MLP Season 1 : Opening Theme

Here's the review of our most beloved opening theme !

Yes, we all know it perfectly, but have the lyrics anyway :

My Little Pony, My Little Pony

Ahh ahh ahh ahhh…

[Twilight Sparkle]

(My Little Pony)

I used to wonder what friendship could be

(My Little Pony)

Until you all shared its magic with me

[Rainbow Dash]

Big adventure

[Pinkie Pie]

Tons of fun

[Rarity]

A beautiful heart

[Applejack]

Faithful and strong

[Fluttershy]

Sharing kindness,

[Twilight Sparkle]

It's an easy feat

And magic makes it all complete

You have my little ponies

Do you know you're all my very best friends?

 

Hm strange, I've never really heard that 'You have', always though it was just a 'Yeahhh'...

Anyway, that opening theme is more complex that it seems at first sound.

There are a lot of musical instruments here, and a lot of audio tracks mixed together.
 

But first the lyrics. No doubt, there are totally in the spirit of the show : not really complicated, based on the magic of friendship, and with sort of a lesson, like at the end of (almost)veach episode with 'Dear Princess Celestia ...'. Every element is quoted, Fluttershy even says 'kindness' and Twilight 'magic'.
I believe that, when every pony say one line, it's supposed to explain what really is magic, but it's a bit weird for 'A beautiful heart/Faithful and strong'. Anyway, I think we couldn't have better lyrics here. They clearly put us in the right mood to watch the show. For the season 2 finale, I was with a group of bronies where we didn't know each other, but when the song started (yeah I know it was the second version of this but still), everyone was singing along, and that was simply marvelous !

The song has become the real anthem for everybrony. More than 'A circle of friends' which was written to be a real hymn for us.

Now about the instrumentalization. Each instrument has a real simple track if you listen closely. I think the one we hear the most is the bass. She is here almost all the song and sustain her with a good pace. Here, the instrument in charge of giving the rythm is what I believe is cymbals, at each off-beat. They are replaced by some kind of maracas during the 'Big adventure/.../And magic makes it all complete' part.
I think that there is also a distorded guitar playing the same notes as the bass.
But that's all for the 'important' instruments.

At the begining I don't know the name of the instruments giving that shiny sound that we hear at the end too, but make us feel like we're in another and fabulous world, a bit in a 'Once upon a time ...' kind of way. That is just right !

We can hear sometime a slight sound of stringed instrument, especially at the begining, maybe a guitar, maybe a harp. It goes well with the sound I've described just above even though we don't realy hear it ...

Oh yeah, there is that synthetizer that make that little 'riff' just before Rainbow start singing. I have the feeling that if this little little melody wasn't there, the song would not be the same... Anyway, it helps the transition between Twilight and the other pony, the break of every instruments and does it really well I think.

Now about the choirs and voices. This is a good presentation of all the voice actors, even though sometimes I have the feeling that it's a bit like one person made all the voices, just trying to change between each line, it's very disturbing. But yeah, this is an opening theme, and it gives us all the important voices and characters of the show, so that's a good point.

I don't have much to say about the voices, just that they mirror well each character and, well, sing well !
The choirs are important too, they follow the 'Ahh Ahh Ahhh Ahhhhh' part, every 'Myyyyyy' and the last 'Frienddddds' with a cristalline sound very pleasant to hear.

About the musical atmosphere, the result is a bright and catchy sound that stuck to your brain for a looooooong time and you see yourself huming it time to time, and the rythm (around 100 bpm) doesn't make this opening too short or too long : you like wtaching and singing it

So in conclusion, I would say that it's clearly a perfect opening theme for the show and I can't see a better one.

Just one word about the animation on screen during the song.I like it, there are plenty of places, we see each character in a situation that defines them really well. Transitions between the ponies are good (butterflies, flash, apples ...) and there are so many things to watch that we are never bored of watching it. The pace is very fast during the 'solo' part and I like it that way, I'm sure I can't remember exactly what happens during this intro, and that proves that it's neat ! 

So, I think that's all for the first Opening Theme. I dont want to give a note to each song, because it depends on your mood, context of the song and other stuff, whereas my previous description remains always true. The songs suits the show like the dress suits Twilight in 'Sweet And Elite'. She is so cute in that plain dress ...
(I think I will 'note' the songs like that, with comparisons, I like explaining things with images.)

Brohoof everybrony, and I hope you liked my first review ! (Excuse my poor english, as always)