"Double Rainboom"

So, after over a year of waiting, here it is: "Double Rainboom."

I've been really, really, REALLY excited for this ever since it was announced. After all the setbacks and delays, when yesterday rolled around I was jumping out of my seat with joy. When the episode finally premiered I was grinning like an idiot.

For about three minutes. By the end of the half-hour, I was frowning.

I really, really, REALLY wanted to like "Double Rainboom." But it just fell flat for me.

BEWARE: SPOILERS BEGIN BELOW.

Here's my final take:

Story: 7 / 10

"Double Rainboom" has an interesting premise. I'll give it that. However, the crossover with The Powerpuff Girls about halfway through came so far out of left field, dragged on for too long, and did nothing to advance the plot to the point that the whole thing felt unnecessary and came off as padding to fill time. Believe me, I love, love, LOVE The Powerpuff Girls, but they had no place in this story, which was supposed to be a My Little Pony episode, not a (bad) animated crossover fanfiction.

Writing: 6 / 10

A lot of the dialogue was just cringeworthy, and felt forced and out-of-character. After Rainbow Dash drinks the talent enhancer potion that Twilight has spent years and years and yearsandyearsandyears developing, she doesn't get mad. She gets sad, weepy, and helpless, sobbing on for a good minute about Rainbow Dash's wellbeing. In turn, Rainbow Dash sheds all of her loyalty to Twilight by drinking the potion in the first place even after being told to keep her hooves off of it. Rainbow has never struck me as the impulsive type--that honor goes more to Pinkie Pie, if you ask me--and she knew damn well to keep her hooves off of the cake in "MMMMystery on the Friendship Express" because of all the hard work that was put into it.

I don't want to rant here, but I also feel that I have to bring up all the references, memes, and fanservice. Some of it was cute--Bloo's from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends cameo appearance right at the end got a chuckle from me, as did the scenes with Derpy and Scootaloo, but the trollface in the smoke cloud, the Domo face in the moon, the WeLoveFine logo in a shop window (really?), and a bunch of other stuff felt forced, "in-your-face," and consequently unwelcome. Just like too many cooks spoil the soup, too many references spoil the story.

Oh, and Pinkie breaking the fourth wall by going through Adobe Flash and using a portal between cartoon universes to get Rainbow Dash back from Townsville? NO. It's cute when she temporarily stops the iris-out at the end of an episode on occasion, but her knowing constantly throughout the episode that she's a cartoon character was kinda jarring.

Like I said earlier, this was supposed to be like a real episode of My Little Pony, but felt like a washed-out crossover fanfiction with an accompanying animation.

Voice Acting: 5 / 10

While obviously I was never expecting exact impressions of the characters, none of the voices (save for Bubbles', which was actually spot-on) came even remotely close to the true voices of the characters. It just felt like the voice actors weren't given enough direction, and a lot of the "emotion" felt syrupy and artificial. I found it painful to listen to at times.

Animation: 8 / 10

This is where "Double Rainboom" really shines. It was very professionally done. While a bit "jerky," rough, and unpolished, there were few real errors, though some of the reaction shots went on for a bit too long. I feel that the production team focused almost completely on the animation, leaving the other elements of the episode to languish unfinished on the back burner. In the beginning of the episode, for example, it felt the animation crew was purposely trying to show off "how good they were at animation" by seeing how many dumb faces they could get all of the characters to make.

OVERALL: 26 / 40, or 6.5 / 10

I'm seriously disappointed.

Now a quick addendum. Given all the negativity people who post even slightly negative reviews of "Double Rainboom" have been getting, let me clear up three things that a lot of people have been using to defend the episode from criticism:

1. "Double Rainboom" was a fanmade work, after all, so your "high expectations" were unrealistic.

In response to this, I feel that, no, my high expectations were justified. It's the crew's own fault to some extent, really. They did, after all, hype "Double Rainboom" up to be "show-quality" and "as good as a real episode of the show." As such, a lot of people, including me, were expecting really great things, and a final product that could actually pass for a show episode. But, let's be honest, the real show is very unlikely to make like a fanfiction and cross over with The Powerpuff Girls, just for starters.

2. You can't criticize "Double Rainboom" until you make your own, better, fan episode.

Do I need to be a five-star chef to tell bad food when I taste it? I think not. How many film critics do you know, after all, who are Academy-award-winning directors?

And what of those people in the community that review real episodes of the show? Are they not allowed to do so because they don't have experience in the field themselves?

I'm perfectly within my right to state my opinion on something the creators posted for public viewing, and I'm no less credible just because I myself haven't done work in the field--though that's not even totally true because I do have a bit of experience animating in Flash.

3. The crew put in over a year on "Double Rainboom," so they deserve nothing but praise for all their hard work.

...

That's like saying that if something costs more, it's of higher quality. It doesn't matter how long someone spends on something, it can still be bad and they can still be criticized.

/RANT

And now back to your regularly scheduled pony fiction.

Comments

[FlutterFan93]

Here are my problems with it:

1. Rainbow being out of character
2. The dresses Rarity makes while being under the effect of the potion (Speak of unoriginality)
3. First Twilight says she doesn't know what it is, but after 1 or sentences she suddenly knows it
4. Pointless references like the aforementioned dresses, the troll face, Scootaloo the chicken, Back to the Future etc.
5. The pointless crossover with the Powerpuff Girls
6. Them being jerks
7. Pinkie Ex Machina
8. Pinkie's unlogical explanation on how she found RD
9. Rainbow Dash being too lazy to help rebuild what she destroyed
10. Wrong lesson learned

The animation was beautiful, the writing was crap