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My Little Pony: The Movie (1986 film)

My Little Pony: The Movie is a 1986 American animated musical fantasy film based on the Hasbro toy line My Little Pony.1 It was produced by Sunbow Productions, Marvel Productions, and Hasbro, and released theatrically in the United States by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG).2 The film follows the ponies of Ponyland as the witch Hydia and her daughters create the Smooze, a purple ooze meant to ruin their Spring Festival, and it earned about $6 million against negative reviews, a result that led Hasbro to refocus on the toy line and television series rather than theatrical features.3 • 4

Key factDetail
TypeAmerican animated musical fantasy, G-rated, 86–87 minutes1 • 5
Director and writersMichael (Mike) Joens; screenplay by George Arthur Bloom, with Roger Slifer also credited5 • 6
Production companiesSunbow Productions, Marvel Productions, Hasbro; US theatrical distributor De Laurentiis Entertainment Group2
ReleaseWide release June 6, 1986 in 421 US theaters; Rotten Tomatoes and the AFI Catalog list June 20, 19865 • 7 • 6
Box office$5,958,456 domestic; opening weekend $416,108, 7.0% of the total5
ReceptionMetascore 23 (generally unfavorable); Tomatometer based on 3 reviews, audience Popcornmeter 72% from over 5,000 ratings8 • 7
Home videoShout! Factory issued a 30th-anniversary DVD (released January 27, 2015) with sing-alongs as a special feature9 • 5

Spoilers

Plot

The ponies live happily in Ponyland, where preparations for the Spring Festival are under way.9 From their home in a volcano, the witch Hydia and her daughters Reeka and Draggle plot to make Ponyland "dank, dark and dreary," and they create the Smooze, a massive purple ooze that turns anyone it touches into a meanie, intending it to destroy the ponies' annual festival.10 • 3 • 11 A subplot follows the pushy baby pony Lickity Split, who runs away after ruining a dance routine; the ponies must stop the Smooze and find her and her dragon companion Spike, helped by woodland creatures, human friends, and other allies.11

Production

The film followed two earlier primetime television specials and continued the adventures of the horses living in Dream Castle.11 It was created as a tie-in to the heavily marketed My Little Pony toy franchise.9 The hand-drawn animation was produced for Sunbow/Marvel in Japan and Korea, with Toei Animation and AKOM responsible for the work; AKOM, founded in Seoul in 1985 by Nelson Shin, is credited with the animation.10 • 12 • 13 Music was recorded at Wilder Brothers Recording Studio and Mega Music and mixed at Saturday Morning Studios, with dialogue recorded at B & B Sound Studios; casting was by Reuben Cannon & Associates.2

Voice cast. Cloris Leachman voiced the witch Hydia, Rhea Perlman voiced her daughter Reeka, and Madeline Kahn voiced Draggle; Danny DeVito voiced the Grundle King and Tony Randall was also in the cast.11 Nancy Cartwright voiced Gusty and Bushwoolie #4, Frank Welker voiced Bushwoolie #3 and a Grundle, and Peter Cullen voiced Grundle and Ahagg.5 TV Guide noted that parents might be mildly amused by the cast of famous voices.8

Release and box office

The Numbers records a wide domestic release on June 6, 1986 by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, opening in 421 theaters with $416,108 and peaking at 1,003 theaters.5 In its third week (June 20), the film took $953,025, bringing the total to $2,975,671.5 Rotten Tomatoes lists the original theatrical date as June 20, 1986, and the AFI Catalog likewise dates it June 20, 1986, while a University of Nottingham thesis dates the release to August 6, 1986.7 • 6 • 4 Final domestic gross was $5,958,456, all of it domestic, with no recorded international gross.5 • 3 Inflation-adjusted, this equals $18,164,448.5

Reception

Critics received the film poorly. Its Metascore is 23, labeled generally unfavorable.8 Nina Darnton of The New York Times allowed that it might keep 3- to 7-year-olds entertained for an hour and a half, but found nothing that would move children and little wit for parents.8 TV Guide called the story treacly sweet and the animation simplistic.8 Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "the sugary cuteness of the Little Ponies masks a corporate greed as cold and sharp as a razor blade," and described the animation as looking like "rewarmed Saturday morning kidvid."8 • 10 Rotten Tomatoes counts 3 critic reviews, while its audience Popcornmeter stands at 72% from more than 5,000 ratings, and IMDb users rate it 6.0/10.7 • 14

Aftermath and legacy

The film was a commercial failure, grossing a reported $6 million, and it led Hasbro to refocus on the My Little Pony toy line and cartoon series while avoiding big-budget theatrical releases.4 The franchise later returned to theaters with the 2017 film produced by Hasbro's Allspark Pictures and Lionsgate, announced in 2015 as Hasbro's first animated feature.15 For the film's 30th anniversary, Shout! Factory issued a new DVD including sing-alongs, which Common Sense Media describes as offering today's fans a look at what the original franchise was and old fans a bit of nostalgia.9

References

  1. My Little Pony: The Movie – Movies on Google Play
  2. My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) – Company credits, IMDb
  3. My Little Pony: The Movie – Box Office Mojo
  4. Claire Burdfield, University of Nottingham thesis on My Little Pony
  5. My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) – Box Office and Financial Information, The Numbers
  6. My Little Pony – The Movie (1986), AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  7. My Little Pony (1986), Rotten Tomatoes
  8. My Little Pony: The Movie critic reviews, Metacritic
  9. My Little Pony: The Movie – Parents' Guide & Movie Review, Common Sense Media
  10. Charles Solomon, "'Pony' Has a Bad Case of the Cutes," Los Angeles Times, June 20, 1986
  11. My Little Pony: The Movie—30th Anniversary, Video Librarian
  12. Aalto University thesis on the first-generation My Little Pony toy series
  13. Foreword on AKOM Production Company and Nelson Shin
  14. My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) – Ratings, IMDb
  15. Hasbro newsroom: The Magic of Friendship Comes to the Big Screen in a New My Little Pony Movie (August 7, 2015)

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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My Little Pony: The Movie (1986 film)

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