(please check out my other reviews please)Heavy Spoilers)) So this is the sequel to MLP Equestria Girls film.. but does it stand up to the praise it has lets find out also was to nice on the first movie so i will review this one better so MLP Rainbow Rocks lets review!!Story & Setting- So we start of this movie with the main villains The Dazzlings in a café causing chaos and feeding of the negative emotions as they see a rainbow light destroy Sunset Shimmer in her demon form and claim this to be Equestrian Magic.. we begin the story as the mane 5 are preparing for the for the Musical Showcase and Sunset Shimmer is now a reformed person as this is going on Sunset has to heal her past mistakes until strange new students arrive (The Dazzlings) and the showcase becomes a Battle of the Bands... and so it beings... also 6 moons have past since the last film.Characters- So the main character is Sunset Shimmer as i said before she is on the path to healing her past mistakes. In the second film, Sunset Shimmer appears to have completely changed from her old self and started believing in friendship, becoming friends with her former enemies, even Twilight Sparkle, and friendly toward others. She also appears deeply repentant for her actions made at the end of the first film, referring to her transformed into "raging she-demon." However, she suffers from a lack of confidence, keeping silent in situations she feels it isn't her place to speak up and falling prey to The Dazzlings taunting. During the final battle, she finally overcomes her insecurities and joins the Rainbooms in defeating the Dazzlings, gaining a half pony form in the process. At the end of Rainbow Rocks, Sunset starts writing friendship reports to Princess Twilight using the book she once used to communicate with Princess Celestia. To me anyway she is a very relatable character and although this she has a lingering side story that she sat through out the sidelines of the story until at the very end play an active role.The Mane 6- As Twilight returned to the human world to help her friends defeat the Dazzlings which is later found out that they are power hungry sirens. The Mane 5 greet Twilight and admire her efforts helping them as they expect so much form her meanwhile its the opposite for Sunset. Also has lots arguments bout priorities in the band like clothing,music etc which causes a brief rift between them.Animation & Sound- So the animation is light-years better than the first movie as colours are brighter and stand out more with in contrast with background this is seen when Sunset and Twilight have a conversation during the night were they have a reconciliation. this break form the action slows down the tempo and is very relaxing scene with a cameo of Maud Pie of course.The Soundtrack is amazing hands down brilliant, Daniel Ingrams's work is amazing, songs like Rainbow Rocks, Better Than Ever, Under Our Spell, Shine Like Rainbows just to name a few. in other words these songs are amazing and didn't feel forced like the first movie excluding the Cafetria Song of course.The Villains- The villains are known as the Dazzlings a singing group of sirens with there goal of making humanity there slave. Adagio Dazzle is shown to be scheming, manipulative, and only concerned with being adored by others also she is the leader. Sonata Dusk is shown to be somewhat air-headed and carefree, similar to Pinkie Pie. Aria Blaze is portrayed as being more level-headed than her companion Sonata Dusk and often speaks in a rather bored disposition and she is the other one.Conclusion/Final Thoughts- i love this film its better paced and generally better also Brad (Flash Sentry) is this movie and he has less of a part int this film. all in all the movie is awesome and holds ground because of Sunset Shimmer, the Songs etc..so better and more awesome. i cant wait for the 3rd film and the future if this series. i give this a rating of 7.9/10.. lets hope that the 3rd film wont disappoint
... View MoreThere were two things I did not like about the previous "EQUESTRIA GIRLS" movie. First was the shallow theme that fantastic musical talent wins you friends. In the last movie, instead of showing Twilight winning over the hearts and minds of her school mates through her honesty, sincerity and helpfulness, she wins them over through the magic of song and dance. Next is the tons of wasted potential to tell a much deeper or more mature story that one couldn't show in the regular MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC series. Instead of that we get unnecessary musical numbers. RAINBOW ROCKS takes a dive off the deep end and make the music the central driving force behind the whole plot. Surprisingly, it works. And what we have is a decent musical movie that works around music to deliver the morals and themes that the franchise should have from the get go.As Canterlot High prepares for its annual talent showcase, three mysterious girls with mind controlling voices turn the showcase into a "Battle of the Bands". Their sinister songs bring out bitter rivalries between the bands, negative emotions which the girls seem to feed on and grow more powerful. Only the 5 main characters, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and AppleJack are unaffected by the spell due to their contact with Equestrian magic. Also unaffected is a reformed Sunset Shimmer, the antagonist from the previous movie. In an interesting reflection of the original 1986 MY LITTLE PONY cartoon, Twilight Sparkle takes on the "friend from another world" role that Megan had in that series. Only this time, it is a magical pony who travels to the human world to help solve her human counterparts problems. So in comes Twilight who soon realises that trouble is brewing from within. The gang ain't getting along due to conflicts of interest, egos and generally familiar problems that tend to crop up in any group of pals. Thankfully, the day is not saved once again through a song and dance routine but through some actual character development and harsh lessons.Generally the writing is an improvement over the lackluster first entry of EQUESTRIA GIRLS. There are good lessons to be learned from the way the group dynamics of our main characters grow and mature. The bottom line is that RAINBOW ROCKS keeps the conflicts real. The characters go through real problems that real people face everyday, solving them like real people and in doing so makes those characters all the more relatable. Most intriguing is Sunset Shimmer and her journey towards redemption in the eyes of her peers. Now the black sheep of the school, Sunset's character arc of regaining the respect and trust of her friends can get quite heart wrenching when you see how hard she tries and still people remember only her bad deeds of the past. This is a very real problem that youngsters face. Just as real is Twilight Sparkle's dilemma of being the designated "hero" and cracking under the pressure to live up to everyone's sky high expectations."Sky High" also describes the production quality on this. RAINBOW ROCKS earns its status as a "movie" by showcasing a tremendous leap in terms of animation quality from anything seen in the TV series. The production team experiments with bolder shot set ups and action scenes and more detail in the art. Just look at the way the shadows from the refrigerator plays off Twilight and Sunset during a night scene in the kitchen! It is beautiful!. Designs have been tweaked slightly, making the humans look less uncanny. The characters facial expressions are the definite highlight here; dynamic, perfectly drawn, and covering a wide range of emotions that are complimented with some of the finest voice acting in modern animation.Of course, we have the songs. Expertly written and composed by Daniel Ingram, the songs are catchy and fun. As usual, one could compare them to the best of Disney musicals but with a more modern spin. Think of it as a fantasy styled retelling of Glee with a bit more depth. Moving into more mature storytelling seems to be the way to go, and a way that works well for the Equestria Girls franchise.
... View MoreRainbow Rocks is the sequel that fixed everything wrong with the first one and made it better. Those who think humanized ponies is a bad concept need to watch this immediately.Probably one of the biggest improvements was the pacing. The editing doesn't feel frantic and many scenes are deliberate and slow. I especially loved how many of the shots focused on Sunset Shimmer. The entire movie feels more tightly-knit even though it does suffer from rushing in a few moments. The villains also felt more dynamic and had personalities that emphasized the theme of the movie. Songs were also good.But the best part of the movie was Sunset Shimmer, hands down. Sunset takes on a new persona that the show really needs to focus on. In fact, this movie is better than the season 4 finale in that regard since Twilight actually teaches Sunset the value of friendship--Twilight's element of harmony. The key scene in the film was Sunset and Twilight just talking to each other and noting their ironically parallel relationship. Sunset was the spotlight of the movie and really played up the role of the misunderstood friend. Her facial expressions and tentative movements vividly depict her reformation in a way that outshines Discord's by a long shot. I really hope the new spin-off focuses more on Sunset than Twilight.Other things of note. Unicorn horse was random. Lyra x Bon Bon canon. Drinking game: drink if you want to give Sunset a hug. Villains were somewhat sexy. Octavia has a voice! Rebecca Shoichet sang with herself in "Welcome to the Show" (Sunset with Twilight). Pandas were definitely thrown. Flash Sentry is useless, again.Overall, 10/10. Excited for spin-off, even more so than season 5.
... View MoreAfter seeing Equestria Girls I had no desire to see another humanized ponies movie. But the teasers actually made me curious. Because there is actually more a theme present in this movie. The theme, music, is very well up to MLP; FiM standards as we know this song for having music that is better than most series. The music is a bit different from the series in exploring more pop genres. Aaaand, we now have a set of villains that are way more interesting than we had in Equestria Girls. The villains actually have separate characters and a history that old school bronies will find interesting. The story was also more interesting and riddled with Easter eggs. The end battle runs circles around the end battle of the former movie. Finally no simple deus ex machina. Do not see this movie expecting the level of the series, because of course these characters and story telling and cartoon style still works way better with ponies than with these doll like humans. Expecting ponies will be quite disappointing. They should have used ponies, they didn't. Tough break. But for simply a color full animation for the whole family it is a fine movie. Watch out for the risk of having the songs stuck in your head after wards. They're quite catchy.
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