The movie became a critical and financial bomb during its theatrical run, grossing only an estimated $6 million worldwide against a budget of $5.5 million. Combined with the failure of La Guerre des robots: Transformers (1986), this convinced the studio to cancel the theatrical animated movie Jem and the Holograms, while G.I. Joe, le film (1987) was pushed direct to video.
According to creative consultant Buzz Dixon, when a group of ponies go into the human world to get help, he pitched a scene featuring the ponies approaching Optimus Prime from Transformers and Shipwreck from G.I. Joe for help. While the specifics of Optimus Prime's cameo are unknown, Shipwreck's scene would have apparently featured him outside of a bar, drinking 'amber liquid' from a bottle. As the pony spoke to him, Shipwreck would just stare at her in bug-eyed disbelief and she'd fly away. Then Shipwreck would smash the bottle, take his cap off his head, put his left hand over his heart and raise his right hand in an oath to quit drinking. Hasbro executives thought the idea was hilarious, but ultimately rejected it.
The movie's animation was competed from start to finish in 10 weeks, which in turn that it was rushed to be released in early June of 1986 just right after when school would be out for summer in most places. This led to critics and audiences panning the movie for its shoddy animation with flat colors.
Danny DeVito's first time voice acting in a theatrical film. Later he'd go onto voice Rocks the Dog in Allô maman, c'est Noël (1993), Swackhammer in Space Jam (1996), Philoctetes the Satyr in Hercule (1997), the titular character of Le Lorax (2012), Chesterfield in Animal Crackers (2017), Dorgle the Yeti in Yéti & Compagnie (2018), Bob the Dog in Le Seul et unique Ivan (2020), and Dan the Mallard in Migration (2023).