My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks

Plot

In the human world parallel to Equestria, a reformed Sunset Shimmer is ostracized by most of Canterlot High School despite her efforts to atone for her past bullying. Her only friends are the counterparts of Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity, who have formed a rock band called "the Rainbooms" to participate in the school's upcoming musical showcase. The five girls discover that the magic left over from Princess Twilight Sparkle's crown has given them the ability to grow pony-like ears, tails, and wings whenever they play their instruments.

Hoping to make a fresh impression, Sunset gives a school tour to three new students – Adagio Dazzle, Sonata Dusk and Aria Blaze – and informs them of the showcase, unaware that they possess magical singing voices. Calling themselves "the Dazzlings", the trio perform a song that turns the other students aggressive and competitive towards each other, convincing them to turn the friendly showcase into a Battle of the Bands. Sunset and her friends are protected from the song by their own magic, but fail to convince the bewitched Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna of the danger. Sunset remembers a book that magically copies whatever she writes into another kept by Princess Celestia, her former mentor in Equestria, which she uses to send a message requesting Twilight's help.

Princess Celestia's book is delivered to Twilight's castle in Ponyville. Receiving Sunset's message, Twilight deduces that the Dazzlings are banished sirens from Equestria that feed on negative emotions to fuel their singing powers for their goal of world conquest. Twilight uses the book's magic to reactivate the portal between worlds, allowing her and Spike to return to the parallel world. Twilight and the girls attempt to use the magic of their friendship to lift the Dazzlings' spell, but it takes no effect. Concluding that they must perform a musical counter-spell, the girls enter the Battle of the Bands to give Twilight time to complete the spell, though her poor songwriting proves fruitless. The Rainbooms face hostility and sabotage from the bewitched bands throughout the competition, which raises existing tensions among Twilight's friends over certain aspects of their band.

Desperate for time in the semifinal round against Trixie's band, Rainbow Dash performs an egotistical song to substitute the counter-spell and nearly transforms, which forces Sunset to ruin her performance to keep her from exposing their plan to the Dazzlings. Despite this, the Dazzlings intervene to allow the Rainbooms' advancement to the final round, goading a jealous Trixie into trapping the Rainbooms beneath the stage to take their place. Isolated for hours, Twilight's friends finally snap and enter a heated argument, allowing the Dazzlings to absorb their magic. Realizing that their constant infighting is interfering with Twilight's spell, Sunset convinces the girls to resolve their differences, while Twilight reasons that simply playing together as friends will make the counter-spell work.

Spike rescues the girls with assistance from DJ Pon-3, a student whose headphone music protects her from the Dazzlings' spell. DJ Pon-3 provides a sound system that the Rainbooms use to engage the Dazzlings in a musical battle. Overwhelmed by the Dazzlings' projected siren forms, the Rainbooms are joined by Sunset, who assumes her own pony-like form; with her help, the Rainbooms are able to destroy the pendants that provide the Dazzlings with their singing abilities, rendering the trio tone-deaf. Returning to its harmonious state, the school drives the powerless Dazzlings away and praises the Rainbooms. Twilight and Spike return to Equestria, while Sunset finds acceptance from the rest of the school and uses Princess Celestia's book to remain in contact with Twilight.

In a post-credits scene, the alternate world's counterpart of Twilight studies the outflux of magical activity around Canterlot High School.

Cast

The counterpart of DJ Pon-3 appears prominently in the film in a non-speaking role. The film features minor appearances from Michelle Creber as Apple Bloom; Ingrid Nilson as a counterpart of Maud Pie, Pinkie Pie's sister; Peter New as a counterpart of Big McIntosh; Lee Tockar and Richard Ian Cox as the counterparts of Snips and Snails; Tabitha St. Germain as a counterpart of Photo Finish; and Brian Drummond as a delivery pony in Equestria. Kazumi Evans also provides an uncredited line of dialogue as Octavia Melody.

Production

On February 13, 2014, Meghan McCarthy wrote on Twitter that she had worked on the film during the summer of 2013. The film's opening credits were storyboarded by Tony Cliff. The storybook illustration depictions of the sirens in Equestria were done by Rebecca Dart. The illustrations shown during the ending credits were drawn by Katrina Hadley.

In the audio commentary included in home media releases, Meghan McCarthy commented that Equestria Girls was initially not intended to become an ongoing franchise, and the thought of a sequel did not cross her mind. Additionally, Sunset did not become a main character until the second draft of the script. The DVD commentary also points out that the midnight snack scene between Twilight and Sunset was actually added late into the film's production, Rarity's line "past...ahem...booboos" was ad-libbed by Germain, and the freestyle rap by Snips and Snails' counterparts was genuine freestyling by Lee Tockar and Richard Cox.

Music

On February 13, 2014, songwriter Daniel Ingram wrote on Twitter that there will be a total of 12 songs in the film, the greatest number of songs featured in a Friendship Is Magic episode or Equestria Girls film thus far; however, only 11 songs made it in the film.

Like in Equestria Girls, the songs were composed by Ingram with lyric writing shared between Ingram and screenwriter Meghan McCarthy; with the exception of "Rainbow Rocks" and "Shine Like Rainbows" which had lyrics by Ingram; "Bad Counter Spell" and "Under Our Spell" by McCarthy; and "Shake Your Tail" having a first draft by writer Amy Keating Rogers, in which Ingram later revised. Trevor Hoffman provided the arrangements for the songs, and musician Caleb Chan produced the songs as well as played guitar and bass.

Marketing

On July 24, 2014, a movie clip and a teaser trailer were released on Yahoo! TV. On September 10, 2014, through the Equestria Daily fan news blog, Shout! Factory revealed a 30-second trailer. Two days later on September 12, a 50-second trailer was released on YouTube. Six days later on September 18, a full theatrical trailer was released also via Yahoo! TV; the trailer was then uploaded to Hasbro's YouTube channel four days later on September 22.

Theatrical

The film received a limited theatrical release on September 27, 2014, in the United States through Screenvision theaters and in Canada through Cineplex theaters. It also received a "Purple Carpet" premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, which was attended by the cast and crew as well as some celebrities such as Jamie Foxx, Modern Family actress Ariel Winter, and Academy Award nominee Quvenzhané Wallis. Like the first film, the screenings of Rainbow Rocks in the United States bore no classification from the MPAA (which is not a mandatory), while the Canadian screenings had classifications from provincial film boards (usually G).

In the United Kingdom, the film was theatrically released on October 25 and 26, 2014. The film was theatrically released on November 15, 2014, in Australia.

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Shout! Factory on October 28, 2014, in Region 1. Special features include a new featurette, the eight prelude animated shorts, a sing-along song, and an audio commentary on the film by writer Meghan McCarthy, director Jayson Thiessen, co-director Ishi Rudell, vice president of development at Hasbro Studios Michael Vogel, and Hasbro's executive director Brian Lenard. There were also three store exclusives for the United States release of the DVD: The Target edition included a bracelet, a USD $4 coupon for one My Little Pony toy, and the DVD of the first Equestria Girls film; The Walmart edition included a music CD, a digital copy of the film, and the same $4 coupon; The Kmart edition included a "backstage pass" and the coupon. The initial production run of the DVD contained an error that caused chapters 5 and 6 to play in reverse order when the film was viewed using the "Play" option on the main menu.

A Region 2 Rainbow Rocks DVD from distributor Primal Screen Entertainment was released on March 23, 2015, for various countries, including France, Germany, Italy, the Middle East region, Netherlands, and United Kingdom.

Alongside Equestria Girls and Friendship Games, this film was released in a box set on October 13, 2015 in Region 1.

Television

Rainbow Rocks made its United States television premiere on Discovery Family (a joint venture between Discovery Communications and Hasbro) on October 17, 2014. The film premiered on the Family Channel in Canada on November 8, 2014. In the United Kingdom, it premiered on Pop on December 24, 2014.

Merchandise and other media

The film is a part of music-themed Rainbow Rocks lineup, a second installment in the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls toy line and media franchise, which was first displayed at the 2014 American International Toy Fair. LB Kids published two novelizations of the film, all written by Perdita Finn. A Rainbow Rocks missile command-type mini-game was added to the Hasbro Arcade mobile app on April 8, 2014. An issue of IDW's Fiendship Is Magic features the sirens.

Prelude

On February 13, 2014, Entertainment Weekly released the first trailer; about four months later however, McCarthy confirmed on her Twitter post that the clips from that trailer "are separate shorts and not scenes in the movie." A series of eight animated shorts was released on Hasbro Studio's YouTube channel in 2014 from March 27 to June 19 to promote the film. The shorts were created by the Friendship Is Magic crew to tie into the film, and are considered "prequels" to the film's events, detailing how each of them discovered that they could awaken Equestrian magic within them by playing their respective instruments.

The first eight shorts made their television debut on Discovery Family on May 30, 2015.

Encore

With lyric collaboration between Katrina Hadley, Daniel Ingram, Brian Lenard, Jayson Thiessen and Michael Vogel, and songs composed by Ingram, Hasbro released three Rainbow Rocks music videos on March 31, 2015: "Friendship Through the Ages", "Life Is a Runway", and "My Past is Not Today"; but were reuploaded two days later on April 2, 2015. These shorts are separate initiatives that lead up to the third Equestria Girls film installment, Friendship Games. On April 6, 2015, Ingram replied in a comment on Facebook that these will likely be on the next Equestria Girls album in late 2015. On September 17, 2015, the encore shorts were released as the first three audio tracks on the My Little Pony Equestria Girls: The Friendship Games soundtrack.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was released on September 10, 2014 via the iTunes Music Store. Announced on Ingram's Twitter eight days later on September 18, the soundtrack placed #15 on the Kid Albums Billboard chart; two weeks later on October 2, the soundtrack placed #12; a week later on October 9, it placed #10.

Box office

In the Hasbro Earnings Report, it was revealed that the box office returns from this film exceeded that of the first film in the first weekend by 37%. On a per theater basis, sales for tickets grew by 19% in the first three weeks of its limited theatrical run. The film grossed $347,511 in it limited time in theaters in the United Kingdom, Finland, Mexico, United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay.

Television viewership

When the main feature premiered on Discovery Family on October 17, 2014, it was viewed by approximately 610,000 viewers.

When the first eight Rainbow Rocks shorts made their television debut on Discovery Family on May 30, 2015, they were viewed by approximately 299,000 viewers.

Critical response

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks received generally positive reviews from critics and fans alike. Sherilyn Connelly for The Village Voice called Rainbow Rocks "far superior" to the first Equestria Girls film, and that while "the picture is continuity-heavy and not particularly accessible to newcomers", that the film was "up there with the show at its most thoughtful". Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter complimented the film, saying "Though it's strictly for the faithful, the tween-friendly mix of cute and earnest has a forthright sharpness and is never cloying." Shane O'Hare of Geekscape gave the Blu-ray of the film a score of 4 out of 5, praising the soundtrack stating "The show's composer, Daniel Ingram,...killed it. 10 all new original recordings from Daniel really stole the show." Ed Liu of Toon Zone, who gave the first film a negative review, also found this film to be better. He wrote the film "is almost as sweet and charming as the best episodes of the series, finding new and interesting ways to expand on the show’s themes of friendship."

"Gerry O", 12-year-old film critic for The Huffington Post's Kids First! column called the film "a combination of adventure with a crème of comedy and a sprinkle of excitement all rapped [sic] up in a friendship sandwich."