Entertainment
‘My Little Pony’: Cute and colourful (IANS Review, Rating: **1/2)
By Troy Ribeiro
Film: “My Little Pony”; Director: Jayson Thiessen; Cast: Emily Blunt, Chenoweth, Liev Schreiber, Sia, Michael Pena, Taye Diggs, Uzo Aduba and Zoe Saldana; Rating: **1/2
This 2D animated musical fantasy is based on the television series “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic” that was developed in 2010, as the relaunch of the Hashbro toy ‘My Little Pony’.
Set in Equestria — a universe packed with ponies, the ponies, led by Princess Twilight Sparkle and assisted by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, prepare for their first Friendship Festival. The festivities are interrupted by an invasion of monstrous storm creatures commanded by the broken-horned unicorn Tempest Shadow, who hopes to have her horn restored by the evil Storm King.
The Princess Twilight along with the five pony friends — Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy — and her assistant dragon Spike escape from Equestria. How they gather forces to destroy Storm King and resume their festivities, forms the crux of the tale.
The plot, written by screenwriters Meghan McCarthy, Rita Hsiao and Michael Vogel, is long drawn and convoluted for a children’s film. But the world of “My Little Pony” has been held up as a feminist utopia, where mares run the show. The messages learnt by Princess Twilight and her huge-eyed, tail-swishing co-stars are certainly commonplace.
The voices lent by the star cast suit the characters to perfection. Tara Strong as Princess Twilight Sparkle, Ashleigh Ball as Applejack and Rainbow Dash, Tabitha St. Germain as Rarity, Andrea Libman as Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, Emily Blunt as the evil unicorn, Taye Diggs as the smooth-talking cat and the pop star Sia as the singing pony and Live Schreiber as King Storm.
They are all pitch-perfect and they all do justice to their characters.
The animation too is near perfect, given the subject. The visuals are adequately vibrant and colourful. The frames are aptly balanced with dark shades, enough to make the candy-coloured moralising seem realistic.
The mild action is paused occasionally with a bunch of inspirational ditties that are toe-tappers. The songs and score composed by songwriter Daniel Ingram is Disney Broadway-esque. It is elevating to hear the numbers with the lyrics, “I’m the friend you need”, “We got this”, “Time to be awesome” and “It’s time to grow up and be wise”.
Overall, “My Little Pony” is intermittently cute that will engage the kids but it definitely lacks the thump to gallop you off to fantasy land.
–IANS
troy/rb/dg
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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