| PDF said: I've been babysitting my niece today and have resorted to using television. In doing so I have now sat through two MLP episodes, a show about dogs in a pound, and Strawberry shortcake. It seems to me that all these shows are roughly the same show with different skins. So I ask why MLP, why not Strawberry Shortcake, or my favorite out of the three so far Pound Puppies. |
Why? Well, for a few reasons. First, there was an article that specifically mentioned Friendship is Magic as a reason why cartoons were getting worse as they shifted towards focusing on promoting toys. This caused a large reaction from people who like cartoons who then watched the show and actually enjoyed it.
Then, we have Lauren Faust. I think she probably gets too much focus (seriously, there are a lot of people who helped turn the show into what it is today), but a lot of people also loved Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, Codename: Kids Next Door, and The Iron Giant. These are all things that Lauren worked on in some fashion.
Combine these things, and you'll get plenty of people to look more at MLP than the others. Then, with this growing fandom drawing more people to it, it will get more exposure. Then, add in all of the content produced by the fandom, and you'll see that there is a much higher incentive for people to be more vocal about MLP because there's so much stuff to talk about even when waiting for a new season to start.
However, let's look at why people actually like the show.
They like the art style. It's bright, colourful, and unashamedly cheerful. They like the animation, which is pretty darn good. They like the characters. I thought I was going to hate Rarity when I first saw the show, but they portrayed her character well enough to actually make me like her. They like the stories. Seriously, changelings and Discord. Also, you should watch this fan made trailer. Then there's also the music. Believe it or not, many find it to be pretty darn good.
So, you have cartoon with a good art style, animation, characters, music, and pretty decent and fun stories. Add in the mythology and various cultural references (which are over exaggerated by many fans...), and you've got yourself a pretty darn entertaining show. I think it's greater than the sum of its parts, which is impressive because the parts are already impressive on their own.
I can't comment on the quality of the other shows, as I have not seen them.
I think by your description, you picked some terrible episodes to start off with. Look Before You Sleep and The Show Stoppers are not my favourite episodes by a long shot. You should try something like this. Or, this and this if you want something a bit longer.
