My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks facts for kids

Quick facts for kids My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jayson Thiessen Ishi Rudell
Produced by	Devon Cody Sarah Wall
Written by	Meghan McCarthy
Starring	Tara Strong Ashleigh Ball Andrea Libman Tabitha St. Germain Cathy Weseluck Rebecca Shoichet Kazumi Evans Maryke Hendrikse Diana Kaarina
Music by	William Anderson
Editing by	Rachel Kenzie
Distributed by	Screenvision
Release date(s)	September 27, 2014 (2014-09-27)
Running time	70 minutes
Country	Canada United States
Language	English
Money made	$347,511 (Finland, Mexico, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and Uruguay)

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks, or simply known as Rainbow Rocks, is a 2014 Canadian–American Flash animated fantasy musical film based on Hasbro's Equestria Girls toy line and media franchise, which is a spin-off of the 2010 relaunch of My Little Pony. Written by Meghan McCarthy and directed by Jayson Thiessen and Ishi Rudell, the film was produced by DHX Media's 2D animation studio in Vancouver, Canada for Hasbro Studios in the United States, as a sequel to the original Equestria Girls (2013). The film premiered in select theaters across the United States and Canada on September 27, 2014, which was followed by broadcast on Discovery Family, a joint venture between Discovery, Inc. and Hasbro, on October 17, 2014, and then a home media release on October 28, 2014.

Like the first film, Rainbow Rocks re-envisions the main characters of parent franchise, normally ponies, as teenage human characters in a high school setting. Set between the television series' fourth and fifth seasons, the film's plot involves Twilight Sparkle returning to Canterlot High School to compete in a Battle of the Bands alongside the human counterparts of her friends – including former school bully/former student of Princess Celestia, Sunset Shimmer – to save the school from a trio of sirens from Equestria.

The film was well received by critics, who described it as "far superior" to the first installment. It was followed by two sequels, Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree.

Plot

Former Canterlot High School bully and student of Princess Celestia, Sunset Shimmer, who has reformed after being defeated by the magic of Twilight's crown, is ostracized by most of the school despite her efforts to atone. 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 Twilight's crown has given them the ability to grow pony-like ears, tails, and wings when 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 powers. 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 showcase into a Battle of the Bands. Sunset and her friends are protected from the song by their own magic, but fail to convince Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna of the danger. Sunset remembers a magical book kept by Princess Celestia, her mentor from Equestria, which she uses to send a message requesting Twilight's help.

Receiving Sunset's message, Twilight deduces that the Dazzlings are 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, allowing her and Spike to return to the parallel world. Twilight and the girls attempt 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. The Rainbooms face hostility and sabotage from the other bands throughout the competition, which raises tensions among Twilight's friends.

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; however, this prompts Trixie to trap the Rainbooms beneath the stage to take their place. Isolated for hours, the girls enter an argument that allows the Dazzlings to absorb their magic. Realizing that their constant fighting is interfering with Twilight's spell, Sunset convinces the girls to resolve their differences, while Twilight reasons that playing together as friends will make the counter-spell work.

Spike rescues the girls with assistance from DJ Pon-3, 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, the Rainbooms are joined by Sunset; with her help, the Rainbooms are able to destroy the Dazzlings' pendants, the sources of their powers. Afterward, Twilight and Spike return to Equestria, while Sunset uses Celestia's book to remain in contact with Twilight.

In a post-credits scene, the human world's version of Twilight is shown investigating the strange magical activity around Canterlot High, leading up to a third film.

Cast

• Tara Strong as Princess Twilight Sparkle, a studious "alicorn" (winged unicorn) and one of the princesses of Equestria. She serves as the temporary lead vocalist of the Rainbooms, a band formed by the counterparts of her pony friends. Tara Strong also voices Twilight's counterpart in the alternate universe in a post-credits scene.
• Ashleigh Ball as Rainbow Dash, the lead guitarist and founder of the Rainbooms; and Applejack, the Rainbooms' bassist. Their counterparts in Equestria as depicted in Friendship Is Magic also appear in the film.
• Andrea Libman as Pinkie Pie, the Rainbooms' drummer; and Fluttershy, who plays the tambourine on the Rainbooms. Their counterparts in Equestria also appear in the film. Shannon Chan-Kent performs Pinkie's singing voice.
• Tabitha St. Germain as Rarity, the Rainbooms' keytarist; and Vice Principal Luna, the vice-principal of Canterlot High and Celestia's younger sister. Rarity's counterpart in Equestria also appears in the film.
• Cathy Weseluck as Spike, Twilight's dragon assistant who assumes the form of a dog in the parallel world. His ordinary dog counterpart appears in a post-credits scene.
• Rebecca Shoichet as Sunset Shimmer, a unicorn from Equestria and reformed school bully at Canterlot High who befriends the Rainbooms. Rebecca Shoichet also performs Twilight Sparkle's singing voice.
• Kazumi Evans as Adagio Dazzle, the leader of the power-hungry sirens from Equestria and lead vocalist of the Dazzlings. Kazumi Evans also performs Rarity's singing voice.
• Maryke Hendrikse as Sonata Dusk, an airheaded siren and backing vocalist of the Dazzlings. Madeline Merlo performs Sonata's singing voice.
• Diana Kaarina as Aria Blaze, a temperamental siren and backing vocalist of the Dazzlings. Shylo Sharity performs Aria's singing voice.
• Vincent Tong as Flash Sentry, a student infatuated with Twilight who plays against her as guitarist of the Flash Drive, one of the rival bands.
• Kathleen Barr as Trixie, a magician and guitarist of another rival band, Trixie and the Illusions.
• Nicole Oliver as Principal Celestia, the principal of Canterlot High. Her pony counterpart, Princess Celestia, is the ruler of Equestria and Sunset Shimmer's former mentor.

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.

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.

Animated shorts

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 (chart of September 27), the soundtrack placed #15 on the Kid Albums Billboard chart; two weeks later on October 2 (chart of October 11, 2014), the soundtrack placed #12; a week later on October 18, it placed #10.

See also

In Spanish: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks para niños