My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic...Wait, What?: YMNK #5

This is an episode I've a hard time deciding whether or not I wanted to do it. Not because it would be hard to do, but because it is a subject that probably won't win me any fans. But I've decided that if this one article can stop someone from reading the rest of my blog, than they're not the audience I want to read to my work. So, today's YMNK is not just on a show, but also on a community and the reaction to it. Today's YMNK is...

  We begin with Hasbro and the success of the Transformers movies. Hasbro sees this and decides why not redo all of their toy lines, like G.I. Joe and My Little Pony, for a new generation. So Hasbro created the children's T.V. channel, The Hub. Now with the creation of a new channel comes new and old shows to fill up time slots. Who'd they call? Lauren Faust, who had a big hand in the animation on "The Powerpuff Girls" and a big hand in the stories of  "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends", all of which are highly acclaimed shows by critics and fans alike. She came to Hasbro with the idea of creating a show based on her own creation "Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls". Hasbro declined, but asked her to develop a new version of "My Little Pony" instead. She accepted and went into this project with the intent of creating a new show based on her adventures with her ponies as a kid. She also had the more important intent of making a show that was made for "little girls", but could be enjoyed by their moms and maybe even their dads. Faust then got together the animated TV show dream team of some of the best animators, writers, and voice actors in the business. This all went into creating "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (FIM)"...what...why are you laughing? Is it the title? (sigh), alright get it out...ya good? good.


  FIM premiered on The Hub on October, 10, 2010, and the FIM crew went back to making new episodes for the rest of the season. As the show went on, something weird started to happen, something no one saw coming. The show started attracting a fan base of teens and adults 13-35, the demographic one of Hasbro's Transformers movies would have pulled in. While this fan base was a mix of girls and boys, the biggest focus was on the male side, which were coined the name "Bronies". Everyone was shocked. The internet, the FIM crew, Hasbro, even Faust herself. Then something else strange happened. The people who worked on the show, Hasbro, and Faust started talking with the community and getting to know them. This also led to something that everyone saw coming, ridicule from all sides. The internet hated Bronies, creating fan pages all about hating this group, Fox (big surprise) ran a story about bronies, making fun of it while openly admitting in the same sentence that they've never seen the show.

This is Derpy, her eyes do that sometimes, as in all the time.

  But you know what? The fan base just kept on growing, and it has never stopped. This community is not about hating or arguing, but about the lessons which are taught on the show about friendship and forgiveness, while still being nerdy. This community has spawned thee different conventions, two Comic-Con panels, animations, music, remixes of the music on the show, remixes of the fan made music, art, fan fiction, celebrity mentions, table-top games, video games, a documentary about bronies funded by bronies and directed by John De Lancie, a little girl's ongoing medical operation funded by bronies as well, and dozen's of fan made characters, with detailed back stories and everything, that have made several cameo appearances of the show, the most famous being "Derpy", a crossed-eyed pony that has almost become the symbol of Brony culture.


  Now if you haven't left yet, you're probably wandering "What is it about this little girls show that these men like?", well let me start by explaining the basic plot. The show follows six main characters, Twilight Sparkle, a unicorn who is mastering her magic and is seriously OCD, Applejack, a pony who's apart of the Apple family business, which is a business of selling Apples, Rarity, a unicorn who is obsessed with fashion and being prim and proper, Pinkie Pie, a crazy, random, party loving pony that usually makes the best jokes, Rainbow Dash who is very cocky, tomboyish, and the fastest pegasus in the world, and finally there's my personal favorite, Fluttershy. She's a pegasus who's shy, soft-spoken, and prone to anxiety. All six of these friends go on adventures and learn lessons about friendship, hence the name. 


  Now I'll explain what people like about the show in kind of a unique way. I'm going to tell what people like about the show in the order of what catches their attention. Let's start with the animation and visual style. What catches everybody's eye the second they look at an episode is the animation. The animation is done with Flash, which is a cheap, quick, and easy to use animation software that tons of people use to make crappy cartoons on a weekly basis. But the animation company, DXH, has been experimenting and perfecting Flash and have made it look almost if not just as good as hand-drawn animation. Also, Lauren Faust is the master at adorable characters and she doesn't disappoint here. 

Pinkie Pie is famous for her Fourth Wall breaking jokes

  With a mix of cute designs and amazing animation, the show then excels in the art of Comedy. The show has all types of humor, physical humor, pop-culture, puns, forth wall breaking, and many more. Because of the animation, they can get some hilarious facial expressions that can happen in a split second. They also have great timing and rarely have a joke fall flat, but most of the time it's the puns that fall flat.


  
  After the comedic writing, people usually notice the writing itself, the plot lines and dialogue. The stories, while a bit cliched at times, are never "Let's make a cake!" and then they make a cake...no conflict or lesson, they just make a cake. There's always a conflict, whether it be normal or paranormal, they always find clever situations that make sense with that character. The show even does what few other shows can do on a regular basis, keep continuity. What I mean is that characters rarely do things just because the plot tells them to, most of the actions happen organically. This also means that they're are references to older character developments, like if one character has an episode where they discover a love for reading, they can be seen in another episode reading a book. 


  Then there's the voice acting. This show has some of the best voice actresses that, because of this show, have become somewhat famous. Tara Strong is probably the most recognizable, who plays Twilight Sparkle, seeing as how she's played as all of your childhood memories. Her characters include, Timmy Turnner, Bubbles, Raven, Batgirl, and many, many more. The stand-out and maybe best voice actress is Tabitha St. Germain who plays Rarity. She holds a British accent the whole time and has a lot of comedic range, making for some of the best lines or jokes in the series. 


  All of these elements are what catches peoples attentions, at least that's what caught mine, but then there's the community. The Brony community has been fully embraced by the people who work on the show. The most notable being Tara Strong, who's been in full support of the fans. Her Twitter feed in someway involves ponies everyday, she even created the term "Twilightlicious" which was a funny little saying that has sense been turned into t-shirts, bracelets, and even a day called Twilightlicious Tuesday where you tell someone who probably has no idea what it means that they're Twilightlicious.


All in all, I hope this has enlightened you a bit on this show, the community, and why people not apart of the core demographic could like this show. I'm not asking you to become a Brony or that you even have to like the show, I at least want you to give it a shot. If this article has not convinced you to watch the show, that's fine, just don't criticize someone for liking something you've never seen. If you are interested in watching the show, well you have a ton of options. Every episode has at least 10 different posts on Youtube, you can watch both seasons 1 and 2 through Netflix instant streaming, the show comes on the Hub at about 11am EST,  and you can buy the episodes through iTunes. The episode guide I've found to be the best for newcomers is the first two episodes of Season 1, Sonic Rainboom, and Party of One, all of which are Season 1 episodes. The season premiere is not the best, but it's needed to get the gist of these characters, and the other two episodes are character centered episodes that both involve the character going crazy. If you don't like it, that's also fine, just don't rag on people because they like it. Either way, this is a great show with a great and unique community. I'll end this with a quote from the creator herself, Lauren Faust.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

     


   

The Dark Knight Rises: NR #29

This movie is one of the most anticipated films of the year, a movie that if you don't give a perfect review to, the Nolan fan boys will never let you hear the end of it. You know what I'm talking about, you've probably already seen or are planning to see. This is...

Let's End...

PLOT

Its been eight years since the events of "The Dark Knight" and Harvey Dent's insanity has still been kept a secret and is still seen as a hero, so much so that they have a day named after him. But, this including his fall at the end of Dark Knight, has also caused Bruce Wayne to go into seclusion where the only person who ever see's him is Alfred. But there's a new evil in town, and his no ordinary evil. Bane is as strong as he is intelligent, he can crush necks without even thinking. He plans on destroying Gotham City in some way, and Batman has to return. But, it has been eight years and Bruce isn't as capable as he once was.

PROS

Everyone does a great job, Christian Bale is great as Bruce Wayne, who takes center stage instead of Batman, Micheal Cane will make you cry your eyes dry as Alfred, and many more.

Anne Hathaway steals the show as Catwoman, not only cunning and smart, but also strong and capable enough to take on as many guys as Batman and Bane put together. She and Batman are such a great team that I wanted to see a spin-off of just Batman and Catwoman's adventures.

Tom Hardy is scary as Bane. He's cold and lifeless, while menacing and intelligent as well. I was honestly scared of him.

Christopher Nolan learned from "Batman Begins" to zoom out of the action scenes, and he only got better after "The Dark Knight". The fights scenes are all out brawls and Nolan films them perfectly, letting you see every nitty gritty detail.

The last 50-40 minutes of film are amazing. It's what you came to see and keeps you on the edge of your seat 'till the credits have started and your heart racing long after them too.

While it's obvious Bane's voice was re-dubbed, you can still understand him. So don't worry fans, they fixed it.

The plot is more focused on Bruce Wayne than on Batman, so a lot of it is Wayne without the mask, and I liked that. While I did miss Batman at points, I still really enjoyed seeing Wayne dealing with his demons. 

CONS

The first hour or so is not as impressive as the later halves. It seems slow and uninteresting. While I know Nolan needs to get his exposition in, it didn't have me as interested as "The Dark Knight".

Bane, while menacing, just doesn't have the charisma to be memorable. While he does memorable stuff, he as a whole is just not that interesting. The reason is the mask. It forces him to catch your attention with his eyes, but there's only so much you can do without using the rest of your face. This is not Tom Hardy's fault, who is a great actor, it's just the costume's fault.

During the action scenes, I never had a "Stand-Up-In-Your-Seat-Cheering" moments like in the other movies. While they are exciting, they're just never impressive.

The ending, which I won't spoil. disappointed me. It almost had me, I was loving it, until it got to one part. Now if you've seen the movie, you may know what I'm talking about. Let's just say it was something hinted at the beginning that I hoped they wouldn't do. The ending was 99% great, but that 1% really ruined it for me.

CONCLUSION

If it sounded like I was vague, it's because I want to spoil as little of the plot or event as I possible can so you can enjoy it as much as I did going in basically cold. This feels like the end, and while it didn't live up to all of my expectations or was better than the last Batman, it still was great and well worth seeing. If I had to put them in order of how much I liked them from least to greatest it would be "Batman Begins", this, and "The Dark Knight". If you know only the basic plot of what happened in the last movies, go see this. While my rating while contradict what I just said, I see it as more of a star rating than a recommendation of how to see it.

RATING

WALK TO

Missed last week's reviews? Here ya go:
http://newandclassicreviews.blogspot.com/2012/07/summer-of-movies-90-butch-cassidy-and.html
http://newandclassicreviews.blogspot.com/2012/07/moonrise-kingdom-nr-28.html  

      

Summer of Movies #90: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Disclaimer: The reason the review skipped to 90 and not 91 is because I currently don't have a copy of the movie at #91, but I will go back to it when I do. This will happen to any other movie if I don't have a copy of it. Now back to your feature criticism  


Today's movie a classic from the late 60's early 70's that is loved and revered by many, it even was chosen to be preserved by the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", but is it worth all that praise? I don't know. But I do know how I feel about the movie, so lets dive right into...

   Let's Begin

PLOT

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are notorious villains of the west. They run a small but lethal gang who rob trains every day, it's gotten so routine that the train conductors just let'em on through, no fuss at all. They both are dating a beautiful woman named Etta, and they are thick as thieves, so to speak. But, one day the local towns have had enough and hire the best trackers and sheriffs to hunt down Cassidy and The Kid. Fully aware of being followed, the two and Etta escape to South America to hopefully live life a new and not have to make their final stand.

PROS

The script is very good, with many memorable and funny lines that make the characters pop out.

Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy) and Robert Redford (Sundance Kid) are terrific as their characters and as criminal partners. They have a great chemistry and seem like they've been friends for a long time.

The film takes place in a somewhat unique setting, which is the end of the west. The time period where cowboys and outlaws were becoming a commodity and civilization and order where the norm. While it's in its early stages, it's still an interesting place to set a western, look at the video game "Red Dead Redemption" for a better look at this era (Which is an amazing game that everyone should give a try).

The final shootout in the last ten minutes of the film is tense and exciting. You really care for the characters and hate to see them come to this obvious yet tragic conclusion. 

CONS

The movie has very strange montages. What I mean is that they come out of no where and seem really awkward. The most famous being the "Raindrops Are Falling On My Head" bicycle scene, which left me very confused. 

There comes a point about 20 minutes in that the movie slows to a screeching halt to show the two leads running away from the posse sent to hunt them down. That would be fine if it didn't go on for 20-30 minutes. It's just the same scene over and over again, they run away on their horses, stop to see if they're still being following, comment on it, guess who's apart of the posse, Kid says a cold remark, they ride off again, rinse and repeat.

CONCLUSION

While I don't hate this movie, I can't say I like it either. I can't even appreciate it because I'm still not sure what it did to make it so loved and revered. While, yes, the script and characters are good, the rest is just a mess hidden behind some admittedly cool style. Overall, it's a dated movie that is over hyped in my opinion.

RATING

RENTABLE  

Moonrise Kingdom: NR #28

Today is a special day, it's my 51st REV-, yeah, no. I ain't doing that today. Today, I'm reviewing Wes Anderson's new flick, one that still doesn't stray from his trademark style, but is that bad? Let's find out in my review of...

Let's Begin

PLOT

In one of the New England islands during the 1960's, a young boy and girl fall in love. The boy is apart of a camp not too far off from being the boy scouts, and the girl lives with her three younger brothers and parents in a doll house like home. They plan for a year to escape, and do, into the woods and beaches of the island. This sets off a mad chase for these young star-crossed lovers, which include Bruce Willis, the camp leader and the murderous campers, and an over-protective dad.

PROS

This movie is made by Wes Anderson, who never stops with his signature quirky and wired style. While some may find that annoying or random, I loved it.

The child actors are strangely good. While I won't say great, they're defiantly above the norm.

Jason Schwartzman, who is in almost every Anderson film, is one of the best things about the movie. He comes in as a very small character near the end of the film and steals the show.

The movie is very funny and had me laughing through out the whole hour and a half. 

The movie does what so few young love stories even attempt to do, deal with sex. It does it in a smart way by taking it from the children's perspective and doesn't linger on it for too long.

The cinematography and camera shots in general are inventive and cool, they help this wired movie stand out even more.

CONS

The dialogue for all the kids is very unrealistic and kinda took me out of the movie at points. While I know it's just Wes Anderson being Wes Anderson, it still kinda annoyed me.

The movie has some big stars like Bruce Willies, Edward Norton, and even Bill Murray, but fails to use them. They're just kinda there and feel like anyone could've played them.

CONCLUSION

While not perfect, I still loved this movie. I feel maybe it's because I've only seen two Anderson movies in my life (This one and "Fantastic Mr. Fox"), but either way I loved almost every minute and would love to see it a second time. If you know for a fact that you don't like Anderson's style or his movies, this one will only make you hate him more, if you don't know, wait 'till DVD. But, if you love Anderson or quirky stuff in general, this is a must.

RATING 

RUN TO

Summer of Movies #92: Raiders of the Lost Ark

Today's movie is a classic that almost everyone has seen and everyone has at least heard of. A movie that was the "Machete" or "The Artist" of its time, a movie that helped put Spielberg even more on the map, and made Harrison Ford's career even more than "Star Wars". I'm obviously talking about...

 Let's Begin

PLOT

Indiana Jones is a 1936 college professor/archeologist/adventurer extrodinar. One day, he's asked to find one of the biggest and most sought after religious items on the planet; the Ark of the Covenant.  Why?  Because Hitler and the Nazi's want to use its devastating power for evil Nazi stuff.  Jones than sets off on a quest for glory, love, and more exhibits that belong in a museum!

PROS

Harrison Ford is great as Indiana Jones, I mean, I don't even need to say this, you already know he's great. He has so much charisma and energy that it makes him a likable character and someone for whom you want to root.

The action and chase scenes are top-notch. It's astounding to watch some scenes knowing they didn't have the safe luxury of CG back in the day.

The film has a great sense of adventure, which is what Spielberg was going for since this was a love letter to the 40's adventure serials of his childhood.   The movie's tone is fun and light-hearted, until, well you know, the face melting...

The special effects for the more gruesome moments (Do I need to mention them?) are great. They seem frighteningly realistic and caught me off guard, even though I've seen those scenes a hundred times.

Marion, Indie's love interest, is a great character who doesn't fall in the "Damsel in distress" category too often and can really hold her own. 

Paul Freeman as the evil Nazi with the glasses steals every scene. His just so slimy and diabolical, you have to love him.

CONS

No major problems here, I mean, did you really expect me to find one?

CONCLUSION

Now, I hadn't seen this since I was young, like maybe 7 years old, so it was great to revisit this classic that I'm still surprised didn't scar me as a kid. It's got fun, action-adventure, face melting, what more could you ask for! If you or your youngins have yet to see this masterpiece, well what are you waiting for? Go watch it now...like right now....GO!

RATING

RUN TO

Summer of Movies #93: Spartacus

Welcome back to Summer of movies, after a week hiateus and two un-playable discs, I'm finally back. But today's movie is one that is considered a classic, but can it hold up against the epics of today? What am I talking about? Well if you can't read titles, then this might help...

 Let's Begin

PLOT

Back in the age of the Roman Empire and before Cesar's dictatorship, a boy is born, named Spartacus. He becomes a slave at 13 and lives the rest of his life as such, until one day he and many other slaves are chosen to be gladiators for a small village. He trains and keeps quiet, even meets a girl, until he's pushed too far. He then starts the first and biggest slave uprising in human history, and he's the leader of the while thing.

PROS

Since this is a 50's-60's era epic, the scope and direction is on a huge scale that very few modern movies can match. While the budget is small by today's standards, it still seems massive. All of those people are real people, all paid and fed. 

The final battle scene, near the end of the movie, is something to behold. It seems epic and chaotic, while director Stanley Kubrick finds a way to make it all make sense and focus on what's important. It even seems a little more brutal than most movies today.

The sets and costumes are very impressive, it really feels like your back in Roman era.

The acting is very good. I've seen some movies from this era of epics where the acting is less than stelar, but not here. everyone, for the most part, delivers.

CONS

This movie is 3hr long, that's too long. It takes 2 extremely slow hours for the movie to get interesting, but you can't skip that 2hr, or the last hour won't make sense. It's hard to get through, heck, it took me two days to get through it, but it's worth it if your interested in the movie itself.

The film focuses to much on the Roman's and their politics. The most interesting parts involve Spartacus and his slave army training and trashing the Italian countryside, but that's a small side story compared to the boring Roman politics.   

CONCLUSION

While I can see how this was the phenomenon back in the day, it just doesn't hold up today. It's slow and boring, until that 2hr and a half mark, then it gets good and only gets better from there. I don't think it's good enough to sit through the whole thing, but if you are interested and think I'm just some dumb teenager who doesn't know about the "good 'ol days", be my guest, but may god have mercy on your soul. I hate to do this, but...

RATING

RUN AWAY!

Mary & Max 50th Review Special! CR #22

Today is a glorious day, a day I could only dream of, a day that will be remembered in history as a glorious day that I could only dream of, it's Canada Day! Let us celebrate all those famous Canadians like... Celine Dion...and...Tara Strong depending on whether or not you watch cartoons... Ok this joke has gone on long enough. Yes, today is Canada day, but, more importantly, it's my 50th review! So to celebrate I'm going to review one of my two favorite movies of all time, yes I have two movies at #1. One of the two is a movie I've seen more times than I can even count, a movie I found by accident at the time when I was just starting to learn of my love for film, this is...

 Let's Begin

PLOT

Mary Daisy Dinkle is an 8 year old girl living in 1970's Australia, and she was bored. She has no friends, neglectful parents, and relies on her mood ring to make decisions. In New York City, there is Max Jerry Horovitz, a 40 year old obese man who also has no friends or family. One day, Mary decides to write a question to an American, and she randomly chooses a Mr. M. Horovitz. Mary and Max soon form a friendship that lasts through hilarious and exciting ups, sad and hard downs, three decades, and two continents.

PROS

This movie is stop-motion animation, think Nightmare Before Christmas, and it's beautiful. Every scene has so much detail that your eyes will be zooming all over the place just to find everything. The stop-motion animation is also impressive. It's so smooth and high quality that I'm still not sure how they did some things.

The actors portraying Mary (Toni Collette as adult Mary and Bethany Whitmore as young Mary) and Max (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) do an amazing job, the stand-out being Hoffman. He has a knock-out performance that blows me away every time.

Barry Humphries is the narrator who's one of the best parts of the film. As my friend pointed out to me, his narration is very innocent and comedic, like a dad reading to his child, even though the film deals with some dark and heavy subjects.

The script is very clever and has a ton of memorable lines and scenes.

The cinematography and style is very unique, one of the best examples I can give is whenever we're in Australia, the color scheme is very bright and colorful, but whenever we're in New York, the film goes black and white.

The movie has a bold yet satisfying bitter-sweet ending that really sticks with you and makes the movie for me.

While this might not work for some, I really love the quirky characters and how they show it through Mary and Max's letters.

CONS

Don't make me laugh, how could this movie have problems?

CONCLUSION

Mary & Max is one of the best, heartfelt, thought-provoking, and most rewatchable movie I've ever seen. It deals with mature subjects and growing up in subtle ways that I fell in love with. I've probably seen this movie more than 20 times, and I'll see 20 more. While not for everyone, everyone at least needs to give it a try. Run To is not strong enough of a rating to give. In fact, I'll make a new rating, how about...

RATING

CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT!