My Little Pony: Elizy's Tales

My Little Pony: Elizy's Tales is an American-Canadian produced by and developed by . The series is based on the popular 's toy franchise, also idealized by Zacherle. Elizy's Tale is the second production based on the My Little Pony franchise, being preceded by the produced by Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions and released in 1987. Episodes of about 25 minutes were produced over the course of four seasons, originally shown in the US, Canada and Japan between 1989 and 1993.
The series contrasts with its predecessor, removes the presence of humans and other non-quadruped character, and assumes the form that the series adopts until today, having only quadruped characters. Another major contrast is that the series also did not have dragons among the protagonists, unlike the previous production and later productions (such as Spike, in the first and fourth generation).
The series is considered one of the notable animated series of the 1990s, being highlighted by the high ratings it had weekly on Thursday mornings (later moved to Mondays last season), so much so that after the end of its original release in 1993, CBS continued to reprise the series episodes randomly on sunday mornings until 1996.
== Premise ==
Elizy Lemontree is a young female earth pony who, although she has a gift linked to agriculture, is actually a beloved nursery school teacher, and who loves reading detective novels in her spare time, as well as studying in-depth bits of philosophy, science, history and criminology, always feeling bored of the sameness of a life without great emotions of an educator, Elizy gets involved in adventures where she doesn't fear what it might cost. Next to her are four other ponies that help her and protect her from any imminent danger: Ginger Winged-Embers, Phyllis Cluehunter, Equidinus Lifelong and Epiphanius Goodtought
== Voice cast and characters ==
=== Main characters (Mane 5) ===
=== Secondary characters ===
=== Villains ===
=== Additional voices ===
=== Guests ===
== History ==
The series arose from a partnership between Hasbro and the Canadian animation company Nelvana, started in 1987. In the year in question, the first My Little Pony animation, started in 1984, came to an end. After that series ended, Nelvana became interested in making a second animated series based on the My Little Pony toy franchise. Production began in 1988, when the Canadian animation company acquired the rights to the toy brand from Hasbro.
== Production ==
=== Animation ===
The series stood out for the use of 3D animations in scenes where the scenery was in motion and when realistic movement was needed on paper and sheets flying. Apart from the aforementioned cases, most of the animation of the series followed in 2D, without any kind of computerized intervention, the series also stands out for the movement of the characters, comparable to the movements of the films of the Renaissance Era of Disney due to its lightness and realism, it is known that several animators studied the ways that the horses moved to produce the series. To direct the animators, Nelvana hired animator Richard Rich, who had already worked and directed films at Disney.
=== Design ===
The character designs remained almost the same as in the previous series, only changing some features on the legs and eyes, making them brighter. Ponies also got more "contemporary" manes than previously, having tied manes, some males having a short mane, others having a topknot, some female characters getting fringe. Some characters also started to have accessories, such as glasses, hats, caps, ties and tiaras.
=== Colorization ===
The colorization of the series stands out for being more alive than before, making the characters much more attractive to the audience. The colorization however alternated depending on what the atmosphere of the scene needed, if it was a night scene with a heavy rain, the colors lost their life and warmth and gave way to a colder form of these.
=== Background and weather ===
The series is praised for the way it managed to portray climates and background scenarios correctly, for example and a warm climate and background, it is noted that the characters do not show sweat only in a specific scene, but in every moment. This is also noticed in the opposite situation, when it is in a cold scenario, the ponies shiver all the time without stopping.
== Reception ==
The series was received with open arms by children and their families, since for the first time My Little Pony "sought a plot that would attract from the youngest baby to the oldest of the elderly", the series had a staggering audience from its second season, and continued that way until the end of its original run. The series has a legion of fans who keep the memory of this work alive until the present day, due to such admiration for the contrast of ideas of the other productions that came before and after. Scholars also rate the series highly for its philosophical, historical, criminological, and scientific citations, and treat the series as a good way to learn some key parts of these segments just by watching a cartoon.
On , Elizy's Tales has a rating of 9.1, making this the highest rated of various My Little Pony animations since Escape from Catrina.
== International exhibition ==
Warning: This section is under construction!
Contry	Network	Year of exhibiton 	Reception
 	 	1992–1998, 2016–present 	It had a relative audience among children, being shown on Sunday afternoons. after almost 20 years, the series returned to the broadcaster's schedule in 2016, having a great audience success with an ostensive marketing campaign on television and internet, which associated the success of the series in Spain with the fact that Telecinco was its first broadcaster.
 	 	1998–2013 	It was shown on Saturday mornings, having a competitive audience in the 2000s, the cartoon was eternalized in the minds of Spanish viewers during its exhibition on Antena 3.
 	 	2013–2016 	It suffered from an oscillating audience due to lack of marketing and also the lack of viewers' habit, normalized with the series' exhibition on Antena 3.
 	 	1991–1996, 2007–2009, 2015–2018, 2022–present	The most successful phase of the audience was in the 1st exhibition of the series between 1991 and 1996, after that the second phase with the best success was between 2015 and 2018, when it was shown on RTP1 for the 3rd time, the series as a whole already entered the grid of Portuguese broadcaster 4 times, the frquent network change is responsible for the series not reaching big in Portugal unlike other European countries.
 	 	1996–2007 	It was on TVI where Elizy's Tale reached its height among the Portuguese public, the series was shown for 11 years on the channel and was a great success.
 	 	2009–2015 	It was averagely well rated, and managed to remain for a considerable period of time in the network's schedule.
 	 	2018–2022 	It had an average audience and remained on RTP's second channel until 2022, when it was transferred again to RTP1.
 	 	1993–2015 	It became one of the most popular cartoons among the Brazilian public, having been shown in several children's programs on the broadcaster, with emphasis on TV Globinho, where it was shown for 15 years. With the abandonment of children's programs by Globo from 2015, the broadcaster then decided to revoke the rights to show the series, thus leaving them free for other broadcasters to be able to show the series in their schedule.
 	 	2015–2022 	Due to the fact that it is on a pay-TV station, the series did not have as expressive an audience as it did on Globo, and the series left the station'schedule in 2022, when it moved to the streaming services (streaming service belonging to , owner of TV Globo) and .
== Episodes ==
Main article: My Little Pony: Elizy's Tales/List of episodes
Seasons	Seasons	Episodes	Chapters	Original transmission	Original transmission
Seasons	Seasons	Episodes	Chapters	Start 	End
 	1 	4 	22 	 	
 	2 	5 	28 	 	
 	3 	4 	30 	 	
 	4 	4 	26 	 	
== In other media ==
=== Home media and streaming ===
The first season of My Little Pony: Elizy's Tale was released on VHS and LaserDisc on December 12, 1989, in the middle of the Christmas season, having a remarkable sales profit. Following the sales success of the first season collection, the second season of the series was also released for VHS and LD on December 2, 1990, repeating the previous arrangement of being released during the Christmas season, and again having profitable income. In 1992, the collection with the episodes of the 3rd season was released on VHS and LaserDisc, this time it was released earlier due to the fact that that season was shown between 1991 and 1992, having ended in February, unlike the previous seasons, which began be launched between the months of April and June and finalized between the months of October and November, this 3rd volume did not have such repercussions and sales unlike its predecessor, which made it quickly withdrawn from stores. The last volume of compilations was released in November 1994, close to the beginning of the Christmas season, thus repeating the success of the first 2 volumes, and so it was done, the 4th and last volume obtained the highest sales profit among the launches, in 1997 it was estimated that the profit from sales of the 4th volume was $490.4 million.
In 2004, a collection containing all 106 episodes of the series was released by Hasbro in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the original release of the series, in 2022, when My Little Pony completed 40 years of its creation, 4 episodes of Elizy's Tales from each of the seasons of the series were included in the commemorative catalog, along with (1986), My Little Pony: New Tales (1996), the animated features of G3 (2003–09), and the current MLP animation, , published by Netflix itself. The series continued in the Netflix catalog after the end of the commemorative week due to the immense number of subscribers who watched the 16 episodes added by the streaming service, which made Netflix ask for the rights to the series and add it completely to streaming, in Brazil, in addition to Netflix, the series was also acquired by another streaming service, , 's streaming platform, which owns , the Brazilian network that broadcast the series for more than 20 years between the 1990s and 2010s.
=== Video game ===
The series had an eponymous video game produced by Capcom and released on December 19, 1990 for , having been remastered in 1993 and released on , the remastered version became a phenomenon and became one of the best selling games of the 1990s. With the arrival of computers as an alternative way of playing video games, the game was released for , and , where it was also popular, the game was not by chance still extremely commercialized in some countries even in the early 2000s.
=== Toys ===
With the resounding success, the toy franchise underwent a transition, having abandoned the 1986 line and starting the 1991 toy line, this lasted until 1997, with the advent of G2 on the franchise, this was the line with the highest number of sales until Generation 4, which became the most distinctive of the MLP toy line. The 1991 toy line was also the only one to resist even without any type of production for TV as a way to promote the toys, since even the end of Elizy's Tales in 1993, this line continued for 4 more years being marketed without any losses.
=== Comic books ===
Some episodes of the series received a comic book adaptation between the years 1992 and 2007, in all 46 episodes were adapted, the book format of these adaptations was strictly based on 's , as well as the series as a whole has a format similar to the Belgian book series, which leads to a coincidence, as between while producing Elizy's Tales, also produced a based on the work of Hergé, these, however, were released in full, unlike the Belgian series, which was serialized in magazines before its release in comic book format. The books published by and became children's bestsellers, once again proving the popularity of the series.