That being said, you won’t find any animosity toward High School Land<\/a> here; I got my start on the franchise with\u00a0Equestria Girls, and I’ve been all kinds of stoked since Rainbow Rocks got announced as the sequel. Well, it’s arrived on Blu-Ray, and what with this being my 42nd showing of the film, I figured that I might as well review it.<\/p>\n Quick\u00a0note: Watching the first film is really non-optional here, and the sequel doesn’t really waste any time to catch you up, barring a quick mini-recap in the title sequence. Equestria Girls is like an hour long, and between Netflix<\/a>, $3-5 online options (iTunes<\/a>, Google Play<\/a>, Amazon<\/a>, etc.), Blu-Ray<\/a>, or even\u00a0just googlin’ for “Yay Ponies”, you can probably find a copy pretty trivially. I’d recommend the Blu-Ray because, well, I like quality.<\/p>\n Sooo quick recap anyway: After the coolest looking pony ever<\/a>\u00a0tries (and fails, quite miserably) to gain all-consuming power from Purple Smart<\/a>‘s magical element of\u00a0universal TV remotes<\/a>, the newly appointed princess hands our antagonist an\u00a0ultimatum: learn to make friends, or die alone (no, seriously). Given the franchise’s subtitle<\/a>, you can probably guess the route\u00a0she went with.<\/p>\n At the same time (like, the exact same time<\/a>), three girls with magical singing\u00a0instigator powers<\/em> lament the lack of real magic in the world that came with their new disposable thumbs. Upon seeing the rainbow hax0r spam that ended the last film, however, they decide to enact a plan to\u00a0conquer the\u00a0horse riding-themed school\u00a0with music<\/em>.<\/p>\n Oh yeah, and (minor spoiler<\/strong> of around\u00a0the 7 minute mark ‘n 3rd sneak peak<\/a>) apparently the entirety of the main cast goes all equine when they play a set.<\/p>\n Equestria Girls<\/em> had its fair share of issues. It was clear that DHX wasn’t really capable of animating bipeds with the same level of experience they had on multicolored\u00a0midget mares, and they burned through like half the story on effectively\u00a0rebuilding a world and relationships that the fanbase already had nearly three years of familiarity with.<\/p>\n But where it shined\u00a0was the music<\/strong>. Everything from “the cafeteria song”<\/a>\u00a0 to the opening theme remix<\/a>\u00a0(which, 91 episodes in, I’ve probably heard more than the actual<\/strong>\u00a0theme, which I have an instinctual habit of skipping each time) is catchy and all but physically addictive to listen to.\u00a0Daniel Ingram<\/a>\u00a0has accounted for more\u00a0iTunes purchases on my part than I’m comfortable with disclosing.<\/p>\n Well, for the Non-Pony Pony Sequel, corporate decided to flat-out double down<\/em> on this concept. The entire film<\/strong>,\u00a0beginning to end, is less musically focused and more musically ingrained<\/em>.\u00a0In the first film,\u00a0Rebecca Shoichet<\/a>, the voice you hear every time Twilight starts singing<\/a>, played Sunset Shimmer, the lead villain. Seemingly in the desire to make this a running theme,\u00a0Kazumi Evans<\/a>, who you’ve probably heard singing as\u00a0Rarara<\/a> ‘n Best Princess<\/a>, enters the villain fold as Adagio Dazzle<\/a>, the cornerstone of the Terrible Trio<\/a>\u00a0our moxy bunch of technicolor bipeds has to out-music inside of three acts.<\/p>\n She might\u00a0wanna look into a career in logistics, because Kazumi straight-up<\/strong> delivers<\/strong>\u00a0as the ambitious and\u00a0frustrated Dazzle, and her experience as a songstress lends a convincing amount of vocal range and Depth to Adagio’s voice that perfectly complements\u00a0DHX’s gorgeous visual presentation (more on that later).\u00a0If Shimmer was just really mean<\/strong>, Dazzle is manipulative, condescending, and unapologetically\u00a0ruthless<\/b>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Dazzlings are rounded out by\u00a0Maryke Hendrickse, who does the lovably dumb Sonata Dusk, and\u00a0Diana Kaarina handling the reins of the mean and ever-so-slightly starscream-ish<\/a> Aria Blaze. They do a great job with\u00a0the bumbling\u00a0henchgirls motif. I wouldn’t mind seeing Maryke arrive in the film’s source material next season, and I’d really love to see\u00a0Diana land outside of the Barbiesphere<\/em> as far as her voiceagraphy is concerned.<\/p>\n [gfycat data_id=”IllLeadingAlpineroadguidetigerbeetle” data_autoplay=true data_controls=false] Complimenting the voice work comes some much-appreciated improvements to DHX’s production pipeline, including some fantastic lighting effects and, a first for this spin-off, actual pelvic bones<\/em>. While the brunt of the cast is still saddled with skirts that obfuscate some rather indeterminate physiology, it’s now clearly a stylistic choice rather than a budgetary one, and their advancements\u00a0arrive\u00a0in full force for nearly all of the villain troupe’s dance numbers.<\/p>\n [gfycat data_id=”ConfusedAggressiveGreatdane” data_autoplay=true data_controls=false]<\/p>\n It makes them\u00a0convincingly\u00a0seductive (especially\u00a0given their mythological origins<\/a>) without making them\u00a0inappropriately<\/i>\u00a0so (I mean, it\u00a0is<\/em> a kid’s film).<\/p>\n Leading us back into this site’s topical basis (e.g. an addiction to valiant female protagonists) is Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Rocks<\/em>‘s\u00a0redemption arc vehicle. What seemed like a simple apology at the tail end of the last film turns into a character that really, truly, wants to become a good person. Unfortunately, while she got the “good person” part downpact 30 seconds in past the intro song, she’s\u00a0got about\u00a03 years’ worth of animosity from being “measurably less than a good person” to work through.\u00a0Even Purple doesn’t trust the very girl she fixed<\/em> at first glance, but comes to accept\u00a0over the course of the narrative\u00a0that she’s really trying<\/em>.<\/p>\n [gfycat data_id=”AccomplishedCostlyDarwinsfox” data_autoplay=true data_controls=false] It’s this that ascends the film from a nice musical to a great animated film. <\/em>The Equestria Girls <\/em>franchise is an adaptation of a show about friendship, and the problem with its source material’s episodic format is that, due to the need to teach the prime demographic a lesson about this theme, the characters usually aren’t actually very good friends…\u00a0<\/em>until about\u00a0the 25 minute mark, shortly before the “Dear Princess Celestia” narration capper kicks in and the credits roll. That issue makes its way into the prime point of contention in both<\/strong> of the films, and they’d make for crummy remakes\u00a0of one another if not for Shimmer.<\/p>\n Shimmer isn’t here to learn about being a good friend. What she is<\/strong> here to do, from the moment she steps into the gymnasium at the outset, to the climactic turning point in the film,\u00a0is to learn how to understand friendship as a concept<\/em>. As someone who spent her life as a deliberate outsider to closely-knit social circles, she has to learn\u00a0how her friends’ existing (and normally very strong) bonds between one another can falter (a goal that the film’s villains are effectively designed, at the very core of their being<\/strong>, to work toward), and help rebuild those bonds<\/em>.\u00a0It’s effectively a journey to ascend from simply being nice to people<\/em>\u00a0to becoming an inspiration for others<\/em>. To this end, the\u00a0Dazzlings provide a nearly perfect contrast to Shimmer’s journey.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n One interesting point about Equestria Girls: there’s a few songs spattered throughout the film, and they’re all vocal pop pieces. As anyone who’s seen a Disney film in the last decade (or twelve) however, what you might have also noticed is that none of them are “suspension of disbelief”-breaking<\/em>. That is to say, at no point do characters break out of normal conversation and into song with no discernible rhyme or reason. All but one of the songs throughout the film are brought in as soundtrack pieces<\/strong> (that is to say, nobody on-screen is singing them), and the one musical dance number from within the film’s story itself was clearly planned and rehearsed the day before as a part o the narrative<\/em>. It’s a level of musical realism you really don’t get in animated films with this many plot-focused vocal tracks.<\/p>\n Rainbow Rocks basically turns that concept up to 11. Barring the opening and credit sequences, every song in the film is story-driven and in-world. The main point of conflict in the film is a “Battle of the Bands” that the school’s administration and student body have been hypnotized into participating in, and due to the villain’s magical capabilities, that event is set into motion via song<\/a>. Following that, every song in the film, even ones that are used as montages, are sung as part of that competition<\/em>.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed all of the last film’s songs that featured\u00a0our main six heroines, and if you can let yourself be temporarily dazzled by the dulcet tones of their new antagonists, you’ll have yourself a good time with Rainbow Rocks<\/em>.<\/p>\n I’d go into more, but for everything I omitted here, you’ll know whether your want to be a part of if you enjoyed the first\u00a0movie. There’s a metric ton of references to the show, the cameos are all awesome (I made double-sure not to spoil one up there), and you’re all but guaranteed to let out your geekiest “Squee!!!” during the post-credits sequence. Which, by, the way, is probably worth the price of admission in and of itself if you already saw the Discovery Family<\/em> airing.<\/p>\n If this review sounds more like a love letter to the film than a critical analysis, that’s probably about on-point with how I feel about it. I loved every minute of this film, I’ll probably\u00a0spend the day this review goes up eyeing my porch window for the postal worker to drop off my boxed copy, and while I’m not at all adverse to writing way too many words for a 72-minute children’s movie, I humbly admit that I will never have the amazing, show-stopping ability of the Great and Powerful TRIXIE<\/strong>!<\/em><\/p>\n [gfycat data_id=”JubilantUnsungGrouse” data_autoplay=true data_controls=false] Rainbow Rocks [gfycat data_id=”FinishedThickKoodoo” data_autoplay=true data_controls=false] The Non-Pony Pony Movie, Redux Hasbro Studio’s Equestria Girls seems to be a somewhat… divisive animated film (well, at least amongst its periphery demographic), mostly because even though it’s based on a TV show about cartoon horsies, everyone in it has five fingers and looks like they came straight … Continue reading The Addicted to Heroine Rainbow Rocks Review<\/span> My Little\u00a0Premise<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Friendship is Magic, but Singing is Evil<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>
\nAnd what you would<\/strong> have said if you weren't the worst<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n“The Real Heroine”, or, “Ironic First Name”<\/h2>\n
And the music brings us to the top<\/h2>\n
And then all the other stuff<\/h2>\n
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