The Official Website of Don McGregor (A DUAL REVIEW OF THE SHOUT! DVD)
(Copyright 2015 by Don McGregor)
Zorro and My Little Pony.
Well, more accurately, Lady Rawhide and My Little Pony, now that I think on it.
I had only one My Little Pony story to tell. Back when I was writing Zorro for Topps Comics and Jim Salicrup, I had an issue where Zorro was chained in the mouth of a beached, dead whale on the California shore-line. Fortunately, the entire comic took place inside the whale’s mouth as the tide came in threatening to drown Zorro. A fill-in artist was needed to have the issue come out in time, and fortunately there was only one sequence that required a horse in it.
When I came into the office to pick up the pencils and hand letter my copy into placement, Topps publicity guy, Charlie Novinskie, greeted me with a smile that told me immediately something was up, something that brought a twinkle to his eye and glee to his voice.
Charlie told me they’d had Lady Rawhide (riding in her true identity as Anita Santiago) specially colored since it was so beautifully done.
Charlie handed me the art.
The horse Anita was astride looked as if it was right out of My Little Pony, prancing in pretty distorted fashion and hand colored with pastels of punk pink and lime green and lemon yellow mane.
My Little Pony jokes were the rule of the day.
I was so glad the rest of the issue showcased Zorro inside the whale’s mouth, struggling to survive. I had wanted to show that in this series Zorro did not escape every danger with ease, and this issue I felt drove the point home effectively.
Some folks who still feel superior to comics might think writers do not reference their work. Ha! Here I am, admittedly inside the mouth of a shark, not a whale, but still.
Then again, there may be a thing about taking research too far.
It’s that thin edge between sanity and creativity, right?
Not as far removed, though, as that initial gaily colored horse galloping (or whatever one might call it) on that page of Zorro comics.
The horse was eventually re-colored.
Amando Gil inked the issue, and to this day, it is my honest belief, saved that book!
This means I can write about how eye-wideningly startled I was by my first look at My Little Pony.
Who knew, years later, I would write this piece, and would have sat through an entire DVD set featuring Lady Rawhide’s rainbow-colored pony.
This was a unique experience.
Here’s the truth as I learned it, you have to see My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic – The Adventures of the Cutie Mark Crusaders with a 6 year old.
Truly.
To do a comprehensive review, you need two separate minds coming into this material, one who knows it, one who takes it to heart, and one who is confused and ultimately bamboozled within the first five minutes.
In fact, as my Granddaughter, Mia McGregor, sat on my lap as we viewed this latest entry from Shout! on the long-lasting franchise, I had to stop the DVD to ask her questions.
Here’s the thing: If you don’t know the characters, you have no idea what colorful little pony is prancing around where. I may get the gist of the idea that the three lead ponies want to get something called a Cutie Mark, but who they are, why the opening teaser has some dramatic music cue to let you know this is serious, if you haven’t experienced wherever these ponies reside, you won’t have a clue why this should be so tension-filled that if you were watching it on commercial television rather than DVD, you’d want to stick around through five minutes of commercials to find out.
Actually, when you come back you would not find out unless you had a Mia to ask. The 6 year old can follow it better than I can, but then the creators obviously know the kids are cued into who all these characters are, even though they are not introduced by name at the beginning of an episode.
For those of you uninitiated, these are three ponies in search of a “cutie-mark” of their own, just so you’ll have some names for reference, in case, unlike Mia, you are not 6 years old.
By the way, Mia had me stop the DVD to make this important note:
MIA: I like Scootaloo a lot. She’s cool.
At that point, I had no idea which of the three was Scootlaloo.
Mia was also insistent this point be made clear:
MIA: She’s not Rainbow Dash’s sister, She’s her cousin.
Mia stayed firm that I grasp this distinction.
Uhmmm…There’s sisters and cousins? And who’s a Rainbow Dash?
It may be important, how do I know, but since the three searchers of cutie-marks are asking questions of ponies who DO have cutie-marks (and none of them apparently are a Rainbow Dash) I’ll leave it alone. I have enough questions about pastel colored ponies appearing on the screen without seeking further confusion.
So here, for all of your edification, are the names of the three ponies going to the adults in search of answers as to how to get a “cutie mark.”
I have to stop the DVD again.
I really have no idea what a cutie mark is.
MIA (Patiently): A cutie mark tells you what you are good at.
The adult pony tells the three little ponies that when she was young she went to Manhattan before she got her cutie mark. She did not fit in the city and returned home and finally discovered her cutie mark.
I then see that a cutie mark gets stamped on the rump of the horse, and the symbol tells or labels what they are good at and what they need to do to be a success.
This is what Mia apparently gets from it.
What do I get out of it?
Hmmm. It’s like Dorothy returning to Kansas, kids.
Go back to where you were born and out of the big bad city.
But truly, this is not in Mia’s mind at all. For her, everyone gets to be what they want to be even if they didn’t know they wanted to be it. 
Also, one of the adult horses that give their cutie mark origin story is red.
At least I say she is red.
Mia tells me I am wrong.
MIA: Not red. Pink. It’s the darkest pink you’ll ever see.
One thing I think I do have right is that 6 years olds, whether female or male, all laugh out loud at bodily function jokes, especially if they make them.
Now, there’s a pony named Pinkie-Pie.
I’m not making this up.
Mia makes sure I have the name right, since I have been getting confused. I even get gender confused in My Little Pony.
But the horse I think is red that’s really the darkest pink you will ever see, Mia makes this observation:
MIA: It’s not Stinky Pot.
It’s Pinkie Pie.
Mia also adds, for clarification, jumping in non sequitur fashion as the cartoon does, that:
Flutterfly lives in a cloud.
But also that Flutterfly wanted to “hang out behind my bed because she was a beany-baby.”
By the time several cutie mark origin stories are told, Mia seems pleased to learn all this.
What do I get out it?
Tattoos.
When you get old enough go out and get yourself a tattoo that will tell you who you are!
But what do I know?
When I was 6 years old I wanted to be the Copperhead and let cars go over me before catching The Mysterious Dr. Satan?
Or competing to be Tarzan, watching my cousin Donald tumble limb from limb after a fantastic leap to an upper branch, curling over it, dropping down, catching the branch below (I knew I could never top that!).
Donald would get to be Tarzan.
And then the branch broke.
He fell.
He hit every lower branch on the way down.
He ended up with a concussion in the hospital.
It wasn’t the last time I would almost bite a bullet with Tarzan, but that’s another story.
Shout! also has a sing along edition on the parent priced DVD.
Dwayne McDuffie talked about animation DVDs one time when I was working on his show: BEN 10. When we were working on Night of the Living Nightmare, Dwayne once told me how marketing researched the price value where a parent shopping will tell the child to put the toy back, and where the parent will give in because the fight is just not worth the effort.
If bouncing on one’s lap is any indication, the sing-a-long was a big hit with Mia.
The price? Right on the precipice edge that Dwayne McDuffie stated.
Copyright 2015 by Don McGregor
You can find Shout’s https://www.shoutfactory.com/tv/animation/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-cutie-mark-quests right here.
And for those of you who did not know I wrote an episode of BEN 10, you can find it on this collection on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-Network-Ultimate-Alien-Ending/dp/B006PA188C/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1425520975&sr=1-2&keywords=ben+10+ultimate+alien
And to make it in time for Cliff Galbraith's
East Coast Comicon
on April 11 & 12, you can find copies of the IDW hardcover DETECTIVES INC right here: http://www.amazon.com/Detectives-Inc-Don-McGregor/dp/1600104940/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425521468&sr=1-1&keywords=don+mcgregor+Detectives+Inc
This column and many other features are up on
donmcgregor.com
Gary and Dawn Guzzo at Atomic Studios provide all the glitz, glamour, and knowhow.
Zorro and My Little Pony.
Well, more accurately, Lady Rawhide and My Little Pony, now that I think on it.
I had only one My Little Pony story to tell. Back when I was writing Zorro for Topps Comics and Jim Salicrup, I had an issue where Zorro was chained in the mouth of a beached, dead whale on the California shore-line. Fortunately, the entire comic took place inside the whale’s mouth as the tide came in threatening to drown Zorro. A fill-in artist was needed to have the issue come out in time, and fortunately there was only one sequence that required a horse in it.
