Okay, I’ll admit I personally missed the My Little Pony craze by at least a decade. But having two girls, ages two and five, these pink and purple and green ponies have made their way into my house (kind of the equine equivalent of the Care Bears), replete with long manes with which to practice brushing.
Then I found myself at New York’s Madison Square Garden, waiting for a live show of My Little Pony, billed as the "largest tea party ever." Didn’t know ponies drank tea. Was doubtful that a group of seven or eight singing and dancing sherbet-colored ponies would keep an audience of toddlers in their seats for 75 minutes.
At a pre-show reception, we eat pink and purple cupcakes and see that The View’s Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who’s there with her toddler, knows a thing or two about photo ops, since she’s wearing a hot pink shirt and posing with a fuchsia pony. At the start of the show, I chuckle at the one line clearly written as nod to the older folks in the crowd: "I love the smell of freshly baked muffins in the morning." After that, I am straining to find threads of a plot to piece together. Or I should say "squinking" to find a plot — that’s a MLP word for when you’re thinking really hard and trying to squeeze a thought out. It becomes apparent the theme is about how each pony has a job to do to make the tea party turn out right. Everything goes as planned but then Pinkie Pie (yes, each one has a different name) forgets to make the tea. I don’t think this drama has much of an affect on the audience, who are too busy sticking their pinkie fingers out holding paper tea cups to care. All in a day’s work at Unicornopia.
The show runs through this Sunday, April 27th. Do you think you might take your young ones to see it? Were you a My Little Pony fan as a kid?
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Eileen – okay, but did your kids like it? Like you, I’ve got two girls exactly in the MLP demographic . . . did it actually hold their attention for the full show? Or were they unknowingly creeped out by full-size Puff-N-Stuff-like ponies? I neeeeeed to know !!!! Thanks!!
BARF
OMG am I glad I don’t live in NY. My daughter would DIE to see this (she’s 4), and just told me last night that she wants a My Little Pony everything for her room… Gag!
That picture is probably one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen.
I am 26, and I was obsessed with Ponies until I was about 12 (I had a younger sister). Between us I think we had maybe 200 of them, plus the castle and houses and accessories and stuff. They were all we ever played with. There was a much larger variety of them back then than there are now. They kind of all look the same now. We loved the cartoon, also. My mom just bought it for me on dvd.
Now I just feel freakin’ old.
I loved My Little Ponies, but that show looks super scary. Man, I miss that My Little Pony castle. It was awesome. I still have a couple of My Little Pony videos. I forgot the titles, but they’re super cheesy and super cool.
that looks terrible.
I took my daughter to see the show when it was here in Dallas earlier in the year. She absolutely loved it!! She still talks about it. Whenever she sees a MLP website or commercial, she reminds me of when we went. It was her 6th birthday and I think she will remember it forever!!
Soda Pop, is that you? You look fierce, girl!
It’s true, y’all!
I thought it was just The Rutles that took tea – now it’s everywhere.
As for my own MLP moments, I had a couple growing up and the “Show Stable”, which I hardly used and my cat ended up commandeering anyway as a great nap place, provided I’d kept the roof open. That live show, though, looks ca-reepy. Makes me *very* happy that my 19-month-old girl’s favorite film is Cars.
My niece is replacing her My Little Pony comforter this weekend with a more age-appropriate design (monkeys?!) for her 8th birthday… I remember her mom playing with those things.
And Nancy beat us all to the punch… dangit!
Cotton Candy and Blossom
were 2 of my earliest toys I remember playing with. I had the castle too, It came with Megan.
I was all about some My Little Ponies…at one time I had about 50. I remember one came with a lipstick (which went everywhere but on the pony it came with). My grandmother actually found my 2 favorite ponies in her attic not long ago. For some reason their names were/are Shana and Randall.
That show looks like something I would’ve loved as a kid, but there is something vaguely creepy about those giant smiling ponies. It figures, though, that they came out with a show after I was way past the pony stage. Oh, well…as a child of the ’80s, at least I did get to attend every Disney on Ice worth seeing.
My wife’s expecting a girl, so I’m sure there’ll be plenty of My Little Pony shows for my soon to be young lady.
Funny thing, in the first grade there was this girl I was crushing on. I gave a girl a My Little Pony for her birthday. That was the first present I ever bought for any woman, but it would not be the last…
I used to reenact the soap stories I’d watch after school at my best friends house w/my ponies. Santa Barbara as enacted by the My Little Pony Players LOL.
I LOVED My Little Ponies (I’m currently 25). I had at least 80, including the Flutterbies and the Sea Ponies. But I can’t stand the new ones. They’re all so generic and teenagery. The first MLP movie was SCARY. It starred just Meghan (her little brother and sister came later, in the not-so-scary second movie), and there was an evil prince, who drove a carriage with four evil horses that were actually possessed MLPs. Anyone else remember this? Now they’re all tea parties and happiness, but the MLP I remember and love were much more adventurous.
I remember the movies!!! I’m an 80’s child…carebears, MLP, New Kids on the Block, tying my shirt to the side…The new stuff is just not the same…now the carebears look too digital…just like they did to Winnie the Pooh…and I don’t think digital is always a place for a cartoon to go…don’t fix it when it’s not broken!
OMG, I have three girls ( oneis less into ponies than into Bratz dolls, but that is another issue altogehter), and I had quite a few MLP myself when I was a kid. My favorite was Pinwheel, a fuschia colored unicorn with neon stripy hair…
I feel ancient right now. And I swear, if I step on one of my girls’ MLP one more time, there will be a Pony massacre.
When did I become so bitter and angry.
…we grow old, we grow old. First MLP. Then Care Bears. Now I’m seeing stupid Popples stuffed animals around. With my luck, Herself the Elf and She-Ra will come back so I’ll be forced to relive my childhood again through my little niece.
EP, I think that you clearly gave your wife a better present that anything you can get at a Babies R Us. Congrats.
To me, the original M.L.P’s, He Man’s, and Care Bears are a lot better than the new ones. Believe it or not, the original 1979 Strawberry Shortcake (minus Custard the Cat) is worth over 100 dollars (still in the box). However, toys making comebacks is nothing really new. The original G.I. Joe came out I think somewhere in the 60’s and was about the size of a Ken Doll. Watch Bratz fade out for about 20 years then make a comeback.
BTW: That picture of those dancers, looks like a really bad Flaming Lips concert. I am sure that Wayne Coyne is not amused.
My five-year-old absolutely did love the show (she attended with her two five-year-old friends, one of whom danced herself into a frenzy), but for moms watching, all that emphasis on eating cakes and cookies was definitely a saccharine overkill. There’s one intermission for you to stretch your legs though.
I attended the same show in NYC this past Thursday; of all the kiddie shows I have attended with my daughter, this had to be the least entertaining for adults-but she hasn’t stopped playing with her MLP’s since we got home!
To AAR, is that the movie, where there were ponies that were turned into dragons and then Applejacks was kidnapped as they walked through the castle? That scared me half to death.
Janine- Yes, that’s the one. Was it dragons? I thought it was flying demon horses, but I might be remembering it wrong. But yeah, I was quite scared too. Even the TV show had scary moments. It pains me that now MLP are only about tea parties. If She-Ra makes a comeback, she better still be a bada$$.
Flying Demon horses, Dragons, either way they were way too scary for 6 year old Me. Maybe She-Ra and Jem could team up for a new movie.
It’s Unicornia, actually.
I toured with that show for 11 months. Ironically enough, I never had a MLP as a kid.
wooowww I love this show!!! I love My little pony! look at this: http://mispequeponis.blogspot.com/