The animation is done in a haphazard style that’s all over the place. I really don’t know how to describe this. The line thickness goes all over the place, with hard outlines on some objects, no outlines on some, and tiny pencil lines on others. Some objects have black outlines, while some use a color similar to the fill color. Some scenes are sharp and some lines are blurry. The strange thing is, this seems to be some sort of remaster. Looking through clips of the 2005 trailer, the cartoon looks more hand drawn and consistent in style. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to dig up any more information on this, but it is very odd. It’s as if it were remastered, but there’s no mention of it in the description or the box and it looks like the remaster was not an improvement, unfortunately.
If you’re a current generation (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) MLP fan, then you might get a kick out of the old incarnations of some of the current characters. Rainbow Dash is some sort of stuffy earth pony with a Brit accent. Pinky Pie is definitely not the party animal she is now. She’s much more monotone and, well, boring.
The story revolves around the clumsy, rather valley girl-like pony named Minty. The green and pink pony can never leave well enough alone, and always has to adjust things "a smidge to the left" or a "bit to the right." Minty definitely has some underlying OCD issues. Either way, her drive to nudge everything until it’s just right results in her knocking the town’s special candy cane from the top of the tree in Ponyville. Santa needs to see the sparkly glow of the candy cane in order to find his way to Ponyville, so without it, Christmas is quote-unquote ruined. I find it hard to believe that the ponies could really not find anything else shiny and sparkly in all of Ponyville, but I digress.
The stakes are pretty darn low. No one even gets slightly angry that Minty broke the prized candy cane. Everyone immediately forgives, forgets, and goes on a rescue and hug mission as soon as they learn Minty has left Ponyville. Seriously, it’s a village full of Ned Flanders (from The Simpsons). You just can’t get these ponies angry. I know, it’s supposed to teach values, and promote harmony and positive feelings, but it’s incredibly pandering and unrealistic. I remember the original first generation cartoons in the 80’s did have some fighting, and characters did have emotions that at least dabbled in the angry, annoyed, and frightened end of the scale. Sure, they were all resolved by the end of the episode, but it was slightly more believable in its struggles.
This is inane, insulting stuff that is much like so many other DVDs churned out to go straight to store shelves. It’s cheap, and it’s easy to produce. It’s the fast food of children’s cartoons. There’s some slight interest if you’re a current generation pony fan, but don’t get your hopes up too high. I will say that watching this show will at least make you appreciate the current generation cartoons much more.
