rbn_lrk-1 With 1980's nostalgia topping this decade let's see at the 1986 My Little Pony movie. Ponyland is under their spring festival invaded by the witches and their smooze. Three human kids help the ponies with their fight against evil. Some of the highlights are the Smooze that became cult. It's not on top with the 2017 MLP movie in animation style, but you get a lot of characters like the Grundles, the flutterponies and on.

bib_the_moo The evil witch Hydia plans to turn the idyllic Ponyville into a wasteland with a horrifying substance only known as the Smooze. Will aid come from Dream Valley? The story here is very heavy and a good job has been made of trimming down the story to make it accessible to those not familiar with the story. The characters are quite well developed - the beauty of the film is that it knows there will be more films so it doesn't have to rush past characterisation where other films would need to get down to action quickly to ensure that it can get a sequel greenlighted.The visuals are fantastic, the special effects are brilliant and are mixed well with natural scenery to great effect, there's no doubting that Michael Joens can cope with such a grand canvas to work on. The action scenes are also very well handled and the Smooze special effects are mostly good (only occasionally it is obvious that some are computer generated).The main problem with the film is that it isn't a lot of fun. I know it wants to be serious but it also needs to be fun for the audience to watch, 89 minutes is a long time to sit listening to lots of talk about family trees and ancient quests etc. I didn't want comedy but it all took itself too seriously to be totally enjoyable. Another problem with it is that the pacing is all off - the film has a set pattern that goes all the way through, first a talky scene with slow camera movements, then the music changes, the camera starts zooming around and we enter an action scene, then back to a talky scene, then an action/chase scene and so on. It all gets a bit tiresome with it's continual cut between action/talking/action/talking with a relentless monotony. There's nothing wrong with the content but it all gets a bit tiresome after a while.The cast are roundly great - almost totally well cast with the exception of Danny De Vito who sounds and acts just like his character in Terms of Endearment - it makes it too distracting. Charles Adler as Spike is a little too serious at times, gazing off into the distance and delivering straight dialogue. Tammy Anderson and Sheryl Bernstein are both great, Tammy especially with her flawed character struggling against the Smooze. The best character in the film is the Smooze! The film suffers from not having a bad guy to focus on (Wysteria is built up but she isn't the main source of evil). Giving the Smooze itself the ability to tempt and manipulate and speak, this makes it the main evil character and makes the quest even more tense.Overall it's a big grown up blockbuster with amazing effects but it isn't very much fun to watch (not just laughs but basic enjoyment). A good film but far from perfect - 4 out of 5.

fannywoggle I'd totally forgotten about this little movie until I went to a mates the other day and noticed her little girl had it on DVD, yes.......I just had to borrow it lol, I hadn't seen it since I was about 5 or 6 (Im 20 now lol) and I still remember most of the words in it! Despite the lack of technology when it was made, unlike what we have now, I still think it is a good movie and will definitely buy it for my kids one day when I have them. Watching this movie brought back some memories and I will certainly watch it again in the future. I didn't even know Danny Devito was in it lol. My favourite character has to be the grundles, just goes to show, never judge a book by it's cover. Erm I think I've done my 10 lines now lol xxxx

hippiegal Back when I was six I dragged my poor Mom to see this in the theaters. I LOVED it! When I got older I watched it every time it was on the Disney channel. Now that I'm in college I still watch it every once in a while. Is it a bad movie? You better believe it. Is it great 80's nostalgia? You better believe it! I think out of the many 80's cartoon/toy lines that made it to theaters this is actually one of the better efforts. It's held up better over time than say, the Care Bear movies. Oh course being a little girl who loved ponies and horses it's no brainer why I thought this was one of the greatest movies ever when I was six. I still watch it now for a trip down memory lane.