Spring has arrived and the My Little Ponies are having a gay old time! But after screwing up a dance recital, Baby Lickety-Split feels unwanted and runs away from home. Oh no! While the ponies go in search of her, the evil witch Hydia and her two ne'er-do-well children are determined to destroy the pony's home with a nastiness known as The Smooze.Many of the cartoons of my childhood are truly awful when I go back and look at them again. This was not one of those. It was a decent story, appropriate for children and decently animated. Granted, the songs were sort of weak and didn't really have the lyrical genius an adult might like. I wonder how much crap my mom had to sit through with me as a child.But the messages are good. First, we learn that families are important and that parents should love their children and children should love their parents. The evil witch Hydia won't let her kids call her "mom" and makes them do horrible things to those innocent little ponies. Mothers, love your babies, and don't let them grow up to be cowboys. Kids, love your parents, and know they're (probably) doing the best they can. Unless they're like Hydia, then your parents are bad and you should get new ones.We also learn that running away is not the answer to feeling unwanted. Someone out there probably loves you, unless you're a really awful person. But even then you can probably find someone. Baby Lickety-Split was cute and everyone loved her, she was just too focused on being the star of the show, rather than working as a team. It's important to put in your best effort, but don't step on other people's toes.I really loved the Smooze... and the song that goes with it, because nothing can stop the Smooze. I really cannot describe this, so you may as well see it. If you get the DVD, you can jump to any song you want. Go ahead and jump to this song before you even watch the movie, it's not going to ruin anything and really sets up the greatness of the film.Danny DeVito gets top billing for this film. Don't be fooled by that. He doesn't show up until much later and plays a minor character, the Grundle King, with few lines. Those lines, by the way, are in broken English. So he doesn't even really have a full sentence in his script. Mr. DeVito, you lucky man... getting such credit for such little work.Mike Joens is the director. Joens has done a fair amount of work with the art department of "The Muppet Babies", another great cartoon, so you know this one is in good hands. The writer is George Arthur Bloom, who has been involved in a great many pony projects. If anyone knows the mythology of My Little Pony, it's Bloom.Whether you have kids or not, I think this is a winner of a film. I don't have my own kids, but still I loved it. If I did, I would show this to them because it's better than much of the current kid stuff out there. Not all, but much of it. (It's hard to beat things like "Shrek", but not so hard to beat many of the television cartoons.) Go to your local Family Video, where kids movies are free, and pick this one up today.

In my formative years, I watched this movie almost daily. How my mum put up with that, I'll never know! But one year I lent the videotape to a friend, suddenly changed schools, and never got it back. Oh, a sad period of my childhood! I think I loved this movie as a child because of the bright colors, the pretty ponies, the fact that this was a world of the equine. After all, what girl didn't go through a horsey phase, even if only for a short while? Only now, upon reflection and re-watching, I realize that all the morals the movie was trying to teach never really hit me as a kid.Lines like "It's easy to be courageous when helping others!" totally flew over my small-child head. I don't think they even sunk in subliminally! What I DO know is that to this day, I can sing the songs, word for word and tune for tune.(And yes, my late teens brought on a phase of nostalgia, where I raced from place to place searching for this movie on DVD... God bless eBay, even if the movie turned out to be a complete and utter bootleg. At least I had it. And subjected my poor roommate to many a sing-along with the Smooze song.) If you show this film to your kids -- or watch it yourself -- purely for entertainment (and expecting serious cheese), then you'll enjoy the trip. (Yes, pun intended...) If you're looking for morals to give your kids, or to inspire them, then... You should probably choose something else. This is fluff, pure fluff, with a little "twinkle" added.

Spike is a cute dragon & the Smoose is funny. (Reminds me of Grimer from the Pokemon series.) Danny DeVito (Taxi) & Rhea Perlman (Cheers)are interesting casting. The intro with the animals is adorable. I like the Smoose song; the rest range from sugared to painful. It is aimed to sell toys & isn't subtle, but if you look past it, you've got a likeable movie. The witches are adequate villains, more comic than scary. Og, the Flume plant & the Evil Forest are entertaining, but the Smoose beats them all. If you've collected the toys, you'll enjoy this. I still have a few, including Spike & Wind Whistler, who both appear. Each type of pony, Pegasus, Unicorn, Earthling, Sea, Baby & Flutter is represented, as are some of the buildings. It'll take you back. 6/10

A pleasant story. Lots of soft, pastel colors. Smiley Happy Ponies, laughing.Two Thumbs up...and I'm a guy! :)