Bronies

Back in 2010 Hasbro was looking to relaunch their iconic “My Little Ponies” line after the success of re-envisioning “Transformers”. This forth generation of ponies would become “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”. Okay so far nothing unusual there as franchises as we all know frequently go through changes and revamps over the years following their initial release. What could not be expected would be the popularity of the show with guys aged 13 to 35, a group who would soon come to identify themselves as “Bronies” but one the makes of the show would soon quickly embrace as they brought out a line of merchandise to target these fans. This documentary sets out to meet some of these fans and to find out what it is about these adorable ponies which appeals to them so much, let alone for some of these fans form the basis of their own artistic tributes ranging from artwork through to laser shows and even dance remixes.

“Bronies” or to give the documentary it’s full title “Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony” started life as a Kickstarter campaign with a modest target of $60,000 and one which it achieved within three days of the campaign. In the end $322,022 had been pledged making it the fourth most funded film project on Kickstarter. As a result of the extra budget the film grew from focusing on the 2012 “BrodyCon” convention to the truly in-depth look at the Bronies phenomenon that it now is.

Narrated by John de Lancie who “Star Trek: The Next Generation” fans will know for his role as “Q” and here keeps a fun tone to the film, especially with his musical interludes where he voices a pony lecturer providing the history elements for the franchise. De Lancie originally became involved with the show when he voiced the character of “Discord” a character who was essentially a send up of “Q”. Dismissing the project inititally as another small role, it would only be months later that he would be caught by surprise when he began receiving e-mails from fans of the show and even more that a lot of them were from full grown men and so marking his first encounter with Bronies. Rather than going for sheer shock tactics and hunting out oddballs within the Bronie community, the film instead genuinely seems to have been made with the intention of trying to shed light onto these fans and why adult men are so obsessed with a show originally intended for little girls, let alone the fact that it is written and animated with such overwhelming cuteness, that watching it is like being clubbed with a sack of kittens.

 Over the course of the film we meet a handful of these fans, all who could be considered to be normal everyday guys.  So here we get to meet a redneck Bronie who proudly displays his pony love on his car, only to soon find himself the target of less open minded locals who decided to trash his car and even pulled a rifle on him after believing his love of the show meant in some way he must also be gay.  The film also goes international to meet a British fan traveling to a UK convention for the first time, having previous put due to suffering from Aspergers, a condition which he also believes the show has helped him with aswell as dealing with society and challenges it presents someone with his condition.

 One of the main stories featured here though is of the young teen who enjoys the show but is worried about sharing this love with his conservative father. He of course get his opportunity to expose his father to this world when he takes his parents to “Bronycon” where he also gets help from De Lancie who is sympathetic to the boys’ cause especially when he came from a similar stand point as the father currently views the show from. What follows is a touching series of meetings at the con as the family not only meet with De Lancie who comes off just as nice a guy as he seems in his interviews, while he also introduces the father to the father of another boy whose own father was once in a similarly reserved view point regarding the show.

 Aiming to provide a positive overview of the community, the film chooses to gloss over some of the more extreme aspects and warped visions that some fans have chosen to express their love for the series via. In choosing this path the film keeps things fun and upbeat  and ultimately goes a way to proving that just because these guys like a show for little girls does not make them freaks as most would choose to view them. Ironically in researching for this review I did come across a whole heap of Brodies complaining about these aspects not being covered, while generally blasting the film for not representing them correctly which is a view I still can’t get my head around seeing how I left this film with a positive view of their community, if none the wiser as to what it is about the show which hold such appeal with these fans.  I guess this goes to prove once again that you really can’t please everyone.

 Overall this is fun and colourful documentary and one which really helps to shed some light on this little known and frequently misunderstood fanbase. Packed with colourful animation, insightful interviews and fun songs, you really get the feel for the show due to being shot in the same style as the show itself, something only further reinforced by the numerous clips also included. So if your curious about the show or just the fanbase in general this is a great place to start while making a curious evening viewing for the rest of us.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

It is a well established fact that to be the best at something, that it requires sacrifice and the men who the focus of this documentary are no stranger to sacrifice with many giving up hundreds of hours of their life, as well as time with their friends and family, with many clearly looking like their have also sacrificed several other things such as taking showers and the generally any form of human contact…..ladies and gentlemen please allow me to welcome you to the world of competitive classic video gaming!

At the centre of this documentary is the rivalry between two champion gamers and their battle to hold the world record score on “Donkey Kong”. On one side we have self proclaimed “Sauce King” of Florida Billy Mitchell, the current reigning champion whose score of 874,300 has remained unbeaten since he first set it back in the 80’s and who has on the back of this celebrity for this score build a successful line of homemade sauces. Now stepping up to the challenge we have high school science teacher Steve Wiebe and manages to beat Billy’s high score with a new record of 1,006,600 points unwittingly sparking a rivalry between the two men as they now battle to be the King of Kong.

Inspired by a Time Magazine article featuring the top players of the early 80’s and their scores on 12 of the top arcade games at the time, which included such classic games as Missile Command, Pac Man and the all important Donkey Kong, games which were never designed to be beaten and unlike games today required piles of quarters and countless hours of practice to master, as these were games without the  unlimited lives and replays of modern games, especially as many never even had ending screens, but rather “Kill Screens” instead were the game either appears as random computer code or even more randomly just kills your character.

When director Seth Gordon set out to make this documentary he had originally intended to make it about the holders of these top scores, only to disregard the idea when he met Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe, to men who play “Donkey Kong” at the highest level, knowing that he had found his story. The two men at the heart of the documentary are almost polar opposites to each other with Steve Wiebe shown as the everyman who after being laid off from what should have been a lifelong career at Boeing had set himself a goal of beating the top “Donkey Kong” score after randomly stumbling across “Twin Galaxies” website which is recognised as the official scorekeepers for Classic Video Game High scores. Wiebe here is shown as a figure of continuous misfortune with friends noting several occasions in the past where he has come up short, from his childhood as a Star Baseball pitcher who failed to pitch at the State Championships due to injury and a talent drummer in an early grunge band who failed to get any recognition with every accomplishment his has had always taken from him at the key moment.

Billy Mitchell on the other hand is shown as unashamedly arrogant and cocky without an ounce of self doubt, as he continually peddles his own personal life philosophies and willing to do anything he can to retain his championship title, while frequently coming across like a bad villain from an 80’s action movie, which is ironic seeing how this is a documentary about video games from the same period and while it could be argued that this persona is the result of how the film is edited, despite Gordon going on record to say that Mitchell was “so much worse than we painted him out to be,” and that he only included scenes necessary to tell the story as well as stating that the film would have been much darker if he hadn’t, which is only made more believable when fellow documentary film maker Morgan Spurlock, caught up with Mitchell several years after the films release for a follow up interview for the “50 Documentaries To See Before You Die” countdown were the film charted at #41. In this interview Mitchell almost seemed to not really care what he did as long as he was able to retain his legacy, while frequently seeming aloof during the interview especially when he was questioned about various parts of the documentary.

Mainly following Wiebe as he sets about beating the score only to soon find himself battling more than Mitchell and his score, as he finds his own score under scrutiny from members of the “Twin Galaxies” officials board, which Mitchell is more baffling a member of, while also being the realm of Chief Referee Robert Mruczek and Mitchells self styled protégé Brian Kuh who are both unscrupulous in theirs bids to discredit Wiebe’s scores, even at one point breaking into Wiebe’s garage to examine his “Donkey Kong” machine. Still despite this opposition Wiebe continues to fight to get his scores recognised, while trying to arrange a live battle against Mitchell to find out who truly is the champion.

Although it’s a documentary about Classic Video Games and their more obsessed fans, the documentary still also has a lot of heart and manages to rise way about what could have been a clip show of your stereotypical nerdy gamers, but here they are shown on the same level as Olympian athletes as Gordon attempts to understand what it is about these games and more importantly the World Record Donkey Kong score, a battle which has all the feeling of a heavy weight title fight at these two titans battle to claim the top spot. Aswell as this main title fight we also get to meet a lot of interesting characters from the Classic Video Game scene, such the world’s oldest video game player Doris Self and “Twin Galaxies” founder Walter Day who frequently finds himself in the crossfire throughout the film especially as the battle lines are drawn. We also get to meet the equally colourful Roy Shildt a self styled fitness guru and pickup artist who high score on “Missile Command” has frequently brought him into conflict with several of the “Twin Galaxies” officials in particular Billy Mitchell, with Shildt’s scenes in the film being amongst my favourites, much like one gamer taking his frustration out on his car. Shildt’s scenes are also especially interesting as he frequently provides the sole counter argument to how “Twin Galaxies” is run.

Since the films release the record has since been broken again by Plastic surgeon Dr. Hank Chein with a record score of 1,090,400 points, while “Twin Galaxies” have continued to hold Video Game contests including their Iron Man contest to see if any game could be played for 100 hours straight, a challenge which remained unbeaten despite gamer James Vollandt playing “Joust” for 67½ hours frequently using dangerous techniques to stay awake including blasting himself in the face with Freon and all subject matter which would make for a great follow up documentary, even though Director Gordon seems currently set on making the follow up as a feature film focusing on how the documentary changed their lives and how the rivalry has continued, which personally I would love to see, but for now it’s fun to get lost in the nostalgia this film provides, while being one of the most surprisingly entertaining documentaries ever made.