The My Little Pony franchise is one of the recently resurrected ‘80s-era toy lines that seek to capitalize on fond memories of parents who grew up with stables full of brightly-colored plastic ponies with wild, multi-colored locks. I am one of those parents. My sisters and I would spend hours parading our ponies through the living room, brushing their hair, and even dressing them up.
When ponies hit the toy market again I was happy to show my daughters the simple joys that they’d brought to my life as a child. It’s no great surprise that I was excited to watch My Little Pony - Twinkle Wish Adventure with my daughters to see what animated adventures the next generation ponies were up to. When confronted in-store with the pearly-pink and ever so twinkly box design, parents of girl-children will have a hard time resisting this latest pony release.
Twinkle Wish Adventure finds the ponies preparing for their winter festival where the Wishing Star will wake from it’s year long slumber to grant each pony a special wish. However, everything goes wrong when a huge dragon kidnaps the Wishing Star. The ponies are off to recover this vital ingredient for their festivities. In the process of this voyage simple lessons about friendship, reconciliation, and honesty are conveyed.
I was a bit surprised to find that the pony’s seasonal festival closely resembles the secular-consumerist holiday of contemporary Christmas celebrations. When I think winter festival my thoughts turn to Quebecois celebrations of snow, ice, and maple syrup – the ponies do go skating and participate in other outdoor activities, but their celebration is centered on mainstream Christmas traditions – baking cookies, making ornaments, and a huge evergreen that they adorn with their handmade contributions and the Wishing Star himself. If like us, you don’t celebrate in this way, you’ll likely want to pass on this title despite the pony-goodness. If you do go in for light-hearted, secular holiday celebrations – read on for details.
Article comments
1 - yahoo
so you keep your kids from cartoons that don't agree with your religion?? wow. way to teach tolerance and acceptance.
2 - Jennifer Bogart
Hi Yahoo, thanks for your comment.
I think you'll find that MOST people don't let their children watch cartoons that disagree with their faith.
I have a question for you...
If you are an atheist, do you let your kids watch Christian cartoons? Or if you are a Muslim do you let your kids watch Christian cartoons?
We don't practice the faith of materialism/secular-Christmas, so no - I don't seek out those discs for my children and that comes across in my review. However, I know there are families who don't have a problem with DVDs like this - hence the bulk of my review is written for them.
Make sense?