My Little Pony – The World’s Biggest Tea Party Live! (Hasbro/Paramount DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Main Program: C

 

 

The My Little Pony franchise was launched as a toy line by Hasbro in 1982, followed by the first of many animated productions in 1984 in the form of a TV show, the kind that were accused of being nothing more than half-hour advertisements for toylines as child-friendly regulations were trashed in the 1980s.  Very popular at the time, the magical, colorful, talking horses have come back with moderate success and My Little Pony – The World’s Biggest Tea Party Live! has them as live-on-stage performers.

 

Of course, this is for families to take their children too and each horse is really two actors, but does every franchise for kids have to have a stage production?  Disney’s success in this area (all the way to Hannah Montana) has encouraged this and the results here are bland and flat, though is it me or do the horses on the cover of this DVD suddenly look like the cast of Bratz?

 

The songs are unmemorable and though this is child-friendly, I cannot imagine any child except for big fans will get bored with this quickly.   Therefore, this average romp is for them only.

 

The 1.33 x 1 image is in very good shape, with color consistency and clarity as good as most analog tapings we have seen of late as that kind of production rides into the sunset.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is adequate for the production, so don’t expect any 5.1 mix and the makers were smart enough to know not to push it.  Extras include five sing-alongs and that’s it, despite the case saying something about a special tea cup cutout, whatever that is.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo