If you can't have a Patrick Swayze Christmas this year, have a Minty one. · 10:31pm Dec 10th, 2015
Over the weekend, I saw that the Discovery Family Channel had A Very Minty Christmas on their schedule, and on a lark, I decided to record it for later viewing. After all, this wasn't my first encounter with the title character. Oh, sure, I knew she wouldn't be the same Minty I had fallen in love with in the fantastic G3 photo-comic Kimono's Townhouse -- the geeky Minty who works in tech support, plays D&D, likes to wear Batman costumes, and invented the term "dooter" -- but I figured there might still be some entertainment value anyway.
For the most part, it's cute, but there are times when those previous-gen ponies just look a little creepy -- like when they're all looking at the camera with the same broad, open-mouthed smile with the very same face in different colors. (Anybody who thinks G4 ponies all look alike should seriously check this stuff out.) And the bipedal dance lines going down the stairs at one point just looked... off.
The characters are nice, if a little bland. I found it interesting that old-school Rainbow Dash manages to out-"darling" all but the absolute worst stereotypes of Rarity that are held by the fabulousness-hating contingent of the brony fandom. (I mean, I knew the name belonged to a pretty different character back then, but damn.)
Speaking of Rarity, at one point when Minty was distraught, I noticed some tones that sounded very familiar -- just like Rarity's whining in "A Dog and Pony Show", in fact. I looked it up, and sure enough: Tabitha. I knew she had worked on previous pony cartoons, but I didn't know she had had such a prominent role. Come to that, I knew that a few of the FIM cast had worked on MLP before, but I was surprised by how many familiar names I saw when I looked up the details.
For me, it was an interesting look at the past of what eventually became the show we all know and love: familiar names on different characters, prominent use of hot-air balloons (which have been a thing since G1 cartoons), messages about the importance of friendship, and so on. All in all, there is indeed some entertainment value, and I'm glad I watched it -- even if it would possibly make some bronies freak the f
out just for being from an earlier generation. Also, I'd like to see Minty cross over into G4, and not just because her song about socks was cute. (I like to think she'd be related to Twist somehow.)
Oh, and apparently glowing ponies are nothing new...
Bonus: just one of many fan artist interpretations of Minty in the G4 style:
The stuff back then was pretty vacuous.
Headcanon accepted. Totally using that someday.
3608891
So are a lot of the fans of the new stuff.
(Also, I know vacuous cartoons -- I remember stuff from the '80s. Even as a kid, I knew a lot of it was crap.)
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Looking forward to seeing that at some point.
Just about any relationship would work, too -- her big sister, her aunt, her grandmother, one of her cousins. As for Twist's mom, though, I hold to the belief that her name is Shimmy Shake, as found in the original version of the Smile Song as written by Amy Keating Rogers. (I named her dad Tango in one of my stories.)
You know, Tabitha also has done the voice of Scootaloo before, too. I kinda think they've got the same set of a couple voice actors together several times now...
--Sweetie Belle
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The only thing better than voice actors working in the same franchise over and over again is when the really good voice actors play the same role over and over again. (Kevin Conroy is Batman, as far as I'm concerned, and having someone else in the recording booth reading his lines just means you aren't trying hard enough.)
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Well, sometimes more than one actor gets the role down well, but I know what you mean. That link you gave said Andrea Libman was in the Minty Special as Zipzee, and I know she's played Sweetie Belle before, too,
I should watch the Minty special. This was kinda cute.
[youtube=jJoLT1w4USU]
--Sweetie Belle
3609993
That's the song I was talking about!
There are people who think the G4 ponies look the same?
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To be fair, I think that was the sort of thing that was mostly said during Season One, when there was a lot less variety in body types and whatnot...
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Good. I shan't stand for such false notions being propagated in this day and age.
Never seen A Very Minty Christmas, but today I got to thinking that if Minty ever had a foal, it'd be so cool if she named it Minty Junior or Junior Minty just for the pun.
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Well, as I said above, it's not as good as the current MLP generation, but it's not bad. At a minimum, it's at least worth having on as background entertainment while you're on the computer, or something like that.
Could be tricky sorting out the issues involved with name rights and product placement, but it's not a bad idea.
Of course, such issues aren't really a concern if anyone wanted to put Minty and young Minty in a fanfic...
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Yeah, but then again, I'm still surprised Big Mac passed legal. That was more of a fic idea, really.
And blatant shilling for my love of Junior Mints.