Love is News was the first of three very successful films that paired the delicate smolder of Power with the sharp beauty of Young. The film is also Power’s first example of top billing putting it as necessary watch for his dedicated fans. Like many classic romantic comedies of the era it has a slight screwball sensibility. Tony Gateson (Loretta Young) is a famed heiress who turns the tables on the underhanded reporter Steve Layton (Tyrone Power) by telling the press she’s engaged to him with a million dollar dowry to boot. Suddenly, he’s front page news dealing with preening fans, loudmouthed reporters and even nosy neighbors. The plot twists and turns to get these two together feels forced from a narrative respective at the end. Of course, they had to end up together just look at them.

Young is as bright and sweet as the fizz on top of soda pop. Her beauty is breathtaking. She’s all cheekbones, casual elegance, and long limbs. Her character is also rich in only the way a character in a classic film can be—ludicrously so. Decked out in furs and diamonds even while she languishes in jail at one point a servant prepares her tea from an ornate set. Her character is most interesting at the very beginning when she is witty, nonchalant and supremely fun to watch. Power is in the first stage of his career coasting on his delicate almost feminine beauty. But, honestly the script doesn’t give him much to work with. The pairing makes sense from an audience perspective but in the script it is paper thin. Also, Young despite all her beauty and sharp wit she begins the film with falls into a bit of a rut toward the end of the picture as her character starts to grate with her various attempts to make her co-star suffer then fall for her.

While the film doesn’t have the rich subtext of other romantic films of the era like It Happened One Night, it is a suitably fun ride. It is easy to see why audiences in the late 1930s couldn’t get enough of Power and Young together. They are beautiful cinematic ideals running through ridiculous adventures whose only consequence is true love.

Rings on Her Fingers has the slightly odd pairing of Gene Tierney and Henry Fonda. While these two stars don’t have the chemistry that Young and Power displayed, they are guided by a better script.

Tierney plays Susan Miller, a young woman working in a department store who was “born on the wrong side of the counter”. She’s obsessed with all the trappings of wealth and imagines herself in the beautiful dresses she sells to rich patrons. She’s introduced complaining with clever quips with a friend/fellow shopgirl by her side. They chew gum with the hearty abandon that signals in classic films girls on the up and up or guided only by their desires.

A stroke of luck and confusing plotting lands her with two confidence artists, Warren (Laird Cregar) and Maybelle Worthington (Spring Byington), who see her as a way to scam young millionaires. Which is exactly what happens. Susan then takes on the name Linda pretending to be Maybelle’s daughter. They travel the world in style, always on the lookout for a mark. A wrench is thrown in the con artist’s plans when Susan/Linda falls for one of their marks, John Wheeler (Henry Fonda). He is a mild-mannered accountant with dreams of his own that the trio confuses for a millionaire even after conning him out of $15,000.

A variety of madcap plot twists ensue which don’t always make sense but they come and go so fast you don’t have time to notice the issues. The film is charming and lighthearted with several sharp lines of dialogue. It also trades the melodramatic for the the surprisingly emotionally realistic in terms of how John and Susan fall in love. Her turn around and care for John doesn’t seem forced since she comes across as a genuinely good person who just wants more than life is giving to her.

The chemistry between Fonda and Tierney doesn’t always work but the two have a certain sweet, thoughtful charm together that keeps the film afloat making this a standout out of this wave of Fox Cinema Archives releases.

Dangerous Years is the most forgettable of this selection. It is a preachy drama aiming for some commentary on troubled youth that swan dives into an overheated after school special. One important thing to note is not to read the description on the back of the DVD. For whatever reason, the one sentence plot summary on the DVD case spoils the major plot twist that happens in the last 10 minutes or so of the film.

The film begins with an omniscient, almost God-like voice over that sets up the moralistic tale. At the center of the film is Danny (Billy Halop) a young troublemaker who starts a small-time gang of kids who like him are all in their teens. A planned robbery at a shipping yard goes awry and leads to Danny killing Jeff Carter (Donald Curtis), a shining example in the small community who was trying to help the wayward teens.

This is the kind of film where a jukebox joint is considered a place of rowdy madness where each new record played corrodes the soul of the young patrons and soda might as well be nicknamed Satan’s Nectar, if the elders of the community had their way. The cast has mostly no chemistry between each other. One curious pairing is Danny and Doris (Ann E. Todd), not that young love is odd but the actors look off together. Danny is supposed to be no more than a year or two older than Doris. But actor Billy Halop looks scandalous and awkward putting his arms around the fresh faced Anne E. Todd who was in reality 11 years his junior. The age difference between the actors is very apparent and adds to the lack of chemistry between the cast.

The film is forgettable despite its out of nowhere twist and sharp change in Danny’s previously no-good behavior. Marilyn Monroe fanatics may want to take a gander at the film since this is one of her earliest bit roles. Monroe plays a soda shop girl who appears early on with very few lines. Even then her “flesh impact” is apparent minus her studied voice and expertly crafted image. But she has a radiance and way with the camera that the other actors lack.

Dangerous Years is the worst out of these three films and easily the most forgettable. As Fox’s archive rolls out releases of these little seen films it is guaranteed that not every one will be a gem or even worth the hour or so it takes to watch it. Yet, Rings on Her Fingers and Love is News have a sort of frothy allure that is well worth a night home even if they aren’t exactly long forgotten masterpieces.

First off, throw away every misconception you have of My Little Pony. Yes, this is a candy colored show about talking ponies. Yes, it is cutesy and immensely sweet. But it is incredibly well written and dynamic in ways a simple synopsis on the back of the DVD set can’t even begin to explain. There are a host of amazing things in the series that airs on The Hub but, let’s start with the protagonists first.

The show offers an impressive range of female characters. There’s the antisocial bookworm Twilight Sparkle and her adorable assistant baby dragon Spike who are the first to be introduced in the show. The others are the hyperactive and wonderfully nonsensical Pinkie Pie, the bashful Fluttershy, the hardworking farmhand Applejack, the brash yet loyal Rainbow Dash and finally, the glamorous Rarity.

All these brilliantly voiced (with standout Tara Strong as Twilight Sparkle) and characterized individuals live in the cleverly-named kingdom of Equestria; whose supreme yet benevolent ruler, Princess Celestia, has sent Twilight to the small town of Ponyville in order for her to make some friends. Twilight Sparkle is the ultimate bookworm substituting the words on the page for interaction with the ponies around her. How she looks at her life and others changes for the better in the first two episodes. The ideal of friendship and its power is an important theme that runs throughout the series in a way that bolsters the importance of interpersonal relationships that children should be aware of.

Sound cheesy and like candy colored ridiculousness? It sure is. But watching the series, one finds it hard to believe that this cartoon even bears the My Little Pony name. It is an incredibly layered take on female friendship in a cotton candy shell. While cuteness’ definitely important to the character designs (especially with the soft-spoken Fluttershy), it is not sickeningly saccharine like the cartoons that preceded it; it’s more focused on its characters and storylines than on the purely commercial driven endeavor of selling toys.

This set contains five episodes. After the two part episode, Friendship is Magic,which establishes the land of Equastria, the various characters, and the overall premise the show moves into a more adventure-of-the-week format. It is important to note that the three episodes are from season 1 and two episodes are from season 2 of the show. But that in no way impedes on the watch ability of this brief, but exciting collection of episodes even if it is an odd way to release the show on DVD.

Beyond that what really matters is how the show presents little girls with different types of femininity in a way that is cute, honest, and open minded without falling into the trap of being an afterschool special. Maybe some wouldn’t deem the show feminist. But with such a clever look at different types of girls with very different interests the case can be made that it is.  Furthermore, the normative position of power is female. These female characters are active not passive. Each pony has her own set of quirks and interests so that anyone watching can find at least one character they can connect with. There aren’t too many plot lines focusing on romance; the center of the story is really the friendship between the ponies.

The show has created an interesting fan dynamic full of men and women of different age groups and backgrounds that can be explained by the sheer, unironic joy the series brings to its audience. Why would such a large audience containing a considerable amount of adults be interested in this show? Like, The Powerpuff Girls, Animaniacs and Samurai Jack it may be marketed towards kids but its breadth of storytelling, character dynamics, and design elevate it beyond mere child’s play.

Writer and animator Lauren Faust, known for her work on such great cartoons as The Powerpuff Girls and the recent DC Comics series of short animation called Super Best Friends Forever, treats the stories as important without any hamfisted morality. Instead she crafts a world that is bubbling with so much sass and joy you can’t help but smile. This is a show not belabored with blatant commercialism which is a welcome change from what appears in many cartoons.

All in all, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is one of the most enchanting and inventive animated series to come around in ages. There is a reason the show has acquired such a massive and diverse fandom on the Internet; it’s a genuinely enjoyable and well-made series that perfectly subverts yet doesn’t downplay its girly origins. If you like cartoons and are looking for a bit of bright colored joy in your life you owe it to yourself to pick up this DVD.