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Updated: January 2004
A humorous observation by Bob Hershey.
Best viewed at 800x600 in 24-bit true-color
display.
For me, there is a distinct (albeit
coincidental) similarity between
My Little Pony and Godzilla. But
you're probably thinking to yourself,
"What similarity could there possibly
be between
My Little Pony and Godzilla"?
Allow me to demonstrate:
1984
I saw "My Little Pony", the first
TV special,
on April 16, 1984. I thought the
little ponies
were adorable, so much so that
I started
looking at the toys...but I discovered
the
toys weren't as cute as the ponies
in
the TV show (to me, I mean).
Around the same time, I first heard
about
Toho filming an all-new version
of Godzilla,
which was to be a direct sequel
to the first
Godzilla movie in 1954. In December
the
new Godzilla movie was featured
on a
segment of NBC Nightly News.
1985
The second My Little Pony TV special,
"Escape From Catrina", aired back-to-back
with the first special in March.
I was a bit
disappointed to see that, starting
with this
cartoon and continuing with every
cartoon
afterwards, the ponies were re-designed
to look more like the actual toys.
"Godzilla 1985", the english-dubbed
version
of the new Godzilla movie, was
released
nationwide on September 30. Unfortunately,
bad scriptwritting, bad editing,
and constant
jokes about the 1985 Dr. Pepper
commercial
that featured Godzilla made the
movie
somewhat disappointing for me.
1986
I was at a Toys R Us store in Carson, CA when
I met a woman who was buying the Paradise
Estate playset for her daughter...only a few
minutes after I had discovered the 13" tall
Imperial Toy Co. Godzilla action figure,
which I didn't even know existed
until that day in that store.
When she told me she was buying the playset
for her daughter's birthday, I pointed to the
Godzilla action figure I was holding and
joked, "Here's what you buy your kids
if they haven't been good...the new
Godzilla doll! You wind it up and
it destroys all their other toys"!
The 90's By the late 1980's my interest in My Little Pony had
faded away...but my interest in Godzilla (and other japanese monsters)
reached it's peak in the 1990's. Godzilla movies
continued through 1996, while an all-new souped-up version of Gamera ("Gamera
- Guardian Of The Universe" in 1995, "Gaamera 2 - Advent of Legion" in 1996
and, arguably the best japanese monster movie of all time, "Gamera 3 -
Iris Awakens" in 1999) put the Godzilla movies to shame with strong
storylines and amazing CGI enhanced special effects (the CGI effects in
"Gamera 3" are awesome).
On the internet, all those little girls who loved My Little
Pony had grown up and started hosting their own websites. They starting
joining forces and eventually created their own My Little Pony universe
in cyberspace. An online petition called H.O.O.F. (Help Our Obsolete Friends)
was started to urge Hasbro to bring the ponies back, and eventually...
Meanwhile, plans for a big-budget american version of
Godzilla persisted through the mid-90s, bouncing from one director to another,
from one studio to another, with scripts written and re-writted and eventually
discarded, until...
1998
Hasbro introduced an all-new re-designed
version of My Little Pony, which many
die-hard fans of the "classic" My Little
Pony hate...comments range from
"fakies posing under the name "My Little
Pony" to "they're ugly, anorexic donkeys".
My opinion: They're sweet and cute in their own way.
I'd like to see them in a TV special or home video.
Tri-star introduced it's all-new re-designed
version of Godzilla, which many die-hard fans
of the "classic" Godzilla hate...comments
range from "it's just a giant lizard with the
name 'Godzilla' tacked on" to "an insult
to the Godzilla legacy".
My opinion: The movie has great special effects,
but it just shouldn't have been called "Godzilla".
2000
A female friend of mine was describing
a "My Little Pony" cartoon she saw when
she was young. She distinctly remembered
a scene in which the ponies were chained
in a dungeon...which sounded like a scene
from the 1984 TV special. As a favor to her
I tracked down a copy of this video, and
in so doing re-discovered my interest for
the original "My Little Pony" adventure,
which I believe to be the best of any of
the "1980's cartoons-as-commercials".
After seeing the american version of Godzilla
and japanese audiences' disapproval, Toho
brought Godzilla back in yet another all-new
incarnation and yet again dismissed all of
the other Godzilla movies except for the
first one from 1954. Released in Japan
as "Godzilla 2000-Millenium", the title
was shortened to "Godzilla 2000" when
it was released in the U.S. on August 18.
For me, it was a lot of fun to see this
Godzilla movie on a big theatre screen.
2001 In July, I put this webpage up for the whole world to
see...
...and some of the My Little Pony website hosts noticed
it.
In August, I was informed by Lofty
that she had added this webpage to her
Pages of Lofty's
Ultimate
Sites
and Hangouts.
In September, Baby Railribbon gave this
webpage the "Two Tails Up" award
("tails up" since ponies don't have thumbs).
2003
My Little Pony and...Godzilla becomes My Little pony and...Gamera!
In August, My Little Pony fans around
the world welcomed the return of their
favorite toy to store shelves...since this was
the third generation of My Little Pony, these
ponies are often referred to simply as G3.
During the summer, all three of the 1990's
Gamera movies were released on DVD by
ADV Films...including "Gamera 3", arguably
the best japanese monster movie ever made.
This move is often referred to simply as G3.
