My Little Pony: The Movie (1986)

The 2010 launch of Hasbro and Discovery’s joint venture The Hub Network saw the premiere of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Friendship is Magic), the fourth generation of Hasbro’s My Little Pony toyline that proved popular enough to eventually warrant a theatrical film, My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), in 2017. What few in the fandom for this series may know is that there was another, similarly-named theatrical My Little Pony movie in 1986, around the time when such films were not uncommon, to help promote the original generation of toys. While Friendship is Magic would end up being my formal introduction to the brand, I had since been mildly curious about the original iteration, largely the film due to releasing in the same year as The Transformers: The Movie (1986). In honor of the 40^th anniversary of its release year, I decided to finally take the plunge, but quickly realized why the My Little Pony movie isn’t as widely celebrated as its Transformers counterpart.

Sonic Free Riders

Note: The review contains spoilers for Sonic Free Riders.

While the first two games in the Sonic Riders trilogy were both multiplatform releases, an Xbox port was noticeably absent from the second game, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Zero Gravity). Perhaps to make up for this, the third game in the series, Sonic Free Riders (Free Riders), released in 2010 exclusively on the Xbox 360, as a launch title for the Kinect peripheral. While not having an Xbox or Kinect at the time had something to do with it, this was a game I had actively avoided for the longest time because I had only heard negative things about it at launch, especially the mandatory motion controls, with said reception being what killed any chances of a fourth game and made the Babylon Rogues dormant in most Sonic media for over a decade. I eventually went back on this decision when the 360 store was shutting down and bought a physical copy along with an old Kinect, deciding I may as well complete the experience while revisiting the games. Because I still had the negative perception in the back of my head, I wasn’t looking forward to this entry when I got around to it, but persisted anyway.

As it turns out, it’s actually not nearly as bad as everyone had made it out to be, but much like the original Sonic Riders, I ended up having to cut my experience with Free Riders short.

Stubs - Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Florence Pugh, Tramell Tillman, Marisa Tomei, Mark Ruffalo Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. Screenplay by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers. Produced by Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, Rachel O'Connor Run time: 145 minutes. Color. USA. Superhero

Note: This review contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

It may seem like this is a little late in the run to be reviewing Spider-Man: Brand New Day¸ but there’s a reason for that. Brand New Day arrived at theaters with really big box office with hype to match. Sometimes, that can be kind of off-putting, and we had other things to do this summer.

The sequel comes five years since Spider-Man: No Way Home, and does and does not try to fill in the years that have passed. As you recall at the end of No Way Home, everyone, including MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon), has forgotten Peter Parker is Spider-Man (Tom Holland), and while MJ and Ned have gone on to college together, Peter has stayed behind and continued his vigilante crime-fighting. We see Ned and MJ’s lives through social media posts, but what Spider-Man has been doing is not so well documented, including run-ins with Mac Gargan / Scorpion (Michael Mando) and working with and against another vigilante, Frank Castle / Punisher (Jon Bernthal).

Batman: Hush

Back in 2002, DC published Batman: Hush, a famous twelve-issue story arc by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee that depicts a mysterious stalker named Hush sabotaging Batman from afar. In 2019, this storyline received an animated adaptation of the same name as part of the DC Animated Movie Universe, a series of connected films split into two arcs, the first one based on the “New 52” version of the DC universe. Batman: Hush released near the end of this first arc, though I didn’t know that going in when I watched an old recording on a DVR. I also hadn’t read the original comic, which helped me enjoy the film a lot more, although my vague knowledge of Hush as a character did give me a mixed feeling on the end result.

Coyote vs. Acme

If you’ve followed news around the merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery, Inc., chances are you’ve heard about president/CEO David Zaslav’s controversial decisions to shelve a number of projects in 2023 for the sake of a tax write-off. While Bat-Girl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt were mostly completed at the time of this decision, there was severe backlash from both the internet and the larger film industry over the decision to write off Coyote vs. Acme due to it being already fully-completed. In response to the backlash, Warner Bros. Discovery eventually reversed this decision with the intent to sell the distribution rights to another company. Eventually, it went into the hands of Ketchup Entertainment (distributor of The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie), whose promotional campaign for the long-awaited theatrical release included throwing a lot of shade at Warner Bros. Discovery for wanting to write it off, as well as an early screening during San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year. As a show of support for the movie, I made sure to see it opening weekend and found it to have been worth saving.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Wii)

Despite the gameplay difficulty of the original Sonic Riders, it was enough of a hit to warrant a sequel in 2008, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Zero Gravity). Like the first game, it received a multiplatform release, but skipped the Xbox platform entirely. Since I had previously sold the PS2 version I had as a kid, I eventually re-bought the game through the Wii version due to price and availability, as part of a desire to play though the Riders trilogy for the first time. On finally being able to see it through, I found this game to be an improvement over the original in many ways, creating what I thought was a more fun experience overall.

Buddy (2026)

Although horror is not necessarily my favorite genre, this theatrical year has ended up more horror-heavy for me than in previous years thanks to some more unique premises and the presence of a recognizable name or IP. Of all the horror films on my radar this year, however, few had me more intrigued than Buddy, the theatrical debut of Casper Kelly, the mastermind behind Adult Swim Yule Log and, more famously, Too Many Cooks. The premise of a horror spin on children’s shows alone caught my attention, but the casting of Keegan-Michael Key and the knowledge that Kelly had created it sold me, as I had faith that he could do the concept justice through his unique lens. As the release date drew nearer, and the more I saw of the rather clever marketing campaign, my anticipation grew, enough that I made the effort to drive to a theater further away than usual just to catch a morning showtime on opening day. While the final film wasn’t exactly the same experience one might expect if they were only familiar with the viral Too Many Cooks, it’s nonetheless very Casper Kelly and felt very much worth the extra effort.