"Rainbow Roadtrip" Review

The mid-season hiatus had barely begun, and already we have a brief outlier, in the form of a 60-min Friendship Is Magic special, Rainbow Roadtrip. What's more, as you can tell from the above screenshot, this wasn't just a 'Best Gift Ever' situation, done as just a normal episode, but longer. No, it was done in the animation style used by the 2017 theatrical Movie, albeit on a TV budget and schedule. More on that later. But even beyond its length and style, there's another thing that marks this special as a clear outlier: it is the first time something in G4 hasn't being produced by DHX Media.

Instead, this special was produced by Boulder Media, an Irish animation studio (squee!) acquired by Hasbro in 2016 which has been producing almost exclusively Hasbro shows since 2018 (with the exception of Danger Mouse and the odd other outlier they were already working on before the acquisition that are still getting renewed). Now, the interesting this about this special is that it was initially planned as a second MLP movie, but that was scrapped when the 2017 movie, though well profitable, did not perform well enough and with the right momentum to justify another movie like that. As many of you know, Hasbro's accelerating plans for MLP Generation 5 to launch in 2021, with a new series and kicked off with a theatrical CG movie. Given all this meant that Boulder Media would soon be working full-time on Pony, as Hasbro was moving their productions in-house now, they decided it would be good to have them test the waters in producing something Pony for them, as a warm up for the new series and especially for that film. So, they dug up the scrapped movie concept, had a show writer script it to fit a 90-minute broadcast timeslot (though not the writer I'd have picked - more on that later), and a year and change later, here we are.
Apologies for all that, but it's not often something Pony related these days has interesting production history behind it, given they got producing it down to a science ages ago. And of course, as sad as I am to see the franchise leave the hands of the pros at DHX in Canada, I have to root at least somewhat for the home team, you know? But let's get back to all that later, and discuss the special itself.

...though special might be a bit of a misnomer. Honestly, take away the Movie's animation style and this being produced by a different company, and this has less to make it stand out then most Premieres and Finales. I have to imagine this never got beyond the outline stages as a theatrical movie, or was toned way down when written in this format, because in its current form, this is by a fair margin the most low-stakes, easygoing longer-then-a-single-episode content MLP has ever produced. Even compared to the two Premieres its plot echoes heavily enough, "The Crystal Empire" and "The Cutie Map", its stakes end up being lower, lacking not just a villain but even an antagonistic force.
There is one way in which this feels a part of the Movie that the show does not, in that this is a standalone story almost completely divorced from the show's current seasons. While the script does does contain references to both the School of Friendship, Rainbow Dash being a Wonderbolt and Rarity's fashion lines, in concept and plot, this feels just as designed to be newcomer friendly as that did. And this is not something I mind, in fact, I applaud it for some occasions - lord knows the show's insistence to remind us of the School among other concepts pretty much every episode the last few seasons yet do not anything with it doesn't help.

Premise-wise, the setup's simple enough: Rainbow Dash's been invited to be the Guest of Honour at the Rainbow Festival at Hope Hollow. After a brief appearance by Spike who's holding the fort down while they accompany her there (he has wings, so he wasn't excluded because of having to remodel his Movie rig, anyway), they're off on a balloon ride there. After a few minutes of dialogue shenanigans, they appear to be nearly there, but crash into a rainbow billboard, abandoning ship before the crash landing in the closest thing the special has to an action sequence.
In a sequence that has atmosphere, visually and tonally, more adventure and less gentle slice-of-life, they find the town deserted, being night by now, and upon meeting a peculiar Earth Pony named Petuina who handles much around the town, spend the night in the run-down hotel only decrepit room. Despite the hour, the noticed that the colour seemed to be drained out of everything (not fully greyscale, but very subdued, more so then when they lost their Cutie Marks anyway).

At this point, the episode abandons all mild pretences it seemed to have of being either an adventure story or a mild mystery. Next day, the Mane 6 find the whole town and its inhabitants grey and largely mopey and keeping to themselves. After Mayor Sunny Skies gives them a tour revealing every attraction that the brochure promised to be underwhelming, he admits the Rainbow Festival was abandoned long ago, but he issues the invitation to get help. In a song with lyrics that are basically speaking ones (not new territory for the show, for sure) that still works really well due to the imagery and colour palette standing out from the subdued colours otherwise present at this point in the story, he reveals that the town used to be full of colour, with the Rainbow Festival being a focal point for them. Over time, they slowly drifted apart, and his attempt to infuse the Festival's generator with more magic backfired, tipping them over to greyscale. With every attempt to fix the Festival and the town's colours failing, he hopes they'll help him. Being our heroes, though they'd considered leaving when they found out they were tricked, they of course vow to help.

The group splits up, with Twilight researching what went wrong with the magic while everyone else prepares parts of the festival with a citizen seen before they met the Mayor - Rainbow mentors two kids in awe of her to do stunts, Applejack helps the repair pony out, Pinkie and Fluttershy get an old couple and their grumpy neighbour to make amends and collaborate to produce good pies, and Rarity gives a timid fabric designer the confidence boost and help she needs. As these five do their thing, we the audience see colour gradually starting to return to everything, in a recurring visual motif that really stands out, given the script doesn't otherwise allow for many standout moments in the animation.
Meanwhile after uncovering more about the Festival's history and the generator with Petunia's help, Twilight gets it fixed and infused it with her own magic, but to no avail. Thinking she has failed where the others have succeeded, Applejack helpfully points out the fragments of fresh colour around. Twilight finally realises the generator breaking didn't cause the problem, but was only the tipping point - the town's colour is proportional to its citizens' mood. At this point, any slim chance of a secret villain being behind some of this truly fades, and it all wraps up simply enough, with Sunny proposing to Petunia, and concluding with a second song.

So, let's start with the obvious issue - this special is indecently long. Heck, it isn't even the 66-min broadcast requirements it should have been, the remaining 6 minutes at the end filled up with two legacy EqG shorts. But even given the special's gentle, laidback tone, there's no reason it shouldn't have been simply a two-parter like 'Best Gift Ever'. This isn't even just in the script - the animation itself extends thing out marginally every now and then, be it extended reaction shots or mildly protracted silences between characters speaking. Sometimes this works really well, as with the visual motifs. Other times, it just seems like padding to fill broadcast requirements. It fares a bit better when viewed as a single uninterrupted Movie without commercials, but the point of this needing to be trimmed, heavily, down to 44 minutes still applies.

Which is a pity, because this special meets its simple but nuanced goals really, really well, and there's a 44-minute version of it that's really up there. For a start, it avoids almost all the issues that plague the two recent seasons of the show, helped by being divorced from any mention of the school after the first two minutes. No out-of-character moments whatsoever, no moments that reflect badly on characters, none of that. In fact, the Mane 6 all get subtle arcs that show off how far they've come - Rainbow being hyped but mature when it comes to taking the kids under her wing, Flutterhsy using gentle persuasion getting the old couple and grumpy neighbour to make amends, and so forth. This is a story where the Mane 6 don't change - they change everyone else. This is in contrast to a story that truly feels tonally of a place of the early seasons - remember how Ponyville seemed so small and seemed to keep to itself? You get the same feeling with Hope Hollow, something the main show hasn't had in ages with all the adventures to far-flung corners of the realm the characters have had.

Past the protracted pacing, written and visual, I'd be hard-pressed to make a single actual complaint about this special, though there is a way it could have been better: the writer. Kim Beyer-Johnson avoids all the traps that have plagued her episodes of the show (opening up questions about how much those episodes' faults were her or her supervisors), but still writes the story and dialogue rather plainly, without the spark that one of the show's legacy writers might have brought. Now, I wouldn't have wanted most of the show's current staff to write this (I shudder to think what Nicole Duboc would have done), as most of them would likely have made the same compromises they've made in recent episodes. Other then perhaps the lady writer duo of Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco. Beyer-Johnson did a fine job with nothing obviously wrong about it; not having a villain or real threat actually ends up doing the episode a lot of good in the end, giving it a Ghibli-esque gentle willingness to do good and fix problems that are no one's fault, and to simply see others be happy.

There's not a lot to say on the story, so let me bail there and move over to the audio and animation. The songs are largely unexceptional - a different 30-second opening jingle is catchy but juvenile, and the exposition song I've already mentioned. The ending song is fine, but doesn't do much to distinguish itself. This isn't a musical at all, and I was rather surprised more songs weren't used, as they're a great way to reach a runtime organically.
Ah, but the animation, now that's the interesting part! You never get much room to experiment in the show's usual style, and other then meme faces, there's rarely anything to say there, given it never changes from episode to episode (it improved across the early seasons, yeah, sure, but it's been stationary the last few). Not the case here with this hybrid experiment! This isn't the Movie's animation done in 16:9, of course: the lower budget means less detailed, though still lovely, backgrounds, simpler character animation, and nothing in the way of the Movie's unexpectedly excellent cinematography. And the Boulder Media staff were clearly a bit green with this franchise and animation style, figuring out the kinks: there are a fair share of moments of stiffness and uncertainty, which doesn't couple well with the protracted visual pacing throughout. Sometimes the character animation doesn't fully match the dialogue either, not in a pervasive way, but it's there. And the TV budget and schedule results in inconsistent quality in the character animation: some shots look nearly as great as the Movie, excusing slightly simpler backgrounds and a TV aspect ratio, where others have the animation tweens not made very organic at all. Not that this doesn't happen in the show too, but the language of acting designed for these Movie assets is more complex. Bottom line, while there's little of the merging-with-the-backgrounds problem the Movie sometimes had, we instead have a case of high-level assets being used for a low-budget production.
You'll probably notice none of this unless you're an actual animator or have an artistic eye, though. While not without it's issues, the visuals more then fulfil their goal, and as long as you approach them from the standpoint of a TV special, not a Movie, I think you'll be quite pleased. I was too. It's just important to be aware of the hybrid experiment being repurposed that's going on here. And the moments where the visuals get to shine really work - our heroes standing out against the subdued grey makes the colour coming in, and the flashbacks, all the more impactful, and thus lends the arc of restoring the town all the more weight. In this way, the special surely benefits from the animation style it has, without a doubt.

When approached on its own terms and not as a reworked movie, that leaves us a simple story with a lot at the margins going for it. A repurposed animation style that does still help to elevate the quality level, writing with no lapses or inconsistencies that acquits itself and its characters really well, and the usual stellar voice acting. Were this a 44-minute special, or even a 50-minute one, we'd have ourselves a true gem. Instead, we have a Peter Jackson situation: great stuff, but too long for it's own good. I feel the slow pacing, more lethargic then the story dictates, makes rewatches hard to justify. But, I'm really glad this exists as it is, both for the franchise, for the forthcoming G5 and for Boulder Media especially (I'd say Hasbro's pleased with the work they did for sure). Not as entertaining as 'Best Gift Ever', but a lovely companion piece to the show we've come to love, with the best expression of the show's motif of emotional-intertwined magic made visually apparent and underscoring the solution of a seemingly ordinary problem in a very long time.
In other words, Friendship Is Magic. Or, well, community, camaraderie, emotions, something like that, you know.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- If we're comparing them on the same wavelength, the Movie is still 'better' then this, given it can simply do much more, and while it has flaws this one does not, it is still clearly a 'Movie'. That said, I'll understand if people prefer this, though I still feel the Movie is solid enough, even if it doesn't approach greatness.
- Though the domestic scope here doesn't permit much scale, there's still some beautiful establishing shots, notably during the balloon flight and various Festival attempts as well as the final success.
- I can think of no greater example of the special taking a lot more time then it should then the ponies' initial talk with the Mayor (covering the introduction, the tour of the "highlights", the exposition song, them resolving to help and finally splitting to do so), taking 12 minutes. No, really.
- Perhaps because the voice direction wasn't being done for the same studio it usually was, there were lines that felt oddly delivered or mixed throughout, notably from the Mane 6 during the balloon trip early on. It either becomes less frequent later or simply less noticeable, but it is there, and it stands out more with the aforementioned occasional character animation mismatches with the tone of the speaker.
- It helps that most of the new characters are given distinctive accents or dialects that help characterise and make them stand out, elevating the plain writing to a greater height.
- The pony Rarity helps out, Kerfuffle, has a prosthetic leg. This oddly has no plot or character relevance at all, making it odd why they added it in the first place. Still, showing a disabled character living life as normal and not letting it affect the story at all (and not shoving the "cool edgy OC" aspect of her down our throats either) is commendable.
- The two kids Rainbow Dash helps out, Barley and Pickle aren't all that likeable - something about their attitude and voice acting prevents them from being another but generic kids. Thankfully, with the subplot split throughout there isn't that much of them, but even on a rewatch their shenanigans started to grate a bit.
- To avoid a pony getting sidelined, they paired Pinkie with Fluttershy rather then having all six help out individually. Smart: they both get their moments in that plotline. Though Rarity's is focused on less - while the others are shown a few times before the results are produced, Rarity and Kerfuffle only show up again after having produced some results. Struck me as just a little odd, personally.

Comments

[Super Trampoline]

Yeah, that was an oddly long special.

[The Cloptimist]

Best review I've yet seen, so thanks for that!

I thought the gentle, even lethargic pacing that grew from the extended running time was just right, personally. This was a holiday special with a small h, the mane 6 abdicating their responsibilities (explicitly so in the case of the others basically forcing Twilight to leave her schoolwork behind) for a relaxing break, and even if it turned out to be something of a busman's holiday for the mane 6, it was still a holiday all same (and explicitly not a map mission), and for me it was nonetheless refreshing to just see that extra space used not to pack in an action plot but simply to have the characters given room to breathe, be their first-season selves for a bit.

"Characters" including a whole slate of really excellent new ones, who might not have had such lengthy introductions in a tighter, less flabby 44-minute cut. I know this isn't the case but honestly, if you'd told me that G5 would take place in Hope's Hollow with these guys, and that this was our transition, I wouldn't have been at all disappointed.

Also, I think introducing Kerfuffle and not having her leg play any part or even be mentioned was in itself the entire point of doing it, and, well, I'm so proud they did. Like Scootaloo's amazing aunts not kissing each other or having Sweetie Belle give a forced speech about how different families share the same love, I'm really glad we didn't see Kerfuffle's leg getting in the way of her work before she inspiringly got to show how she worked around it, or Rarity commending her for how she hasn't let it stop her doing her job... she was just there, and it was quietly glorious.

Oh, one other thing - Boulder Media have been involved in the Equestria Girls shorts a couple of times previously, and produced one block of them entirely in-house (I forget the name of that particular subset, but they included all the ones set at the school dance). Though as practice for pony goes that's perhaps of negligible benefit, it clearly gave Allspark added confidence to hand them this project.

[Ghost Mike]

5081967
Ah, well, you often can't fully solve an episode of Movie fully after just one viewing, can you? I forsee the pacing being less lethargic when viewed without commercials (and indeed it seemed less designed to function with commercials, even if it did have the fade-to-black when appropriate). Given the show easily gets 10+ times the views on Netflix that it does on Discovery Family, not to mention fans watching it online, those who buy it on iTunes, and watching TiVo'd recording where ads can be skipped, commercial breaks almost cease to matter after initial airing, certainly for us adult fans. But yes, this might fare better in that area viewed as one. It'll also help to not have compression artefacts from the stream, which marred the colour palette and detail at times. I'll rewatch this soon and may edit this review after the fact, ideally before it gets included in Logan's Text Review Roundup. So look out for that!

for me it was nonetheless refreshing to just see that extra space used not to pack in an action plot but simply to have the characters given room to breathe, be their first-season selves for a bit.

Interesting observation given the Mane 6's actions hinged very carefully on how much they'd grown and could use their experience to help out. It's like they're used in an early-season way but with their more modern selves, and again with no incorrect character writing. On a somewhat related note, I quite liked seeing Twilight being more of a mage and researcher again, and less of a Princess, as least as far as what skillset she uses in a crisis. But yes, despite it not really being "about" the Mane 6 - again, they don't change, they just change everyone else - it's a really good showcase for them.

Boulder Media have been involved in the Equestria Girls shorts a couple of times previously, and produced one block of them entirely in-house

That was the 2017 Canterlot Shorts, yeah. Given they debuted in July 2017, almost a year to the date after Hasbro acquired Boulder, they were probably started almost right away (and may have been intended to be produced at DHX, but executives figured it was a good test to see how the production pipeline for Boulder doing their properties fared, in advance of them working on the new 2018 series for Transformers and Littlest Pet Shop). Other viewing have said the animation in them is a little green - despite having a great eye for animation myself (I aspired to that career at one point), I can't vouch for this, as I haven't rewatched them. EqG is really not my thing except for the very high quality stuff.

[The Cloptimist]

5081983
Interesting observations again! I watched a download with the ads removed, and while the sheer number of fades to black felt excessive (but probably wasn't), I think it definitely helped the whole relaxed 'vibe' seeing it in one uninterrupted go. Also, big oof on the artefacts - this is the single G4 thing that's most obviously referential to the colour palette, both plotwise and just in terms of little visual cues and all those lingering scenery shots (which entranced my children, incidentally, like a kid friendly version of Pleasantville or the spot-the-title-colour elements in Kieslowski's Three Colours trilogy if that's not too pretentious a comparison!), so I think it'd definitely benefit from being seen clearly!

It's like they're used in an early-season way but with their more modern selves, and again with no incorrect character writing.

That's a much better and more lucid way of putting it than I could ever have managed! Yes, exactly that.

Personally, yes, I thought the difference in animation quality between the Boulder in-house EQG shorts and the other ones was noticeable, and not in a good way, but then I already knew about the change of studio and so might have been subconsciously looking for differences.