Double Feature: Super Monsters Save Christmas (2019) & My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever (2018)

The next double feature is a holiday themed children features! I don’t know when I started to get into the Super Monsters specials as I don’t watch the normal series anyways but they are a decent 20+ minute long. As for pairing it with My Little Pony, I actually do like My Little Pony, the old stuff and watched some of the newer specials as well so here we are (plus its pretty slim pickings for Christmas kids films that I haven’t reviewed on Netflix…).

Super Monsters Save Christmas (2019)

It’s Christmas Eve in Pitchfork Pines, and the Super Monsters are joining forces to deck the halls, find Santa’s missing reindeer and save the holiday. – IMDB

Super Monsters is honestly geared towards kids. Whether its the characters and their cutesy appearances to the dialogue that revolves around emphasizing the good values to have through the consequences what happens, its all about delivering a positive message (similar to a lot of other kids shows). Its a harmless movie this time about a neighbor (who we learned is related or friends with Santa Claus from last year’s special) who gets overzealous about his Christmas decorations and blows the power for everyone but of course, the Super Monsters try to fix it to soon realize after Santa finally stops by that someone has detached the reindeer and they run off to play hide and seek of all things. Of course, Super Monsters to the rescue again.

There is nothing essentially wrong with this one. It directs its attention solely to its intended audience. Its not quite the entertainment for parents perhaps but it does offer some nice lessons on Christmas and friendship and working together. It has a little bit of singing and music and stays pretty colorful and cheery with lots of Christmas-y things. I’m not a parent but for its length and its quick-paced plot points, it should grab a kids attention.

You can check out my review last year of Super Monsters and the Wish Star HERE.

My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever (2018)

Director: Denny Lu & Mike Myhre

Voice Cast: Tara Strong, Andrea Libman, Ashleigh Ball, Cathy Weseluck, Tabitha St. Germain, John de Lancie

In this one-hour Christmas-themed special, the Mane Six and Spike are each hoping to find the best gift ever for Hearth’s Warming. – IMDB

While I’m not a huge supporter of this new My Little Pony designs with giant heads and such instead of the sleeker design when I was a kid, these My Little Pony movie specials are actually pretty. It does feel like perhaps its geared kids a little older than Super Monsters above.

The movie feels like an actual story with the ponies changing tradition and deciding to do a Secret Santa gift swap. They obviously call it something else but I never quite realized how fun all the ponies have and its not some dumb down dialogue but it does work pretty well even if they do play with some movie references like their take of meshing Sleeping Beauty’s fairies with The Christmas Carol or whatnot. That’s just one example. Its all about the value of gifts and of course the best gift ever is defined here. If you watched some other My Little Pony shows or movies then you might already know what it is because its a big focus all the time.

This one was surprisingly fun to watch and pretty entertaining. Its still not exactly geared towards parents but more to keep kids attention but this is not for young kids so it has more complete dialogue and the music is pretty catchy. I wouldn’t mind watching more My Little Pony movies if its like this one (but then maybe I’m a bit biased).

That’s it for this kids double feature for the holidays!
Have you (or your kids) seen these two? Share your thoughts in the comments below to give a more accurate kids perspective on this one. 

Christmas Marathon: A Very Minty Christmas (2005)

Never heard of this one? I wouldn’t be surprised.  Now you’re looking at this and laughing at me, I know.  This is a My Little Pony feature.  I don’t know about your childhood but mine was with My Little Pony.  I wasn’t into Barbies so you can put that one aside.  You won’t be seeing anything Barbie related here, but My Little Pony, you definitely will.  I still own a small collection of them actually.  They are showcased on top of my dresser.  I think I had taken a few pictures of them in a previous photo challenge.  Let me see…right, click HERE to see it. You should check it out, because that little tiny pony in the front is the reason why I bought this movie. It came with this movie.  Even though the new My Little Pony collection is not as good looking as the old ones, it was worth the buy.  Nostalgia does weird things to me, what can I say?

Right, back to the movie!

MY LITTLE PONY: A VERY MINTY CHRISTMAS (2005)

Duration: 44 minutes

Honestly, I almost didn’t want to post this up, but it does always end up in my Christmas marathon even though its not the best one around.  Actually, its miles away from the best. For me, its all about nostalgia.

Ponyville celebrates with placing a special glowing candy cane on the top of their Christmas tree so that Santa can find Ponyville and deliver their presents.  Minty is a ditz who has a good heart. She tries to help and everything just goes bad.  Everything she touches crumbles.  She pushes the candy cane on the tree a bit too much and it falls and shatters.  She tries to make up for her problems by going to North Pole to lead him to Ponyville.  Before she had that suggestion, she had wanted to give away all her socks (which she loves) to everyone.   They learn that its not the light from the candy cane but every pony’s unity and generosity that leads Santa there.  Its where Santa gets the idea to use stockings over the fireplace to place the presents.

This one is downright a flick for young children, preferably girls.  It has very cheerful music which I liked.  The voices aren’t too great or is the dialogue, but thats because I am in my 20s.  Its a bit expected.  For a kids movie, it has its cute moments and wonderful colours that fill up the screen.  Cheery adventure and some different Christmas music is alright.  Its what draws me to make this an acceptable Christmas movie that fills up some of the nostalgia.

What are you nostalgic about? Any toys or cartoons that you enjoy from your youth? Any particular ones that you may have outgrown or perhaps still keep around?