Line #50 Creator/LaurenFaust


1	[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Lauren_Faust_5953.jpg]]
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3	->"''Cartoons for girls don't have to be a puddle of smooshy, cutesy-wootsy, goody-two-shoeness. Girls like stories with real conflict; girls are smart enough to understand complex plots; girls aren't as easily frightened as everyone seems to think.''"
4	-->-- '''Lauren Faust''' on developing ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''
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6	Lauren Faust (born July 25, 1974) is an American animator whose projects include ''WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls\|1998}}'', ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', and ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperheroGirls''. For a long time now, Lauren has been trying to get strong female leads for animation. She was attached to direct the forthcoming CGI feature ''Medusa'' for Sony Pictures Animation, but left the project in November 2015. She gave birth to a daughter, her first child, in 2016 and is currently working on her first novel and raising her child.
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8	She was born in Annapolis, Maryland and studied at the California Institute of the Arts (better known as [=CalArts=]) and decided to go into the animation industry. Lauren has been known for the preteen girls' Web site ''Toys/MilkyWayAndTheGalaxyGirls'', as well as being married to animator Creator/CraigMcCracken. Her Website/DeviantArt account is located [[http://fyre-flye.deviantart.com/ here]]. She has a Website/{{Twitter}} [[https://twitter.com/Fyre_flye here]]. And she uses the [[Website/FourChan tripcodes]] [[https://twitter.com/Fyre_flye/status/339199446434848768 !5l/hHZnoEA]] and (on Website/{{Ponychan}}) [[https://twitter.com/Fyre_flye/status/343239006110244864 !cdljAQmhl]].
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10	[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant No relation to]] the ''other'' {{Myth/Faust}}, although that just ''[[EpilepticTrees might]]'' offer an explanation as to [[DealWithTheDevil how she found a way]] [[PeripheryDemographic to get grown men to like ponies]].
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12	!!Films and other works Lauren Faust has worked on:
13	* ''ComicBook/TheMaxx'': The Animated Series, started out in the business here. She did the character layout. Was given part of Julie.
14	* ''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance'': Animator, she was given parts of Danny to animate on what the other animators didn't finish, and she later did a few scenes with Sawyer.
15	* ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot'': Animator, but she pretends that it never happened.
16	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': Storyboard artist, writer, director of several episodes, as well as supervising director for the show. She also was a writer for ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirlsMovie''.
17	* ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'': Animator. Lauren's crew handled mostly Hogarth and Annie, but got to do a little work on Dean as well.
18	* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'': Writer, developer, story editor, storyboard artist and character designer; she also wrote/co-wrote the made-for-TV specials ''WesternAnimation/GoodWiltHunting'' and ''Destination Imagination'', the latter of which won an Emmy in 2009. The design and personality of [[CoolBigSis Frankie]] [[OnlySaneEmployee Foster]] is confirmed to have been partly based on Lauren.
19	* ''Toys/MilkyWayAndTheGalaxyGirls'': An original concept featuring girls named after planets and other celestial objects, a la ''Franchise/SailorMoon''. She hopes to someday develop this into a show of her own. Faust is holding stuffed dolls of the characters in the page pic. The web site is now defunct, but can still be found archived [[http://web.archive.org/web/20160306034819/http://milkywayandthegalaxygirls.com/ here]].
20	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Series developer, executive producer, storyboard artist and creative director for the first season of the show, and consulting producer for the second season of the show. It is often considered as a SpiritualSuccessor to ''The Powerpuff Girls''.
21	* ''WesternAnimation/SuperBestFriendsForever'': A series of roughly one-minute shorts starring ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}, ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, and [[Franchise/WonderWoman Wonder Girl]] for Creator/CartoonNetwork's WesternAnimation/DCNation block.
22	* ''Film/BroniesTheExtremelyUnexpectedAdultFansOfMyLittlePony'': Was a producer alongside Creator/JohnDeLancie and Creator/TaraStrong.
23	* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'': Was co-producer and head of story in its first season.
24	* ''[[VideoGame/ThemsFightinHerds Them's Fightin' Herds]]'': Her first time working on a video game property. After the IndieGame team [=Mane6=] received a C&D from Hasbro for their '''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' based [[VideoGame/MyLittlePonyFightingIsMagic fighting game]], Lauren volunteered to work with them to create a new world and characters for an original property.
25	* ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperHeroGirls'': A TV series developed by her based on the online shorts premiered on Cartoon Network in March 2019. Executive produced the first season of the series.
26	* ''WesternAnimation/KidCosmic'': Credited as a character designer and developer[[note]]She and Francisco Angones worked on the pilot[[/note]].
27	* ''Medusa'': A planned animated feature from Sony about the classical mythology character. This would have been her debut as a feature film director, but she left the project in 2015; it has since been scrapped.
28	* ''Toil and Trouble:'' A series about a tween witch named Smudge and her relationship with her cat, Jinx. Adapted from young adult novel Faust had been developing, it was pitched to Creator/{{Netflix}} and was greenlit, but got canceled halfway through production.
29	* ''Untitled The Circus Ship film adaption'': Developer.
30	!!Tropes present in Lauren Faust's works, and Trivia invoked by her:
31	* {{Animesque}}: Her art style at least has the large eyes associated with anime. And at least two of her shows are also seen as Animesque.
32	* ArtistDisillusionment: During the production of ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', she pitched several shows with female leads to various networks, none of which sold and by the mid-2000s, the head-butting with executives became so exhaustive that she left the animation business briefly to work on her toyline ''Milky Way and The Galaxy Girls'', which turned out to be even ''more'' difficult. She eventually returned to the business to do ''Friendship Is Magic''.
33	* AuthorAppeal:
34	** Chocolate milk and references to both Film/TheBigLebowski and "The Trouble With Tribbles" episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', for some reason.
35	** Lauren takes gender equality very seriously and a greater portion of her career has been to use any and every opportunity she gets to put more emphasis on stronger female characters and saving femininity from a bad reputation.
36	* CreatorBacklash: Faust is notoriously hard on herself.
37	** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
38	*** She felt that the message of "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E15FeelingPinkieKeen Feeling Pinkie Keen]]", that there are some things which cannot be explained by logic, was poorly executed and came off as anti-science.
39	*** Lauren did not agree with the introduction of Cadance as an alicorn, claiming it invokes UniquenessDecay on the part of Celestia and Luna.
40	*** She also has decidedly mixed feelings about Twilight Sparkle's [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence promotion to royalty at the end of Season 3]]. While she ''did'' intend for Twilight to be Celestia's successor (which happened at the end of the series during season 9), she also said, "I never used the words 'Alicorn' or 'Princess'." She also complained that the show-accurate Funko figurine line did not have a wingless Twilight, lamenting that her set would remain incomplete as a result.
41	** She expressed regret over writing the infamous ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' episode "Everybody Knows It's Bendy" in a [=ToonZone=] post, citing its shorter runtime (which cut out several key plot points) and [[KarmaHoudini unsatisfying]] [[TheBadGuyWins outcome]].
42	** Lauren admittedly wishes she didn't write the episode "Equal Fights" from ''WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls\|1998}}''. In retrospect, she finds StrawFeminism too touchy a subject to discuss in a cartoon so lighthearted.
43	** As one of her Website/DeviantArt followers quickly learned, do NOT, under any circumstances, bring up her indie comic ''[[http://comments.deviantart.com/4/1603670/3014453342 Supermodels Don't Know Kung-Fu]]''.
44	** She absolutely hated ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot'', feeling it was a [[FauxActionGirl horrible attempt at a feminist message]]. She later claimed that, because she was hired late in production, she had no idea what the movie was even about when animating for it, and was furious when she saw it.
45	* CreatorCouple: With Creator/CraigMcCracken.
46	* {{Fanservice}}: She made a series of drawings labeled "Halloween cheesecake", featuring sexy monsters. She also did some [[http://www.cdd4ever.com/CATCHAT/SidesOfSaw.jpg parody "fan" art]] of Sawyer from ''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance'' that likely falls under this.
47	* LineToGod: She has a [[http://fyre-flye.deviantart.com/ DeviantArt account]] and a [[https://twitter.com/Fyre_flye Twitter account.]]
48	* MagnumOpusDissonance: By all accounts, her greatest claim to fame is ''Friendship Is Magic'', but Lauren herself has said that her favorite show to work on was ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', both because it was the first original show she worked on from the ground up and she had some of her happiest personal memories from it (she and her husband had just gotten engaged).
49	* NoHuggingNoKissing: She made sure that there was to be ''no'' romance among the main characters in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', as she considers it to be [[RomanticPlotTumor a major factor in bringing down thousands of girl's shows]]. Any romance shown, such as the weddings in "A Canterlot Wedding" (season 2), is for side characters only. Ultimately subverted by the time of the show's grand finale[[note]]Pinkie Pie has a child with Cheese Sandwich, and it's heavily implied but never directly confirmed that Rainbow Dash and Applejack are in a relationship[[/note]], though she had no involvement in it. As with her husband and his work, this applies to real life as well, as the two of them always keep a professional stance and are never romantic in public (their only publicly-released wedding photo is of them fist-bumping).
50	* OneHitWonder: She's worked on a few animated films, and a couple animated shows, but ''Friendship is Magic'' is the '''only''' work she herself created that was a success or was able to get off the ground (and even then, she only worked on the first two seasons). The only other cartoon she created was the DC Nation ''WesternAnimation/SuperBestFriendsForever'' shorts for Creator/CartoonNetwork, which eventually turned into ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperheroGirls''.
51	* ProductionPosse: Nearly every show she's worked on includes Creator/TaraStrong.
52	* RealWomenDontWearDresses: She is 100% opposed to this mentality, stating that most girl-centered cartoons fail due to bad writing/directing and not because of any inherent "girliness".
53	* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: A good part of her character designs seems to be influenced by her time in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls\|1998}}''. And most of ''those'' characters can kick a ''lot'' of butt. Including the aforementioned Powerpuff Girls.
54	* RunningTheAsylum:
55	** She was a big ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' (well, the toys at least) fan when she was a kid. Years later, she got the chance to make ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''.
56	** She was a huge fan of ''WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls\|1998}}'' in its first two seasons and begged her friend on the staff to let her take a storyboard test. Not only did she get hired, she ''married the creator''!
57	* StrictlyFormula: She says it's mostly unintentional, and there ''are'' differences between characters, but there are some recurring character archetypes in her works such as a goofy GenkiGirl (Toys/{{M\|ilkyWayAndTheGalaxyGirls}}ars, [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Pinkie Pie]], [[WesternAnimation/SuperBestFriendsForever Batgirl]]), an athletic tomboy ([[Toys/MilkyWayAndTheGalaxyGirls Mercury]], [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Rainbow Dash]], [[WesternAnimation/SuperBestFriendsForever Supergirl]]), and so on.
58	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
59	** Faust was pitching her idea for a ''Toys/MilkyWayAndTheGalaxyGirls'' TV show to Hasbro when they asked her to instead create the next ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' series.
60	** In a retroactive example, Faust stated during a ''VideoGame/ThemsFightinHerds'' livestream that she wishes she'd known about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longma longma]] while working on ''Friendship Is Magic'', since the core concept of Discord was a dragon-horse hybrid.
61	** She was originally going to direct a feature film titled ''Medusa'' for Sony Pictures Animation, but issues regarding the new mandate that was made caused her to back out of it.
62	** In the fallout of Netflix's animation studio all but collapsing in on itself, it was revealed that one of the many in-production series to have been cancelled was an original series by Faust titled ''Toil & Trouble'', centering around the adventures of a young witch and her cat.

Context Creator / LaurenFaust