My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks (2014)

My Little Pony: Rainbow Rocks (2014) takes place after the events of Equestria Girls and Sunset Shimmer's defeat by friendship and magic. The story begins with three young girls sitting in a diner where patrons are arguing. These girls feed on negative energy.

This time around, Sunset Shimmer is totally reformed and regrets her days as a raging she-demon. Along with the rest of the ponies, er, students? Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Flutter Shy, Rarity, Applejack, and Sunset Shimmer send a message back to Equestria, seeking Twilight Sparkle's help to battle a new threat, known as the Sirens: three girls, originally from Equestria, that feed on the jealousy and discord of other people, by singing.

The music is probably my favorite part of the entire movie. Not a big fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, to be honest, but I have to give them credit for creating songs that are really catchy. My daughter watches the movie from time to time, and I always eagerly wait for every song to begin. Each song seems to progress wonderfully until the final showdown, and it's a joy to listen to every step of the way.

The designs for the humanized ponies are, as with the first movie, pretty well done. As far as looks, they captured the essence of the original concepts pretty well. I personally like the human designs more than the pony designs. But that may be because it gives the show more of an anime feel, and I've never been a fan of anthropomorphic animals.

Animation in Rainbow Rocks is surprisingly well done. For a show created in Flash, there's an incredible amount of subtle detail and fluidity. A lot of care was given to the animation, and the characters have a surprising range of poses and facial expressions. It's actually really impressive, from an animation standpoint. At least, as a person that tries to animate in Flash, I'm always impressed whenever I watch it.

Another aspect of Rainbow Rocks that surprised me was the writing. I really enjoyed it. The dialogue and the overall story are really good. It isn't just about girls wanting to be popular, or famous, or any of the other tired clichés that usually intrude in cartoons with a female cast. Rainbow Rocks was very refreshing, and I enjoyed the character depth and growth, especially in the characters of Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle.

However, despite my praise, the constant bickering and yelling among the main cast did get a bit tiresome. I understand that the Sirens feed on negativity, but the endless back and forth between the ponies did seem to get a bit out of hand. I did, however, enjoy the moment when they rallied together, but a lot of the fighting felt a bit overly done.

As I said I'm not a fan of My Little Pony. I don't hate it. I've watched most every season with my wife and daughter, and while the writing is pretty good, I could never get into the craze. Maybe I'm too old. That, and I've never been a fan of talking animals? However, Rainbow Rocks was really enjoyable, and I genuinely loved watching it. The music is catchy, the designs fit what you'd expect the ponies to look like as humans, and there's a bit more depth to the characters this time around. Especially with Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle, which was a welcome change from the last movie. Once again, the music! The songs are stuck in my head, and my daughter loves to dance to them. What's not to love?