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Author Archives: afolhusband

Countdown to Friendship Games: Short #2

Posted on August 11, 2015 by afolhusband Posted in TimeSiren's Time Rants Leave a comment

Here is the second Friendship Games short from Hasbro Studios, “Pinkie Spy:”


Hasbro’s plan is to release one short per week until the airing of the third Equestria Girl movie on September 26, 2015.  However, the Spanish Youtube channel for My Little Pony Equestria Girls has leaked four Equestria Girls shorts.  If you speak Spanish, you’re ahead of the game.  Enjoy!  If you would rather be spoiler free, stop here and wait for next week’s short.

Shorts #2 and #3 can be found on Equestria Daily’s website here, while shorts #4 and #5 can be found on Equestria Daily here.

It’s interesting to see how well the lip syncing works in Spanish, especially since American (or Canadian) animating takes the care to match the mouth shape to certain vowels and consonants, whereas in anime the mouth is usually just opened or closed. Where they have some trouble is in the musical numbers. If you are a nitpicker and look at the Spanish version of “Perfect Day for Fun,” you’ll catch a few spots where the lip syncing is not quite right.  Still, it’s pretty good, considering some of the sentences have to be changed to fit the music.

None of these shorts are music videos yet, but we still have a few weeks to go.  Before “Rainbow Rocks,” we had “Perfect Day For Fun” and “Music To Her Ears.” Then, earlier this year, we got “My Past is Not Today,” “Life is a Runway,” and “Friendship Through the Ages,” so I can’t complain.

What I am complaining about is that “Friendship Games” is not being released in theaters!

– The AFOL Husband

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Countdown to Friendship Games: Short #1

Posted on August 5, 2015 by afolhusband Posted in Horsing around with My Little Pony Leave a comment

Last week, Hasbro announced that there would be a Equestria Girls short every Saturday until the airing of the third movie, “Equestria Girls: Friendship Games.”  Here is the first one, released last Saturday, 8/1/15.

We know from the trailers that human Twilight is going to be all sciencey (Sci-Twi, as the app game calls her), but I wasn’t expecting Sunset to be! I wonder who Sunset was thinking of when she said, “Studying ancient books is fine for some people?”

Still wish it was going to be released in theaters.

– the AFOL Husband

AFOL Husband Equestria Girls equestria girls: friendship games mlp my little pony sunset shimmer twilight sparkle

John De Lancie at Equestria LA

Posted on July 14, 2015 by afolhusband Posted in Horsing around with My Little Pony Leave a comment

JDL at EQLA

Sweet Celestia! Can this pony con get any better? Why, yes.  Yes it can! John de Lancie, the voice of the chaos based magic using draconequus, Discord, and Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager Will be attending the Equestria LA  convention taking place September 4-6 at the Hilton Anaheim. He joins an ever increasing list of guests that will make any Brony or Pegasister stomp their hooves in delight:

G. M Barrow:  Author of the “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic” chapter books, the recently released Discord and the Ponyvile Players Dramarama, the Daring Do Adventure Collection, and an upcoming season 5 episode.

Jenn Blake: “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic” comic book illustrator.

Tabitha St. Germain:  The voice of Rarity, Princess Luna, and Granny Smith.

Gabriel Brown (aka Black Gryph0n): Singer, actor, voice actor, songwriter and animator known for such songs as Proud To Be A Brony and Paper Sky, and his “licious” series (TwilightLicious, Rainbowlicious, etc).

Michelle Creber: Speaking/singing voice of Apple Bloom and the singing voice for most of Sweetie Belle’s songs on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

Amy Keating Rogers:  Writer for My Little Pony.  Her credits include “Apple Buck Season,” “Bridle Gossip,” “A Dog and Pony Show,” “The Best Night Ever,” “The Cutie Pox,” and “MMMystery on the Friendship Express,”

Bonnie Zacherle:  Creator of the original My Little Pony and My Pretty Pony (the precursor to the My Little Pony line).

For more information on the guests, go to Equestria LA’s website.  Most of these guests have way too many other fannish credits to list here. You can also visit their Facebook page for all the latest news and updates.

Remember, both Time Siren and I will be there. Find us and say hello, we’d love to hear from you! Maybe we’ll all go out to Hayburgers for lunch.

-AFOL Husband

 

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MLP: Friendship Games – I’m so Nervousited!

Posted on July 8, 2015 by afolhusband Posted in Horsing around with My Little Pony Leave a comment

Hasbro Studios has just released the first trailer for My Little Pony:  Friendship Games.

The appearance of the human Twilight has long been anticipated. She was hinted at in the first movie when our Twilight met the human Pinkie Pie, then she was shown after the end credits in the second. In addition to this, dolls of the Human Twilight were shown off earlier this year at the New York Toy Fair.

I can see that half of my Christmas list this year will be Equestria Girls dolls! I want the Nerdy Twilight/Flash Sentry set, and I need a Sunset Shimmer. The other half will, of course, be Lego…I am the AFOL (Adult Fan Of Lego) Husband, after all.

From here on, there are no spoilers: I don’t know any more than you do.  These are just my thoughts, comments, and hopes for the third Equestria Girl movie.

If you visit sites like Deviant Art and Derpyburu you will see that there is a lot of speculation that human Twilight is evil, a sort of mad scientist, but I don’t necessarily think that’s true.  From what we saw in the second movie, Human Twilight is a student of science, much like our Twilight is a student of magic. Human Twilight figured out that there was something strange going on at Canterlot High, so in this movie I think she’s going to take advantage of visiting Canterlot High for the Friendship Games in order to investigate what’s going on.  There is a shot in the trailer of her sneaking around the statue that is the portal between the two worlds that would seem to confirm this.

There is also a shot that would appear to be Sunset Shimmer facing off against Twilight.  Magic is popping up around Canterlot High, and I think Twilight, in her investigations, is going to tap into magic she can’t control, which another shot would seem to confirm. I think in the end Sunset Shimmer, being the only girl from Equestria, is going to have to save Twilight, and possibly Equestria, from disaster.  At least that’s the direction I hope the movie will go.

In “My Little Pony:  Friendship is Magic,” Twilight is my favorite pony. As Xander from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” once put it, “smart chicks are hot!” In the movies, however, Sunset Shimmer is my favorite character…not so much in the first movie, but definitely in the second.  If you think about it, her path is similar to “Xena:  Warrior Princess”.  She was once evil, turned away from her ways, and now struggles to redeem herself and be accepted.

It would make sense if the third movie goes the way I hope.  Then this movie would complete a trilogy revolving around Sunset.

In the first movie, Twilight is the protagonist.  She starts with the fear that, “Just because I have this crown and these wings, it doesn’t mean I’ll be a good leader.”  In the end, she proves she is a leader by taking what she has learned about friendship into a strange world, making new friends, and leading those friend in defeating Sunset Shimmer. In the process, we learn that Sunset rebelled against Princess Celestia and went to the human world to plot her revenge. In the end, she is defeated, repents, and is left to learn about friendship.

In the second movie, Sunset is the protagonist.  Though she has repented, she still does not fit in because the students at Canterlot High still remember what she did. The five friends that do accept her have formed a band, but she isn’t in it.  So, even with friends  of her own, there is still the feeling of being an outsider. Then there are the Sirens, bent on causing division among the students, who remind her of her dark past.  In the end, the six girls need her voice to defeat the sirens, she has her magical transformation moment and becomes one of this world’s Mane Six – or should I say, Human Six.

An interesting side note: at the end of the second movie, Sunset writes to Twilight in the book that connects both worlds. It’s not a big deal in the movie, but it is in the Ponyverse.  Newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle now has someone writing to her about friendship in the same way she had been writing to Princess Celestia. It’s an underplayed moment, but it’s the moment where we see that the student, Twilight, has become the master.

I don’t know yet who will be the protagonist in the third movie. It could be Sunset, having to step up from just being accepted and helping save the world as part of a group to having to save two worlds on her own because she’s the only one who knows how to deal with magic. Or it could be human Twilight, wanting to investigate the strange occurrences at Canterlot High, where she gets in over her head with Equestrian magic and realizes there are things her scientific background has not prepared her to deal with.

Either way, there is one thing I feel needs to happen. After saving one or both worlds, Sunset needs to go back to Equestria and reconcile with Princess Celestia.  This would bring her character arc full circle: she rebelled against Celestia, went to another world to plot her revenge, repented, redeemed herself, became a hero in her new world, then in her home world, and returns to reconcile with the one she originally rebelled against. And from the first movie, we know that Celestia would welcome her back.

Now a few things I would like to see happen: Celestia welcomes Sunset back to Equestria, but after everything that’s happened with her friends who are about to graduate, Sunset decides to stay with her human friends as they begin the biggest adventure of their lives – adulthood.  And I think Celestia would grant her permission to come back and visit now and then.

The movies have always acknowledged the TV show, but the show has never acknowledged the movies.  I would love to see an episode of the show where Sunset is visiting Twilight in Ponyville.  You wouldn’t even have to explain where she came from, just that she’s a friend of Twilight’s that’s visiting.  Or at least a scene where Spike walks in on Twilight reading the book, “Hi, Twi, what you doing?” To which Twilight would reply, “Just reading a letter from Sunset.  She says hi!”

In the new movie I’d also like to see a moment between Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo. Maybe Rainbow Dash coaching Scootaloo’s soccer team. In the end of the first movie, Rainbow Dash gets her wings during her transformation. Then what does she do? During the dance, she grabs Scootaloo, throws her on her back and shares with her this incredible new ability to fly. Those five seconds of screen time confirmed that the human Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo have the same kind of relationship that the pony pair do.

The only disappointment I see is that it appears Friendship Games is going straight to cable and DVD, as it has a premier date of September 26 on Discovery Family. The second movie was out in the theaters for only one weekend with limited distribution, so I missed it. When I saw the opening credits on the DVD, I thought to myself, “Man, I wish I’d seen this in the theater.” In any case, I am looking forward to another great Danny Ingram score.

So, in the end, Human Twilight is hinted at in the first movie, revealed in the second, and becomes a major character in the third. Doesn’t this all beg the question… isn’t there a second Sunset Shimmer?

-AFOL Husband

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Thunderbird Follow Up

Posted on July 2, 2015 by afolhusband Posted in Geekworld, TimeSiren's Time Rants Leave a comment

Recently, I posted about the new “Thunderbirds Are Go” TV series being produced by Wetta in New Zealand.  But if you are a fan of the original series, here are a couple of videos you may be interested in.  This first one is “The Making of the Thunderbirds the Documentary”.

This second one is a Documentary on the career of Gerry Anderson:

And finally, the 1968 theatrical movie, “Thunderbird 6”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vTP1j_rX3g

Also, you probably have noticed the Tracy brothers answering with F.A.B.  In case you’re wondering what that means, here is what the Urban Dictionary has to say:

“FAB from the TV show “Thunderbirds” stood for “Full Acknowledgement of Broadcast.” Gerry Anderson, the producer of “Thunderbirds,” was known for these obscure catch phrases. In another series “Captain Scarlet” he usied (sic) SIG which stood for “Spectrum Is Green” They both meant roughly,” ten-four”, “I copy” and “roger that.”
 
Jeff Tracy: “Scott set up a perimeter so Virgil can put down Thunderbird 2”
Scott: “F A B”
Colonel White: “All units return to base.”
Captain Scarlett: “S I G”
-The AFOL Husband
AFOL Husband second geekhood Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds Are Go!

Posted on June 28, 2015 by afolhusband Posted in Reviews and other crap Leave a comment

Tracy Brothers

Back in 1965, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson created the British television series, “The Thunderbirds.”  It followed a secretive organizaton, International Rescue who, with their ultra high tech vehicles, would save people from disasters around the world and in space.  Now, fifty years later, Wetta, the company behind the special effects in the “Lord of the Rings” movies, has relaunched the series.

Unlike the original, which used “Supermarianation” puppetry, this series uses a combination of miniatures, special effects and CGI.  It is an unusual but very effective method.  The miniature sets are build and shot on a sound stage, then the characters are added in later with CGI.  To see how this works, check out the behind-the-scenes documentary, “Reggie & Thunderbirds: No Strings Attached.”

The documentary includes a walk-through of the Wetta offices, which are full of models from the original series, as well as props and prosthetics from the various movies Wetta has helped to create.  Founder and president of Wetta, Sir Richard Taylor, was a big fan of the original Thunderbirds and the show was a big inspiration that led him into getting into the special effects industry.

The ships as well as the characters have been updated, but still have the same flavor of the original, with the ships even having some new abilities.

TB2Scott Tracy

Even Thunderbird 5, which in the original was just a monitoring space station, plays a part in a rescue in the first episode. Plus, some of the characters even have some secrets we have yet to learn about!

There are two members of the voice cast worth noting.  Fifty years after the debut of the original series, David Graham returns to voice Parker, Lady Penelope’s butler/chauffeur.  Plus, in one episode, co-creator Sylvia Anderson, who originally voiced Lady Penelope, returns to voice lady Penelope’s grand aunt.

As of this writing, thirteen episodes have aired, but only in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.  Reading through the “Thunderbirds Are Go” Facebook page, most reviews are positive and the show is trying to get air dates in the United States.  Their YouTube channel does have some videos, but half of them you can’t see in the States.  After a lot of research, the Second Geekhood IT Department (TimeSiren) did find a link where you can view the first episode. Other episodes are noted in the sidebar at this location.  Episode one is actually one and two.  So if you want to see more, go to episode three.  The video is a bit pixelated and the channel does have the tendency to drop commercials in when you don’t expect it, but the episodes are still worth a view.

I guess the lesson here is that if you’re in danger, International Rescue is on the way!…unless you’re in the United States, then you’re screwed.

-The AFOL Husband

AFOL Husband Thunderbirds

Everybody Run! Aunt May’s Got a Gun!

Posted on June 19, 2015 by afolhusband Posted in Geekworld, Reviews and other crap, TimeSiren's Time Rants Leave a comment

Cover of Howard the Duck at Second Geekhood

 

 

 

 

 

This is how Howard The Duck #3 starts out: Aunt May holding up a tattoo parlor at gunpoint.  And yes, that is Peter Parker’s Aunt May.  Don’t believe me?

 

 

Howard the Duck & Aunt May at Second GeekhoodSo who’s behind this foul act?  The Ringmaster, a nemesis of Howard’s from back in HTD #1, Vol #25.  I love how they keep his history, but I won’t spoil it for you.  Go get your own copy.

While I’m enjoying this new reincarnation of Howard, I do miss a few things.  I still miss his old look, which was more cartoony.  He’s a bit more mellow, but I guess he has grow accustomed to this world he never made.  And I miss the cigar…but I guess he can’t smoke like he did in the 80’s.

I also really miss his best human friend, Beverly Switzler.  I hope we find out what happened to her!

In the meantime, here’s some music to read Howard by.

Enjoy,

The AFOL Husband.

comic howard the duck

Equestria L.A. – Chomping at the Bit

Posted on June 17, 2015 by afolhusband Posted in Horsing around with My Little Pony Leave a comment

Equestria LA 2015 at Second Geekhood

Equestria L.A. (September 4-6, 2015) is one of the cons Time Siren and I are saving up our bits for.  It will be our first My Little Pony con.  Even if you aren’t into MLP, you have to admit it’s quite a phenomena.  When looking up a pony con near us, I found that there were twenty seven in the U.S. last year alone, and that doesn’t count all the ones from Germany to Japan.  Not bad for a half-hour show, aimed at kids, with only four full seasons under it’s belt, and it’s 100th episode coming up.

If you live in the L.A. area, or can make it to Anaheim, you might want to check out our local pony con.  Here is some of the latest news they’ve been posting:

June 4:  Amy Keating Rogers Rogers returns to EQLA.  Ms. Rogers is a writer that has been with the show since it’s first season.  Her credits include, “Applebuck Season,” “Bridle Gossip,” “A Dog and Pony Show,” “The Best Night Ever,” “The Last Roundup,” and “Filli Vanilli.”

June 3:  Book a room at Equestria L.A.s venue, the Anaheim Hilton and get a hotel key adorned with Andy Price’s art.  This is something I have never seen in almost three decades of con going: an electronic hotel room key with exclusive convention art on it!  Now, that’s a souvenier!

May 21:  FinalDraft to host VA panel.  FinalDraft is the premier software program for screen writing.  I’ve never seen them host a panel at any other convention.  I’m impressed.

May 20:  EQLA is offering discount #TwilightTickets for evening entry into Disneyland.  If you’re not familiar with area, The Hilton and Anaheim convention center are literally across the street from the Disneyland Resort.

May 19:  The original creator of My Little Pony, Bonnie Zacherle, will be at the convention.

You can check out all the news and details at the Equestria L.A. FaceBook page, or on their website. Admission is $60.00 for the weekend, which is pretty standard for a con.  While at the website, check out the pictures of their two previous cons.  TimeSiren and I are going to go so broke in the dealers’ room…

– The AFOL Husband

 

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Total Drama: The Ridonculous Race

Posted on June 16, 2015 by afolhusband Posted in news Leave a comment

TD-TRR

 

Can’t wait for the next Total Drama Island?  Well, maybe this will hold you over:  Total Drama The Ridonculous Race.  This is not TDI season 6, but a spin off from the same creators.  With a new cast and host, it is a spoof of “The Incredible Race” type reality shows.  It follows eighteen teams of two as they race around the world for a cash prize of one million dollars.  Apparently it’s already being aired on Teletoons in Canada and will eventually be on Cartoon Network in the states.

Canadian Geekateers:  If you’ve seen it, please leave a review.  Otherwise, here is pretty much what we know so far on Wikipedia.

The AFOL Husband

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New Steven Universe site

Posted on June 15, 2015 by afolhusband Posted in news Leave a comment

Beach City Bugle on Second Geekhood

Ever since the dawn of time – well, since I became a brony last year – Equestria Daily has given us the latest news from Ponyville and pony fandom.  Now, the same people have launched a new site for Steven Universe fans:  Beach City Bugle

-The ALOF Husband

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