General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Pinecone & Pony

Pinecone & Pony is a children's animated television series produced by DreamWorks Animation and First Generation Films for Apple TV+, adapted from the picture book The Princess and the Pony by the cartoonist Kate Beaton. It follows Pinecone, a young warrior in training who happens to be a princess, and her best friend Pony as they learn that there is more than one way to be a warrior. Season 1 premiered on April 8, 2022, and season 2 premiered on February 3, 2023.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Basis	Adapted from Kate Beaton's New York Times bestselling picture book The Princess and the Pony¹
Production	DreamWorks Animation with First Generation Films, the licensor of the book; animation by Atomic Cartoons³^•⁴
Showrunner	Stephanie Kaliner, executive producer and showrunner⁵
Premiere	Season 1 on April 8, 2022; season 2 on February 3, 2023, both on Apple TV+²
Setting	The medieval-fantasy town of Sturdy Stone, with warriors, wizards, and forest creatures⁵
Lead voice	Maria Nash as Pinecone; Chase W. Dillon as Hawthorn; Rachel House as Gladys⁶
Rating	TV-Y, kids and family animation¹

Spoilers

Premise and themes

The series centers on Pinecone, a curious and adventurous girl training to be a warrior, and her pony, named Pony. According to DreamWorks, the two help each other challenge their expectations and break the mold, and the theme of defying expectations, inclusivity, and acceptance runs through the whole show: there is no one way to be a warrior, a wizard, or an ice-cream loving ogre.⁷

Showrunner Stephanie Kaliner described the central relationship as one in which the two friends let each other be themselves. Pony is more easygoing and helps Pinecone slow down, while Pinecone brings ambition and drive; the writers also made a point of showing that the pair are not codependent and respect each other's independence.⁵ The first episode, "The Pwettiest Pony", draws on the comedy film Best in Show for its pony-show satire and states the book's main lesson: Pinecone thinks being a warrior means being tough and serious, and Pony shows her that a warrior can also be cute and cuddly.⁵

Characters and voice cast

Maria Nash voices Pinecone and Chase W. Dillon voices her friend Hawthorn; the adult cast includes Rachel House as Gladys, Thom Allison as Greymoon, Alicia Richardson as Kimya, and Andy Hull as Arlo.⁶ Gladys, Pinecone's mentor, is a 500-year-old warrior married to Wren, the town's magical veterinarian voiced by Ser Anzoategui, a queer married couple whose relationship is treated as ordinary background in the village.¹¹

Character design was a deliberate part of the show's inclusivity. Kaliner said the team asked a lot of the character designers, led by Victoria Evans, and credited Beaton's book for inspiring the wider approach: characters are designed to subvert and defy expectations, so a warrior can be cute, cuddly, or wear ballet slippers.¹² Background characters were also given small side stories and personalities, extending the main cast's diversity into the crowd.³

Origin as a book

The source book, The Princess and the Pony (2015), grew out of Beaton's webcomic Hark! A Vagrant. Beaton created Princess Pinecone for the book, a princess who prefers battles to banquets, and gave her a pony that is not a warrior pony; she chose the name because princesses usually get flower names, and "Pinecone" is only kind of one.⁸^•⁹

Beaton was an executive producer on the adaptation alongside Christina Piovesan, Mackenzie Lush, and Stephanie Kaliner.¹ Kaliner said Beaton felt touched and impressed seeing many writers add to her world, a team experience she had not often had as a solo book and comics writer, and that Beaton said, "There's the book... and there's the show", and was proud of both.⁵

Production

DreamWorks approached Taneka Stotts, a comics writer, editor, and publisher with credits on Steven Universe, Craig of the Creek, and My Little Pony, to serve as story editor, her first time in that role. She worked for First Generation Films, the licensor of The Princess and the Pony, and also with Apple, and said she was the first story editor listed in Canada, a position she introduced there.³ Stotts said the adaptation began from the book's "principal building blocks" with room to add to the world rather than a finished bible.³

The writing team was assembled to include Indigenous, non-binary, trans, and other marginalized writers, a Canadian-American production requirement shaping the roster; Stotts recruited the comics creator Gigi D.G. (Cucumber Quest) from comic-script samples, and Gigi D.G. wrote the season finale.³

Animation was produced at Atomic Cartoons, whose Ottawa studio made the series its first pre-to-post project, hiring across Ontario and working entirely over video calls during COVID-19 lockdowns. Series director Wayne-Michael Lee and art director Laura Bifano aimed for a look combining a kid's storybook, a classic animated series, and a slight nod to medieval history; Pinecone's hair was among the hardest elements to build.¹⁰ Atomic Cartoons lists the run as 64 eleven-minute episodes across the two seasons.²

Broadcast and recognition

Both seasons stream on Apple TV+, with episodes also available through the Apple TV channel on Amazon and Peacock bundles; the series carries a TV-Y rating.¹³ Episode counts differ between databases: TheTVDB lists 16 episodes in season 1 and 15 in season 2, while JustWatch lists 16 in each.⁶^•¹³

In December 2023, Apple announced Children's & Family Emmy Award wins for its programs including Pinecone & Pony.¹⁴ Reviewers received the show well: Cult of Mac's season 2 review called it a winning, whimsical escape that combines cute animation and vocal performances with good-natured social lessons.¹⁵

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Animated television series (individual series) › Children's animated adventure and fantasy series › Comedy and slice-of-life series › Premiered 2020 to 2024

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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