Double Rainboom

[VelvetDivan 96]

I disagree. It's not a question of them not "bothering" to make a story. I'm sure they were perfectly capable of it. What they wanted to create was an entertaining watch, not a sensible watch. Fan-made material doesn't always need to have a story, so long as you can, in the end, enjoy it. And for me personally, the zaniness and absurdity of what happened with the crossover is totally wild, it makes up for not elaborating on the story.

I don't have a problem with zany, and I don't have a problem with absurdity, in the right context.  You can have both and still have a strong story.  Double Rainboom did not even attempt to do so. 

 

Yes, many were and will be entertained by it, but it pains me on a deep level to see such stunning visuals paired with such an abysmal plot.  The bright, random goofiness did not 'make up' for lack of plot, it simply distracted viewers from the fact there wasn't one past a certain point.

 

In the end, yes, it's a fan-made episode of a pony cartoon and one shouldn't expect MUCH in the way of story, but an attempt would have been nice.

[Revolver Bobcat 45]

I disagree. It's not a question of them not "bothering" to make a story. I'm sure they were perfectly capable of it. What they wanted to create was an entertaining watch, not a sensible watch. Fan-made material doesn't always need to have a story, so long as you can, in the end, enjoy it. And for me personally, the zaniness and absurdity of what happened with the crossover is totally wild, it makes up for not elaborating on the story.

 

So what you're saying is that this was the equivalent of a family guy episode? Meh, never mind, im just being a dick here.

 

Im kinda scare to watch the video, for what i can see on the coments it seems like everything i despise in fanfics in general, i will not give a proper opinion until i have seen the video but im not very motivated to see it yet...

[DashPony 359]

Visually it was wonderful. Probably the most professional looking fan animation the fandom has. The music and voice acting were also wonderful. It lost me at the 

PPG cross over bit. Seriously, it just felt so out of place and thrown in. I don't have a problem with PPG. I just felt it wasn't necessary. It didn't really help the story line at all.

 

 

So yeah. I'm kind of disappointed. It's not terrible, but it isn't what I was expecting either.

[Rarietty 632]

Note to self: everytime something pony related is about to come out, go on 4Chan's /mlp/ and read all of their (always negative) reactions. They seriously lowered my expectations for this, and that turned out good for me considering that I was blown away by how much better it was than I expected. 

 

 

I have so many conflicting feelings about this, so I'll just do a pros and cons list

 

Pros

 

The animation was amazing, and some of the best in the fandom to date.

 

I liked how they actually did the letter in the end. I was expecting them to snub it completely, so that was a nice surprise.

 

Powerpuff Girls. Sure, it came out of nowhere, but I just love Powerpuff Girls and had a huge smile on my face when they came onscreen. And all of the general crossover craziness as well as the plot twist at the end with Pinkie.

 

The background music (by MandoPony) was well fitting. 

 

I laughed at this more than I do with normal MLP. 

 

Cons

 

I feel bad criticizing them for this, but much of the voice acting probably could have been casted better. Pinkie and the PPGs were fine, but it was mostly Twilight and Rainbow that I had the most problems with. Rainbow's VA's lackluster mic quality didn't seem to help.

 

The background ponies...there needed to be more of them. I was rewatching One Bad Apple right before this, and I like how MLP is able to do crowds easily due to the flash animation (for example during the parade scene). When Rainbow was actually doing the Sonic Rainboom, it felt really unlike the show to just have a few background ponies onscreen at a time. Really nitpicky, I know, but it kind of bothered me a bit. 

 

The writing felt a bit off at some parts too. It may have just been the delivering in the voice acting, but I definitely can see why the director of this is mainly an animator, not a screenwriter. 

 

Stuff I Really Couldn't care less About

 

Any fandom in-jokes. I really don't see how people are getting so upset over some brief nods to the fandom in a fan-made video, and really, I don't see what the big issue is here. I personally don't find them a bad thing, I just don't particularly care about them.

 

Edited March 31, 2013 by Rarietty

[Sir.Flutter Hooves 2,953]

Here's my reaction:

 

[

spoiler]It was great! I loved every minute of it, and I must be the minority here, but this might be my favorite episode. I love the Powerpuff girls in there, and I loved the end credits. I also loved the portal, how at one end there were Cartoon Network Cartoons, and at the other Hub cartoons.



My favorite part was probably the Derpy Hooves muffin/flower pot part. I loved that, and how Dr.Whooves and Derpy were together in the same scene. And the references FTW. I loved the Simpsons refrence, and the Bloo part was gold!

I highly recommend this episode! 10/10

 

Edited March 31, 2013 by Sir.Derpington Hooves

[Dzastur 1,719]

 

Agreed about the visuals - I was super impressed. And I'm okay with the PPG cross-over since they copied the style so well, and took advantage of an opportunity, given that it could never happen on the real show.

 

But pacing...yeah, comedy requires it to be good. The upside is that, based on what I saw, simply editing a ton of frames out of this would significantly improve the pacing IMHO. For example, Derpy's scene would be 20...no, 75% funnier just by quickening all the transitions. 

 

Aside from the quibbles, my hat is off to their entire team. (And that's a big deal for me, `cause I'm bald.)

 

Edited March 31, 2013 by John Mellenclop

[Swick (ded) 436]

That was actually quite disappointing. The voice acting was pretty accurate, so kudos to the actors. The animation was excellent, especially the special effects, however, I don't think the animation was 100% show accurate. Believe me, it was the closest anyone's gotten so far, but there were some parts that just didn't feel like the show. Same with the script, they didn't get the personalities of the characters spot-on, I've seen better. The story, for the first fifteen minutes, was excellent, then the next fifteen minutes were like DAFUQ AM I WATCHING. Nothing really made sense at that point; I was extremely disappointed. The music was probably my favorite part in the entire episode, it was amazing.

 

Voice Acting: 9/10

Animation: 9/10

Animation Accuracy: 8/10

Scripting: 8.5/10

Story: 5/10

Music: 10/10

Overall Score: 8.25/10

[Blue Moon 6,336]

I loved it.

 

Sure, some moments were a bit dragged out, but other than that, I loved it. It had a lot of funny moments and the plot was interesting. I also loved the little "touches" that were put in. Especially the cartoons in the background when Rainbow Dash went through the portals. There were fun little easter eggs as well. The Powerpuff Girls scene was very nostalgic and hilarious. I was laughing so hard when the girls were checking out Rainbow Dash. (Bubbles is awesome)

 

Animation-10/10

Music- 9/10

Voice Acting- 9/10

Writing- 8/10

Humor- 11/10

Message- 5/10

Edited March 31, 2013 by Blue_Moon

[Mand'alor Dash 2,224]

I wasn't a big fan of the crossover, but I thought the writing in general was serviceable, if incredibly reference-heavy.

 

Voice acting was kind of hit-and-miss. You can tell that both Twilight and Rainbow Dash changed actors at some point in the episode, because the second actors are far superior to the first ones, both in terms of being a sound-alike, and their acting talent in general.

 

But of course, the real highlight here was the animation. Now, at some points, you can tell they cut some corners. There are walking cycles that don't synch with a character's movement, the lip-synching varies widely in quality, and pony anatomy feels really distorted at times.

 

However, there are moments where you could tell the animators were bitten hard by the inspiration bug. When the animation's good, it's incredible. At some points, the sheer amount of stuff happening in the background, foreground, and all the grounds inbetween is enough to make any animation fan blush.

 

 

Example: Early in the episode, we have a scene where Twilight is monologuing to herself while Rainbow Dash tries to steal the potion. This scene is a beautiful showcase of the episode's animation, with Twilight's articulate facial expressions and body language, Rainbow's midair sleuthing, and the various ambient animations of the lab equipment. It just looks beautiful.

 

 

In conclusion, Double Rainboom is a mixed bag of mixed bags. Everything from the writing, animation, and voice acting constanly bounces all around the spectrum between terrible and incredible. However, above all else, it serves as a fantastic proof of concept.

 

Yes, fans CAN create a full episode of the show. This barrier has finally been broken. Now, it's only a matter of time before we see an entire season made by the fans.

[RazzyJam 1,519]

Watched it live 

>Notbad.jpg

 

I could give a few critiques, for example, the animation was spotty in a few spots, but otherwise it was still rather true to the characters, even if the potion they made was OP. There were almost to many references, but they brought up so many old things that I had nearly forgotten that Im willing to forgive them. The listen thing in the middle was weird though. 

 

Otherwise, I loved it. Pinkie Pie's dimension travel thing was hilarious, and I havent seen a PPG episode in YEARS. Good memories

 

Überall: 8.76/10. Nice job Zachary. Nice job

[MorningFlash 214]

I just finished watching the ep. Not the best thing ever, but not bad either. I found that there was way too much fanservice for my liking, like the episode went from a normal my little pony thing to a powerpuff girls crossover. 

Overall 7.25/10

[lardbobobo 1,591]

I don't know about you guys, but I went in expecting absolute garbage for me to flame and hate on but I got something that I actually kind of liked. It wasn't god like by any means, and if I were to compare it to the actual show it'd be on the bottom of the list, but it was entertaining and that's something that's honestly enough for me.

 

I see a lot of people saying that the animation was good. Honestly I disagree, while it looks fine for the most part there are times where it's just so painstakingly obviously tweened it hurts my eyes and then there are times where it just gets so choppy it makes me want to scream very loudly. If this was just one person animating it I could understand, but with a team this big I don't think it should have been a problem and I'm disappointed in it.

 

As far as story goes, you know it wasn't anything mind blowing, but it was funny and had some decent jokes in it. A lot of them could have been made better with faster timing and less annoying transitions, but it made me laugh which is something many pony videos fail to do and I will give them props for that alone. It didn't really leave a lasting impression outside of the fact that it was kind of funny, which honestly is a shame because the not meant to be taken seriously .mov series had a bigger effect on me, which unless Hotdiggedydemon is some crazy hipster wackjob artist probably wasn't what he intended.

 

As far as the whole crossover idea itself goes, I think that it was fun and entertaining but if this was truly to be a fan episode I don't like this idea at all. They should have kept it more in tune with the show itself. While I'm on that subject, I really hate that they're all like "OMG DIS IS DA FIRST FAN EPIOSDE EVAH" with a burning passion because it's simply not. Anime fans have been doing their own fan episodes for years, albeit most of which turn out awful and you have that whole Ed, Edd and Eddy fan season that has been worked on for the past few years. Even if it was, who the hell cares? I think the only thing that really sets this apart from any other fan video in terms of being worthy of being called an episode is that they got permission from Hasbro to do this.

 

Now, I never really cared about the project in fact when I first saw trailers of it I figured it would be garbage so I'm not disappointed at all, but I can totally see where you guys who have been following the project for a whole year can be.

[elbj 190]

That was really good! I liked the basic setup, but the random crossover was unexpected. My inner self screamed with joy, but my head was like 'why would they derail the episode like that?' 

 

If I were to sum the episode in a sentence it would be: 

 

ERMAGERD REHFRANCES.

 

A quality piece of fan work, with a heavy emphasis on the fan. 7.5/10

[Blackcat 205]

I enjoyed this. I laughed, I smiled, but...I also didn't go into this expecting canon pony everything nor writing lining up to the show 100%. Really and truly, I went in expecting this to be a fanfiction in motion. And guess what...it kinda was. This is exactly something i'd expect to see as a story on FimFiction with a moderately decent rating.

 

Because I went in with this attitude about the writing in the first place, I wasn't really shocked or disappointed in the story. I was a little disappointed in the animation at times, but other times the animation looked very good. The best part of this was in my opinion, the sound effects and music. I watched this with reasonably decent earphones, and I really loved the sound. I don't know why exactly, but it really...resonated.

 

If I had to rate it i'd say....comparing the story to most of the stuff FIMfiction...it gets about a 7 out of 10. Buuut if you're holding it to show standards...well...you really can't. It's completely off the wall and unaplicable in the universe. soooo....I dunno..how do I rate that?

 

Animation, i'd give about a 5 out of 10. Some things looked great, but overall it felt choppy.

 

eh, i'm no reviewer, so I wont really bother with an overall rating other than, I liked it for what it was.

[AnonBrony 1,467]

I loved it. It was simply brilliant  Everything was.

 

I don't understand why people are hating on it because of the crossover, and it was like "WTF" and stuff.  It was SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY For Christs sake. The crossover was there for people to enjoy and get a laugh at. Not just some filler, not just there because its there. It was supposed to be funny. All those references and stuff, it was meant to be enjoyable to us and make us smile and laugh for Christs sake. And that's what it accomplished. Hell, I was laughing so much. It was supposed to be surprising and hilarious and nostalgic, not some big action season finale like episode. Jeez, why so critical, why can't you all just learn to laugh.

 

Ugh, sorry for the rant. Everything was pretty good about it. Animation was great. Voice acting decent, i don't really care about that though, as long as it isn't downright horrible. Story was... crazy, unexpected, and I liked it that way. Somethings made no complete sense, but hey, where is the fun in making sense? Honestly I thought it was enjoyable. I liked the music in it. Almost like an actual episode in my opinion. Message... eh... could of done better. I thought it was gonna be more on you should think things through and think before you act sort of thing rather tan "You shouldn't take thing that don't belong to you." But honestly its not that significant. And Hell, I loved the crossover, completely unexpected, and that something you don't see much, with everything always spoiled and all. It was nice, and definitely brought back some old tucked away memories. I loved Bubbles. Don't you think we all would probably go "Weeee" and ride one of 'em? Lol. Brillaint.

 

Overall I give it a 9/10. Or maybe an 8/10 if i wasn't in the good mood I am in heheh.

Edited March 31, 2013 by AnonBrony

[Scootalove 10,684]

I really did enjoy watching it. It was pretty funny, the voice acting was spot on, I could say that the story was pretty lacking. A very impressive performance by the whole team, especially with a fan-made project that took 54 weeks to finish production.

Not the best fan-made project in the fandom, but it just goes to show you even when the show that the project is based on stops production for a bit until Season 4, the fandom can still be able to produce content based on the show.

[Megas 27,110]

It was really fun, albeit ridiculous. I guess the fact that I came in with low expectations helps. I wasn't expecting the show's quality writing, but Double Rainboom still suceeded in entertaining me

[sparklechic 54]

overall i'd give it an 8/10 the animation could have been better at times but overall there's not much to complain about or atleast i dont think so. 

[MatrixChicken 879]

Well THAT was underwhelming. Not only was the story all over the place, but it was stretched out much too far. Yet, at the same time, some parts seemed to go by much too fast. I feel it could have been a 10-minute video. And while I'm sure they put a lot of work into it, the animation was just plain disappointing. It had been played up to be superultraextremeawesomazing, but in reality, it was pretty mediocre, especially when compared to some other fan animators such as JanAnimations. The voice acting wasn't the best, either. Scootaloo, especially, sounded WAY off.

 

And now for my ratings.

 

Story: 6/10

Voice acting: 7/10

Animation: 7/10

 

As a fan-animation, I give it a final score of 7/10. Decent-ish, but nothing to write home about. I probably won't watch it again.

 

But as just a normal video goes, I give it a 5/10. In my opinion, Snowdrop beats the snot out of this.

 

EDIT: One thing that I loved about it was the credits.

Edited March 31, 2013 by MatrixChicken

[Nah 3,181]

Well that was certainly a surprise, to my review!

 

 

Visual effects: Excellent, show quality effects, I sense this guy can get a job animating an MLP episode one day, or even becoming a cartoonist. 9.5/10

 

Story: It was a bit iffy. While I enjoyed many of the references thrown out, I feel this was a bit too saturated with other cartoons, not focusing on MLP, I noticed references from Phineas and Ferb, Gravity Falls, Batman, and other cartoons, movies, video games, etc, I enjoyed MLP for just being MLP, not a smorgabord of cartoons. Bringing to attention the fact that there where so many inside jokes from the Brony community, many people who aren't Bronies or are new the community would have trouble understanding most parts to the story. Overall story rating: 5.5/10

 

Acting: Very nicely done, I didn't like Rainbow Dash's voice acting that much, but it was nicely done. All of the voice acting was very smooth, fluent, and the actors/actresses knew what they where doing, they were not doing it just to be in it, they helped plan it. Overall voice acting: 9/10

 

Music: Excellent and spot on, very fitting for an actual episode of MLP, 10/10

 

Length: It started to bore me after about 23 minutes, it should've been a bit shorter in my opinion, around 20-23 minutes long would've been better, or even 24-25, not almost 30 minutes.

7/10

 

Overall final rating, in my opinion of course: 7/10

 

Nicely animated, well acted, and superbly finished, it has downfalls in a poorly thoughout story saturated with inside jokes, crossovers, and a long play time. 

 

[Dr. Eggnog 203]

Liked it quite a bit.  The animation was way better than I expected, and there were definetly a few funny moments.  I can tell a lot of work went into it.

[ElementOfParty 1]

it is pretty cool to see a fan made ep,this fandom has never ceased to amaze in weird,but interesting ways.

 

keep it up the work

[TanktheTortoise 262]

I really hate to say this given how much I was looking forward to the episode, but I was not a fan.  The voices seemed off especially considering that I have heard voices elsewhere in fan made material that seem truer to the real voices.  The animation was well done, if a bit stiff at times.  I was taken by surprise with the amount of in jokes that were in the project seeing as this was supposed to be professional grade.  All that aside I was able to at least watch it... until the Powerpuff Crossover.  I have no problems with the PPG themselves as they were pretty spot on in writing and style (ironic seeing as the ponies were not anywhere near as spot on with the writing).  The thing was when the crossover happened, while I wasn't a fan, I was willing to accept it, but it just continued to drag on for 15 minutes.  It was like the second half devolved entirely from an interesting concept to 'Let's watch the PowerPuff Girls chase Rainbow Dash for a quarter hour.'  I feel that the bad level of the writing and the crossover themselves could have been forgiven if this wasn't touted as an official level quality show.  For a senior project, it was quite well done, but for an actual episode it was not.

 

I find it odd that Snowdrops received far less media attention yet seems to me to be much higher quality.

 

Overall: 5/10

Voices: 7/10

Writing: 3/10

Animation: 9/10

Humor: 2/10

 

That being said however, I still have to give a round of applause to all involved.  While I may not have enjoyed it I know that others likely did.  The amount of hard work that went into this for all involved must have been ridiculous, and for that I commend the creators.  I look forward to seeing more from them as time goes on and hopefully they develop a stronger style to cover for the weaknesses others and I have observed.

[Reversalx 129]

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I mean, who knew pinkie would be so godlike by drinking that potion XD Ill give a small review about it, for all it's worth.

 

Animation was SHOW-LIKE, not to the extent of DHX's works though. Still, even coming close to show-quality is an accomplishment by itself!

 

Only having watched it once, the music scores came nothing short of brilliant, and is the quintessential factor to Double Rainboom's showlikeness.

 

The story was the only real thing that disagreed with me, to an extent. I didnt really mind it, but it could have definitely been improved upon; it felt too random and scattered at times.

 

YES it had its' flaws, as already stated above, and it may be underwhelming to some, but it gives its' fair share of entertainment value, all done through the efforts of the bronies. Ill definetly be watching it again, this time with my lil sis^^

 

edit: I'm not going to rate the aspects of the show individually, but the whole of it; 9/10

I defiantly enjoyed it, despite the a number of the flaws stated above. You know what? That's all that matters!^^

Edited March 31, 2013 by Reversalx

[ElementOfParty 1]

while this fan made ep had its flaws,but then again it wasnt prefect and no doubt taken months and months of work,but yea lol