Moviefan

The Scooby-Doo Christmas Comics Caper: Nutcracker Not-So-Sweet (Scooby-Doo # 43)

December 4, 2020 in Blogs

Back in October, I mentioned the idea of looking at Scooby-Doo! comics and I did look at one Scooby-Doo comic as I looked at one from the Team-Up series, however, this holiday season I will be looking at three holiday-themed Scooby comics. Starting with one from 2000. We are starting with a story from December 2000 titled Nutcracker Not-So-Sweet. It is interesting to start with a story dealing with The Nutcracker as the earliest Scoob-Doo Christmas special I remember watching is The Nutcracker Scoob.

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Tags: Christmas, DC Comics, Scooby-Doo, The Nutcracker No Comments »

by Moviefan

The Brick Theater: LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special

December 3, 2020 in Blogs

In 1978, a holiday special was released that has lived in infamy. The Star Wars Holiday Special. Last month on the anniversary of said special, a brand new Star Wars Holiday Special that had the LEGO treatment was released. It is interesting to see the elements of that special mainly the holiday, Life Day brought into the canon of Star Wars. Yes, this thing is as absurd as it may seem canon to the larger Star Wars mythos. From a LEGO perspective, this does make sense that they’d want to give one of their biggest moneymakers a new special. They’ve dabbled in LEGO Star Wars animated stuff before and they are no stranger to selling LEGO Star Wars holiday merchandise. Every year for as long as I can remember now, there has been a LEGO Star Wars advent calendar released around the holiday season.

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Tags: Disney, LEGO, Star Wars 8 Comments »

by Moviefan

On The Christmas Case: A Nancy Drew Christmas

December 2, 2020 in Blogs

Today, we continue celebrating the holidays with America’s most famous girl detective with a book simply titled A Nancy Drew Christmas. This book is part of the Nancy Drew Diaries series and from what I understand on the Nancy Drew Wiki, the reception from longtime fans was a bit mixed in the characterization of Nancy.

…the Diaries has received harsh reviews from fans. Much criticism has gone towards Nancy becoming more passive or timid, and Nancy’s reluctance to solve a mystery in several stories. There has also been criticism in the uneven quality of the series.

Now I’ve really only read two Nancy Drew books (well…l read one and listened to another) before this one and the last was a tie-in to the CW show which presented Nancy as strong and suspicious whereas here at the beginning, Nancy comes off as a bit mousy.

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by Moviefan

On The Christmas Case: Will The Real Santa Claus…? (The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries)

December 1, 2020 in Blogs

It’s been years since I’ve looked at anything related to The Hardy Boys and I do apologize for that. And unfortunately, the original entries in my Hardy Boys retrospective have been lost to time. I will truck on as I do have the second season on DVD. I’d been wanting to look at something Christmas related starring my favorite detectives. I knew that there was a Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys crossover called A Crime for Christmas but it’s actually rather hard to find as it’s currently not in print.

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by Moviefan

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: Daring Doubt

November 14, 2020 in Blogs

I can’t believe it but after three years, I’ve reached the end of A Dash of Awesome. This retrospective is a bit different than the first three that I’ve done. This is the first one that I’ve done where I have been able to review every single episode of the character that was featured in this retrospective. This is exciting but I do wish that there was a bit of a stronger episode to go out on. This isn’t a bad episode but considering the era that we are currently living through, one of the messages of this episode has been tainted.

This episode says that we should listen to both sides and that there is more than one side to the story. Normally, I would have agreed with that but considering our outgoing President has used the term Both Sides to defend White Supermaicists, it’s a little harder to say that we should listen to both sides when we have seen so many on that side have made even MLP villains seem reasonable. It’s not hard to see why a show aimed at children would want to send a message of we shouldn’t judge people without knowing their side of the story but after everything we’ve lived through, the message doesn’t sit as well.

And the worst part is that this all comes at the expense of Fluttershy, my favorite character. My girl had to be put in a position where I can’t defend her.

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Tags: A Dash of Awesome, Daring Do, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Trotting Through Life No Comments »

by Moviefan

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: 2,4,6, Greaaat

November 12, 2020 in Blogs

I’m going to sound like a broken record as I’ve said this about two recent episodes that I looked at but it applies here as well. This episode’s placement is odd and does not feel like it should be a final season episode. If this episode had come in the first four seasons, this episode would have worked because as it is, there is a lot of character regression on the part of Dashie in this episode.

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Tags: A Dash of Awesome, Cheerleading, Rainbow Dash, Trotting Through Life 2 Comments »

by Moviefan

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: Common Ground

November 11, 2020 in Blogs

Of all the characters to return to the show, the one I expected least to return was Quibble Pants. However, this episode hits a little differently as not only is Patton Oswalt in this episode but he is acting alongside his family including his wife, Meredith Salinger, and his daughter, Alice. There is a reason for this as the episode deals with Oswalt’s character wanting to be accepted by the character played by his daughter. The basis for this episode is pulled from Oswalt’s real-life as noted here.

Quibble Pants is interested in having a relationship with another mare who had been married but either left her husband or became a widow (it’s never indicated which, although it should be noted that all references to Wind Sprint’s father, both professionally and personally, are in the past tense, making it much more likely that she’s a widow), and who has effective custody of her daughter. In real life, Oswalt had his daughter, Alice, with his first wife, Michelle McNamara, who died 11 years after their marriage. Oswalt married Meredith Salenger a year later. This similar relationship led the show to seek out Meredith and Alice to voice Quibble’s new mare friend and her daughter

Knowing the story behind why this episode exists is almost more important than the story of the episode itself. When looking at it through this lens, I find the episode rather interesting to talk about.

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Tags: A Dash of Awesome, Patton Oswalt, Rainbow Dash No Comments »

by Moviefan

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: The Washouts

November 9, 2020 in Blogs

My favorite version of Rainbow Dash is big sister Rainbow Dash. There is something just so charming about how Rainbow Dash has taken Scootaloo under her wing and wants to be the best role model that there is. However, like a similar episode with Rarity and Sweetie Belle, Rainbow Dash has to come to the realization that her little sister is growing up and can make her own decisions. This is where the theme of the episode comes in, Rainbow Dash is worried that she’s losing Scoots and also worried for her safety while at the same time realizing that she has to let Scoots make her own decisions.

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Tags: A Dash of Awesome, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Trotting Through Life No Comments »

by Moviefan

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: The End in Friend

November 8, 2020 in Blogs

The placement of this episode is a bit odd considering that this episode takes place in the second-to-last season of the series. And there hadn’t been many Rarity and Rainbow episodes up until this point, maybe only two. I think this episode might’ve worked better if it were a Rarity and Applejack episode but that’s not what we got.

The Plot

Twilight wants to highlight how two very different ponies can still be friends and decides to use Miss Rarity and Dash as examples. Not a bad idea perse but this is where the episode rings hollow for me, Rares and Dash are meant to have a day of fun planned. But they just end up annoying each other as, during a Buckball game, Rarity isn’t paying attention or when looking for gems, Dash ends up taking things a bit too far and breaking some of the gems. The two decide they aren’t friends anymore.

The student counselor Starlight tries to help and yeah, things go about as well as you might expect. Though I do give her props for suggesting that they read each other’s favorite books. Though that doesn’t work.

When all else fails, Twilight tricks the two into finding a fake Equestrian relic.

As Rarity and Rainbow Dash’s arguing draws attention from nearby ponies, Starlight returns and alerts them to a problem back at the school. In Twilight’s office, Twilight searches frantically for something. When Starlight arrives with Rarity and Rainbow, she explains that the Amulet of Aurora, one of the magical artifacts that Princess Celestia gave to the school, has gone missing. She explains further that the amulet can control water tides and summon tsunamis and that they must find it before it falls into the wrong hands.

Yeah, this is where things start getting better as the girls finally start getting along again and Rarity using her love of mystery books and also noticing the trail of glitter is a different color than the stilettos she’d been wearing, her and Dash head through and to get past a rather large frog-like creature with bad breath that can tell them where the relic is. Rarity gives this thing something for this breath and unlike some people in 2020 knows to wear a face covering.

Following the words of the creature and working together, the girls can get where he said he saw the relic go, and after using her boot to unlock the door, it leads back to the school. And they learn the prop was just a relic and Twilight did this to get them to stop fighting. Which they did and they went off shopping realizing they can still be friends.

Characters

Rarity & Rainbow Dash voiced by Tabitha St. Germain & Ashleigh Ball

The fighting in this episode was really uncomfortable as fighting often is but also as I said, this episode just felt odd with its placement. And I feel like the wrong character pairing was used for this because Dash and Rarity really don’t have much of a past before this episode to help build off of this. I get the idea but I dunno.

My Final Thoughts

I don’t exactly hate this episode but it’s one I feel the need to ever return to either. I at first thought I outright hated this episode. it admittedly was annoying to watch but more because I’m befuddled by it. I get what it’s trying to say, and it is a good message, but I don’t think it’s delivered rather well. Join me next time as we look at…

The Washouts

Tags: A Dash of Awesome, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Trotting Through Life 2 Comments »

by Moviefan

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: Non-Compete Clause

November 5, 2020 in Blogs

The fact that this is a season eight episode is a bit odd. This is the second to last season and you would think that the characters had grown by this point. And for the most point, that’s correct and this episode even wants to focus on that as this episode is dealing with Dash’s and AJ’s competitive nature. But okay, it’s season eight, we are expected to treat them like adults now and young whatever ages they were in the early seasons. They have jobs and responsibilities and that is something that does come up as they are meant to be doing a job here as they are teachers for the Friendship School. I decided to go back and look at my review of Fall Weather Friends from when I started this character retrospective and my takeaway there was that while it wasn’t a bad episode. And while I still enjoy that episode and am fine with the competitive nature, it feels strange to see it a season eight episode when these characters had developed so much beyond this point. I know a big part of this is that they seem to love having Ashleigh Ball play herself in these episodes but it gets old really fast.

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by Moviefan

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: Grannies Gone Wild

November 4, 2020 in Blogs

My favorite sitcom of all time is The Golden Girls. And a large part of it is the characters, the core four ladies of Dorothy, Rose, Sophia, and Blanche show that even you might be in your golden years, that doesn’t mean that you have stop living.

While watching this episode and seeing Granny Smith with her, The Gold Horseshoe Gals, it’s hard not to think of The Golden Girls. Now, I can’t find any confirmation that this episode was indeed influenced by this great sitcom but it does feel like it. You know there is something rather apt for this review.

The My Little Pony: The Movie soundtrack had a cover of Thank You for Being a Friend, which was used as the theme song for my favorite sitcom. Thankfully unlike the last episode that we looked at Dash does come off in a better light, if anyone comes off looking bad, it’s Applejack. Even though, she isn’t much of a character in the episode. Rather, she serves as Dash’s conscience. Though I’m not going to bring her up in characters

This is another episode where the characters are more important than the plot. Which is something that I will touch upon as there is truly no need for a scene by scene breakdown of the episode. With that out of the way, let’s begin.

The Plot

This episode opens at the Wonderbolts Training Academy with Dash learning about the most awesome roller coaster in Las Pegasus. I don’t believe that I’ve touched upon Las Pegasus in any of my reviews up to this point partly because this is the first character retrospective to reach an episode that takes place. Las Pegasus as you can observe from the name is a Pony version of Las Vegas a la Manehattan.

Now, what’s interesting is that even though this location wasn’t introduced until season six, this episode highlights that the Hold Horseshoe Gals had been going there for years. I at first thought this was a continuity hiccup because I mistook the hotel as being owned by Flim and Flam when the location first debuted but that’s not the case at all. They didn’t own it until the end of that episode along with the aid of AJ and Fluttershy.

Anyways, moving beyond that, Dash gets to AJ and explains that Granny Smith and her friends go on an annual trip to Las Pegasus every year. Big Mac usually chaperons but would love a break and this is when Dash volunteers instead. And this is when we are introduced to The Gold Horseshoe Gals.

Dash is given a list that is rather restrictive in what the ladies can and cannot do such as they should only have soup or jello. This is seen at one point when Granny Smith tries to eat nachos and Dash stops that. Rude much.

One of the biggest factors that pop up is the gals get to be a part of a magic show and well, the act is for him to escape from a tank full of water. Dash gets nervous and knocks the tank over. This is where I wanna bring up AJ. As I mentioned AJ kind of acts as Dash’s conscience. In that Dash is trying to be responsible and remember what her friend told her and protect the ladies. However, where this fails is that how Dash is looking after the gals is coddling and not letting them live their lives because Dash has fear put into her by what AJ told her.

This is where my issue comes in as Dash learns that older people can live and still have fun but feel like there should’ve been an epilogue scene with AJ and Granny Smith where Granny Smith says that while she understands her granddaughter’s concerns, she doesn’t need to be coddled. There is a hint of this when Dash reveals that AJ told the rules to follow with the character of Auntie Applesauce.

Applejack put you up to this?

There’s a note of disbelief and annoyance that Applejack would do this. They come to an understanding and get Dash on the rollercoaster and even sit upfront and on the way home, Dash is made an honorary Gold Horseshoe Gal.

This is a good episode with a great lesson. And yeah part of the reason I like it is that it’s basically a pony version of The Golden Girls but those are two things I like and if it works, it works.

Characters

Rainbow Dash voiced by Ashleigh Ball

This was a good episode for Dash as she was truly trying to do her best to follow the rules that AJ had set up for her to follow. Sure, she may have gone overboard a bit but that’s just who Dash is, hen she goes in. She goes all in.

The Gold Horseshoe Gals voiced by Tabitha St. Germain, Peter New, Marcy Goldberg, &

Shirley Millner

The Gold Horseshoe Gals are great characters and there are notes of the Golden Girls in them with Granny Smith being like the Sophia of the group. And heck, one of the characters is even named Apple Rose. Sure, that could be a stretch but come on. Sure, we’ve seen her before but Rose Nylun is a beloved character from The Golden Girls and we even see one of the Gals be sweet on the bellhop in a child-friendly manner that is reminiscent of Blanche.

My Final Thoughts

This is a decent episode that I really like and is a nice light after yesterday’s and before going into tomorrow’s as that’s gonna be more painful. Join me next time as we look at

Non-Compete Clause

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Tags: A Dash of Awesome, Rainbow Dash, The Golden Girls, Trotting Through Life 2 Comments »

by Moviefan

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: Secrets and Pies

November 3, 2020 in Blogs

As children, we are often taught that honesty is the best policy. And that is something that this episode attempts to teach which is a simple lesson but you need simple lessons sometimes. And yeah, Dash does go about it in the wrong way as we will see. Granted, this is episode is told more from Pinkie’s POV but that is important in helping to understand how Dash’s lying hurt Pinkie. And in many ways, it actually goes beyond just Dash lying to Pinkie over the fact that she doesn’t like pie and in a way ends up gaslighting her. For those that do not know, gaslighting is defined as…

It’s the act of manipulating a person by forcing them to question their thoughts, memories, and the events occurring around them. A victim of gaslighting can be pushed so far that they question their own sanity.

I cut out part some of the definition about the victim but no, the way that Pinkie is treated by Dash is rather uncomfortable and yeah, she truly does hurt her friend. I believe that this episode does two messages. One for kids in that being don’t lie as that’ll hurt your friends and one for adults being don’t emotionally manipulate your friends.

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Tags: A Dash of Awesome, gaslighting, lying, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash 2 Comments »

Moviefan

@moviefan

The Scooby-Doo Christmas Comics Caper: Nutcracker Not-So-Sweet (Scooby-Doo # 43)

The Brick Theater: LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special

On The Christmas Case: A Nancy Drew Christmas

On The Christmas Case: Will The Real Santa Claus…? (The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries)

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: Daring Doubt

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: 2,4,6, Greaaat

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: Common Ground

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: The Washouts

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: The End in Friend

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: Non-Compete Clause

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: Grannies Gone Wild

Trotting Through Life A Dash of Awesome: Secrets and Pies

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