburn as a major influence on the way she framed Rarity's dialect and speech patterns.

 

It's nice to see an official media source reinforce the confirmation, though.

[CloudFyre 848]

I'm glad some of these things show up in the commentaries - I've heard quite a few of those before while watching various panel conventions.

Here's something that might be of interest to some of you: it was mentioned above that the staff members really don't know much of anything about Scootaloo's parents, and it seems that they do that intentionally so that they can play around with the ideas. (See below)

Earlier this week there was a debate thread about whether Equestria is a "country" or whether it is a "world" (which has now since been locked). Out of sheer curiosity, I contacted one of the writers and asked her what she thought, and she gave me this response:

 

"You've asked a very good question that I don't know the true answer for.  

 

In my brain, I think of Equestria as a land.  So, I guess it's more of a country.  

 

However you have a very good point with lines like, "What in the wide world of Equestria..." because I don't go saying, "What in America are you doing?"

 

But, whether it is a land sitting in a sea or a planet in and of itself, it is it's own "world."

 

I don't know if that's helpful, but hopefully it makes sense.  Still, it's just my thought, so please don't take it as canon."

So it seems that even the staff haven't decided what Equestria is - and maybe that was the best choice to let creativity abound.
  Edited December 11, 2012 by CloudFyre

[Radiance64 7,053]

--They wonder aloud where Scootaloo’s family is. Even they don’t know! Someone quoted Lauren as saying “if it’s not in the show yet, it’s not figured out.” They say the fans’ questions give them a place to go, because they don’t have all the details down either.

 

Ugh, of course they don't... I wish they did though, I really would like to know where that little filly lives already! It's killing me...

[Harmonic Revelations 8,835]

Well I'm actually surprised that Pinkie's choir at the Gala was stuck in the actor's head for five months, it only took five minutes until I forgot the entire thing besides the chorus (I'm bad with lyrics though, so there is that).

[NavelColt 22,880]

Ugh, of course they don't... I wish they did though, I really would like to know where that little filly lives already! It's killing me...

Scoots goes and lives with Dashie, best surrogate sister, now that they've been established in such a light. That's my personal head canon. I don't need to go through the hoops again since you've seen me explain this, but yeah, don't care for her to have some big episode about her BG. Though I suppose casually mentioning where she's been staying up till that point would be fine, as long as it's vague enough to not make things loose-ended and just make everyone more curious.

 

Very interesting. Can't find these anywhere online so I guess at some point I'll have to buy the DVD. I don't usually go for DVD's. Netflix and the internet have most of everything right there.

Edited December 12, 2012 by ~Chaotic Discord~

[IHazTommyWiseau 84]

I was already going to buy the DVD regardless of the bonus features. Now that I know what is in store for the commentaries, I want it even more.