A Very Minty Christmas



My Little Pony: A Very Minty Christmas is a direct-to-DVD animated film produced by SD Entertainment, and released on October 25, 2005 by Paramount Home Entertainment. It marks the first film appearance of the titular toy franchise since their big-screen debut in 1986. The DVD includes a bonus episode, Dancing in the Clouds, which is first released on video bundled with Star Catcher in 2004.

A Very Minty Christmas was made available on hubworld.com (a successor of Hasbro's MonkeyBarTV website), alongside My Little Pony: The Princess Promenade and My Little Pony Crystal Princess: The Runaway Rainbow but were later removed from the site.

The popularity of Friendship Is Magic has increased demand for reissues of the original My Little Pony titles. Shout! Factory has now begun to produce DVD reissues of some of these titles, including A Very Minty Christmas.

The film made its television debut on Discovery Family on December 13, 2014.

Synopsis
Minty accidentally breaks the "Here Comes Christmas Candy Cane", which apparently guides Santa Claus to Ponyville. To try to make up for doing this, Minty gives each pony one of her socks (she hangs them like stockings on the other ponies' fireplaces). When Pinkie Pie finds out what Minty has done, Minty states that the sock giving is a bad idea, and then decides she should go to the North Pole herself to set things right. Minty is terrible at balloon flying, so the chase is on to save her in the process of saving Christmas.

Plot
A cheerful song about the joy of Christmas plays as ponies have fun in the snow and enjoy hot cocoa from Fizzy Pop before Pinkie Pie gives a speech starting with the mention of Rainbow Dash, the previous Christmas host. Decorations are put up and designs for the Here Comes Christmas Candy Cane get underway. Once the candy cane is complete, two pegasi put into place. Meanwhile, Minty fixes a snowman that is missing a nose but takes it too far when she knocks its head off. She sacrifices one of her socks to keep it warm then heads to the tree. Gazing at the tree, Minty concludes that the candy cane isn't as straight as it needs to be and takes the balloon up to the top to deal with it since no one is around to do it for her. The weight of the candy cane makes this difficult and the candy cane eventually falls out.

Minty watches helplessly as the candy cane hits the snow-covered ground and shatters. Hoping it's not as she saw it, Minty heads down to the ground to find out for sure. Unfortunately, it's just as she saw it and now she has to let everyone know. With everyone busy, no one is able to help her out. That night, Minty is in deep sorrow and bursts into tears as she realizes the extent of what she's done. As a compromise, she decides to play Santa and adds a sock to as many house fireplaces as she can and uses a song to explain why. She enters Sunny Daze's house and is nearly caught but saves herself with Santa's signature line. At Pinkie Pie's house, Pinkie Pie too is awakened but actually ends up getting out of bed to learn what's going on. After taking a few minutes to think of a plan, Pinkie Pie suggests Minty visit the North Pole to explain the situation to Santa. Minty is too excited to listen to anything Pinkie Pie says afterwards and takes the balloon up into the sky on her own but knocks over the tree in the process. There, she finds Thistle Whistle, whom despite her fear of clouds comes along for the ride until the balloon catches a tree branch and gets hung-up.

The duo slides off and are on the brink of falling into the crevasse below but luckily they're saved by the other ponies. With the weather looking grim, the ponies land at the very spot where Santa lives. Unfortunately, Santa isn't there and has left a note that Minty reads. Star Catcher reminds everyone that the true meaning of Christmas isn't the gifts but the pink glow of their friendship and once the storm clears, they head home. Back in Ponyville, they find the tree is back upright with a 2nd note that shows Minty's compromise was a good idea and is likely going to be used from then on.

Cast

 * Tabitha St. Germain as G3 Minty and Thistle Whistle
 * Janyse Jaud as G3 Pinkie Pie
 * Venus Terzo as G3 Rainbow Dash and Sparkleworks
 * Lenore Zann as Star Catcher
 * Kathleen Barr as Sweetberry
 * Kelly Sheridan as Cotton Candy
 * Adrienne Carter as Sunny Daze
 * Saffron Henderson as Skywishes

Music

 * "That's What I Love About Christmas"
 * "Nothing Says Christmas Like a New Pair of Socks"
 * "The Magic of Christmas"
 * "That's What I Love About Christmas" (reprise)

Reception
The special received positive reviews. Mike Long of DVDtalk stated that "The translation from toy to screen and back again seems to be the norm and the obligatory Christmas special is a staple of this phenomenon. My Little Pony: A Very Minty Christmas doesn't come close to matching the holiday magic of the classic Christmas specials, but some youngsters will love the bright colors and the gentle story of a pony who just wants to give her friends a merry Christmas."

Media
A comic adaption was published by Tokyopop in 2005.The DVD includes a second animated feature, Dancing in the Clouds. It was originally issued on a VHS with a Pegasus pony toy, Star Catcher. Chronologically taking place after A Charming Birthday and before Friends are Never Far Away, it shows Star Catcher's first encounter with Skywishes.