FiM Special: Rainbow Roadtrip

[Will Guide 21,338]

The atmosphere throughout gave me a Paper Mario: Color Splash vibe in a good way with the goal being bringing the color back.

 

I also love how there's no big villain and just simply required getting everyone back into the spirit of things

 

Plus Mayor Sunny Skies is so adorkable when he blushes around Petunia, even in desaturated color

 

Edited June 30, 2019 by Will Guide

[Steve Piranha 29,382]

AHA, I knew the amputee horse’s voice was done by Racquel Belmonte 

[The Nth Doctor 656]

I'm looking forward to people rewriting this without the Main 6 and having the townsponies figuring things out on their own instead of having to have their hooves held and everything done for them

So glad Twilight's ugly rainbow wings weren't an evolution of her character

[Oleks 1,983]

As someone who didn’t know anything about the special before watching it, I was a bit surprised. I’m so used to action and battling villains at this point that a simple large-scale friendship problem (no map this time, weird) seemed a bit odd. During the first minutes I was thinking “OK, monsters/ghosts/bad guys are gonna appear any second now”. And the atmospheric faded town only added to the suspense. But it wasn’t the case. Not a bad thing though.

So, for the third time we were shown that faded colors are bad. OK, I get it. I’m glad that all of the Mane Six played their part, but the absence of Spike just feels wrong. Or is it a callback to earlier seasons?

I really liked some of the new pony designs, but there was no improvement with background ponies in this animation style since the movie. And that was unfortunate. 
As for the songs, apart from Pinkie’s karaoke (one of the greatest things in the episode), I liked the sad exposition song, but the final one didn’t do it for me, probably because I don’t mind “black and white”, and ponies grouped by color just look wrong.

All in all, not what I expected, but not bad.

[Ganondox 899]

4 hours ago, Will Guide said:

The atmosphere throughout gave me a Paper Mario: Color Splash vibe in a good way with the goal being bringing the color back.

 

I also love how there's no big villain and just simply required getting everyone back into the spirit of things

 

Plus Mayor Sunny Skies is so adorkable when he blushes around Petunia, even in black and white.

 

Also, I think the animators would able to afford animating this in a similar style to the 2017 movie because most of the setting was in gray scale black and white for most of the running time. Clever way of integrating the plot and setting to work with the budget if you ask me. Anyone else agree?  

It wasn’t actually in grayscale, the colors were just desaturated. That’s what made the episode visually impressive, and I think it would have taken as much time to produce as full color would. 

[Kion 7,407]

It was alright thou Starlight could of had a role thou.

[Will Guide 21,338]

8 minutes ago, Ganondox said:

It wasn’t actually in grayscale, the colors were just desaturated. That’s what made the episode visually impressive, and I think it would have taken as much time to produce as full color would. 

I meant to say in a similar style to it. I was in a hurry that I didn't have time to proofread my post

@Ganondox

Edited June 30, 2019 by Will Guide

[KatonRyu 1,031]

I'm...not too sure what I thought about this special, really. Aside from me just not being sold on the Toonboom animation, as I wasn't for the movie, I was kind of underwhelmed by the rest of the special as well.

It wasn't bad, but it also failed to really stand out for me. The 'hopelessness' thing is something they've encountered in a slightly different form twice before: when Discord inverted their personalities, Twilight lost her color after she lost hope. And in the S3 pilot, the crystal ponies lost their luster out of the fear and hopelessness Sombra had inspired within them. Basically what I'm saying is that at this point, Twilight should know better. The thing is, had they gone that route, almost nothing would have needed to be changed. If Twilight had realized that the town had lost hope because of her experience with that phenomenon, the Mane Six could still have done the exact same thing as before by talking to and befriending the ponies of Hope Hollow.

Now, Twilight looking for a solution in a magical device straight away without thinking things through has been a pitfall for her many times before, but even then she should have recognized these events for what they were, since both her first meeting with Discord and the return of the Crystal Empire were very large and important occasions she wouldn't soon forget.

Lastly, I think the simple circular cutie marks of the ponies in the last song were just...lazy. Look at any group of background ponies as far back as season one, and you'll see that even though their cutie marks repeat, they're not all the same featureless circle. The only time that happened was in Starlight's equalized village. Especially when using fancier animation, I would expect at least a token effort for some cutie marks, more so because of the in-universe significance of them.

[Ganondox 899]

59 minutes ago, Will Guide said:

I meant to say in a similar style to it. I was in a hurry that I didn't have time to proofread my post

@Ganondox

And my point still stands that it wouldn’t have any impact on the budget as they still need to color everything. 

[Will Guide 21,338]

41 minutes ago, Ganondox said:

And my point still stands that it wouldn’t have any impact on the budget as they still need to color everything. 

Regardless, I still enjoyed it for having no big villain.

[Emerald Heart 24,730]

The fact that they are calling this the "Rainbow Festival" makes me hope that some G3 charecters show up.

Especially G3 Rainbowdash.

"Rainbows darling, rainbows!"

That would be the absolute best

[Early Sunsets 2,106]

I think it was pretty good. There are plenty of things I could nitpick on (like the talking animations feeling strange and the magic effects being underwhelming), but I think overall the visuals were good enough and I enjoyed the story. If these are the same people who will be making G5, I think the new generation will be acceptable.

[Dawn-Sunlight 1,228]

My problem with the special was that I was expecting something a bit better for the solution than, "Just make friends and create happy feelings!", and the songs were too slow for my taste, though that's just me, and this movie was kind off just the MLP Movie and the Crystal Empire Parts 1 and 2 stuck together with no villains, and personally for me, it was a little hard to get invested, except for two scenes, the one where Rainbow offers to teach the two little fillies how to fly really well for the show for the Rainbow Festival, and the one where Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are getting the two neighbors to get along because the one side wants to make pie and the other side has the fruit. Sorry I'm not using names here, but I kind of forget most of the names. That being said, the characters were a very fun cast, and I can't think off any of the characters I didn't like, but a special shout out goes to Petunia and the pony with the peg leg who can see the colors for just being the best.

[KH7672 1,604]

2 hours ago, Emerald<3 said:

The fact that they are calling this the "Rainbow Festival" makes me hope that some G3 charecters show up.

I mean we pretty much had Gen 3.5 Cheerilee by design:

She's even a librarian, so she'll read you a story too 

[Emerald Heart 24,730]

25 minutes ago, KH7672 said:

I mean we pretty much had Gen 3.5 Cheerilee by design:

She's even a librarian, so she'll read you a story too 

I'm in love with this already 

[azbat 303]

Once again Hasbro spoiled us on Twilight's new wings four months ago. Marketing!.

On a side note: If Rainbow Dash and Twilight are "Living in Color", does that make them Fly Girls like JLo?  

[Music Chart Fan 818]

Overall, I would say that this special is pleasant, if also a bit slow and overly simplistic in its resolution. I actually did like that the Mane Six just solve a relatively low-stakes problem without having to defeat a big bad villain. Twilight gets to be her nerdy self and do some research and thinking without too much pressure. I particularly liked Rainbow's giving lessons to the two kids who are fans of hers, and inspiring them to be their best. It's also nice to see Rarity working with a fan of hers, Applejack's encouraging Torque to take pride in her work, and Pinkie's and Fluttershy's facilitation of a mutually beneficial working relationship between the Hoofingtons and Moody Root. It's also interesting to note that this special just focuses on the Mane Six, and not the numerous secondary characters and events that the show has accumulated over 8+ seasons. In fact, other than a handful or so of references (Twilight's wanting to grade papers, Rainbow's being referred to as a Wonderbolt, etc.), it feels like this special could fit in at almost any point in the show's timeline.

However, I would say that this special feels a bit slow in its nearly hour-and-a-half time slot, particularly in the first third or so. The quirkiness and accents of the town residents were laid on a little thick for my taste. And the biggest question I had that the special never really answers is why the residents of Hope Hollow lost hope in the first place. That was evidently what started the town on its downward spiral and caused it to lose its color, but no one really answers that question. And I think that's a concern that would deserve some serious consideration. Sure, the town appears to have gone back to normal by the end of the special, but if nobody gets to the root cause of why the town lost hope, and consequently lost its color and became run-down, then isn't all of this liable to happen again?

-----

To start off, as mentioned above, probably the biggest question I have from watching this special is why the residents of Hope Hollow lost hope to begin with. Some of the only information we get about this phenomenon comes from Mayor Skies's song. A few lines in the song say "Then fences went up, we lost track of our neighbors / Every year passing, dimming spirits all around / The happy days came to an end / Nopony had time to spend together in the town". But why did fences go up? Why did residents lose track of their neighbors? Why did residents have no time to spend together? Those questions aren't answered by Mayor Skies, and we don't hear of any attempt by him to investigate those questions. And later, when Twilight explains that the town's colors dimmed before Mayor Skies turned on the Rainbow Generator, Mayor Skies asks what did cause the town's colors to dim, and Twilight says "It's called 'Hopeless Magic'. Everypony was already giving up on each other, losing hope. Then, when the Generator blew up, it must have been the last straw. It took all the hope out of the town for good, along with the color". But again, I feel like the analysis should go at least one step further. Why was everyone already giving up on each other and losing hope at that particular time? Hope Hollow was on its third generation of mayors and had apparently thrived for many years, so what changed? Was there an economic downturn? Did tourism dry up? Was there some industry or something integral to the town that changed or left?

And all of this means that, even as Petunia continued to insist that Mayor Skies shouldn't blame himself for the town's losing its color, I'm not entirely sure that Mayor Skies is blameless for the whole situation, or that he couldn't have searched for and/or done something more effective to stop the town's decline. We're meant to believe that Mayor Skies's alteration of the Rainbow Generator didn't cause the town to lose its color, but it's still possible that Mayor Skies may hold some responsibility for the residents of the town losing hope, no longer helping each other, etc. We can't say for sure without knowing the root cause of that phenomenon. However, regardless of that, as Mayor Skies observed Hope Hollow's decline, apparently the only thing that he thought to do was to make the Rainbow Generator output a bigger rainbow. And after the town's color disappeared and the town really became run-down, apparently the only thing that he tried to do was to get everyone interested in the Rainbow Festival again. If that clearly wasn't working, did he have any other ideas? Did he take any interest in trying to figure out the root cause of all of this? Couldn't the mayor of the town be expected to be something of a leader and a problem solver?

-----

I also had some questions about how exactly this "hopeless magic" worked to drain the color of the town. According to the special, the town's residents were giving up on each other and losing hope for some time before the fateful Rainbow Festival, and evidently the entire town lost its color right before or as Mayor Skies activated the altered Rainbow Generator. Does it make sense that the entire town lost its color all at once? We see in this special that the things and residents of the town regained their colors at a rate of just a few at a time, and over a somewhat extended period of time. So did all the residents of the town hit the same critical level of hopelessness at the same time, such that the whole town lost its color simultaneously? However, I don't know that there's any consistent rhyme or reason to the order in which things and residents of the town get their color back, so I also don't know how much to read into that.

I also don't know what exactly determined which things lost their color. The giant rainbow sign would presumably be considered a part of the town, so why didn't it lose its color? Perhaps the explanation is that (almost) every object within a certain radius or boundary lost its color, and maybe the rainbow sign was outside of that boundary. But what would determine that radius or boundary, if not what's considered part of the town? Also, the handful of pictures of previous Festivals in the Rainbow Room were spared from losing their color, and apparently that's because those pictures are memories of happier times, or something? So are there any other pictures or mementos of happier times in the town that also kept their color? Are there any other objects in the town that would give residents happiness or hope, and therefore they would retain their color?

-----

Now here are the rest of my miscellaneous observations.

I would ask how Mayor Skies knew where to send his letter to Rainbow Dash; is Rainbow's cloud house address publicly known? But the intro just shows the letter flying into Rainbow's house surrounded by some magical aura, with no mail delivery pony or anything, so I don't even know how that works.

Rarity packs Opal into her valise in the intro, but do we ever see Opal being let out or fed or anything? In fact, after the hot air balloon falls down, we see Rarity's valise on the ground lying open with nothing inside it. Maybe we'd better hope that Rarity ultimately decided to leave Opal at home, because otherwise, who knows what could have happened to her in that fall.

When Twilight is running late with her bags full of books and papers to grade, we see papers falling and fluttering out multiple times, and I can't help thinking that losing students' papers is a serious matter. My brother has a story of how he turned in a project for his high school English class with everyone else on the due date, but when the projects were graded and returned much later, the teacher said she never saw any project from my brother. She was easily observed to be disorganized, and most likely lost his project at some point, but when my brother said that he turned it in with everyone else back on the due date, she accused him of lying in order to get more time to do the project, and consequently gave him a zero on it. Even if Twilight doesn't act like that, any students whose papers she loses would probably have to re-write them, since I would guess that they probably don't have back-up copies of their papers.

Yeah, there's a perfect rainbow in the dead of night, with no significant precipitation around, and the rainbow is glowing like it's artificially lit - seems legit. Speaking of which, the rainbow really does look to be artificially lit; it "shorts out" after the Mane Six bump into it. So how is it lit? We don't see any obvious electric lights or anything, and when we see the pieces of the sign later, they only appear to be made of wood. Also, how tall is this rainbow billboard? I read that recreational hot air balloons typically travel at a minimum altitude of 1000 feet. And if the rainbow billboard is this fragile, I wouldn't have expected it to last long, even if the Mane Six hadn't bumped into it.

In order to escape the hot air balloon falling out of the sky, Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy first each grab one of the other three and fly out of the balloon, and then Twilight teleports all of them next to the ground. Could Twilight not have just teleported the six of them to the ground in the first place? Was it an issue of Twilight's not knowing how far away the ground was at that point?

When the Mane Six first talk to Petunia, Twilight says that they're here for the Rainbow Festival, and Petunia mutters under her breath "Oh, for cryin' in the mud, what's Sunny done now?", followed by saying "I mean, um, you'd best talk to Mayor Skies about that". And then Twilight replies "Great! And where would we find him?". Did Twilight just assume that Mayor Skies was male? Up to that point, Mayor Skies hadn't been referred to as male or female. Even if Twilight had heard Petunia mutter about Sunny, is "Sunny" an obviously male name?

When Twilight asks if there's a magic section at the library, Petunia points out "Arcane", "Elemental" and "Theory of", each in a different part of the library. So those topics aren't filed near each other?

Pinkie just sort of announces that they're going to give away all these apricot pies at the Rainbow Festival. Was that agreed upon ahead of time? Presumably a lot of labor on the part of Mr. Hoofington (and perhaps Pinkie and the others) went into making those pies; Moody Root put a lot of labor into growing the apricots; and somebody had to pay for whatever other ingredients went into the pies. One funny thing, though, is that Mrs. Hoofington calls out "Pies for sale!" when at the booth later.

Twilight's "wing bling" (ugh) was described to have "every shade of the rainbow", but it doesn't appear to have any red, and the percentage of orange and yellow is pretty low.

Mayor Skies's marriage proposal to Petunia was a bit of a surprise to me; their behavior seemed more to me along the lines of people with a crush who haven't asked each other out yet. I suppose, in retrospect, that Sunny's saying "I'd be lost without her" early on could have been a clue that they're fairly serious.

Rainbow describes the two kids as being "Hope Hollow's very own Junior Wonderbolts", but I can't wondering if they're authorized to use an official-sounding title like that. Can any group of flying and/or Wonderbolts enthusiasts call themselves "Junior Wonderbolts"? Or do they need to have official approval by the Wonderbolts organization to use a title like that? Can Rainbow, as a Wonderbolt, authorize them to officially call themselves "Junior Wonderbolts"?

Finally, the "big show" for the Rainbow Festival essentially consisted of Rainbow Dash doing a Sonic Rainboom and a single flyover while the two kids just flew behind her. The two kids were doing more impressive flying while practicing than they did for the big show. But maybe they and/or Rainbow didn't feel like they were ready yet to attempt stunts when under pressure at a performance.

[Thrond 3,260]

This special is a nice reminder that Rainbow and Rarity do share at least one common interest: being famous. If they get another episode together, I hope it focuses on that. 

[Solar Power 262]

I'll give it another watch before I come to a proper conclusion (I always watch every episode twice anyway), but my first impression was that it looked good but the story lacked vibrancy. It was slow, simplistic and meandering and I'm sure everyone could see where it was all going. As Dr Wolf said in his review, it seemed to be aimed at a younger audience. I just think a special that looks this good needs to be something more than a slice of life episode stretched to three times the length.

[bwrosas 252]

Gather from what I've heard DWolf, along with others say, the biggest question I get from everyone's point of view, is : Who was the special/movie meant for? 

1. The Adult fans

2. The Younger fans (original age group show was meant for at the start)

3 Or Both.

 

Honestly, I say both, at 90%, with 10% leaning towards the younger audience, with the slow pacing, the storyline being slimplyfied, and the pop song at the end. But overall I'd say both.

The reason I say both, is because of the fact, that you can see/tell Kym Beyer-Johnson wanted to make it for both, but the director (can't think of their name right now) probably suggested to Kym to lean just a tiny bit towards the younger audience, more so than even'ing out. But that's just my own opinion 

[Nye 1,652]

It might have just been me, but it sounded like Rainbow Dash had a different voice actor in this episode.

From what I have read here, if this is a test run of G5, what if that means G5 will be movie style?

[Splashee 28,547]

34 minutes ago, Nye said:

It might have just been me, but it sounded like Rainbow Dash had a different voice actor in this episode.

From what I have read here, if this is a test run of G5, what if that means G5 will be movie style?

Ashleigh Ball is still the voice actor for Rainbow Dash and Applejack in this special. But when she was singing in the beginning, it did sound different, and I wasn't the only one noticing it.

I don't know much about G5, but looking at what Hasbro has done with this special as well as the last couple of Equestria Girls specials and movies, they have removed all references to the brand "Friendship is Magic" as well as "Created by Lauren Faust". Why do you think they want the get rid of such information in a kinda sneaky way?

 

EDIT: "Developed for television by" instead of "Created by" but you'll get the point

Edited July 1, 2019 by Splashee

[Nye 1,652]

31 minutes ago, Splashee said:

Ashleigh Ball is still the voice actor for Rainbow Dash and Applejack in this special. But when she was singing in the beginning, it did sound different, and I wasn't the only one noticing it.

When she was talking to the Barrel twins, I was looking away, and I thought it was a different character until I saw who was speaking. And when she said "Mr. Mayor" I had to rewind it because I didnt know who said it.

31 minutes ago, Splashee said:

I don't know much about G5, but looking at what Hasbro has done with this special as well as the last couple of Equestria Girls specials and movies, they have removed all references to the brand "Friendship is Magic"

EQG is just a separate series from FiM. I'm not sure why they don't include FiM in the titles of the specials that are clearly in the same place.

Edited July 1, 2019 by Nye

[RaphLuna 305]

The Solution to the problem was at the very start and Obvious. Want the colors back. well communicate to each other in the community and stat bonding a level of understanding of each other. In other words Connect with each other and your rainbow will return.

You don't need a Fancy Bling Gadget to connect and bond with each other. just talk and get to know each other better.

This was a Cute episode with an obvious No Brainer of a life lesson. 

Get out of ypu'r safety blanket zone, get out a talk to each other.

Even though the series was a total drag at least the lesson was a very wise one indeed.

[ImpctR 155]

So, a mid-season Special, written by the writer of non-complete clause but also the nice episode Sweet and Smoky. It was a pleasant episode, a light relaxing one having few remarks.

The first thing that comes to mind is the art style - using MLP The Movie style. My first reaction was, even though I have watched it with the Movie, not too fond of it but I got used to it over the next couple of minutes. Still, preferring the season's style much more, than these sparkly eyes.

Another thing that I disliked a bit, along with the art style was the contest between Rainbow Dash and Pinkie over who would get on the balloon first, that combined with the art made me think Im watching a show that's for just little audience only and I meh-ed but that doesn't matter, I'm pleased with the seasonal episodes even if that Special was targeting the younger audiences.

Whatever the problem was, certainly nothing complex: seasonal episodes have more complexity in the conflict but really lighthearted which is why it was a breeze of pleasure to watch.

Spike left in the village, I think is nothing big, he can't be attached to every single mission of the Mane 6, or he has duties elsewhere like to take care of the school.

 

Spoiler

 

The first thing that this reminded me was a similar thing happened with the blimp or was it a balloon again in MLP The Movie. This time, though it did not matter since they already reached the place.

The village looked as if Discord has done his thing from the 'Return of harmony' here. Pity to watch so much time in desaturated colors  

Then they meet the first member of the place, Petunia. Before watching it I thought the plot was something similar to the village of Starlight in first encounter and that she was the villain (or the mayor) and they enslaved the village but the plot turned out a lot simpler.

 

Spoiler

 

The hotel being a messy place is a common plot, so it was predictable, except I expected someone to trap  the Mane 6.

The below couple reminded me of Spoiled Rich family, they turned out to be much nicer in the end. Then comes the moment of the failfish when showing the attractions in the village.

 

Spoiler

 

I don't care about songs, was nice to see the place in color during the story.

Hello Big Mac's distant cousin.

 

Spoiler

 

Then the sad part of the story, umm okay it was alright. 

Rainbow Dash got his own fillies to teach as junior Wonderbolts. At least they were still impressed by RD never mind the loss of hope.

 

Spoiler

 

As soon as each mini problem was solved an item became colorful, it became predictable.

 

Spoiler

 

Twilight's old library before getting destroyed by Tirek - flashback well it looks kind of similar. 

 

Spoiler

 

Fluttershy is presented as the biggest voice of reason and diplomacy, some did not like this very much, she's my fave from the Mane 6 still, so I like seeing here, even though she looks way perfect after helping solve the peaches and pies problem  

 

Spoiler

 

Then the village ponies got together and their friendship or hope revival helped turn the village into a vivid one again, I like the effects, pretty lights:

And it wouldn't be a story if not some love story in between with the mayor and Petunia. Too many new ponies to remember the names of, we are not seeing them any time soon I think.

 

So Hope Hollow, it's like a rainbow village, since ponies group themselves by color, okay hasn't been done before.

Overall a 4.5/5 for these smaller remarks and not being my type, and the solutions too simple to make it more interesting but a light kind nonetheless and a pleasant one.

Wasn't it better to have such episode after Season 9 to have something to air afterwards?

Hiatus ends/next episodes starts on August 3rd per some pony countdown clocks, then let's get into the real deal.