WebAnimation A Thoroughly Entertaining and Well-Animated Fan Movie
As one who is an avid fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but who rarely participates within the fandom community, I went into Double Rainboom armed with very little knowledge about what it was, or what to expect. What I discovered was a beautifully animated, funnily written and impressively executed animated collaboration put together by a group of people who are, in my humble opinion, extremely talented and deserving of much praise.
Naturally, the project's main high point is the animation, which was brilliantly done. There were many instances where the visuals were basically indistinguishable from the original material, both shows included! Special mention goes to the effects used for the rainbow flame trails and the titular Double Rainboom itself, though my top favorite segments were the visuals that were used for Twilight's explanation of the effects of the potion.
The short was also very funny — most of the gags were clever and well timed, and I got quite a bit of enjoyment out of the various references and character cameos. Of course, the climax of the movie takes place after Rainbow Dash is transported to the Powerpuff Girls universe and, being a fan of that show as well, I was positively thrilled to see the crossover come to pass.
If I had to voice one complaint, it would be over Rainbow Dash's voice actress who, while decent enough, was nowhere near as talented as Kira Buckland or the other actresses for characters like Bubbles and Pinkie Pie, which is a shame considering that Rainbow Dash was the leading character (i.e. her deliver of "That! Wasn't! Very! COOL!" needed a lot, LOT more energy).
Overall: brilliantly done, I had a blast, and kudos x 200 to Zachary Rich and all the other people involved in the production. I wish them the best of luck in any future animated undertakings they might embark on.
WebAnimation Yeah
So, I watched Double Rainboom, I have some complaints.
The audio: the voice actors were okay, but the recording quality was terrible. The sound guy should be given a F for the course, it sounded like they used $10 mics and put metal buckets over the V As heads.
Story: I agree on this being the weakest link. For being roughly 25min without credits and such, there wasn't a whole lot of plot going on. There were large amounts of nothing and I felt like we could've gotten so much more. it's frustrating, really. What they chose to give shout-outs too could've been picked better. The jokes were lacking as well.
Animation: Pretty Good, no complaints other then some some sub-par modeling.
All in all, I'd give it a 3.5/5. It was nice, but I'm far prouder of Snowdrop as far as fan projects go.
WebAnimation Good as a fan animation, lackluster as a fan episode
My longer, more in-depth review of "Double Rainboom" can be found here.
"Double Rainboom" bills itself as "the first fan-made episode of MLP:FIM", and throughout its development was advertised as having show accurate animation and generally being the same quality as an episode of the show.
It isn't. Here's a quick overview of the pros and cons:
Good:
Bad:
In short, while the animation and music comes close to being show quality, the writing and storytelling is anything but. The plot exists only as an excuse to set up gags, which themselves consist mainly of Shout Out stuff and references to fandom memes that make no sense to someone who isn't up to date on fandom activities. The pacing is consistently choppy and slow, and in general it really doesn't capture the subtle characterization that defines Friendship Is Magic. It simply doesn't live up to its own hype.
HOWEVER, as a fan animation, it's definitely one of the most impressive things the fandom has created. The animation, while not 100% show accurate, is definitely close, and the sheer scope of the project is unprecedented. It's still very flawed, but it has enough merit to be worth watching. Simply put, if you go into it expecting a fan animation with all the requisite jokes and shout outs, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised by the quality. If you go in expecting professional quality, you'll be let down.