Pony Express (1953) Review

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I remember watching this movie on television on Saturdays and Sundays when I was growing up. Now, it's finally coming out on DVD. It's always a pleasure to watch the legendary actor (Ben Hur, The Big Country, Planet of the Apes, The Ten Commandments) Charlton Heston at work. While it might not be historically accurate, this movie does pay tribute to those early days of the Pony Express and the hardships that the riders encountered. Buffalo Bill (played by Charlton Heston) and Wild Bill Hickok (Forrest Tucker) join forces to establish a mail route that can get mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in ten days. Along the way they must battle bad weather, hostile Indians and cunning outlaws intent on robbing the mail and shutting down the entire mail delivery operation. The supporting cast (Forrest Tucker, Rhonda Fleming, Jan Sterling) are excellent and help make this movie exciting, enjoyable and fun to watch.

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Charlton Heston stars as Buffalo Bill, who along with partner Wild Bill Hickock, played by Forrest Tucker, is attempting to set up the Pony Express to help connect California with the rest of the country. Beautiful Rhonda Fleming and her brother are part of a group trying to prevent that from happening, wanting California to go it alone, rather than be part of the Union. Not only must Chuck do battle with them, but there are also the Indians to consider, not to mention the nagging presence of Jan Sterling, a tomboy in love with him. Pony Express is not short on action and that is its saving grace. The plot and dialogue are routine, the direction uninspired, and the characters comes across as sketches. The beauty of Rhonda Fleming and the technicolor scenery helps to make this acceptable viewing. There could be a great movie made about the Pony Express. This just isn't it.

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What a fun exciting western with Heston playing Buffalo Bill Cody and Forest Tucker as Wild Bill Hickock. Great technicolor cinematography that has many well composed John Ford type shots make this movie beautiful to look at. The movie dramatizes the begining of the pony express with a California leaving the US subplot..I don't know how accurate the story is, but I was entertained.

Jan Sterling steals the movie as a lovesick tomboy..................what a performance!!

Heston is really good in this movie.................he actually plays his part with some humour..something he did not do in a lot of his roles..He shows he can really handle a horse in this movie.....in fact my 2 favorite Heston roles are this one and the role of the tough ranch foreman in The Big Country. If you like high quality westerns, this is a must have.

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this is an excellent movie excellent performances from all the actors

as a matter of fact this product was excellent in all areas i will do more

trading with you people in the near future

yours faithfully

malcolmevans6@hotmail.com

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Just an over all good western with plenty of star appeal.Great scenery.A descent transfer.Good story line.If you like a good family film,then saddle up and enjoy this western......support your favorite artists......

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: Season One Review

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I have been waiting for a release of the full season for quite some time as I'm sure many others have. Definitely support this release,it is clearly targeted for Bronies being an exclusive like this and the alleged bonus content like audio commentary with the cast and crew. Supporting this will surely lead to more DVD releases, perhaps even Blu-ray!

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It doesn't matter if you'd rather have Blu-ray. Good sales of this will lead to Blu-ray. It doesn't matter if you have access to Netflix streaming or iTunes or YouTube for the episodes. They don't have audio commentary. Find the money for this and support the official release!

Update (11/27/12): According to Seth's review of this DVD on Equestria Daily, the commentaries on this disc are amazing. I share his sentiment even now, and I can confirm my agreement with him after I receive the DVD.

Update (12/13/12): I received my DVD days ago, but I just wanted to confirm that this is a great 4-disc DVD set. The commentaries are especially interesting, although the only new voice credit information that we learned that wasn't already known was that Tabitha St. Germain voiced the stallion who screams in "The Best Night Ever" after Rainbow Dash knocks and catches him.

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Putting aside the whole "brony" phenomenon, this show is still well worth the price, for a number of reasons:

The characters: This is where the show really shines. The characters are all very well-rounded and surprisingly complex for a show aimed at this age group; it avoids lumping the characters into stereotypical roles. For example, in just about any other show, Rarity would be a stereotypical girly-girl, obsessed with boys, shopping, and hair. Here, she's certainly a fashionista, but she's also a competent businesswoman, something of an artist, and knows how to handle herself in dangerous situations. All the cast members have a similar level of development, which lends itself really well to the slice-of-life nature of the show.

The character designs and animation are great. It's cute and endearing, but not to the tooth-rot degree of previous generations, and it's still good for the occasional action sequence. As a bonus it's very expressive and surprisingly detailed for a flash-based cartoon.

Ditto for the music; it doesn't necessarily stick out, but it definitely enhances the show as a whole.

Good writing: On the whole, the show avoids most of the pitfalls of kid shows by using lots of character-based humor and self-awareness that can appeal to viewers of any age and rarely feels patronizing towards the adult audience. You don't need to be a kid to find it funny. At the same time, the plots are generally executed well enough that they don't feel like rehashes of common plotlines, and even when the plots are quite simple they're still entertaining due to the charm that the characters bring to everything.

Good Acting: There's some serious voice talent here; Tara Strong (Twilight Sparkle) is basically the patron saint of voice acting, Andrea Libman displays some impressive range (voicing both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, two characters who have almost opposite personalities), Ashleigh Ball gives Rainbow Dash and Applejack very distinct voices, and Tabitha St. Germain does a great of job making Rarity into an entertaining and balanced character.

This isn't to say that Season 1 is totally without fault; like all things, it has a few rough spots (In particular, the Cutie Mark Crusader based episodes can seem a bit same-y due to the characters having the same motivation in each), but overall it's consistently high quality and well worth checking out, even if you aren't a kid. I've found that it has a degree of quality and subtlety that sets it apart from a lot of other children's programming.

EDIT: Now that I have the DVD, I'm just going to throw in a few comments about the physical media aspects. I haven't had time to watch everything yet, but I've watched a few episodes worth on the various discs and they look good so far.

1. The commentaries are very entertaining and interesting. They aren't particularly ground-breaking, but it's fun to hear about some of the behind-the-scenes stuff from the show's staff. There's a good selection of people from actors, to writers, to producers, and they definitely offer some interesting insights into the show.

2. The audio and video quality are great. It's not hi-def, but it's still perfectly good quality that really demonstrates the skill of animators and composers.

3. The physical DVD box itself is sturdy, if without frills.

The only things I can really complain about are rather insubstantial, but in the interest of fairness I'll include them anyway:

1. The box artwork. They use some of the same stock vectors that they use for 90% of the merchandise, which isn't bad in and of itself, but having seen it everywhere else it feels a bit lazy when it would have been fairly easy to use something new. Also, one of the DVD's has an image of Princess Cadance, who doesn't actually appear in the series until the end of the second season. It doesn't bug me, but I guess a kid could get confused wondering who the pink pony on the DVD is.

2. The menu music. It's a loop of the "My Little Pony" line from the show's theme song, and if you listen to it for more than about 20 seconds it starts to get a bit annoying. Again, an extremely minor issue, but one that could have been really easily solved by just sticking in some of the show's (excellent) BGM instead of a 10-second loop.

So basically, the show itself is awesome, the DVDs maintain the quality, and the only issues are so insubstantial that they're barely worth mentioning. They certainly aren't important enough to knock any stars off the rating. If you were on the fence about buying the DVD, do it, it's completely worth it.

(Note: I haven't checked out all the special features, like the coloring pages and whatnot on the fourth disc, but I doubt those will really factor much into the rating either)

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It's about time the greatest show to hit our TV hit DVD, so can't wait :D

I will be ordering this from the UK, and I recommend it to ANYONE!

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I'm not going to waste time talking about the show. If you want to know what it's about, read any of the other 80+ reviews lavishing praise on the series, or, better yet, record a few episodes from the Hub on your DVR or Tivo. I'm going to discuss the stuff people reading these reviews actually care about: picture/sound quality, packaging, and extras.

Picture/Sound Quality = This set looks as good as any of the other MLP:FiM DVDs released by Shout! Factory. Really, this show can only look so good on DVD. The picture quality is great for a Flash-animated show on DVD, but it won't look great if you're used to the 1080p iTunes releases of the episodes.

Packaging = This set contains four DVDs in one case. Each disc is well-protected and easy to access. The art on the front and back of the case is pretty good. I'm less thrilled with the illustrations on the third and fourth discs (third disc has an illustration of Princess Cadance, a character not introduced until the Season Two finale! while the fourth disc has a questionably illustrated Princess Celestia). This is all nit-picking, though. Everything is bright and colorful. The case comes with a slip-cover illustrated the same as the case. The case itself is see-through, and the opposite side of the paper with the cover art displays a very pretty layout of various characters walking around Ponyville while also listing the various episodes in the set.

Extras = I counted six episodes with full commentary tracks (Friendship is Magic parts 1 and 2, Winter Wrap-Up, Suited for Success, The Show Stoppers, and The Best Night Ever). Commentators for these episodes include a couple of Hasbro execs, Jayson Thiessen, James Wootton, Nicole Oliver, Cathy Weseluck, Andrea Libman, Tabitha St. Germain, and Daniel Ingram. The commentators have a lot of fun talking about these episodes, although, far and away, my favorite commentary so far is the one for "Suited for Success," in which Daniel Ingram talks quite a bit about the difficulties in finalizing the songs in that episode. There's nothing mind-blowing in these commentaries, but it is fun to hear Ingram talk about the music and the voice actors talk about the various characters.

Beyond the commentaries, there are short "Pony Profiles" in which the Mane Six are briefly introduced, downloadable coloring sheets, and two sing-a-longs (for the extended version of the title theme and At the Gala, respectively). These are mainly for children, but the sing-a-longs are definitely cute.

All-in-all, this is a solid set, and well worth investing in if you want to support the show's official release. Let's buy enough of these that Shout! Factory releases high quality Blu-Rays of these eps.

Reviews of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (BluRay/DVD/Digital)

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So there are a lot of joke reviews on here right now, but here's some real talk: I just got back from seeing Equestria Girls and it really is excellent. The MLP cast and crew have created a movie that has every bit as much heart, magic, and quality as the series. The humor is still intelligent, the animation is still gorgeous, the characters are still themselves, and the writing is just as snappy and spirited as you'd expect from Meghan McCarthy. Don't judge Equestria Girls without giving it a chance, you'll be missing out on a gem of a film and a worthy addition to this generation of My Little Pony.

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I felt the movie was good for the target audience of young girls. The only problem was a demon at the end that might scare some of the youngest viewers.

For fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, there are lots of easter eggs, such as Scootaloo doing the chicken dance and Fluttershy's meeting Spike paralleling her original meeting Spike as a pony. (For non-fans, Scootaloo is a young pegasus type pony who was called a chicken by one of her friends.) Others aren't as obvious and can only be seen by watching the background characters. Watch to the end of the credits to find all the easter eggs.

Music for the movie was not of the same sort as in the broadcast series. Dan Ingram, who writes the song for MLP also wrote the songs for the EqG movie. But he wrote the songs in a pop music style that will appeal to children. Don't expect "The Art of the Dress" or "Winter Wrap Up". I didn't find the songs very memorable the first time I heard them, but they weren't objectional.

The biggest weakness in the plot is the speed that the villain changes after she has lost. That isn't uncommon for the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic television series. Where most sitcoms dwell on otherwise admirable characters behaving badly, MLP tends to have characters change when shown that they are wrong. The reasons that the characters change are not necessarily spelled out, which may be why the program resonates with so many older viewers. Viewers associate their own motives with the characters. Those motives can be complex or simple as the viewer choses.

Over all, it was fun and entertaining. The script and soundtracks were both far beyond what is normally found in children's programming, especially programming for little girls. If I could have stayed in the theater for a second showing, I would have done so.

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I tried to find a rating(UNRATED) or review before we went to see this and I was sorely disappointed to find a bunch of bad reviews, but they were all coming from adults. I wanted to know if this would be OK for my children to watch. So here is a review from a MOM.

My girls liked this movie, and I didn't feel bad about taking them. I didn't feel like I had to hide their eyes at any point, or remove them from the theater. Yes they had somewhat skimpy clothes, and Applejack straddling a chair in a skirt was a little over the top(nothing obviously showing), not something I want my girls doing, and that is why I knocked off a star, but I come from the 80's gen that grew up with Barbie and Jem in short skirts, and Teela and She-ra running around in cheek hugging bathing suits, and I turned out to be a fairly conservative parent. So really it's not that big a deal.

It was a genuinely good for kids kind of movie though, and taught about friendship, dealt with bullying(and standing up to one), and good overcoming bad. Being a parent does require being involved and talking about these things, and I'd say seeing this movie is a good segue into talking about these things to young girls. The 'scary' part wasn't too bad, my 4yo was fine

Short skirts and all(not even too short), I WOULD get this for my young daughters. So if you are on the fence about whether or not to get this for your daughter, I would give this movie a G for great!

Honest reviews on My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (BluRay/DVD/Digital)

I felt the movie was good for the target audience of young girls. The only problem was a demon at the end that might scare some of the youngest viewers.

For fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, there are lots of easter eggs, such as Scootaloo doing the chicken dance and Fluttershy's meeting Spike paralleling her original meeting Spike as a pony. (For non-fans, Scootaloo is a young pegasus type pony who was called a chicken by one of her friends.) Others aren't as obvious and can only be seen by watching the background characters. Watch to the end of the credits to find all the easter eggs.

Music for the movie was not of the same sort as in the broadcast series. Dan Ingram, who writes the song for MLP also wrote the songs for the EqG movie. But he wrote the songs in a pop music style that will appeal to children. Don't expect "The Art of the Dress" or "Winter Wrap Up". I didn't find the songs very memorable the first time I heard them, but they weren't objectional.

The biggest weakness in the plot is the speed that the villain changes after she has lost. That isn't uncommon for the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic television series. Where most sitcoms dwell on otherwise admirable characters behaving badly, MLP tends to have characters change when shown that they are wrong. The reasons that the characters change are not necessarily spelled out, which may be why the program resonates with so many older viewers. Viewers associate their own motives with the characters. Those motives can be complex or simple as the viewer choses.

Over all, it was fun and entertaining. The script and soundtracks were both far beyond what is normally found in children's programming, especially programming for little girls. If I could have stayed in the theater for a second showing, I would have done so.

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This movie is fantastic. Even if it doesn't have the song Equestria Girls that I same listed on the movie's WIKIPEDIA page. For me Helping Twilight Get Her Crown was my favorite song in the movie. I don't think Sunset Shimmer's demon form is any worst that either Nightmare Moon in the MLP TV series or even the evil Fairy in Disney Sleeping Beauty turning into a dragon. How they deal with Sunset Shimmer remind me very much with how Nightmare Moon was dealt with.

Hasbro did a good job picking the person who wrote some of the best and most popular episodes of the show to do the script of the movie. Its great watching Princess Twilight adjust to being human and the human world in the movie. Meeting Fluttershy for the first time is a revamp of their first meeting in Friendship is Magic season one. The movie has good anti bulling and believing in yourself theme to it without taking away the entertainment that made the series itself so great. I was surprise at Trixie's scene at the vending machine as before seeing the movie I was under the impression she was just in the back ground crowd to look for like many of the other characters. The bits in the crystal empire with Flash Sentry was so good I'm sad he won't be part of series season 4. Since human Big Mac is skin tone like Doug was in Doug series shame they couldn't of stuck 1980s MLP Megan into the human section of this world for those who grew up on original series.

There are some talk from Hasbro about an Equestria Girls spin off which I wouldn't mind as long as we keep Ponyville's Princess Twilight and not replace her with the always been human Twilight of that other world.