THE 'SCENE' by Seymore Flix

Toy Company Hasbro To Make Movies

Hasbro Studios, the film making arm of the toy manufacturer, gave the green light to produce an animated feature based upon the very successful 'My Little Pony' line of toys.  Hasbro will self-finance the project, and is in discussion with the Hollywood studios to release the film on the broadest possible number of screens.

The 'My Little Pony' series of toys has been extremely lucrative for Hasbro.  Introduced in 1983 the 'Pony' characters are very colorful, with manes and distinguishing marks which make each one unique. The 'My Little Pony' line of toys has had 4 revamps over its 30 year life.

"We are going to make big tentpole movies by ourselves and with our studio partners" says Steve Davis, President of Hasbro Studios, "like our partnership on the "Transformers" and "G.I.Joe" with Paramount and "Monopoly" and "Candy Land" with Sony.

With the 'My Little Pony' franchise, Hasbro has already produced direct-to-homevideo animated movies and is producing the 100th episode of the current, 'Pony' TV series that airs in over 100 countries on the Discovery Channel.

I am very familiar with 'My Little Pony' toys, as my daughter, Megan, was very much the Pony collector and played with these toys on a regular basis. I my go to see this pic just to reminisce.

A New BioPic on Jerry Lee Lewis?

Lewis (left) with Carl Perkins, Elvis, and Johnny Cash

The 'Would Be King' of Rock n' Roll - that is what many call Jerry Lee Lewis, and they are right. But for the scandals and self-inflicted career stoppers he may have taken the title away from Elvis.

People say a lot of things about me - "talk about me like a dog" he says "but they can't say I didn't put on the best rock n' roll shows ever." When people talk about Jerry Lee Lewis they usually smile, I know I do.  Just a kid, I first saw Lewis on American Bandstand, a popular TV show hosted by Dick Clark, and I was amazed.  He was playing 'Great Balls of Fire', one of his big hit songs, when all of a sudden he was on his feet banging away at the piano (no guitar for Jerry Lee, it was always the piano). Then he was ON the piano, banging away at the keys with his feet. You had to love it. I'd never seen anything like it and haven't since.  It is often told that at his live concerts Lewis would play, non-stop for three or four hours!  There was no doubt, there was Elvis, there was James Brown, but Jerry Lee was the best live - he was the first pure rock n' roll performer.  Sam Phillips, the head of Sun Records, where rock started, called Lewis, "The most talented man I ever worked with, black or white ... one of the most talented human being to walk God's earth."

In 1989, a biopic entitled, 'Great Balls of Fire' starring Dennis Quaid, Winona Rider, and Alex Baldwin was released but is widely regarded as not a real portrayal of Lewis's life.  Another biopic is called for.

Now 79, Lewis has been married seven times.  "I ain't no goody-goody", he says, "and I ain't no phony. I never pretended to be anything, and anything I ever did, I did it wide-open."  He was inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him 24th on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

We need another movie about Jerry Lee Lewis, the 'almost' King of Rock, or maybe he was?




Must Have Toy This Christmas

Walter White action figure

Toy-of-the-year: the highly desirable action figures from the big hit TV series 'Breaking Bad'.  However, these toys are not without controversy. The Walter White doll, the main character in the Breaking Bad series, sports a tiny bag of crystal meth, while the Jesse Pinkman doll, Walter's partner in crime, comes with a gas mask.

A petition started by a Florida parent, Susan Schrivjer, to stop Toys R Us from selling the dolls got traction. The toy retailer issued a statement saying that "the items are intended for ages 15 and up, and are located in the adult action figure area of our stores." Nonetheless, the dolls have been removed from the shelves for the time being.

The more it's talked about the more demand there will be for the dolls as Toys R Us was finding it hard to keep the dolls in stock and they are being 'black marketed' on eBay and Craig's list.

Later,
S. Flix