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.

For the ponies of Dream Castle, the start of spring marks the Spring Festival. Despite warnings against it from the dragon Spike (Charlie Adler), Baby Lickety Split (Alice Playten) wants to add her own flair to the Spring Festival dance. Doing so ends up ruining the performance, leading Lickety Split to run away with Spike in tow when she gets called out for it. At the same time, the witch Hydia (Cloris Leachman) in the nearby Volcano of Doom wants to ruin the Spring Festival. Disappointed in her daughters Reeka (Rhea Perlman) and Draggle (Madeline Kahn) for not living up to the family lineage of evil, Hydia sends them to do so. When all attempts fail, Hydia sees no choice but to summon the unstoppable Smooze.

Lickety Split (Alice Playten, center) runs away after getting yelled at for ruining a
Spring Festival performance.

It is worth noting that this film was preceded by a pair of TV specials, “Rescue at/Escape from Midnight Castle” and “Escape from Katrina,” both of which were later presented in edited form as part of the My Little Pony TV series following this film’s release. This film’s story is also in continuity with said TV specials, and as such features a number of returning characters and concepts from them. I did not watch or know about these TV specials, nor did I watch the aforementioned TV series, before watching this film, so my opinions are based purely on how it works in a vacuum of itself.

Divorced entirely from the TV specials, the plot feels a little unfocused due to bringing in said elements from them in a way that you’re expected to know who or what they are, and as such I could really feel the length at times despite it being under 90 minutes long. Lickety Split seems set up to be the central character, but she doesn’t really get much screen time. Outside the main cast, the plot also feels a little bloated with characters that don’t really add much, such as the Grundles and Bushwoolies, and I felt that focusing on a smaller set of characters would have helped streamline things to increase the pacing. The Smooze does offer a great central conflict, but the process of getting to its first appearance and resolving it drags a bit in places as a result. Because of the abundance of characters and the pacing, there were times where it felt more transparently like a toy commercial, such as the introduction of the Paradise Estate and an entire scene dedicated to showing off its features.

I will say though that, as someone whose starting point was Friendship is Magic, it was still interesting seeing where that series’ more adventurous spirit originated, as well as the original incarnation of Spike.

From what I understand, the animation studio AKOM only had 10 weeks to animate this film. Knowing this, it’s impressive that it came out as good as it did, as the animation is actually pretty fluid and manages to stay on-model. I also liked that, unlike later seasons of Friendship is Magic, the ponies are consistently depicted using real-life horse logic, such as using their mouths in place of hands to hold things. However, the animation is not exactly theater quality, feeling more TV quality by comparison. I didn’t go in expecting something on the level of the 1986 Transformers film, given that this was made for a different audience, but there isn’t much to the shadow work, making the characters look a little flat. Animation and occasional coloring errors that you might find on a small screen project are also present, with the scale of characters getting a little wonky at times.

 

Hydia (Cloris Leachman, left) wants her daughters Reeka (Rhea Perlman, center)
and Draggle (Madeline Kahn, right) to live up to the family's evil reputation.

Similarly to its 2017 counterpart, this My Little Pony movie is a musical. The songs aren’t bad, but I didn’t find them outside of “Can’t Stop the Smooze” particularly memorable. The voice acting isn’t that bad either, and even shares some original Transformers voice actors in more minor roles (as well as future live-action Starscream voice actor Charlie Adler in the role of Spike), although Nancy Cartwright’s voice for Gusty comes close to sounding like Bart Simpson sometimes. Like other Hasbro animated features from the time, the professional voice cast is complemented by big-name celebrities for extra star power, including Danny DeVito as the Grundle King, as well as main antagonists Hydia, Reeka and Draggle being played respectively by Cloris Leachman (Cheers) and the late Rhea Perlman and Madeline Kahn (both frequent collaborators with Mel Brooks). Without overshadowing the other voice actors, it’s clear that the aforementioned celebrities had some fun in their roles, even if the Grundle King is more of a bit part by comparison to the others.

In a vacuum, the 1986 My Little Pony: The Movie doesn’t work that great as a movie, as it expects familiarity with the preceding TV specials to fully understand what’s going on. This leads to a story that feels disjointed and, along with the subpar animation, may be a reason why it hasn’t garnered the same level of cult following as The Transformers: The Movie, which had a comparatively more complete narrative and a more theater-quality presentation. As such, it may be better viewed within the original context, provided you are able to watch the specials. Regardless, it may still be worth a look for fans of the later iterations of My Little Pony, if only to get a glimpse at the roots of the animated arm of the franchise.