My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks

There 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.

I enjoyed the first movie, sure it was a bit cliche, but still thanks to it's fantasy-high school mix, it became more than that and managed to entertain me and other fans around the globe. So obviously, Hasbro would make not 1, but 3 sequels, each having a different theme. This one is about music and battles!

Some time after the first movie, the group of 3 sirens notice that there's Equestria magic, since it's exactly what they wanted, the trio decided to step in and try to get it. Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer from the last movie tries to redeem herself, but outside of the mane 5, nobody would want to hang out. Later, when Sunset wanted to introduce Canterlot high to the Dazzlings (sirens), she noticed that they were after the magic and to get, they have to make everyone go against each other. So, Twilight Sparkle has to go back to the human world, create a song spell and banish the sirens. The plot is a big improvement over the first movie, since it has 2 things, that make the experience worthwhile. First the songs, they were upbeat and fun! Each one has a memorable melody and lyrics, except the spell song, but that one was intended to be bad! I especially love Shake your tail from Rainbooms and Under your spell from Dazzlings. They are different, since the latter one comes from the villains, and it sounds more evil in general, but I like how distinctive they are. Even Trixie got a song, but sadly, we barely heard it, because of Rainbooms arguing scene. But luckily, it's available online separately. And I especially loved the Welcome to the show song, which is a final battle scene between Rainbooms and Dazzlings. And the first time both would be face to face with each other. Speaking of the sirens, they are actually my favorite villains of the whole MLP Franchise. It consists of Adagio Dazzle, the leader who wants the power so bad, Aria Blaze, the more sarcastic type, and Sonata Dusk that is barely evil and rather eat tacos and have fun than taking goals seriously. All of them are surprisingly interesting, and I especially love their singing skills. The mane 7 characters still remain the same, except for Sunset. She used to be the meanest student, but now changed a lot, and wants everyone to see the good side of hers. I like how she progressed, thus making her seem real and relatable to some people. Yes, she did a lot of mistakes in the past, but we see that everyone can learn from their mistakes and start a new life. She's extremely different from her past self, and I'm proud of this decision of both the character and the writers.

The story is mostly focused on the battle of the bands and trying to stop the villains from making everyone angry! Sure, still cliche, but even if that, it's at least more creative with the new music theming and even more mythology. The jokes aren't the strongest part of it, but it has moments, like Sonata just wanting to celebrate Taco Tuesday or when Maud pie (Pinkie's sister) would feed her pet rock. Lastly, the animation got better as well. I love the new costumes, since they are neon rainbow themed, and I noticed that the animation is more fluid since last time. Not to mention, they even added more background characters, like Photo Finish, Lyra and Bon bon, Derpy, Bulk Biceps, Octavia and even Cloud Kicker. This proves that Hasbro also cares about the fans who watch both the show and the movies, so they would add some fan favorites!

This is honestly a great follow up to the first film, thanks to it's improved animation, more great friends and foes, amazing songs and a more entertaining plot. Definitely a must watch for Equestria girls and My little pony fans. Even if you never watched the first movie, you'd still like this one, but only of you either liked MLP or at least fine with it. Haters wouldn't like much though, maybe for the exception of the Dazzlings, cause I believe they can make anyone fall in love with them. Still, I'm very impressed by it, especially the soundtrack!

After 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.

When my nieces wanted to watch a movie with me I of course gave them the option to pick any movie they wanted.

Little did I know they would pick My Little Pony:Equestria Girls- Rainbow Rocks.

Without knowing much story-line and character wise I had nothing to lose I was just being the good uncle.

Anyway the movie turn out to be quite interesting. What makes the movie works is the story and the soundtrack is the strongest point of the film

The Animation is original and actually has some well done art work to it with cool effects. The Voice acting is very good along.There is a good percent of humor to be found in this movie but they focus the story on more important details such as character development

What drives the movie home is the music, the movie features original songs each one have their own special magic to them my nieces and I favorite songs feature in the movie were "Under our spell" "Welcome to the show" and "Let's have a battle of the bands"

Overall the film has good entertainment and the fans of My little Pony will enjoy it very much plus its good for the kids

I give My Little Pony: Equestria Girls-Rainbow Rocks an 8 out of 10

The music is toe-tapping, catchy and fun to listen to, the animation is an improvement over the last film and as is usual with MLP, the voice acting is superb. It does feel like something is missing, though. It's not a bad movie by any means. I've watched it a couple times and found it to be entertaining both times. Be that is it may, I feel like "Friendship is Magic" has this certain charm and Rainbow Rocks just isn't able to emulate that charm.... maybe it's not trying to, though. Maybe it's trying to be its own thing.

I enjoyed it more than the first movie but there's still a lot of room for improvement if they continue this film series. I'd give it watch.