My Little Pony: The Movie (lost production material of cancelled film adaptation of animated TV series; 2003)

Promotional poster for the film.

Status: Lost

My Little Pony: The Movie (not to be confused with the 1986 film or the 2017 film of the same name) was to be an animated movie produced by Fat Rock Entertainment and to be released in October 2003. It is unknown how far into production the film had gotten before being cancelled, however, it was seen being promoted up until 4 months before its planned release date and has been confirmed to have entered production. The movie was promoted through pamphlets that came with My Little Pony toys, and on the official My Little Pony website between April and June 2003, by mid-June or July all mentions of the movie on the website were removed.

Background

An article by Simon Ashdown of KidScreen, February 1st, 2003, states that by the time the article was written the movie was already in production, confirming that there must be some production material out there. The production was said to be taking place at SD Entertainment; an LA-based studio. According to the article, the budget for the film would have been between US$5 million and US$10 million. An eventual DVD release after the film's run in theatres was also planned.

An article by LicenseGlobal revealed that the film was planned to be CGI animated, unlike the rest of the animated content for the first generation (CGI animation only being present in a few TV advertisements). This article also revealed the potential plans of producing more than just one movie, stating that there were plans for 6 to 8 films to be produced and played in cinemas for a span of 12 weeks each, yearly - This may have involved multiple My Little Pony films, however, it isn't clear. Interestingly, this article mentioned plans for a Summer 2003 release instead of the October 2003 release noted on the My Little Pony website and the Fall 2003 release noted on the toy's pamphlets.

Plot

All that is known about the plot of the film is what was revealed by the My Little Pony website, which is that it would involve the ponies celebrating friendship, however, things don't go to plan. The movie page of the website has broken images, that may have been promotional images for the movie itself; it is impossible to see them through the Wayback Machine though.

Availability

On November 21st, 2005, a poster for the movie was found by Soh Fia on Ponytopia in which an original render of Pinkie Pie can be seen, along with multiple older renders of other ponies that were often used in promotional material for the third generation of My Little Pony in general. This poster also has the Logo of Fat Rock Entertainment and SD Entertainment at the bottom and some credits for the producers, directors, and writers.

Aside from this, little to no production materials such as test animations, stills, and storyboards from the film have been found aside from posters and advertisements.

Gallery

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  A 2003 pamphlet advertising the film.

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See Also

• My Little Pony: Adventures In Daming Palace (partially found recordings of hologram stage show; 2021)
• My Little Pony: The Crown of Friendship (partially found recordings of stage show; 2019)
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic "Spike at your Service" (found early drafts of Hub Network animated fantasy series episode; 2012)
• My Little Pony "Rainbow Ponies" (partially found production material of cancelled special of animated TV series; 1984-1985)
• My Little Pony: The Rainbow Sonic Boom (partially found recordings of hologram stage show; 2020)