Animation Monday: Review of Double Rainboom

By Nathan Young on April 1, 2013

Over the weekend, Zachary Rich aka Flamingo Rich, released his film titled Double Rainboom. Double Rainboom is a Senior film written, directed, & produced for Zachary’s college curriculum at the Savannah College of Art & Design. This episode is the first ever fan-made episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The episode was made from students at the college and others from the internet. The episode featured a full orchestral score, studio-quality sound effects, voice actresses for the ponies, and 100% show-accurate animation. Before I dive in this episode for a review, watch it below!

Double Rainboom opened with a great title sequence. Even Rarity’s temporary wings from one of the show’s episodes were featured. The beginning shows Twilight Sparkle doing what she does best, doing science and experimenting with potions. Naturally, Rainbow Dash is interested in what Twilight is making. Twilight makes a potion but you see a troll face in the smoke plus an evil laugh. You know this potion is not suitable for anyone! Twilight explains this potion is a talent enhancer and drinking the potion would increase the pony’s talents! Then we see this great animation explaining what would happen if each of the six main ponies from the show drinks the potion.

Twilight tells Rainbow Dash that drinking the potion would make her fly really fast! That’s all Rainbow Dash needed to hear! She takes the potion and drinks it. Twilight gets mad after seeing Rainbow Dash drink the potion. Then, in her own geeky self, decides to watch Rainbow Dash and study the effects. Yes, Ponyville has machines to monitor ponies! After the study is over, Rainbow Dash gets permission to fly and then she takes off through the ground! Rainbow Dash is flying fast up toward space and then takes control! We then see some cutaway gags that I really enjoyed! Applejack’s apple stand is blown away, Rarity and Spike are blown around with Rarity’s shopping bags blown away, my favorite part, Derpy’s eyes are corrected before becoming un-corrected again because of some flower pots, sadly the muffin was ruined!

The animators used Rainbow Dash’s fast flying and Ponyville as a pinball game, I liked that! Scootaloo, poor thing, Rainbow Dash’s flying got her believing she could fly until smashing into a billboard. And Fluttershy passes out after Rainbow Dash’s flying scares off the chickens she was helping. Rainbow Dash is very happy she can fly fast and this scares Twilight. Rainbow Dash flies into space and decides to perform a double rainboom! Rainbow Dash flies back toward Ponyville and the most beautiful rainbow in the sky amazes the ponies. Scootaloo is amazed by it, I liked the close up eyes shot! All of this is good, until the double rainboom is accomplished which destroys most of Ponyville! The ponies are sad to see the destruction in Ponyville caused by Rainbow Dash’s double rainboom.

Twilight sets out to find Rainbow Dash and she finds a track of rainbow colors in the forest. This was inspired from the DeLorean going back in time and leaving the tire marks on fire in the Back to the Future movies. Even the music from Back to the Future was used! Twilight discovers a wormhole where Rainbow Dash has gone through but it closes up. On the next scene, we see Rainbow Dash who is animated different in the wormhole. Then we see Johnny Bravo and other Cartoon Network Characters in the background! This is where some of the Bronies get upset. Rainbow Dash is transported to Townsville, the city in The Powerpuff Girls! And then she encounters a monster!

After the Cartoon Network disclaimer, we see the monster destroying Townsville. The talking dog then talks but is rescued by the girls before being smashed! The dog then gets thrown into the trash bin and the door is closed shut on top of the dog. The girls do their work on the monster until the monster smashes them into the ground. Rainbow Dash then gets involved by beating the monster. The monster starts to apologize to Rainbow Dash but if you seen The Powerpuff Girls, you know what happens next. The monster is beaten up for good and then the girls are interested in Rainbow Dash. I mean, all little girls are interested in ponies, right!

The girls love Rainbow Dash and after discovering she can talk, they decide to keep her. This does not make Rainbow Dash happy. We then see scenes where Rainbow Dash tries to escape the girls by flying all over Townsville. All’s good until Twilight’s potion wears off and Rainbow Dash can not longer fly. Rainbow Dash starts to panic when Pinkie Pie comes through the wormhole to rescue Rainbow Dash. The Powerpuff Girls are disappointed to not find Rainbow Dash. It’s tough to break little girl’s hearts and Bubbles starts to cry!

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie fly back through the wormhole from the Cartoon Network world to The Hub World. Twilight is not amused as Rainbow Dash is laughing! After Rainbow Dash sees the destruction she left in Ponyville, she decided to write a letter to Princess Celestia. If this was in the real world, Rainbow Dash would have been thrown in jail and the key thrown away forever! Seeing many of the ponies crying and in tears was a real lesson for Rainbow Dash. The lesson to the princess is never take anything that belongs to you. And because she did not think ahead, she hurt a lot of her friends. At the end, Pinkie Pie brought with her Bloo from Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends! That was a great last laugh from a great fan-made episode!

The ending credits showing the My Little Pony and Powerpuff Girls characters together in a different animation style was awesome! I think we will see some fan-made animation showing the Powerpuff Girls in the My Little Pony world or vise-versa. I thought the animation was spot on! Three different types of animation was used in Double Rainboom and I really enjoyed it! The audio and music was great as well. I enjoyed the music as it added to the story in a good way. The voice actors almost sounded like the real character voices on the show! Some of the scenes went a little too long and there was some pacing issues. But overall, I thought this was a great fan-made episode! The Snowdrop fan-made episode was also awesome too!

Some diehard My Little Pony fans were upset seeing The Powerpuff Girls. But I thought this episode was a fan tribute to the works of Lauren Faust and Craig McCracken. This episode was made as a love letter to the shows and toons in general, it succeeds at that, it has heart and was great! This is an episode you would never see on TV because of the crossover. I think Double Rainboom is exactly why and how non-profit fan products should exist – doing things the actual show couldn’t do. I look forward to seeing what Zachary Rich and the people who worked on Double Rainboom do in their careers! I believe the animation world will only get better and that is a good thing!

To see Double Rainboom and the features such as the crew, concept art, backgrounds, and even animation lessons; go to: http://www.doublerainboom.com