*1 week has passed and Nitsuj is back in the courtroom*
(Bailiff): The case of Bronies vs Nitsuj of Project Nitsuj will now continue.
(Sopa): Welcome back Mr. Nitsuj. I trust that you are ready to continue the trial.
(Nitsuj): Yes your honor. I had plenty of time to watch the movie and I believe that my review will show that I not a simple-minded hater.
(Sopa): Good to hear. You may begin.
(Nitsuj): After the success of the first movie and a successful fourth season Hasbro wanted to create another movie to tide people over until season 5 and sell more of their products. The result was another Equestia Girls movie titled Rainbow Rocks. Coming out in 2014 this movie brings back the Equestia Girls and serves as a direct sequel to the first movie with some actually saying this movie is better than the first movie. Is that really the case? Let’s take a look at Rainbow Rocks.
The movie starts with us meeting the villains this time around the Dazzlings, sirens who were exiled from Equestia and placed in the alternate dimension (please stop sending your problems to another dimension Equestia). The sirens are Adaigo (the leader), Aria (the one with attitude), and Sonata (the dumb one). While you would think they would get along with each other in truth they really can’t stand each other (scene here: https://youtu.be/ifkdJAj6wxo). After that scene we go to the school the next day (I assume a few months have passed since the first movie) where everyone is preparing for the big music festival where the human versions of the rockin’ 6 (Plaintiff: Your honor he’s doing it again) are gonna be participating in the battle of the bands under the band name Rainbooms (oh come on you could do better. Why not call them AR/FPR, Pony, Ponysmith, or my favorite The Bronies). We see that everyone still keeps their distance from Sunset Shimmer even though she’s reformed and seems to be trying to get along with everyone (oh come on guys. Sure she ruled your school with an iron fist, used fear tactics to intimidate you, did a bunch of other mean things, turned friends on each other, turned into a horrible rip-off of the Gargoyles, destroyed a portion of the school, and tried to brainwash you just so she could take over another world but I think she’s reflected on her actions and now wants to make friends. Hmm~, when you say it out loud giving her the cold shoulder actually does seem understandable). Lucky for her the Rainbooms (Plaintiff: You say that correctly but you won’t say mane 6? Alright I get it) are in her corner and have forgiven her (and that’s saying something considering that she ruined their friendship and tried to kill them) saying that her little stunt actually bought the school closer together (no it didn’t. A talking princess pony did that. Because she had the guts to do and say what should have been said long ago). This leads us to our first song of the movie “Better Than Ever” where we see that they learned their lesson from the last movie and have the characters sing all the songs this time (scene here: https://youtu.be/7347bXKN5l8, yep they still have their Equestia powers that turns them into animal girls. I’m sure this is a turn on for some of you and a turn off for others). After the song we see that Rainbow Dash is being a little stuck up saying how it’s her band and seems to want to keep the attention on her (and their already doing the band clichés). Sunset Shimmer than goes to meet the new transfer students who are the Dazzlings (they’ll dazzle the night away. Sorry, I just wanted to get that out of my system. Scene here: https://youtu.be/ypVyV67E4Co). After showing them around the school the Dazzlings begin their plan to feed off the negativity of the students to make themselves stronger so that they can (you guessed it) take over the world https://youtu.be/1W7c8QghPxk) leads to the first song sung by The Dazzlings “Battle” which I have to admit has a pretty good message which needs to be heard in our overprotective society (scene here: https://youtu.be/Hxq43fuvOI4. Now here’s what I’m getting from this song. No one is the same. There’s gonna be something your good at and something your bad at and chances are what you’re bad at someone is good at it. I’m okay with that. I can’t be good at everything, I’m not perfect. Don’t be afraid to shine brighter than everyone or a little competition. For those of you who don’t know I actually coach a youth basketball team during the winter. I’m taking a break this year, little busy with my job and searching for a new one. I remember this one year I coached a very good kid who had amazing skills for his age. He was tall, aggressive, powerful, had decent ball skills, and could shoot very well. He was always dominating in every game scoring the highest points and getting the most rebounds. On numerous occasions the refs for each game would tell me to keep him in check from being too aggressive out there and scoring too many baskets. Basically tell him to hold back. That’s not right. When I was kid and you excelled at something you were encouraged to never hold back. Today, because we live in a sensitive society where we want everyone treated equally in everything we’re unknowingly holding back those who excel at something. Look, I get it. We want everyone to feel that they can be good at something but at the same time I don’t think it’s fair to hold back someone who’s a little better than the other kids at something. A little competition is good for you as it gives you a goal to strive for and even if you fail the first time get up and try again and if you are better at something than everybody else be a good sportsman. Don’t rub it in their face and have a good attitude about it).
So this event makes Sunset Shimmer and the others see that the Dazzlings are trouble so they decide to go to Celestia in the hopes to expel them from the school (yeah the last thing she needs is another school event being ruined by some magical creatures from another dimension. There’s only so many times you can pay off the local news station and newspaper). But it’s too late (as always), the Dazzlings have gotten to Celestia and Luna and have now turned the music festival into a battle of the bands putting student against student just like the Dazzlings wanted. The Rainbooms and Sunset Shimmer realize they’re gonna need help to defeat the Dazzlings so they send a message to Twilight in Equestia to alert her about the situation (and yes, I’m not feeling Twilight’s new library either but give it time. Scene here: //youtu.be/m-Ds6oRAbWs?t=8s). From reading the message Twilight quickly comes to the conclusions that the Dazzlings are the sirens and makes a portal (I am convinced that Twilight is the MacGyver of this series) to return to Canterlot High with Spike at her side (scene here: //youtu.be/nDyK6AJ-r1k). After catching up with each other they go to the school gym where there’s a party for all the bands participating in the battle where Twilight runs into Flash and we see they’re still in the awkward talking phase of their relationship (oh for the love of God have you learn nothing yet Meghan?). That and the school has become separated once again. Once the spice 6 (Plaintiff: That’s it! I’m kicking your ass! *Bailiff stops the plaintiff and tries to calm him down*No! This guy’s messing with me and he’s enjoying it. (Bailiff): Outside man go cool off. Come on keep walking *Plaintiff leaves the courtroom to cool off*) see the Dazzlings they try to use their powers but they don’t activate. Sunset Shimmers figures out that the only way to beat them is to fight music with music (music must defeat music) meaning Twilight has to make a counter spell song (but enough about that let’s have a slumber party. Scene here: //youtu.be/cSfLZtTyImE. 2:50: I still can’t get over the fact that the VA of Twilight is the same person who voiced Raven from Teen Titans. It’s just. . .weird). The next day they test out Twilight’s counter spell which doesn’t go as well as they would of hope (scene here: //youtu.be/Wkl-71UPs-4). Twilight seems to have hit a bump in the road as she has no idea what to do, is too embarrassed to ask for help, and the competition is about to start in 15 minutes. They decide to compete in the contest for real and make it all the way to the finals where they’ll unleash the counter spell then and take the Dazzlings out (no pleasure).
The contest begins with the first competitors Snips and Snails (scene here: https://youtu.be/oEqvMWQv6bg, well that just happened. Also fun fact about this scene. This was genuine freestyle from the VAs of Snips and Snails. They weren’t reading any script lines. This was all them and their glory). Next up is the Rainbooms who sing a reprise of “Shake Your Tail” with everyone trying to ruin them (scene here: //youtu.be/rWlgVNH3tGk that could have gone better). They start to turn on each other but Sunset Shimmer gets them back on track and tells them to go practice some more while she keeps an eye on the competition and does a bitch confrontation with the Dazzlings (scene here: https://youtu.be/wwuUp8B_HhM, they’re good). We also see Twilight run into Flash who has become a prick (scene here: //youtu.be/qPgDOo4x-aI, well at least we added some personality. Too bad he’s a prick who I want punch for making Twilight). After their confrontations the Dazzlings take the stage with their newest song “Under Our Spell” (a good homage to “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”. Scene here: //youtu.be/jw3vWWu2_CM, gotta love how they just flat out tell everyone what’s going on and that they’re winning). The Rainbooms manage to reach the semifinals where they have to defeat the great and powerful Trixie~ (and her song which is my favorite song in the movie. I mean it, I like this song a lot. Yes, the song is her stroking her own ego but at the same time you got to give her props for her having so much confidence in herself. She believes she’s the best and wants everyone to know it. Throughout the whole song she’s in your face letting you know you don’t stand a chance against her and if you get in her way you’re going down. Song here: //youtu.be/aOEKu8L5UqQ). In order to beat her they sing Rainbow Dash’s song “Awesome As I Wanna Be” (oh, the VA is trying earn more money on her paycheck. Scene here: //youtu.be/EmNda3edxbU). Despite this setback the Rainbooms manage to advance to the finals because the Dazzlings used their powers to manipulate Celestia and Luna which is odd because seconds later they convince Trixie to sabotage the Rainbooms so they can’t play in the finals (making that scene earlier totally pointless). As the girls are doing a practice on the stage Trixie opens up a trap door where they get stuck underneath and Trixie goes on in their place. Underneath the stage the girls begin to argue amongst themselves and Twilight begins to panic and shutdown because she still doesn’t have a counter spell to stop the Dazzlings (man you guys are boned big time). This causes their Equestia magic to be released and get absorb by the Dazzlings (oh so that was their plan. I underestimated them. I’m not gonna lie). The fighting and panicking stops when Sunset Shimmer (of all people) tells them to stop and that this isn’t how friends should be acting. She even helps Twilight by telling her it’s okay not to have all the answers and that she can rely on her friends to help her out when she doesn’t have them (there it is there’s the main flaw with this movie. Twilight not asking for help. If she didn’t know what to do and needed help she should have asked for it. She’s had 4 seasons to realize this lesson and yet in this movie she doesn’t use it. Why? It just seems so out of character for her). After they make up they get saved by Spike and DJ Pon-3 who escaped the Dazzlings curse because she never takes her headphones off (and even though she has no lines in this movie or the first movie somehow became popular just like Boba Fett after the original trilogy). They escape and the final confrontation begins with the two bands (scene here: //youtu.be/rjmsThcOGTQ). With their necklaces destroyed the Dazzlings sing completely off key and are now just ordinary harmless teenage girls (scene here: //youtu.be/70tWEr9QKdQ, who apparently can’t sing) and the curses on everyone is gone so now Flash isn’t a jerk anymore (oh great he got downgraded. Scene here: //youtu.be/QQ_GrWKUlWQ). So everything wraps up nicely, Sunset Shimmer becomes the new vocal and guitarist for the Rainbooms, Twilight and Spike return to Equestia, and they drop hints for a third movie (scene here: //youtu.be/J2n0-C9GBYE, oh you’ve no idea).
Final Thoughts
So that was Rainbow Rocks is it better than the first movie? Well yes and no. There are some good things about this movie but at the same time there are some bad things about it. Let’s start with the good. The Dazzlings, they’re definitely better villains than Sunset Shimmer. They’re pretty menacing and evil but they have their comedic moments where we see that they’re not to be taken too seriously. I do like how deep down they don’t like each other but put up with each other for the sake of getting power and their personalities do work off each other rather well. They got like a 3 Stooges/ Ed, Edd, n Eddy thing going on. Sunset Shimmer, I like how they give her screentime to show that she’s learned her lesson and really is trying to be friends with everyone. Her getting everyone back together and back on track was the right choice and even though she still has a lot to learn about friendship (which she admits) this definitely is a step in the right direction. There are even hints that she herself might have an element of harmony inside of her seeing as how she helped the group defeat the Dazzlings at the end. The animators seemed to have learned their lesson this time around and have gotten better with the facial expressions as well as keeping the characters from getting too close to each other. The story this time is also more engaging and interesting. In the first movie the creators weren’t sure if they wanted it to be a musical or just a regular episode. Here, it’s clear that the movie is a musical.
Now there are few problems with this movie. The problems mainly come in the form of the fantastic 6.They’re pretty much out of character in this movie. Rainbow Dash being full of herself and ignoring the opinions of her friends. It’s true Rainbow Dash has an ego but it’s never gotten this bad. Rarity being obsessed with her costumes instead of the song. That’s just flanderization right there. But the worst is Twilight who pretty much forgets everything she’s learned in the past 4 seasons and doesn’t ask the others for help when she knows they’ll be more than happy to help out. I just feel that she should have learned this lesson by now. Spike pretty much serves no purpose in this movie besides saving them at the end so his character really goes to waste here and the other characters are pretty basic and I really don’t like how they argued over something as petty as a band given their friendship with each other. As I said before the animation is good. Similar to last movies animation but they improved on the facial expressions. The songs are all good. I honestly liked all of them. While Trixie’s song may be my favorite the best songs have to go to the Dazzlings. Their three songs were hands down the best songs in the movie.
Final Score
The score for Rainbow Rocks is a 7/10. In the end it’s a lot more enjoyable to watch than the first movie as it has an idea of what it is and follows through with it. Is it better than the first movie? In my opinion yes but only by a short margin. The second movie did a better job with the villains, story, and songs but I think the first movie did a better job utilizing the characters and establishing the world they’re in. This was a good entry into the Equestia series and I look forward to what they have planned for the third movie.
(Plantiff): Which you will be reviewing next week.
(Nitsuj): Oh yeah about that. Your honor I have a strict rule that says I don’t review anything 2-3 months after it’s been aired. I like to give people a chance to watch and let it all sink.
(Sopa): Interesting. Bailiff when did the movie air?
(Bailiff): This past September your honor.
(Sopa): And next month 3 months will have technically passed. So the way I see it you’re going to be reviewing the third movie or for the six months you’ll be doing a full in-depth analyze on the whole show along with its predecessors.
(Nitsuj): Oh God no! I’ve heard the stories about the predecessors. Even fans hate watching them. Third movie it is your honor.
(Sopa): Very good. You all know the drill. Court dismissed for one week while you gather notes and if you try anything to harm any bronies I will literally throw a book at you and prosecute you to the full extent of the law. Court adjourned. Also, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there.
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